Today (October 19), the first day of the 48-hour general strike in Greece was sensational. Apart from the government and public utilities workers that participated in the strike massively, hundreds of thousands of workers from the private sector came out on strike for the first time, and also joining the millions of striking workers were tens of thousands of small businesspeople and shopkeepers who closed the shutters to their shops in solidarity.
Syntagma square Photo: odysseasgrAbout
half a million protesters flooded the streets of Athens in one of the
biggest strike movements in modern Greek history. Tens of thousands also
participated in demonstrations in an unprecedented wave of protests and
strike action in the provinces, with 50,000 in Thessaloniki, over
20,000 in Patras and Heraklion in Crete and several other cities that
had never seen such huge numbers on the streets.
Athens general strike Photo: odysseasgrThis
magnificent general strike marks an acceleration of the movement of
Greek society towards a revolutionary situation. The working class,
having paralysed the state and the economy, have become conscious of the
immense power they have and seem determined to make any sacrifice
necessary and fight to the end. Of extreme significance is also the fact
that the working class is now openly backed by the middle classes, who
have come to realise that only the workers can provide the necessary
power and leadership in this key battle.
Photo: odysseasgrOn
the other hand, we see the ruling class in a state of political
deadlock and confusion, regardless of the outcome of the vote in
parliament on the new austerity measures. This situation has become
abundantly clear after the failure of the recent talks between
Papandreou, leader of PASOK, and Samaras, leader of the conservative New
Democracy. What is visible is the stress and panic that the stormy mass
movement of the workers has provoked among these political leaders.
Instead of presenting an image of “cooperation” in the face of the
crisis, what seemed to dominate the meeting of these leaders was a state
of embarrassment and the desire to blame each other for the mess.
The
one thing that is missing to transform this massive wave of protest
into a victorious revolutionary movement is a decisive revolutionary
leadership. Unfortunately, the leaders of the trade unions and the
parties of the Left are lagging behind the movement, confused and well
below the needs of the moment. They refuse to support and organise an
escalation of the struggle with a general all-out, long lasting,
political strike, even now after this earth-shattering general strike
which has radically changed the situation and which has brought to the
surface a mass mood of determination to struggle, and while workers in
one sector after another have already organised political strikes.
Photo: odysseasgrWe,
the comrades in Synaspismos and the Synaspismos Youth gathered around
the journals “Marxistiki Foni” and “Revolution”, believe that the
natural and necessary next step after this powerful 48-hour general
strike is to move on to an all-out general political strike, organised
by the trade unions, together with the election of strike committees in
every workplace and the setting up of picket, defence squads, strike
funds, soup kitchens and also the election of a nationwide central
strike committee with representatives from the union confederations and
federations, from the strike committees and from those workplaces where
there is no organised trade union structure.
Photo: odysseasgrThe
goal should be the immediate removal of this government, and the Troika
that is behind it, and the election of a government committed to
carrying out the demands of the labour movement, cancelling the
predatory debt and establishing a socialist, democratically planned
economy, and putting an end to this rotten capitalist system and setting
in motion the socialist transformation of society as a step towards the
victory of socialism in Europe and worldwide.
On the basis of this plan of action to escalate the level of the labour movement’s struggle, and with this political objective in mind, here and now, the KKE (Communist Party), SYRIZA [the electoral front centred on Synaspismos], and the mass forces of PASKE that are participating in the struggle, and who are against the leadership of PASOK, should establish a united front.
Everyone in the struggle until victory!
For an all-out general political strike!
For a government of the Left with a socialist programme!
