Thursday, July 01, 2010
Transport strike continues in Madrid
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:18:13 GMT
Spanish subway workers have continued their walkout for the third consecutive day, forcing the closure of metro stations and prompting traffic jams.
The strike began on Monday with public transportation workers demanding the government to scrap a planned 5 percent pay cut as part of its fiscal austerity measures.
Meanwhile, strike committee spokesman Vicente Rodriguez said on Wednesday that it was still unclear when the strike would end.
"We haven't changed anything. We still have the same sole aim. No Metro worker is to lose so much as a euro," he added.
The ongoing strike is estimated to have affected more than two million travelers a day at a time when the country is approaching its peak holiday season.
In defiance of a government ruling that workers should run 50 percent of the scheduled trains, on Wednesday on-strike personnel refused to return to work.
Madrid mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon criticized trade unions for the inconvenience, saying that "they do not have the right to do what they are doing to all the people of Madrid. I think we are in an emergency situation now in Madrid."
Spain is struggling with a budget deficit of 11.2 percent of its gross domestic product. The government has announced it needs to save EUR 15 billion (USD 18 billion) to weather the crisis.
The trade unions are disappointed with the Madrid government plan, saying that public sector workers are the ones who are paying the heavy price of budget cuts.
METRO MADRID WORKERS ARE DEFENDING A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT
The Madrid Metro workers are going to declare a strike, and moreover they will do so in defense of one of those fundamental established legal rights supported by the whole of the universal declarations of human rights, over which so many of our supposed political representatives cackle as long as nobody exercises them : the right to freedom of association.
For what is at stake in the subway strike is nothing more and nothing less than a constitutional right explicitly recognized in Article 37 of the Constitution: the right to collective bargaining and the binding force of agreements. An ancillary and basic right of any minimally democratic system of industrial relations. The right of workers to negotiate freely with the the bosses about working conditions . And to reach agreements that are binding for both parties. Because what this strike is not about airing a greater or lesser reduction of the wages of a particular group, but the immunity of one of the signatories of a collective agreement for its total failure . The workers and the company reached an agreement last year. Now the company does not comply with it and throws against the workers the whole media herd media accusing them of being "privileged." This is a strange world in which to enjoy a constitutional right is a "privilege." We should ask why there are so few "privileged" in this supposedly "lawful" state.
But we said that the Madrid subway workers are defending a fundamental right, not just their own direct collective bargaining . And that is that our Constitutional Court has consistently ruled to uphold that the right to collective bargaining is part of the substance of another constitutional right one protected in all international declarations of human rights: the right to freedom of association, of Article 28 of the Constitution. And this itself is fundamental. There is, therefore, no right to union freedom if the right to collective bargaining is not respected. For what use would it be if a union that could not negotiate binding agreements with the employer? Without agreements there are no unions, no one to protect and defend the work force in the hostile environment of wild and unbridled capitalism; therefore, any pretense that we live (as our monarchical Magna Carta says) in a "social state with the democratic rule of law "is just talk.
Thus, the Madrid subway workers are defending a fundamental right. In a massive breach of it, besides. In a breach for thousands of workers. But not only that. They are also defending the very essence of any democracy worthy of the name (and for you, reader, it's often often debated whether we deserve it): that the right of the weak are not trampled by the strong, nothing more. To enable workers to defend themselves against exploitation and misery. And the rules that protect them are respected.
For those who have declared war on the welfare state and the European working classes (those bankers and financiers who were rescued with public money last year) also have declared against all the fundamental rights and notions of law and democracy .
It is in defense of all of us , therefore, that workers in Madrid Metro are now going to strike in defense of a fundamental right, and they will tell you this whatever they say from the media in the pay of the employers .
José Luis Carretero
CNT- workers support the Madrid Metro strike (Local Federation of Unions of Madrid - 01.07.2010 )
Faced with strikes in the Madrid metro , workers affiliated to the Federación Local de Sindicatos de Madrid express our total solidarity with the demands and note that we do not care about the little problems that we can generate to the users of public transport. Especially since we understand that this strike is essential to prepare the way of resistance against anti-labor measures from the Government.
Therefore, we not only offer our support for Metro workers but we encourage the entire working class of Madrid not only to understand and respect it , but to actively support it .
Local Federation of Unions of CNT -Madrid
http://madrid.cnt.es/
Join the " Usuari@s solidarity with the Metro strike blog "
In Solidarity with the Madrid Metro Strike has opened a blog to express the support of groups and individuals with the striking subway workers .
Needless to say, this is the first major strike against the crisis , and the factor of radicalism and its significance is that it is the first concrete struggle and confrontation against the rhetoric of crisis. We say deal with all your goddamn crisis; we are not guilty and not going to pay your crisis .
We have therefore opened a blog in solidarity with the strike from which to influence opinion, and provide support materials : http://usuariossolidarios.wordpress.com/ .
It is important that you leave comments of individual and collective support , as the trump card that the politicians are playing is the lack of sympathy for the workers in the Metro and leaving them isolated with the excuse that no one supports them .
If this strike is won it will be a giant step towards having a more eventful autumn , if it is lost it will be another missed opportunity and the cutback politicians will have an easier road -cutting salaries , pensions, the domestic deficit ( health, education , precarious employment ...)
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We welcome you with a smile
Metro Users in solidarity with the strike of Metro we understand that :
1. The strike At Metro represents all the workers who have been affected by measures taken under the guise of the crisis (lower wages, loss of our rights , raising of the retirement age, precariousness)
2. We feel great solidarity against these measures, which now affect Metro workers and are imposed on us under the pretext of scarcity, when in these recent years there have never failed to be missed billions of euros to rescue the banks , financial institutions and big business.
3. Because Metro workers are embodying the slogan " we will not pay the crisis " with which we identify .
4. That the Metro has been the cornerstone of land prices in the territory of Madrid ( Metro has never existed to sell tickets , but to reclassify land where placing a stop makes a new neighbourhood) and that this has made multimillionaires of developers and construction companies .
5. That as these great benefits were never distributed and accumulated in large bank accounts, excessive assets and tax havens we can now ask that we have the minimal support to save a system that shared wealth across the world.
6. To lower wages in times in which the great fortunes not only do not decay but grow under the guise of the crisis is an insult to intelligence.
7. That subway workers have every right to a general strike that many workers and casual workers look on with envy is an ability to fight that we wish all could bring before the boss and tell him no, that's enough , I will not have lower wages !
8. We encourage everyone precarious workers, domestic workers , workers from all parts of the world that inhabit Madrid and those who have less to worry about how to join and fight with us so that they will not take away what is ours , to cry: We will not pay your crisis!
9. We call for support this strike because it is a strike that defends the rights of workers in the Metro and defends the dignity of all of us.
10. We hope the strength, courage and solidarity shown by subway workers is contagious , if so ... we welcome you with a smile.
Spain: Striking Metro workers face military intervention and union betrayal
By Paul Mitchell
1 July 2010
The vice-chair of the Popular Party-run Madrid regional government, Ignacio González, has warned that he is “not going to discard the option” of the military taking control of Madrid’s Metro system, which has been brought to a standstill by striking workers and brought chaos to the streets of the capital.
Metro workers walked out on June 28 on a three-day strike, incensed by the Madrid regional government passing an “Urgent Measures Law” that cuts the salary of employees of public companies like Madrid Metro by 5 percent. They voted almost unanimously at a mass meeting to ignore legal minimum service rules, which force workers to maintain 50 percent of normal service, greatly reducing the effectiveness of industrial action.
González called the strike an “an attack on the rights of citizens” and thanked the Socialist Party (PSOE) government’s interior minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, who would have to authorise the use of the army, for “his willingness to cooperate.” The last time the military was used in such circumstances was in 1976 in the dying days of the Franco Fascist dictatorship.
Madrid’s chief transport officer, José Ignacio Echevarria warned that “Metro will not negotiate as long as basic services are not respected, will not negotiate with whoever breaks the law.”
Members of the PSOE government, led by Prime Minister José Rodriguez Zapatero, declared their opposition to the strike. Labour Minister Celestino Corbacho insisted that “the right to strike must be put in relation with the mobility rights of other citizens.”
Economy Minister Elena Salgado demanded adherence to minimum service rules.
The action of the 7,500 Metro workers is a sign of the rising opposition to austerity policies and places them in opposition to the unions—the General Union of Workers (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT), which is traditionally affiliated to the PSOE, and the Workers Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO), which is politically close to Izquierda Unida (United Left), an umbrella group including the Communist Party that is sympathetic to the PSOE.
Leaders of both unions have made it clear they are deeply hostile to any political struggle against the PSOE government. UGT leader Candido Méndez declared, “Social peace is everyone’s asset and responsibility.... We are not going to break it and we don’t want to do so in the future,” whilst CC.OO General Secretary Ignacio Toxo said the aim of the unions “is not to change the government,” but to make it change direction. Similarly, Vicente Rodríguez, the Conductors Union secretary leading the Metro strike committee, said, “The Metro workers never have wanted to mix politics with the trade-union movement.”
To prevent a political struggle against the PSOE, the unions are hell-bent on reining in the Metro workers and preventing them from linking up with other workers such as those participating in Tuesday’s general strike in the Basque region of northern Spain, which shut down steel, car and other manufacturing industries.
The government is doing all it can to boost the authority of the unions. Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega ordered the chair of the Madrid regional government, Esperanza Aguirre, to “exercise her responsibilities” and begin talks with the unions in an attempt to “channel the conflict”. She made an appeal to the trade unions to make sure that minimal services are provided and warned that the government is making contingency plans to guarantee them during the September 29 general strike.
Fernández de la Vega praised the unions for their “constructive attitude during the economic crisis”. They have been involved in secret talks with the government and employers and paved the way for the government to bring in a series of austerity measures including pay cuts aimed at reducing the budget deficit from 11.4 percent to 3 percent of GDP in the next three years.
The unions are emphasising that the Metro strike is not even against the central government’s decision to cut 5 percent of the salaries of civil servants, but against the Madrid government’s unilateral decision to extend it to employees of public companies in the region—i.e., without the agreement of the unions. What they want is for the Madrid government to “sit down with the strike committee to negotiate.”
UGT general secretary on the Metro, Teodoro Piñuelas, insists that the solution lies in “respecting” the collective contract that was only negotiated a year ago. “Now the ball is in the employers’ court. We have demonstrated that we can do what we say,” Piñuelas added.
Union officials persuaded Metro workers at a mass meeting yesterday to resume minimal services today and Friday and call off the strike for the weekend “to give the people of Madrid a rest.” A union official said, “We will respect tomorrow and Friday the minimal services for the citizens, not for the politicians or the management which is not qualified to negotiate. And if we have to blow up [Madrid] again, we will do it.”
One unnamed official declared that if there is no solution by Monday, “we are going to the death and if we have to go to the kill we will go to the kill.” Another stated that “We can again produce a total strike, let them know that you can’t play with the workers” and promised that “this gesture [the end of the all-out strike] will end the moment that a single worker is presented with a disciplinary notice.”
Metro’s directors have warned that striking workers will face disciplinary action or be fired.
The bureaucracy’s demagogy is purely for show, while the media, government and trade unions increase pressure on the Metro workers before a vote on indefinite strike action takes place at the next mass meeting on Monday, July 5, at 10 a.m.
At mass meetings, workers have been regaled with bombastic speeches from trade union bureaucrats demanding “unity” at the same time as they are organising a sellout along the lines of that imposed on Madrid garbage workers a couple of weeks ago. After workers protested a May 26 announcement that Madrid authorities would slash their conditions—including cutting 200 jobs, an unspecified wage cut and modifying work patterns—the UGT and CC.OO called for an indefinite strike starting on June 21. The unions then negotiated a last-minute sellout to avert the strike, which included a wage freeze and postponing the job losses for two years.
Labels: CGT, CNT, current events, financial crisis, international labour, international politics, labour, Madrid, madrid Metro strike, Solidaridad Obrera, Spain, strike.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Millions in France Protest Raising Retirement Age to 62
Workers from both the public and private sectors joined hundreds of organized protest activities, reported AFP.
Bernard Thibault, head of France’s biggest union CGT estimated “about 2 million” protesters turned out. About 1-in-5 civil servants did not go to work, shutting the doors to some schools.
Authorities said 50 percent of train service was interrupted coming in and out of Paris and 15 percent of flights to city airports had to be canceled Thursday morning.
Striking print workers asked national daily newspapers to scrap their Friday editions.
On June 16, Labor Minister Eric Woerth announced plans to raise the retirement age to 62 by 2018 as part of a program to save the country US$55 billion.
Unions say the proposal puts an unfair burden on workers. Woerth said Wednesday the reform was “necessary and fair” and the government would stick to its plan. The bill will go before cabinet next month and Parliament is scheduled to vote on it in September.
In 1995, Paris had to drop a savings program after weeks of strikes.
France currently has one of the lowest retirement ages in Europe.
Italians protest Berlusconi's austerity plans
Italian workers walked out in a protest against austerity cuts, disrupting transport services across the country. Italy's largest union organised the day of strike action, with marches in nearly every major city.
Italy's largest union staged a national general strike on Friday in a protest against austerity measures by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government. Transport services across the country were disrupted, though support for the strike was not universal.
The left-leaning CGIL union, which has six million members, staged rallies in nearly every major Italian city in a bid to force the government to rethink a 25-billion-euro package of cuts. Berlusconi has defended the package as “absolutely necessary” and hopes it will help save the euro currency.
The austerity measures include a 10 percent budget reduction for ministries, 4.5 billion euros in reduced transfers to regional governments, a partial amnesty on illegal building and a 3-year wage freeze for civil servants.
"No one denies that we need to make cuts, but they must be cuts which are fair and look to the future, rather than just slashing spending," said Susanna Camusso, deputy leader of the CGIL, at a rally in Bologna.
The strike was a key test of strength for Berlusconi, whose poll ratings have reached new lows as unemployment has risen and the euro zone's third largest economy has struggled to emerge from recession.
Loyalties divided
The strike split Italy's trade union movement, which is roughly divided along political lines. The other two main unions asked their members to stay on the job.
While most private sector CGIL workers went on strike for four hours, public sector members demonstrated their anger by staying off work all day. Bus, subway and rail services were disrupted throughout the country, although support for the strike was patchy and some services continued to run. Airport staff also planned to strike, but flights at Rome's Fiumicino airport appeared to suffer little disruption.
The strikes followed union protests in France and Greece this week against plans for pension reform and budget cuts. Members of the 16-nation euro zone have rushed to approve austerity measures in a bid to restore confidence in the single currency and stop Greece's debt crisis spilling over into other countries.
Thousands marched in Rome on June 12 to protest against the government's austerity measures. Polls say a majority of Italians believe the cuts are unfairly distributed, even though part of the package includes pay cuts for parliamentarians.
Author: Joanna Impey (AP/Reuters)
EEEEEEEEEE
Greece's Largest Unions Plan Paralyzing Strike For June 29
ATHENS (Dow Jones)--Greece's two largest unions, which have about 1.2 million members, have agreed to hold a 24-hour, combined paralyzing strike on June 29 to protest prospective labor and pension reforms.
This confirms what the unions had said to Dow Jones on Wednesday.
The Greek ruling socialist government has said that it has no choice but to impose tough measures that it has agreed to in exchange for the EUR110 billion bailout package provided by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Some of the proposed reforms that unions fear will lead to easier layoffs at a time of high unemployment, rising retirement ages and lower pensions.
Unions see the reforms as a denigration of workers' hard-earned rights and the dismantling of the welfare state, while the socialist government argues it has no other options.
This will be the fifth general strike this year and is likely to again bring the country to its knees as businesses, public services and transportation, among several other sectors, will grind to a halt.
The private sector umbrella union Greek General Confederation of Labor, or GSEE, which has 800,000 members, said in a statement that it's taking this action to oppose the prospective bills to liberalize the labor market and to protect pension entitlements that they see as being undermined.
"We need to reject these anti-worker and anti-pension legal initiatives, as well as the government's inflexible and negative stance," the GSEE said in a statement.
The GSEE added that the strike was also being organized to express workers' dissatisfaction that a national collective-bargain wage agreement looks unlikely to be achieved soon due to the intransigence of employer groups.
The second largest union, ADEDY, which has 400,000 members and represents public sector employees, confirmed to Dow Jones that it will also participate in the strike even though a formal decision has not been made yet.
"We have to take to the streets to protect our members from these harsh and unfair changes that are looming," Ilias Iliopoulos, secretary general of the public sector umbrella union, told Dow Jones.
"Greece is a test case for these neo-liberal ultra-conservative policies, and if they succeed here, they will be imposed across all of Europe--to even the wealthier Northern European countries--at the expense of workers and for the benefit of big business," Iliopoulos added.
-By Nick Skrekas of Dow Jones
CNT: Make Spain’s general strike indefinite
Submitted by Rob Ray on Jun 23 2010 20:43
As a general strike is mooted to coincide with Europe-wide action, the anarcho-syndicalist CNT union is warning that one day outings will not be enough to deter deep public sector cuts
Spain's fifth general strike has been set for September 29th amidst massive public sector cuts and attacks on job security passed by the ruling Socialist Party - and the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is calling for it to be made indefinite.
Following a one day public-sector strike earlier this month the union is warning that “gesture strikes” will not be enough to force the government to change course.
In a statement after the June 8th event they said: “The government’s plans to stabilise the economy through reducing the public deficit by 11% have placed the cost of the economic crisis on the shoulders of the disadvantaged.
“It is evident that the proposals are designed to satisfy banks and employers by compromising with the neoliberal designs that prevail in the EU.”
“If there had been earlier mobilisations the government would not have dared to present the measures announced and would have had to cut elsewhere. It would have had to seek income where the money really is – on the bench, through corporate taxes, inheritance, hedge funds etc.
“We believe it is a mistake to continue ‘negotiating’ labour reform, which is simply a concession to employers. The only possiblility for correcting this situation is to fight this economic aggression through social confrontation, to continue and expand protests to all sectors.”
“These great evils can only be treated with great remedies, and such remedies do not include, of course, a 24-hour general strike which, assuming that UGT and CCOO (the two major reformist unions in Spain) dared to actually convene one, would act only as a giant safety valve for employee discontent.
“An indefinite general strike paralysing the country until the government withdraws anti-worker and anti-social actions would by contrast act as a binder for workers to recover their class consciousness and act together, with an eye to the destruction of the capitalist system through social revolution which is the only truly effective medicine against congenital diseases of the system.
Larger TUC-style unions called the public-sector strike on June 8th, which the left claimed got 75% of public sector workers out (state sources put it 16%) and saw tens of thousands of people on the streets in protest. The public sector accounts for around 2.5 million jobs in Spain. However the measure has made little impact on narrowly-passed plans to slash 5% from public sector pay, part of a 15 billion euro package of austerity measures being implemented in the next few years.
Other measures include the uncoupling of pension payments from inflation, an end to tax breaks for new parents and cuts in public investment and development aid of up to 6 billion euros. The Party is also taking the opportunity to “free up the labour market” by making it easier to hire and fire workers, a measure which would be likely to help drive a general strike outside the public sector.
Its actions, taken as Spain is threatened by international markets over its debt ratio, are widely seen as a betrayal of the electoral promises which put the Socialist Party (PSOE) and Jose Zapatero into power in 2004 on the back of widespread discontent with the right, though anarchist groups in the country have pointed to the situation as emblematic of party politicians’ inability to represent working people.
In an editorial for the periodical CNT, the union noted: “Economic crises are inherent in the capitalist system and will, unfortunately for humanity, regularly occur as long as the system exists.
“At the end of the day, the problem lies in the balance of power between two social classes with conflicting interests - the bourgeois class, which holds exclusive ownership of the means of production and distribution, and the proletarian class, which has no more than their manual and intellectual labour to sell as dearly as possible. The salary of the employee, and therefore the worker himself, is just another cost of production like machinery, electrical power or fuel.
“And when the worker is considered this way, not as a human being but as a cost to be cut without a second thought, you can do with them what you will, without remorse. That is neither more nor less than what capitalists do with us now.
“We can not remain silent before these measures announced by the government, which will result in yet more desecration of labour right to add to a long list of infamies imposed since this pompously-named “democracy” came into existence. Lowering the salaries of officials and freezing or eliminating pensions, among other measures, are not appropriate ways to solve the so-called crisis, and will have the determined opposition of the CNT.”
- Discussion thread on libcom.org
- An edited version of this article first appeared in Freedom anarchist newspaper
Labels: CGT, CNT, current events, Europe., financial crisis, France, general strike, Greece, Italy, LibCom, Spain, strike., tactics
Saturday, May 29, 2010
French workers hit the streets
Paris — Reuters
Published on Thursday, May. 27, 2010 9:56AM EDT
Last updated on Thursday, May. 27, 2010 6:34PM EDT
Tens of thousands of workers took to the streets in cities across France on Thursday to protest against government plans to raise the minimum retirement age of 60 as part of a reform of the costly pension system.
Trade union leaders said the marches were the first step in a long struggle to defend the retirement age, a trademark reform of the late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand, against the current government which says it has no alternative.
Transport was working almost normally and between 10 and 20 per cent of public service workers went on strike in schools, the post office and France Telecom. A poll for the Le Parisien daily said 62 per cent of those responding were ready to demonstrate.
One of the earliest marches, in Marseille, drew a larger turnout than a previous protest day in March. Unions estimated the crowd at 80,000 while police gave a figure of 12,000.
Estimates for the Paris march were due later on Thursday.
“Only a show of force on the streets can defend the 60-year retirement age and the social achievements that [President] Nicolas Sarkozy is methodically attacking,” Bernard Thibault, secretary general of the powerful CGT union, said.
Labour Minister Eric Woerth said on Wednesday that the current retirement age was “not dogma” and Budget Minister Francois Baroin said on Thursday a pension reform bill would be debated in parliament after the summer break.
“There are basically no other measures on the table that are convincing,” Mr. Woerth told reporters.
Mr. Sarkozy added a partisan sting to the debate on Wednesday by saying, to loud protests from the opposition Socialists, that France would have “much fewer problems” if Mr. Mitterrand had not lowered the retirement age in 1983.
According to a report last month by the government-appointed Pensions Advisory Council, France’s pension system faces a funding gap of around €70-billion ($86-billion U.S.) in 2030 and that could balloon to more than €100-billion by 2050.
Like other countries in the euro zone, France is struggling to bring its swollen public deficit under control. It has announced a freeze on central government spending over the next three years but has ruled out tax increases.
According to French media reports, the government is considering increasing the retirement age to 62 or 63 years and extending the period during which contributions have to be paid to 42 years from the current level of 40.5 years by 2030.
However, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said that no decisions had been taken as yet.
Mr. Sarkozy has singled out an overhaul of the pension system as his government’s key reform project this year but his plans already have aroused strong opposition from unions.
The CGT’s Thibault said further protests could come before the summer break. CFDT union leader Francois Chereque said: “Things will happen over time. One protest will not suffice.”
There have been expectations for several months that a rise in the retirement age would be part of the planned reform but French media have focused closely on the issue in recent days.
The transport chaos that often accompanies strikes in France was mostly absent on Thursday, partly because the reform plan would not touch costly special pension schemes for transport workers, a powerful sector that brought an earlier conservative government to its knees in 1995 when it tried to reform them.
“The government’s plan is not the toughest that could be, despite what the banners will say,” the business daily Les Echos wrote in an editorial.
Labels: class, financial crisis, France, general strike, international labour, labour, managerialism, pensions, strike
Thursday, May 06, 2010
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS- GREECE:
ANARCHIST STATEMENT ON THE EVENTS IN GREECE:
The following item comes from the Anarkismo site and is the collective statement of 5 platformist organizations from various countries on the events in Greece. Special thanks to the Porkupine Blog where I first saw this item. It has since been reprinted widely. More on the events in Greece later.
The Greek crisis continues to make news every single day, particularly because it raises the spectre of 'sovereign default' on the part of other European countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy , Ireland and even Great Britain. Such an event would be beyond the capacity of the EC (or the world for that matter) to patch up, and could easily lead to the end of the EU with all the unknown consequences of same, let alone its effect outside of Europe. While other events such as the Icelandic volcano and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill have contributed to nervousness in world markets there is little doubt that the events in Greece are the major influence on recent market volatility.
Is there a reason to be nervous ? Certainly if one simply takes the potential for sovereign default as 'Financial Crisis Version 2.1' there is indeed. A domino cascade of sovereign defaults would be basically unstoppable and would provoke a far greater crisis than the one we are gradually emerging from. Is there reason for the ruling class to be nervous and their opponents to be hopeful about an effective opposition emerging from the present crisis ? Personally I doubt it. On our sister blog Molly's Polls I gave (sneakily) several reasons about why a revolution in Greece is improbable. I stand by these items no matter how dramatic present events may seem.
It may be hard for some amongst the crazier fringes of anarchism in the USA to understand the difference between revolution and mindless rebellion, but most other people in the world ( including pretty well all responsible anarchists outside of the primitivist, post leftist cult)understand it very well. In revolution you don't firebomb banks and run like hell. You take over the building, destroy the records of debts and turn the building to good use whatever that may be. Perhaps the bank workers try and devise new accounting systems for a new society. can you begin to comprehend how far away from such an eventuality Greece is ?
Events in Greece have hardly progressed beyond what I personally envisioned as the "maximum extent of rebellion". That is "rebellion" not revolution or even a prelude to the latter. Why do I say this ? Let's take some well accepted "necessities" that define a pre-revolutionary state.
1)The ruling class can no longer operate in its usual fashion. This condition at least is fulfilled in Greece. Bankruptcy is bankruptcy. This does not, however, mean that the plan (read conspiracy) of the EU and the IMF cannot at least salvage something for the local Greek ruling class and, more importantly, international finance that holds Greek debt. It is entirely within the realm of possibility that the bailout plan can work albeit with all the victimization of ordinary people that the following statement points out.
2)The ruling class is divided. You have to search pretty thoroughly to find evidence of this. Yes, the main conservative opposition party in Greece voted against the austerity measures, but this is an obvious rhetorical devise on their part, and I have a hard time believing that anyone takes their "opposition" seriously. They, after all, laid the basis for the present crisis by their fraudulent national accounting, and I'm pretty sure that the average Greek is more than sufficiently aware of this just as the rest of the world is. When the vote came up in the Greek Parliament only three socialist PASOK deputies voted with their conscience against the austerity measures. Try to understand that in most modern societies the "left" is very much just another aspect of the ruling class (most obviously in the USA ). If there will be a division amongst the Greek ruling class it will appear first amongst the so-called 'socialists". There is little evidence of such desertion to the "other side" at this time. Perhaps the vast, vast, vast majority of "socialist" bureaucrats are making very rational calculations about the general mood in Greece today. ot perhaps you'd like to believe ultraleft groupuscles instead.
3)The population can no longer live in the present conditions. Actually in Greece the population is rebelling against a set of circumstances that has yet to be implemented. For the vast majority of the people who have come out into the streets the issue is not their present conditions but rather what they will be in the future if the government's policies are implemented. It's a basically conservative response (nothing wrong with that by the way), but the population is still very far from being driven against the wall by an unendurable situation. The people in other countries have been the unfortunate subjects of even more brutal readjustments and revolution has not been the results, even if, as in the case of Argentina great advances in terms of libertarian ways of organization have happened. The Greek people can love with what the ruling class is planning for them, however vicious it may be, and I think they are likely to realize this and not toss caution to the winds in the end.
4)The opposition is united, at least in terms of getting rid of the present regime. This is where the present Greek situation is most deficient in terms of the preconditions for revolution. As I mentioned before the general reasons for the present protests are not to remove a regime but rather to keep a certain system of benefits in place. No doubt the more clear sighted of the anarchists (excluding the insurrectionists who have no program beyond- more violence ) have a vague idea of a society that is different from our present one, but it has hardly been expressed at least in "mass terms" beyond vague generalities. No doubt the Coalition of the Radical Left also have vague proposals for an alternative society (with all the corrupting and futile statism that such a party can muster ). In such a vague cloud the conservative aspects of the movement come to the fore...as they actually have if one examines the numbers in the news from Greece dispassionately without revolutionary illusions. Here you will see a horrible and obvious fact. the various factions of the Greek left not only, in the majority, don't want an alternative society but they abhor each other with a deep passion. Various union centrals make great efforts to stay separate from others in their demonstrations. I am speaking here of the major players in the present Greek drama, not the separation of all of them from the anarchists. To say the least this is not the way to proceed.
5)Finally a "revolution" as opposed to a revolt presupposes a vision of society ie a goal that is sufficiently diffused amongst the general population such that they see it as both worthwhile and possible. Sometimes these goals can be pretty limited ie the end of communist rule in eastern Europe. When a clear alternative, however, is not present it is the responsibility of "revolutionaries" to present such alternatives over the course of how many decades they may take to seek into popular consciousness. The most common goal of the present Greek rebellion is not a new and different society, as I have mentioned above. It is merely a defensive action against an "adjustment" that will remove benefits from ordinary Greeks. Good luck to them, even if I think the effort is doomed.
In any case here is a perfectly rational statement from various international anarchist groups in support of Greek workers. I agree with its statements of fact and its call to action even if I am very much a pessimist as to the conclusion of this struggle.
Solidarity with the Greek workers' struggle!
Statement on the Greek crisis
Greece is a test case for the social dismantling that awaits us all. This policy is being enacted by all the institutional parties, by every government and by all of globalised capitalism's institutions. There is only one way to hold back this policy of barbaric capitalism: popular direct action, to widen the strike movement and increase the number of demonstrations all across Europe.
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SOLIDARITY WITH THE GREEK WORKERS' STRUGGLE!
The Greek working class is angry, and with good reason, with the attempt to load responsibility for the bankruptcy of the Greek State onto their shoulders. We maintain instead that it is the international financial institutions and the European Union who are responsible. The financial institutions have plunged the world, and Greece in particular, into an economic and social crisis of historical proportions, forcing countries into debt, and now these same institutions are complaining that certain States risk not being able to repay their debts. We denounce this hypocrisy and say that even if Greece - and all the other countries - can repay the debt, they should not do so: it is up to those responsible for the crisis - the financial institutions, not the - to pay for the damage caused by this crisis. The Greek workers are right to refuse to pay back their country's debt. We refuse to pay for their crisis!
Instead, let us shift the capitalists into the firing line: Greek capital generates some of the biggest profit margins in Europe due to its investments in the poorer Balkan countries, the absence of social protections, collective guarantees and a minimum wage for Greek workers, not to mention the country's gigantic black economy in labour and an even greater exploitation of immigrant work. Greek capital is also very lightly taxed, due to the weakness of the State (with regard to the rich) and major corruption which permits fraud and tax evasion on a massive scale. So it is equally up to Greek capitalists to pay for this crisis.
We also denounce the attitude of the European Union. The EU was presented to us as a supposed guarantee of peace and solidarity between the peoples, but now it is showing its true face - that of acting as an unconditional prop for neoliberalism, in a complete denial of the notion of democracy. As soon as an economy becomes mired in difficulties, all pretence of solidarity evaporates. So we see Greece being scolded and accused of laxity, with insulting language bordering on racism. The "Europe which protects us" that liberals and social-democrats extolled at the time of the scandalous forced adoption of the Lisbon Treaty (particularly in France and Ireland) now seems a long way away.
As far as actual protection goes, the EU and the financial institutions have combined their efforts to frog-march Greece towards the forced dismantling of public services, through austerity plans that recall the "Structural Adjustment Plans" of the IMF: the non-replacement of staff, wage freezes, privatisations and VAT increases. Today the EU is demanding that the retirement age be moved back to 67, not only in Greece but also in other countries, and is also threatening to dismantle the social welfare system. In this way they are opening new markets for investors, while guaranteeing the assets of rich investors, to the detriment of the basic interests of the working class. It is a Europe of the ruling class, and one which we must all work together to oppose.
This is why we call for participation throughout Europe in solidarity initiatives with the Greek working class and with future victims of the onslaught of the banks.
Against the values of greed and rapacity that the European Union is based on, let us respond with class solidarity! Greece is a test case for the social dismantling that awaits us all. This policy is being enacted by all the institutional parties, from out-and-out bourgeois to liberals and social democrats, by every government and by all of globalised capitalism's institutions. There is only one way to hold back this policy of barbaric capitalism: popular direct action, to widen the strike movement and increase the number of demonstrations all across Europe.
Solidarity with the Greek workers' struggle!
Alternative Libertaire (France)
Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland)
Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (Italy)
Organisation Socialiste Libertaire (Switzerland)
Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (South Africa)
Labels: anarchism, anarkismo.net, bailouts, current events, financial crisis, Greece, international politics, platformism, revolution, tactics
