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Greece No to blackmail
No compromise with austerity

veryone who hates the Tories and

austerity should stand in solidarity
with the Greek people as they battle
vicious blackmail from the bosses,
bankers, the European Union (EU)
and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF).
We urge and hope that the result will
be a resounding No vote to the latest
austerity plans.
The Greek economy has shrunk by
a quarter over the last five years. It is
suffering an economic crisis on the scale
that Germany and the US went through
in the 1930s Great Depression.
Greek workers, young people and
pensioners have paid bitterly for this
crisis. A quarter of the population is
unemployed. Successive governments
have slashed pensions and wages to
poverty levels. A million Greeks no
longer have access to healthcare.

Whose bailouts?

The solution offered by the EU and

IMF? Even more cuts and privatisations.
Their bailouts have helped the banks,
especially those from Germany and
France, which had lent money to Greece.
But not the Greek people.
Over 90 percent of the funds from
the EU and IMF have gone straight to
pay off bankers. But it is ordinary Greeks
who are told to pay back all of the EU
and IMFs loans.
Syriza was elected in January on
a programme of ending austerity,
demanding relief from Greeces
punishing debts, stopping privatisation
and boosting the living stands of workers
and pensioners.
But the EU and IMF have no time
for democracy. They will use all the
unelected economic and political power
to force Syriza to ditch its democratic
mandate and to impose yet more
austerity.
It is brutal confirmation that power
does not ultimately lie in parliament.
Syriza has made too many concessions
to the blackmailers. It has offered to
carry on and deepen the privatisation

programme, including in the key port of

Pireaus.
It agreed last week further pension
reforms and to hike taxes further. It
has remained imprisoned by its logic of
staying inside the EU at all costs.
But massive resistance to yet more
austerity forced the government not
to sign an agreement and to call a
referendum.

A step forward

This development is a step forward

for all those who have fought against
austerity the dockers who went on
strike against the privatisation of Piraeus
port, the hospital workers who went on
strike calling for more money and more
staff for the health service, the thousands
who came out against the agreement.
This is the force that has said no to
blackmail and no to compromise.
A massive No vote on Sunday will
deepen this resistance. But it should not
stop there.
There must be demands on Syriza to
implement the promises it made in order to
get elected.
This means cancelling the old and
new memorandums, providing work
for the unemployed, increasing wages,
pensions and money for schools,
hospitals and local government.
The money to fund them should come
from:
Cancelling the debtimmediately with
no exceptions.

Nationalising all the banks.

Leaving the euro and embarking on a
struggle for workers control.
Such a course can come only through a
huge mobilisation from below. It cannot
be left to the politicians or to clever
manoeuvres.
If Greek workers resist they will
receive huge support from millions of
people sick of neoliberalism, austerity
and racism throughout Europe.
It is our duty to fight austerity here,
and be part of a great wave of revolt
across Europe.
It is a time for bold measures ones
that challenge austerity by challenging
a capitalist system that destroys lives to
boost profits and protect the rich.

Join the
debate at
Marxism 2015
9-13 July,
central
London
A five day
political
festival
Hosted by
Socialist
Workers
Party

Meetings include:
Syriza in power: whither
Greece? A debate between
Stathis Kouvelakis (Syriza)
and Alex Callinicos
Resistance across Europe
Is Podemos the future?
Poulantzas and
Eurocommunism
How should socialists vote in
the EU referendum?

Book now: www.marxismfestival.org.uk

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Greece 29/06/15