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General Strike In Greece

By Countercurrents.org

06 November, 2012
Countercurrents.org

The Greek workers are striking. To protest brutal austerity measures, the general strike has been called. Trains, buses and the subway come to a halt. Many flights have been cancelled, ships remain tied up at ports. Doctors are already striking. Journalists are also on strike. There is dissent among the left-wing partners of the coalition government.

Greek workers begin a 48-hour strike on November 6, 2012 to protest against a new round of austerity cuts that unions say will devastate the poor and drive a failing economy to collapse, reports Reuters [1] from Athens.

The walkout, called by Greece's two biggest labor organizations, is the third major strike in two months against a package of spending cuts and reforms that prime minister Antonis Samaras's government is trying to push through parliament to unlock aid.

Athens needs parliamentary approval for the package - which includes slashing pensions by as much as a quarter for some and scrapping holiday bonuses - to ensure its EU and IMF lenders release more than 31 billion euros ($40 billion) of aid, much of it aimed at shoring up banks.

The government has implored Greeks to endure the cuts in a bid to avoid national bankruptcy and insists they will be the last round of pain. But few are impressed in a nation where over a quarter is jobless while poverty and suicide levels soar.

"They should go to hell and beyond," said Anais Metaxopoulou, a 65-year-old pensioner, expressing the anger many Greeks feel towards their political class. "They should ask me how I feel when I have to go to church to beg for food. I wouldn't hurt a fly but I would happily behead one of them."

The strike is timed to coincide with a crucial vote on November 7, 2012, when the government is expected to just about win backing for austerity cuts and labor reforms that the smallest party in Samaras's coalition has refused to back.

"We are striking on Tuesday and Wednesday to send a message to the government - these measures must not pass!" said Nikos Kioutsoukis, general secretary of the GSEE private sector union that called the strike along with the ADEDY public sector union. "It's unacceptable that the people have to pay for the funds bankers are getting from the state."

Taxi drivers plan to stay off the streets. Schools, banks and local government offices are shut, while hospitals are working on emergency staffing.

Police were beefing up security for midday rallies in Athens.

Greece has gone through several rounds of austerity that has helped shrink its economy by a fifth since the debt crisis exploded but failed to bring its finances back in order. The country's public debt is seen at 189 percent of GDP next year.

Anger has given away to a sense of resignation for many Greeks, who warn the latest cuts could tear a beleaguered society apart.

"I don't understand this fixation by the troika to press for more cuts and austerity when unemployment is already at 25 percent. How can they insist when the economy is in free fall?" said Nikos Maniatis, a 43-year-old electrician. "They are fooling themselves if they think a social explosion here would not lead to domino effects in Europe."

BBC reported [2]:

The latest strike includes public transport workers, lawyers, air traffic controllers, taxi drivers, journalists and hospital staff. Some transport and media workers downed tools on November 5, 2012 as well.

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says that with proposals for a fifth consecutive cut to pensions, an increase in the retirement age and reductions to salaries, benefits and healthcare, the fury among Greece's population is growing.

Greek ministers say the package should save a total of 13.5bn euros (£11bn; $17bn) by 2016.

However, the Democratic Left Party, the junior member of the three-party governing coalition, is refusing to back the package.

The second biggest coalition party, the socialist Pasok, is also facing a rebellion by some MPs.

Prime minister Samaras has tried to reassure the public, who have endured repeated rounds of austerity and a five-year recession. "These will be the last cuts in wages and pensions," he said on November 4, 2012.

Boston.com carried an AP report [3] that said:

Police late Monday cordoned off streets around main government buildings in preparation for potentially violent protests.

The planned austerity measures include a two-year increase in the retirement age to 67, a new round of tax increases, and making it easier to fire and transfer civil servants.

If lawmakers reject the measures, Greece could lose vital rescue loans that have kept it afloat since May 2010 — raising the threat of bankruptcy and a euro exit.

The next loan installment of €31.5 billion out of a total of €240 billion is already overdue and without it, conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras has said Greece will run out of euros on Nov. 16.
After nearly three years of successive income cuts and tax hikes, Greeks have little stomach for more.

On November 5, 2012, doctors launched a three-day strike that will leave state hospitals functioning on emergency staff, while news broadcasting was canceled by a 24-hour journalists’ strike.

Since forming his government after June elections, Samaras has fought on two fronts: To persuade debt inspectors from the EU, IMF and ECB to approve the country’s €31.5 billion loan installment, and to talk his two center-left coalition partners into backing the necessary spending cuts and labor reforms.

Persuading politicians at home has proved the hardest task. The main Socialist partner in the coalition has agreed to the package, but faces increasing dissent from its own lawmakers.

The coalition government has the support of 175 lawmakers in the 300-member parliament — 127 from conservative New Democracy, 32 from Socialists and 16 from the Democratic Left.

The austerity package only needs a simple majority to pass and the Democratic Left’s opposition to the bill does not pose a direct threat to its passage. But approval with fewer than 151 votes would reinforce opposition politicians’ argument that Samaras lacks legitimacy.

While acknowledging Greeks had already lost some 35 percent of their income in the past two years, he added: ‘‘We would lose at least twice that amount within a few weeks — about 80 percent of our standard of living’’ if the country was forced out of the euro.

Opposition leader Alexis Tsipras is demanding elections — although the country has already had two popular votes and four governments in the past year.

His Radical Left Coalition party is leading opinion polls, which have also seen a rapid rise in popularity for the militant far-right Golden Dawn party, which has been linked to violent attacks on immigrants.

Helena Smith’s report [4] from Athens depicts painful picture and meaningful reality:

Vanna Mendaleni is a middle aged Greek woman who until now has not had vehement feelings about the crisis that has engulfed her country. But that changed when the softly spoken undertaker, closing her family-run funeral parlour, joined thousands of protesters on Thursday in a mass outpouring of fury over austerity policies that have plunged ever growing numbers of Greeks into poverty and fear.

"After three years of non-stop taxes and wage cuts it's got to the point where nothing has been left standing," she said drawing on a cigarette. "It's so bad families can no longer afford to even bury their dead. Bodies lie unclaimed at public hospitals so that the local municipality can bury them."

Mendaleni wanted to send a message to the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, and other EU leaders meeting in Brussels.

"We once had a life that was dignified. Now the country has gone back 50 years and these politicians have to be made aware that enough is enough."

Greek demonstrations are not now marked by the vehemence or violence of the mass protests that occurred when Europe's debt drama erupted in Athens, forcing the then socialist government to announce pay and pension cuts, tax increases and benefit losses that few had anticipated. Anger and bewilderment have been replaced by disappointment and despair.

But the quiet fortitude that has been on display could soon run out in the country on the frontline of the continent's worst crisis since the Second World War. Demonstrators were sure of one thing: if pushed too far they may be pushed over the edge.

"Personally, I'm amazed there hasn't been a revolution," said Panaghiotis Varotsos, a computer programmer.

"In Portugal they're rioting over one measure when here we've been made to accept countless cuts and tax increases. And the worst thing about being ground down is that it breeds extremism," said the silver-haired leftist. "In the case of Greece it is extremism that is going to the right because [the neo-Nazi party] Golden Dawn has managed to exploit people's despair. But it won't just stay here. It will spread, like this economic crisis, to other parts of Europe, too."

"After nearly 50 years of work and paying into an expensive pension fund, I have been forced to retire on €1,000 a month and if they pass these measures it will be even less," said 60-year-old Nikos Xeros, who until this year had repaired ships since the age of 16. "It's like having a noose about your neck that is getting ever tighter. The next time I come out to demonstrate it's going to be with a gas mask and a big wooden club."

Law enforcement officials cut off access to Syntagma Square – home of the Greek parliament – before protesters could reach it, stoking widespread fury on Thursday. For some it was evidence of the mounting fears that parliament could be stormed.

"Greeks are becoming increasingly conscious … and it was especially noticeable that the main slogan today was 'the time has come to overthrow these polices'," said Tania Karayiannis of the union of civil servants. As many as 80,000 people participated in the protests in Athens alone, she said. "The political leadership of this country should not underestimate that. If they don't take our opposition seriously they will bear historic responsibility for the disintegration of Greece's social fabric and the developments that will surely follow."

Source:

[1] Karolina Tagaris, “Greece faces 48-hour strike over austerity cuts”, Nov 5, 2012,http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCABRE8A400J20121105?sp=true

[2] “ Greece braces for 48-hour strike amid crucial debate”, Nov. 6, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20215987

[3] Derek Gatopoulos, “Greece: More austerity despite strikes, dissent”, Nov. 5, 2012,http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/2012/11/05/greece-more-austerity-despite-strikes-dissent/QRKqkcGgVWV3h3wmcug2nN/story.html

[4] The Guardian, Oct. 19, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/18/greece-protests-general-strike-austerity

 




 

 


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