Unionists resist police attacks, fight austerity in Greece

The Greek Parliament passed a very stringent set of austerity measures March 5 that will cut public-sector salaries and freeze pensions for both public- and private-sector workers, cut services and raise taxes.

Public service workers will have their salaries cut by almost 15 percent and the retirement age for all workers will go up by two years.

The Communist-affiliated labor confederation PAME (All-Workers Militant Front), to which a number of public service workers belong, called a 24-hour strike on March 5 to protest Parliament passing this attack on workers. PAME held a mass demonstration at Syntagma Square in Athens’ center that morning, with other demonstrations and rallies in more than 62 cities throughout Greece.

Earlier, they had held a massive sit-in at the Ministry of Finance building in Athens and at a number of other government buildings throughout the country. On March 6 PAME members began occupying government printing offices to keep the austerity bill from being printed. (Agence France Presse, March 6).

Combined with the half-day strikes called by the biggest labor union confederation, GSEE, and the civil servants’ union, ADEDY, this action stopped mass transit, closed schools and limited service at hospitals. French television reported that Athens suffered from “a monster traffic jam” all day.

On March 5 in the afternoon there was a police attack on the rally called by the GSEE and ADEDY. The cops were shown on television using batons and tear gas, as well as kicking protesters, who fought back energetically, throwing stones and bottles at the cops. There were at least five arrests and seven cops injured.

Eighty-seven-year-old WWII resistance hero and former MP Manolis Glezos was hospitalized after a cop sprayed him with tear gas. (www.ekathimerini.com)

The Greek unions have announced another general strike for March 11.

“It is a tragedy for the people to lose their rights, to see their wages being cut down despite the long lasting struggles in the previous years, despite the sacrifices that led even to bloodshed. But above all it is a disgrace — and we do not believe that this will happen — for these barbarous measures to pass without the people’s resistance, without the people’s counterattack and even more so to give the impression that the people consent to these measures,” stressed Aleka Papariga, the leader of the Communist Party of Greece, at a special press conference. (inter.kke.gr)