Greece: Millions join general strike against government austerity package

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Greece: Millions join general strike against government austerity package
By Robert Stevens
12 March 2010

Workers throughout Greece staged their second one-day general strike
within a month yesterday to protest the austerity measures being
imposed by the PASOK social democratic government of Prime Minister
George Papandreou.

The strike took place just days after the Greek parliament ratified
the latest austerity package, which imposes €4.8 billion ($6.5
billion) in tax increases and spending cuts. Public sector workers, in
particular, are to be hit with an across-the-board pay cut of about 7
percent this year, which includes a 30 percent reduction in salary
entitlements usually paid at Easter, during the summer and at Christmas.

These cuts follow the government’s initial austerity budget, which
promised to cut Greece’s budget deficit by 4 percent of gross domestic
product this year, including a two-year increase in the retirement age
to 63, a public sector wage freeze, and mass layoffs of private
contractors working for the government.

The strike involved an estimated 3 million workers, with the majority
in organisations affiliated to the two main trade union
federations—the private sector General Confederation of Workers of
Greece (GSEE) and the public sector Civil Servants’ Confederation
(ADEDY). The GSEE, with around 2 million members, and ADEDY, with
800,000 members, represent about half of the 5-million-strong Greek
work force.

The strike was solidly supported and led to the shutdown of virtually
all public services and transport networks nationwide. All scheduled
flights to and from Greece were cancelled due to action by air traffic
controllers. Trains were cancelled and buses and subways ground to a halt.

Most schools and hospitals were closed, with medical staff providing
only emergency treatment. Ferry workers also joined the strike, and
their boats remained in dock. Tax offices, courts and other municipal
buildings were closed. All post offices and banks in Athens and
nationally were shut for the day. Workers employed at National
Electricity, National Water and National Telecom supported the strike.

Refuse workers in Athens struck for a sixth day, after extending their
action so that it would coincide with the general strike. TV news
broadcasts and newspaper production were halted as media workers,
including those at state broadcaster ANA, struck alongside journalists.

The only public transport operating in Athens was the ISAP tram
network, which ran for several hours in order to allow protesters to
attend the main demonstration. Despite not being legally allowed to
strike, a delegation of 200 officers from the police, fire and customs
services attended the demonstration.

More than 30,000 workers participated. The GSEE/ADEDY protest march
began in Pedio tou Areos and ended at the parliament building in
Syntagma Square. Demonstrators chanted slogans including, “No
Sacrifice for Plutocracy” and “Real Jobs, Higher Pay.” Banners were
draped from apartment buildings reading: “No More Sacrifices, War
Against War.”

Reuters cited one worker, Odysseas Panagopoulos, a 60-year-old health
sector employee, who said, “The measures are unfair… We cannot make
it, we have children, families. We need to find the money to support
them. Banks and rich people should pay for this crisis.”

Another demonstrator said, “Well, I don’t care if Greece collapses,
because I’ve already personally collapsed. I don’t have anything else
to give.”

Recent opinion polls show that a majority of Greeks are now opposed to
the PASOK government’s program to slash jobs, attack workers’ rights
and lower their living standards.

A separate march was called by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME),
which is affiliated to the Stalinist Communist Party of Greece.

In the second largest city, Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, 14,000
people marched through the city centre to protest the cuts.
Demonstrations were also held in other cities and towns, including in
Ioannina, Sitia, Naxos, Veroia and the large southern city of Patras.
According to one report, in Heracleion, Crete, “shops that did not
allow their workers to strike were blockaded and several banks came
under attack by protesters.”

Hundreds of heavily armed riot police were deployed throughout central
Athens and attacked sections of the demonstration, indiscriminately
using tear gas to disperse the angry crowd. Police made 16 arrests in
Athens and severely injured several people in brutal beatings. Clashes
between police and protesters were reported in other cities and towns.

This repression followed an order the previous day by an Athens
prosecutor who called on police to forcibly remove and arrest about
150 sacked Olympic Airways workers. The unemployed workers had
maintained a protest at the General Accounting Office throughout the
previous week.

In calling the general strikes, the GSEE and ADEDY are not reflecting
the anger of the working class, but attempting to channel in it in
ways that do not endanger the government and the ruling elite in
Greece. The unions seek to use the one-day strikes to diffuse mass
opposition and ensure that the developing movement against the
austerity measures does not escalate out of their control. To this
end, the unions have called yet another one-day general strike for
March 16.

The unions enthusiastically supported the election of PASOK, which is
serving as the representative of Greek corporations and international
finance capital in carrying out the cuts in social spending.

This week, Papandreou completed a four-nation tour, which culminated
in a three-day visit to the United States to meet President Barack
Obama in Washington. In a private meeting, as he had done earlier with
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy,
Papandreou enlisted Obama’s support for his government’s austerity
measures. His trip was lauded by the Greek and international media as
a success.

The praise was, however, tempered with warnings that the austerity
measures have yet to be imposed. The Financial Times commented
Wednesday, “But a successful performance on the international
stage—his six-day trip included stops in four capitals—cannot disguise
the fact that Mr. Papandreou faces deepening troubles at home.”

The class-collaborationist position of the trade unions in defence of
PASOK was summed up this week in the comments of Yannis Grivas, the
president of the tax collectors’ union. Speaking about the recent
strikes, he declared, “It is just a symbolic protest. We understand
that the austerity measures are necessary.”

In contrast to the cowardice and duplicity of the union leadership,
Dimitris Daskalopoulos of the Greek employers’ association on Thursday
came out firmly in support of PASOK and condemned the popular
opposition to the austerity measures. “Between bankruptcy and
recession, between the devil and the deep blue sea, there is no other
alternative to the abyss,” he warned. “It’s necessary to start again
and reform the country.”

Just what “reform” means in the context of the global economic crisis
was spelled out by sections of the media. The Libcom web site reported
yesterday that the Conservative newspaper, Kathimerini, has called on
the government to defeat the protests against the austerity measures
“even if some protesters die.” The ruling elite is preparing the most
ruthless repression of the working class in defence of its wealth, of
which the police violence witnessed so far is only a foretaste.

There is no national solution to this crisis. Behind PASOK stand the
state apparatus in Greece, the ruling classes of America and Europe,
the banks and major corporations. Workers in Spain, Portugal, France,
Germany, Britain and Ireland have also struck in opposition to
austerity measures that are being imposed by their respective
governments to make the working class pay for trillions of dollars in
public money handed over to the banks. The struggle being waged by the
workers in Greece must be seen as just one front in this developing
struggle by workers throughout Europe, which must assume a conscious,
organised and programmatic form in a Europe-wide and international
struggle for a socialist alternative.

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/gree-m12.shtml

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