5: Syriza Counts

Defeat is a melancholy story. For the majority of comrades around the West, it is a story of past chapters in the Second World War, before and after – of civil war strife, rogue states, shrinking empires and recognition of the origins of totalitarianism. Above all, it is about the presence in imaginary loss of all that was not really expected: post-war prosperity, jobs, economies, votes, lives and investments. It hints at the unfulfilled promises of a life of equality, peace and comradeship. Defeat carries its weight. For those closer to our side of paradise, where democratic states are turbulent and invasions have taken place as recently as 1999, melancholy, at least in the comradely imaginary, is always part of the dialectic – the negative dialectics, of course. Distance from bourgeois triumph – and an understanding that it has long been over – empowers party formation, divides parties and collective subjects, fuels manifestos and essentialises communism. It also leads the way for reconciling liberal politics with Marxist ones. In that respect, Syriza’s rise in Europe marks a pivotal moment in Eurocommunism and the global Left. Scarce attention has been paid to the two months leading up to this phenomenal victory in terms of political communications and digital strategy, with equally scarce attention paid to party culture and the aristerometro in terms of information and telecommunication technology. The same applies to the relationship between the Left-wing government, the party and digital media, telecommunications and technology policy. Both this chapter and the next will elucidate precisely this.