Opposition deepens to austerity programme in Greece

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Opposition deepens to austerity programme in Greece
By Robert Stevens
11 March 2010

Opposition to the austerity measures being imposed by the Greek
government has hardened in the run-up to today’s general strike.

In the last week refuse workers, tax officials, school, hospital and
transport workers have taken strike action. Demonstrations have been
held on a daily basis, with a number of government buildings occupied
or blockaded by angry protesters.

The strikes and protests are in response to the latest austerity
programme passed March 5 by the government headed by Prime Minister
George Papandreou of the social democratic PASOK. It has pledged to
slash Greece’s budget deficit from the current 12.7 percent of GDP to
8.7 percent in 2010, under a European Union-endorsed plan.

The new austerity programme includes tax increases and spending cuts
totalling €4.8 billion ($6.5 billion). The cuts are the equivalent of
2 percent of Greece’s GDP. Its provisions include a sales tax increase
from 19 percent to 21 percent; higher excise taxes on petrol,
cigarettes and alcohol; a 10 percent cut in public sector pay; a 30
percent cut in “13th and 14th month” public sector salary schemes; and
a freeze on public sector pensions.

The latest cuts, the third in as many months, are far deeper than
those announced previously. They will have a devastating impact on
millions of working people, the unemployed and pensioners in a country
where a quarter of the population are already subsisting at minimum
wage levels.

Cuts will have a severe impact on the wages and conditions of hundreds
of thousands of workers employed in the public sector. About half a
million workers are in the civil service and a further 300,000 are
employed elsewhere in the public sector.

As the measures were passed in an emergency bill, 7,000 protested in
Athens with riot police attacking demonstrators in front of the
parliament. The police used tear gas and brutally beat protesters,
with 12 people arrested. Among those attacked was Manolis Glezos, an
87-year-old former Greek parliament member who is now a member of the
Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza). Glezos, who was active in the
Greek resistance movement against Nazi occupation, was manhandled and
had teargas sprayed in his face. He was taken to hospital with
respiratory problems.

Riot police were also mobilised to quell protests in the northern city
of Thessaloniki, the second largest in Greece.

In a sign of the developing social tensions, Yiannis Panagopoulos, the
president of the General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE),
the private sector workers trade union federation, was heckled, booed
and then physically attacked by a number of protesters as he began to
address the Athens demonstration. The GSEE is widely hated because it
is the closest trade union body to the PASOK government and has
previously refused to support strikes by public sector workers. The
largest political faction in the GSEE is PASK, the trade union wing of
PASOK. The GSEE is not opposed to the austerity measures in principle
and at the last general strike on February 24 Panagopoulos called for
“a fair distribution of the burden” of deficit reduction policies.

Workers in a number of sectors also staged wildcat strikes in the
capital that closed schools and hospitals on March 5. Much of the
nation’s public transport network was brought to a halt by a 24-hour
strike.

Refuse workers in Athens have extended their strike by two days so
that it coincides with today’s general strike, resulting in a build-up
of piles of rubbish in the capital and the closure of landfills there
and in other cities.

On Monday tax collectors began a two-day strike, while court employees
are holding a series of two-hour strikes each day this week. Local
government officials held a four-hour strike on Wednesday.

Since March 1, demonstrators, including unemployed workers, have
attempted to block access to the Labour Ministry and the General
Accounting Office in Athens. On March 1 several hundred protesters
attempted to disrupt a meeting between European Union Economy
Commissioner Olli Rehn and Labour Minister Andreas Loverdos. The
agenda of the meeting was to discuss the necessity for immediate
further austerity measures.

Another protest has taken place at the government printing office.
Last Friday several dozen interior ministry workers began a sit-in at
the office. After taking over the building the workers unfurled a
banner in front of the building reading, “Occupation” and “Enough is
Enough.”

The actions are indicative of a deepening hostility among the Greek
population to the intolerable attacks being carried out by PASOK, at
the behest of the European Union and the financial institutions.

Several opinion polls show a significant and sharp increase in the
numbers opposing the austerity measures. A poll conducted for the
Proto Thema newspaper found that 86.2 percent of Greek people viewed
the austerity measures as “unfair.” A poll by Public Issue for Skai
Television found that 62 percent of respondents believed that social
unrest was “highly likely in the next 12 months.”

Previous polls, reflecting a barrage of media coverage hailing the
cuts as necessary and unavoidable, had indicated that between 60 and
70 percent of those questions supported drastic economic measures that
would revive the economy.

Yanis Varoufakis, professor of economics at the University of Athens,
said, “Now people respond to announcements. When they become measures,
and they feel them in their pocket...you will have far more serious
demonstrations. They will not be as civilized as they are now.”

Both the trade unions federations who have called today’s general
strike are acutely aware of the dangers posed by a mass movement
against PASOK, uniting all sections of the working class and young
people. Prior to today’s strike Ilias Iliopoulos, the general
secretary of the ADEDY public sector federation, said bluntly, “I am
afraid there will be a social explosion. People will start going
hungry soon.”

The trade unions federations have called the general strike on the
basis of seeking to contain this growing working class resistance and
to buy time to ensure that a deal can be made with the government,
enabling the attacks to be implemented. To this end the unions are
portraying PASOK as the victim of international finance and the EU
bureaucracy, rather than the representative of Greek capital, and are
attempting to channel popular opposition in a nationalist direction.

Speaking ahead of the latest general strike, Yannis Grivas, president
of the tax collectors’ union, summed up the attitude of the trade
union bureaucracy when he said, “It is just a symbolic protest. We
understand that the austerity measures are necessary.

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/gree-m11.shtml

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