I am not very optimistic about the Greek elections.
Of course it is good that Syriza has won, of course there will be some improvement in the life of the Greek 99%. But it will be a restricted improvement when the cause of all misery, the presence of the 1%, is even hardly mentioned. The 1% decide without any elections how money is divided over the people.
The interest on Greek loans went up – and none of this interest will come in the hands of the 99%. That is only one of the consequences of the gains of Syriza. The 1% knows how to control their money, how to make sure that they do not lose anything, to make sure they continue their extravagant life even when the life of the rest of the population deteriorates.
Elections are not a revolution. The same rules continue to rule. Maybe some discriminatory laws will be changed but the basic rules in society remain untouched, the “right” of the 1% to get more than anyone else.
In the election propaganda hardly anything was said about the 1%. Syriza says there must come an end to the austerity, but austerity is only the consequence of the greed of the 1%. The cause of most misery, the presence of the 1% is not mentioned.
There can be no change when the 1% continue to remain the richest, most powerful and secretly deciding group in any country. Elections do not influence their existence. Maybe there will be some improvement for the Greek 99% but the cause of the misery does not change. The 1% continue to exist and still get the biggest profit from all what happens in society. Without attacking the 1% and taking their money and power away, real change is not possible.
Download freely chapter 18 “The pyramid of power and money. Power and money for the 1%, the 99% subordinate and considered inferior” via http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis/Revolution18.htm.
Or download for free my latest book “How to make Revolution, developing the new Fourth People’s Power” from my site “Down with any elite”, http://members.chello.nl/jsteenis
Joost van Steenis
downwithelite 
sorry – hopefully the second link will now appear correctly here –
http://nomadron.blogspot.com/2012/06/yanis-varoufakis-recently-published.html
I would have been good to mention the identity of the new Greek Minister of Finance http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2015/jan/26/profile-yannis-varoufakis-greece-finance-minister
whose important “Global Monotaur” I tried to summarise more than 2 years ago –
http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2015/jan/26/profile-yannis-varoufakis-greece-finance-minister
Pity I can’t insert hyperlinks on this
Ronald Young
Thanks for the link.
Indeed I did not expect that leading members of Syriza are revolutionaries. That is clear from the policy of Syriza that hardly mentioned a fundamental change in government nor the role of the very rich 1% in the policy of the country.
I think (though I do not know very much about Greece) that Syriza can be compared to the old social-democratic parties from the twenties of the last century, trying to increase the position of the labourers but not trying to change the power structure in the country.
I do not vote because I do not think that elections (concentrating on what happens in the ballot boxes, does not give much change. Of course Syriza with new people is better than the old [parties but the policy will not be much different. WE see that in the situation of the loans to Greece. Why they were forced on Greece and why they were needed are unclear. Where the money has gone is also unclear. The rich had already much of their money in other countries while the poor did not get much m0ore money, on the contrary, the worklessness is very great and I have not seen any decisions that solves this problem (also not from Syriza).
The most important thing is however that their is no attack at all on the sitting powers (of course in the first place on the 1%) and that people are only activated to vote for new leaders without developing in this struggle an independent power. Now people will be waiting again on what the leaders of Syriza will do. And you are indeed right when you say that the Kenyesian marxist finance minister does not look to be the right man to change the situation in Greece. But most important is that elections do not give any power to the people and that after elections they remain secondary in all decisions. They have not got a voice, or better said, not got a power to be involved in any discussion about decisions.
Thanks for the link and I hope someone will start ideas that gives the 99% a permanent power to interfere when they want it, a power that will stop the top from taking decisions that always in the first place are advantageous for the top – and the rest of the power and money pyramid only gets something when the top is satisfied or when needed to have some educated people who can improve the situation at the top of the pyramid.
Neither am I optimistic with your concern about dealing with the 1%. IMO, the 1% are not all powerful as you think, for without the huge support of a large percentage of the 99%, they have no more power then the rest of us. A large percentage of the 99% have no problem with the 1% except that they are not one of them, and thus by supporting them they hope one day they get to be one of them. The problem with both the 1% and the 99% is that they do not understand the laws of the universe. The universe operates by attraction, not by force. All force creates an equal counter force which creates no change except a lot of wasted energy and lives. This ignorance is what has created the horrible situations that exist in the world today. Consider symbiosis as in biology, how unlimited favorable progress would occur with everyone helping everyone else wherever and whenever they can. Consider on the other hand, how the 1% and a lot of the 99% prey on their own species as cannibals, thus limiting what benefits their victims could even joyfully share with them. We do not realize the wonderful creative power that exists in every living person if we just give them a fair chance.
The 1% are different from the 99% even when indeed a part of the 99% approve the 1%. Their life is based on money, not on people, not on teh oidea that all people have the same status. Besides they have the possibility to take part in decsions (often because of the weight of money they can use and by calling on other 1% to help them. This is not possible for the 99% who are dependent on money from the government regulated income.
Of course the 1% do not always use force , they decide and then advance their decisions as the right ones, that is mostly accepted by the leading 99% as right because the 99% are dependent on the 1%., while the 1% is not dependent on the 99%.
The force they use is money, investing ans withdrawing investments. And because the leading 99% know this political investments and withdrawings are not used often. Clear examples are the continuing use of child labour in Third World countries because the investors will replace the factories when to other countries when the laws become better for the working 99%.
Do not underestimate the power of the 1%. The crisis has proven again that they use their money only for the well-being of the own group, the wealth of the 1% has increased while the life of the 99% has deteriorated.
An important factor is that the big lines in the world are determined by the 1%, the idea that money rules and that the gains in producing stuff must be growing. That Apple has a gain of about 25% on each apparatus they produce (gains that are paid to the owners of stock) is obvious. That still nearly ten million kids die each year before they are five years old is also a policy of the 1% who do not want to invest money in projects to make all 99% happy but only want to invest money that give themselves even more wealth.
The idea that we must consider all people as equal and thus give anyone the same change to develop is suppressed by the 1% that in each decision put their own situation above the situation of the 99%. Even when part of the 99% support the 1% it will not say that the 1% are right. And though you do obviously not see it, the 1% have power and use it to increase their own life.