Workers May Day in Greece

2/5/2012

May Day 2012 at “Greek Steelworks”, where the STRIKE has entered its 184th day. The All-workers Militant Front (PAME) decided to hold the central Athens strike rally there, in the heart of the working class and strike struggle. Thousands of workers once again expressed their solidarity with the striking steelworkers. They went there to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. To honour this day alongside the heroic strikers. To honour- as is fitting- this great celebration of their working class. To be inspired by their strength. To pay tribute to their courage. To make an assessment together of a harsh class struggle, which is a matter for every worker and all working people. And all together, working men and women, to send a clear message to the capitalists and their political servants: “Do not expect us to break.”

Our First of May strike rally at the gates of “Greek Steelworks does not only have a symbolic character”, something that was stressed from the podium by Giorgos Sifonios, president of the workers union at “Greek Steelworks” in Aspropyrgos, the main speaker at the strike rally. “ But it wants to express our faith and determination to try all together to organize a tough and long-term struggle like the steelworkers. So that we can head off the new anti-worker assault which will come after the elections.” In reference to the full-scale offensive which the working class is on the receiving end of and the significance of the steelworkers’ struggle, he noted that: “ Some wonder “what have the steelworkers won up to this point?”. We say to them the following: History brought the steelworkers into the vanguard of this struggle. But we are not getting carried away, because we know that this increases our responsibilities. No great struggle has taken place or will take place with victory assured from the outset. In reality there are no such struggles. They only exist in the minds of the bureaucrats, those bought out by the system, the frightened and the compromised. No real struggle can be waged without sacrifices, even deaths. The history of Workers’ May Day confirms this. No struggle ever goes to waste, because they all help us to learn lessons and to improve. Each struggle is a continuation of the previous ones and preparation for the ones which follow. It is a battle in a war being fought by the workers until they can abolish exploitation and overthrow their exploiters. The struggles cannot be measured only by how much you gain or not. There are struggles which offer much more than just the concrete gains, because they prepare the next steps, the next battles of the working class as a whole. They were of significant assistance in the awakening of the workers as a whole, to break intimidation, and they became milestones. The struggle of the steelworkers is such a struggle, and it must be assessed according to these criteria.”

In every corner of the country the workers together with the poor farmers, the self-employed and youth with the banners of PAME demonstrated and honoured Workers’ May Day in dozens of May Day rallies.

Statement of Aleka Papariga at the May Day rally of PAME

At PAME’s rally at the gates of “Greek Steelworks”, Aleka Papariga referred to the developments after the elections on May 6 and underlined that: “ On the 7th of May the KKE will be found precisely where it belongs: inside the popular majority.” Aleka Papariga also referred to the possibility of a government being formed by parties which take a position against today’s memorandum which has been signed by the two bourgeois parties of government (social-democrats and liberals) with the EU, ECB and IMF and explained why the KKE refuses to participate in such a government: “ Whatever government is formed, for example an anti-memorandum government, the only thing it would be able to achieve is to sow disillusionment and anger amongst the people. The celebrations of its victory would not even last for a month. It would be exposed. For this reason the KKE would be opposed to it. This is the KKE which the people need. “

2/5/2012