Theory

A little over a decade ago, millions of workers around the world placed similar hopes in SYRIZA, the left-wing coalition that came to power in Greece promising to end austerity without breaking with the euro—as if history, in its finest irony, could resolve its contradictions without walking the razor’s edge of rupture. Its rise and, above all, its capitulation to the Troika—the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, responsible for overseeing the eurozone’s adjustment and bailout programs—constitute one of the most important strategic experiences of the left in the 21st century. A broad international debate unfolded around SYRIZA regarding what kind of political organization the working class needed in the wake of the crisis of social democracy, in which proposals emerged to form “broad-based parties” and “new left-wing formations,” conceived as electoral coalitions that would bring together different political traditions under a deliberately open program. Revisiting that experience is not merely a matter of historical interest, since many of the fundamental discussions that took place then have been reignited today within the Argentine left.