Greece: a fall increasingly hot
During summer, the anger of the Greeks against the government and the international authorities imposing the measures of unprecedented social decline (and without equivalent in Europe) did not have the opportunity to soften.
The “package” of laws passed at the end of June in a parliament under siege in order to obtain the payment of a new tranche of the first loan from 110 billion euros and the agreement in principle for a new loan 160 billion consecutive effects of the first (recession therefore lower tax revenue) immediately proved insufficient for donors : further measures were required as early as July and late summer, the main lines were known : hiring freeze and forced departure from 30 000 officials (in a "labor reserve", paid 60% salary for a year and then nothing), creation of a property tax (touching 80% greeks) and recovery thereof via electricity bills, decline in pensions greater than 1 200 euros per month and lowering of the tax threshold to 5 000 euros of annual income (lowered two months earlier by 12 000 at 8 000 euros per year), either all low wages ...
Meanwhile, the church continues to get out of control and not to be taxed on its wealth and considerable income, meanwhile military spending is not reached either : military service is still in effect and the military receives what it takes to continue its acquisitions (inter alia, she wanted to acquire 400 chars Abrams, before giving up before the outcry in European "opinion") and his training (marine and aviation with the United States and Israel), meanwhile the shipowners and the Greek bourgeoisie - who already pay no taxes - continue to put their money outside the borders, in the Balkans or the tax havens that abound.
Social mobilizations - which have not stopped among taxi drivers, employees of municipalities and hospitals - therefore logically resumed in early September with the occupation of universities and several hundred high schools where back to school was done without school books and with fewer teachers (non holders), in college with the end of the administrative and pedagogical "co-management" that existed until then and the introduction of study fees (libraries…), in hospitals with drug supply shortages due to budget cuts…
Simultaneously, large European companies (like Deutsche Telecom, EDF or Véolia) ready to “buy” privatizable state enterprises (electricity, telephony, gas, railroads, ports, airports, oil, games and betting, water companies…) take advantage of the situation to impose blackmail : they demand that they be restructured and profitable first, that the staff be reduced, or when this “additional cost” is deducted from the price proposed by the government : the “negotiations” between the latter and the Troika envoys also relate to this. But as for the recession, the sale of state-owned enterprises for a bite of bread further lowers the revenue expected when the first privatization plans were drawn up and therefore contributes to further deepening the debt spiral.
Recall that a State Heritage Exploitation Fund, was created to lead the privatization process in which the European Commission and the ECB will have observer posts. But the biggest disposals are planned during 2012 and especially 2013, Now Greece is on the verge of bankruptcy (default on payment).
Other “negotiation”. The 30 000 layoffs of civil servants would only be an interim measure. The Troika requires at least 100 000 job cuts from here 2015 by including employees of state enterprises in the “perimeter” of the public service and by demanding mergers / deletions of 35 agencies and public bodies. We are also talking about the requirement to lower the minimum wage (currently from 750 euros and 590 For the young), new taxes (on fuels among others), the end of branch agreements and collective agreements…
Small tour in a country in full social effervescence.
Residents of the Greek city of Veria reconnect the disconnected electricity ... and explain why :
The 29 September, a small group of people from the Greek city of Veria (north of the country) decided to act and reconnect the electricity supply to a number of homes that had been disconnected from the grid. Electricity bills, it must be remembered, are the means chosen by the government to collect the payment of the new property tax ; in a country with more than 80% home owners, thousands are expected to be unable to pay this tax (in addition to their current bill, of course) and therefore risk the power cut.
The group of inhabitants of Veria has edited the following text, explaining their action :
"Right now, while citizens enjoy peace, order and security, where prudential laws and the welfare state are the rule, some citizens of Veria have decided to commit a criminal act. They started reconnecting the disconnected electricity supplies.
Responding to the advance of barbarism, they reconnected the electricity for families who couldn't afford it. Electricity is a common good. This behavior towards the citizens of our country is criminal ; when they brought them to unemployment and impoverishment, they now condemn them to live a daily life like in the third world.
Ordinary citizens will not bear the cost of widespread looting by a handful of high-ranking people, total liquidation by political puppets. In this country, regardless of the obligation to pay - again and again - for thieves and scammers, we also have rights. And the most important of all is dignity. »
The group, it seems, opened the electrical connection box, without the owner being warned in advance, reconnected the electricity and closed the box, by covering it with a sticker saying : “CITIZENS OF VERIA - Social Solidarity - We reconnect the electricity”.
= = = = =
The social excitement did not really subside during the summer, with the movement of taxi drivers and municipal employees, garbage collectors ... and again and again that of public transport workers and the electricity company, which not only is going to be privatized but which the government wants to use to obtain the payment of the new property tax voted in urgency at the end of the summer. Early september, electricians union said they shouldn't be relied on to do the dirty work:
"We are not cowboys or sheriffs who will put the gun on the users' temples to extract money from them".
During the last Troika visit, at least six departments, including finance, were occupied by their employees, which forced the ministers (especially finance and transport) find other premises for their meetings with ECB / IMF supervisors. The 27 September, voting day of the new property tax, Thousands of people found themselves on Syntagma Square at the behest of several movements including “Ðen Plirono” (“I don't pay”). Clashes with police broke out and lasted several hours, until 10:30 p.m., time the police managed to clear the whole place.
Blocking auctions after foreclosures
Some days before, the 21 September, the “I don't pay” wrestling committees intervened and blocked the doors of the Athens District Court, preventing auctions of foreclosed properties to indebted people. Extract from the press release :
“Members of the 'I don't pay' movement blocked the courtroom where the auction was held, demanded and imposed the stay of proceedings and the departure of representatives appointed by Alpha Bank and Eurobank who were trying to foreclose on the housing of small borrowers through mortgage loans and additional interest (supplements). All auctions have been stopped and postponed.
We are not going to allow loan sharks to recover any house.
We call on each employee and each community to coordinate with us in common actions and to organize together a great movement of resistance and solidarity. »
Students, high school students against austerity
Since the beginning of September, Greece is experiencing a wave of strikes with occupation of universities, higher institutes and high schools. End of August, when the government voted for university reform, Thousands of students interrupted their back-to-school exam sessions and organized assemblies. Quickly, near 300 establishments were occupied. Two weeks later, just after the start of the school year, high school students in turn joined the dance. Protest actions, a sit-in, gatherings, occupations… have multiplied at high speed. In primary and secondary, Back to school was done with all the non-tenured teachers and no school books.
The 22 September, a panhellenic manifestation of 10 000 students and teachers was organized in Athens. Our only student movement is not covered by the press, but the media has pinned the creation of a so-called student movement “outraged against the occupations”, calling for a return to legality in educational centers, etc.
Direct action against disinformation
In front of the "wall of silence" that the mainstream media have installed around their movement, the students decided to take action by creating "media plans" in their own way. The 25 September evening, about fifty students broke into the studios of the public TV channel to watch a video they made. Refusal by those responsible and blocking of live broadcasts. Meanwhile, several hundred demonstrators gathered in the street and were dispersed by tear gas from riot police while, on Syntagma square, about 3000 people attended an assembly.
At the very beginning of the news, we see the banner : "We are breaking the wall of silence. The student fight is the fight of all of society ”. The beginning of the message, not passed, recalls that more than 15000 students hold weekly assemblies where the pursuit of occupations is voted for the withdrawal of the university reform which cancels any idea of free public education. He also says this : "It's the fight to refuse to pay for the books. For students and high schools. It's the fight to find a job, not for 500 € like the Troika and our government want to impose us as a rule [the minimum wage for young people is already lower by 20%], but according to worthy rules. It's the fight for no one to be fired, so as not to end up like the Prime Minister, M. Papandreou said it, with “Only one worker per family”. This is what the students are fighting.
This is also what the government and the media are trying to hide, because they don't want students to do the same thing as 1973 [the uprising of students at the École Polytechnique caused the fall of the colonels' junta], they don't want students to unite with everyone else who protests. Today, we break the silence that the government and the media impose and we call on all workers to join us and students to occupy their establishments, we call to go together on the street, in demonstrations, to overturn this policy which destroys our present and our future in the worst moment of our history. »
Monday 3 October, a demonstration of high school students was dispersed as it approached the center of Athens. Among the banners: "Work for parents, books for children ! »
But the government seems to want to go further to quell the revolt and seems to be preparing a “security” offensive aimed at not leaving unpunished the least act that can be qualified as a criminal offense.. On the order of Papandreou, the judicial authorities plan indeed to send Attorneys General and the police force to the occupied schools and an intervention plan is being finalized under the supervision of the Prosecutor of the High Court of Justice.
For his part, the Minister of Education draws up a plan to recover lost school days, including weekends, Christmas holidays, the extension of the academic year ...
For students, it doesn't seem to concern them, and anyway, for them, it is no longer a ministry but a "photocopier" since its holder enjoined teachers to use this instrument in place of school books.
Coordinating committees of student assemblies recently declared :
"We are making this clear to the ministry of photocopying and to the government : lessons will only start if the State covers all the expenses required for the normal operation of our establishments ! We demand that books be distributed now and that permanent professors be appointed and paid. We don’t accept that our parents pay for everything, not even 1 euro, to cover school operating and maintenance costs. Any intervention by public prosecutors aimed at exploiting isolated actions that have nothing to do with our fight is a way of imposing submission to the miserable reality in which we live.. It will not pass ! »
They call for a day of struggle and demonstrations on 5 October, day of a new general strike of civil servants, public sector, to which other sectors are joining, even as the tangle of impossible conditions that creditors impose is suffocating a little more current accounts.
Crete : media action !
The 4 October, during the TV news of two local channels on the island, an intervention-occupation was carried out by the "High School Students-Students-Workers-Unemployed Initiative" as part of the counter-information and agitation operations for the strike call of the 5 October and beyond, unlimited mobilization and general strike.
The following text has been read on the air :
" What to do ?
This text was written by a component of the social struggle who believes that this is neither the beginning nor the end of this movement.
1. We are experiencing the end of social benefits. Now, the one who doesn't pay, will run out of electricity, of water, of food, of heating, health and education. Like a good breeder, the regime knows when to feed its animals and when it should not. The days of fat cows are over. Nobody has given us anything and we must not give anything to anyone. We will not pay anything. Get what they stole. Reconnect the cut electricity and water and break the ticket booths in hospitals. We are not animals to which they can feed when they please, and let us die if they don't like it anymore. Let's occupy the offices of the tax administration. Let’s organize in each district, in each sector or house and save our disobedience. Let's create social consultation centers, community meals, agricultural collectives. Let's organize our survival.
2. Like any story, that of national unity has its good and bad characters. The good are the Greeks, rich and poor, masters and slaves together, and the bad guys are the aliens, illegal immigrants, the "others" who take our jobs away from us, fill our hospitals and schools and fly to eat. The regime must divide to rule better and the proletarians should kill each other for a broken flag and a national ideal. If we don't try to find out who is really the one who takes our life, if we do not see the real enemy and do not crush him, then we are condemned to be constantly fighting in a circus, with the bosses applauding. We must offer solidarity, regardless of race, religions and colors, and attack our real enemies.
3. Foot and motorized cops, water cannons, teargas, ban on meetings and political prisoners, this is all the new doctrine of policing. The large-scale military operation that has spread everywhere, the little party caudillos, the journalists, intellectuals and pro-government union leaders who were recruited to save the country, show that, for the diet, the enemy is none other than the society itself which fights. We must claim our freedom, create self-defense groups against pigs, in uniform or not, and their masters. Let's break the TVs and take the information into our hands. Let's create centers of resistance everywhere. Let's fight and fight.
4. Decades of defensive struggle, misery and tears were enough. The script was and is very well edited. Unions that want to calm anger and small parties that dream of Power, have been tasked with putting limits within which we have to fight. The deadlock in defensive struggles is already evident, but in any case the diet would take away from us as consumption everything it would give us. By this black hole, several movements have recently arisen, with the sole purpose of helping to calm the situation and guide the people to the elections. Fighters and those who want to fight, must identify and isolate them. Organize in the workplace, in schools and universities. Break the chains of hierarchy and bureaucracy in the workplace. Let's block the economy.
Let's organize an unlimited general strike.
Let's stop dreaming of a rotten past and start building the future.
Liberty egality – Dignity
High school students – Workers – Unemployed
Strike demonstration. Heraklion, Crete, Place Eleuteria (Freedom), Wednesday 5 October at 10am ».
General strike 5 October
The 4 October, ADEDY trade unionists (the confederation of civil servants) occupied the ministries of rural development, of Trade and Finance, in opposition to the measure of layoffs of 30 000 officials.
At the beginning, the day was called by the only union of civil servants, but the original framework has been overwhelmed. Many professions as well as the student and high school student movement joined the protest and street protests. Air traffic controllers strike, no trains, little bus (except to allow protesters to come), metros in operation to come to demonstrate and free thanks to the action of the workers, work stoppages in schools, high schools, municipalities…
Manifestation of 40 000 people in athens, 20 000 in Thessaloniki, with ministerial occupations, blockades of museums and the Acropolis and clashes with the police : like the 29 and 30 June, it was not only the "hooded" who came into contact with the cops.
Friday 7 October
Patras, Via Olympia : opening of tolls against state terrorism and the Vinci construction company
From 7:00 p.m., Friday 7 October and during 24 hours, a toll booth was opened in Rio (Patras), with the participation of workers and people in solidarity, after a call by the construction workers union of the Elefsina-Corinth-Patras-Pyrgos-Tsakona motorway.
Communicated (extract) of the anarchist group Ergalioforos :
“This action was one more moment in the struggle of the workers of the“ Via Olympia ”against the plans of the construction companies, bankers and the state, worked out on the backs of workers. Since June, 2800 of them were laid off and the construction of the road stopped. More precisely, the Patras-Egio segment, whose construction was the responsibility of Vinci (French interests) : 400 workers were employed at the start of the site and they are only 40 (administrative and technical staff), pending another wave of layoffs in mid-October, while the toll is installed and the passage is billed normally.
In all this movement, the "Assembly of Anarchists against Wage Slavery" "Ergalioforos", ("Tool Carriers"), was present and participated with his own voice, identifying the workers' struggle / dismissed from Via Olympia as part of a larger fight against the system of exploitation and oppression.
Against layoffs, the blackmail and terrorism of the bosses.
Solidarity with workers at the Via Olympia who resist plans by state-owned companies and construction. »
Saturday 8 October
A scent of Argentina… A minister fired from a cinema with yogurt !
In the center of Thessaloniki there was a concert organized by the Coordination of the general assemblies of the occupied universities of the city. About 100 students left the concert venue and went to the nearby Olympion cinema where Kastanidis, the minister of the Interior (who is one of those who manages relations with envoys from the Troika) was watching a movie. Students displayed a banner and shouted slogans :
" We are here, we will be everywhere, we will be the fear of every minister "
"People, forward, don't bow your head, the only way is resistance and struggle "
"Solidarity is the weapon of the people, boss war »
"Terrorism is wage slavery, no peace with the bosses "
"Minister treats students of thugs, rogue, it's the riot police and the secret police "
"A magical night like that of Argentina will come when we will see who will be the first to board the helicopter"
" On every street corner, there is a policeman, the dictatorship did not end in 1973 »
From the beginning, and with the slogans, students talking to minister tell him he destroyed their lives and he made them unemployed. Film viewers shout at Minister with students : "Go away". Then the students throw him yogurt. Minister stands up and in his expensive suit stained with yogurt, goes to the students, threatening them. After a time of conflict and confusion, the lights go out and the projection of the film resumes.
Students leave cinema and return to concert venue. Some of the slogans shouted during the demonstration :
"People ahead, rebellion everywhere, let's get the government, the IMF and the European Union. »
"The cops are not the sons of workers, these are the boss dogs ".
"At every street corner there is a policeman, the dictatorship did not end in 1973 »
Students' march is followed by squads of the so-called riot forces. The student response is in this revealing slogan :
"The dictatorship is alive. She wears a white helmet and follows us ".
The walk arrives at the concert venue. Once there, the intervention of cinema students was announced by megaphone.
It’s not the first, but the last action of this kind. Other ministers have been attacked in recent months. Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos, was assaulted in a tavern. Citizen Protection Secretary, Manolis Othonos received an egg on the island of Crete. Several MPs and a former PASOK minister were forced to flee under police protection by participating in various public activities.
The video of the action :
[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = iqqvaXDC6AI]
= = = = =
Multiplication of sectoral movements, towards the general strike…
As the student movement information website lists 57 universities and 813 high schools affected by the wave of occupations, this control method is starting to spread in other sectors. After the ministries, the municipalities, company headquarters, some work places.
Monday 10 October
strike 24 hours on public transport (subway, bus, trolley, tramway) and continuation of the garbage collectors' strike (municipal employees) who are in their eighth day. In Athens, garbage is starting to pile up in the streets dramatically and the city's only recycling center remains closed.
The occupation of a building of the electricity company continues in Megalopolis against their integration in the plan of dismissal of the civil servants and the privatization of the company.
Several public bodies, like the National Medicines Agency (Eof), the National Chemistry Laboratory and the Social Security IT Management Company (Idika) are also always occupied by their staff.
In Athens, the workers of the Water Company occupied the premises in the Candia district. Blockades and occupations of municipal premises have spread in the districts of Athens and its suburbs, in Thessaloniki, Ptolemy, Kozani, Volos, Heraklion, Lerapetra, Sitia (in Crete), Preveza, in the islands of Lesbos and Evia.
In Athens, members and supporters of the “Den Plirono” movement (“I do not peace”) demonstrated in the street and symbolically occupied the premises of the country's electricity company. The workers present declared their solidarity with this movement. At the same time, in the city of Lamia, other members of the “I don't pay” movement gathered and distributed leaflets in the street, then in front of the premises of the electricity company and the tax collection.
The government, in a fairly provocative move, announced the bailout of one more bank, Proton Bank with more than 800 million euros of public money.
Mardi 11 October
The day started with hospital employee marches in central Athens. Two parades converged on Syntagma square. In Athens, two hospitals are occupied by employees.
Municipal workers have occupied several municipal buildings across the country and landfills in Athens continue to be blocked so trash cans are not collected. Municipal workers demonstrate from 12 h (midi). At the same time, primary and secondary school teachers are called to a rally in Klathmonos Square. The rally will end up blocking the entrances to the ministry building.
The premises of several ministries are occupied, for example the Ministry of Education, several premises of the Ministry of Finance, while the central building of the Agricultural Bank (of state) of Panepistimiou street are occupied by bank workers.
State-owned oil refinery workers blocked company premises and went on a non-stop strike (at least for 10 days) causing long lines of cars at petrol stations across the country. All workers in the petroleum sector, refineries and the chemical industry are on strike.
Employees of the General Patision Hospital in Athens organized a protest against the closings of rooms with patients, the residents of the neighborhood and the members of the “I don't pay” movement.
Video:
[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = g1SC71Ire3M]
In Thessaloniki, City Water and Sewer workers occupied several municipal buildings.
Wednesday 12 October
Electricity company union occupies premises in Athens against property tax collection, as occupations and wildcat strikes spread across the country
GENOP (the DEH union, the Public Electricity Company) occupied the building in Athens where the company's invoices are issued. This blocking movement is an act of protest against the imposition of a property tax through electricity bills. in solidarity, hundreds of people gathered on site. At once, the Minister of Development (Papakonstantinou, the former finance minister) asked for the intervention of an attorney general to end the occupation.
"Electricity (…) cannot be used as a form of blackmail against the unemployed, poor people, employees ", warned the GENOP-DEH union. « (We) will not leave our poor fellow citizens without electricity ”.
Waiting, the occupations of ministries and other public buildings spread somewhat wildly before the general strike of the 19 October.
As for this strike, calls multiply for movements of 48 hours or more :
Thursday 13 October
The premises of the Public Works Engineers Retirement Fund has been occupied since this morning and at least until tomorrow by its staff.
Social movements continue in nurseries, hospitals, primary schools and colleges, and even the statistics department of the Ministry of Finance, which bothers the government a lot right now !
On their side, different collectives and grassroots organizations (Class Front- Metro Workers Initiative, Book workers - vivliofrikarios, Open Initiative of the Unemployed (SLEEP), Initiative of contractual agents of the Greek Post (ELTA), Open Meeting of Workers / Unemployed ...) call a general strike and demonstrate on their own bases :
"Against the machinations of the state, bosses and unionists sold.
Strikes, manifestations, occupations.
Rupture - Self-organization - Solidarity »
Some perspectives
The multiplication of sectoral movements and their simultaneity, the sequence of strikes, occupations, daily demonstrations in the streets and actions of all kinds are increasing at the moment and every day new calls are launched.
At the same time, government tries to quell high school rebellion, by launching multiple police raids (in civilian clothes and in uniforms) in establishments. These intimidation operations, linked by a media campaign by a right-wing parents' association, are accompanied by a campaign of denunciation against the most active students in the movement, of personal data collection and systematic filing with the directors of high schools.
Greek government must vote for new measures before 23 October, date of the next summit of European countries and before the payment of the new tranche of the loan 8 billion euros to intervene just after.
That said, the announcement of a partial default by Greece, that is to say a de facto deletion of part of the debt, will have no consequences in the country : it’s just the way to make it possible to continue the process, to restart the game, maintain arm's length (and interdependence) between creditor and debtor. Because if the link is broken, it breaks for both parties. The consequence is rather on the side of European private banks (who hold Greek debt securities) and which we now see that they would be "undercapitalized" to resist a default (total or partial) from Greece and other European countries or even to refusal, by French local authorities, to pay the debts “exploded” in the case of Dexia.
It is too early to take stock of what is going on. Let's just say that, compared to last spring, there is an evolution. If what still dominated last May and June was a combination of days of strikes spaced, of some specific actions initiated by activists (like the “I do not peace” movement) and the onset of a spontaneous movement (fin mai) massive occupations of public places, sequence which culminated with the days of 29 and 30 June, we can note since the end of the summer an acceleration, intensification and diversification of modes of action. With roots and greater localization of collective action in workplaces and education, in cities and neighborhoods, in the dynamics of a movement tending to generalize the protest on a cumulative basis, by the addition of sectoral strike movements, various blockages, the permanence of long struggles (garbage men, taxis…), threats of new hard struggles (refineries, customs employees…), punctual symbolic actions and those more concrete of rebellion and collective disobedience (including refusal to pay tolls, hospital costs, public transport fares, the new taxes, foreclosures ...), while sketching here and there (in Crete, at Ierapetra in particular) practical proposals aiming to put in place now bits of alternative economy, self-organized, an “economy of resistance”, with exchange networks, barter, on non-capitalist bases.
Last minute : the GSEE (Confederation of Unemployed Workers' Unions) accepted, under the pressure of the base, to extend the next strike movement by 24 at 48 hours, either 19 and 20 October.
The coming days promise to be very hot.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!