Panos Garganas, a leading member of the revolutionary left organisation Antarsya, assesses the mood in Greece following Syriza's victory.
There were huge celebrations on the night that Syriza won the Greek general election. Many people turned out to hear Alexis Tsipras declare victory. People are optimistic despite Syriza swiftly forming a coalition government with the right wing Independent Greeks.
The Euro and local elections have confirmed that the surge in support of the left wing Syriza was not a flash in the pan. But the party is now shifting to the right.
The election results in Greece confirmed that there is a swing to the left. Many commentators were saying that the election results in 2012 were an "accident" - the fact that the left wing party
Syriza came very close to winning in 2012 was dismissed as a "moment of anger" from Greek voters. These results now show that this was not true. Syriza led in the European elections by four points ahead of the conservatives in New Democracy.
The revolt against the IMF-EU austerity package in Greece escalated with two general strikes in May.
The strike on 5 May turned out to be the biggest ever, with estimates of the strike rally's size reaching over half a million. There were clashes with the police as they used tear gas against demonstrators trying to go up the steps in the parliament building. Three bank employees died in a blaze when a Marfin Bank building was set on fire.
Greece has been a focal point of crisis and resistance in Europe since exposure of its ballooning debt. Panos Garganos, editor of Socialist Worker's sister paper in Greece, spoke to Ian Taylor about the situation
Panos Garganos
What has been the response to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) going into Greece?
The delegation from the IMF, European Union (EU) and European Central Bank (ECB) arrived in Athens on 21 April, the anniversary of the colonels' coup in 1967. We suffered from the military then. We suffer from the bankers now. The fire service, hospitals, local authorities and teachers were on strike that day - that was the workers' response to the IMF, although the strikes were called earlier.
On the weekend of 7-8 November, immediately after Chris Harman's death, a meeting of about 1,000 students from all over Greece took place in Athens. It was organised by EAAK, the group that had played the leading role in the magnificent wave of faculty occupations that shook Greece in 2006 and 2007. On the news that Chris had died, this usually very unruly body decided unanimously to pay tribute. Delegates stood up in a minute's silence to honour the memory of an internationally recognised revolutionary Marxist.
It is not very often that governments decide to commit political suicide, but that is exactly what the ruling conservative party of New Democracy did when they called a snap election in Greece last month only to lose by a margin of 10 percent.
New Democracy was plunged into a massive crisis. Nineteen of their 23 original cabinet members were wiped out. Kostas Karamanlis, the leader and former prime minister, is retiring and the four contenders for his succession cannot agree on the way a new leader will be chosen.
Karamanlis called the election because, in his own words, the economy needed a package of "tough and unpopular measures" but the political climate did not permit it. What he meant by "political climate" was the fear of a new uprising like the one that shook Greece last December.
