[Peace-discuss] Fw: CLASSWAR: [SocialJusticeNV] General Strike in Greece

[unionyes]

>
> GREECE brought to a standstill by a general strikeFriday, February 12, 
> 2010 2:51 PM
>
> From: "Yosef M" <roytefon at yahoo.com>
>
> To: labor_action at yahoogroups.com
>
> [More marvelous news from the European working class. On Wednesday, Greek 
> trash collectors used their trucks to try to smash cop lines that were 
> preventing workers from joining a big strike demonstration in Athens. Roll 
> the unions on! Workers' power! — YM]
>
> [From http://www.ft-ci.org]
>
> General strike in GREECE
> By Celeste Murillo
> Thursday, February 11, 2010
>
> Offices, schools, universities, and public hospitals were brought to a 
> standstill by a general strike on February 10. This strike, called by the 
> main public-sector workers' union ADEDI, confronts the austerity package 
> of the government of the "socialist" Giorgios Papandreou.
>
> This belt-tightening plan is an attempt to "reorganize" the accounts of 
> the state, a requirement that the countries of the European Union (EU) are 
> making of Greece, to grant the country economic assistance.  This is shown 
> by the statements of Michael Meister, representing the German government, 
> that is preparing the aid package: "If Greece receives aid, it will only 
> by under strict conditions, and if the Greek government and state impose 
> substantial reforms."
>
> Greece is one of the countries most battered by the economic crisis and 
> one of the economies with the biggest debts in the EU: Greece's public 
> debt exceeds 120% of its GDP. With a youth unemployment rate of 25%, 
> Greece is the poorest country among the original members of the EU. In 
> this framework, the EU is pushing a plan to reduce the Greek budget 
> deficit from the current 12.7% of GDP to 2.8% in 2012, which only means 
> budget cuts and wage reductions.
>
> The recipe of the "socialist" Papandreou does not greatly differ from the 
> old neo-liberal recipes: raise the age of retirement, freeze wages, and 
> increase taxes on the popular masses. While banks and businesses, whose 
> "bad" deals caused the current economic crisis, have received 
> billion-dollar bailouts from the state, all the workers get is wage cuts, 
> layoffs and attacks on their rights.
>
> The February 10 general strike brought the entire public sector to a 
> standstill, and air traffic controllers, who joined the strike, forced the 
> closing of airports and cancellation of all flights. The protest had great 
> support among university teachers and professors, doctors at public 
> hospitals, government office workers and garbage collectors, who led the 
> first confrontations of the day, when they tried using their trucks to 
> break up the police cordons that were preventing sanitation workers from 
> reaching the central mobilization of the strike in Athens. Public workers 
> are facing a plan that includes 20% wage cuts (while university teachers 
> face 40% pay cuts), hiring freezes (even in critical fields like health 
> care), and increasing the retirement age to 65.
>
> Papandreou's government, that arrived in power in October 2009 with almost 
> 45% of the votes and support from the unions, is now facing the wrath of 
> the workers, who feel tricked by the campaign promises of the candidate 
> from the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, known as PASOK.  In recent years, 
> this party brought together massive opposition to the conservative Costas 
> Karamanlis government, that had already faced numerous strikes and 
> protests. Now, however, many groups see that this "socialist" government 
> is responding to the crisis with the same steps as the conservatives: 
> austerity measures and layoffs.
>
> The February 10 general strike is the first of several organized 
> mobilizations, that include another national strike of public- and 
> private-sector workers for February 24. For several years, young people, 
> and the workers' and students' movements have been leading protests and 
> mobilizations against austerity plans that seek to put Greece in line with 
> budget demands from the EU. The PASOK "socialist" government has displayed 
> absolute continuity with the belt-tightening plans implemented by the 
> conservatives. Now the mobilizations of working men and women in Greece 
> are setting out, on a national scale, the way to defeat the plans of the 
> European governments and to make the capitalists pay for the crisis.
>
>
> Les Evenchick
> New Orleans
>                                                     piratefish at yahoo.com
>
> - ----- End forwarded message -----
>
> - -- 
> The Financiers & Banksters have looted untold trillions of our future 
> earnings.
> Their bureaucratic police & military goons are here to make us all pay for 
> it.
> Forever.
> Well FORGET THAT. Let's get it *ALL* back from them -- and more.
>
> **Socialist revolution NOW!!**
>
> Build the North America-wide General Strike.
> TODO el poder a los consejos y las comunas.
> TOUT le pouvoir aux conseils et communes.
> ALL power to the councils and communes.
>
> And beware the 'bait & switch' fraud: "Social Justice" is NOT 
> *Socialism*...
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