Leftist firebrands make compromise a hard sell for Greece's Tsipras

By Deepa Babington and Renee Maltezou

ATHENS (Reuters) - They demand Greece never surrender to foreign creditors trying to turn it into a "colony", and nearly carried a resolution last month in a ruling party committee insisting Athens default on its loans to the International Monetary Fund.

The colorful characters and equally colorful rhetoric of the faction on the far left of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's Syriza party have added to the drama of his showdown with international creditors.

With just days left for an accord to avert default, it remains to be seen whether the cadre of university professors, trades unionists and veteran Communists that call themselves the "Left Platform" will mount a challenge that wrecks a deal.

Syriza officials say privately that whatever the rhetoric from party figures, if Tsipras reaches an agreement with creditors the left wing will ultimately back it to prevent the collapse of the country's first radical leftist government. Many political analysts seem to agree.

But by being willing to openly discuss the future of Greece outside the euro zone and resisting concessions to lenders, the far-leftists make it harder for Tsipras to accept a compromise on the "red lines" that have so far blocked an agreement.

"The euro is not a fetish for us - we don't put the euro above all things. The euro is a failed currency," said Costas Lapavitsas, who gave up an academic economics career in Britain to join the Greek parliament in Syriza's victory this year.

"If we go back to what was experienced in the last five years then that will be the end of Greece. We cannot accept the proposals of the lenders," Lapavitsas, who says he works closely with the Left Platform, told Reuters. "It's best for Greece to reject them and go down its own path."

Commanding around 20-30 out of Syriza's 149 lawmakers, with no formal membership list, the Left Platform is the most prominent group of dissenters to Tsipras's more pro-euro and moderate line within Syriza. That suggests they could split the party if they rebelled, though none of them have openly said they would vote against a deal.

A 54-year-old author of books on monetary theory and a Japan specialist, Lapavitsas dismisses what he calls a portrayal of Syriza members that share his views as "wide-eyed people shouting slogans".

He says he left his job as professor at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies to help Greece at a difficult moment.

"We're not what people imagine - wild and crazy leftists," said Lapavitsas.

"RUTHLESS IMPERIALISTS"

The leader of the faction is 63-year-old Panagiotis Lafazanis, a veteran Communist who has already visited Russia three times since January to boost ties with Moscow and is fond of calling Greece a "colony" of "ruthless imperialists".

A mathematician by training, Lafazanis cut his teeth in politics as a member of the Communist party in his student days and took part in the anti-junta movement in the 1970s.

Named energy minister by Tsipras, he quickly showed his independent streak, pledging to scrap two major asset sales in the energy sector days after Greece promised its lenders it would not make unilateral moves, openly bucking the line laid down by the prime minister.

Lafazanis, who declined to comment for this article, has in the past said a Greek exit from the euro is not a taboo.

In an interview with the To Vima newspaper earlier this week, Lafazanis accused Greece's creditors of using the most "Machiavellian tactics that the history of colonialism has produced."

"What they want is to socially smash the country and humiliate the government," he said. "I don't think there is much room for a positive accord between the Syriza government and the lenders. Rather, they want us to surrender."

Some of the outspoken lawmakers close to him include Dimitris Stratoulis - a veteran unionist who is now deputy labor minister. He has been one of the most strident opponents of pension cuts demanded by lenders, saying "they want to subdue, to crush any resistance from the left, anti-bailout government against their policies of never ending austerity in Europe."

Others allied with the faction include Stathis Leoutsakos, a former Communist who was active in local government politics, and Thanasis Petrakos, one of Syriza's parliamentary spokesmen.

In a sign of the bloc's sizeable influence within the party, its proposal last month that Greece default on payments to the IMF lost in Syriza's central committee by a margin of 75 to 95 votes.

Twenty-two Syriza lawmakers, including some from the Left Platform, wrote to Tsipras this week asking him to restore collective bargaining rights for workers and reverse legislated pension reform - both moves strongly opposed by Greece's lenders.

The assumption of many analysts, so far untested, is that the far-left bloc - for all its fiery rhetoric - would not rebel against Tsipras by voting against a deal with creditors.

Syriza officials say the party allows members to express their views freely but expects them to vote the party line. If members dissent, they would be expected to resign their seats in parliament and let the party name replacements.

"I don't believe that those who shout will create a problem for Tsipras," said John Loulis, a political analyst. "They won't dare to clash with him openly and create a major crisis, though they will grumble. If they push it too far, he holds the cards in his hands."

(Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimas and Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Peter Graff)