Workers in Greece have taken to the streets in their tens of thousands to defend jobs and services. Dave Stockton and Chris Newcombe report on an inspirational struggle for all workers who don’t want to pay for the bosses’ crisis

"Enough is Enough, Where Has All the Money Gone? Keep Your Hands Off Our Benefits, Billions of Euros for Capitalism but Nothing for the Workers—Rise Up!"

These were the slogans of banners on the streets of Athens on 24 February. In the coming month we are likely to see similar slogans in other days of action.

In the second major stoppage in less than a month over two million of Greece's five million workers backed a 24-hour general strike. They took to the streets in 70 cities and major towns to demonstrate their anger. In Athens protesters tried to storm the stock exchange with a banner reading - "The rich must pay for the crisis". Around 80,000 workers and youth participated in the demonstrations in Athens and 7,000 in Thessalonica.

Of all the countries using the common European currency, the Euro, Greece is suffering the most severe effects of the post-2009 slump. Its national debt now exceeds its annual gross domestic product (GDP), with many commentators expecting the figure to reach 125 per cent this year. The Government’s budget deficit has hit 12.7 per cent, four times the limit allowed for in the Stability Pact, an EU agreement intended to make the Euro secure.

European Bank officials admit privately that Greece will find it difficult if not impossible to meet the repayments due in April and May - €25bn (£22bn). The big German private banks are now refusing to buy any more Greek bonds. Were Greece to default on these payments it would increase speculative pressure on the already embattled Euro.

The head of the European Central bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, has drawn the conclusion that “All Greeks must recognize that they must correct a course which has gone out of control”.
Chauvinism

The Greek crisis has provoked an outburst of “northern European chauvinism” in the press - particularly from the British and German media. They regularly use the insulting acronym PIIGS – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain – to describe the countries facing budgetary crises. They accuse their populations of “profligacy” or “living beyond their means,” of failing to pay their taxes, and demand they be forced to “tighten their belts.”

One regional German paper the Nürnberger Nachrichten demanded of the German government: “No, there is only the one way: use massive pressure to force the euro-partner onto the path of virtue. In addition to cuts in the social and pension systems, it is necessary to slash the army of state officials, make real wage cuts, increase taxes and reduce expenditure.”

German deputy finance minister Jörg Asmussen, said the Greeks will "have to measure up" to steps taken by Ireland, which slashed public sector wages and Austrian finance minister Josef Pröll added; "We certainly won't let them off the hook."

Who should pay?
These attacks are incredible hypocrisy, especially coming from the banking élite, and their lackeys in the financial media, who have just paid themselves a fortune in bonuses yet again, despite the downturn they played a major part in precipitating. Certainly the ordinary people of Greece have done nothing whatsoever to cause this crisis. Average salaries in public service are around just €1,200 (£1,052.). Sixty percent of pensioners survive on less than €600 (£526) per month. Greece’s official unemployment rate is 18 percent, while 20 per cent of its people are living under the poverty line and in 2009 youth unemployment was over 27 percent.

Yet since Greece joined the Euro, food prices and rents have soared to the average Eurozone level with no corresponding rise in wages. So whoever has been “profligate” it is certainly not the Greek workers, small farmers, young people or pensioners.
In November the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) of George Papandreou was elected precisely on the promise to protect the poorest from the effects of the crisis. The speed of his betrayal of these promises must set a new record. Faced with demands from EU officials that the Greek population must accept huge public sector cuts Papandreou assured them that he would do all he could to force these through.

He has announced a freeze on civil servants’ wages, along with a 10 per cent cut in allowances and has also pledged to cut the budget deficit from 13 per cent to 9 per cent in 2010, and to 2.8 per cent by 2012. This could not be done without demolishing an already inadequate health and education service and laying-off huge numbers of public sector workers.

But so far Papandreou’s promises have done little to calm the markets. These parasites rightly fear that Greek workers will not roll over faced with this ferocious attack

Resistance and challenges
Workers are angry and unwilling to slash their already meagre wages. As one slogan on the mass demonstrations read: No more illusions, it is either capital or the workers! For the strike on the 24 February across industry as a whole turnout was 70 per cent, with a total shut down of shipbuilding, ports and refineries, and 90 per cent of banking, utilities, education and public transport. However, there was a lower turn out from medium sized and small private enterprises - whose poorly organised workers fear mass layoffs and victimisation if they strike.

As well as showing workers and youth are ready to fight 24 February also showed that there are major obstacles in their path - ones put there by the workers’ own leaders.

There was, firstly, no unity in the mobilisation – unfortunately, this is normal in Greece due to longstanding and deep divisions in the workers’ movement. The Stalinist Greek Communist Party (KKE) and its PAME (All-Workers Militant Front) led 30,000 in one demonstration, whilst the GSEE-ADEDY (General Confederation of Greek Workers and Civil Servants Confederation) led 50,000 in another.

Secondly, the demands of the leaders and their perspective for the movement were very timid – from the outset they have been clear that they want to register their protest against the austerity programme, rather than actually defeating it by militant means. Yiannis Panagopoulos, for example, head of GSSE, lamely told the press, “We demand a fair distribution of the burden” of deficit reduction policies.

Now, another day of action is planned for 8 March with one-day strikes, but this on its own will not be enough to defeat the combined forces of the PASOK government, the EU authorities and the financial markets. The movement needs to escalate the strike action – it needs to go from protest to a real challenge to the government and that means winning the argument for longer strikes.

Strategy
Greek workers must demand unity from their leaders – a united movement can mount a greater challenge to the government, while it also allows the left wing of the movement to put greater pressure on the trade union leaders who will look to sell the struggle short. Should the leaders refuse to unite at the top then rank and file members should do so from the bottom up. The formation of local and regional councils of action can achieve this - drawing in all the unions, the students’ organisations, and the organisations of the small farmers too. But unity without a clear plan of action will not be enough to meet the bosses' attacks.

In pride of place should be the demand for no cuts or reduction in the pension age, no job losses in either the public or the private sector. Action councils should organise for an all out indefinite strike – placing this as a demand on the union leaders while taking steps to build such a strike from below. The aim should be to stay out until the government totally abandons its plan of cuts and austerity.

Action councils could attempt to draw in private sector workers by fighting for wage increases and helping recruit them to unions. They could fight for the poor small farmers – demanding their debts and mortgages be cancelled. In this way the whole working population could be rallied around the strikers. At the same time the unemployed and youth can be won by calling for work or full pay: jobs or decent benefits for all.

This could all be paid for easily: by taking over the banks and big companies, without compensation to the former owners, and running them under workers’ control.

Thousands of rank and file members of the main parties of the Greek working class – the KKE and SYRIZA (the Coalition of the Radical Left) –are at the forefront of the resistance; now pressure need to be put on the official leaders of these parties to form a united front of resistance.

In the midst of a historical capitalist crisis, in a country where there are tens of thousands of revolutionary workers and youth, the far left groups and movements should issue a call for the formation of the one thing desperately needed to win: a new revolutionary party. This can be achieved by unity of the revolutionaries around a new action programme, linking today’s resistance to a fight for revolution and a workers and small farmers’ government based on action councils. A revolutionary unity conference should convene to draw up, debate and adopt such a programme.

Internationally the call must go out for solidarity action with the Greek resistance. And the best way to do so is to imitate it – to take to the streets with their slogans. Enough is Enough! Workers - Rise Up!