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No surrender in Greece

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http://socialistworker.org/2010/05/24/no-surrender-in-greece

Antonis Davenellos, a member of International Workers Left (DEA), reports from Athens on the May 20 general strike and workers’ growing radicalization.

WITH A mass general strike on May 20 in the private and the public sector and a large demonstration in Athens and other cities, the workers of Greece continued the struggle to overturn an austerity program imposed by the Greek government, European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Participation in the strike was equally big in the private sector as in the public sector, which is the target of most of the austerity measures.

The strike rally in Athens was somewhat smaller compared to one held during the May 5 general strike, but far larger than union mobilizations of just a month ago. Plus, on May 5, the subway and bus drivers union decided to work between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to facilitate attendance at the rally. That wasn’t the case this time.

In fact, the continued mass participation of workers on May 20 put an end to attempts by the government to create a climate of fear and panic. Politicians and the media had attempted to exploit the tragic death of three bank workers, who lost their lives when a bank was set on fire during the May 5 demonstration. As many union leaders emphasized from the stage of the rally, the May 20 protest proved false all the predictions of a climate of violence.

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An atmosphere of self-confidence among striking workers dominated throughout the rally, despite provocations by police. In Athens, for the first time in many years, police carried out “pre-emptive arrests,” mostly of young demonstrators as they were approaching the rally site. Among those arrested were four members of the delegation of the youth section of the French Communist Party, who were here in solidarity with the Greek workers, as well as five members of DEA.

But the campaign to intimidate workers failed miserably. More than 50,000 workers took part in the demonstration.

There were many well-organized contingents: teachers, hospital workers, mass transit workers, municipal workers, and water, electrical and bank workers, along with many union locals from the private sector, marching under their own banners. Also marching were many young workers from sectors most affected by “flexible” work conditions—such as courier services, restaurants, etc.

The chants taken up on the march once again showed the anger and growing politicization of the people: “They talk of profits and losses, we talk of human lives”; “This is not people’s Europe, it is Europe of capital and the bosses”; “From Athens to Brussels, listen to us well, the popular rebellion is already here.”

Again, as during the May 5 demonstration, thousands of angry protesters gathered in front of the parliament, this time behind the banner of the bus drivers union, angrily shouting “thieves, thieves” and other insulting epithets.

This climate continues to put pressure on the union leadership. At the rally, the chairman of the public-sector union federation ADEDY, Spiros Papaspiros, demanded an immediate end to the policy of “supervision” of the Greek economy—and he called for the “troika” (the EU, European Central Bank and the IMF) to be kicked out.

The unions called for another rally May 29, at which workers which will surround the parliament building to demand that their representatives vote down the proposed counter-reform of the new pension plan.

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THIS WIDESPREAD popular anger is being fed by successive austerity measures by the government, but also by the sense that the policies are absolutely ineffective.

The cuts will plunge the economy into a deep recession—the shrinkage is estimated to be between 4 to 5 percent this year–resulting in waves of layoffs and widespread misery. But even these drastic cuts in wages and social spending haven’t made a dent in the public debt, which continues to grow. It has already shot up to 130 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or 310 billion euros.

This is the direct result of fierce, unbridled neoliberal policies followed blindly by previous governments of the right wing, as well as the social democratic governments of PASOK, which was voted into office late last year.

One sign of the scale of the crisis was the move by Germany to ban “naked short selling,” the practice among financial capitalists of selling shares or bonds not yet in the seller’s possession in the hope of buying them back later at a lower price, finishing the deal and making a profit. The German government wants to prevent speculators from “shorting” EU government bonds, which have dropped in value as the Greek crisis has driven the euro lower on world markets.

Yet the Bank of Greece allowed naked short selling for an extended period of 10 days, feeding the ruthless clique of speculators. This move led to protests even by members of parliament of the ruling PASOK party.

News like this is sharpening people’s anger against private banks, hedge funds, the stock market and other institutions of neoliberalism that previously had been allowed to carry on with their speculating, away from public attention.

The subject of public debt has emerged at the center of debate. In both the demonstrations of May 5 and May 20, the workers made their views loud and clear: We didn’t benefit from all this debt, we don’t owe a single euro to anybody, and we aren’t going to accept any sacrifice for the well-being of euro.

For some time now, among broad sections of the population, there has been a growing demand for debt cancellation–for not a euro to be paid to rentiers and usurers–and to instead use our resources for the needs of the people. These demands go hand in hand with widespread slogans to nationalize the banks, tax capital heavily and finally end the madness of military spending (Greece is fifth in the world in military spending in conventional weapons!).

Workers, in the course of the struggle to defend wages, pensions, public health and education, are discovering more general “transitional” demands at each successive demonstration. In other words, they are searching for answers and moving in the direction of more general anti-capitalist politics.

Along the same lines, news of large mobilizations in other EU countries like Romania (where 50,000 public workers demonstrated against new wage cuts), Portugal and France–with workers taking up slogans of solidarity with Greek workers in each case–has spread enthusiasm and joy.

The coming months will be of crucial importance for the movement and the left in this small country. The fight here can be a spark for the great struggles needed by the working class of all Europe.

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Communiqués

Greece’s workers revolt

Antonis Davenellos, a member of International Workers Left, reports from Athens on the brewing protests as the government imposes harsh austerity measures.

WITH AN enormous general strike and massive rallies May 5–including a mobilization of more than 200,000 workers in the capital of Athens alone–the working class of Greece gave its answer to austerity measures imposed by the social democratic government of PASOK, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU).

The strike paralyzed everything: public and private sector enterprises, small shops, the media. Even taxi drivers were on strike. The following day, several union federations remained on strike, and tens of thousands of demonstrators surrounded the Greek parliament building as representatives voted to approve the measures, which will slash wages and benefits, raise taxes and dramatically lower the working-class standard of living. And the resistance continues: Another general strike has been set for May 10.

The May 5 strike rally and the march that followed were representative of the mobilization from below. The unions were present not only through the large federations, but union locals in workplaces, which took part under their own banners. This activism set the tone for the day.

Also characteristic of the day was anger. Tens of thousands workers thundered, “Today and tomorrow, and for as long its needed, we are all strikers.” This fury explains the incredible resilience of the demonstrators, who flooded the center of Athens despite the unprecedented rain of tear gas fired against them by the police.

The demonstration was also exceptionally political. The chants of the revolutionary left were taken up by the overwhelming majority of the demonstrators–for example, “Robbers, robbers, capitalists: Your profits cost human lives.”

Moreover, the social base of social democracy itself–the thousands and thousands of workers who had voted for PASOK–was there, joining with supporters of the left in angrily attacking a government in which they had illusions only a few months before. Now they chanted. “Take ’em back [the austerity measures] and get out of here” and “Self-illusions are over–either with the capitalists or with the workers.”

This feeling was also openly directed against the trade union leadership. The chairman of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE, according to its initials in Greece), who is also a leading member of PASOK, was jeered by the people of his own party and forced to cut his speech short.

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UP UNTIL this weeks strikes and protests in Greece, it was only the government and the “markets” speaking about the crisis.

Under the pretext of reducing Greece’s government debt, PASOK has passed one of the harshest programs of austerity that has ever been imposed in a country “under supervision”–in this case, by both the IMF and EU.

Initially, the reaction of working people to the violent economic and social changes was shock and confusion. This created the basis for the theorizing that in a such deep crisis, people are becoming more conservative, lending further support to opinions–ones very popular in the corporate media–that any resistance is in vain.

The response of the working class in the magnificent strike of May 5 put an end to all this speculation.

Not by accident, the eyes of all Europe were turned to Athens. The German, French and Spanish unions sent delegations to Athens in order to express their solidarity. In many European countries (among them Hungary, which is well acquainted with the IMF), labor unions and activists organized solidarity events in front Greek embassies.

All the major European media were in Athens to cover the strike. The ruling classes, as well as the working people of Europe, are closely following developments in Greece in order to assess the possibilities of resistance against similar programs being prepared for all EU member countries. The idea of an all-European resistance front is maturing.

The May 5 strike was tarnished by the death of three non-striking workers employed in a branch of the private bank Marfin, which was set on fire during the demonstration.

The branch of Marfin in question is situated in one of the most central streets of Athens and along the route of the demonstration. It has been verified that workers in the branch had asked to be allowed off work since their federation was striking. Instead, under the threat of layoffs, management forced them to stay–a fact that in itself became a provocation, since it is well-known that banks become frequent targets during demonstrations.

Demonstrators did attack the Marfin building. But it has still not been verified whether the fire began from Molotov cocktails thrown by demonstrators or tear gas bombs launched by police.

What is clear is that in order to strengthen its fortifications, the bank management had locked down the building. As a result, when the fire began, workers couldn’t escape–with the tragic result of the death of three of them.

Such behavior by Marfin managers shouldn’t be surprising. Marfin is a fiercely neoliberal bank that has played a leading role in privatizations of government enterprises–including the selloff of Olympic Airlines.

The bank’s owner–a frequent guest in corporate media panel discussions–promotes the view that Greece needs a government of “independent personalities” of capital–an attempt to fashion a current in Greek politics styled after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the right-wing corporate media baron.

For its part, the PASOK government is attempting to use the tragic death of the three Marfin workers to confront the enormous working-class resistance of May 5 with a hard policy of “law and order.”

It is no accident that the government has the full support of the extreme right crypto-fascist party of LAOS in imposing the IMF-EU austerity program. LAOS is even calling on PASOK to enforce this policy with an “iron fist”–including, if needed, revoking the left’s legal right to exist.

The target of the far right’s attacks is not only the left-wing coalition SYRIZA and organizations of the revolutionary left (as it was during the militant youth demonstrations of December 2008), but also the more moderate Greek Communist Party.

In any case, the big news of the days has been the huge explosion of workers’ resistance. The major newspapers of Athens today are asking: “If on May 5 we had such a strike, what will we experience in the months to follow when the austerity measures actually start taking effect in people’s lives?”

The working class has given its first response to the attack. Already, the struggle is forcing everybody–in Greece and the rest of Europe–to consider in their plans the factor of working-class resistance. And this is already taking their breath away.

Translation by George Yorgos

from SocialistWorker.org.