The 40 points of the Syriza program. (Made me smile)

As I understand the concept, the idea of a vanguard party is that organization which (a) has the confidence of the working class; (b) can act as the leadership of the organized working class in confrontations with the bourgeoisie; and (c) consists of the most advanced section of the working class. As Marx and Engels put it in The Communist Manifesto:

The Communists, therefore, are, on the one hand, practically the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the lines of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement.

In that sense, SYRIZA doesn't have to form a vanguard party, because SYRIZA itself (a) has the confidence of the working class; (b) can act as the leadership of the working class, given the expressed consent of the working class for it to act as such; and (c) consists of the most advanced section of the working class. SYRIZA is the vanguard. When it moves, the proletarian parties that are not within its orbit react. When it moves, the working class responds.

I would argue that SYRIZA is definitely a proletarian party and one that represents the most advanced section of the Greek working class, but it clings to a bourgeois program. It is still committed to the spurious notion that you can have the Euro without austerity and democracy while being under the heel of Brussels. As the socialist economist Oskar Lange put it:

“A socialist government really intent upon socialism has to decide to carry out its socialisation programme at one stroke, or to give it up altogether. The very coming into power of such a government must cause a financial panic and economic collapse. Therefore, the socialist government must either guarantee the immunity of private property and private enterprise in order to enable the capitalist economy to function normally, in doing which it gives up its socialist aims, or it must go through resolutely with its socialisation programme at maximum speed. Any hesitation, any vacillation and indecision provokes the inevitable economic catastrophe. Socialism is not an economic policy for the timid."

SYRIZA has a limited window of time in which to act. Let's hope that it seizes the initiative.

/r/socialism Thread Link - greanvillepost.com