Greece:Local Elections Show Massive Abstention Against the EU-IMF
“You ask me why sent to prison so many cadres of ours who robbed us? Why did they steal? We didn’t punish them but the institutions of state power did. You ask us ‘why didn’t you cover the Minister of Defence who was your personal friend’? But why did he steal! He sold out our trust, the faith in the people and the government.
They sold out the People, Democracy, the Army, the Country, the Nation. They are being tried by the Judicial system! If you allow them free reign they will corrupt others. That is why they were imprisoned.
By penalising corruption we hold our coffers open and the World Bank, the IMF and the mafias of the banks away from out feet. We will not become Greece!’”
Hugo Chavez (July 2010)
Without a single shot being fired Greece has fallen under the EU-IMF tutelage and become a new protectorate. An inevitability, once the EU created a single currency without a single government. Greece one year now has become a social laboratory where the international bankers offload the crisis onto the working classes, pensioners and unemployed. The biggest abstention against the elections which were fought under the Kallikratis Plan (EU inspired regionalism plan for Greece) were a massive attack against all the establishment parties.
When Papandreou announced to all the Opposition parties either the IMF or I go for elections, none of the political parties demanded elections. Papariga the GS of the KKE said the country can’t afford new elections. PASOK gaining 8 out of the 13 regional Governorships on a voter turnout of 11-12% is a Pyrrhic victory whose outcome will be decided on the streets as 7 out of 10 Greeks voted for no political party. This abstention can be explained as a warning shot, the last, before the political storm returns to the streets, without being corralled by sellouts of the Greek TUC-ADEDY and PAME-KKE union misleaders.
No end in sight for IMF measures
“Everything is up for grabs. If the Euro fails, then Europe will fail” was Merkels comments recently regarding the pressure on the Irish economy. She continued to try and gain political capital from the Greek crisis:
“In 2000 Schroeder and Aichel rushed to allow Greece to enter the Euro and they ignored all the danger signs. It was a political decision, the political decisions are important but those who ignore the events are irresponsible” she underlined.
Austria as well via its Finance Minister Joseph Prel has stated Greece shouldn’t get its 2nd ‘loan’ from the EU’s bailout plan as Papandreou essentially has only cut wages, not sacked half of the public sector as well…
Unemployment has now officially gone up to 12.2% from 9% (in August of 2009) ie an increase of 30%. The month long hauliers strike led to a massive collapse of exports in the region of 10%. One in ten are now in soup kitchens as around 4,000 middle sized have closed. The budget deficit which was 13.6% when PASOK assumed power (November 2009) now stands at 15.4%. All the austerity measures are increasing the government deficits as people have no money to pay for the crisis.
Having imposed the hard Euro policy on Greece it has been bankrupted. No amount of cost cutting, shutting down, hospitals, old peoples centres, savage cuts to pensions and a reduction of 30% for the public sector are going to resolve this crisis, measures which were announced the day after the massive abstention when the so-called Troika (EU-IMF-Central Bank) arrived to analyse the latest economic data.
Why didn’t the Left Abstain from these Sham Elections?
A whole series of sectional struggles continue with the old leaderships keeping each group of workers separate and divided (unemployed shipyard workers Piraeus, Akropolis part-timers, OSE railway workers, Defence workers etc). For the crisis on the left has now led to three organisations standing on behalf of the ex-Euro stalinists each getting a few percentage points. Coupled with the KKE’s standing the vote of the Left as a percentage has increased (25%) but not overall as numbers due to the massive high abstention vote.
In the first round of these elections under the Kallikratis model of Governorship, the Left stood positions for Governor of each Prefecture but unable to garner votes as they are split, to get into 2nd position so they could into the 2nd round. As a result the KKE asked its members to not vote in the 2nd round but to vote of course for local councillors as there were two electoral lists (Governor and Local Councillors). The various factions of the ex-Euros called for a vote for ‘conscience’ implying indirectly a vote for PASOK candidates as one of them, used to be a member of theirs, the candidate that one the Athens basin Governorship.
So the question is why did the Left not get a feel for the mood of the people and use the abstention call as a political weapon against the IMF and the establishment parties PASOK and ND? When the President of the Greek Republic openly stated that he is ‘against those who believe their anger can be expressed by staying on their couch, staying at home’ in other words refusing to vote. When Papariga-General Secretary of the KKE criticised the nation for not voting as well, it is clear that all the parties of the establishment are trying to maintain the façade that they are independent of and that voting will dictate a different policy to the IMF-EU dictates, when in reality all they are interested in is the state subsidy and the positions of power accrued to them in the state infrastructure ie councillors, local mayors and public sector contracts (a source of income for the KKE). Historically the KKE did abstain from the 1946 elections so it is a tactic employed by the KKE of old, which had a different calibre of cadres, not the ones of today who have been schooled within the norms of post-1974 bourgeois legality.
Despite the fact that the IMF imposed measures haven’t even gone past 3 months, the electoral debacle for the ruling party is such that it led to over 60% abstention rates (plus a 10% in spoiled/blanc votes) in many areas and the actual vote for the ruling party was around 1 in 10 of the country’s voting citizens. Coupled with widespread allegations of electoral fraud (used to be big in Greece in the 1950’s and 1960’s when deceased persons, unknown persons appeared on electoral rolls, now the same is occurring with swathes of EU citizens from neighbouring countries who appear on electoral rolls en masse!
The KKE is the party with the biggest influence on the Left. After so many strikes and demonstrations over a 6 month period since the announcement of the arrival of the IMF it hasn’t been able to increase its electoral influence to a significant level this is because the Greek people have shown their disdain not only to the two main establishment parties, but also to the Left as a whole. One of the main reasons which provoked this dissatisfaction is the insistence of the leadership of the KKE into tactics which divide the movement instead of uniting it.
Attacking the militancy of the masses instead of encouraging it, by labelling it as ‘fascist’ when attempts were made to storm Parliament initially in May and again in September by the hauliers, is despicable. Corrupting the popular movement to a movement of protest alone, protest which is limited solely within the limits of bourgeois legality. When at the same time the Constitution and Laws have been trampled on by the employee of the big international banksters, G Papandreou. Another reason is the total lack of programmatic proposals, a requirement for every party which aims to not operate as a component of power, but seeks to gain power.
The real abstention though isn’t from the voters but from the parties of the Left. They have basically stated to all there is no hope for a defeat of the IMF or a single measure imposed. History though has shown that in conditions of severe economic crisis small organised minorities may become a spark which lights a more general fire. The insurrection of the Polytechnic (17th November 1973) was such a spark, against the will of the parties of the time, who hypocritically lay wreaths in their memory. The same occurred during the resistance against the fascist Occupation. Small isolated groups of dedicated militants started the struggle and thousands in the end joined the struggle with millions supporting it.
The problems now facing Greece cannot be solved by elections. They will be resolved in the streets. A return to the drachma on its own cannot solve the economic problems either or a different version of the Euro, as is being discussed widely.
We have to campaign for a broad united movement, not separatist, isolated, defeatist, KKE style.
1) Cancel all debts to foreign bond holders
2) Exit from the Eurozone and the European Union
3) Work for all with a proper living wage.
None of the above can occur if there is no control of capital flows, imports of an agricultural and industrial nature, if the ports are all sold off and everything that is now state owned is privatised.
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Greece has told Papandreou he has no mandate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/08/greece-papandreou...
Greece has told Papandreou he has no mandate
Greek voters have resisted the neoliberal austerity measures by
abstaining and spoiling their ballot papers
Costas Douzinas and Petros Papaconstantinou
guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 November 2010 19.00 GMT
Sunday's local elections in Greece were an unusual affair. Important
as they are for the running of local authorities, council elections
have never been seen as critical to the survival of a government. But
on this occasion, the Greek prime minister issued a rather strange
ultimatum to the electorate: vote for Pasok regional and mayoral
candidates or I will resign, call general elections and as a result
people will lose their hard-earned faith in Greece with dire
consequences for ordinary people.
Was this extraordinary gambit a genuine request for a renewed
democratic mandate or the desperate bluff of a gambler down on his
chips? George Papandreou's gesture indicates the febrile nature of
Greek politics in the wake of the austerity and restructuring measures
imposed upon the country by the IMF and the EU in return for a €110bn
(£95bn) loan. Reductions in civil service salaries and pensions of up
to 30%, and the increase of direct taxes and VAT, have led the fragile
economy to a deep depression. Youth unemployment at around 30% will
only increase as the private sector uses the measures as a model to
shed jobs and further undermine long-standing labour protections.
Papandreou's gambit can be explained by the country's unprecedented
economic and political volatility. The Greeks have been bombarded over
the past two months with optimistic messages that the measures are
succeeding in reducing the deficit, increasing tax revenues, changing
decades of civil service under-performance and releasing private
initiative. The support offered by the print and electronic media has
been so unstinting as to make Silvio Berlusconi envious. Papandreou
has taken his penitent message to major capitals while a bunch of IMF-
EU emissaries have been installed in Athens, behaving in every respect
as administrators of a mandated territory.
But the reality is very different from the projected rosy image. Over
the past month the spreads between German and Greek sovereign bonds
have increased to levels not seen since before the IMF-EU loan was
approved. The hike in the price of insuring Greek bonds means that the
markets expect the country to default. The idea of defaulting,
restructuring the debt, even leaving the eurozone was until recently
denounced as extremist and catastrophic. But after Angela Merkel's
amendments to the support mechanism, debt restructuring seems more
likely, and senior government ministers have started preparing the
public for the eventuality.
The intense demonstrations and strikes of this spring subsided over
the summer holidays. But the climate has been hotting up again since
September as people start feeling the effect of the measures on their
pay packets. Opinion polls consistently show large majorities opposed
to the measures and wide disenchantment with the alternating centre-
left and centre-right parties that have ruled the country since 1974
and have led to the spiralling deficits and debt. While the decimation
of the public sector has reduced the deficit, tax revenues are lagging
behind IMF demands and the expected upwards recalculation of the 2009
deficit means that even more stringent austerity measures will have to
be imposed next year. Behind the trumpeted "success", the economy is
faltering, social problems mushrooming and the political elite unable
to manage the crisis. The postwar social contract has been declared
dead and the country's sovereignty is not doing much better.
Against this background, Papandreou's ultimatum can be understood. His
government was elected in October 2009 on a social democratic platform
and had no mandate to impose the most extensive neoliberal measures
seen in Europe. Whether Greece defaults and asks for a severe
"haircut" of the debt or whether it imposes new and more severe
measures, Papandreou's soothing statements will be seen again as not
worth the paper they are written on. This is why the government turned
the local elections into a referendum, blackmailing the electorate and
seeking a carte blanche for further cuts and privatisation of the
country's silver (energy, communications and transport) as the IMF
demands. But yesterday's elections decidedly failed to give such a
mandate.
In a country where the turnout is usually up to 80%, some 45% of the
electorate abstained and another 10% spoilt their ballots. Pasok
received approximately 34% of the vote, the opposition New Democracy
32% and the Communists 11%. The three radical left parties that had
not managed to field common candidates polled about 12%. If the wider
left had created a united front against the measures, it would have
emerged as the hegemonic bloc confronting the neoliberal logic of the
ruling elites. In view of these results, Papandreou, looking gaunt and
exhausted, announced that he will not call an election but continue
with the implementation of these measures.
How can we explain the unprecedented low turnout and the spoilt
ballots? They bring to mind Nobel winner José Saramago's wonderful
political parable Seeing. Citizens of an unnamed capital city cast
massively blank ballots in two consecutive national elections. The
rightwing government considers this an act of high treason and
declares a state of emergency. Eventually the government leaves the
capital expecting that the resulting disorder will make voters see
sense. Life, however, continues peacefully.
In Greece, too, ordinary citizens resisted the measures by staying
away. Abstaining or spoiling the ballot in a highly politicised
country is a political act of great consequence which leaves the
government with no mandate to continue with its measures. It is the
Greek equivalent to the Argentinian chant "que sa vayan todos" ("you
should all go") addressed to the elites that had led the country to
bankruptcy in December 2001.
The IMF-EU authored chronicle of an economic death foretold will move
to its end game with the banks' plenipotentiaries signing the death
certificate of the welfare state, but popular resistance is now likely
to move up a gear. Strikes, demonstrations and social unrest will
decide the future of the country in the coming months. The Greeks have
a proud record of resistance against foreign and local dominations.
They now need new ideas, people and convergences, if a new politics is
to rise from the current debacle. In this direction the wider left,
the only political group not involved in the debt and corruption
crises, has a major role to play.
Greece has told Papandreou he has no mandate
Greek voters have resisted the neoliberal austerity measures by
abstaining and spoiling their ballot papers
Costas Douzinas and Petros Papaconstantinou
guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 November 2010 19.00 GMT
Sunday's local elections in Greece were an unusual affair. Important
as they are for the running of local authorities, council elections
have never been seen as critical to the survival of a government. But
on this occasion, the Greek prime minister issued a rather strange
ultimatum to the electorate: vote for Pasok regional and mayoral
candidates or I will resign, call general elections and as a result
people will lose their hard-earned faith in Greece with dire
consequences for ordinary people.
Was this extraordinary gambit a genuine request for a renewed
democratic mandate or the desperate bluff of a gambler down on his
chips? George Papandreou's gesture indicates the febrile nature of
Greek politics in the wake of the austerity and restructuring measures
imposed upon the country by the IMF and the EU in return for a €110bn
(£95bn) loan. Reductions in civil service salaries and pensions of up
to 30%, and the increase of direct taxes and VAT, have led the fragile
economy to a deep depression. Youth unemployment at around 30% will
only increase as the private sector uses the measures as a model to
shed jobs and further undermine long-standing labour protections.
Papandreou's gambit can be explained by the country's unprecedented
economic and political volatility. The Greeks have been bombarded over
the past two months with optimistic messages that the measures are
succeeding in reducing the deficit, increasing tax revenues, changing
decades of civil service under-performance and releasing private
initiative. The support offered by the print and electronic media has
been so unstinting as to make Silvio Berlusconi envious. Papandreou
has taken his penitent message to major capitals while a bunch of IMF-
EU emissaries have been installed in Athens, behaving in every respect
as administrators of a mandated territory.
But the reality is very different from the projected rosy image. Over
the past month the spreads between German and Greek sovereign bonds
have increased to levels not seen since before the IMF-EU loan was
approved. The hike in the price of insuring Greek bonds means that the
markets expect the country to default. The idea of defaulting,
restructuring the debt, even leaving the eurozone was until recently
denounced as extremist and catastrophic. But after Angela Merkel's
amendments to the support mechanism, debt restructuring seems more
likely, and senior government ministers have started preparing the
public for the eventuality.
The intense demonstrations and strikes of this spring subsided over
the summer holidays. But the climate has been hotting up again since
September as people start feeling the effect of the measures on their
pay packets. Opinion polls consistently show large majorities opposed
to the measures and wide disenchantment with the alternating centre-
left and centre-right parties that have ruled the country since 1974
and have led to the spiralling deficits and debt. While the decimation
of the public sector has reduced the deficit, tax revenues are lagging
behind IMF demands and the expected upwards recalculation of the 2009
deficit means that even more stringent austerity measures will have to
be imposed next year. Behind the trumpeted "success", the economy is
faltering, social problems mushrooming and the political elite unable
to manage the crisis. The postwar social contract has been declared
dead and the country's sovereignty is not doing much better.
Against this background, Papandreou's ultimatum can be understood. His
government was elected in October 2009 on a social democratic platform
and had no mandate to impose the most extensive neoliberal measures
seen in Europe. Whether Greece defaults and asks for a severe
"haircut" of the debt or whether it imposes new and more severe
measures, Papandreou's soothing statements will be seen again as not
worth the paper they are written on. This is why the government turned
the local elections into a referendum, blackmailing the electorate and
seeking a carte blanche for further cuts and privatisation of the
country's silver (energy, communications and transport) as the IMF
demands. But yesterday's elections decidedly failed to give such a
mandate.
In a country where the turnout is usually up to 80%, some 45% of the
electorate abstained and another 10% spoilt their ballots. Pasok
received approximately 34% of the vote, the opposition New Democracy
32% and the Communists 11%. The three radical left parties that had
not managed to field common candidates polled about 12%. If the wider
left had created a united front against the measures, it would have
emerged as the hegemonic bloc confronting the neoliberal logic of the
ruling elites. In view of these results, Papandreou, looking gaunt and
exhausted, announced that he will not call an election but continue
with the implementation of these measures.
How can we explain the unprecedented low turnout and the spoilt
ballots? They bring to mind Nobel winner José Saramago's wonderful
political parable Seeing. Citizens of an unnamed capital city cast
massively blank ballots in two consecutive national elections. The
rightwing government considers this an act of high treason and
declares a state of emergency. Eventually the government leaves the
capital expecting that the resulting disorder will make voters see
sense. Life, however, continues peacefully.
In Greece, too, ordinary citizens resisted the measures by staying
away. Abstaining or spoiling the ballot in a highly politicised
country is a political act of great consequence which leaves the
government with no mandate to continue with its measures. It is the
Greek equivalent to the Argentinian chant "que sa vayan todos" ("you
should all go") addressed to the elites that had led the country to
bankruptcy in December 2001.
The IMF-EU authored chronicle of an economic death foretold will move
to its end game with the banks' plenipotentiaries signing the death
certificate of the welfare state, but popular resistance is now likely
to move up a gear. Strikes, demonstrations and social unrest will
decide the future of the country in the coming months. The Greeks have
a proud record of resistance against foreign and local dominations.
They now need new ideas, people and convergences, if a new politics is
to rise from the current debacle. In this direction the wider left,
the only political group not involved in the debt and corruption
crises, has a major role to play.
Abstain from Greek Elections!
ABSTAIN!
Dont Participate in these forthcoming elections and give a democratic
legalization to the double Papandreic coup
1) In the abolition of the Constitution and the monstrous subjugation
of the country to the dictats of the IMF
2) On the servile plan called Kallikratis and the division of the
country into 13 self-governing cantons to be easily privatised and
added to neighbouring states.
3) Send a message that we no longer expect anything from the
collaboration of the parties. They created a storm expect a hurricane
in return
www.patari.org
Dont Participate in these forthcoming elections and give a democratic
legalization to the double Papandreic coup
1) In the abolition of the Constitution and the monstrous subjugation
of the country to the dictats of the IMF
2) On the servile plan called Kallikratis and the division of the
country into 13 self-governing cantons to be easily privatised and
added to neighbouring states.
3) Send a message that we no longer expect anything from the
collaboration of the parties. They created a storm expect a hurricane
in return
www.patari.org
Greece: Local Elections to Become IMF Plebiscite?
Greece: Local Elections to Become IMF Plebiscite?
On 7th November Greece goes to the polls under the infamous Kallikratis plan which creates 13 federated regions for the whole country, with one region Attiki (Athens basin) having 50% of the overall population of the country. The Kallikratis plan creates Super-Mayors with powers reminiscent of governors of ancient Rome. In essence they herald the break-up of central government as they aim to merge thousands of local councils and give Presidential powers to each Mayor in each of the 13 regions. Under this background Papandreou announced last night (25th October) if he doesn’t win a single region he will resign and go towards new national elections.
Having attacked on behalf of the IMF-EU creditors vast swathes of the population, pensioners, farmers, small shopowners, workers, unemployed whilst not having imprisoned or even attempted to prosecute a single higher ranking government official or MP involved in bribery scandals for public contracts with foreign multinationals (Siemens being one of them). Already according to media reports one in ten are in food kitchens organised around the churches and the constant increases in VAT rates (food to go from 11% to 13% under EU pressure) are constantly eroding the buying power of those in work. Youth of working age from 18-25% who aren’t in education or training are more than 80% unemployed supported by families or relatives. The attacks on millions of pensioners with the lowering of pensions has the effect of undermining the social safety net which operates in place of the government. Papandreou realising an electoral wipeout is on the cards and that he might become the one use Primeminister, attempted to bribe the electorate offering E100 to each pensioner after having cut hundreds already. In addition to this in order to confuse the electorate we have 2 or 3 PASOK prospective candidates in each region with the majority of them declaring they are independent from PASOK without actually having broken from PASOK or even having a single vote in their past which went against the government. Allmost all are calling these elections therefore a plebiscite on the IMF.
IMF-Will not avoid social explosion
With daily strikes and struggles all isolated and separate from each other (school students, national railways, part-time museum workers, newsagents etc) the Left is going from one crisis to the next. Remembering the poor districts of Athens which happen to be in the centre, a leader of the Eurostalinists (who have now split into three factions) Alavanos attempted to speak to an angry public and got yoghurt on his face. The same happened a week before to the KKE’s candidate. As for the PASOK and New Democracy candidate they dare not even show their face. Crime, prostitution, unemployment and ghettoisation with the constant arrival (100,000 in the first six months of 2010) of destitute illegal immigrants has led to conflict in the central Athenian districts which are starting to resemble ‘war zones’. Add to it the daily rise in unemployment there are no jobs, houses, even food so many sleep in abandoned buildings or in town squares. Under the guise of Greece being unable to control its borders the EU is to send an army (NATO) to Evros (region bordering with Turkey) thus complementing the twin role of the IMF-EU occupation. A NATO presence on Greek soil will obviously have one aim and one aim only, to be used against the Greek population in a period of economic and political instability.
So the issues that arise in the current period is that the Left continues to disintegrate and with its influence where one would have assumed they would have proven to be a beacon to the population, it continues its policy of supporting separatist struggles without campaigning for them to unite. It might assume that standing candidates in these sham elections (as all economic and political decisions are now taken jointly by the IMF-EU) and that an increase in their votes, due to the fall of the two main parties may allow them a breathing space, cannot be seen on the ground, as no significant IMF imposed measure has been defeated. Without a single defeat of any IMF-EU measure, the issue that will dominate after the public plebiscite of the IMF in the forthcoming elections, will be whether new elections can forestall the coming social explosion or the expulsion of the IMF occurs as a consequence of these new elections...
Wed 27, October 2010 @ 21:54
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discussion of this article
VN Gelis said…
There is discussion that if during the first round of local elections this Sunday the ruling party PASOK doesn't achieve a reasonable result they will cancel the 2nd round and go for national elections thus forcing the population to vote for govt thus artificially increasing their capability. A condition for this may be the deaparture of the PM either after the elections or before.
The suddent appearance of alleged anarchist terrorists once more as in May (though never have any been seen or shown in any media outlet) may serve the purpose of creating more police presence on the streets by creating a climate of fear as bankruptcy is hanging like the sword of Damocles on the Greek electorate if they dont vote as ...advised.
Thu 04, November 2010 @ 22:55
VN Gelis said…
The abstention rate seems to be massive with over half or around just under half voting depending on the 13 Prefecture districts under which these elections are being held. 10% of those that did vote voted white/blank vote (allowed in all Greek elections). So far 5 of the 13 areas are with New Democracy (Right) which implies Papandreou may go for national elections so as to avoid going to a 2nd round of local elections (under the Kallikratis changes) and not gain any large Prefecture.
This abstentions rate is similar to so far to the Euro-election abstention rate.
Left
The KKE has increased its electoral showing so far on a smaller voter turnout but if they dont come 2nd in any Prefecture they dont get through to the 2nd round if it is held.
The Syn/Syriza (ex-Euros) who have had 3 representatives in the Athens area have sufferred big defeats.
So far there is a big anti-IMF swing taking into account Greeks generally vote so abstention here appears to be taking the form of an anti-IMF plebiscite and the two main parties have lost significantly from the lack of voter turnout and the swing away from them is big.
So until the elections are finally over (Monday morning) and the main parties make their positions felt we have to wait and see if Papandreou departs as all the media is stating that he does not want to be known as the Prime-Minister who bankrupted Greece (as discussion is occurring constantly about a 'controlled bankruptcy' of Greece) and all the entails:
i) controlled bankruptcy leading to a possible departure from the Euro,
ii) expulsion of the IMF,
iii) possible coalition governments
not of course in that order or all of them at the same time but these are being discussed widely...as possible future scenarios.
Sun 07, November 2010 @ 19:47
VN Gelis said…
A 40-50% abstention rate added with 10% blanc/spoiled vote means that both of the two main parties have lost around 50% of their own electoral base. This has been translated by the FT in an article as a vote for the IMF austerity measures, ie the banksters interest paying bondholdins.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3315f114-ea7c-11df-b28d-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz14dBSbhbL
The Right hasn't increased its vote so much as to gain from the electoral fallout of PASOK. If they therefore go for a 2nd round and not for national elections, the Right may gain and PASOK may lose more than 50% of the 13 Prefectures, with a possible increase in abstention as the Left wont vote for the two main parties candidates in any shape or form.
Sun 07, November 2010 @ 21:37
VN Gelis said…
Papandreou announces he wont go for national elections in the end.
PASOK won 8 out of 13 Prefectures now they have to try to keep them
when they go for the 2nd round. In areas where they gained more than
50% of the votes there will be no 2nd round, which so far are 3.
Near enough final results
Abstention, blanc and spoiled ballots 45,47%
PASOK: 19,07%
NEW DEMOCRACY: 18,37%
Abstention rate in 2006 last local elections was 37%
The KKE has increased its votes to 14% in the Athens basin
and will get in total around 200,000 votes.
So on the basis of the figures presented
1 in 10 of the official electorate (from which thousands have been added
fraudulently in the last years on the electoral rolls) voted for PASOK.
This is the lowest share of the vote for any party in power since 1975 and it
is only two months since the IMF measures have hit the pay packets of workers and pensioners.
Will the Left campaign now for abstention from the elections
where they cant stand candidates or will they indirectly call for a vote for
the Right to defeat PASOK over the next week? Or will they call for a vote for PASOK to not bring back the Right (section of the Euros may go for this)
Mon 08, November 2010 @ 09:04
VN Gelis said…
On the same day reports are posted about the 'low turnout' in the Burmese elections:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/07/burma-election-turnout-low
the extremely low turnout in the Greek elections isn't necessarily headline news.
One wonders why? The day after the next round of elections the IMF arrives again for a new batch of measures. The message being, you voted, you shall pay.
Mon 08, November 2010 @ 17:44
VN Gelis said…
For those who missed it today or didn't catch it an interesting piece on Greece in todays Guardian
http://tinyurl.com/264ace5
Some of the comments are also worth reading and they are many....
Tue 09, November 2010 @ 22:36
VN Gelis said…
Athens Region Final Results
Electors 465.888
Voted: 200.282 / 42,99 %
Valid: 184.241 / 91,99 %
Spoiled: 9.841 / 4,91 %
Blanc: 6.200 / 3,10 %
Abstention, Spoiled, Blanc: 60,5%
Just below 4 out of 10 voted in these local elections.
The KKE has called for abstention in the next round.
Wed 10, November 2010 @ 00:03
VN Gelis said…
Abstention as expected reached around 68% in the Athens basin for the Mayors position. Add to it the blanc/spoiled ballots and another 12% didn't vote.
PASOK achieved a majority with 11.5% of the voting electorate winning 8 out 13 Prefectures.
This they stated is popular recognition that more IMF measures are required as today they arrive once more in Athens. More will follow once all the results are analysed
Mon 15, November 2010 @ 10:06
On 7th November Greece goes to the polls under the infamous Kallikratis plan which creates 13 federated regions for the whole country, with one region Attiki (Athens basin) having 50% of the overall population of the country. The Kallikratis plan creates Super-Mayors with powers reminiscent of governors of ancient Rome. In essence they herald the break-up of central government as they aim to merge thousands of local councils and give Presidential powers to each Mayor in each of the 13 regions. Under this background Papandreou announced last night (25th October) if he doesn’t win a single region he will resign and go towards new national elections.
Having attacked on behalf of the IMF-EU creditors vast swathes of the population, pensioners, farmers, small shopowners, workers, unemployed whilst not having imprisoned or even attempted to prosecute a single higher ranking government official or MP involved in bribery scandals for public contracts with foreign multinationals (Siemens being one of them). Already according to media reports one in ten are in food kitchens organised around the churches and the constant increases in VAT rates (food to go from 11% to 13% under EU pressure) are constantly eroding the buying power of those in work. Youth of working age from 18-25% who aren’t in education or training are more than 80% unemployed supported by families or relatives. The attacks on millions of pensioners with the lowering of pensions has the effect of undermining the social safety net which operates in place of the government. Papandreou realising an electoral wipeout is on the cards and that he might become the one use Primeminister, attempted to bribe the electorate offering E100 to each pensioner after having cut hundreds already. In addition to this in order to confuse the electorate we have 2 or 3 PASOK prospective candidates in each region with the majority of them declaring they are independent from PASOK without actually having broken from PASOK or even having a single vote in their past which went against the government. Allmost all are calling these elections therefore a plebiscite on the IMF.
IMF-Will not avoid social explosion
With daily strikes and struggles all isolated and separate from each other (school students, national railways, part-time museum workers, newsagents etc) the Left is going from one crisis to the next. Remembering the poor districts of Athens which happen to be in the centre, a leader of the Eurostalinists (who have now split into three factions) Alavanos attempted to speak to an angry public and got yoghurt on his face. The same happened a week before to the KKE’s candidate. As for the PASOK and New Democracy candidate they dare not even show their face. Crime, prostitution, unemployment and ghettoisation with the constant arrival (100,000 in the first six months of 2010) of destitute illegal immigrants has led to conflict in the central Athenian districts which are starting to resemble ‘war zones’. Add to it the daily rise in unemployment there are no jobs, houses, even food so many sleep in abandoned buildings or in town squares. Under the guise of Greece being unable to control its borders the EU is to send an army (NATO) to Evros (region bordering with Turkey) thus complementing the twin role of the IMF-EU occupation. A NATO presence on Greek soil will obviously have one aim and one aim only, to be used against the Greek population in a period of economic and political instability.
So the issues that arise in the current period is that the Left continues to disintegrate and with its influence where one would have assumed they would have proven to be a beacon to the population, it continues its policy of supporting separatist struggles without campaigning for them to unite. It might assume that standing candidates in these sham elections (as all economic and political decisions are now taken jointly by the IMF-EU) and that an increase in their votes, due to the fall of the two main parties may allow them a breathing space, cannot be seen on the ground, as no significant IMF imposed measure has been defeated. Without a single defeat of any IMF-EU measure, the issue that will dominate after the public plebiscite of the IMF in the forthcoming elections, will be whether new elections can forestall the coming social explosion or the expulsion of the IMF occurs as a consequence of these new elections...
Wed 27, October 2010 @ 21:54
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discussion of this article
VN Gelis said…
There is discussion that if during the first round of local elections this Sunday the ruling party PASOK doesn't achieve a reasonable result they will cancel the 2nd round and go for national elections thus forcing the population to vote for govt thus artificially increasing their capability. A condition for this may be the deaparture of the PM either after the elections or before.
The suddent appearance of alleged anarchist terrorists once more as in May (though never have any been seen or shown in any media outlet) may serve the purpose of creating more police presence on the streets by creating a climate of fear as bankruptcy is hanging like the sword of Damocles on the Greek electorate if they dont vote as ...advised.
Thu 04, November 2010 @ 22:55
VN Gelis said…
The abstention rate seems to be massive with over half or around just under half voting depending on the 13 Prefecture districts under which these elections are being held. 10% of those that did vote voted white/blank vote (allowed in all Greek elections). So far 5 of the 13 areas are with New Democracy (Right) which implies Papandreou may go for national elections so as to avoid going to a 2nd round of local elections (under the Kallikratis changes) and not gain any large Prefecture.
This abstentions rate is similar to so far to the Euro-election abstention rate.
Left
The KKE has increased its electoral showing so far on a smaller voter turnout but if they dont come 2nd in any Prefecture they dont get through to the 2nd round if it is held.
The Syn/Syriza (ex-Euros) who have had 3 representatives in the Athens area have sufferred big defeats.
So far there is a big anti-IMF swing taking into account Greeks generally vote so abstention here appears to be taking the form of an anti-IMF plebiscite and the two main parties have lost significantly from the lack of voter turnout and the swing away from them is big.
So until the elections are finally over (Monday morning) and the main parties make their positions felt we have to wait and see if Papandreou departs as all the media is stating that he does not want to be known as the Prime-Minister who bankrupted Greece (as discussion is occurring constantly about a 'controlled bankruptcy' of Greece) and all the entails:
i) controlled bankruptcy leading to a possible departure from the Euro,
ii) expulsion of the IMF,
iii) possible coalition governments
not of course in that order or all of them at the same time but these are being discussed widely...as possible future scenarios.
Sun 07, November 2010 @ 19:47
VN Gelis said…
A 40-50% abstention rate added with 10% blanc/spoiled vote means that both of the two main parties have lost around 50% of their own electoral base. This has been translated by the FT in an article as a vote for the IMF austerity measures, ie the banksters interest paying bondholdins.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3315f114-ea7c-11df-b28d-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz14dBSbhbL
The Right hasn't increased its vote so much as to gain from the electoral fallout of PASOK. If they therefore go for a 2nd round and not for national elections, the Right may gain and PASOK may lose more than 50% of the 13 Prefectures, with a possible increase in abstention as the Left wont vote for the two main parties candidates in any shape or form.
Sun 07, November 2010 @ 21:37
VN Gelis said…
Papandreou announces he wont go for national elections in the end.
PASOK won 8 out of 13 Prefectures now they have to try to keep them
when they go for the 2nd round. In areas where they gained more than
50% of the votes there will be no 2nd round, which so far are 3.
Near enough final results
Abstention, blanc and spoiled ballots 45,47%
PASOK: 19,07%
NEW DEMOCRACY: 18,37%
Abstention rate in 2006 last local elections was 37%
The KKE has increased its votes to 14% in the Athens basin
and will get in total around 200,000 votes.
So on the basis of the figures presented
1 in 10 of the official electorate (from which thousands have been added
fraudulently in the last years on the electoral rolls) voted for PASOK.
This is the lowest share of the vote for any party in power since 1975 and it
is only two months since the IMF measures have hit the pay packets of workers and pensioners.
Will the Left campaign now for abstention from the elections
where they cant stand candidates or will they indirectly call for a vote for
the Right to defeat PASOK over the next week? Or will they call for a vote for PASOK to not bring back the Right (section of the Euros may go for this)
Mon 08, November 2010 @ 09:04
VN Gelis said…
On the same day reports are posted about the 'low turnout' in the Burmese elections:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/07/burma-election-turnout-low
the extremely low turnout in the Greek elections isn't necessarily headline news.
One wonders why? The day after the next round of elections the IMF arrives again for a new batch of measures. The message being, you voted, you shall pay.
Mon 08, November 2010 @ 17:44
VN Gelis said…
For those who missed it today or didn't catch it an interesting piece on Greece in todays Guardian
http://tinyurl.com/264ace5
Some of the comments are also worth reading and they are many....
Tue 09, November 2010 @ 22:36
VN Gelis said…
Athens Region Final Results
Electors 465.888
Voted: 200.282 / 42,99 %
Valid: 184.241 / 91,99 %
Spoiled: 9.841 / 4,91 %
Blanc: 6.200 / 3,10 %
Abstention, Spoiled, Blanc: 60,5%
Just below 4 out of 10 voted in these local elections.
The KKE has called for abstention in the next round.
Wed 10, November 2010 @ 00:03
VN Gelis said…
Abstention as expected reached around 68% in the Athens basin for the Mayors position. Add to it the blanc/spoiled ballots and another 12% didn't vote.
PASOK achieved a majority with 11.5% of the voting electorate winning 8 out 13 Prefectures.
This they stated is popular recognition that more IMF measures are required as today they arrive once more in Athens. More will follow once all the results are analysed
Mon 15, November 2010 @ 10:06
Greece: truck drivers blockade centre of Athens to halt liberalisation measures
Greece: truck drivers blockade centre of Athens to halt liberalisation measures
After their union leaders tried to bury the resistance of the truckers in July a new wave of strikes erupted in defiance of the threat of emergency decress being issued to truckers. Some 19 points around Athens have been blockaded by trucks. Waves of militant rank and file truckers have demobilised scab trucks by blowing their tyres or cutting their electrical connections, so demobilising the engines. The government has tried everything via the mass media to condemn the militant truckers; they even tried to impede the road blocks but it became pretty impossible to stop truckers with 20-plus tonne trucks with engines revving and threatening to squash puny police cars. In the end the police escorted the truckers into various points around Athens – that is, opened the roads for them.
Ta NEA (daily organ of the Lambrakis press - the biggest establishment paper) condemned the actions of the police and demanded to know why the government not confronting the truckers? "Are they allowing them to get away with everything until they get tired and go home?" In the meantime 6,000 containers are stranded in the ports and and their perishable contens rot. More stuff arrives daily and has nowhere to be parked.
3,000marched in the afternoon to parliament and the police for the first time in the last 10 years refused to teargas them - which has been standard policy. The reason is clear. They are frightened to attack tsince they fear provoking more generalised conflict. All train workers of the national railways OSE have also walked out early for a week's strike against ta court decision which tried to deny them the right to strike. So having camped outside parliament on Tuesday night the truckers are waiting for their numbers to swell prior to Wednesday's vote which aims to ratify the IMF's agenda of the full liberalisation of middle class professions, hauliers, taxi drivers, solicitors etc.
If the truckers manage to bring trucks to the centre of Athens and confront the parliamentarian IMF quislings then they may bring about the defeat of the government. The big disaster is the role of the Left once more. Not a single big organisation – the KKE or the Euros Stalinists – have sent as many supporters as they can to support the truckers. 50 members of PAME marched along the pavements in 'solidarity' with the truckers and then dispersed. They have called for rallies against IMF imposed price rises (VAT rates, electricity, water etc) AFTER the vote in parliament takes place. Divide and rule is the only strategy of the union misleaders. Unifying struggles and supporting the middle class hauliers now they are under total attack isn't for them.
If the truckers are defeated, then the door will be open for many other professions to suffer the same fate. Either which way the government is relying on the politics of the union misleaders to remain in power and appear strong. In reality they are weak and in hiding. The ball for the moment is not in their court.
Wed 22, September 2010 @ 13:55
You would think Truckers would be the first people socialists would want to win over to the struggle as they can literally bring the system to a grinding halt.
Wed 22, September 2010 @ 14:11
The KKE condemned the politically backward ...truckers for using slogans which essentially bring Greeks into disrepute. The media asked the union misleaders of the truckers to condemn the slogans. The slogans were allegedly used by the hooded 'anarchists' no one saw who burnt the workers alive in the Marfin Bank provocation according to the tv station Mega...
The slogans were: 'Repa (Minister of Transport) Go fxxx Yourself', 'Down with the PASOK Junta', 'Air Air get rid of the Cholera', 'Repa you Cxxx we will Enter Parliament'
The Democratic Left a split off from Synaspismos/Euros supported the IMF liberalisation measures during the Parliamentary debate. Synaspismos gave a verbal speech in support of the truckers but like the KKE refused to call out its members in solidarity demos in support of the truckers.
After allnight blockade of Parliament and three attempts at breaking through riot police lines, the truckers lost the vote in Parliament. They will now lose the value of the licences of their trucks and many will lose their trucks to banks as the multinational companies that set up new truck companies will bypass them.
Throughout the whole of today they have continued the blockades around Athens.
Their Coordinating Strike Committee has vowed to continue the road blockades until Friday 24th September when they said they will have a mass meeting to work out whether they will continue the struggle. Whilst the railwayworkers of the national railnetwork OSE are in their 2nd day of their 5 day strike their union misleaders ensured that they did not march to the centre and meet the Truckers.
Now the liberalisation of transport is law by definition the riot police have to break the blockades. The power of the truckers is in the blockades. If they hold out they can continue to cripple the Greek economy. If they dont, it may imply that each section of Greek society may have to go through the Argentinian path which allowed the IMF to run riot for a full 4 years prior to a social explosion by all the dissafected sections of society led to 9 different governments, the cancellation of foreign debt payments and a return to the peso.
Wed 22, September 2010 @ 20:21
Agree with AA. I think this is a very positive development.
It shows that despite the frequent betrayal of union leaders the truckers have th epower to organise their own action and it is a power that through paralysing the economy has the power to bring down the capitalists if the truckers open their mass meetings to the wider working class and take on the questions of the wider working class transforming the legitiamte sectional (and important) demands of the truckers' livelihood to the wider issues of the working class- who rules? the bankers, IMF and EU with their austerity? Or the workers who can plan a society and economy based on democratically planning human need, against the need for any cuts, for a workers' revolution to seize the land, the factories and the wealth currently in the grip of a small elite and have a society run by working class people ourselves.
If anything remotely like this is going to happen the left and the wider working class movement needs to rally to the truckers' side, opening up the wider questions of class politics and full heartedly supporting the truckers' strike, instigating solidarityy action connected to wider class demands- for workers' control, for an emergency workers' budget to respond to the crisis, the immediate cancellation of all foreign debt, emergency taxes to pay for the crisis- full employment for workers at union rates- including massive wealth taxes and expropriations to take through the workers' demands.
Thu 23, September 2010 @ 05:34
VN Gelis said…
The problem is that not all sections of society have the power to bring the capitalists to their knees. If nurses for instance went on an indefinite strike patients would die and the state would save some money in terms of operations, pensions, dole money etc. The rich go private so they wouldn't care. The issue is also political.
The KKE alleges it is a working class party but has become pettybourgeoisified over the decades. Truckers historically have been on the political 'right' ie petty owners, with bank debts and the false consciousness that they will at some point own ten trucks and just collect money from managing them. One of the positives of this struggle is that they have no connection to the dead weight of stalinism and have shown originality in their approach and their sloganeering. They called for an open mass meeting at their union headquarters inviting pensioners groups and other transport workers. But because the union tops are stalinists and they see unity of the workers and the middle class which they cant control like Dracula does with the cross, it was too little too late this time, but it shows the intentions and the possibilities for the future.
The absence of the official Left and the far left is indicative of the extent of the political crisis now the real first wave of struggle against the IMF occurred. It also shows their political direction. Historic leaders of Sinaspismos who left to form Democratic Left have openly sided with the IMF. The next wave of struggle will force the KKE to do the same, as more and more sections of workers and middle class are forced to the streets due to the cuts and privatisations that are continuing unabated.
Thu 23, September 2010 @ 10:26
Jason said…
"One of the positives of this struggle is that they have no connection to the dead weight of stalinism and have shown originality in their approach and their sloganeering. They called for an open mass meeting at their union headquarters inviting pensioners groups and other transport workers. But because the union tops are stalinists and they see unity of the workers and the middle class which they cant control like Dracula does with the cross, it was too little too late this time, but it shows the intentions and the possibilities for the future. "
I think that's key as also is the idea of workers' action committees to unite different sections of the working class (and indeed impoverished or under attack petit-bourgeois, small business owners, traders, owner-drivers etc who the workers need to win to their ranks).
"If nurses for instance went on an indefinite strike patients would die and the state would save some money in terms of operations, pensions, dole money etc."
Yes but that's why it's essential to have other methods of action to supplement strike action, mass blockades, occupations, different section of workers coming out in solidarity action and can include emergency cover under democratic workers' control during the dispute. It can include workers, students, service users and wider community occupying the factories, offices, schools and hospitals and carrying out production for social need.
Thu 23, September 2010 @ 19:35
VN Gelis said…
Truckers have voted to continue their strike against the IMF
Battles occurred in Piraeus (main port next to Athens) where they blockaded it and the riot police got involved.
The strike committee was flooded with enraged truckers who demanded in opposition to the proposal of the union misleaders to have a secret ballot to have an open air one. The slogan which emerged to the news people was 'we will not give in' Molon Lave (which is what the Spartans said to the Persian Army) in reference to the governments 'emergency orders'.
http://webtv.antenna.gr/webtv/watch?cid=i07je7_i_dp_j_e%3d
The official Left continues to be spectators of an unfolding drama. They chose to have rallies about the price rises and the liberalisation of energy prices instead of supporting the truckers blockades
http://www1.rizospastis.gr/page.do?publDate=24/9/2010&id=12604&pageNo=8&direction=1
Fri 24, September 2010 @ 20:56
VN Gelis said…
Where are the leftist organisations? Who during their ‘insurrection’ regarding the murder of the young student Grigoropoulos a couple of winters ago marched up and down streets blockaded police stations, burning down shops?
Why don’t they now go to support the Truckers blockades to encourage them?
To help them blockade the roads once and for all indefinitely? When the truckers were outside Parliament all night and tried 3 times to storm it why didn’t they turn up?
Why don’t they go even outside the headquarters of the GREEK TUC-ADEDY-PAME (union federations) and pressurise them to call an indefinite general strike of all the nation on the side of the truckers for the overthrow of the IMF imposed junta?
Groups and organisations and people are judged in times of crisis when battles hang by a thread. The persistence of the truckers without a single media outlet supporting their cause, without a single political party proposing a solidarity demo, without political representation in Parliament is indicative of a whole generation of politicians both from the ‘left’ and right.
Fri 24, September 2010 @ 21:16
Fri 24, September 2010 @ 21:16
Jason said…
I think you're right to sharply cirticise the left on this. Obviously the Stalinists' leaders are fearful of real workers' action anyway but what about the Trotskyist and anarchist left? What about rank and file workers? I know little I am afraid about the Greek left.
What is it do you think that lies behind the lack of support? Is it because of prejudice against petit-bourgeois truckers? Is there a bad relationship e.g. have sections of truckers not supported workers?
Whatever the past or the explanation it seems to me that this is a crucial dispute. Truckers like railway workers have the ability to paralyse the movement of goods. The working class should pile in behind the struggle, support the truckers' demands, oppose the austerity measures, demand democratic workers' to set prices and get ready to paralyse the whole economy by demanding an emergecny workers' budget and plan, nationalise the banks, expropriuate the capitalists, appeal to rank and file soldier and police to refuse to break up demos and follow the orders of emergency workers' action committtees not the orders of the bourgeois government.
Sun 26, September 2010 @ 22:20
VN Gelis said…
The anarchists have been absent for around a year. Their last great showing was over the death of the bankers son Grigoropoulos whom the media labelled as an ...anarchist. Since the IMF arrived they have been absent from all social struggles. Most of the far left, maoists, trotskyists have become part of the ex-euros around Siriza/Sinaspismos in order to get government subsidies which are paid when a party gets more than 5% of the parliamentary vote.
Truckers haven't generally gone on big strikes as far as I know, I only ever remember a big one in the 1980's but agreement was agreed quite quickly. This one now has gone on for a month and previously two weeks at the end of July. There are still 6,500 containers in the ports and many areas haven't had sewage emptied as trucks empty it due to the antiquated system. Many islands have many shortages and much of the fresh produce has gone to waste.
The truckers are voting again today and they are being manoeuvred into having a closed ballot by their union misleaders, instead of a show of hands, so the ballot boxes can be manipulated. Every trick in the arsenal of government unionism is being used to end the strike with the latest arguement being that the market needs two weeks to recover, so why not stop now and start again before things get really serious.
The three other groups (SWP, WRP, Mandelites) who never joined the Euros have refused to support the truckers. At the same time all week strikes have occurred in the trains and now the buses have started as well. So taking into account the KKE has influence in both unions, coordination again is zero, the purpose being to dissipate the anger across different sections of transport workers to prepare them for ...privatisation.
Tue 28, September 2010 @ 20:28
VN Gelis said…
The vote just came through from the Strike Committee, 74 to 6 to continue the strike. Their leader refused to say which way he would vote prior to the vote, but made a statement that whichever way the vote goes he wants all sides to support it.
Tue 28, September 2010 @ 20:55
VN Gelis said…
A 41 year old trucker died after being tear gassed at the blockades of the port of Piraeus a couple of days ago. He was buried today. He is the first victim of the IMF imposed liberalisation of truckers licences. The union leadership have produced no statement regarding his death.
Greece has been threatened by the EU if it does not issue new truckers licences and the government is processing a new sub-law which states that all truckers who refuse to move their trucks from the blockades will be imprisoned immediately for 3 years, removal of licences and taking over their trucks if they have deliveries for the public sector eg hospitals or schools. One trucker on a road blockade on the Athens-Corinth motorway has been imprisoned allready.
The Greek TUC refused to have a general strike today, in case workers rallied to the truckers cause and instead called for an evening rally in the centre of Athens. Despite that railwayworkers were out and so were bus workers during the day.
Wed 29, September 2010 @ 19:04
VN Gelis said…
Despite the death of the trucker, no left protest march occured as after all he was a worker who has just been made bankrupt and the purpose of the left is to maintain disunity, division and ensuring with all its organised forces that the 'workers disunited will always be defeated'.
All night union meeting occurred in the truckers headquarters with many rank and file truckers locked out of the headquarters. As there are different sections of the union, and different sub-sections, public service truckers (delivery vehicles) ie to hospitals, schools, sewage clearance etc there are also private sector truckers for supermarket deliveries, retail etc. who controls each section and who takes decisions without informing the base is what the conflict has boiled down to at the moment as the government is threatening to lock them all up and they aint backing down.
The old leaderships are now in conflict with the Strike Committee who are organised around the various blockades and they want a say if any decision is taken against them. The Minister for Economic (non)Development said he would meet the leaders of the various unions and cut a deal to end the strikes. They voted to end the strikes to restore 'peace in the market' which is collapsing due to the non-delivery of goods from the ports and the evident shortages in a whole range of shops. The leaders of the Strike Committees claimed they weren't consulted again. The anger boiled over when truckers outside the union lit a firecracker against the union sellout leaders.
The leader of the Strike Committee declares here that they will meet on Friday (today) to vote against the sellout.
http://www.zougla.gr/page.ashx?pid=2&cid=0&aid=177679
A note: some of the union leaders of the 9 Federations which voted to end the strike are members of the Left KKE and Syriza (public sector truckers)
Fri 01, October 2010 @ 09:39
Fri 01, October 2010 @ 09:39
Jason said…
Thanks for these updates. Keep them coming.
Sun 03, October 2010 @ 09:31
VN Gelis said…
Ok, Jason.
The 2nd strike appears to have ended, one of the reasons being that the Strike Committee didn't choose to take control of the situation and expel the old leaderships proposing itself as the way forward. The media made a big hue and cry about the costs to the economy being so far E1.5billion and tonnes of goods trapped in containers in the ports. Immediately after the ending of the strike the Chinese Premier was in Athens giving a speech about how they will buy up Greek bonds and not allow the country to default.
Taking into account Greece is run by the shipowners this brings to mind a little known deal that was attempted in the late 1960's by the then shipowners Onassis and Niarhos who wanted to own and control all public facilities, ports, oil refineries, transport under the title Omega Project. If the Chinese want a foothold in Europe and they are using bankrupt Greece as its base this will intensify competition with Germany, who is Europe's biggest export earner?
Next on target are the railways, the solicitors, the chemists as well as the national Electricity company which has just massively increased its rates for all low income earners where liberalisation processes will be rammed through. The Minister of Health Loverdos stated that if we fail in our IMF course, Greeks may resort to a 2nd Goudi, which was the onset of Greek nationalism at the turn of 20th century which started the movement for the re-unification of Greek lands against the decaying Ottoman Empire and the weakening of the European (German) imposed monarchy on Greek political life.
Mon 04, October 2010 @ 09:39
VN Gelis said…
Greek police storm Acropolis protesters today due to protest by unpaid part-time museum workers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11539758
Bus drivers are now under attack facing a 20% wage cut and privatisation.
Train drivers of the national railways as well.
Local elections are scheduled in November where PASOK are expected to get a drubbing with a mass boycott by the electorate. From IMF headquarters in Washington stories are circulating that Papandreou knew the extent of the budget deficit prior to taking power and kept it hidden - a byword to drop him if there is an electoral collapse...
Thu 14, October 2010 @ 23:51
VN Gelis said…
Firefighters have occupied Parliament Square with tents protesting against cuts.
http://www.zougla.gr/page.ashx?pid=2&aid=181974&cid=4
After their union leaders tried to bury the resistance of the truckers in July a new wave of strikes erupted in defiance of the threat of emergency decress being issued to truckers. Some 19 points around Athens have been blockaded by trucks. Waves of militant rank and file truckers have demobilised scab trucks by blowing their tyres or cutting their electrical connections, so demobilising the engines. The government has tried everything via the mass media to condemn the militant truckers; they even tried to impede the road blocks but it became pretty impossible to stop truckers with 20-plus tonne trucks with engines revving and threatening to squash puny police cars. In the end the police escorted the truckers into various points around Athens – that is, opened the roads for them.
Ta NEA (daily organ of the Lambrakis press - the biggest establishment paper) condemned the actions of the police and demanded to know why the government not confronting the truckers? "Are they allowing them to get away with everything until they get tired and go home?" In the meantime 6,000 containers are stranded in the ports and and their perishable contens rot. More stuff arrives daily and has nowhere to be parked.
3,000marched in the afternoon to parliament and the police for the first time in the last 10 years refused to teargas them - which has been standard policy. The reason is clear. They are frightened to attack tsince they fear provoking more generalised conflict. All train workers of the national railways OSE have also walked out early for a week's strike against ta court decision which tried to deny them the right to strike. So having camped outside parliament on Tuesday night the truckers are waiting for their numbers to swell prior to Wednesday's vote which aims to ratify the IMF's agenda of the full liberalisation of middle class professions, hauliers, taxi drivers, solicitors etc.
If the truckers manage to bring trucks to the centre of Athens and confront the parliamentarian IMF quislings then they may bring about the defeat of the government. The big disaster is the role of the Left once more. Not a single big organisation – the KKE or the Euros Stalinists – have sent as many supporters as they can to support the truckers. 50 members of PAME marched along the pavements in 'solidarity' with the truckers and then dispersed. They have called for rallies against IMF imposed price rises (VAT rates, electricity, water etc) AFTER the vote in parliament takes place. Divide and rule is the only strategy of the union misleaders. Unifying struggles and supporting the middle class hauliers now they are under total attack isn't for them.
If the truckers are defeated, then the door will be open for many other professions to suffer the same fate. Either which way the government is relying on the politics of the union misleaders to remain in power and appear strong. In reality they are weak and in hiding. The ball for the moment is not in their court.
Wed 22, September 2010 @ 13:55
You would think Truckers would be the first people socialists would want to win over to the struggle as they can literally bring the system to a grinding halt.
Wed 22, September 2010 @ 14:11
The KKE condemned the politically backward ...truckers for using slogans which essentially bring Greeks into disrepute. The media asked the union misleaders of the truckers to condemn the slogans. The slogans were allegedly used by the hooded 'anarchists' no one saw who burnt the workers alive in the Marfin Bank provocation according to the tv station Mega...
The slogans were: 'Repa (Minister of Transport) Go fxxx Yourself', 'Down with the PASOK Junta', 'Air Air get rid of the Cholera', 'Repa you Cxxx we will Enter Parliament'
The Democratic Left a split off from Synaspismos/Euros supported the IMF liberalisation measures during the Parliamentary debate. Synaspismos gave a verbal speech in support of the truckers but like the KKE refused to call out its members in solidarity demos in support of the truckers.
After allnight blockade of Parliament and three attempts at breaking through riot police lines, the truckers lost the vote in Parliament. They will now lose the value of the licences of their trucks and many will lose their trucks to banks as the multinational companies that set up new truck companies will bypass them.
Throughout the whole of today they have continued the blockades around Athens.
Their Coordinating Strike Committee has vowed to continue the road blockades until Friday 24th September when they said they will have a mass meeting to work out whether they will continue the struggle. Whilst the railwayworkers of the national railnetwork OSE are in their 2nd day of their 5 day strike their union misleaders ensured that they did not march to the centre and meet the Truckers.
Now the liberalisation of transport is law by definition the riot police have to break the blockades. The power of the truckers is in the blockades. If they hold out they can continue to cripple the Greek economy. If they dont, it may imply that each section of Greek society may have to go through the Argentinian path which allowed the IMF to run riot for a full 4 years prior to a social explosion by all the dissafected sections of society led to 9 different governments, the cancellation of foreign debt payments and a return to the peso.
Wed 22, September 2010 @ 20:21
Agree with AA. I think this is a very positive development.
It shows that despite the frequent betrayal of union leaders the truckers have th epower to organise their own action and it is a power that through paralysing the economy has the power to bring down the capitalists if the truckers open their mass meetings to the wider working class and take on the questions of the wider working class transforming the legitiamte sectional (and important) demands of the truckers' livelihood to the wider issues of the working class- who rules? the bankers, IMF and EU with their austerity? Or the workers who can plan a society and economy based on democratically planning human need, against the need for any cuts, for a workers' revolution to seize the land, the factories and the wealth currently in the grip of a small elite and have a society run by working class people ourselves.
If anything remotely like this is going to happen the left and the wider working class movement needs to rally to the truckers' side, opening up the wider questions of class politics and full heartedly supporting the truckers' strike, instigating solidarityy action connected to wider class demands- for workers' control, for an emergency workers' budget to respond to the crisis, the immediate cancellation of all foreign debt, emergency taxes to pay for the crisis- full employment for workers at union rates- including massive wealth taxes and expropriations to take through the workers' demands.
Thu 23, September 2010 @ 05:34
VN Gelis said…
The problem is that not all sections of society have the power to bring the capitalists to their knees. If nurses for instance went on an indefinite strike patients would die and the state would save some money in terms of operations, pensions, dole money etc. The rich go private so they wouldn't care. The issue is also political.
The KKE alleges it is a working class party but has become pettybourgeoisified over the decades. Truckers historically have been on the political 'right' ie petty owners, with bank debts and the false consciousness that they will at some point own ten trucks and just collect money from managing them. One of the positives of this struggle is that they have no connection to the dead weight of stalinism and have shown originality in their approach and their sloganeering. They called for an open mass meeting at their union headquarters inviting pensioners groups and other transport workers. But because the union tops are stalinists and they see unity of the workers and the middle class which they cant control like Dracula does with the cross, it was too little too late this time, but it shows the intentions and the possibilities for the future.
The absence of the official Left and the far left is indicative of the extent of the political crisis now the real first wave of struggle against the IMF occurred. It also shows their political direction. Historic leaders of Sinaspismos who left to form Democratic Left have openly sided with the IMF. The next wave of struggle will force the KKE to do the same, as more and more sections of workers and middle class are forced to the streets due to the cuts and privatisations that are continuing unabated.
Thu 23, September 2010 @ 10:26
Jason said…
"One of the positives of this struggle is that they have no connection to the dead weight of stalinism and have shown originality in their approach and their sloganeering. They called for an open mass meeting at their union headquarters inviting pensioners groups and other transport workers. But because the union tops are stalinists and they see unity of the workers and the middle class which they cant control like Dracula does with the cross, it was too little too late this time, but it shows the intentions and the possibilities for the future. "
I think that's key as also is the idea of workers' action committees to unite different sections of the working class (and indeed impoverished or under attack petit-bourgeois, small business owners, traders, owner-drivers etc who the workers need to win to their ranks).
"If nurses for instance went on an indefinite strike patients would die and the state would save some money in terms of operations, pensions, dole money etc."
Yes but that's why it's essential to have other methods of action to supplement strike action, mass blockades, occupations, different section of workers coming out in solidarity action and can include emergency cover under democratic workers' control during the dispute. It can include workers, students, service users and wider community occupying the factories, offices, schools and hospitals and carrying out production for social need.
Thu 23, September 2010 @ 19:35
VN Gelis said…
Truckers have voted to continue their strike against the IMF
Battles occurred in Piraeus (main port next to Athens) where they blockaded it and the riot police got involved.
The strike committee was flooded with enraged truckers who demanded in opposition to the proposal of the union misleaders to have a secret ballot to have an open air one. The slogan which emerged to the news people was 'we will not give in' Molon Lave (which is what the Spartans said to the Persian Army) in reference to the governments 'emergency orders'.
http://webtv.antenna.gr/webtv/watch?cid=i07je7_i_dp_j_e%3d
The official Left continues to be spectators of an unfolding drama. They chose to have rallies about the price rises and the liberalisation of energy prices instead of supporting the truckers blockades
http://www1.rizospastis.gr/page.do?publDate=24/9/2010&id=12604&pageNo=8&direction=1
Fri 24, September 2010 @ 20:56
VN Gelis said…
Where are the leftist organisations? Who during their ‘insurrection’ regarding the murder of the young student Grigoropoulos a couple of winters ago marched up and down streets blockaded police stations, burning down shops?
Why don’t they now go to support the Truckers blockades to encourage them?
To help them blockade the roads once and for all indefinitely? When the truckers were outside Parliament all night and tried 3 times to storm it why didn’t they turn up?
Why don’t they go even outside the headquarters of the GREEK TUC-ADEDY-PAME (union federations) and pressurise them to call an indefinite general strike of all the nation on the side of the truckers for the overthrow of the IMF imposed junta?
Groups and organisations and people are judged in times of crisis when battles hang by a thread. The persistence of the truckers without a single media outlet supporting their cause, without a single political party proposing a solidarity demo, without political representation in Parliament is indicative of a whole generation of politicians both from the ‘left’ and right.
Fri 24, September 2010 @ 21:16
Fri 24, September 2010 @ 21:16
Jason said…
I think you're right to sharply cirticise the left on this. Obviously the Stalinists' leaders are fearful of real workers' action anyway but what about the Trotskyist and anarchist left? What about rank and file workers? I know little I am afraid about the Greek left.
What is it do you think that lies behind the lack of support? Is it because of prejudice against petit-bourgeois truckers? Is there a bad relationship e.g. have sections of truckers not supported workers?
Whatever the past or the explanation it seems to me that this is a crucial dispute. Truckers like railway workers have the ability to paralyse the movement of goods. The working class should pile in behind the struggle, support the truckers' demands, oppose the austerity measures, demand democratic workers' to set prices and get ready to paralyse the whole economy by demanding an emergecny workers' budget and plan, nationalise the banks, expropriuate the capitalists, appeal to rank and file soldier and police to refuse to break up demos and follow the orders of emergency workers' action committtees not the orders of the bourgeois government.
Sun 26, September 2010 @ 22:20
VN Gelis said…
The anarchists have been absent for around a year. Their last great showing was over the death of the bankers son Grigoropoulos whom the media labelled as an ...anarchist. Since the IMF arrived they have been absent from all social struggles. Most of the far left, maoists, trotskyists have become part of the ex-euros around Siriza/Sinaspismos in order to get government subsidies which are paid when a party gets more than 5% of the parliamentary vote.
Truckers haven't generally gone on big strikes as far as I know, I only ever remember a big one in the 1980's but agreement was agreed quite quickly. This one now has gone on for a month and previously two weeks at the end of July. There are still 6,500 containers in the ports and many areas haven't had sewage emptied as trucks empty it due to the antiquated system. Many islands have many shortages and much of the fresh produce has gone to waste.
The truckers are voting again today and they are being manoeuvred into having a closed ballot by their union misleaders, instead of a show of hands, so the ballot boxes can be manipulated. Every trick in the arsenal of government unionism is being used to end the strike with the latest arguement being that the market needs two weeks to recover, so why not stop now and start again before things get really serious.
The three other groups (SWP, WRP, Mandelites) who never joined the Euros have refused to support the truckers. At the same time all week strikes have occurred in the trains and now the buses have started as well. So taking into account the KKE has influence in both unions, coordination again is zero, the purpose being to dissipate the anger across different sections of transport workers to prepare them for ...privatisation.
Tue 28, September 2010 @ 20:28
VN Gelis said…
The vote just came through from the Strike Committee, 74 to 6 to continue the strike. Their leader refused to say which way he would vote prior to the vote, but made a statement that whichever way the vote goes he wants all sides to support it.
Tue 28, September 2010 @ 20:55
VN Gelis said…
A 41 year old trucker died after being tear gassed at the blockades of the port of Piraeus a couple of days ago. He was buried today. He is the first victim of the IMF imposed liberalisation of truckers licences. The union leadership have produced no statement regarding his death.
Greece has been threatened by the EU if it does not issue new truckers licences and the government is processing a new sub-law which states that all truckers who refuse to move their trucks from the blockades will be imprisoned immediately for 3 years, removal of licences and taking over their trucks if they have deliveries for the public sector eg hospitals or schools. One trucker on a road blockade on the Athens-Corinth motorway has been imprisoned allready.
The Greek TUC refused to have a general strike today, in case workers rallied to the truckers cause and instead called for an evening rally in the centre of Athens. Despite that railwayworkers were out and so were bus workers during the day.
Wed 29, September 2010 @ 19:04
VN Gelis said…
Despite the death of the trucker, no left protest march occured as after all he was a worker who has just been made bankrupt and the purpose of the left is to maintain disunity, division and ensuring with all its organised forces that the 'workers disunited will always be defeated'.
All night union meeting occurred in the truckers headquarters with many rank and file truckers locked out of the headquarters. As there are different sections of the union, and different sub-sections, public service truckers (delivery vehicles) ie to hospitals, schools, sewage clearance etc there are also private sector truckers for supermarket deliveries, retail etc. who controls each section and who takes decisions without informing the base is what the conflict has boiled down to at the moment as the government is threatening to lock them all up and they aint backing down.
The old leaderships are now in conflict with the Strike Committee who are organised around the various blockades and they want a say if any decision is taken against them. The Minister for Economic (non)Development said he would meet the leaders of the various unions and cut a deal to end the strikes. They voted to end the strikes to restore 'peace in the market' which is collapsing due to the non-delivery of goods from the ports and the evident shortages in a whole range of shops. The leaders of the Strike Committees claimed they weren't consulted again. The anger boiled over when truckers outside the union lit a firecracker against the union sellout leaders.
The leader of the Strike Committee declares here that they will meet on Friday (today) to vote against the sellout.
http://www.zougla.gr/page.ashx?pid=2&cid=0&aid=177679
A note: some of the union leaders of the 9 Federations which voted to end the strike are members of the Left KKE and Syriza (public sector truckers)
Fri 01, October 2010 @ 09:39
Fri 01, October 2010 @ 09:39
Jason said…
Thanks for these updates. Keep them coming.
Sun 03, October 2010 @ 09:31
VN Gelis said…
Ok, Jason.
The 2nd strike appears to have ended, one of the reasons being that the Strike Committee didn't choose to take control of the situation and expel the old leaderships proposing itself as the way forward. The media made a big hue and cry about the costs to the economy being so far E1.5billion and tonnes of goods trapped in containers in the ports. Immediately after the ending of the strike the Chinese Premier was in Athens giving a speech about how they will buy up Greek bonds and not allow the country to default.
Taking into account Greece is run by the shipowners this brings to mind a little known deal that was attempted in the late 1960's by the then shipowners Onassis and Niarhos who wanted to own and control all public facilities, ports, oil refineries, transport under the title Omega Project. If the Chinese want a foothold in Europe and they are using bankrupt Greece as its base this will intensify competition with Germany, who is Europe's biggest export earner?
Next on target are the railways, the solicitors, the chemists as well as the national Electricity company which has just massively increased its rates for all low income earners where liberalisation processes will be rammed through. The Minister of Health Loverdos stated that if we fail in our IMF course, Greeks may resort to a 2nd Goudi, which was the onset of Greek nationalism at the turn of 20th century which started the movement for the re-unification of Greek lands against the decaying Ottoman Empire and the weakening of the European (German) imposed monarchy on Greek political life.
Mon 04, October 2010 @ 09:39
VN Gelis said…
Greek police storm Acropolis protesters today due to protest by unpaid part-time museum workers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11539758
Bus drivers are now under attack facing a 20% wage cut and privatisation.
Train drivers of the national railways as well.
Local elections are scheduled in November where PASOK are expected to get a drubbing with a mass boycott by the electorate. From IMF headquarters in Washington stories are circulating that Papandreou knew the extent of the budget deficit prior to taking power and kept it hidden - a byword to drop him if there is an electoral collapse...
Thu 14, October 2010 @ 23:51
VN Gelis said…
Firefighters have occupied Parliament Square with tents protesting against cuts.
http://www.zougla.gr/page.ashx?pid=2&aid=181974&cid=4
Eyewitness Account Greek Hauliers on Indefinite Strike Against IMF Decrees
Eyewitness Account Greek Hauliers on Indefinite Strike Against IMF Decrees
On 8 September Greek hauliers held a truckers’ march into the centre of Athens with their horns blowing. They were reacting to the decision of the Minister of Transport two days earlier that he has reneged on an agreement made to end the August strike that outlined a transitional period of reforms of the Hauliers terms and conditions of employment. He now insists on the immediate implementation of all the changes without negotiation. As the scene is set for a resurgence of the strike in August we publish here an eye-witness account by V N Gelis of last month’s strike and the role of the union leaders in ending it.
“You are taking our livelihoods not simply our licenses” became the battle cry of 35,000 Greek road hauliers who launched an indefinite strike which lasted a whole week before its sell out by its leaders.
When the hauliers met for their mass meeting in the Peroke Theatre in central Athens their despondent voices were heard from one wall of the theatre to the other. They characteristically wore a black armband and came to hear the President of the Federation of Georgiatos who wanted to tell the crowd the proposal of the Minister Reppas that “dialogue will continue only after the cessation of the strike”. They forced the leaders to continue the strike...
They rejected the government’s plans to open their service up to multinational competition. It was common knowledge that the multinational COSCO which bought the Greek ports on behalf of China asked for 30,000 new licences for transporting goods with Chinese personnel who will be paid a maximum of €300 for their work.
They tried to find a “compromise solution” but their proposals were ignored by the IMF who now essentially run the Ministry of Transport.
The leaders of the union asked for the pensions of hauliers to reach the amazing amount of €680 a month, to allow for three years for the law to be implemented and not backdated to last June, and the implementation of it for all hauliers to be over a five-year period not a three year period as 5,000 hauliers bought their licences recently and the 35% drop in their value will affect them disproportionally.
New licences were bought for around €300,000 a 35% drop will mean they are now currently worth €200,000 but the debt will remain at the amount for which they were bought.
The Minister of Transport Reppas replied with so-called development tax rebates and allowing each driver to take another licence which will not be worth anything anyway. Even if the majority of the Federation wanted to announce the ending of the strike under these circumstances of a mass meeting with all present, it was impossible as there was nothing on the table.
The KKE’s representative at the Peroke theatre greeted the leadership of the hauliers without raising a single point of difference with the government plan despite being self-labelled as the “class struggle union”
So how did the union leaders get around selling out the strike? Four or five days into the strike after two mass meetings and two large demos to the Parliament – and with trucks also parked on many motorways up and down Greece – the government brought forward an “emergency order” which basically allows the military to act as strikebreakers.
This has only been used once or twice before since 1974 against port workers in order to break their strikes. This was the perfect excuse the union misleaders needed to sell out the strike. Why?
Supermarkets had mass shortages of goods. In two supermarkets I visited they had run out of the basics seven days into the strike. There were many fuel shortages in petrol stations. Hospitals couldn’t get supplies. More importantly the tourist industry was going to get crippled which is Greece’s main earner in the summer months.
Whilst the hauliers appeared on TV stating no one can force them to go to work and they won’t accept the provisions of the “emergency order”. Army conscripts were also heard to voice reservations that they didn't want to act as strikebreakers. This could pose bigger problems for the government in the future as without the army on your side you lose the ability to threaten people.
So sensing this situation could get out of control, where people in other occupations joined this strike against the IMF and its PASOK quislings, the union leaders met behind closed doors one fine Sunday morning and then the media announced the ending of the strike.
A strike was sold out without being actually defeated and it showed it was a spark that could have lit a more general fire, but the union leaders and the parties of the Left were found wanting once more.
Thu 09, September 2010 @ 13:50
Greek Hauliers have started an indefinite strike again. They are alleged to have attacked the president of northern Greece's CBI during the Thessaloniki trade fair. Their sellout president condemned the violence of the Hauliers but not the violence of the riot police who teargassed them.
A video of the event has appeared in this paper.
http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=11424&subid=2&pubid=29520948
Sun 12, September 2010 @ 18:48
Hauliers Strike Update...
Blockades have occurred on national motorways and many demos in various cities over the last week.
Lamia was cut totally off in the centre. Different things are occurring in different parts of the country.
Truckdrivers act against the line of the union sellouts.
Much will be decided as to whether people will rally to the autonomous movements of hauliers blockades and whether this will take some organised form or will provisionally go backwards.
Hauliers have started blocking the motorways without a general plan of action. In every blockade autonomous groups are being created under which they decide to go against the official union policy of Tzortatos & Co.
In the Metamorphosis blockade an area on the outskirts of Athens they decided to block both sides of the motorway and at the same time allowed cars to go through the pay tolls by occupying them and allowing them to go through for free.
Truckers have also called for open mass meetings with all the layers of workers and pensioners affected by the IMF measures in the Haidari blockaded which was voted for unanimously. They announced their decision using mobile phones to other truckers around the country, and they want them held at their union offices on Tuesday 12th September 2010
They have also forced scabs to stop working and the one of the union leaders has condemned this via the mass media. Kiousis who owns 35 trucks (and with the ‘liberation’ of the profession will want to acquire more) attacked the strike breakers under the guise of the ‘right to work’. Alongside him was the Hauliers Leader-Tzortatos owner of 17trucks who under pressure of the deranged and corrupted journalists of the IMF mass media, pressurised him to support the strikebreakers.
This evening on SKAI tv it was reported that in 3 blockades they are also proposing in the open mass meeting to be held on Tuesday to have allnight camps outside of Parliament and to call all the people with them and to not leave until victory.
Sun 19, September 2010 @ 17:28
Strikebreakers on this video showing their demobilised trucks after strikers cut off their electrics.
http://www.megatv.com/megagegonota/summary.asp?catid=17632&subid=2&pubid=13636752
The vote for the 'opening of the professions' one of the IMF imposed measures is going to occur on Wednesday. The KKE hasn't called for any direct support to the Truckers or any of their mobilisations although they are holding a demo outside Parliament on 23rd September when the vote is to go through.
If the truckers march into the centre of Athens with 2,000 trucks as some have stated they will then the situation may go out of control of the union misleaders.
At the same time the President of the Greek CBI has stated that 5,000 containers are blocked at ports all over Greece and much produce may go rotten.
Sun 19, September 2010 @ 19:08
Video of strikers trying to block scabs plus map of all the road blockades around Athens.
http://www.megatv.com/megagegonota/summary.asp?catid=17632&subid=2&pubid=13636752#toppage
Also how the strike is affecting the market with tonnes of stock remaining in the ports
Sun 19, September 2010 @ 19:28
On 8 September Greek hauliers held a truckers’ march into the centre of Athens with their horns blowing. They were reacting to the decision of the Minister of Transport two days earlier that he has reneged on an agreement made to end the August strike that outlined a transitional period of reforms of the Hauliers terms and conditions of employment. He now insists on the immediate implementation of all the changes without negotiation. As the scene is set for a resurgence of the strike in August we publish here an eye-witness account by V N Gelis of last month’s strike and the role of the union leaders in ending it.
“You are taking our livelihoods not simply our licenses” became the battle cry of 35,000 Greek road hauliers who launched an indefinite strike which lasted a whole week before its sell out by its leaders.
When the hauliers met for their mass meeting in the Peroke Theatre in central Athens their despondent voices were heard from one wall of the theatre to the other. They characteristically wore a black armband and came to hear the President of the Federation of Georgiatos who wanted to tell the crowd the proposal of the Minister Reppas that “dialogue will continue only after the cessation of the strike”. They forced the leaders to continue the strike...
They rejected the government’s plans to open their service up to multinational competition. It was common knowledge that the multinational COSCO which bought the Greek ports on behalf of China asked for 30,000 new licences for transporting goods with Chinese personnel who will be paid a maximum of €300 for their work.
They tried to find a “compromise solution” but their proposals were ignored by the IMF who now essentially run the Ministry of Transport.
The leaders of the union asked for the pensions of hauliers to reach the amazing amount of €680 a month, to allow for three years for the law to be implemented and not backdated to last June, and the implementation of it for all hauliers to be over a five-year period not a three year period as 5,000 hauliers bought their licences recently and the 35% drop in their value will affect them disproportionally.
New licences were bought for around €300,000 a 35% drop will mean they are now currently worth €200,000 but the debt will remain at the amount for which they were bought.
The Minister of Transport Reppas replied with so-called development tax rebates and allowing each driver to take another licence which will not be worth anything anyway. Even if the majority of the Federation wanted to announce the ending of the strike under these circumstances of a mass meeting with all present, it was impossible as there was nothing on the table.
The KKE’s representative at the Peroke theatre greeted the leadership of the hauliers without raising a single point of difference with the government plan despite being self-labelled as the “class struggle union”
So how did the union leaders get around selling out the strike? Four or five days into the strike after two mass meetings and two large demos to the Parliament – and with trucks also parked on many motorways up and down Greece – the government brought forward an “emergency order” which basically allows the military to act as strikebreakers.
This has only been used once or twice before since 1974 against port workers in order to break their strikes. This was the perfect excuse the union misleaders needed to sell out the strike. Why?
Supermarkets had mass shortages of goods. In two supermarkets I visited they had run out of the basics seven days into the strike. There were many fuel shortages in petrol stations. Hospitals couldn’t get supplies. More importantly the tourist industry was going to get crippled which is Greece’s main earner in the summer months.
Whilst the hauliers appeared on TV stating no one can force them to go to work and they won’t accept the provisions of the “emergency order”. Army conscripts were also heard to voice reservations that they didn't want to act as strikebreakers. This could pose bigger problems for the government in the future as without the army on your side you lose the ability to threaten people.
So sensing this situation could get out of control, where people in other occupations joined this strike against the IMF and its PASOK quislings, the union leaders met behind closed doors one fine Sunday morning and then the media announced the ending of the strike.
A strike was sold out without being actually defeated and it showed it was a spark that could have lit a more general fire, but the union leaders and the parties of the Left were found wanting once more.
Thu 09, September 2010 @ 13:50
Greek Hauliers have started an indefinite strike again. They are alleged to have attacked the president of northern Greece's CBI during the Thessaloniki trade fair. Their sellout president condemned the violence of the Hauliers but not the violence of the riot police who teargassed them.
A video of the event has appeared in this paper.
http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=11424&subid=2&pubid=29520948
Sun 12, September 2010 @ 18:48
Hauliers Strike Update...
Blockades have occurred on national motorways and many demos in various cities over the last week.
Lamia was cut totally off in the centre. Different things are occurring in different parts of the country.
Truckdrivers act against the line of the union sellouts.
Much will be decided as to whether people will rally to the autonomous movements of hauliers blockades and whether this will take some organised form or will provisionally go backwards.
Hauliers have started blocking the motorways without a general plan of action. In every blockade autonomous groups are being created under which they decide to go against the official union policy of Tzortatos & Co.
In the Metamorphosis blockade an area on the outskirts of Athens they decided to block both sides of the motorway and at the same time allowed cars to go through the pay tolls by occupying them and allowing them to go through for free.
Truckers have also called for open mass meetings with all the layers of workers and pensioners affected by the IMF measures in the Haidari blockaded which was voted for unanimously. They announced their decision using mobile phones to other truckers around the country, and they want them held at their union offices on Tuesday 12th September 2010
They have also forced scabs to stop working and the one of the union leaders has condemned this via the mass media. Kiousis who owns 35 trucks (and with the ‘liberation’ of the profession will want to acquire more) attacked the strike breakers under the guise of the ‘right to work’. Alongside him was the Hauliers Leader-Tzortatos owner of 17trucks who under pressure of the deranged and corrupted journalists of the IMF mass media, pressurised him to support the strikebreakers.
This evening on SKAI tv it was reported that in 3 blockades they are also proposing in the open mass meeting to be held on Tuesday to have allnight camps outside of Parliament and to call all the people with them and to not leave until victory.
Sun 19, September 2010 @ 17:28
Strikebreakers on this video showing their demobilised trucks after strikers cut off their electrics.
http://www.megatv.com/megagegonota/summary.asp?catid=17632&subid=2&pubid=13636752
The vote for the 'opening of the professions' one of the IMF imposed measures is going to occur on Wednesday. The KKE hasn't called for any direct support to the Truckers or any of their mobilisations although they are holding a demo outside Parliament on 23rd September when the vote is to go through.
If the truckers march into the centre of Athens with 2,000 trucks as some have stated they will then the situation may go out of control of the union misleaders.
At the same time the President of the Greek CBI has stated that 5,000 containers are blocked at ports all over Greece and much produce may go rotten.
Sun 19, September 2010 @ 19:08
Video of strikers trying to block scabs plus map of all the road blockades around Athens.
http://www.megatv.com/megagegonota/summary.asp?catid=17632&subid=2&pubid=13636752#toppage
Also how the strike is affecting the market with tonnes of stock remaining in the ports
Sun 19, September 2010 @ 19:28
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