PAME calls for new strike on February 10th

On Saturday January 9, 2010 PAME held an enlarged meeting of the Pan-Hellenic Coordination Committee with the participation of 300 trade unionists from all over the country as well as from main sectors of production. After the meeting PAME called the people to escalate their struggle against the sweeping attack of the “socialist” PASOK government which is also supported by the liberal opposition of ND.

After 100 days of PASOK governance people face reduction in wages by means of cutting benefits, increase in road taxes, road toll fees and road tolls. Furthermore, the social-democrat government has launched an assault on the social security rights starting with the increase of the retirement age even by 15 years and affecting particularly the youth and the women. In addition, the stability program entails the plundering of the people for three years. At the same time it intends to increase the immediate taxes and VAT while it promotes tax relieves for the big capital.

NO SACRIFICE FOR THE PLUTOCRACY

PAME calls the working people in every workplace to organise the resistance of the working class, to repel this new anti-peoples offensive and struggle for real wage increase, permanent and stable employment with social security rights. It calls on the federations, the Labor Centers, the trade unions to organise meetings of boards, general assemblies, meetings, discussions in the workplaces, meetings of the struggle committees in order to discuss about the conclusions drawn from the previous strike. It calls for a general counterattack along with the self-employed, the small and medium sized peasantry so as to give a resolute response to the plans of the monopolies, the government and the EU.

It calls on the working people to reject the positions and the stance of the compromised leaderships of the trade union confederations such as GSEE-ADEDY. Their participation in social partnership talks along with Association of Greek Industrialists and the government is totally opposed to the needs and the interests of the working class. They serve and conceal the government’s policy and the employers. This was proved in the last strike on December 17th 2009 when the social democrat president of GSSE urged the workers to break the strike.

With the strike on February 10, PAME intensifies its action for the collective struggle against the employers’ lawlessness in the workplaces (dismissals, change of the working relations, delay in payments etc). The aim is to strengthen the class oriented trade unions so as to highlight the problems of the working people and organise struggles for their solution; to intensify the struggle against the bourgeois ideology and arguments for the ideological political shielding of the workers, against fatalism, manipulation and comp omission; to forging class unity and solidarity that stresses the need to reinforce the political orientation of the struggle; to organise the struggle as a struggle of a class against another class.

A series of trade union organizations such as the Federations of workers in food and beverage industry, in press and printing companies, the federation of accountants, the federation of construction workers and the Labor Centre of Larissa have already decided to participate in the strike. Likewise the Metalworkers’ trade union and the list is getting longer every day.