INTERNATIONAL POLITICS PANAMA:

PANAMA - THE GOVERNMENT VERSUS THE PEOPLE:

A little more than two weeks ago the government of Panama introduced what might be the grandmother of all omnibus bills, Bill 30, the so-called "sausage law" (maybe because it slices Panamanian society into a thousand pieces). The overall intent of the bill is to make any opposition to the business interests that the government hopes will flood in with a US/Panama free trade deal difficult to impossible. To add to this the government expects the people to pay for this giveaway of their country by a 40% increase in consumer taxes. This is both insult to injury and further injury to injury.


The reaction was swift. Labour unions called a national strike. Ordinary people demonstrated in the street. The government's reaction was equally swift and much more brutal as a wave of oppression swept across the country, killing six so far and imprisoning many more. The people refused to back down, and as we speak the Panamanian government is at least partially backtracking. Here's an explanation of what is happening down canal way. I originally saw this item on the Libcom website, but I've later learned it was originally published in The Examiner.
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Panamanian pandemonium
U.S. Interventionism has helped shape the Republic of Panama. With the recent bloodshed at a banana workers strike, will "push-back" result in socialist unrest amongst the Panamanian people and will President Martinelli and his corporate-interest minions close Pandora's Box? History shall be our guide.

The history of collective bargaining and the formation of organized labor movements in the United States was a knock-down, drag-out fight, where corporate America ultimately proved unsuccessful in its bid to prevent the “unionization” of workers in several industrial sectors. While the U.S. federal government denounced meetings and rallies, a “popular uprising” shook the very foundations of capitalism’s strangle-hold over the impoverished working lower-class. Mass demonstrations of co-workers exploited by corporate overlords were able to channel their voices, combining tactical action with strategic inaction, so that the oppressive profiteers were forced to ameliorate protested grievances. After years of bloodshed and picket-lines, the rise of America's unionized labor force was rivaled only by the formation of a "middle-class" it is credited with helping .

What the purveyors of America's global economic dominance failed to realize was that during their full-throttled pursuit to denounce socialist propaganda in the early half of the 1900’s, by surrendering to the collective will that birthed the “organized labor movement”, the pressurized steam of popular socialism was released, so that the kettle of the working class wouldn’t boil over. The “red scare” was alleviated more by this domestic suppression of oppression, with its internally stabilizing increase in worker compensation and family-sustaining benefits previously not offered to the “average working stiff”. This “steam valve” method of appeasing the building-up of “subversive elements” preserved the American capitalist “free market” economic model, but investors continued to reap windfall profits by reacting with a shift toward import markets, “capitalizing” from the sweat and tears of “third-world” citizens.

Although the full story involves further complexities than this brief synopsis allows for, it directly correlates to the recent popular disturbances in the Republic of Panama. The U.S. government steadily subverted Panamanian "labor-force activism" for decades, unwilling to endorse the "unionization" that Americans had ultimately adopted for themselves. These “strong-arm”, state-sponsored business practices helped inflate the affluent elitist Wall Street moguls who have steered the “interests” of U.S. empire ever since.

The so-called “Banana Republics” of Central and South America are one regional example (of many) where American imperialism allowed U.S.-based corporations to wield unquestioned power and authority over entire populations, systematically backed by the U.S. State Department. American military might helped countless regimes gain, re-gain or maintain control over citizens that were democratically opting for new leadership; all this despite relentless U.S. rhetoric advocating the worldwide spread of democracy.

The history of U.S. interventionist policies in the southern hemisphere poetically served to produce the current uptick in regional socialism. One by one, each of these nations have struggled for self-determination; each in its own way, with its own unique brand of political, social-democratic evolution.

Panama has experienced the benefits and consequences of its geographical significance, located at the smallest pinch of the Americas, where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are joined by this relegated “short-cut”. As Panamanians struggled for independence, this intrinsic “value” was seized upon by former President Teddy Roosevelt. (Speaking softly, but carrying a big stick) Roosevelt opted to establish a ten-mile-wide “zone” spanning the country by strategically “weaponizing”, then supporting, a dictatorial regime that would allow for this annexation. In stark contrast to the democratic wishes of the mass-majority of Panamanians at the time, a new day of domination for American trade relations had dawned, and U.S. sovereign control of the Panama Canal Zone would endure for nearly a century.

By the 1980's, CIA-influenced narco-traffickers infiltrating the ranks and ideologies of the historically corruptible Panamanian military resulted in the Reagan-endorsed dictator, Manuel Noriega, rising to a blood-stained throne of power. When Noriega declined to assist Oliver North with military support of the Nicaraguan Contras. Suddenly, his exploits of human-trafficking and money laundering became a bone of contention with the U.S. Justice Department. Once Reagan changed course with Noriega, the U.S. moved ahead with sanctions (serving only to further impoverish one of the poorest nations in the world), and eventually military assault when President G.H.W. Bush (formerly Reagan’s V.P.) launched Operation Just Cause.

Since the smoke has cleared from Reagan-era “interventionism”, Panama has undergone positive growth, acceptable to the current War Council in Washington. Former President Clinton would oversee the transition of sovereignty of the Panama Canal Zone back into the rightful owning hands of Panamanians. This has given the country a running start at becoming a viable, self-governing democratic Republic.

Last year, sweeping into presidential victory on a media-blitzing platform of “hope” and “change”: No, not Barack Obama, but Ricardo Martinelli, the newly-elected President of Panama. This American-educated business-giant (still chairman of the Super 99 supermarket chain) maintains investing interests in several corporations both in, and outside of, Panama. He swept into victory with 60% of the vote, and saw his popularity rise steadily since taking office. Along with having the healthiest growing economy in Central America, Martinelli’s short reign prepares to oversee full implementation of the $5.25 billion Canal Zone Expansion Project, passed by the previous (Martin) Torrijos administration. This improvement project looks to create 7,000 to 9,000 new jobs through 2011.

Then, Martinelli, an ultra-conservative politician for traditional Panamanian standards, pressed for passage of his business-friendly, legislative super bill, notoriously known as “the sausage law” for its eclectic design affecting multiple, unrelated tiers of governance. What can only be viewed as a “sweetening” of Panamanian economic conditions, Martinelli and his Democratic Change party may be attempting to finalize the stalled-out U.S./Panama Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that never received the final nod from the U.S. Senate after being passed by the House of Representatives in ’07.

The “sausage law”, officially dubbed “Law 30”, is a nine-part reversal on many young Panamanian laws. It side-steps environmental impact studies for agribusiness developers to tread more heavily in pursuit of profitability. It removes the federal mandate for union employees, so that paying applicable dues becomes voluntary. It contains “anti-strike” provisions that remove employment protection for striking workers, and does not render the business “closed” due to the strike (an expectation traditionally providing the only leverage strikers had against corporate improprieties). It overturns a 13-year-old law regarding “preventive incarceration” for police officers accused of brutality and/or excessive force. It forces anyone in opposition to “public bids” to initially lay down 15% of said bid in before legal proceedings can advance questioning the legitimacy of the contract. It also rewrites code enforcement for fraudulent passport production and use; undeniably all over the place with regards to customary law-making practices in Panamanian parliament.

And with that, banana growers went on strike in the city of Changuinola, province of Bocas del Toro. These were employees of Chiquita, formerly known as the United Fruit Company, the regime-shifting power-wielding conglomerate that shaped governments (with U.S. backing) and prevented democratic endeavors throughout Central and South America for much of the 20th century. United Fruit was the company at the center of the famed “Banana Massacre”, where up to 4,000 striking locals were slaughtered by Columbian military forces at the behest of Henry Stimson, Secretary of State under President Herbert Hoover.

A dispatch from the U.S. embassy in Bogota, Columbia, where the attacks occurred, sent to Stimson revealed disappointment for the contemporary “liberal media” that was “spinning” the state-sponsored act of terrorism for what it actually was.

“Although the thinking people of the country realize that it was only the Government's prompt action that diverted a disaster, this insidious campaign of the Liberal press will undoubtedly work up a great deal of feeling against the Government and will tend to inculcate in the popular mind a belief that the Government was unduly hasty in protecting the interests of the United Fruit Company,” reads the wire transmission, telegraphed December 11, 1928. “The Conservative journals are defending the Government's course but I doubt that their counter-fire will suffice to do away with the damage the Liberal journals are causing.”

Now, in Panama, a near repeat of the Banana Massacre more than 80 years later, as Panamanian forces opted to open-fire on scores of unarmed protesters. Government soldiers used shotguns filled with bird-shot, sometimes at point-blank-range. Two union members were killed, indicated by Panamanian spokespersons as “accidental” incidents, as the intent was to injure, but not fatally wound. Along with these two senseless acts of “accidental assassination”, as many as 30 people were blinded and maimed by such shootings. Martinelli blamed Panamanian media for "a campaign of disinformation" which led to the large group protests.

Some members of Martinelli’s government expressed immediate remorse for “mistakes” that were made, while others defended the actions of militant “crowd control” in response to collective-bargaining acts of non-violent, civil disobedience. What Martinelli received as a reaction to the state’s “over-reaction” was a national, general strike of July 13th, looking to cripple the construction projects in the “canal zone”, as well as across Panamanian urban centers. He also witnessed a 12-point drop in his previously swollen approval ratings. Panama's National Front for the Defense of Social Rights (FRENADESO) claimed a 95% effectiveness for its strike across the board, insisting their aims were achieved, while the government of Panama maintains that all sectors survived the incursion unscathed.

Secretary of State Clinton may have a lot to say and do about these recent developments. Again, it was former president Clinton who administered the transition of the Canal in 1999 over to Panamanian authorities, honoring the Torrijos-Carter Treaty of ’77. Despite the deafening silence put forth by the Obama administration over the incident, Hillary will have Bill in her ear more so than Barack with regards to Panama, and Clintonian initiatives may incentivise her diplomatic treatment of the matter in the coming months. Whether or not “the sausage law” is a requisite for the currently neutralized FTA pact to get back off the ground remains to be seen.

One “change” we can “hope” for: state-sponsored murder will have to subside for the U.S./Panama FTA to advance itself from its frozen legislative status in the U.S. Senate.

Will President Martinelli back down from his “sausage law”, having incited labor groups throughout the country into civic action and commercial paralysis? Or, will the level of brutality authorized by the Martinelli government increase in defense against the democratically natural push-back of the Panamanian people. These are the apprehensions the Martinelli administration tries to navigate as the first-year president attempts to stabilize the capitalist backbone of Panama's constitutional republic, surrounded by a region dominated by surging Socialist movements?

Pending investments by foreign bankers poised to explore Panama’s economic potential, including the multi-billion-dollar canal-expansion bids, all hinge on a peaceable outcome presenting itself at ground-level. More crucial to Martinelli’s fledgling coalition government is for it to avoid re-hashing Socialist sensibilities in a nation self-determined to become a free-market player, replete with support from the World Trade Organization, as well as the World Bank which funds the viral trend of globalization.

Martinelli’s minions may ultimately heed the lessons learned from the history of collective bargaining in the U.S. itself, allowing the Panamanian people the “steam release” needed for its workers to thrive awaiting the presumed emergence of that elusive “middle-class”. Meanwhile, concern for the plight of the Panamanian worker yields itself to corporate interests, opting to “go bananas” with their attempt to seize “control” of the disenfranchised working class. It isn’t the first time such an egregious and inhumane miscalculation was made by the benefactors of Imperialism, and likely not the last.
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The Panamanian strike and the government's reaction to it has brought forth expressions of solidarity from across Latin America and Europe. Here's one such example reprinted from the Anarkismo website.
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All our support to the struggles of the Panamanian people!

We express our total rejection of the Panamanian government and our unconditional support to our working class comrades in Panama, following the appalling acts of bloodshed and repression carried out by the government of Panama led by Ricardo Martinelli against the Panamanian people and, specifically, the persecution, killing and imprisonment of leaders of the Frente Nacional por la Defensa de los Derechos Sociales (National Front for the Defence of Social Rights - FRENADESO) and the Sindicato Unico Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de la Construcción y similares (Single National Union of Construction Industry Workers - SUNTRACS).
This wave of repression has resulted in six deaths, 150 injured and hundreds arrested. There have also been the very selective arrests of comrades such as Jaime Caballero, Assistant General Secretary of SUNTRACS, who was arrested in Chiriquí and transferred to the capital (where he is still confined in La Joya prison). Also incarcerated at the same time were FER-29 leader, Kuna youth leader and member of the FRENADESO Noticias alternative media site, Ronaldo Ortiz, together with Alexis Garibaldi of the SUNTRACS trade union.

SUNTRACS leaders Genaro López and Saúl Méndez are now in hiding, along with other comrades, as a result of a warrant being issued for their arrest. It has been revealed that the authorities intend to send them to La Joya and La Joyita prisons, where they would be killed by common criminals under the orders of the State security forces.

According to official data, it is estimated that nearly 20 union leaders have had arrest warrants issued against them. Besides those already mentioned, also in the firing line are comrades Andrés Rodríguez, Mario Almanza, Marco Andrade, Gabriel Castillo, Dalia Morales, Yaritza Espinoza, Juan Saldaña, Ariel Rodríguez, Gloria Castillo, Juan Carlos Salas, Carlos Obaldía, David Niño, Eustaquio Méndez, Marco Guzmán, Maribel Gordón, Cristian Díaz, Cle Osvaldo Gómez, Juan Ramón Herrera and Juan Jované, amongst others.

All the above events are connected with a series of demonstrations that have carried out by the workers and the Panamanian people against the recent onslaught from the government of Ricardo Martinelli at the behest of the bosses, forcing on the people things such as changes to labour legislation (designed to curtail unionization and strikes), the passing of three executive orders and Law 30 (known as the "Sausage Law")[1], as well as an increase in consumer taxes of almost 40%, which has had a violent effect on the cost of living for Panamanian people. Finally, the government has passed a Prisons Law that criminalizes social protest.

At this stage it is essential that the support and solidarity of our class goes to the Panamanian people and social activists, who are aware that such an abuse of authority cannot go unpunished. We therefore demand the release of all political prisoners and the trial and punishment of these tyrants.


For workers' unity and organization!

Long live those who struggle!


Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Construcción (SINTEC), Chile

Translation by FdCA International Relations Office
Translator's note:

1. The "Ley Chorizo" is a mish-mash of reforms to 9 different laws, including big changes to labour laws (giving bosses the power to fire striking workers, for example, or removing the obligation to pay union rates), criminal laws (criminalizing protest, obligatory DNA testing of anyone under police investigation), environmental laws (exempting projects considered as being of "social interest" from having to provide environmental impact studies) and immigration laws. The law is very unpopular among large swathes of the Panamanian population as it also provides the police with almost total impunity.

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There is an excellent source (in Spanish) from Panama itself on events in that country. See the FRENADESO site, dedicated to social and ecomomic rights in that country. A very useful corrective to at least one of the stories circulating about the 'anarchonet' these days, seemingly claiming in triumphalist fashion that the protests were entirely successful. In actual fact all the government has done is to delay the implimentation of the Bill and agreed to strike only three clauses from the numerous provisions of the bill. NO, this is hardly anything near the total victory that the following, also from Libcom (but reproduced elsewhere) seems to claim. Exaggeration is in the end no service to the cause it promotes. What this is, at best, is a temporary truce. The struggle is far from over, and no victory is assured.
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Panama: strikes and protests force climbdown on anti-strike laws
A ten-day strike by banana plantation workers in Panama has come to an end after the government agreed an package of concessions that included the suspension of its anti-strike legislation, Law 30.

The strike by over 4000 banana plantation workers began on July the 2nd after workers at the Bocas Fruit Company had the portion of their pay used to pay their union subs withheld by the company in line with the recently introduced law. As the protests spread, they were joined by around 2000 independent banana growers.

Protests by plantation workers in the Bocas del Toro province on the 9th of July led to street fighting with police, who were ordered in by president Ricardo Martinelli. Demonstrators burned down a bank and several other businesses were attacked, while roadblocks were set up around the Atlantic city of Changuinola. The rioting has led to the death of two workers at the hands of police – named as Antonio Smith and Fernán Castillo - and the wounding of more than 100 more. Over 115 workers were arrested, while demonstrating workers took four police officers hostage. Union official Rafael Chavarria has claimed that the situation is much worse than the government version of events, and that a further four protesters were killed.

A parallel strike by construction workers on the Panama Canal ended today following concessions by managers on working conditions. The action by employees of the international consortium Grupos Unidos por el Canal halted work on the Panama Canal expansion project at the Gatun zone on the Panamanian Atlantic coast . The workers were reportedly demanding facilities to cook their own food, wash their clothes, and for management not to interfere with the construction workers' union SUNTRACS. National police and canal security agents arrested five reported strike leaders in the course of the dispute. According to a communique by the banana workers' union FRENADESO, “more than 70 workers striking for salaries, working conditions, and against Ley 30 were fired. Police took the workers off the bus, handed them termination papers and gave back the petitions that workers had given to the “United for the Canal”.

Meanwhile officials and members of SUNTRACS - Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Construcción y Similares - were arrested by police who raided a union meeting at a hotel in Panama city which passed a resolution calling for a general strike. At the time of writing, they are still being held.

Around 50 students at the University of Panama set up a roadblock on one of the main roads at the university in solidarity with the strikers, leading the government to order the cancellation of all classes.

Law 30 limits the right to strike action, union membership and freedom of association. Moreover, it outlaws workers' ability to organise street protests in the course of industrial conflicts, with the associated criminal offence carrying a penalty of two years imprisonment. It has been introduced alongside another law, Law 14, which creates new criminal offences relating to the blocking of roads by demonstrators.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR:

GENERAL STRIKES ROLL ACROSS EUROPE:

Following previous general strikes in Greece and Spain unions in Europe are increasingly reaching for the weapon of the general strike to protest government austerity measures across the continent. Recently workers in France and Italy held one day general strikes, and Greek unions have set a date for yet another such strike as well. Here's news from the Epoch Times of the strike in France last Thursday June 24.

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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.

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On Friday June 25 it was Italy's turn. Here's a report from Deutsche Welle.

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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)
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Meanwhile Greece which has seen four general strikes this year is set to repeat its protests on June 29. Here's the story from the Wall Street Journal. This strike is likely to be the most widely observed one of the current batch.

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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

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There is also a planned general strike on June 29 in the Basque countries in Spain. This one will likely also be well observed as a previous one on May 21 was a success despite the opposition of Spain's two largest union federations the UGT and the CCOO. In the Basque countries independent local unions outweigh the larger national federations. The anarchosyndicalist CGT has come out in support of this strike, and they have been pressuring the larger unions for some time to not wait until the end of September but to come out with the Basque unions at the end of the month. The CGT has also been calling for some time for a general strike of unlimited duration.

When all is said and done, after all, a one day general strike is of only symbolic value. Sometimes the duration of the supposed general strike is even less than a day (see the article on Italy above). The following article originally published in the English anarchist paper Freedom and reproduced at the Libcom website gives the cautionary warning from the Spanish anarchosyndicalist CNT that only a real general strike with no time limit is an actual way to make governments back down from their austerity "reforms".

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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

HUMOUR:

UTOPIA AND ANTI-UTOPIA:

Now for something a bit off the beaten path. The following mini science fiction story is from the British LibCom site. I admit it's something of an in joke, and non-anarchist readers of this blog (the vast majority of visitors) might not get the point. To anarchists outside of the primmie/post leftist cult, however, it will be amusing. To help the non-anarchists reading this I will say that there is a small section of the anarchist movement, mostly American, who think that a free society involves "abolishing civilization". Yeah, I know this is something like admitting that one has a cousin who exposes himself to small children. All that I can say is that this view is not that of the general anarchist movement at any time in its history, is not that of any large segment of anarchists today and certainly is not mine. Ok, enough explanations and disclaimers. Here's the story. Enjoy.

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A communist encounter with the anti-authoritarian warrior society
Several decades after the global libertarian communist revolution, a worker-delegate travels to the rewilded former Canada to carry out a humanitarian mandate...

The sound of engines droned in the air. Below, the serried ranks of dirty, ragged people toiling in the organic turnip fields paused in their labour and raised their faces to the sky, their eyes wide with wonder. Such a sound had not been heard in Hippyshit Sustainable Human Settlement for decades. Across the valley, the unmistakable silhouette of a helicopter could be seen making a beeline for the collection of decrepit huts where the locals dragged themselves off to bed each night after the day's back breaking work was done. A murmur of dull resentment rises from the onlookers. "Syndies"

*

Worker no. 365759 turned to the pilot. “How much further is it, no. 214119?” he asked, craning his neck to get a better look at the terrain as the sleek, grey flying machine sped over the undulating hills of what, back in the day, had been known as Canada. The landscape was breathtaking. The advent of cold fusion, some decades ago, had drastically reduced the need for land – what with virtually limitless power, multi-storey farms, and no reason to expand production further, huge swathes of land were left to revert to pristine wilderness.

“We're almost at the place,” said the pilot laconically, chewing on the end of a toothpick as he spoke. “Give it another five minutes and you'll be able to see it, over that ridge.”

Worker looked where the pilot had pointed, and saw a broad clearing on the side of the hill they were approaching. If he squinted, he thought he could see a group of people, spaced out at regular intervals along narrow ridges that cut across the stretch of brown earth. For a moment, he wondered what on earth they could be doing – then he remembered. Of course, they were farming... but by hand? Or were those clumsy things they were holding ploughs of some sort?

“Damn primmos,” muttered Worker's fellow passenger, no. 743101. “Why the fuck do they get charity. They choose to live in the dirt they should deal with it.”

Worker shrugged. “It's not like we need any of it,” he said. “It's mostly junk that gets rejected by the planning bureaus, or whatever left in the communal storehouse. And besides, a lot of them don't know any different – there's kids down there that've only heard stories about civilization.”

“Yeah, I guess,” said 743101, staring pensively out of the window.

*

“Dude!”

The Wise Guy of Hippyshit was not pleased. He glared down at the frightened child standing before him, her toy clasped in her grubby fist. Behind her, a crowd of sustainable humans looked on with disapproval.

“That is not cool, bro,” he said, shaking his finger authoritatively. “You know the rules – we'll have no round wheels in this town.”

The girl looked at the wooden toy in her hands, dejectedly. It was a simple thing, a block of wood with a couple of axles and four, uneven wheels, with a string attached.

“Are you... sure, about this, Bill?” asked one of the sustainable humans, tentatively. “I mean, they look sort of... useful. At any rate, they've got to be better than the triangular ones we're using at the moment...”

The crowd turned to the dissenter, glaring. Bill adopted a pitying tone. “Don't you, like, understand?” He said, stroking his matted, fucking disgusting beard with one hand as he spoke. “Round wheels are like, authoritarian. That's capitalist technology man. The triangular wheel is liberating. Round wheels, like, just exist to conform to capitalist notions of efficiency...” There were nods at assent at this. “If we have round wheels, the next thing you know we'll have schools, prisons, banks...”

He got no further in his exposition of the evils of capitalist technology, as at that moment, with a thunderous roar, the dark shape of a helicopter appeared over the roofs of the village.

“Oh SHIT!” shouted Bill. “It's the Syndies, man! I always knew this day would come! They're back, and they've come to impose their technology on us! Bad vibes, dude!”

*

The chopper set down in the village square – or the village irregular shape, since straight lines had been out of favour at the time it was constructed. It was made of uneven cobbles that had been worn smooth over the decades by the tramp of exhausted feet out to the fields and back again, day after day after day.

A crowd gathered quickly as the two workers and pilot began to unload. The adults mostly looked suspicious or hostile, but the children seemed fascinated with the novelty of this vast metal thing from the sky. Some began to edge closer to the chopper, dodging their parents attempts to drag them back.

Bill arrived just as the last of the supplies were being unloaded, his face contorted in a scowl of defiance. “Stay back!” he called to the sustainable humans crowding around the machine. “Keep well back, dudes and dudettes! You don't want to like, become a part of the technology and not the other way around!”

Worker looked at the man quizzically. Turning, he pulled out his iPhone, where he had saved a pdf of his mandate from the delegates' council back in Vancouver Municipal Commune.

“People of Hippyshit,” he read, “due to the rampant disease and malnourishment which is apparently causing widespread infant mortality in your community, the workers of VMC have elected to send you this surplus of medical supplies and dietary supplements for the care of pregnant women and children. We understand you perfect right to free association, and to live where and how you choose – however, we feel kind of bad about how many of you seem to be dying of the common cold. As a consequence, please accept this donation as a gesture of goodwill...”

Worker trailed off. The hostility of the crowd had deepened.

“They're trying to spread (impose) their evil Frankenstein technology on us, and they doubtless have few homosexual friends!” cried Bill, gesturing at the helicopter. “Anti-authoritarian warriors, attack!”

With that word, a mass of malnourished, diseased, filthy hippies flung themselves at the workers and began to beat at them with their fists. Cries of "For Hippyshit!" and "Smash the megamachine!" could be heard, as the crowd hurled themselves at the invaders.

“Fuck this shit!” shouted Worker over the din. “Back in the chopper!”

“Right behind you!” shouted the pilot, picking up two particularly gross specimens by their dreadlocks and knocking their heads together.

The three of them fought their way to the helicopter doors, and closed them on the mob outside. “Floor it!” Worker yelled to the pilot. He didn't have to be told twice; the helicopter roared into the air, leaving the crowd of howling primitivists behind.

“On second thoughts,” said worker, wiping primmo blood off onto his jeans, "you were right. Fuck 'em.”

Note: this fan fiction was inspired by billblake, unhinged author of 'Of Martial Traditions & the Art of Rebellion'.

AMERICAN POLITICS:

HEALTH CARE BILL- LESS THAN YOU THINK:

The all-too-debated health care bill in the USA has finally been passed. While the sound and fury still hasn't abated it may be time to begin to take stock about what the bill actually contains. Both sides of the ruckus down USA way have magnified the legislation way beyond its actual importance. To the left it was something akin to the Second Coming, to the right it was instead more like the Antichrist. Out here in the civilized world the general feeling was that it was insufficient and of Byzantine complexity.

The following opinion piece comes from the Trial By Fire blog. It came to Molly's attention via the LibCom website.

APAPAPAPAPAPAP
Whats in the Health Care Bill
Below is the first of a two-part series on the Democrats bill, HR 3590 – the health care reforms.



Health care reform in the United States has finally arrived.

After years of debate, President Barack Obama signed HR 3590 into law on March 23rd, 2010, heralding a new chapter in health care for millions of Americans.

The Democrats are ecstatic over the win. But is this really a victory for the American working class?

Lets take a look.

Health Care Reform’s History:

Health care reform, or “Obamacare” as it’s sometimes called, has its roots in Hilary Clinton’s own health care battle of the 1990’s. But it may surprise you exactly where in that debate its major ideas come from.

No, it wasn’t Hilary’s legislative proposals which inspired Obama’s reformation – it was in fact Republican proposals which formed Obama’s health care overhaul. Specifically, it was a health care strategy first articulated by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. You can still read the original plans here and here.

Notably, amongst its original supporters were Richard Nixon, George Bush senior and even Mitt Romney.

Amongst their proposals were the creation of an “individual mandate,” and the founding of “insurance exchanges” – both of which are now pillars of the Democrats’ reforms; but originally, the republicans supported them as good “free market” alternatives to government entitlement programs like Medicare.

This is precisely why Obamacare passed where numerous other health reform efforts failed. It was a good, free market option that CEO’s could get behind. “Government is,” after all “the shadow cast by big business over society,” as John Dewey once remarked.

That being said, lets take a closer look at the contours of this new silhouette on the next page.

&&& PART TWO &&&

Whats in the Bill?

The bills effects on the health care industry are mixed. Certainly, there are some positives.

On the one hand, it restricts some of the worst practices of the insurance industry – such as refusing to cover children with preexisting conditions.
On the other hand, it leaves health care under the control of the same corporations that got us into this mess.

Below we will begin to address the biggest changes the new reform brings to our system of health care.

1. The individual mandate: Amongst the reforms, the democrats have introduced an “individual mandate,” meaning individuals who do not purchase health insurance will be fined by the federal government. The fines will be introduced in 2014, and will grow until 2016, when they will total $695 a year, or 2.5% of personal income (whichever is greater).

Because of this, Democrats have touted the myth that this bill will “provide health care to 31 million people who are currently uninsured.”

In reality, these reforms don’t actually “provide” us with anything. It only punishes those who cannot provide it for themselves. But even then, the incentive to buy insurance won’t be great enough to cover millions of Americans: according to a report put out by the Congressional Budget Office, the total number of uninsured Americans in 2019 without reform is still expected to hit 24 million.

The individual mandate is expected to be a magnificent profit maker for the insurance industry. And of course it will be – it will force tens of millions of Americans into consuming the insurance industry’s goods.

But the bonanza of new profits doesn’t end there. Big Pharmaceutical companies are laughing their way to the bank as well, specifically Biotech companies.

Tacked onto the health care reform bill was a guarantee of market exclusivity for Biotech drugs for the next decade. In effect, less expensive, generic versions of biotech drugs are forbidden from being sold in the U.S. for the next 12 years, giving them a complete monopoly in their markets.

2. Cost control: Undoubtedly, one of health care reforms biggest selling points was that it would bring down the cost of health care.

So will this bill bring down costs? Yes and no. Certainly in some cases, costs will come down.

But overall, the costs of health care will remain astronomical.

Whereas in 2009 health care costs accounted for about 17% of our GDP, costs with the bill are expected to rise a tenth of a point higher than they would have without the reforms (20.8% of GDP in 2019 without reform, 20.9% with, according to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services).

Jane Hamsher of the Firedoglake points out that premiums will not come down significantly for most Americans either, and certainly will not decrease as much as Obama had promised ($2,500 a year). In fact, families shopping for insurance on their own are projected to spend nearly $2,000 more on insurance in 2016 than they would have without the reform, achieving exactly the opposite of what the bill claims it would.

Further projections for working class Americans are equally dismal. Jane Hamsher writes:

“A family of four making $66,370 will be forced to pay $5,243 per year for insurance. After basic necessities, this leaves them with $8,307 in discretionary income — out of which they would have to cover clothing, credit card and other debt, child care and education costs, in addition to $5,882 in annual out-of-pocket medical expenses for which families will be responsible.”

In short, the lower costs we were promised in the run up to these reforms are seriously lacking.

3. Insurance exchanges: State governments will create what are called “exchanges” to facilitate the purchase of health insurance, with the aid of federal start-up funds. Individual states may choose not to open an exchange, in which case the federal government may open one for them.

The exchanges would offer a range of private insurance options for qualified consumers to pick through, rated on a scale from cheapest to most expensive – or from a “platinum plan” to a “bronze plan.”

In theory, insurance policies on the exchange will be cheaper and of better quality than their counterparts in the private market, because the exchanges can offer larger customer pools, giving consumers more bargaining power.

But in practice, the results haven’t been quite so good.

In April of 2006, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney signed into law chapter 58, the forerunner of HR 3590. The bill would be the first in the U.S. to test out the ideas of both an individual mandate and a health care exchange.

Although the reform was supposed to lower costs to bearable levels for the working families of Massachusetts, a study conducted by the state found that 21% of their residents still went without medical treatment because they couldn’t afford it. This includes a stunning 12% of children.

And additional 18% are covered by insurance, but can’t afford to use it.

And of course they can’t. Since the reforms, the cost of insurance has substantially increased in Massachusetts, both in the private sector and in public spending.

In the private sector, the states’ Attorney General found in her research that this was largely because of disparities in bargaining power between consumers and the insurance companies – or, simply put, because insurance companies had too much power over consumers.

Publicly, costs have grown at an average of $88 million a year. This has been due, at least in part, to the reforms failure to address emergency room visits – a central concern of all health care reform efforts.

Although reformers predicted an astounding decrease of 75% in emergency room visits, in the first two years of the reform alone, it’s turned out that visits have increased by over 17%.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS-GREECE:

GREECE-FROM CRISIS IN THE STREETS TO CRISIS IN THE BANKS:

Little has been heard about street protests in Greece the past few days. That's because there actually has been little happening. The Greek rebellion, like last year, is quick to rise and just as quick to subside. At least this time the youths protesting and occupying buildings called it off before the holidays. The protests in Greece partake of an admirable spontaneity, but they also suffer from a truly stupendous lack of focus, and, consequently, an inability to go beyond repetition of tried and true tactics. If you don't know where you want to go you will certainly never form a plan to get there.

While the streets are now quiet, if more than a little messy, the same can't be said of the financial situation that Greece faces. The fiscal crisis of the Greek state is actually a far more serious long term threat to the stability of Greece's rulers, both political and financial, than the street riots ever could be. In the face of the downgrading of the country's credit rating and the game of "chicken" being played out between the Greek government and the EU the present "socialist" rulers will have to walk on a delicate tightrope in the foreseeable future. They have to tighten the screws on the population so as to reassure investors. On the other hand they can't risk antagonizing the population too much for fear that other social sectors who might have clearer ideas of what they want than the students do might imitate the students. It's going to take a lot of seamanship to steer the boat through these waters. Here's an article from the Financial Times about the fiscal problems that the government faces.

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Investor suspicions grow as Greece tries to end turbulence:
By Kerin Hope in Athens
After only eight weeks in office the credibility of Greece's socialist government is under threat.

The battering taken by Greek bonds, this week's ratings downgrade by Fitch and a sharp fall on the Athens stock exchange have all heightened a mood of crisis in the eurozone's weakest economy.

George Papaconstantinou, finance minister, has been struggling to convince foreign creditors that Greece can reduce the budget deficit from 12.7 per cent to 9.1 per cent of gross domestic product next year without drastic cuts in spending, and that its economy is not heading into freefall.

"We are not a new Iceland, just as we are not the new Dubai," Mr Papaconstantinou said yesterday. "It's clear that the situation is difficult . . . but it's also clear we will not let things get out of hand."

At the same time he admitted that markets could stay turbulent for several months.

In a sign of continuing suspicion among foreign investors, spreads on Greek bonds widened again yesterday, to 250 basis points above their German equivalents - their highest level in seven months. Share prices fell 3.4 per cent - led by Greek banks, also downgraded by Fitch - bringing losses for the week to more than 13.5 per cent.

Greek two-year bond yields, which have an inverse relationship with prices, have risen 1.25 percentage points to 3.123 per cent so far this week. Movement of this scale has not been seen before in a eurozone bond market, according to analysts.

Greece's recent record of missed budget targets and failed promises of structural reform makes analysts sceptical the socialists can turn the economy round.

Pressure started mounting after the government on Monday shrugged off without comment a warning by Standard & Poor's of a possible downgrade. A day later Fitch decided to downgrade Greece's debt to triple B+, the first time in 10 years a leading ratings agency had given Greece a rating of below A grade.

Mr Papaconstantinou changed tack after the Fitch move, vowing to do "whatever's required" to meet medium-term fiscal targets, including, if necessary, presenting a supplementary budget in 2010.

Axel Weber, president of Germany's Bundesbank and a leading European Central Bank policymaker, said Athens had a year to bring its public finances under control or risk having its bonds disqualified for use as collateral by banks borrowing ECB liquidity .

The market turmoil has an indirect impact on Greek domestic affairs. Most bonds are bought by local banks and foreign institutional investors and, until this week's sell-off, foreign investors held more than 50 per cent of shares listed on the bourse.

Newspaper headlines and television debates over whether Greece "faces bankruptcy" are fuelling the sense of insecurity.

"The business climate is about the most negative in memory," says Constantine Michalos, chairman of the Athens chamber of commerce and industry. "There is a strong belief that things have to get worse before they'll get better."

Greece has fallen further and faster in the past three months than other eurozone member states.

A consumer boom that drove GDP growth rates to average 4.2 per cent annually between 2002 and 2007 - twice the European Union average - ended abruptly this year.

The economy is expected to shrink by about 1.3 per cent this year and a further 0.3 per cent in 2010, according to finance ministry projections.

The unemployment rate has also been dramatically revised upwards, to 18 per cent, almost twice the official rate reported for September, after the suspension of an EU-funded jobs programme.

Greeks are bracing for hard times. Consumer lending has stagnated as households cut back and banks tighten loan criteria, says Ersi Athanassiou at KEPE, an economic think-tank. "Household savings have been negative since 2000, but it's possible we'll see an increase this year."

Only a handful of shoppers were browsing yesterday at Golden Hall, a suburban mall.

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The situation of the Greek ruling class hasn't gone unnoticed by their more intelligent opponents. Over at the LibCom site there is a regular correspondent from Greece, one 'Taxikipali', who contributes what is perhaps the best ongoing commentary on events in that country. The following commentary describes how the Greek government may be facing a much more serious challenge than could be provided by students rioting.

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The day after the riots: reforms and crisis in Greece:
Submitted by taxikipali on Dec 13 2009 14:32
Reforms and fears about the explosive economic crisis mark the days after the latest riots in Greece.

The day after the latest riots, which erupted as a response to mass preventive repression against the commemoration of Alexandros Grigoropoulos murder, is characterized by the launching of an array of reforms by the Greek state struggling with an explosive economic crisis.

On the educational front, the Minister of Education and Religion Ms Diamantopoulou held a conference with the rectors of the Greek universities in a secluded area in Lavrion (fearing popular mobilisations against it). During the conference it was decided that the government will not challenge the anti-constitutional law introduced in March 2007 amidst, a year long mass mobilisation and periodic riots against it, by the right-wing government.

The Giannatou-law as it is known in effect breaches article 16 of the constitution by ruling that university asylum can be lifted if a state attorney gets the approval of the rector due to crimes being committed. The constitution rules that the asylum can be lifted only by a unanimous agreement of the rectorial-lecturers-students council. Moreover, the educational conference decided to demarcate which area are included in the asylum and which not, without of course any agreement by the students who were not even invited in the talks. Finally the conferees have decreed to oust permanent building or room occupations within university premises, referring to anarchist antiauthoritarian and autonomous social centres operating within universities since the 1980s. The reforms enjoy the support and aggressive promotion by bourgeois press and media interests.

On the repression front, the Napoleonic-delirious Minister of Public Order has once again attacked the left as "hypocrites and professional sensitives" covering "nazis that planned a Crystal Night", insisting on the validity of preventive arrests (illegal according to the constitution), and pointing out most ominously that leftist and anarchist violence will lead "in the immediate future to extreme-right terrorism by yet unknown groups".

The declaration, reading more like a threat than like a prediction in the light of the two armed attacks against premises of the antagonistic movement during 2009, came after two bombs were diffused by the police pyrotechnic corps after warning phone calls on Saturday 13. The bombs which did not go off because of some technical problem were targeted at the social security bureau of the media. The ministry has repeated its promises of abolishing tear gas and replacing it with water cannon tanks, as well as of abolishing the anti-hood law after Christmas.

The reform suggestions come amidst greatest economic crisis since 1974 with the

Greek government juggling with austerity measures that stretch from a three year freeze of public sector salaries, to coupons for meat milk and bread for the unemployed, to the abolition of the Easter half salary bonus. Fearing mass reaction to the measures, the PM has played cold and hot, taking back proposed measures hours after proposing them, and calling a conference of "national unity" for Monday. It must be noted that a mass strike has been called for Tuesday including an array of labour sectors, while a shoe factory (Elite) has come under workers' occupation in Athens.

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I have found it impossible to verify Taxikipali's story about the occupied shoe factory by any other source in English, French or Spanish, but I see little reason to doubt his claims given the general realistic nature of his previous reports. In the interum, here is a report from the Associated Press about what the "socialist" government is threatening if the workers of Greece do not knuckle under to their plans. Very nasty threats actually.

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Greek PM to announce economic reform measures:
By ELENA BECATOROS

Associated Press 2009-12-14 07:21 PM
Greece's prime minister is to outline Monday how he plans to reform his debt-riddled country's economy, as a delegation from Moody's credit rating arrived in Athens to review the economic situation.

George Papandreou, whose Socialist party came to power in October, has said he is prepared to make major changes, which may mean tax hikes and heavy spending cuts. He has called on the country's main opposition leaders to hold rare joint talks on the issue.

Greece has come under intense pressure from other European Union countries to reform its economy, and Papandreou has acknowledged the country suffers from endemic corruption.

The country's deficit is projected to have swollen to more than 12 percent of economic output this year four times the European Union limit and twice the previous official projection while its debt stands at a staggering (EURO)300 billion ($442 billion).

Papandreou will outline his plans in a speech to business and union leaders as part of a public debate on reforming Greece's economy.

Last week, the credit agency Fitch Ratings downgraded Greece from A- to BBB+ the worst of the 16 nations that use the euro. A delegation from Moody's met on Monday morning with Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, who outlined the government's plans on how to remedy the situation, his office said.

"The public deficit is clearly very worrying," Papaconstantinou said in an interview with the Associated Press and one other reporter. "Of course we have an economic crisis in all the European Union countries. What distinguishes Greece is the gap between the public deficit published by the previous government, and the true numbers that we have at the moment. The deficit is double what we expected, and it requires a much stronger effort" to bring the economy under control, with the government aiming to reduce the deficit to below 3 percent in the next three to four years.

Greek officials, however, have insisted there is no question of Greece defaulting on its debt. Concern about government finances in general had been heightened by news last month that Dubai World, an investment company owned by the city-state that has $59 billion worth of debt, was looking to postpone forthcoming debt payments until May.

"There is no question of default," Papaconstantinou said. "We obviously have very serious problems. We are not the only country to have this kind of problem. What distinguishes us is a loss of confidence; a loss of confidence in our statistics, in our numbers; a loss of confidence that Greek governments are capable of doing what must be done."

The minister said Greece was trying to regain that confidence by reducing the deficit by 4 percentage points in a year, reducing public sector costs, tackling tax evasion and stimulating growth. The government has said it will freeze hiring in the severely bloated public sector next year, and hire just one person for every five who retire or quit in 2011.

Papandreou has pledged that his government will take all measures necessary, but has insisted he will protect salaried workers and pensioners _ possibly fearful of mass protests that often have a tendency of turning violent in Greece. Instead, he has promised to crack down hard on the country's famously prolific tax evasion.

"We have systemic corruption," Papandreou said in Brussels last week. "We experience it so frequently that we think it is normal. But it isn't normal."

The prime minister insisted Greece was not yet at the point where it must freeze or slash public sector salaries.

"Look, if we were on the edge of the cliff and the only solution was to freeze (salaries), then we would cut salaries in half," he said in Brussels. "But we are not there. And we are fighting so that we do not reach that point."

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One should not expect the strike called for December 15th to amount to much. As the following article from Google News makes plain there are divisions not only within the "socialist" PASOK party of Greece (where some members "think" that the party should be at least a tiny little itsy bit "socialist" as opposed to catering to international finance but also amongst the unions). The public sector unions have given more or less official support to the government by delaying any "serious" industrial action to next February. One should not expect any opposition from the Communists, being as they are desperately trying to avoid being overtaken on the left by the dog's dinner leftist coalition of Syriza (The Coalition of the Radical Left). Any "disorder" opens the way for their opponents on the left and leaves little opportunity for them to make gains at the expense of PASOK. The Communists are especially strong in a large number of unions. Expect nothing from this. The great threat to both the commies and Syriza is that the workers will actually "wake up" and demand self management beyond that which any leftist party would be capable of granting. As focused on violence and symbolic actions as the Greek anarchists are, their general message of "self-management" has penetrated into large sectors of the Greek population, sectors who are much more capable of effective action than students or play-actors at terrorism are. The idea that ordinary Greeks might take these ideas seriously and go beyond both the political parties and the illusions of insurrection of the "anarchists" terrifies the aparatchiks of Greek leftism.

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Greece readies debt measures, unions threaten action:
By John Hadoulis (AFP) – 8 hours ago
ATHENS — The beleaguered Greek government is later Monday to outline measures to combat the worst debt crisis in the country's modern history but its plans are threatening to spark fierce union resistance.

Government vice president Theodore Pangalos told the newspaper Ta Nea that "at this moment, loans are a matter of life and death for the Greek economy."

"Our debt must be stabilised before it can begin to retreat," Pangalos said, adding: "I've never seen such a situation in my 29 years in parliament."

He was speaking ahead of a scheduled speech by Prime Minister George Papandreou on the country's crippling 300-billion-euro (442-billion-dollar) debt.

The crisis has split the recently-elected Socialists. Some cadres fear a whirlwind of social unrest from the country's influential unions.

"There are currently two parallel lines, those who want to follow the European Commission's demands (for debt action) and those mindful of social needs," a government official told AFP.
One of the prime minister's main tasks will be to convince Greece's powerful unions, who hit back with general strikes the last time a major reform -- an overhaul of the pensions system in 2008 -- was attempted.

Part of the government cost-cutting drive will again target the pensions system as the state seeks to avoid paying over four billion euros next year to support ailing state funds.

The main union representing civil servants, Adedy, on Monday told the government to clarify its policies and warned of coming industrial action.

"The escalation of our strike activity will be immediate and will be declared by early February," the union said.

Markets worldwide were roiled last week after Fitch Ratings hit Greece with a credit downgrade, which also sparked fears that other troubled eurozone members could suffer the same fate.

The Greek stock exchange was rocked by uncertainty, shedding nearly 10 percent of its value in cumulative losses early last week, then briefly rebounding before closing with a fresh 2.41-percent loss on Friday.

The Athens bourse on Monday opened with a gain of 1.95-percent.

Standard & Poor's has placed Greece's long-term sovereign credit rating on "negative" watch, warning that it could be downgraded in the next two months if the government failed to rein in its growing deficit.

A third ratings agency, Moody's, in October also warned Greece of a possible rating cut. A team of Moody analysts arrived in Athens on Monday on a previously scheduled visit for talks with the finance minister and the Greek public debt management agency (PDMA).

A member of the European Central Bank executive board, Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi, meanwhile told the Italian newspaper La Stampa that Greece now had to take measures to raise its credit rating.

"From our point of view, Greece must implement measures by the end of the 2010 allowing public debt bonds to retrieve an A rating, which will again become the minimum level for our market operations," Bini-Smaghi said.

Fitch Ratings downgraded Greece's long-term debt ratings to BBB-plus from A-minus last week.

The ECB has eased its rating requirements for government bonds in the wake of the global financial crisis but is expected to restore the minimum A-minus level in 2011.

Bini-Smaghi was referring implicitly to a risk that Greek bonds, at their current rating level, might no longer meet ECB requirements at the end of next year when the central bank reverts to pre-crisis credit rating standards.

The concern for Greece, financial markets and the ECB is that if Greek bonds no longer met the ECB's minimum requirements, Greek banks that hold large quantities of Greek sovereign bonds would no longer be able to offer them as collateral to participate in regular ECB refinancing arrangements.

This in turn would raise the risk that Greek banks would not be able to access the cheapest source of short-term funding, and would be a big blow to the standing of the Greek banking sector.

Greece's public deficit is expected to surge to 12.7 percent of output this year -- well beyond the 3.0 percent limit imposed by the eurozone.

The Greek finance ministry has described the debt crisis as the worst in the country's modern history.

Papandreou has in addition called an all-party meeting on Tuesday on fighting corruption that eats up billions of euros annually.

The prime minister has ruled out going to the International Monetary Fund for aid or freezing wages, talking instead of trimming Greece's overblown bureaucracy.

He has also vowed to go after tax evaders, not workers. The government is now planning to enlist hackers in an emergency "tax police squad," press reports said.

As Papandreou attempts to calm the waters at home, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou will visit his counterparts in Britain, France and Germany in a bid to convince them that the new Socialist government can handle the crisis.

A crucial part of his tour will be a meeting Wednesday in London with institutional investors.

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While we, the anarchists, await both the determination of our Greek comrades to present a plausible way in which ordinary people can transform society and the impatience of ordinary people with the "solutions" offered by the political parties we are thrown back on solidarity with our own comrades in Greece. Prior to the latest round of riots and occupations the "socialist" government ordered a preemptive raid on the Resalto anarchist social centre in Athens. Molly actually visted this centre when she was last in Greece, and she found little evidence that they were any imminant threat whatsoever of any criminal action, let alone a threat to the Greek state. The following, from the Occupied London Blog, a source for the latest news from Greece in English, is the original call for financial support for the bail of thiose arrested at Resalto. Pay attention to it, and give what you can.

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Urgent financial appeal by the Resalto Solidarity Fund:
Friday, December 11, 2009
“Resalto” is the anarchist space in Western Athens that was raided by police on the evening of December 5th (background info on the case is here). The 22 comrades arrested during the brutal break-in of the space were released by the Piraeus Court at the dawn of Tuesday, December, 8th. However, the court imposed strict bail conditions on them all, which included very high amounts of bail money: The total amount of this bail money equals 51,000 euros. More specifically, for one of those arrested bail was set at 15.000 euros, for three of them at 5,000 euros each and for the remaining seven, bail was 3,000 euros.

The total financial amount of bail-money must be deposited by Thursday, December 17th but it is advisable, for the purpose of avoiding bureaucratic deadlocks, that the money is deposited before Tuesday, December 15th.

For this purpose a solidarity fund has been established – for the financial support of the 22 arrested of Resalto, but also for the prompt payment of their bail money. It is very important that we all contribute in gathering this unusually high total amount of bail money.

In order for this amount of money to be securely raised you are all greatly encouraged, and kindly asked to establish direct contact at the following telephone number: +30 6973657960 or via e-mail at tameio22@espiv.net in order to obtain the bank account number where this money may be deposited. Publicly advertising a bank account for fund-raising is illegal under Greek law (for tax purposes).
Solidarity is our weapon.

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All that I have said above is reinforced by what I said last summer in the pages of Linchpin, the journal of the Ontario platformist organization Common Cause. To say the least subsequent events have done little to change my opinions. They have only reinforced them. Whatever the heroism of the Greek rebels, despite the acclamation of certain North American "anarchists" who don't understand the situation and who laud the worst amongst the Greeks, the situation in Greece is very far rom the idea of "revolution" if that is to be taken in terms of a transformation of social relations. Thre is still a long and hard road of "realism" tgo be walked upon before anarchism can be a realistic prospect in Greece, as in anywhere else. Here's what I said previosly.

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Patrick Murtagh

LINCHPIN
On December 6, 2008 it was not a dark and stormy night when the shot rang out, but it soon became so as a police bullet killed 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos. Not that such incidents are unusual. According to a spokesman for the anarchosyndicalist Greek ESE “dozens of Greeks have been killed by the police” since the end of the military dictatorship in 1973.

What was unique was the response, perhaps indicative of the harder times that we have entered. Within minutes the news spread across the country via cell phone, and informal groups of friends had gathered to protest the murder.

Protest turned to riot, and for some weeks the conservative government of Greece teetered on the brink of defeat. Dozens of universities and high schools were occupied. Working class demonstrations and a one day general strike coincided with the student revolt. The government was saved, not by its own efforts but rather by a loss of nerve on the part of the socialist PASOK and the communist KKE who ended up criticising the insurgent students and the left-socialist Syriza more than they did the government.

The events didn’t occur in a vacuum. Decades of student militancy have garnered widespread public sympathy since 1973. Tactics such as university occupations are almost routine. Then there is the general state of the Greek economy and society. Youth unemployment and underemployment are endemic and growing. The government has come to be widely seen as both corrupt and incompetent. While recklessly accumulating public debt (foreign debt was estimated to total 93.9% of GDP in 2008) the state has been demonstrably generous to its corporate friends. In various social conflicts over the past decade the state has sometimes emerged victorious, but often has been forced to back down in the face of popular movements.

Few of the factors that underlay the revolt in Greece are unique to that country, aside from the existence of a relatively large and militant anarchist movement. It is no wonder that European governments openly worried about the spread of such revolts to other countries. The Greek insurgents attempted to spread the insurrection internationally, using media events and the same cell phone tactics that had proven successful locally. The response was widespread – perhaps hundreds of sympathy actions worldwide – but distinctly poorly attended.

Then, incredibly anticlimactically, the Revolution was called off for Christmas. When the New Year arrived the usual militant Greek demonstrations resumed, but without the mass participation and occupations of December. An opportunity had been lost.

What happened shows that mass rebellion is possible in a modern state and, given economic conditions, it is almost inevitable. It also showed that modern technology can amplify small scale initiatives into mass movements. It also showed that such movements can be, at best, inspired, never directed. The Leninist dream is over.It was also demonstrated that such rebellions have to go beyond mere street fighting if they are to lead to anything permanent. The Greeks began this process with their occupations of educational institutions and brief takeovers of media outlets. They were unable to go further, however, because of a lack of response from Greek workers who generally remained passive outside of young workers in the streets. Without such participation, “revolts” will remain limited and inevitably fizzle out with little gained.

Finally, while rebellions are inevitably spontaneous, in the absence of organization and vision they cannot go further to actually change society. This may have been the main reason for the passivity of the Greek working class. Without such a vision and clear ideas on how to achieve it, one cannot depend on any vanguard, whether it is a party or whether it is those most willing to fight in the streets.
Patrick edits Molly’s Blog: