General strike confronts bankers’ prime minister

The day after a general strike brought hundreds of thousands of workers into the streets and shut the country down for the seventh time this year, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told the European Union and international leaders that his government is still “determined” to continue with austerity policies that have lowered the purchasing power of poorer Greeks by 70 percent. (Guardian, Dec. 2)

Papademos is a former vice-president of the European Central Bank. Under orders from European finance capital, he replaced George Papandreou as prime minister in early November.

“The government may have changed but the policies it is intent on pursuing are totally unjust and do nothing to relieve recession, create development or improve the economy,” said Yiannis Panagopoulos, head of the Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), at a rally. “For this reason, alone, the government should expect sustained battle. We will resist. We will not desist.”

Teachers, tax collectors, doctors, lawyers, civil servants, transport workers, custom officials and sanitation workers walked off the job. Major tourist sites were closed and ferries that connect the mainland to the islands were also kept in port as dock workers stopped working. Air travel was also disrupted.

“People should not be afraid to rise up and go on the attack,” said Aleka

Papariga, general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). “To do otherwise will mean we will all end up living a tragedy. These inhuman, barbaric measures have to be stopped.” The KKE played a significant role in organizing this general strike day. (Guardian, Dec. 2)

Collapse of the euro, which is a real possibility, would have a major, hard-to-calculate impact on the world’s economy. The creation of the euro allowed Germany following reunification to become the second-largest exporter in the world, after China, by guaranteeing it free access at assured prices to many of its closest neighbors and the assurance of being paid in a currency that it could immediately use.

But once the euro bubble burst, Germany and its major partner France found their financial control over the euro insufficient.

The joint action by five of the world’s biggest central banks last week to increase dollar liquidity of the big European banks is just a stopgap measure. A meeting is planned for Dec. 8-9 in Berlin in order to set up a mechanism to impose so-called “voluntary” budgetary discipline on the European countries in danger of default.

The headline the New York Times used to describe its story on this conference was “Merkel seeks swift action on what may be long job to save the euro.” (Dec. 3) The Wall Street Journal, the other major organ of the U.S. bourgeoisie, headlined “A euro crisis deal emerges.” The Times expressed pessimism about the chances of a euro survival, while the WSJ appears to see a greater chance of quickly resolving the sovereign debt crisis.

Whatever the future of the euro, Greek workers have decided on their course of action: mass struggle and general strikes.