Solidarity With The Greek Workers!

Hats off to the Greek proletariat, who put into action what too many of us on the left merely talk about by directly protesting their government's austerity plan as it angled for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. Since the onset of the global financial crisis in late 2008, capitalist governments around the world have reacted at the bankers' behest with ubiquitous austerity packages which aim to make the working class pay for the crimes of high finance, through a combination of wage freezes, pension cuts, slashing entitlement benefits and taxing consumers with measures like, say, the HST. Among those with a more advanced class consciousness, the only possible solution has always been a mass mobilization of the working class, at the very least to protest these cuts, and in the most optimistic perspective, to begin the transition to a socialist mode of production in which resources are communally owned and geared to serve the needs of society as a whole.

Unfortunately, to apply a coldly realistic reading of the situation would reveal that protests in the wealthiest industrialized nations leave much to be desired, and many would-be activists too often spend their time complaining on the sidelines rather than leading the charge in the streets (guilty as charged, but keep in mind that I live in Kingston, Ontario). In Greece, on the other hand, workers have risen to the occasion, as their corrupt government plans to make them pay for their country's fiscal crisis. The fact that the Greek austerity measures are being spearheaded by the "social democratic" PASOK administration of George Papandreou is highly emblematic of the decay of reformist politics in general. Like the Socialist Party in France or the Labour Party in the UK, PASOK purports to be a centre-left party with a traditional constituency of the working class. But in recent years its policies have swayed sharply to the neoliberal model of increased privatization and shifting the tax burden to those least able to bear it. Now, like the French and British social democratic parties, PASOK is bailing out the wealthiest members of society on the backs of its public servants, youth, the poor and the working class.

The rage felt by the protestors as riots engulfed Greece is understandable. The country's elite, like so many others, has long enriched itself at public expense, plundering state coffers for bribes while dodging taxes. Admittedly, the country did embark on a bit of a spending spree over the last decade, hosting the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, renovating archaeological dig sites and constructing imposing new buildings. These projects were largely fuelled by debt, which is why Greece finds itself in its current precarious position. Yet the austerity measures demanded by Papandreou and his backers - the parasitic financial/business class and the international bankers - are designed to reduce the country's deficit on the back of those least able to afford it, those who had the least to do in expanding Greek debt. The case is the same in every capitalist country, where the cash-fattened elite lecture workers on the need to tighten their belts. Simple justice demanded a reaction from workers, and now the Greek proletariat have led the way.

Incidentally, the tragic death of three bank employees after the Marfin Bank in Athens was firebombed is not an indictment of the protests themselves. Molotov cocktails hurled at the bank may have been the work of police provocateurs. But even if that were not the case, it should be noted that while the bank employees did not wish to work (since their union federation had joined the general strike) this was refused by management, who locked the building's doors. Ostensibly a security measure against protesters, the move ultimately prevented the building's occupants from escaping when the fire began.

In any event, Greek workers have thrown down the gauntlet. If there is to be any resistance to the international power elite's program of draconian austerity measures, we need to follow the Greek example and take to the streets. Only when the full power of the masses is unleashed will the elite finally be forced on the defensive.