Greek government survives but working class prepares for 48-hour general strike

The powerful 24-hour general strike and the mass demonstrations of June 15 in Greece demonstrated how deep the anger of the Greek working masses runs. It served to send the ruling class a warning: that this is no ordinary protest movement, but one with revolutionary connotations. That is why they hurriedly patched together a new government, in the hope of cutting across the movement. But to no avail!

The government and the opposition New Democracy party, in a state of confusion and under the pressure – or rather orders – of the “troika”, tried in the afternoon of the day of the general strike to form a coalition government which would have a stronger parliamentary majority to carry out the "dirty work" that until now the PASOK leadership was doing on its own.

However, the immense movement of the masses, with the working class and labour movement now in the lead, threw these efforts out of the window. Especially the amazing return of thousands of people to Syntagma Square in the afternoon of June 15, in spite of the ruling class’s attempts to derail the protest by using hooded agents-provocateurs, was a clear indication of the working people’s determination to resist the austerity measures and it was this that made the New Democracy leaders more hesitant about participating in government.

The leadership of New Democracy – although to all intents and purposes it stands for an even more draconian policy than that of the present government – feared that participation in a coalition government at a time when the vast majority of the people were involved in or supported the movement could lead to them discrediting themselves prematurely and thus no longer being a useful political backup for sinking Greek capitalism. That explains why Mr Samaras deliberately presented some conditions that could not be accepted at this stage by either the government or the “troika”. Thus he avoided having to face the broad mass of the people who hate the Papandreou government.

The government reshuffle and its aims

Immediately after the breakdown of negotiations for the formation of a coalition government with New Democracy, the government's efforts focused on attempting to avoid having to call early elections which would have meant delaying the vote in parliament on the “Mid-Term” Plan. It did this by using the old trick of a cabinet reshuffle.

Papandreou during cabinet meeting, 22 June. Photo: Prime Minister of Greece The government and the ruling class feared that postponing the vote on the “Mid-Term” Plan in conditions of political and social instability would strengthen those within the “troika” who are already saying that the option of “helping” Greece with another loan, or even to provide the remaining instalments of this current one is pointless.

There was another element that convinced them that a cabinet reshuffle was the better option. They desperately needed to avoid a historical precedent of a government being overturned by a mass movement, something that would weaken any future government of capital in Greece.

The reshuffle aims to raise the profile of their preferred successor to the hated George Papandreou, the favourite of the major media groups, Mr Vagelis Venizelos. The objective is to keep PASOK united and under the control of the ruling class. In spite of all this, the ruling class understands that the reshuffle has not solved their problems. They have no illusions that the people will easily abandon the squares. They look with terror at recent polls that show that over two million people have been participating in the movement (out of a population of about 11 million), and despite the official lies of their own media, they can see that a PASOK-ND coalition would not win the consent of the people. Only 8% indicated support for such an option according to a poll by Kapa Research two months ago published in the newspaper To Vima).

The Greek bourgeoisie and its international backers in the “troika” now have no other option but to support with all their might this “reformed” government, which yesterday won the vote of confidence in parliament. At the same time they are counting on the fact that the leaderships of the Left [KKE and SYRIZA] will continue with their present mistaken policies, such that the elections that will inevitably be held in the near future do not produce any unpleasant surprises for the elite.

We get the “mid-term” plan while they make super profits

On pages 69-72 of the 2011 Government Budget the following information is provided:

Spending on salaries and pensions does not exceed 19.8 billion Euros.
Regular state revenues are estimated at 56 billion Euros.
The sum dedicated to loan re-payments amounts to 62 billion Euros.

It is obvious from these figures that the loans provided by the “troika” are not provided to pay salaries and pensions. Nor are the cuts and privatisations for the same purpose. It is all for the sake of repaying loan sharks – lenders, both domestic and foreign.

The “Mid-Term” Plan is the latest fruit of this policy. It includes austerity measures, increased taxation and privatisations worth €28.26 billion, or 12% of Greek GDP for the years 2011 to 2015.

Specifically, this includes:

Wage cuts of €2.2 billion.
Pension and other social security cuts of €5 billion.
Increased contributions from workers and pensioners on Social Security of €3 billion.
Increases in taxes, cuts in social benefits and tax relief and increases in road tax, amounting to €6 billion.
Massive privatisation – selling off of state assets amounting to €50 billion.

On the other hand, while the workers suffer so the usurers can be paid, the Greek ruling class prospers, as the following points clearly indicate:

Greek ship owners continue to enjoy 44 different tax breaks from the Greek State. In the first five months of 2011 alone they emerged as champions in buying and selling boats worldwide, investing more than $1.9 billion to buy 67 ships of all kinds, according to data from the brokerage house Allied Shipbroking.
From 2004 to 2009 the assets of the banks increased from 275 billion Euros to 579 billion Euros, reaching a level twice the GDP of the country!
Taxation of profits of the big corporations in recent years has fallen from 45% to 20%.
Total tax evasion of the middle classes is estimated by the government to be 50 billion Euros annually.
According to estimates of the Tax Office SDOE (Ta Nea, 05.11.2009), the number of “offshore” companies that belong to Greek capitalists is in excess of 10,000 and these have an annual turnover of about 500 billion!

48-hour general strike must be prelude to all-out general strike

The most important element in recent days has been the decisive entry of the labour movement onto the scene. The labour movement is now counter-attacking and is objectively at the head of the mass protests.

On June 6 we witnessed a united general strike in all public enterprises and throughout the public sector, which paralysed the country. The following day, the GENOP-DEI (the trade union in the public electricity company) decided to launch repeated 48-hour strikes, which are already under way.

Last week, the POE-OTA (municipal workers’ union) became the first mass workers’ union to support the call for an all out extended political general strike. On June 15 we saw an escalation of the counterattack of the labour movement, with the massive 24-hour general strike.

Now, as the workers face the determination of this new government (after the cabinet reshuffle) to pass the “Mid-Term” Plan they are “clenching their teeth” and preparing for another offensive. The fact that the leadership of the GSEE has called a 48-hour general strike on the days of the parliamentary debate and vote on the “Mid-Term” Plan, shows what enormous pressure the trade union bureaucracy is under from the rank and file. It shows the degree of willingness on the part of the workers to struggle and make sacrifices in what they see as a decisive struggle.

Support for an all out political general strike has grown among the masses and this slogan today is the only one that meets the needs of the moment and it must be called. The 48-hour general strike called by the GSEE should be in preparation for an all out extended political general strike. But how should workers and youth organise such an unusual mass strike?

Mass meetings in the workplaces must elect strike committees that will organise the action locally and that will be coordinated with the action committees elected by the popular assemblies, forming at national level a Centralised National Action Committee.
The strike committees should conduct an organized campaign for mass participation in the strike in the workplaces where private sector unions do not exist. If any company dares to sack workers who participate in the strike these workplaces should be occupied.
In a joint effort, labour and popular assemblies have to discuss and organize the setting up of strike funds to support the strikers and organise soup kitchens for those working class families that would have difficulty in surviving.
Picket lines must be organised at each workplace. With the cooperation of the pickets and the People's Assembly of Syntagma Square, defence squads of the most decisive and strongest sections of the movement must be immediately set up, adequately equipped to protect the mass demonstrations and rallies against the violent actions of disguised police agents provocateurs.
The all out political general strike raises the question of power and the movement must therefore have a clear and unambiguous answer to this question. The Centralised National Action Committee, elected through the labour and popular assemblies, should be ready to replace the power of the “troika” and the banks and place the concentrated wealth of the country under the control of the masses.

The leadership of the Left is lagging behind what is really required

The leaders of the KKE (Communist Party) and SYRIZA instead of acting to strengthen and lead the movement in the direction of demanding a fundamental, revolutionary change in society, have simply been calling for elections as soon as possible.

The political demands they are raising, in the eyes of the masses, seem to align them with the bourgeois parties of New Democracy, LAOS and Democratic Alliance, seeking elections as a last resort to halt the mass movement. With this approach, the left leaders send out the message that they prefer the prospect of winning a few more seats in the bourgeois parliament over the interest of the mass movement which is beginning to challenge the clearly undemocratic nature of the existing bourgeois regime.

Photo: Piotrus This monotonous repetition of the call for early elections at a time when the mass movement is shaping political developments and is ready to overthrow the government, together with the fact that the very leaders of the Left have not prepared the ground for a clear alternative government that could emerge from such elections, and also clearly revealing with the positions they have adopted that they do not want to take power, does a great disservice both to the movement itself and to the Left.

It is true that the fact that the leaderships of both the KKE and SYRIZA are calling for elections does not mean that they have the same approach towards the movement. The approach of the leadership of the Communist Party to the movement is openly and defiantly cold and hostile. The leadership of the Communist Party has been concentrating its efforts on organising party gatherings to insulate ordinary rank and file communists from the movement and to undermine rather than support and develop it. The General Secretary of the party refuses even to call it a “movement” and in derogatory terms describes those who have been participating in it as “former allies of the PASOK and New Democracy”!

The leadership of SYNASPISMOS (and SYRIZA), on the other hand, while appealing for participation in the movement, do not openly state what proposals they have to develop it further and to lead it to victory. They adopt an attitude of passive support, as if all they are looking for is future electoral gains from those involved.

So, what should the leaders of the Left (KKE and SYRIZA) do to intervene constructively in a movement that is assuming more and more revolutionary features as each day passes? It is worth quoting here a relevant excerpt from the work of a great communist revolutionary:

“To utilize the favourable possibilities it is necessary to have a revolutionary will, an iron determination to conquer, a bold and perspicacious leadership…
“There is no need of inventing means of struggle. They are provided by the whole history of the world working-class movement…
“A concentrated campaign in the working-class press pounding steadily on the same key; real socialist speeches from the tribune of parliament, not by tame deputies but by leaders of the people; the utilization of every electoral campaign for revolutionary purposes; repeated meetings to which the masses come not merely to hear the speakers but to get the slogans and directives of the hour; the creation and strengthening of the workers’ militia; well organized demonstrations driving the reactionary bands from the streets; protest strikes; an open campaign for the unification and enlargement of the trade-union ranks under the banner of resolute class struggle; stubborn, carefully calculated activity to win the army over to the cause of the people; broader strikes; more powerful demonstrations; the general strike of toilers of town and country; a general offensive... for the workers’ and peasants’ power…
“There is still time to prepare for victory… From the depths of the masses come vibrant echoes to every bold word, every truly revolutionary slogan. The masses want the struggle.
“It is not the spirit of combination among parliamentarians and journalists, but the legitimate and creative hatred of the oppressed for the oppressors which is today the single most progressive factor in history. It is necessary to turn to the masses, toward their deepest layers. It is necessary to appeal to their passions and to their reason. It is necessary to reject the false ‘prudence’ which is a synonym for cowardice and which, at great historical turning points, amounts to treason…” (Leon Trotsky, Whither France? 1934)

Prospects

Everything now clearly indicates that in the immediate future there will be two dominant elements in the Greek situation: the inexorable path to bankruptcy of Greek capitalism and the strengthening of the movement of the masses.

Political uncertainty and the developing revolutionary situation in Greek society, together with impending economic collapse (according to ELSTAT Greek GDP this year is expected to fall by around 5%) and mass unemployment, with 820,000 registered unemployed, irrespective of the likely possibility of an agreement on a new loan, bring closer the prospect of bankruptcy.

At present, the imperialists want to “save” Greece in order to protect the major European banks and to avoid a domino effect of further bankruptcies and a new recession. But the possibility of a new world recession does not just depend on Greece alone, nor is Greece the only source of danger to the European and world economy, since government debt has soared everywhere.

Already in the circles of international capital they are abandoning the idea that the “sickness” of bankruptcy is limited to Greece – see the possible downgrading of Italian credit worthiness, for example – or that it is only Greece that cannot repay its debt. They are now beginning to understand that Greece’s “donors/partners” can also be infected by financial instability and the growing “fashion” of popular uprisings.

Meanwhile, the movement of the masses is getting more confident and is beginning to realise the power that it has in setting the tempo of political developments. The mass movement in the Greek squares has now been going on for one month. Ironically, the bourgeois media continue to refer to this movement with its original name, the “indignant”. The truth is that we are no longer dealing with a few indignant people, but with the vast majority of the masses of the country: workers, unemployed youth, pensioners, and housewives, people whose lives have been destroyed or seriously damaged by this crisis.

What we have is the popular masses, which in normal conditions are left on the margins of political life, dramatically entering the stage and claiming their right to shape future developments. The outbreak of this mass movement was not a coincidence. It marks the beginning of a new era, which is characterised by the historical impasse facing international capitalism and its increasing inability to provide even the most minimal basic needs of the working masses.

The entry of the Greek masses onto the scene of history was not something unexpected and sudden. It was prepared and announced by the movements that took place in Greek society during the past decade.

The first clear sign that something was changing was the successful strike movement against the Social Security Reforms of the Simitis (PASOK) government back in 2001, which led to political deadlock and which brought down that government. Another indicator was the large antiwar movement, with massive demonstrations, against the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Then there seemed to be a brief pause, before we saw new mass movements which radicalised the youth, i.e. the two mass student movements of 2006-2007 followed by the uprising of students against police violence in December 2008. And finally, we have had the record number of 24-hour general strikes since 2008, which showed clearly that the working masses were close to boiling point.

The “indignant” workers, unemployed and youth have become a “decisive” force and now, in view of the attempt to enforce the “Mid-Term” Plan, are united around the militant cry of “IT WILL NOT PASS!” However, any activist in this movement must understand that the mass occupation of squares and a few partial 24-hour general strikes are not enough to defeat a government that has the backing of all the forces of the most powerful imperialist countries on the planet. It will require a long and bitter struggle to stop their plan to destroy our living standards, something which they have invested billions in worldwide.

The struggle must set itself the aim of bringing down this government and replacing it with a new one that would implement a programme of cancelling the predatory debt and taking over the banks and all large enterprises and democratically planning the economy under workers’ control for the benefit of all working people. And because Greece is the weak link in the chain of European capitalism, at the heart of the crisis of global capitalism, our struggle must be international and we must view it as a step towards the victory of socialism throughout the whole of Europe and worldwide.

Source: Μαρξιστική Φωνή (Greek)