Greek workers resist economic free fall
2012Andreas Kloke 2012-03Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 12 →
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12 SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 2012 ATHENS—The Memorandum No. 2 became reality by a vote in the Greek Parliament on Feb. 12. One hundred ninety-nine MPs, mainly of the ruling parties, PASOK and “New Democracy” (ND), decided to completely sell out the interests of the Greek population, working people and young people, and especially of future generations, to the dictatorship of the Troika—i.e, the in ternational banks and finance capital.
The Greek ruling class and their stooges in government and Parlia ment hope in this way to assert their role as junior partners in the EU and the euro-zone and to make their posi tion permanent and secure through the subjugation and impoverishment of the proletariat and the current so-called middle classes. Their policies are based on the fact that social resistance and the workers’ movement has not yet been able to broaden and to central ize significantly their actions directed against government, capital, and Troi ka. This is despite the series of general strikes and mobilizations of the past two years, with the highlights being the occupation of Syntagma Square in front of the Parliament in June and the two-day strike on Oct. 19-20, 2011— with some 500,000 demonstrators in Athens alone.
Among the main factors that have made possible the disaster of the Mem orandum policies of the past two years are the bureaucratization of the unions under PASOK direction, which has pre vailed for decades; the division of the movement through the profoundly re formist Communist Party (KKE), which constantly acts in an extremely sectari an manner; the ongoing parliamentary fixation of KKE and the other reformist Left Alliance, SYRIZA; and the contin ued fragmentation of the anti-capitalist and revolutionary forces, despite some efforts of their most important alliance (ANTARSYA)—as well as an often help less, violent activism on the streets.
The Memorandum No. 2 will bring an unprecedented slump in the general living conditions and the de facto disso lution of Greek society, as it has evolved in recent decades. The unemployment rate is already above 20%, and in abso lute numbers over one million.
The Troika sweeps off the table any perspective of temporarily weakening the systematic impoverishment, or any tiny hope of economic recovery. The country is being sacrificed to the al leged stability of the euro and the sac rosanct banking profits. The fate of hu man beings does not matter any longer in today’s EU and euro zone; Mammon reigns unchecked and goes literally over corpses.
What is being imposed on Greece is the beginning of the general attack of big business on living conditions and workers’ rights in all EU countries, (continued on page 11, in “Duluth Occupiers reach out to foreclosed homeowners”)