Workers' Liberty

Greece's trade unions have organised three general strikes in the last month against the drastic cuts programme developed by the PASOK (social-democratic) government to conciliate the international financiers: 24 February, 5 March, 11 March.

A general strike which mobilised two million workers brought Greece to a standstill on 24 February as the Greek working class moved into battle against the public spending cuts, wage freeze and other austerity measures by the “social-democratic” PASOK government.

The Greek government could run out of money to pay its bills in the next couple of months. Usually governments are guaranteed at least to be able to pay their bills inside their own countries — because, in the last resort, they can always print more of their national money — but the Greek government, in the eurozone, has no power to print more euros.

At the beginning of December there were clashes between the police and protestors in Athens. The protests marked the first anniversary of the fatal police shooting of a teenager.

In Greece, the fires of December have burned out, the students returned home for the holidays and, for now, the streets are quiet. But the underlying grievances that propelled thousands of youth and striking workers into clashes with the state remain, so 2009 looks set to be another turbulent year.

Riot police fired tear gas on Tuesday 21 October to disperse demonstrators amid a nationwide general strike that brought air, rail and ferry traffic to a halt.

With strikes, demonstrations and direct action the Greek workers can overthrow the Tory government (Nea Dimokratia) and get the anti-working class reforms withdrawn.

This is a longer version of this article than in the printed paper.