Greece

The Government of the Bourgeois ‘Pasok’ Has Come To ‘Finish the Job’

The Movement for the Reorganisation of KKE (1918-55), since the announcement of the recent elections (“Anasintaxi”, no. 306, 15-30 Sept 2009), emphasised that the collapse of the monarch-fascist party ND [New Democracy] was due to the wrecking of the economy and the bankruptcy brought by its extreme neo-liberal policies, the stealing of public funds and other scandals. Bankruptcy was an already fact before the beginning of the global capitalist crisis of overproduction. The situation, of course, reached a dead-end after the onslaught of the crisis and led the ND government to its final downfall.

The present economic bankruptcy is neither a virtual one nor gossip. It is not some kind of ‘trick’, a ‘bogey man made up by the crows of foreign capital’ (‘Rizospastis’, January 27, 2010, p. 31). It is not simple ‘danger-mongering to scare the people’ (‘Rizospastis’, January 29, 2010, p. 25), but, on the contrary, it is an objective fact and a harsh reality for our country. This is proved by: the incredibly high level of the budget deficit and the public debt, the usurious lending realised under terms which are applied only in bankrupt economies, the speculative attacks, the colonial type of ‘surveillance’ imposed by international finance capital and the continuous plummeting of the stock market. All these are real facts with severe consequences for the everyday life of the working people and the poor strata. The country is at the mercy of:

The bourgeois party of PASOK has come to ‘finish the job’, to conclude the management of the bankruptcy by trying to transfer, in the least painful way, its effects to the working class, to the poor-middle peasantry and the poor people’s strata. Suddenly, following the shock doctrine, all the data hidden for years that reflect the economy’s condition are brought to light, often with dramatic overtones. The imperialists (the EU and the IMF), along with their local lackeys, after having drained whatever is left to the people’s strata and led the country to bankruptcy, are contending for who will assume control of the situation. They are asking the victims of the policy which bought the bankruptcy to pay ONCE AGAIN to overcome it, promising some survival morsels, so that they can be victims again in the future.

Either direct pay reductions or a ‘pay freeze’, which will decrease purchasing power, reduction by half of the already meagre tax-free earnings that will certainly bring a further fall in income.

Increase of unemployment not only without a labour protection policy but, on the contrary, with more employment ‘flexibility’ as the capitalists demand without even the morsels of ‘social care policy’ except the unspeakable coupon for some unemployed, an offer straight from the capitalists’ garbage.

Continuous increase in the costs of living, including increases in the prices of necessary articles, in the fuel tax, in the indirect taxes and an almost certain increase in the ‘low’ VAT [Value Added Tax] rate for basic goods.

A blow at the insurance system with cuts in medical and health benefits (for which the working people have paid dearly) and an open, and for the first time, clear confession that the pension age will rise to 67 years. A final blow will be dealt at institution for heavy and unhealthy occupations whose existence is, allegedly, unfair (we should only recall that the nurses’ job is still not included in this classification). On the other hand, there is will be full tolerance for the capitalist appropriation of workers’ insurance deductions that, together with state embezzlement, has brought the whole insurance system to its knees.

Despite the real fact of the economy’s bankruptcy and precisely because of that, the working class and the people have to actively resist the new racking measures and through united, massive strikes to demand: that the industrialists and bankers pay from their huge profits and all the capitalists who evade paying taxes and illegally and provocatively retain the insurance deductions; the increase of the enterprise tax rate that was reduced by the Karamanlis government from 35% to 25%; the taxing of the church’s incalculable property; not to take away what is left of the workers’ insurance rights. These measures will not pass!

Not only there will be no consensus and tolerance, as the social democrat leaders of ‘K’KE-SYN stammer while at the same time they rush to meet with the Prime Minister for an ‘update’ and anticipate with fear the imminent social upheaval. On the contrary, through fighting unity, the affected people’s strata, the working class, the poor and middle peasantry and the youth, will make this upheaval not only ‘heroic’ but also effective.

No tolerance for all those who bankrupted the country and are now trying to dump the effects of their crimes on poor people’s back.

February 2010

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