Thousands of people took part in PAME’s rallies yesterday

• PAME’s demonstration in Syntagma yesterday was impressive.
• The government organized the state repression of the demonstration
• The battle will continue in the workplaces with even more determination

At the time when inside the Parliament the bourgeois parties were calling on the people to submit in order to save the monopolies and were preparing to vote through the raft of barbaric anti-worker measures of the 3^rd Memorandum, tens of thousands of strikers and demonstrators from working class and popular families made themselves heard all over the country: “Worker you must not accept this modern slavery, you can abolish all the laws and bosses.” And “No sacrifices for the plutocracy, the oligarchy must pay for the crisis.”

In Athens, tens of thousands of demonstrators flooded into Syntagma for a second consecutive day. After the encirclement of the Parliament by PAME on Tuesday, on Wednesday afternoon thousands of people from all over Attica started off from Omonia and met in the centre of Athens, demonstrating with the flags of PAME. They had responded to the call of many sectoral federations, class-oriented trade unions and trade-unionists who are rallied in the ranks of PAME, as well as the calls of the self-employed and small tradesmen (PASEVE), the students of MAS and the women of OGE.

The massive demonstration extended through all the central roads and Syntagma Sq. The slogans did not stop for one second even during the torrential rain, everybody remained in position, and their voices grew louder: “Here with the class struggle, because we cannot live with 400 euros.”

The mobilization of PAME remained organized against the operation of intimidation which was once again set up. This was an organized plan of savage state violence and repression against the demonstrators, a plan which the GS of the CC of the KKE, Aleka Papariga, denounced from the podium in the Parliament and stressed amongst other things : “ It is impossible for this political line which is being followed and these measures which are in the pipeline not to be accompanied with state violence, repression and authoritarianism, but thanks to the people’s resistance the plan that provides for the intervention of military forces when there are strikes, occupations etc has not been pushed forward. The violence is even greater in the workplaces. We see it in Syntagma square and we denounce it. But in the workplaces where it is even greater it goes unnoticed here, when the employers transport the workers against their will in coaches and with the threat of dismissal so that they start work at 2’oclock in the morning before the pickets are in place. There is no comment about this! There is unfortunately a selective sensitivity in most of the wings of the Parliament. The violence will increase, we know this very well, you are not persuasive without violence, and from this standpoint the situation is very serious. You will find pretexts to strike against the demonstrations. And if you do not find them, you will create them, we say this being fully conscious of the situation.”

In the face of the extensive use of tear gas and water cannons, the demonstrators strengthened their determination and their slogans.

PAME’s forces remained organized for hours until late at night in the central roads in and around Syntagma, despite the heavy rain. They demonstrated once again that the organized and well-protected class struggle has the strength to smash the plans of the bourgeois state.

The parliamentary group of the KKE inside the parliament exposed the class character of the measures while the GS of the CC of the KKE mentioned amongst other things: “In no instance must the people support the interests of a section of the business groups against the others. This would mean the defeat of the movement for very many years.” In her speech the GS of the CC of the KKE posed the following basic axes:

• The offensive is a united one against wage labour, the self-employed, and the poor farmers. The government is bringing a draft law with the desire of ensuring the recovery of the profitability of capital and the investments.
• Today two policy formulas are fighting against each other. On the one hand SYRIZA’s formula and on the other that of ND, with the various differences which PASOK and the Democratic Left have. These are dominant amongst the people, which means that they are leading a section of the people to be together with a section of the bourgeois class and the other section of the people to be together with another section of the bourgeois class.
• A pro-people way out means the abolition of the monopolies and disengagement from the EU. This means the overthrow of the political power of the monopolies. There is no pro-people way out of the crisis without this.

It should be noted that the discussion in Parliament regarding the new anti-people measures was conducted on the 95^th anniversary of the great October Revolution. So the Prime Minister Samaras, leader of the right-wing ND party chose to attack the socialism we knew with hate and lies, talking about “totalitarianism” and a “lack of democracy and investors”. In any case, Samaras’ attack, which received the reply it deserved from the MPs of the KKE, confirms one thing: that in the conditions of the sharpening of the crisis and the rottenness of capitalism, their fear of the real opponent, the other development path which began with the socialist construction of the previous century, haunts them whether they are awake or asleep…

The stance of SYRIZA in Parliament was also revealing. Focussing on procedural issues and with its propaganda about the “deviation” from democracy, SYRIZA supported a formula for the management of capitalism asking the government to set “ clear boundaries for the negotiation”. It demonstrated its passion for the EU when it mentioned that “the political line of Ms Merkel is what is isolating us from the European Union”. In essence it argued that a simple change of government is enough to improve the lives of the workers, without ruptures with the EU and capitalist system.

In the end 153 voted in favour and thus the 3^rd Memorandum passed. On the basis of the results it was announced that 6 MPs of PASOK and 1 of ND were expelled.

More militant mobilizations will take place, so that struggle above all in the workplaces will be strengthened from today onwards, so that even more workers can become active and be organized in the struggle for the overthrow of the anti-people political line. An overthrow which will not be carried out by a single strike or mobilization, but by a tough struggle until the people come into full rupture with the EU and the monopolies.