LabourStart headline - Source: BBC

More... (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21192096)

I heard on NBC news this morning that the EU was on the climb out of the recession. I guess they are climbing over the broken bodies of Greek and Spanish workers.


This is having a major knock-on impact on the wider Greek economy, with the unemployment rate hitting 26.8% earlier this month, the highest figure recorded in the EU.

Funny, the optimistic report on the tv this morning didn't mention this little tidbit. I guess suffering Greek workers don't mean shit in the "big picture" of EU success. Still, Germany has to feel some pressure - France is kicking ass like John Wayne all over Africa, and all Germany gets to do is hold the coats...and wallets...

I heard on NBC news this morning that the EU was on the climb out of the recession. I guess they are climbing over the broken bodies of Greek and Spanish workers.



Funny, the optimistic report on the tv this morning didn't mention this little tidbit. I guess suffering Greek workers don't mean shit in the "big picture" of EU success. Still, Germany has to feel some pressure - France is kicking ass like John Wayne all over Africa, and all Germany gets to do is hold the coats...and wallets...

The Krauts are having it all their own way anyways and that is the nut of it, eh?


Since the Nazis had failed to reshape the world to benefit German imperialism, the "July 20th conspirators" were planning a “peaceful” economic conquest of Europe and overseas territories. They therefore wished to preserve the economic power of imperialist Germany after the war and to provoke disputes between Western powers.

The "July 20th conspirators" thought to strengthen the rule of German monopolies in post-war Europe by creating an "Economic Structure of Europe" where Germany would "lead the European bloc" and play the same role in it "as Prussia in Germany".

So let the Franks play, do the grunt work, work out a century of ass whuppings too, the Germans will get their chunk up the food chain without great alarums.

http://www.gijoecanada.com/images/aip-9801_fort%20morocco%20display.jpg

Cause who better to inflict an occupation than a gang of thugs with nasty rap sheets.

French thugs working for German bosses? Vichy, anyone? And, to be fair, in Libya and in Syria, they got American thugs working for the German bosses, so, that's the general company being kept...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Striking bus drivers in Athens have defied a court order to return to their jobs, extending last week's protests by subway employees over government-imposed salary cuts for public sector workers.

A Union representing public bus drivers in the Greek capital continued their rolling 24-hour strikes Monday, a day after a court ruled their protest illegal. Trolley-bus and national rail service workers, however, agreed to end their strikes.

The strikes were called to protest a government decision to cancel their annual pay agreements and impose additional cuts as part of an overhaul in public sector salary payments.

The action was taken as part of cash-strapped Greece's commitments to its international bailout creditors.

Last week, the conservative-led government issued an emergency decree — known as a civil mobilization order — that forced striking subway workers to end an eight-day strike.

"This tactic of mobilization, to blackmail us, will not work," said Leonidas Skoulas, leader of the striking public bus workers' union. "We are ready at any moment to start a level-headed dialogue with the government."

Workers at Greece's Public Power Corporation have called a 24-hour strike for Thursday, while other public servants are planning work stoppages on that day.

Greece has survived on emergency loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund since 2010, but imposed successive rounds of punishing cuts that have hammered jobs and the economy.

Public sector workers have seen their income axed by as much as 50 percent with the latest reductions. A new round of tax hikes and the elimination of certain family benefits will start this week.

Under new pay scales, the country's top diplomats, military officials, and academics on a state salary all receive net monthly pay of less than €2,000 ($2,690).

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/01/28/greece-bus-drivers/1870035/

Under new pay scales, the country's top diplomats, military officials, and academics on a state salary all receive net monthly pay of less than €2,000 ($2,690).

I bet those bus drivers would "settle" for that kind of raise. Military and academic thugs get $2700 a month and bus drivers get the shaft - oh yeah, the EU is on the mend! And if anyone wants to tell me 2700 a month isn't a lot, you will need to tell somebody else...

I bet those bus drivers would "settle" for that kind of raise. Military and academic thugs get $2700 a month and bus drivers get the shaft - oh yeah, the EU is on the mend! And if anyone wants to tell me 2700 a month isn't a lot, you will need to tell somebody else...

You also have to note that it says NET of $2700 which means that all taxes and witholdings and whatever else have been deducted. Bit of a verbal trick there.

You also have to note that it says NET of $2700 which means that all taxes and witholdings and whatever else have been deducted. Bit of a verbal trick there.

Yeah, I missed that. So the "right" people are feeling it all a little less severely...figgers...

7 February 2013

“Siege” laws to end strikes in Greece
By Nikos Chrysoloras and Katerina Penna



Greek seamen were forced back to work yesterday morning after a six-day strike, as the Greek government invoked rarely used emergency powers to end their protest.

The country’s sailors demand back pay for months of unpaid wages, a collective wage agreement and an end to undocumented and uninsured employees.

They also object to government budget cuts as well as a new draft law, which will weaken their union, the Panhellenic Seamen’s Federation (PNO).


Ferries remain docked during a fifth day of strike by Greek dock workers in the port of Piraeus, near Athens (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
The draft law, which aims to introduce a new employment contract between ship owners and crew, is met by PNO’s concerns of increased unemployment amongst seafarers.

“The law wipes out the seamen’s profession and all the rules underpinning it,” the PNO union said.

The strike, which started last Thursday, had begun causing shortages on grocery shelves, in Greece’s islands, and was hindering agricultural exports to the Balkans and beyond, according to a statement by the Athens Central Vegetable Market Association.

Also, earlier this week, the Chamber of Commerce of the Cyclades Islands Complex warned the strike was preventing treatment of serious medical cases and even blocking the transport of dead bodies for burial.

“We’re not giving into petty politics when shortages abound and public health is at risk,” said Merchant Marine Minister Costas Mousouroulis.

“My door is always open for the seamen so that both sides can engage in constructive dialogue, starting even from today,’’ he added.

Right after the Greek three-party coalition government implemented the civil mobilisation order – the second such order in two weeks – yesterday morning at 6.00 a.m., thousands of demonstrators belonging the Greek Communist Party’s (KKE) Union, PAME, gathered at the port of Pireus.

The protestors marched to the Ministry of Shipping and Maritime Affairs, to support the striking seamen and oppose the order, while PNO announced that the strikes will continue despite the government’s orders.

At the same time, Greece’s two main unions, GSSE and ADEDY, also went on strike in Athens yesterday to declare their solidarity with the seamen.

The strike affected all public services and included a four-hour work stoppage by public transport workers.

“ Civil mobilisation orders are considered a last-ditch measure in Greece and have been issued only 10 times since the collapse of the country’s military dictatorship in 1974. ”

Four of them have been issued since the start of Greece’s debt crisis in 2009.

“Democracy is under threat,” said Panayiotis Lafazanis, a member of the left Syriza party, which has openly criticised the previous socialist PASOK government for signing a bailout agreement with the IMF/ECB/EU Troika.

“People are suffering, bleeding, and the government’s claim to austerity isn’t convincing,” Lafazanis said.

“The government isn’t playing by the rules of democracy. It’s brandishing a perverse form of democratic dictatorship,” he added.

PNO also accused the government of “unprecedented violence and terrorism” in a statement released yesterday evening, while union-members decided to participate in a general strike, which has been organised by GSEE and ADEDY, for February 20.

The three-party coalition had last used the order – those who defy it risk arrest and jail time of up to five years – to end an eight-day metro workers’ strike in January.

“The government must know that the systematic undermining of union and labour laws violates the country’s constitution and international and European agreements that protect workers’ rights,” the civil servants union ADEDY said in a statement.

It described the measure as an “anti-democratic practice of criminalising labour and strike action”.

This has been a particularly difficult week for Greece, as the country’s farmers have taken their tractors to the streets since January 25, to protest against new tax regulations and budget cuts.

“ In their latest wave of protest, Greek farmers once again voiced their anger over lower tax refunds and fuel subsidies, and the increased amount of social security contributions they must pay. ”

The farmers are also threatening to keep the roads blocked indefinitely, as Greece’s latest austerity package mandates lower tax refunds and fuel subsidies for farmers, and increases the social security contributions they must pay.

“We have no choice but to go on, we’re on the brink of desperation,” one farmer told state television NET.

The Greek government is holding talks with the protesters but refuses to budge on any demands that might undermine its deficit cutting efforts, a condition of bailout funds and debt relief from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

As a result, civil unrest is once again in a boiling point, since the sheer volume of contractionary and deflationary measures, as well as political uncertainty, have led to an unprecedented increase in unemployment, now estimated close to 27 per cent.


http://www.thebellforum.com/showthread.php?t=89948

Hands off the strike of the seamen

Today, Wednesday 6th February 2012, the seamen are on the ramps of the ships, in their 3rd consecutive 48-hour strike. They continue their strike against the draft law that creates a bleak future for the islands, dismantling the coastal shipping network and the ports, handing them over fully to monopoly capital, condemning the seamen to work without collective agreements and rights. The seamen are struggling against the draft law of the government, defending their labour rights, the collective bargaining agreements so that the passengers can travel safely, with modern ships, with low-price tickets and crews with established rights all year round. They call the working people and the popular strata in the islands, all the working people in shipping industry to join this struggle.

On Tuesday afternoon the coalition government of the liberals, social democrats and the opportunist “Democratic Left” implemented the law of civil mobilization against the strike struggle of the seamen. Thus, it continued its “show of force” towards the working people. This decision follows the implementation of this law against the workers in the Metro and the intervention of the riot police and the arrest of 35 trade unionists of PAME last week. The trade-unionists of PAME were protesting against the provocative statements of the Minister of Labour who talked about a social-security system built on the basis of clientelism.

It is not the first time that the seamen have received an order of civil mobilization by the governments that serve the interests of the ship-owners. At the same time, the government tried in a provocative way to set up strike-breaking mechanisms within the ships. It sent the riot police to impose the loading of the ships by force while it mobilized the bourgeois media of the ship-owners that slander the struggle of the seamen and pretend that they care about the population of the islands and the farmers, who allegedly due to the strike have no access to shipping services or transport for their products.

As the islanders and poor and medium farmers know very well that for many years they do not have access to shipping services because the ship-owners only schedule shipping routes with their profits as the criterion. At the same time the farmers see their harvests being reduced, due to the consequences of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The effort of the government to make sections of the popular strata turn against the strikers is a real provocation, because while it implements the law of the civil mobilization against the seamen in the name of its alleged concern about the farmers and their products, it sends the riot police to the main barricade of the small and medium sized farmers in the Thessaly. The hundreds of farmers who are there with their tractors (over 2000 tractors) at the initiative of the forces of the All-Farmers Militant Rally (PASY) met the savage repression of the police forces that seek to disperse the mass barricade of the poor farmers who are struggling against the measures of the government and the EU that are driving them off the land.

The decision for the civil mobilization of the seamen reveals the unbridled authoritarianism of the government, with which it is attempting to impose the new demands of the ship-owners and the big businessmen in tourism, at the expense of the seamen as well as the other popular strata who live on the islands. As the KKE has stressed, the lies, blackmail and savage repression through the utilization of reactionary laws must fail and backfire on the government. Despite the mobilization of the entire repressive mechanism, the strike continues on the majority of the ships. And those seamen who due to the intimidation, the riot police, and the blackmail were compelled to untie the ships, declared with their statements that they support the strike and their striking colleagues. All the sections of the workers and popular strata in a practical way are standing decisively at the side of the seamen in a wave of militant solidarity, by organizing a solidarity strike in the private and public sector in the region of Attica on Wednesday 6/2.

The presence of the GS of the CC of the KKE, Aleka Papariga herself, was an expression of the party’s support for the struggle of the seamen. She visited the port, midday on Saturday, to take part in the strike demonstration of the seamen. She made the following statement:


“At the same time, when the bosses of the Greek shipping industry are in the no. 1 position globally, a draft law is being prepared which will drive thousands of seamen, the last who have remained after a series of other measures that have been taken, which had at their core the abolition of the cabotage, into unemployment. At the same time, when Greece has the potential to resolve the problem of communication with the islands, a large number of our islands face a serious problem both in winter and even in the summer, as the only thing which interests the bosses is the functioning of those ships which bring currency for the large hotel groups.

We call on the workers, the employees, the professionals and craftsmen, the farmers together with the seamen to wage a struggle, which has crucial significance and above all to show their solidarity, because without class solidarity the measures will be passed even sooner and they will be even more savage.”


Workers from other sectors, People’s Committees, Unemployed Committees from the region of Piraeus, with a special presence of contingents from PAME and MAS (Students’ Struggle Front), formed a mass and dynamic strike demonstration in the port, lending strength to the seamen so that they can continue the fight.


This struggle has already taken its place as a legacy for the working class, with the stamp of the class-oriented forces in the protection and development of the struggle, the support of sections of the working class from other sectors, as well as of the farmers and self-employed, above all of course of the islanders. This struggle can be escalated with the nationwide general strike which has been announced for the 20/2.

There is an immediate need for the international support and solidarity to be expressed in the face of this display of authoritarianism by the government and its “law and order” operation so that class solidarity can be expressed in a decisive way.

Hands off the seamen

http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2013/2013-02-06-naftergates/

Strike Law Change Splits Greek Coalition


Greece’s wobbly coalition is showing further signs of strain after the PASOK Socialists and tiny Democratic Left (DIMAR) objected to plans to make it more difficult for workers to strike.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras heads a government that is led by his New Democracy Conservatives and his Labor Minister, Yiannis Vroutsis, said he wants strikes to require the vote of a majority of union members and give management the right to lock out workers if they fail to return.

Samaras twice this year has issued civil mobilization orders forcing Metro workers and seamen to go back to their jobs under the threat of arrest or losing their jobs. He was backed by PASOK and DIMAR, but now they said he’s going too far.

“Mr. Vroutsis and other ministers who are New Democracy members need to understand that they are not promoting their party’s policies but the program of a coalition government,” said PASOK spokesperson Fofi Gennimata, according to the newspaper Kathimerini. “There has been no understanding regarding changes to the law and we are against any such discussion,” she said.

Democratic Left’s Dimitris Chatzisokratis also stressed that his party had not consented to any change in the law regarding industrial action. The main opposition party Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) condemned the government for considering changes that it labeled as being against workers’ interests.

The government is imposing more austerity measures on the order of international lenders. Those include more pay cuts and tax hikes, to which the Metro workers and seamen have objected. The ship workers also are angry they haven’t been paid in more than six months.

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/02/11/strike-law-change-splits-greek-coalition/

Here the wisdom of KKE in not participating in the bourgeois government becomes apparent. Those 'left' parties who have will be tarred by these reactionary policies, KKE plays the long game.

Strike Law Change Splits Greek Coalition



Here the wisdom of KKE in not participating in the bourgeois government becomes apparent. Those 'left' parties who have will be tarred by these reactionary policies, KKE plays the long game.

Materialism will always out.

http://www.dw.de/image/0,,16613273_303,00.jpg

Thousands across Greece protest austerity

Tens of thousands have filled city streets across Greece in protest of the government's deep-cutting austerity measures. The 24-hour general strike comes amid projections of 30 percent unemployment this year.

An estimated 40,000 people marched through the capital city on Wednesday in an effort to curb fiscal policies they say are damaging recovery efforts.

"We won't become slaves in the 21st century," read one banner spotted at a union march in Athens.

Unions called the strike to force the government to do more for workers, including strengthen collective bargaining rights and heal the ailing labor market.

Among the tens of thousands on Wednesday were at least 15,000 members of a union linked to Greece's communist party, carrying banners with "No to modern sweatshops, hands off collective labor agreements."

Officials in Thessaloniki estimated that 15,000 protesters were carrying out demonstrations.

While most protests remained peaceful, there were reports shortly after midday indicating that police in Athens fired teargas at hooded youths who had been throwing bottles.

24-hour strike brings life to a halt

The nationwide strike began on Wednesday morning across the public and private sectors in Greece, bringing public transportation to a halt and reducing hospital staffs to skeleton crews. Unions called on members across the country to stage walkouts as a sign of resistance to wage cuts and higher taxes.

"[This] is our answer to the dead-end policies that have squeezed the life out of workers, impoverished society and plunged the economy into recession and crisis," said the union GSEE, according to the news agency Reuters. The private sector union said it was protest action with its public-sector sister union ADEDY.

"Our struggle will continue for as long as these policies are implemented," it said.

The general secretary of the civil servants union ADEDY told the news agency Associated Press that Wednesday's protests were not just another strike, but rather a signal to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' government from the people.

"The Greek people have no tolerance left," said ADEDY General Secretary Ilias Iliopoulos.

"For us, the time has come for a major confrontation with the government ... and policies that are taking our country from bad to worse and leading people to poverty and desperation."

The Greek government has implemented tough austerity measures over the past year to prove to foreign lenders its ability to lift the country out of debt. The widely unpopular economic policies, which sparked numerous demonstrations and strikes throughout late 2012, ultimately won over lenders.

In recent months, the EU and the International Monetary Fund separately agreed to the release of rescue funds. Eurozone finances ministers granted Greece 34 billion euros ($45.6 billion) from the Euro rescue fund ESM, as well as an additional 15 billion euros to be released during the first quarter of 2013. A few weeks later, the IMF announced the release of 3.24 billion euros.

Despite the good news for Greece, there are widespread fears that unemployment will reach 30 percent this year. Strikes have continued, prompting the government to take more extreme measures against demonstrators. Since the beginning of 2013, the government has twice invoked emergency laws that forced strikes to the end by threatening protesters to return to work or face unemployment, and in some cases, jail time.

http://www.dw.de/thousands-across-greece-protest-austerity/a-16612903

Bolding added. Thought those dudes in the photo looked like KKE.

Thought those dudes in the photo looked like KKE.

Yeah, me too. Those "flag poles" are hard to miss - in more ways than one...hehe.

GENERAL STRIKE 20/02/13. Magnificent strike demonstration of PAME in Athens. It held mass rallies in over 70 towns.

snip

STATEMENTS OF THE GS OF THE CC OF THE KKE ALEKA PAPARIGA

AT THE STRIKE DEMONSTRATION OF PAME

A large delegation of the KKE, headed by Aleka Papariga, GS of the CC of the KKE, attended PAME’s strike demonstration. In the statements she made in Omonia, she underlined that: “The working people who are suffering must take a decision. To discover their strength and advance combatively, towards the rupture and overthrow, to the very end. Otherwise they will find themselves trapped against the wall.”

She noted in relation to the assault on the trade-unionist of PAME in the Lavrio region by members of the fascist “Golden Dawn”: “Golden Dawn is the Nazi hit squad of the system. And in this sense, it is of service to all those who wish to maintain this political line and to move forwards against the people. We denounce the assault against the trade-union cadre of PAME in the Lavrio region, an assault which is not of course unique and the people must finally teach Golden Dawn a lesson. They must socially isolate them, so that they cannot be found amongst or next to the workers without being on the receiving end of the political denunciation of the workers and without being politically isolated.”

THE FARMERS

The farmers at the Nikaia blockade (near the city of Larisa) symbolically closed the national road there, which connects Northern and Southern Greece, together with thousands of workers after the strike demonstrations in the 4 nearest towns (Larisa, Karditsa, Trikala and Volos).

Strong police forces at Kileler attempted to impede 6 coaches with striking workers who were heading for the blockade, but after the intense protests of the strikers, they opened the road.

The magnificent strike demonstrations which reached the blockades set up by the farmers’ struggle, answered the intransigence and authoritarianism of the government, as was stressed by the National Secretariat of PASY. It noted that the small and medium farmers are stronger because they have as their allies the working class and the other popular strata and stressed that the struggle will continue, will have many forms and will not cease.

The farmers who are continuing the coordinated struggle for their survival for 4 weeks are reinforcing their blockades all over the country and today participated in the strike demonstrations in many cities.

KKE: an undeniably resounding response to the government

The KKE stressed that the great participation in the demonstrations of PAME has been an undeniably resounding answer to the coalition government and to all those who seek to bring the working class to its knees, who seek to chain the people with lies, intimidation and authoritarianism.

In addition it noted that the participation of the seamen in the strike, who defied the order of civil mobilisation, the large joint demonstrations of workers, poor and medium sized farmers and the blockades of the farmers show the way that the working people and the popular strata must follow, even more decisively, in order to repel repression, in order to form a militant people’s alliance against the common enemy, the monopolies, the EU.

The KKE stresses that there should not be a moment’s rest. The barbaric anti-people measures and repression, the operation to deceive and trap the people will escalate. The battle will become even tougher. For that reason, the participation of the working people, of the unemployed and the young people in the struggle, in the organization of the struggle, above all in workplaces, in people’s neighbourhoods and villages, must NOW become more dynamic, more decisive and conscious.

The working class has not utilized yet its great power which lies in its class organization, in its political and ideological consciousness, stresses the KKE. The mass participation in the demonstrations of PAME showed that there are strong forces that can lend momentum to the regroupment of the labour movement, to the creation of a strong, emancipated, class-oriented labour movement that will be capable of impeding the reactionary plans of the government, the EU and capital, of leading the big social alliance that will put an end to exploitation and liberate the people from the power and the oppression of the monopolies.

PAME and PASY

PAME notes in its statement that there is a need to escalate the activity for the signing of a National Collective Bargaining Agreement, against the tax plundering, for the protection of the unemployed, for the satisfaction of the demands of the farmers. PASY underlines that small and medium sized farmers are more powerful because they have the working class and the other popular strata as their allies.

Messages of solidarity from all over the world

Greeting messages from many trade unions and labour organizations were read out at the demonstration. According to Rizospastis, the organ of the CC of the KKE, on the eve and the day of the strike the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE received messages of solidarity with the struggles of the working people in Greece, the trade unions which are rallied in PAME and the party of the working class, the KKE from the following 31 communist and workers’ parties:

(see link)

http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2013/2013-02-21-strike

Greeting messages from many trade unions and labour organizations were read out at the demonstration. According to Rizospastis, the organ of the CC of the KKE, on the eve and the day of the strike the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE received messages of solidarity with the struggles of the working people in Greece, the trade unions which are rallied in PAME and the party of the working class, the KKE from the following 31 communist and workers’ parties:

*Sigh* Not one US union, not one US socialist organization, not nothing. There are more than one communist party in several countries, I wonder if Canada and/or Mexico would help form a new US one? Just thinking out loud...

In case you were wondering what KKE is doing...


Important successes for the class-oriented forces in trade union elections

Another positive step forwards was taken by the workers in the country’s largest port, Piraeus, as well as in a series of important federations like those of the construction workers and the workers in the food and beverage industry, in the effort to change the correlation of forces in favour of the class-oriented forces. The workers by backing the lists supported by PAME, its framework of demands and line confirmed the bonds they have forged together with the class-oriented forces in tough class confrontations throughout the previous period, in a practical way.

At the 33rd Congress of the Piraeus Labour Centre, the geographically-based organization of trade unions in one of the country’s biggest cities, the workers gave the first position to the militant list “Democratic Unified Trade-union Initiative” (DESK), which is rallied in PAME and in which communists work, for the third time in a row. DESK received 43.5% of the vote and 8 seats on the executive committee in comparison to 36.3% and 7 seats which it had received in the previous elections.

In the elections for the 23rd Congress of the Construction-workers’ Federation, the class-oriented forces remain at the helm of the sector with a large majority. The “All-builders United Democratic List” (PEDS), which is supported by the class-oriented forces, received the votes of 156 congress representatives and 27 of the 31 seats on the National Board.

In addition, at the 28th Congress of the Federation of workers in the Dairy-Food-Beverage industry the class-oriented forces were further strengthened with 80% of the votes and received 12 out of the 15 seats on the National Board. Indeed, the full convergence of the forces of “Independent Intervention” (SYRIZA), PASKE (PASOK) and DAKE (ND) emerged, as they formed a joint “anti-PAME” list (They received altogether 3 seats), a continuation of the tactic which began in 2004.

These results are due to the tireless activity of the class-oriented forces in the workplaces, in the organization of the struggle to defend the rights of the workers, against the anti-people political line of capital, the government and the EU. The important strikes of the seamen and the lower mechanic crews who courageously faced the civil mobilization of the government, which cooperates with ship-owning capital, are characteristic. The confrontation regarding the collective bargaining agreement in the food and beverage industry is characteristic, or regarding the health and safety issues in the construction industry where PAME’s forces confronted the industrialists and the major construction companies in important strikes, workplace assemblies and dozens of militant mobilizations and other confrontations. Once again employer and government-led trade unionism was not able to fulfil its mission and change the correlation of forces in these trade unions and federations by using rigged elections in order to trap the workers and surrender them unconditionally to the appetites of capital. The recognition by the workers of PAME and its consistent class struggle highlights that the line of conflict with capital and also with the compromised leaderships is a precondition for the strengthening of the class-oriented forces. This is what can rally the workers and express their needs. For this reason we are escalating our struggles against the power of capital, to defend and fight for the needs of the families from the working class and popular strata, because the workers can live without bosses and capitalist exploitation.

http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2013/2013-03-01-pame-1dinami/

Indispensable work is what they're doing

In case you were wondering what KKE is doing...



Indispensable work is what they're doing

And victories! This is the best news I've heard in a long time. This is an example of what the working class can do when it has leadership, organization and discipline. It gives one heart.

The torture never stops.....


snip

Central to the EU’s action is a policy to drive down the wages and conditions of workers in all European countries to a level on a par with those in Eastern Europe, China and India.

In revealing comments prior to the last visit of the troika to Athens, a Greek representative of the Commission, Maria Damanaki, told To Vima FM radio, “The strategy of the European Commission over the past year and a half or two has been to reduce the labour costs in all European countries in order to improve the competitiveness of European companies over the rivals from Eastern Europe and Asia”.

This was the backdrop to meetings held late April between Kostas Hatzidakis, Greece’s Minister of Economy and Development, and the managing directors of 11 of the largest international companies operating in Greece. A report by GR Reporter noted that, “Eight of the eleven managers supported the idea that a [monthly] salary of 250 - 300 euro for part-time work could create new jobs.”

It cited the comments of the executive manager of Barilla Hellas George Spiliopoulous, who said, “I do not see why a minimum level of the salary should be maintained in a country where youth unemployment has reached incredible levels.”

It is this drive to destroy workers’ wages and conditions which accounts for the ruthlessness with which the EU has dealt with Cyprus and others, as well as the venality of their national governments in aiding its actions.

The ruling elite is moving rapidly to exploit the now catastrophic levels of unemployment, which stand at nearly 30 percent for adults and more than 60 percent for youth. With such demands, the ruling elite seeks to satiate itself even further just months after the government, under troika insistence, reduced the minimum wage for all under-25-year-olds by 25 percent, to €510 per month from €740. For a worker above 25, the minimum wage was cut by 22 percent to just €586 per month.

This week, the German federal statistics agency Destatis released research showing that in 2012, Greece was the only EU country to see a decrease in average labour costs in the private sector. According to the study, the cost of one hour worked, including non-wage elements, in the Greek private sector was €15.50 last year, down 6.8 percent from 2011.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/30/gree-m30.html