 Greek workers strike on the very day Parliament announces new austerity measures, Athens, Greece, March 5. |
Using expedited procedures, the Greek parliament approved a rigorous austerity program March 5, just two days after the government announced it.
The program calls for deep cuts in public workers’ wages, pension freezes, hiring freezes, cuts in education and other services and increased taxation on basic commodities, fuel, electricity and more. These measures are the harshest passed by any Greek government since the end of a military dictatorship in 1974, and are effective immediately. (Wall Street Journal, March 4)
European Union officials, domestic and international banks and corporations, the IMF and Wall Street all hailed the approval of the package.
The austerity package was passed with the votes of the ruling social-democratic PASOK party and the ultra-right LAOS party. The deputies of KKE, the Communist Party of Greece, left the parliament and joined a protest outside the building.
People enraged over measures
The measures have enraged working and poor people in Greece. Immediately after the announcement of the program, hundreds marched to the parliament building in downtown Athens. Rallies and protests took place in neighborhoods across Athens, as well as in other cities and towns across the country. In the southern city of Patras, members of the All-Worker’s Militant Front (PAME) occupied all four local television stations and broadcast clips calling for the workers to resist.
PAME called for a general strike on Friday, urging workers to rise up and resist the government’s assault. It appealed to all city labor councils, industrial union federations, union locals and workers everywhere in Greece to fight back and join the strike.
The pro-government union forces that control the leadership of the general confederations of workers refused to join Friday’s general strike, and only called 4-hour work stoppages. They called for a strike on March 11, almost a week after the announced date of the parliament’s vote. In their literature and slogans, they provide backing to the government by blaming “foreign speculators” for the crisis.
The government is using the same argument to portray the measures as “necessary” and “patriotic.” Prime Minister George Papandreou even claimed that poor people have stopped him on the streets to express their support and readiness to “sacrifice for the motherland.”
The working class, however, is stepping up its resistance. Thursday, March 4, saw massive protests and rallies in more than 50 cities and towns all over Greece. PAME activists occupied the Ministry of Finance and dropped a massive banner calling on workers to rise up and strike. Across the country, workers staged sit-ins at government buildings.
Friday’s strike was joined by wide sectors of the working class. The workers defied the government’s propaganda and the bosses’ intimidation campaign to send the message that they will not accept the austerity program.
Hundreds of thousands of people participated in various actions nationwide. PAME held rallies in 60 cities and towns, which were attended by young and old, women and men, immigrants and Greeks, workers, peasants, the self-employed and students.
Workers digging in for prolonged struggle
It was known that the measures would be approved, given that the government holds a majority in the parliament and is supported by all capitalist parties. However, this wave of measures is only the first of many to come.
The government has plans to extend the wage cuts on all private-sector workers, raise the retirement age while lowering pensions, initiate a new wave of privatizations, overhaul labor relations and reform the education system. All these measures were agreed upon at the EU level many years before the onset of the current global crisis. It was up to each member country to pursue these measures at home, and the Greek capitalist class is using the economic crisis as an opportunity to rapidly increase the pace of this anti-worker agenda.
The workers, too, must plan their resistance and escalate their struggle before the new measures are implemented. The approval of this wave of measures has not demoralized the working class. On the contrary, it has been a wakeup call for many who were hoping that the burden of the crisis would be shared by rich and poor alike.
The goal of the Greek capitalist class, like that of capitalists around the world, is to let the workers bear the burden. As the government was finalizing the austerity package, it revealed it would go ahead with a planned purchase of six French frigates at a cost of 2.5 billion euros ($3.4 billion ). For comparison, the whole austerity program is expected to result in 4.8 billion euros in savings.
The next action of the Greek labor movement, which is expected to draw thousands of workers, will be the rally of PAME and the Women’s Federation of Greece (OGE) on March 8, commemorating the 100th International Women’s Day. The general strike of March 11 will be another important step up for the workers’ struggle against the capitalist offensive.
Through a determined struggle, Greek workers can void the government’s measures and block the new ones that are coming. What is needed is a massive, radical, organized movement, rooted in every workplace and neighborhood. The Party for Socialism and Liberation extends its solidarity to our sisters and brothers in Greece.
Long live the workers’ struggle!
