Alexis Tsipras delivered the keynote speech to the SYRIZA Congress January 3-4 2015, before the coming elections. It was the opening salvo of the electoral campaign. The speech has been translated from the Greek in its entirety so non-Greek speakers can appreciate the reasoning and passion behind the SYRIZA campaign. Excerpts below, full speech further down. Enjoy…

The future has already begun.

Workers, unemployed and pensioners. The young men and women. Professionals and small and medium sized entrepreneurs. The farmers and peasants. They have all made the decision to take their fate into their own hands.

And we, here in this room, say once again:

SYRIZA is all of you.

SYRIZA is reaching out to all who want to free this country of its current nightmare. Regardless of the party they voted for in the past. Regardless of the questions and doubts they may rightfully have.

We do not want anyone behind us. We do not want the people following us, we want them active and by our side. Just as we want all those who agree with the social recovery program. Let us share the battle. Let us share the responsibility…

We will put an end to the economic and social absurdity of memoranda and austerity. This is the responsibility of the Greek people and no one else. We will fight to rid Greece of the misery of debt. By way of sincere but resolute negotiations that respect the non-negotiable interests of our people, there will be a waiving of most of the debt.

Because debt is not only simply unbearable, it is objectively impossible to repay. It is wrong for Greece to take out loans in order to repay loans. It is objectively necessary to put an end to this destructive spiral. And finally get Greece on the road to growth-enhancing reforms.

The only one who does not recognize this is Mr. Samaras. The only one throughout Europe who insists that the debt is sustainable. And in this way he is objectively undermining the position of the country. All this, so as not to admit that his program failed….

Our own program includes practical, progressive reforms needed by the society – not neoliberal counter-reforms of the economic and social dislocation. The “Program of Thessaloniki”, includes the following four major pillars to reverse the social and economic dislocation, the recovery of the economy and exit from the crisis:

1.  A program to address the humanitarian crisis,
2. Immediate steps to restart the economy.
3. A national plan for returning to work.
4. Reforms to the institutional and democratic transformation of public administration.

On 25^th January we are not simply asking for the vote of the Greek people.

We are asking for the assignment of a responsibility.

We are asking for a directive to change.

We are asking for a mandate to negotiate.

We are asking for a directive to fight.

We asking for strength to create a robust Greece.

We call for a self-governing majority in the House of Parliament to give independence to our people.

To succeed in Europe. To bring back to Greece its Dignity, Justice, Democracy.

With accountability and a dream. With realism and courage.

We will win and we will succeed.

It is our duty to history.

It is our responsibility to the future.

Farewell. Victory will be ours. “

the full speech is provided below

Translation by Alex Aroney, Sydney, Australia

The full text of the speech by Alexis Tsipras, at the start of the SYRIZA Congress 2015.

“Comrades

These are critical moments in the history of a people and a nation. And we all know that we live in such a time. A moment that will determine for many years the country’s future. A historic moment. In such moments, as our poet, Anagnostakis, says:

 Words must be hammered down as nails, so they should not be blown away.

With determination, with stability, with responsibility. We will not be caught out by the winds of opinion polls. Nor the nasty and immoral attacks of our opponents. Nor all sorts of propaganda against us. Nor the threats of the uncompromising ‘friends of Greece’ and their European laboratory of austerity.

We will discuss and decide collectively with only one thing in mind, and only one option: to win. To ensure the great victory of our people in the elections ahead.

A victory that is as certain, as you see me and I see you.

As long as we, together, with unity and determination, with stability and openness, with our heart and mind, engage in electoral battle from house to house. From one town to another. And from one village to another. This is what we are talking about today.

And these decisions we take today. To make our victory the greatest possible.

The most undeniable, the most decisive victory.

And at the same time to commit ourselves anew to our non-negotiable program. Putting an end to the social tragedy, the nightmare of austerity and authoritarianism.

Putting an end to barbarism. But also putting the knife deep into the heart of corruption, of petty machinations and offensive injustice.

So it is no exaggeration to say that at this conference it is not only the members of SYRIZA which are here today. It is also the whole of Greece. Certainly not the Greece of the austerity measures and their local parrots.

But it is the Greece of struggle for a better tomorrow. The Greece of poverty and dignity that is not surrendering to her fate, but struggling to change it. The Greece that demands justice. The Greece that persists and resists. The Greece that hopes.

The Greece of democracy, which goes beyond political party barriers and fear tactics, to claim her right.

This Greece pulls us all by the arm. She demands we serve with responsibility and determination, with courage and effectiveness. In unity for the great cause of liberation from the autocraratic memoranda of austerity.

Comrades

We say and hear often, that no one can stop a people determined to assert its own rights. That is right, but I believe we can add something:

Only when those who are devoted to lead these people, not only have the courage but also the mind that is needed to confront a ruthless adversary, (and we know how ruthless our opponent can be). Not just this worn-out Samaras government.

But to confront also this aged, immoral and incorrigible power system that has transformed Greece into a field of wastefulness.

The courage to confront the media and their propaganda of fear.

To confront the reduction of democracy into a petty amendments industry for the imposed legislative acts.

To confront the transformation of our sovereignty into an empty tunic.

The election campaign was launched a few days ago, just when that of 2012 ended.

Mr. Samaras is in hiding and is dragging out the familiar ghosts.

Resuscitating fear.

Resuscitating the Grexit.

Resuscitating bankruptcy.

The Prime Minister himself, without any respect for his position, parades this collection of zombies. All to the musical accompaniment of various manifest lies.

So, when does Mr.Samaras tell the truth and when did he lie?

Was he telling the truth when he vehemently condemned the Memorandum of austerity? Or was it when he advertised and applied the austerity measures?

Was it the truth when he undertook 18 pre-electoral negotiating commitments?

Or when as prime minister he implemented exactly the opposite?

Was it the truth when he propagandized that Greece was on the way to stability and growth?

Or now that he laments that Greece is on the brink of destruction?

The answer is that Mr. Samaras always tells the truth. Because his only truth is power. A power in fact, serving the interests of those that want to see Greece as merely real-estate and a colony. A power which reproduces everything old, worn, exploitative. A power that destroys society and makes the rich richer.

In fact, the other day, Mr. Samaras discovered the “hidden” program of SYRIZA, so that he may pull out the “zombie” of bankruptcy. He should at least read the program so he can understand the roadmap to democracy and social justice that we are proposing. And the path Greece will follow after the elections.

We shall leave Mr. Samaras to deal with the zombies – because we will not only turn the page but change book. They with their zombies. We with life, with hope for the future of this place. They can wallow in yesterday’s pain, while revel we in a hopeful tomorrow.

Comrades,

We know the days ahead of us will be tiring but joyful. A celebration of freedom and democracy, culminating on January 25. Because we are ready to deal with whatever they serve us. 2015 is not 2012.

The future has already begun.

Workers, unemployed and pensioners. The young men and women.

Professionals and small and medium sized entrepreneurs. The farmers and peasants. They have all made the decision to take their fate into their own hands.

And we, here in this room, say once again:

SYRIZA is all of you.

SYRIZA is reaching out to all who want to free this country of its current nightmare.

Regardless of the party they voted for in the past. Regardless of the questions and doubts they may rightfully have.

We do not want anyone behind us. We do not want the people following us, we want them active and by our side. Just as we want all those who agree with the social recovery program. Let us share the battle. Let us share the responsibility. Let us give dimensions of triumph to victory.

Comrades,

In this hall, not only is there pervasive anticipation for Greece, but also there is hope for a democratic Europe of change. Because on 25^th January a democratic Europe relies on Greece. A social majority that opposes austerity, that understands Europe is not threatened by the Left, but by the policy of Ms. Merkel. By neoliberalism and its consequences: by the economic North-South divide, unemployment and deterioration of broader social strata and the middle class. By the rise of the populist extreme right and fascism.

On 25^th January the necessary change in Europe starts here, in Greece. And our victory will become Spain’s victory towards the end of this year. With Podemos and the United Left coming to government. And a year later with the Irish people. With Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams. This will be just the beginning.

The Greek people with their vote in favour of SYRIZA will make Greece a positive example of progressive developments in Europe. This is not us making these claims. It has been noted in the European press. The UK Financial Times – interpret political developments in Greece as the message for the necessary policy change and an end to austerity in Europe. The German magazine Spiegel recognizes that SYRIZA is a political force that has a reasonable and fair request to waive the Greek debt.

These are just two examples of publications indicating a change in the political climate.   But it is not only the media. It is a series of statements by European officials that annihilate the voices of doom for “the day after”. Only Mr. Samaras, domestic conspirators and sections of the media and assorted political mouthpieces are suggesting that SYRIZA is a threat to Europe. The neutral political statements from sections of the European leadership, show that everyone realizes that the change in Greece is a herald to its spread in Europe.

SYRIZA is Europe. SYRIZA is a Europe that is changing.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Mr. Samaras is the rearguard of Mr Schaeuble in a Europe on its last legs of austerity and slowly retreating. But on 25^th January it’s not Mr Schäuble who will be voting . Unfortunately for Mr. Samaras, the Greek people are voting.

. Comrades,

On 25^th January 25 there are not only two alternatives for the present and the future of Greece in Europe. Two worlds will face each other.

On one side the old school of politics is leaving. The protagonists of rot and crisis, New Democracy and PASOK, with their indulgence in corruption, conspiracy and kleptocracy are leaving a capsized country.

They leave, having delivered the country’s keys to the creditors and Troika. Because not once did they negotiate!

• They leave behind approximately half the country’s population in poverty e. 6.3 million of our fellow men.
• They leave, having left almost ⅓ of the workforce unemployed and 71% of the unemployed into long-term unemployment.
• They leave, having pledged to Troika, by means of the famous e-mail from Mr. Samara: new cuts in wages and pensions, increases in VAT taxes on medicines, food, water and power bills, repealing EKAS pensions from 2015 to approximately 320,000 low income pensioners.

But after the public announcement of the representative of New Democracy, that if Mr. Samaras is re-elected, he will immediately bring these agreed measures to Parliament, we must call things by their name. It is not the email of Hardouvelis.

This is the email of Samaras. And the Samaras email captures the government run program of New Democracy and Troika. It is the new Memorandum. The even tougher austerity measures on the basis of the accumulated income cuts and overtax of an entire six years.

This is the truth that New Democracy thinks it can hide from the Greek people.

But today in contrast to 2012, there is no hidden agenda. They cannot hide that they have agreed to new harsh austerity measures.

Worse still, that they have agreed and accepted to start immediately after the election (if re-elected), a pogrom of auctions to sell off peoples’ primary residence. Already large packages of mortgages are being resold by systemic banks in so-called distress funds. In so-called vultures’ markets, which are prepared to trammel over the primary residence of the wage earner, the laborer, the landlord, the breadwinner who has mortgaged his house to bank loans.

This is because the government majority already voted twice against SYRIZA’s proposal for amendments in Parliament to prohibit the transfer of people’s loans to the vultures. It is no exaggeration to say: Once upon a time the rightwing propaganda threatened that the communists are coming to take our homes.

Today the homes of people are in danger, not by the communists, nor by leftists.

The houses of the people are at risk from banks, new memoranda of austerity and Mr. Samaras who has already accepted them and co-signed.

That is what our people now know and will not be fooled.

On 25^th January our people will give a definitive end to the national humiliation and humanitarian crisis. They will put an end to the memoranda absurdity. By voting SYRIZA. With a majority government of the people. A SYRIZA majority government.

This will pave the way for the development and productive reconstruction and cultural rebirth of our country. With the “Program of Thessaloniki” (relaeaded in September 2014) we guarantee economic security and decent living for each and every Greek. With strong negotiating positions we guarantee truly equal participation of our country in the Eurozone without austerity being imposed by the European treaties that has brought so much suffering to this place. Therefore, on 25^th January the dilemma is clear:

Memorandum or SYRIZA.

Allegiance or negotiation.

Austerity or growth.

And the answer of our people will be SYRIZA and a government of social salvation for dignity, justice, and democracy.

Comrades, Dear Friends.

Our opponents are accusing us of seeking and planning to come into conflict with our partners in the Eurozone. What we are really seeking and planning is to come into conflict with barbarism. Conflict with the absurd and wrong. These politics cannot continue. And it is not only we, the left that say this. Everyone knows it. Even the partners themselves.

Neither the debt, nor the current policy is sustainable.

This is why we will change this.

We will put an end to the economic and social absurdity of memoranda and austerity. This is the responsibility of the Greek people and no one else. We will fight to rid Greece of the misery of debt. By way of sincere but resolute negotiations that respect the non-negotiable interests of our people, there will be a waiving of most of the debt.

Because debt is not only simply unbearable, it is objectively impossible to repay. It is wrong for Greece to take out loans in order to repay loans. It is objectively necessary to put an end to this destructive spiral. And finally get Greece on the road to growth-enhancing reforms.

The only one who does not recognize this is Mr. Samaras. The only one throughout Europe who insists that the debt is sustainable. And in this way he is objectively undermining the position of the country. All this, so as not to admit that his program failed.

Austerity must end; it is socially and economically necessary for it to end.

We insist that:

Austerity is irrational and destructive

Brave restructuring of the debt is needed if it is to be repaid.

Serious analysts across Europe can only agree and surely nobody can deny!

Based on these simple and realistic positions:

 First: We reject the logic of unrealistic primary surpluses, which is the other name of austerity. That is austerity itself. And we remain firm in pursuing primary balanced budgets and the need to exclude the program for public investment from the deficit calculation.

 Second: We seek agreement for development tools that will contribute to national growth that affects all citizens

 Third: We protect the banking system within the ECB and guarantee deposits of Greek citizens

 Fourth: We negotiate within the framework of the EU and European institutions as part of a new realistic debt servicing agreement and development of the real economy for mutual benefit, in order to ultimately achieve the following objectives:

Deleting most of the nominal value of the debt to become sustainable by means of a technique that does not harm the people of Europe, but through collective European mechanisms. As was done for Germany in 1953. Let this be done for Greece in 2015.

• Inserting a “Growth-enhancing Clause” in the repayment terms, to be serviced by the development and not the budget surplus.
• Allowing a Grace period, i.e. «moratorium» in servicing the deficit, for the immediate accumulation of savings for the development and restart of the economy
• Exclusion of the public investment program from the limitations of the Stability and Growth Pact for a certain period.
• Agreement on “European New Deal», with public investment for development.
• Quantitative Easing (QE) with direct purchase of government bonds by the European Central Bank. We hope this will become a reality in the meeting of the ECB Governing Council on 22 January.

Comrades,

We hear lately claims that supposedly the government of SYRIZA is bound by the signature of Mr. Samaras, in the name of “continuity of the state”. These naysayers claim that our hands are tied.

The “continuity of the state” is very different to an obsessive political stance, which fundamentally leads to an impasse and at the same time is socially destructive.

Let’s be clear, then:

On 25^th January the subservience accompanied by unlawfulness and authoritarianism ends.

It is good for all of them to know this.

And negotiations will take place!

And agreements will take place!

And the memorandum with the troika will constitute the past!

When the German government itself violates the commonly agreed maximum of a 6% trade surplus, prioritizing its national interest, it is irrational that a government of SYRIZA should be asked to accept policies rejected from 2010 and with which it will be elected by with a mandate to abolish.

Comrades,

The government program of SYRIZA is complete and ready.

It is the “Program of Thessaloniki”, it is the National Reconstruction Plan, which will be implemented regardless of the outcome of the negotiations. A program analysed and costed to address the major scourges of the Memorandum and restarting the economy, in a context of financial equilibrium.

There will not be new deficits but social reconstruction conditions and sustainable economic recovery. Our own program includes practical, progressive reforms needed by the society – not neoliberal counter-reforms of the economic and social dislocation. The “Program of Thessaloniki”, includes the following four major pillars to reverse the social and economic dislocation, the recovery of the economy and exit from the crisis:

1. A program to address the humanitarian crisis,
2. Immediate steps to restart the economy.
3. A national plan for returning to work.
4. Reforms to the institutional and democratic transformation of public administration.

Our plan for the immediate response to the humanitarian crisis and supporting those on low-income pensions, includes:

1. Free electricity and food vouchers for the poorest three hundred thousand households
2. A shelter program for the homeless
3. A 13^th installment pension per year to low-income pensioners earning under the 700euros per month
4. Free healthcare
5. Special travel card
6. Elimination of the special tax on heating oil

B. The second pillar includes measures to restart the economy. The aim is to support small and medium businesses, but to also increase government revenue through the orderly treatment of loans that are in arrears.

The Samara government’s adjustments failed miserably. It is indicative that of the 1.7 million people owing money to health insurance funds, only 3,000 have submitted applications. This is because the government regulation had so many conditions that in effect it annulled itself. At the same time, the debts due to the State are well above the € 70 billion. In November 2014 alone, the arrears increased by € 1,6 billion, surpassing any previous increase.

It is therefore not only timely, but imperative that SYRIZA’s proposal to set-up regional settlement committees and immediately collect money owed in taxes and to social security funds.

• Installments should not exceed 30% of the ower’s annual income.
• Increases and fines will not exceed 30% of the initial amount outstanding.
• Tax and social security clearance will be given immediately
• All seizures and prosecutions will cease thereof, and will be suspended for those proven to have no income.
• Elimination of the unconstitutional arrest procedure for public debts.
• Elimination of the tax guillotine, the ENFIA. Adoption of a socially fair tax on large property owners.
• A tax free threshhold, established at €12.000 for all.
• Founding of a Public Development Bank and special purpose banks for SMEs and farmers.
• And lastly, we go to the New Program of Debt Settlement for the resolution of bad loans.

The settling of bad loans is central to the restart of the economy. That is, the regulating of private debt to the banks, which not only financially destroys borrowers, but at the same time creates liquidity problems in the real economy. We submitted the basic principles of our proposal at the Thessaloniki International Fair.

With the formation of a public intermediary body administering private debt, not as a “bad bank”, but instead as the administrator of every type of overdue debt to banks and auditor of banks whilst implementing the agreed arrangements. We recommend this body to ensure equal and fair treatment of all borrowers.

We will not be like the outgoing government of Samaras, which by means of legislation handed over the indebted companies to banks, which can now unilaterally, put them into forced administration, ie a special form of bankruptcy and liquidation. We will implement a solution with immediate enforcement and without lengthy bureaucratic procedures. A solution that will protect employment, continue business operations, and avoid oligopolistic market concentration.

We also aspire to a solution that will not rely on  public funds – although with certain exceptions for specific development purposes. We will prohibit acquisitions of bad loans by international funds aiming to speculate on the back of Greek citizens and the Greek economy.

On the question of the forced auctions of primary residences, we have a clear commitment:

With SYRIZA in government, Greek men and women will sleep quietly in their homes. We will suspend auctions of primary residences. I will not let banks touch the primary residence of the middle class and workers. End of story!

The third pillar of our plan includes measures to recover jobs.

The support of the world of work and the strengthening of its negotiating power are the central political pillars of the SYRIZA program.

We are determined to put an end to employer ruthlessness.

In collaboration with the International Labour Organization, we will bring and enforce labor laws which were abolished by the Memorandum laws.

We are firm in our commitment to:

• Reset the minimum wage to € 751 for all.
• Re-establishment of collective agreements (employer-union contract) and restoring three yearly agreements, scalability and aftereffect and arbitration
• Repeal of regulations allowing for mass layoffs
• Implementation of the Project for direct creation of 300,000 jobs in the private, public and social sectors of the economy.

The fourth pillar includes interventions for institutional and democratic reconstruction of the state.

SYRIZA is not responsible for the client state created by the parties that ruled and ruined the country. We recognize the ills of public administration! We insist, however, that Memorandum governments did nothing to change them.

The Greek public service administration is now on the verge of collapse.

In regard to the program for restructuring of the Greek Public Administration, we put forward a comprehensive plan for democratic reform and rationalization.

• We are changing the structure of government (by merging ministries, abolishing government institutions) to improve coordination and planning of productive reconstruction. In the SYRIZA government we foresee only ten ministries.We will not have unnecessary ministerial posts but a powerful collective body for policy planning and coordination.

• Abolition of many governmental institutions that function as nurseries of corruption and diffusion of political responsibility
• Decongestion of the public sector by the armies of the Directors and revocable officials and promotion of the recruitment of Ministers Office, Secretaries General and Governors from the ranks of civil servants
• Removal of Memorandum legislation and disciplinary law of civil servants
• Removal of the institution of availability under the mobility to streamline the personnel division between departments and ministries
• Re-establish those that were made redundant by unconstitutional means.
• Removal of the unconstitutional law on the assessment of civil servants. Instead, evaluation of staff and services will be based on objective indicators.

We know that the main problem of the citizens is the bureaucracy, the delays, overregulation, which in reality is a form of power and a way of maintaining corruption. It encompasses the processes of public administration.

For this reason:

We limit physical contact between management and those managed to fight small corruption.

• Upgrade CSCs (Citizen Service Centres) transforming them into all-encompassing service centers for citzens and businesses and create civil service departments in all public services.
• Introduction of the electronic card for every citizen with all the information necessary for transactions with public administration
• Removal of the numerous documents required for issuing building permits and shop licenses.

In place of precautionary checkups introduce direct control.

• create specific coding office of legislation under the responsibility of the Greek Parliament.

Break the triangle of the relationship between political parties – economic oligarchy and Banks. In regards to political parties SYRIZA promises:

To reform the context of bank lending to parties by establishing a maximum borrowing limit, prohibition of long-term debt and general lending ban over a small portion of state funding

• To promote full control and transparency of party finances

The Media:

Immediate activation of the provisions of the law, which:

(a) enable the Bank of Greece or the competent prosecuting authorities to carry out checks on the origin of the funding of media enterprises, and

(b) apply to all public limited companies and anticipate that a loss-making business can not operate indefinitely without recapitalizing.

issue from scratch a competition for SMEs operating permits.

In the field of public procurement, the government of SYRIZA will review the institutional framework governing it, respecting the relevant European legislation.

Strengthening the institutions of social control, transparency and publicity at all stages,

• Restricting terms of design and execution of public contracts
• Establishing objective and transparent institutional framework for conducting public competitions,
• Put an end to Photo notices!

Finally, SYRIZA will provide justice by:

a system for the collection of data and information relating to problematic tenders which are ongoing or conducted in the last five years

• ensuring the immediate rectification of any pecuniary or other public failure, in the case of “sinful” contracts.
• abolishing the unconstitutional and democratically offensive provisions granting immunities to the Boards managing finances and the selling of national assets and real estate (FSF and TAIPED).

These immunities are the guilty confession of the Memorandum establishment and its officers, who knowingly harmed the Greek public.

We do not forget. We will not forget!

SYRIZA will put an end to the unreliability, opaqueness, maladministration, corruption, and decadence!

And so the reorganization and strengthening of control mechanisms are necessary.

Our message is and listen carefully:

Preservation of legality everywhere. Justice everywhere. The party is over!

Consolidation of all control mechanisms into a single body reporting directly to the Prime Minister.

In this direction, the first steps of SYRIZA regard:

1. Strengthening and support against Financial Crime and the Labor Inspectorate in order to respect the legitimacy of private economy and public administration, but also to clear the labor market of savage exploitation and uninsured labor practices,
2. Supporting the successful principle to fight against money laundering.
3. to reactivate the Commission means test.

With the government of SYRIZA, everyone will be accountable for where they found the money.

Comrades,

SYRIZA is not here to successfully assume control of a corrupt and bankrupt system of power.

It is here to overturn it.

It is not here to re-occupy the foundations and privileges of power, it is here to change the foundations and eliminate privileges. It is here to do justice, achieve equity and meritocracy.

But we are fully aware of the difficulties we face. We know that we will not merely be delivered a scorched earth. We will receive a dissolved production base, a country divided, discredited politically, socially and economically. Our responsibility is to reunite everyone, all together. And lead us to safe and fertile ground for reconstruction, development, dignity.

On 25^th January we are not simply asking for the vote of the Greek people.

We are asking for the assignment of a responsibility.

We are asking for a directive to change.

We are asking for a mandate to negotiate.

We are asking for a directive to fight.

We asking for strength to create a robust Greece.

We call for a self-governing majority in the House of Parliament to give independence to our people.

To succeed in Europe. To bring back to Greece its Dignity, Justice, Democracy.

With accountability and a dream. With realism and courage.

We will win and we will succeed.

It is our duty to history.

It is our responsibility to the future.

Farewell. Victory will be ours. “

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