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Another Anti-Austerity Strike In Greece

By Countercurrents.org

20 February, 2013
Countercurrents.org

Workers and employees in Greece strike again. Most business and public sector activity come to a halt during February 20, 2013 countrywide strike. School teachers, train and bus employees and bankers are among various groups joining the walkout. Seaworkers plan to defy government orders to return to work.

A Reuters report by Renee Maltezou from Athens said:

Greek workers walk off the job on February 20, 2013 in a nationwide anti-austerity strike that will disrupt transport, shut public schools and tax offices and leave hospitals working with emergency staff.

Greece's two biggest labor unions plan to bring much of the near-bankrupt country to a standstill during a 24-hour strike over the cuts, which they say only deepen the plight of a people struggling to get through the country's worst peacetime downturn.

Representing about 2.5 million workers, the unions have gone on strike repeatedly since Europe's debt crisis erupted in late 2009, testing the government's will to implement necessary reforms in the face of growing public anger.

"The (strike) is our answer to the dead-end policies that have squeezed the life out of workers, impoverished society and plunged the economy into recession and crisis," said the private sector union GSEE, which is organizing the walkout with its public sector sister union ADEDY.

"Our struggle will continue for as long as these policies are implemented," it said.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's eight-month-old coalition government has been eager to show it will implement reforms it promised the EU and IMF, which have bailed Athens out twice with over 200 billion euros.

It has taken a tough line on striking workers, invoking emergency law twice this year to order seamen and subway workers back to the job after week-long walkouts that paralyzed public transport in Athens and led to food shortages on islands.

But in a sign it is buckling under pressure, it announced on Monday it would not fire almost 1,900 civil servants earmarked for possible dismissal, despite promising foreign lenders it would seek to cut the public payroll.

Strikes picking up

Strikes have picked up in recent weeks, underscoring Greeks' anger at record high unemployment and poverty levels. A one-day visit by French President Francois Hollande in Athens on February 19, 2013 went largely uncovered as Greek journalists were on strike.

In northern and central Greece, farmers have been protesting at high production costs and fuel prices for nearly a month, occasionally blocking the country's main north-south highway.

Another report [2] by Andy Dabilis said:

Only weeks after the government twice sent in riot police to break up strikes against Metro workers who shut down the subway system for nine days, and seamen who kept ships in port for six days, Greek workers start a 24-hour general strike on Feb. 20.

Greek media struck on Feb. 19, blacking out local coverage of the visit of French President Francois Hollande and trolley bus employees staged a five-hour walkout. Journalists decided to stage their protest a day earlier so they could cover the general strike.

Transport workers will run a limited service during the general strike so that people can attend protest rallies planned for the city center.

Staff on the Athens metro, tram and the Piraeus-Kifissia electric railway (ISAP) hadn’t decided whether to join the general strike.

There will be no trains running nor ferries sailing as employees of the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE) and the country’s seamen walk off the job. The Proastiakos suburban railway will also halt its services. Tax offices and municipal services will be closed to the public as employees join the strike. Hospitals will be operating on skeleton staff and schools will close as doctors and teachers join the action.

Lawyers, engineers and construction workers, whose sector has been particularly hard hit by the economic crisis, are expected to join the action too.

The protest comes as inspectors from the Troika of the EU-IMF-ECB are set to return to Athens next week to check progress on reforms and the pace of privatization. Workers also fear the minimum wage, already slashed 22 percent to 580 euros ($773) a month before taxes, will be cut again.

A BBC report said:

The debt-ridden country is being kept afloat by billions of euros from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

In return, the government has imposed waves of unpopular spending cuts and tax rises, hitting pay and pensions and sending unemployment soaring to more than 26%.
Strikes and violent protests have become commonplace.

However, the BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says February 20, 2013 strike is a reminder that government confidence of a slowly improving economic situation is not shared by many on the streets.

Marches

Union leaders say they are angry at the job cuts and tax rises being demanded by Greece's international lenders.

Several marches are due to culminate in protests outside parliament in Syntagma square, Athens, where violent clashes have broken out on previous occasions.

More than 20 general strikes since the crisis erupted have failed to halt austerity - and this one is unlikely to be any different.

Source:

[1] Feb 19, 2013, “Anti-austerity strike to bring Greece to a standstill”,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/19/us-greece-strike-idUSBRE91I1D520130219

[2] Feb 19, 2013“Strikes to Shut Down Greece”,
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/02/19/strikes-to-shut-down-greece/

[3] Feb 20, 2013, “Greeks to down tools in fresh strike against austerity”,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21515012

 




 

 


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