Biggest Strike Yet

October 19, 2011 By Jrme E. Roos Source: Roarmag

While Greece remained relatively quiet during the global day of action on October 15, there was a good reason for this. Activists, unions and action groups around the country were in the throngs of a massive week of strikes and direct actions that are set to culminate tomorrow into the second 48hour general strike in just four months. The Christian Science Monitor reports: The streets of Athens are lled with tension, and garbage. Sanitation workers, along with nearly all other civil servants, are on strike, leading to heaping piles of trash on corner after corner. But all Athenians are tensely bracing themselves for three key events this week in the ongoing tragedy that is the Greek sovereign debt crisis. The national newspapers proclaim in large 40-point type Hellish W eek, or more sarcastically It Begins the W eek of Thrills. Both are a reference to a massive 48-hour strike, beginning W ednesday, that may bring out as many as 50,000 to 60,000 protestors. The protest is timed for a controversial vote in parliament, scheduled for Thursday, that would eectively eliminate the minimum wage for millions of workers. Behind the scenes the race is on for a decision on whether or not Greece will receive any more debt forgiveness, ahead of a meeting with European nance ministers on Oct. 23 in Brussels. A Greek source in the protest sent us the following overview: The most impressive event of these days is the squatting of public services by public ocers. Last week, the Thessaloniki W ater Company workers built the entrance of their headquarters to stop the auctioning (to private contractors) of a portion of the citys network. The Electricity Company workers squatted the Bill Issuing oce, to prevent the issuing of bills which include an additional poll tax demanded by our creditors. The extra tax is around 5 euros per square meter of each house, regardless of the owners nancial condition. The

minister asked the intervention of judicial authorities in order to suppress the squat, and dozens of citizens came to support the unionists. Some 700 people were gathered outside the building until 23.00, amongst them many left-wing and anarchists who came to defend the squat. Both the Communist Party and Synaspismos (together good for some 20 percent of the vote) have asked their members and ocials not to pay the poll tax, and support citizens against the Electricity companys attempts to cut the power in their houses, should they refuse to pay . T hospitals in Athens, among them the biggest one in the country, are squatted by their wo doctors, as well as the Ministry of Health. The same source also sent us the following analysis: The strike climax is caused by the creditors demand to radically change labor relations both in the public and private sector. In the following days, a new legislation will be voted on (99% possibility of a YES) by the thin governmental majority . In the public sector, wages will be cut by 30-50% and 30.000 workers will be red (its anticonstitutional, but who cares?!) in one year. Just to give an example, a newly-appointed highschool teacher will be receiving 660 euros/month. The only public ocers excluded from the wage cut are the police, the army and the priests (!!!). The Greek church, whose fortune is unimaginable, is practically paying no taxes at all, yet the priests are considered public servants and are paid directly by the state. In the private sector, the creditors demanded the reduction of the basic wage (~700 euros for people over 25, 540 for people under 25), and all productive branch or corporate agreements to be weaker than individual employment contracts. In exchange, they will allow Greece to ocially default (it is now in a status of partial or temporary default), and chop down its debt by another 40-60% (a 20% haircut has already been agreed during a July EU summit). Then, they will privatize practically all Greek infrastructure, including water, electricity, gas, and all public services. It is both tragic and ridiculous, the consortium that rushed into making an oer for the W ater Company of Thessaloniki includes companies that were previously involved with the Bolivian water privatization (one might remember that they had pushed a legislation in Bolivia which prohibited residents to gather even rain water!). Finally, he sent us some humanitarian news: T eachers of an Athenian community department went on a spontaneous demonstration in their neighborhoods streets, after the fainting of three students due to hunger, and the suicide of a students parent due to nancial problems. Apart from the 100% raise in suicides (750 extra per year), various health problems have emerged in the Greek society,

including a 30% raise in the AIDS infections and the re-appearance of malaria (!).

From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives URL: http://www.zcommunications.org/biggest-strike-yet-by-j-r-me-e-roos