People rise up with PAME! 48-hour strike on Wednesday and Thursday and encirclement of the parliament

In a press conference on Monday 17th October the General Secretary of the CC of KKE, Aleka Papariga, called on the people to militant activity for the rejection of the barbaric draft law which in fact abolishes the sectoral bargaining agreements in the private sector, dismisses thousands of employees in the public sector through the “labour reserve”, cuts the income of the public sector employees by 40% as well as basic and auxiliary pensions and the already low social benefits. She noted:

“We are addressing an urgent appeal to the Greek people, to the people who struggle and call on them to continue and those who have not yet entered the battle to do so now. Considerable time has been lost, actually from 1992 after the Treaty of Maastricht but also after 2008 when the clouds of the crisis gathered in Greece.

The most barbaric draft law is going to be voted on in the parliament, and if the conditions do not change it will not be the last. It is the most barbaric draft law even compared to the 20th century and the recent years.

The KKE believes that if the Greek people oppose this draft law all together ; if the strike has 100% participation in each workplace, each neighbourhood, each sector, each office, each street, and each of them becomes the focus of systematic activity and if all these merge into a unified torrent; if millions of people encircle the Parliament and all the important places in Greece then the rejection of this draft law is possible and feasible.

This is the goal. The rejection of the draft law. It will be a significant victory of the people. The slogan that must prevail among the people is: down with the government, down with the parties that serve capital and the monopolies. Away from the parties that foster illusions that a progressive government of progressive left forces under the umbrella of the monopolies and within the boundaries of the EU can bring a better future.

We are in a period when things are literally “black” or “white”, there are no intermediate solutions. The power of the monopolies will either be overthrown or it will readapt itself, it will regroup and manage to control the movement for several years. It is not at all accidental that in Greece, despite the negative correlation of forces, in comparison to Europe the struggles which have developed are more significant, more substantial, more powerful and have an impact at an international and European level. We ask the following question: isn’t the current situation in Greece related to the long-standing activity and intervention of the KKE and above all to the fact that – unfortunately I’ d say- it is the only party which has a radical alternative proposal for power? We say that is not at all accidental. In the European countries the barbaric measures were passed long ago and there was much less resistance.(…)

I would like to clarify the following: the encirclement and the blockade of the Parliament which was decided on by the trade unions and the other organizations, a decision that we support, has nothing to do with the prevention of the MPs entering the Parliament. It has a single goal: to make as many MPs as possible vote against the draft-law. This is what interests us. Because if this law is passed there will be other ones. Because there will be people’s disappointment which we want to prevent by all means. This is the role of the blockade of the parliament. To form the biggest possible majority for the “NO”. And in this way the fall of the government will be the result of the people’s pressure. (…)

There is a troika in Greece even without the troika of the IMF, the EU and the ECB [note : this refers to the joint statement of three ministers who in the previous days expressed their common decision to defend by all means the barbaric measures and intensify the repressive measures in the name of the struggle against the” special interest groups”] and for that reason the struggle must have internal dynamics so as to have an external impact (…). Of course there are MPs who are afraid of the political cost, they are afraid of the people’s negative stance towards them.

Irrespective of the individual reasons that one might have, the people will be benefited if the draft law is rejected. On 23rd October there must be difficulties in the EU for such measures to be passed. Don’t forget that similar measures will be passed in Portugal, in Ireland and in Spain. If there is a breach in Greece this breach must be expanded. And it will not be expanded by Berlusconi, Coelho, nor by the other leaders…

International Section of the CC