You are here
Home ›Anti-workers’ attacks in Greece
The capitalists and their government reinforce the anti-workers’ attacks in Greece - Total war against the working class!
Letter from a young comrade from Greece
In the last few months the Greek capitalist government has carried out a great massive on the social security rights of the working class. The government party presented a bill which effectively plans to reduce pensions, the prolongation of work to 68 years for working men and women, the reduction of the supplementary benefits and of wages. That’s a terrible shock for the workers, especially the young and women. It’s very important to remember that in Greece 25% of the population live below the poverty line. With this bill the capitalists and their government want to force the workers to work until they die.
The announcement of the government’s plans provoked a considerable resistance from many sectors of the workers. During March many sectional strikes took place: Transport workers, bank officers, teachers of the secondary education, dockers, employees of the public services. The most important was the strikes of the electricity workers and the street cleaners. These sectors defended their welfare rights with lasting strikes. The government, the capitalist cadres of the direction of the “Public Electricity Enterprise” and the capitalist media accused the workers of an “antisocial and criminal attitude” and they started a campaign of calumny against them. But the management of the enterprise preferred to cut the electricity to homes and not to the factories and the industries. The bureaucrats of the union fractions of the right- wing government party, and of the center-left opposition Party (PASOK) with the union cadres of the capitalist Left, led to the strike. It was a trick to control the class struggle. Many times “right-wing unions” participate in the strikes against their own government; it’s a proof of the weight of bourgeois ideology within the working class and of the bureaucratic erosion of the workers’ consciousness. The strike of the street cleaners continued for a week. The streets were full of rubbish and the laborers of this sector protested against the government. The media again used the weapon of calumny against the strikers; they made propaganda about the menace of epidemics.
The “general strike” organized by the trade-unions on 19th March amassed 130.000 people and it was one of the biggest demonstrations in the last twenty years. The parties of the Capitalist Left (the Coalition of the Left and the “Communist” Party) demanded a referendum for the annulment of the bill and they didn’t call for a general political strike. The trade-unions (General Labor Confederation) are in the hands of the center-left party and of the reformists, the “Communist” Party organized its own demonstration with the unions under its control and its fraction appealed for an “Allworkers’ Militant Front”. This week the government voted the bill into law and that’s a heavy defeat for the class. The Left have carried on demanding a plebiscite. And the bureaucrats, members of the capitalist and reformist parties control the strikes. The working class lost its last rights after the abolition of the historical right work of the eight hour day in 2005. The trade-unions are playing a total reactionary role as part of the capitalist parties and of the State. The influence of the reactionary and reformist tendencies in the workers’ movement makes it all the more necessary to have of an organized revolutionary communist perspective in the battles of the future.
In evidence
The Communist Workers’ Organisation is (unsurprisingly!) a not-for-profit organisation. We have no so-called “professional revolutionaries”, nor paid officials. Our sole funding comes from the subscriptions and donations of members and supporters. Anyone wishing to donate (to “Prometheus Publications”) can now do so safely using the Paypal button below.
Subscriptions to Revolutionary Perspectives (3 issues) and Aurora (at least 4 issues) are:
- UK £15 (€18)
- Europe £20 (€24)
- World £25 (€30, $30)
Take out a supporter’s sub by adding £10 (€12) to each sum. This will give you priority mailings of Aurora and other free pamphlets as they are produced.
Publications. CWO publications are not copy-righted and we only ask that those who reproduce them acknowledge the original source on our website www.leftcom.org. Purchasing any of the publications listed on this site or in our various documents can be done in several ways:
- By emailing us at uk@leftcom.org and asking for our banking details
- By writing a cheque to the “CWO” and sending it to BM CWO, London WC1N 3XX
- By donating the cost of the publications required via Paypal using the “Donate” button
- The book “Bordiga Beyond the Myth” by Onorato Damen can also be ordered via Amazon
Basics
- Bourgeois revolution
- Competition and monopoly
- Core and peripheral countries
- Crisis
- Decadence
- Democracy and dictatorship
- Exploitation and accumulation
- Factory and territory groups
- Financialization
- Globalization
- Historical materialism
- Imperialism
- Party and class
- Proletarian revolution
- Seigniorage
- Social classes
- Socialism and communism
- State
- State capitalism
- War economics
Facts
- Activities
- Arms
- Automotive industry
- Books, art and culture
- Commerce
- Communications
- Conflicts
- Contracts and wages
- Corporate trends
- Criminal activities
- Disasters
- Discriminations
- Discussions
- Drugs and dependencies
- Economic policies
- Education and youth
- Elections and polls
- Energy, oil and fuels
- Environment and resources
- Financial market
- Food
- Health and social assistance
- Housing
- Information and media
- International relations
- Law
- Migrations
- Pensions and benefits
- Philosophy and religion
- Repression and control
- Science and technics
- Social unrest
- Terrorist outrages
- Transports
- Unemployment and precarity
- Workers' conditions and struggles
History
- 01. Prehistory
- 02. Ancient history
- 03. Middle ages
- 04. Modern history
- 1800: Industrial revolution
- 1900s
- 1910s
- 1911-12: Turko-Italian War for Libya
- 1912: Frazione Intransigente Rivoluzionaria of PSI
- 1912: Republic of China
- 1913: Fordism (assembly line)
- 1914-18: World War I
- 1917: Russian Revolution
- 1918: Frazione Comunista Astensionista of PSI
- 1918: German Revolution
- 1919-20: Biennio rosso in Italy
- 1919-43: Third International
- 1919: Hungarian Revolution
- 1920s
- 1921-28: New Economic Policy
- 1921: Kronstadt rebellion
- 1921: Partito Comunista d'Italia
- 1922-45: Fascism
- 1922-52: Stalin is General Secretary of PCUS
- 1925-27: Canton and Shanghai revolt
- 1925: Comitato d'Intesa
- 1926: General strike in Britain
- 1926: Lyons Congress of PCd’I
- 1927: Vienna revolt
- 1928: First five-year plan
- 1928: Pantin, Frazione di sinistra della IC
- 1929: Great Depression
- 1930s
- 1931: Japan occupies Manchuria
- 1933-43: New Deal
- 1933-45: Nazism
- 1934: Long March of Chinese communists
- 1934: Miners' uprising in Asturias
- 1934: Workers' uprising in "Red Vienna"
- 1935-36: Italian army invades Ethiopia
- 1936-38: Great Purge
- 1936-39: Spanish Civil War
- 1937: Bureau International des Fractions de la Gauche Communiste
- 1938: Fourth International
- 1940s
- 1950s
- 1960s
- 1970s
- 1969-80: Anni di piombo in Italy
- 1971: End of the Bretton Woods system
- 1971: Microprocessor
- 1973: Pinochet's military junta in Chile
- 1975: Toyotism (just-in-time)
- 1977-81: International conferences convoked by PCInt
- 1977: '77 movement
- 1978: Economic reforms in China
- 1978: Islamic Revolution in Iran
- 1978: South Lebanon conflict
- 1980s
- 1979-89: Soviet war in Afghanistan
- 1979-90: Thatcher government
- 1980-88: Iran-Iraq War
- 1980: Strikes in Poland
- 1982: Falklands War
- 1982: First Lebanon War
- 1982: Sabra and Chatila
- 1983: Foundation of IBRP
- 1984-85: UK Miners' Strike
- 1986: Chernobyl disaster
- 1987-93: First Intifada
- 1987: Perestroika
- 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
- 1989: Tiananmen Square protests
- 1990s
- 1991: Breakup of Yugoslavia
- 1991: Dissolution of Soviet Union
- 1991: First Gulf War
- 1992-95: UN intervention in Somalia
- 1994-96: First Chechen War
- 1994: Genocide in Rwanda
- 1995: NATO bombing in Bosnia
- 1999-2000: Second Chechen War
- 1999: Introduction of euro
- 1999: Kosovo War
- 1999: WTO conference in Seattle
- 2000s
- 2000: Second intifada
- 2001: G8 summit in Genoa
- 2001: Piqueteros' movement in Argentina
- 2001: September 11 attacks
- 2001: War in Afghanistan
- 2003: Second Gulf War
- 2004: Asian Tsunami
- 2004: Madrid train bombings
- 2005: Banlieue riots in France
- 2005: Hurricane Katrina
- 2005: London bombings
- 2006: Anti-CPE movement in France
- 2006: Comuna de Oaxaca
- 2006: Second Lebanon War
- 2007: Subprime crisis
- 2008: Automotive crisis
- 2008: Global crisis
- 2008: Onda movement in Italy
- 2008: Pomigliano struggle
- 2008: Riots in Greece
- 2008: War in Georgia
- 2009: Israel-Gaza conflict
- 2009: Post-election crisis in Iran
- 2010s
People
- Amadeo Bordiga
- Anton Pannekoek
- Antonio Gramsci
- Arrigo Cervetto
- Bruno Fortichiari
- Bruno Maffi
- Celso Beltrami
- Davide Casartelli
- Errico Malatesta
- Fabio Damen
- Fausto Atti
- Franco Migliaccio
- Franz Mehring
- Friedrich Engels
- Giorgio Paolucci
- Guido Torricelli
- Heinz Langerhans
- Helmut Wagner
- Henryk Grossmann
- Karl Korsch
- Karl Liebknecht
- Karl Marx
- Leon Trotsky
- Lorenzo Procopio
- Mario Acquaviva
- Mauro jr. Stefanini
- Michail Bakunin
- Onorato Damen
- Ottorino Perrone (Vercesi)
- Paul Mattick
- Rosa Luxemburg
- Vladimir Lenin
Politics
- Anarchism
- Anti-Americanism
- Anti-globalization movement
- Antifascism and united front
- Antiracism
- Armed struggle
- Autonomism and workerism
- Base unionism
- Bordigism
- Communist left inspired
- Cooperativism and autogestion
- Councilism
- DeLeonism
- Environmentalism
- Fascism
- Feminism
- Gramscism
- ICC and French communist left
- Islamism
- Italian communist left
- Leninism
- Liberism
- Luxemburgism
- Maoism
- Marxism
- National liberation movements
- Nationalism
- PCInt-ICT
- Pacifism
- Parliamentary center-right
- Parliamentary left and reformism
- Peasant movement
- Revolutionary unionism
- Russian communist left
- Situationism
- Stalinism
- Statism and keynesism
- Student movement
- Titoism
- Trotskyism
- Unionism
Regions
User login
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.