Magnificent strike struggle of the seamen against the civil mobilization of the governmen

The important strike struggle of the seamen in Greece has being going on now for a week. The seamen have raised the banner of resistance against the unprecedented and savage assault which is being carried out by ship-owning capital –armed with the anti-people policies of the government, the EU, and the IMF- against all their remaining rights, and are fighting for the signing of satisfactory collective bargaining agreements, with full salary, labour and social-security rights.

In the face of the unyielding persistence of the strikers, with PAME and the two seamen’s unions of the lower grade mechanics and crews (PEMEN and STEPHENSON) in the forefront, the seamen broke the intimidation, the attempts to slander their struggle by the bourgeois media which are controlled by the ship-owners and the industrialists. Bourgeois propaganda talks about “well-paid workers, who are destroying the national economy and creating problems for tourism”.

The executive Committee of the All-Greek Seamen’s Federation (PNO- which is dominated by reformists), under pressure from the decisiveness of the seamen who follow the line of PAME, decided to continue the strike in the port of Piraeus.

It is characteristic that 3 ships which had set out from other ports in order to break the strike, when they arrived in the port of Piraeus (the country’s largest) their crews decided in general assemblies to take part in the strike, something which filled their striking colleagues with strength and enthusiasm.

Nevertheless the anti-worker maneuverings of the government have not been restricted to threats. The measure of the civil mobilization of the striking seamen was imposed on the afternoon of Monday 29/11 in one last attempt to break their magnificent strike and to transform every category of ship into floating slave galleys of labour without social security cover. The government of the social democrats started preparations for this shameful measure as soon as it was announced yesterday lunchtime that the seamen would continue with a new 48 hour strike, which began on Tuesday morning.

The seamen can now number three civil mobilizations implemented at their expense by the governments of PASOK and ND over the last decade. The mobilization of the striking seamen, which in effect means the outlawing of the strike, through the government’s decision, in the name of “national dangers”, constitutes a disgraceful anti-worker act by the government and proof of their devotion to the interests of the ship-owners.

The KKE in its statement concerning the mobilization notes that “This is an escalation of the government’s authoritarianism against the labour movement. It constitutes an even more dangerous step in the direction which characterizes the struggle of the workers for their right to work, an income, to strike as an illegal and subversive act. They want to condemn the workers and the people to poverty and wretchedness, to be the permanent victims of the consequences of the crises and dead-ends of obsolete capitalism (….) the authoritarianism of the government must be met by the fury and condemnation of all the workers and popular strata (….) There can be no struggle or strike without repercussions. Nevertheless this is the way to resist the endless and massive sacrifices that the people suffer. No sacrifice for the plutocracy, no compromise so that the labour-popular movement does not wear chains. The law is what is right for the workers and not what is in the interests of the ship-owners and capital.”

PAME despite the decision of PNO to call off the strike has decided to organize a new demonstration on Tuesday 30/11 in Piraeus. Unions and mass organizations have expressed their solidarity in a variety of ways.

30/11/2010