Greece: Cradle of class struggle

Given the oppressive and criminal role of Western imperialism in the world today, it is no compliment to call Greece the “cradle of Western civilization.” But it is true that this summer Greece is the cradle of the class struggle against that same imperialist ruling class. In the past two years the unions there — those in the union federation called PAME — have held 20 general strikes, the last one for two consecutive days on June 28-29.

Along with the well-organized and politically clear anti-capitalist and anti-banker program of the PAME labor unions and their allies in the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), there have been tens of thousands of “indignant ones” — not yet organized, but anti-establishment people, including many youths — marching and demonstrating in Athens’ Syntagma Square. They are attempting to convince the Parliament to choose to serve the workers in Greece rather than the bankers in France and Germany.

On June 29 the Georges Papandreou government — his PASOK party is nominally “Socialist” but is in reality a complete tool of the international and local big capitalists — passed the latest austerity program. Papandreou then unleashed the Greek cops against the demonstrators in the square, injuring 500 of our sisters and brothers there. The austerity plan not only cuts social services and public worker jobs, but is offering the remaining nationalized industries for sale to the rich. It even allows corporations to lease Greek islands.

To understand the heroism shown by the workers in Greece, you have to know that they are combating not only the Greek bankers and capitalists but their more powerful co-criminals in France and Germany. The banks in these imperialist powers — along with the big capitalists and bankers in Greece itself — are using Papandreou to squeeze money out of the workers that the Greek government owes these banks as interest payments on loans.

But it wasn’t the workers who got the benefit of these loans — it was the Greek capitalist class.

The terms of payment are set by the European Central Bank, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, called the “Troika,” which is a relatively benign term considering that they — along with the bosses in Greece — represent the biggest thieves on the continent.

Elisseos Vagenas, member of the Central Committee of the KKE, wrote an article during the two-day strike that gives an overall picture. Here’s one point he makes in his conclusion:

“The communists in Greece support firmly that it is the plutocracy that must pay for the crisis as it is responsible for it. At the same time, the KKE believes that the struggle for every problem of the people must develop in the direction of organizing, concentrating and preparing broad popular and working-class forces not only in order to create better conditions for the sale of labor power but also for the overthrow of the exploitative system so as to pave the way for the people’s power and the people’s economy, for socialism.” (For the entire article, see inter.kke.gr.)

Think of the governors and mayors in the U.S. who are cutting pensions, enforcing evictions, laying off teachers and public workers, closing schools and firehouses to pay off bonds to the big U.S. banks and you get an idea of what is happening in Greece — and why U.S. imperialism backs Papandreou against the workers. The workers there are fighting for all of us, as well as for the workers of Portugal, Spain and Ireland whose increased servitude is also being planned by the Troika in cahoots with local capitalists.

There is no doubt that the struggle will be hard. But we can all take courage from the decision of the workers in Greece not to shrink before the challenge. The longer they hold on, the likelier a victory that seems impossible can become conceivable. It then can spread and move from being conceivable to being possible.

What class-conscious workers and all progressives in the other imperialist countries — including here in the United States — should be thinking about now is this: What can we do to help the workers in Greece hold on and win?

Long live the struggle of the workers and youth in Greece!