We write to express our support for the ideals embodied by the Greek left in advance of the election of June 17th as they articulate the requirements for social and economic democracy under conditions of neo-liberalism. We oppose those forms of international pressure currently brought to bear on the people of Greece to cede their popular sovereignty to a European Union that has, until now, reproduced and strengthened social and economic inequalities throughout Europe and extended forms of intra-European racism through discriminatory economic regulations and austerity measures. We note that the Greek Left (SYRIZA: Coalition of the Radical Left) have articulated the rights to work and to education, opposing those neo-liberal economic policies that increase precarity for growing numbers of people, establishing unemployment as a norm, decimating social and health services along with public education, and destroying the very conditions of economic production. We support the efforts of the people of Greece to wrest power from non-elected technocrats, and we oppose the reckless demonization of the current left coalition as unacceptable red-baiting and malicious propaganda. The accusation currently circulated in the European press that the Left threatens to take Greece out of the Euro-Zone fails to see that the Left is struggling for a different Europe, one governed by and for the people, committed to the open political participation of all its inhabitants in creating equal conditions for work and for a livable life.
Etienne Balibar
Wendy Brown
Judith Butler
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak