PASY honours the 100th anniversary of sharecroppers uprising in Kileler

Once again the uprising of the poor peasants in Thessalia was honoured with a mass militant rally against the social democrat government of PASOK, the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU and the union of the European capital itself, the EU.

The peasants’ movement in Greece has a long history which is marked by hard blood-stained struggles and uprisings for the expropriation and distribution of lands to the landless sharecroppers and the improvement of the life of the medium sized peasants.

The uprising of sharecroppers in Kileler (a village located near the city of Larissa, in Thesallia, central Greece) on March 6th 1910 has been a milestone for the peasants’ movement. It was suppressed by the army that bloodshed the uprising causing the death of many sharecroppers.

Thousands of peasants and working people responded to the call of All Peasants’ Militant Rally (PASY) and celebrated the anniversary at the monument of the uprising.

A few months ago, PASY, which is an alliance of peasants’ associations and trade unionists of the peasants’ movement, played a leading role in the peasants’ struggles against the extinction of the poor and medium sized peasantry.

The main speech at the rally was delivered by Vagelis Boutas, chairman of the Federation of peasants’ associations in the city of Karditsa.

Vagelis Boutas condemned the plans for the peasants’ union movement promoted by the Minister of Rural Development and Food which seek to dissolve and subjugate the peasants’ movement and underlined the need for its reconstruction through the mass participation in the peasants’ associations and the struggles of PASY.

He went on to stress the acute problems of the poor and medium sized peasants adding: “during the recent mobilizations the government of PASOK treated us like an enemy; they tried to beat us by means of persecutions, open intimidation, by slandering our struggle and activating the so-called “social automatism”. The government had the active support of ND that was against the road blockades and LAOS that demanded the activation of the anti-riot police forces and mechanism of justice against us”.

Furthermore, Vagelis Boutas presented the demands of PASY regarding the development of agriculture that constitute a precondition for the survival of the poor and medium sized peasantry. He highlighted that their implementation requires the people to take the power in their hands and agriculture to be based on cooperatives, to be supported with supplies and infrastructures which can be ensured only by the social ownership over the concentrated industry.

Only in that way, can the concentration of the agricultural production with guaranteed prices by the state be implemented in order to ensure the income and the improvement of the life of the peasants and their families. Of course this requires the disengagement of the country from the EU and the establishment of the people’s power.

The event attended also a delegation of the CC of KKE, a delegation of KNE, PAME, of the Αll Greek Antimonopoly Rally of the self-employed and the small tradesman (PASEVE), the Students’ Militant Front (MAS), the Coordination Council of Secondary School Students etc.