Greek Workers To Strike

The forces of KKE, PAME and the class oriented trade unions are working for the success of the 48-hour strike on April 21-22 with placard protests, leafletings, and visits to the workplaces.

The mass participation in the strike pickets and the mass rallies of PAME can cause terror to all those who join the reactionary block against the workers and seek the submission of the working class and the popular strata; that is the government of PASOK, the EU, the parties of the bourgeoisie, the reformist and opportunist ones, the workers’ aristocracy, the capital itself.

The activation of the lending mechanism is expected to be followed by the acceleration of the measures that the government had already decided, namely by the cuts on salaries both in public and private sector, the drastic cuts on pensions, the increase of the retirement age, the lifting of the limits on mass layoffs, the abolition of collective labour agreements, the “flexicurity in labour relations, the drastic cuts in public expenditure, the dismissals of civil servants, the privatization of former public institutions (telecommunications, ports, water supply and electricity enterprises) the reduction of expenditure for healthcare and welfare, the new privatizations and the assumption of new responsibilities by the municipalities.

During the 48-hour strike the class oriented forces will organize picket lines in the big industries. On April 22 strike demonstrations will take place in Athens and in 67 towns and cities throughout the country.

The tomorrow’s strike constitutes a crucial battle. Nevertheless, the working people, the poor farmers and the self employed who will fight in this battle are not alone; they are supported by the class oriented pole, by PAME.

On the other side, the employers have activated all their mechanisms in order to intimidate and threaten the working people. Thus, the ship-owners resorted to the courts in order to declare the strike of the seamen illegal and abusive. “When the seamen go on strike, ships do not sail!” declare the class oriented trade unions and call upon the working people to participate in a demonstration against the threats of the ship-owners and the intimidation of the bourgeois “democracy”. In spite of the threats and the intimidation of the plutocracy the strike on April 21-21 can be a strong response of the working class in order to prevent the measures and contribute to the emancipation of workers’ and people’s movement by means of struggling against the very power of the capital.