Answer the new anti-people measures with a general strike

The coalition government of ND-PASOK-Democratic Left will take new barbaric measures worth at least 13.6 billion euros. These are measures such as the so-called “minimum wage” with which they will permanently eradicate the content of the National General Collective Agreement., that is to say what is safeguarded in it (pay scales, vacations, benefits and other rights). They have announced amongst other things reductions in public and private sector wages and pensions, cuts in benefits, the dismissal of 150,000 public sector workers, expanded privatizations of state enterprises and organizations, the closure and merger of hospitals, new and even more barbaric cuts in healthcare, education and welfare, the increase of income tax and the taxation of even the smallest property, special industrial zones which will provide provocative support for big capital with medieval labour conditions and nonexistent labour rights, and the dramatic price increase of oil for heating and electricity.

These measures which the coalition government and troika are preparing to “serve up” to the people will lead to mass poverty and destitution of an even larger section of households from the popular strata.

The GS of the CC of the KKE, Aleka Papariga, made the following statement on the 28/8 regarding the new measures of the government-EU:

“There is a raft of measures which will fall on the shoulders of the people and take from them whatever has been left to hem. Of course there can be variations in the management formulas. The people must not wait whether one option or the other will prevail, from what pocket they will take the money and how they will handle the issue. What is important is that the people must meet the measures with a general strike, with escalating struggles in between the major strike mobilisations. Each sector must struggle for its demands and at the same support general mobilizations. It is not possible for us to hear about a new raft of measures which will be tragic and simply stay at home and complain in a disillusioned and fatalistic way. This would simply assist the government.”

A similar call was made by the All-workers Militant Front (PAME) while the class-oriented forces in GSEE tabled a proposal for a general nationwide strike which underlined amongst other things that “ every discussion with the government and employers which has as its main goal the attempt to massacre the rights of the workers must cease. No social dialogue! No participation in it, which leads to submission, compromise and surrendering whatever labour rights have remained. It assists the anti-worker and anti-people measures. The Executive Committee of GSEE has no formal or real legitimization to participate in this dialogue.”

On the 28/8 a joint meeting of the secretariats of PAME, PASEVE, PASY, MAS and OGE in Thessalonica discussed the preparation of demonstration that will be held in Thessalonica on the 8/9. As was noted the three pillars of the PAME’s framework for the mobilization are:

• Resistance to the new measures of the government, block them with activity of the mass movement.
• Organization of the working class and other popular strata from below, strengthening of the social alliance as the only way out of the capitalist crisis in favour of the people, for the prospect of another development path.
• Mass support for the proposal for the abolition of the memoranda and the loan agreements.

29/8/2012