Progressive struggle must get to grips with the constraints placed on the State by globalisation and the European Union; those attending a one day conference in Dublin on the future of Left politics were told.
Speaking at the ‘Challenging the Rule of Troika, Transforming Europe’ conference in Dublin City University on 10th March, Euclid Tsakalatos of Athens University stressed that there is no easy way to confront the power of financial markets and transnational corporations. He was responding to Paul Murphy MEP of the Socialist Party, who argued that Greece would, in the event of a left-wing Government coming to power, be forced to leave the Euro.
Murphy suggested that socialists in Greece must be ready to embark on a bold programme of nationalisation and reform in order to avoid economic and political defeat.
Other topics discussed and debated throughout the day included the effects of austerity measures on the European periphery, the relationship between social movements and political parties, the role of nationalism and the political strategy adopted by parties of the European Left.
The keynote address to the conference was given by Alexis Tsipras, president of the Greece’s main opposition party, Syriza, and candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission. Tsipras outlined Syriza’s plan for a debt abolition conference and stressed the need to deal with the European crisis on a European level.
The conference was hosted by the transform! Network and DCU School of Humanities and Social Sciences. transform! is a network of 23 European political, economic and scientific research and education organisations.
