Greece: Phase Two — Sebastian Budgen interviews Costas Lapavitsas

Much — too much — has been written in a journalistic, superficial vein about Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and last month’s negotiations with the European Union. But now that the lines have hardened and are clearer for us all to see, a new situation has opened up. 

The scenario of Greece leaving the eurozone (“Grexit”) is more frequently and explicitly posed as the only way that Syriza’s government can avoid backtracking on its campaign promises. 

To discuss this question in greater depth, we spoke with Syriza Member of Parliament Costas Lapavitsas. Lapavitsas is, in many ways, the anti-Varoufakis, not only in style and personal trajectory but, more importantly, in terms of political line — he has become the figure most identified with a clear and frank break with the Syriza leadership’s “good euro” policy. 

Previously based at the SOAS in London, Lapavitsas is not a member of Syriza (although he was elected on the party list) and is a newcomer to parliamentary politics. However, he has been a socialist activist for most of his life and is known for his incisive and challenging theoretical work on the political economy of money, credit, and financialization (work that he commenced with Makoto Itoh while studying Japanese Marxism). 

Lapavitsas has also worked with the Research on Money and Finance group in London to produce concrete analyses of the origins and trajectory of the European crisis and, most recently, published together with the German neo-Keynesian economist Heiner Flassbeck a kind of manifesto proposing a radical break from the euro. 

He was interviewed for Jacobin by Sebastian Budgen, an editor for Verso Books who serves on the board of Historical Materialism. 

Key Questions 

• Was the coalition government necessary?
• How should we understand Varoufakis?
• Have the Marxists gone Keynesian?
• What happened in the negotiations?
• What do the next few months hold?
• How would a "negotiated" exit look?
• What kind of capital controls are needed?
• Isn't eurozone exit risky?
• And the impact of devaluation?
• What of the social movements?
• Does Syriza need uncritical support?

Jacobin

Greece: Phase Two
Sebastian Budgen & Costas Lapavitsas

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