June 23rd Strike by Greek Workers : A resolute response to the capitalist and its supporters

Tens of thousands of striking workers participated in the demonstrations of All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME) on June 23 in Athens and in 60 cities across the country, declaring that they will not remain passive spectators of the slaughter of their rights, neither fall into the trap of the “lesser evil” set by the compromised trade union leaderships of GSEE and ADEDY. The strike demonstrations of PAME overcame the obstacles set by the government, the employers, and the yellow trade unionism along with other mechanisms e.g. media. The working people, the self-employed and the youth protested the barbaric policy of the social democrat government, the EU and the IMF which is also supported by the parties of ND and LAOS. Picket lines were mounted in numerous factories and workplaces throughout the country.

Once again, the port of Piraeus occupied centre stage. The strike organised by the seamen’s trade unions was declared illegal by the bourgeois tribunal. On the other hand, the ship-owners and their staff were deliberately sending tourists to the port although they knew that the strike was to take place as scheduled, using them as a vehicle for breaking the strike. Nevertheless, their efforts fell flat. For 24 hours, till the end of the strike no ship left the port while there was a wave of solidarity with the strike despite the ongoing bourgeois propaganda about “the abolition of legitimacy and institutions by PAME”. The bourgeoisie are particularly disturbed by the slogan “law is the rights of the workers” and for that reason they use all the dirty means in order to slander the struggles claiming that tourism is allegedly damaged by the strikes of PAME and not by the drastic reduction of the workers’ income.  At the same time GSEE and ADEDY did not participate in the strike functioning once again as a strike breaking mechanism.

Aleka Papariga, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece, made the following statement during the demonstration in Athens:

“All of us have to options: either the fatalist submission to poverty and misery that will spread even more or the counterattack with courage and endurance and the struggle for social and people’s prosperity”.

The success of the strike on June 23 constitutes a legacy for the escalation of the struggle and the determinance in the organisation of the new strike of PAME on 29 June against the offensive of the government, the EU, and the IMF on wages, collective labor agreements, social security and labor rights.