Greece set for anti-austerity general strike

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19724284

Trade unions in Greece have called the first general strike since the conservative-led coalition government came to power in June.

Wednesday's 24-hour walkout is to protest at new planned spending cuts of more than 11.5bn euros ($15bn; £9bn).

The savings are a pre-condition to Greece receiving its next tranche of bailout funds, without which the country could face bankruptcy in weeks.

Large anti-austerity demonstrations are also planned.

Greece needs the next 31bn-euro instalment of its international bailout, but with record unemployment and a third of Greeks pushed below the poverty line there is strong resistance to further cuts.

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[Starry Messenger]

1. Pictures--

http://www.timesunion.com/news/slideshow/Riots-in-Greece-49664.php

[Starry Messenger]

2. Greek, Spanish riots shatter European market calm

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Greeks-on-strike-as-politicians-agree-further-cuts-3894362.php

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Greece, meanwhile, has been dependent since May 2010 on billions of euros in two rescue loan packages from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. In return, it slashed salaries and pensions and hiked taxes in an effort to reform an economy derailed by decades of overspending and corruption.

Although Greece accounts for only about 2 percent of the eurozone's total economy, its crisis has shaken the euro and led to concern it could destabilize other, much larger economies in the 17-nation bloc. Greece is in its fifth year of recession, with unemployment above 24 percent.

Shortly before Greece's strike got under way, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras hammered out a €11.5 billion ($14.87 billion) package of spending cuts for 2013-14 demanded by the country's international lenders, along with another €2 billion in improved tax collection.

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Wednesday's strike shut down Greece's famed Acropolis and halted flights for hours. Ferry services were suspended, schools, shops and gas stations were closed and hospitals functioned on emergency staff.

Protesters of the Greek Communist party affiliated unions march in front of the Greek Parliament in Athens Wednesday Sept. 26, 2012. Greek workers walked off the job Wednesday for the first general strike since the country's coalition government was formed in June, as the prime minister and finance minister hammered out a package of euros 11.5 billion ($14.87 billion) in spending cuts. Photo: Dimitri Messinis / AP

[Starry Messenger]

3. Hundreds of thousands of Greeks march against austerity

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/26/thousands-greeks-march-against-austerity?newsfeed=true

Hundreds of thousands of anti-austerity protesters took to the streets of Greece on Wednesday as the country was paralysed by a general strike in the first mass confrontation with Athens's three-month-old coalition government.

In one of the biggest demonstrations in the capital in recent years, as many as 200,000 marched on the Greek parliament, according to unions in the public and private sector, which called the strike to oppose new wage and pension cuts – the price of further rescue funds from international lenders.

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In a departure from other mass protests, members of the police force, army, navy and judicial system joined public and private sector employees on the streets. One police officer, who preferred not to give his name, said the Greek state "should feel deep shame" at imposing cuts on the very people whose protection it sought.

"This is a warning to the government not to pass the measures," said Ilias Iliopoulos at ADEDY, the union of civil servants, insisting that around 350,000 Greeks took part in protest marches nationwide (police put the number in Athens at around 70,000). "Today was a huge success as witnessed by all those in the armed forces and police who also participated because they, too, will be affected by these cuts. The government must know that if it wants to push us further into a corner, we will react."

[David__77]

4. The crappy social democratic faction in SYRIZA is to blame in part.

They didn't want SYRIZA to win and to pose an alternative to the neo-liberal order. I think the KKE was right in its stance.

[tama]

5. Which faction in SYRIZA

are you speaking about? In SYRIZA and didn't want the party win majority? And how did they prevent SYRIZA from winning majority of Greek votes?

[David__77]

6. The old Eurocommunist faction of the KKE...

Synaspismos, in particular. But really pretty much the whole organization outside of the KOE is centrist and ambivalent toward European capitalist integration. I agree with this analysis: http://www.spiked-online.com/site/printable/12564/

[tama]

7. Aha

Another "former trotskyite nincamboob", authoritarian ego-maniac who takes pleasure in sowing sectarian divisions and discord:
"O'Neill and others associated with the RCP, Living Marxism and Spiked—including Frank Furedi, Mick Hume and Claire Fox—are often seen by commenters such as Nick Cohen[7] as having shifted from a far left position to an extreme stance on the libertarian right. Although O'Neill still insists that he is part of the left,[8] critics such as George Monbiot have suggested that this is typical as a ploy adopted by those associated with the RCP to split and discredit consensus upon the left[9] and to cause impediments for such movements as environmentalism and the reduction of carbon emissions.[10]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_O%27Neill_%28journalist%29

Only part of the article I liked was this:
"German officials and Brussels bigwigs, speaking anonymously, describe Greece as a ‘broken bureaucracy… incapable of implementing decisions taken at the top’."

That is a huge complement and what I liked about Greece when I lived there for 4 years. They are ungovernable in usually relaxed and easy going way, but fight heroically against fascists when needed.

Like most Greeks, I have no respect for KKE close-minded authoritarian dogmatism and refusal and inability to cooperate with anybody, characteristic shared with the authoritarian right wing Golden Dawn. Revolution in Greece is founded on open and inclusive movements and horizontal social networks with multitude variety of tactics, which does not exclude neither reformist approach of SYRIZA nor Greek anarchists organizing neighborhood assemblies etc. grass roots networks of solidarity. In 2008 SYRIZA showed compassion and understanding for rioting Greeks; KKE is known to assault Greek anarchists and hand them to police.

You may disagree, but what works is loose inclusive coalitions and variety of tactics where anarchists, reformists, communists etc. can participate and cooperate for common benefit. Authoritarian dogmatism and sectarianism leads nowhere, or at least nowhere desirable.