Working Class Unity in Greece
Strikes and more strikes confront the social-democratic PASOK Government in Greece
Public sector workers, supported by many Trade Unionists from the private sector responded massively yesterday, Wednesday February 10th, to their Union call for a 24-hour strike in Athens. At the same time, leaders of the two Greek left wing organisations Syriza and the Greek Communist Party criticised sharply the recent Government austerity measures.
The General Secretary of ADEDY, the main public sector trade union behind yesterday’s strike, also announced that his organisation had decided to support the General Confederation of Labour GSEE’s call for a second General Strike on February 24th. Both Unions have argued for unity of public and private sector workers in response to the “Government’s massive attack on working people’s living standards”.
During the strike most public hospitals kept going with only a skeleton security staff while many internal and international flights were cancelled as airport workers and air traffic controllers downed tools. All schools and Universities were also closed.
Large demonstrations took place in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city in the North, where public sector workers along with private sector employees demonstrated together in support of the 24-hour strike.
It seems that the main weight of the strike was carried by teachers, health workers, employees of the Ministry of Finance and in the airports. What makes this strike very interesting is the support shown to the strikes by private sector workers and their organisations.
Taking it at face value, it could be argued that the successful 24-hour strike was little more than the Trade Union leadership’s attempt to save face and appear to be active on a battle lost before it even began. It is my stance, however, that the success of the strike, and particularly the call of support by the public sector unions for the February24th General Strike of GSEE, that represents primarily private sector workers, may be the beginning of a process of working class unity that Greece has not seen for a number of years.
Will working people be able to confront the austerity measures and impose their logic on the Government? It’s a very complex issue, the ramifications of which should be examined very closely not only in Greece but all over Europe.
The crisis and the recession provide, in my opinion, a major opportunity for working people to confront questions of labour, of income and social welfare under a new angle…as rights and not presents offered to them by the capitalist market. What seems to be at stake is the issue of whether the Trade Union Movement in Greece can kick start a process of maturity….a process that would impact on the whole society, to wrench it away from the consumerist model for the privileged few, a model that belongs to a past not likely to return, to a struggle for the satisfaction of basic needs and rights for the many.
This is a process at work not only in Greece but in Spain, in Portugal and in our country as well. The Party seems to be over in Greece…..I hope that working people can dream and re-discover the quality of a real popular explosion of solidarity and strength…including lots of dancing without which a revolution is meaningless.
Discussion
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Comment by: John Green
Feb 11th 2010 at 09:02
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1529573111?bclid=65695362001&bctid=65954271001
6.59 minutes: “This is Greece, not Ireland.”
Comment by: Michael Youlton
Feb 11th 2010 at 13:02
Bits of news - from the other side of the process
As news filtering from Brussels seem to indicate that the EU Commission, with the co-operation of Sarkozy and Merkel, as well as the blessings of EU President Herman Van Rompuy, have reached an agreement to bail out Greece, Open Europe ( Stephen Booth <stephen@openeurope.org.uk )has published new research, detailing the ways in which the EU could bailout Greece, and what these solutions could cost European taxpayers. Open Europe argues that an EU-led bailout will come with huge economic and political risks, and will for the first time make Europe’s taxpayers fully liable for an individual country’s debts, while centralising new economic powers at the EU-level.
The research also argues that the legality of a bail-out under the EU Treaties is doubtful - of the ten options for a bailout which Open Europe looked at, only one is unambiguously legal under the Treaties, meaning that EU leaders are likely to bend EU law if they go ahead with a rescue package.
Meanwhile, speaking on the BBC Today programme, former Chancellor Lord Lamont discussed the options for a Greek bailout, and said “I think ultimately it will be a European bailout, but the problem is that is really illegal under the Maastricht Treaty, and they will have to find a way around that.”
Reuters reports that Austrian Chancellor Werner Feymann told ORF this morning: “We don’t know yet how it [a bailout] will be organised, but I expect it will be a cooperation between (EU member) countries and the IMF”. He also said: “We are not talking about a donation or subsidies, we are talking about loans with interest which we provide to help a country in order to avoid irritations on financial markets and crises which nobody can handle anymore”.
The Financial Times reports that a senior German official said that a bailout for Greece could involve loans or a commitment to buy Greek sovereign debt. The paper also reports that unnamed officials in Paris have said there is a growing consensus that the IMF would only be involved in a Greek rescue in a technical capacity. FT Deutschland suggests the main reason for Germany’s likely support for a rescue package is not solidarity with Greece, but the fact that German banks hold $43.2bn in Greek sovereign debt, and French banks hold around $75bn.
Asked if the UK taxpayer would have to pay if there was a Greek bailout, Chancellor Alistair Darling is quoted by PA saying: “At the moment there is no proposal to do that. What we have said is that primarily the first port of call is the euro area and the euro area are very, very engaged in that.”
Finally, Gary Jenkins, Head of Credit at Evolution Securities, said there would be “blood on the walls” in trading rooms if the EU fails to deliver after its barrage of leaks talking up a bailout, the Telegraph reports. On his BBC blog Gavin Hewitt argues, “What officials in Athens fear is that if there is now a delay in announcing a bail-out, the markets will turn once again on Greece.”
Comment by: Michael Youlton
Feb 26th 2010 at 14:02
Further drop in market confidence in Greek bonds points to likely bailout;
Diplomat: EU surveillance of Greece goes beyond “simple application of the European treaties”
The FT reports that Greek bond markets yesterday saw their biggest one-day fall of the year as investors warned that the country faced the growing threat of a ratings downgrade. The WSJ reports that a planned bond issue has been pushed to next week, noting that, combined with the threat of downgrade, expectations among investors have grown that the county will need to be rescued. FT Deutschland reports that Eurohypo and Hypo Real Estate, the two main German banks operating in the public debt market, will not participate in the next auction of Greek bonds.
The Mail reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted last night that the Greek crisis had put the euro at risk “for the first time since its introduction.” However, Merkel appeared cautious about French plans for greater ‘economic governance’ of the eurozone. “It would be wrong to have a coordinated economic policy for the euro group while the others can do what they want, because we are of course closely linked to our other neighbours through trade,” she said. Meanwhile, speaking at the European College in Bruges last night, EU President Herman Van Rompuy cited the financial crisis as a reason for greater “economic governance” within the EU.
On his blog, Liberation journalist Jean Quatremer quotes an unnamed EU diplomat saying, “Putting Greece under surveillance, as decided by the Eurogroup on 15 February, would have quite simply been unimaginable some months ago. We are beyond a simple application of the European treaties, we are in the process of modifying them without saying so, in order to bring about a economic government of the eurozone.” Quatremer concludes that “Paris and Berlin are still not on the same page.”
The Telegraph reports that the head of Germany’s debt agency has strongly hinted at a Greek rescue, saying that if Greece is allowed to default the eurozone may go with it. Carl Heinz Daube, Director of Germany’s Finanzagentur debt agency, said, “If one member of the eurozone were to step out for any reason, this would be a collapse of the entire system. It would mean that after ten years, the euro experiment has ended.”
The FT notes that the Greek government is expected to announce further austerity measures worth up to €3.6bn or 1.5 percent of GDP, after visits from the European Commission and the IMF this week. It is expected that the set of measures will include a rise in value added tax, fuel tax, duties on luxury goods and more cuts in civil servants’ salary allowances.
In Prospect magazine, former IMF Chief Executive Simon Johnson argues that “The EU’s leaders will try hard to keep the IMF at bay. This is not good news for Greece - or for anyone who cares about global financial stability.”
The FT reports that Spanish ministers have been trying to ensure confidence in their austerity program, discussing the merits of a public sector pay freeze and urging opposition politicians to agree common policies against the crisis.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports that the US Federal Reserve and the Securities Exchange Commission are to launch an inquiry into Goldman Sachs’ role in masking Greece’s debt burden.