Greek Crisis, Our answer: REVOLT EVERYWHERE

Everybody to the Constitution Square, the White Tower, squares and streets

Statement of Greek OKDE

Every day until victory – CONTINUOUS GENERAL STRIKE

The Government, the Troika, the Memorandums must go

The Debt must be Canceled

“Bread – Education – Freedom, the junta didn’t end in 1973”. This slogan was shouted, in 15/6, by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, who remained at the Constitution Square, determined and took it again under their control to keep it free for the people, despite the orgy of suppression, the tons of chemicals and tear gasses, the attacks of hordes of police special forces.

For more than 22 days, the street referendum –the only original one- has concluded to a clear verdict: We are not represented by any of them! Off they go, all of them, together with their memorandums and the Troika, and first of all, the troupe of Mr Papandreou’s collaborators, who believe that he can still play ridiculous political games and mock us.

Papandreou’s hated faction is falling apart. Very soon he will have to go home. We are justified to feel great joy, but, be careful: No matter how many elections they hold, no government (either of New Democracy, or an all-party government, or a government of “personalities”, or one of “technocrats”, etc) will be able –or should be able– to be legitimized in the eyes of the labour, the people and the youth- all of us who strive against the rotten political system, with the aim of taking our lives in our hands, faced with the intolerable situation of the crisis and bankruptcy of the Greek capitalism, the successive memorandums and the cruel measures.

We will bury “Memorandum II”, the memorandum of plundering and impoverishment.

The “Medium-term Program”/ Memorandum II, which the collaborator government of Troika has brought to the Parliament, is aimed at snatching 78billion euros from us, through:

A vast unprecedented tax-raid: transfer of almost all the goods/ services to the highest tax rate of 23%, tax imposing to almost every property, increase of vehicle taxes, abolition of almost all the tax exemptions (such as medical expenses, mortgage payments, etc).

The transformation of workers into slaves: abolition of overtime payment, complete flexibilisation of working time with the decision of the employer only. Massive lay-offs in the public sector, abolition of collective agreements in the private sector and generalization of individual contracts.

Abrupt decrease of the civil servants’ payments through the abolition of almost all the benefits and allowances Decrease of the payments by many hundred euros …in solidarity to the unemployed (!).

Cuts in the supplementary pensions or even in the 300 euro, farmers’ pension and a new anti-social security bill in September.

Butchering of the Labor Housing Organization expenses, unemployment benefits, education and health expenses (which lead to massive closing down of schools, universities and hospitals), medicine allowances. The unemployed (over 2.5 million) and the immigrants are excluded from hospital care and led to slaughtering.

More than that, they are selling off all the public property to collect 50 billion euros: water and electricity services, public transport, streets, harbours, even parks, monuments, forests, beaches and islands!

Memorandum II leads to the complete disintegration of the economy and society itself. Payments will fall a further 30-40%. The unemployed, who have already surpassed the 1.2 million people, are going to be more than 1.5 million by the end of 2011 and, along with the part-time workers, they are going to consist the great majority of a destructed society. For the youth, unemployment is 42.5% and is about to surpass 50% -rates existing in Egypt or Tunisia! All these are going to take place until the next memorandum, which is undoubtedly coming, as the failure of Memorandum II is certain, as well as the sharpening of the economic and political crisis.

Our answer: REVOLT EVERYWHERE

They are blackmailing us posing the dilemma “Memorandum II or Bankruptcy”. Memorandum II leads nowhere but to a wrecked society. On the other hand, if we go back to the old current (drachma), our payments will indeed decrease by 30-40%, the Greek capitalism will go through a tsunami of shut- ups, lay-offs and collapse of the education, health and social security systems. Therefore, what we have to expect is barbarism whether we choose to “sane ourselves” and remain in euro (for as long as we can), or we go bankrupt. Between the Bitch of Memorandums and the Charybdis of bankruptcy, we only have one thing left: the ceaseless struggle for our interests against a handful of Greek capitalists and European businessmen and bankers. It is either us or them. For this whole bankrupt economic and political system to go away; for us to start taking back the wealth that we produce, all those that they have plundered from us to create their mythical fortunes, like the 600 billion (much more than the public debt) of the Greek billionaires at the Swiss banks; to make a really new start through our own solidarity and organization, to make way for a different society with our needs in its centre, a democratic, radical, socialist society.

The first step is to overthrow this lousy crumbling government (whether it manages to pass Memorandum II or not). If we smash the predatory hands that they lay on our lives and our future, if we “break” their legs and rips, whatever governments comes next, will be feeling our hot breath on its neck if it dares to introduce measures of this kind.

The official reformist left (KK and SYN/ SYRIZA), paralyzed in the face of the needs to organize and expand the struggle, it does nothing but begging for elections. KKE, especially, has been attacking this enormous movement against the junta of the government – troika, using every kind of slander.

This is why we need to grow massive and reinforce the movement of the squares, reinforce the surrounding of the Parliament and the other public buildings in every town. We need to struggle for a Continuous General Strike to be called for, to completely paralyze the economic life of the country. For a strike like that to succeed, we have to organize it ourselves, from below, not the trade-unionist bureaucracy which has paralyzed our trade unions. We are not going to leave the squares or stop the surrounding of the Parliament, nothing is going to go back to normal in this country, unless this collaborator government of the Troika goes away!

Immediate Release of the Arrested

Banning of Lay-offs. Abolition of any kind of flexible job. Nationalization of every enterprise that shuts up or fires workers, confiscation of their owners’ property and operation under workers’ control. Less work, work for all, with 35 hour- 5day – 7hour daily work.

Abolition of taxes on the popular consumption goods. Workers control on the prices and immediate decrease of them.

Increases in payments – pensions. Our aim is 1,400 euros minimum basic salary for all. No worker without a collective agreement

Increase of the social expenses, public free education and health, school, hospital and labour accommodation construction schemes, environment protection schemes, decrease of the military and police expenses.

Immediate return of all the stolen money and the state and employers’ debts to the social security funds. Abolition of all the anti-social security laws.

Cancellation of the debt.

Nationalization of all the banks, big enterprises and the Social Benefit Public Enterprises, under workers’ control.

19 June 2011 Organization of Communists Internationalists of Greece http://www.okde.gr – ergatikipali@okde.gr