"You have a point here but it does not invalidate the arguments that: social democratic parties and gradualist approaches to achieving socialism have been knocked for six by the demise of the USSR; and that like is not being compared with like when we compare the position of communist parties today with those in the 1930s."
I happen to agree that the position of the KKE is not identical to that of the KPD in the 1930s. Also, and perhaps more importantly, the conditions in Greece are not close to those of 1930s Middle Europe. Yes, we see a worrying trend in the form of ultra-nationalists (seemingly close to fascists of the Mussolini or Metaxis flavour) gaining a large number of votes and we see, too, falling living standards on the horizon. Yet the conditions are far from the same. The Golden Dawn are Also, I am not sure that I see SYRZIA and the SPD as akin. The SPD had a well-thought out programme of moderate (by those days' standards, radical by today's) reforms and strong roots in the working classes (particularly older and skilled workers). SYRZIA is -- kindly to put it -- a rag-bag of disparate groups glued together by opportunism. That is really all that unites our comrades of the former Exterior KKE and the Trotskiysts in my view. That is highly debatable though. What is less so is that -- more importantly -- SYRZIA has no programme to speak of. It hopes to blackmail the Germans into throwing more money at the Greek economy and has no thoughts as to how growth and fiscal balance (at least as important under a socialist economy as a market one I will add) can be returned.
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