United Popular Front
| United Popular Front (EPAM) | |
|---|---|
| Ενιαίο Παλλαϊκό Μέτωπο (ΕΠΑΜ) | |
| Founder | Dimitris Kazakis. Secretary general (2012-ongoing) |
| Founded | July 2011 |
| Ideology |
Pro-Sovereignty Pro-Democracy Patriotism Anti-Memoranda |
| Website | |
| http://www.epamhellas.gr/ | |
|
Politics of Greece Political parties Elections | |
E.PA.M (United Popular Front - Alternate Translation: United People's Front (Greek: Ενιαίο Παλλαϊκό Μέτωπο) is a Greek political party founded in July 2011 by citizens who participated in the Indignant Citizens Movement and the anti-austerity demonstrations which accompanied the World Financial Crisis (2008 – still going) hitting especially hard on Greece as one of the first countries effected. E.PA.M. participated in the legislative elections of May 2012 as party of the coalition of "NO" with the Democratic Revival and gained 0.9%. Having started as a citizens movement in July 2011, the first and founding congress of the party was held on April 8, 2012 and decided the founding declaration and the participation in the parliamentary elections of May 2012.
History
E.PA.M (United Popular Front - Alternate Translation: United People's Front) was initially a political citizen movement which was first officially announced as a political citizen organization on July 16, 2011. It was set up to offer a political home το those citizens who disagreed with the positions of the traditional Greek parties and to a great majority had no former active political experience . The creators of the movement were the people themselves with their leading figure being Dimitris Kazakis coming from the Greek traditional political Left.
EPAM (Unified Popular Front in English) has been established to help re-establish Greece’s sovereignty as an independent state and responsible member of the community of nations. The establishment of EPAM resulted from the magnificent demonstrations mounted by the people in gatherings lasting more than a month in the public squares of virtually all the cities and towns of Greece, first and foremost in Syntagma Square in Athens.
EPAM was and is determined to make a decisive contribution to uniting Greeks, above and beyond party lines and ideological and other divisions by creating a nationwide social and political movement representing the entire people of Greece.
On March 27, 2012 it acquired official political party status after the first conference in April 2012, where the members voted the party's constitution and elected a 51 member National Council. In the beginning of June 2013, the second conference took place, where its institutional positions where reconfirmed, strategies and tactics based on the latest political status of the country were decided and a new National Council was elected.
The founding of E.PA.M was an important event in the political ecosystem of Greece, since it is the only political organization that expresses a significantly different position for handling the financial banking and EU-crisis, despite the fact that the party is until today, almost completely excluded from all the main stream media outlets. Since its early founding days, E.PA.M. has spread throughout Greece with over hundred local organisations and still growing. E.PA.M. has supporting groups and organized members internationally in countries like Japan, Germany, USA and others.
Political positions
Since the outbreak of the world financial and banking crisis, Greece has felt to be heading towards an economic occupation that is threatening her sovereignty. Approved by the Greek government a legally and constitutionally questionable programme has been imposed by the TROIKA (a special envoy consisting of representatives from the ECB, IMF and EU Commission) that not only has been judged unconstitutional and violating charters, but for which the EU Parliament and the IMF in the meantime have admitted mistakes and wrongdoings. During the recession years Greece has suffered from the destruction of people’s livelihoods, the benefits, human rights and integrity, national sovereignty, democracy, freedom of speech, health and education have been undermined .
E.PA.M. has therefore formulated its five most imperative positions and goals as follows:
- To re-establish Greece as a fully sovereign state. To this end, all existing commercial, political and industrial contracts need to be evaluated and, where necessary, re-negotiated. This also includes all activities necessary to dismantle the entire edifice of contracts, treaties, agreements, obligations, interventions and measures that have been made and taken since the first memoranda in 2010, so that the country can re-establish legal order internally and reclaim from the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank and others the sovereignty ceded by the country’s economic and political establishment.
- To establish a financial system which allows Greece a sustainable recovery, based on transparency, accountability, the outlawing of unsustainable debt, and the fair distribution of income and resources. It is therefore necessary to:
a. Reframe Greece’s relations with the EU, by leaving the Eurozone and adopting a national currency, in order to embark on a new economic course for the country in the interests of the people. The exit from the EU will follow.
b. Demand and support a fair and independent evaluation of all existing debt- and loan contracts. This evaluation must be based on good governance as well as good business practice and business ethics, for mutual benefit. International law permits a sovereign state to refuse to pay all illegal, usurious and unauthorised debts leading a people and a country to bankruptcy.
c. Proceed with the re-nationalization of major banks, starting with the Bank of Greece, to secure control of the economy, reorient credit policy, and regulate movements of capital. This is the only way to defend the savings of ordinary people; and
d. Secure the necessary investments for reconstruction of the country, which will not be based on speculative investors, whether foreign or local, or on state-supported entrepreneurs and monopolies, but on the needs and income of working people, on the dynamic and the initiative of the country’s living productive forces.
- To ensure that the state emerges as the basic lever of the country’s economic and social development, starting with nationalization of all public corporations, infrastructures and services that have been privatized. It is only in this way that the private initiative of small and medium business can be freed from domination by trusts, cartels, and local and foreign market monopolies. The new policy should be based on the fact that in modern, democratic societies all citizens have an inalienable right to the basics of life: water, food, shelter, education and health.
- To initiate the re-founding of the political system as a whole, through election of a Constituent Assembly with broadened authentic representation of the people itself, for the sole purpose of drawing up and voting a new democratic Constitution.
- To hold to account those who have broken the law or have robbed public property of any kind, particularly through illegal financial transactions.
Election results
| Results since 2012 (year links to election page) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Type of Election | Votes | % | Mandates | ||||
| May 2012 | Parliament | 58,1901 | 0.92 | 0 | ||||
| June 2012 | Parliament | - | - | - | ||||
| 2014 | European Parliament | 49,386 | 0.86 | 0 | ||||
1 In coalition name "NO" with Democratic Revival
