The problem of balancing power and principles that Syriza is facing in Greece is not a new one – the same issue is central to Defeat, Nordahl Grieg’s 1930s play about revolutionary spirit in the Paris CommuneWhen the Norwegian communist and war reporter Nordahl Grieg died in an air raid in Berlin on 2 December 1943, few could have guessed how his work would live on.For years, Grieg had struggled with the same problems that now confront the modern left: whether to seek power or remain in permanent opposition, determined to avoid the dehumanising effects of violence and the corrupting power of hierarchy. Continue reading...