[olympiaworkers] "No margin for blockades or strikes" announces the Greek PM before tide of labour action

Libcom.org Feb 1 2010

Greek farmers blockade the Bulgarian border, 2009

A week before the start of a tide of labour action, the Greek Socialist PM
Papandreou the Third has announced him government sees "no margin for
blockades and strikes".

The Greek PM and leader of the Socialist Party (PASOK) and the Socialist
International, George Papandreou has once again revealed the real face of
his government by announcing that there are no "margins for blockades and
strikes". The announcement came in Parliament in a speech rife with
conspiracy theories about a combined speculators and foreign press war
against greece which is supposedly undermining the country's sovereignty.
Using PASOK's old populist anti-imperialist discourse salted with
technocratic frill, the PM talked about a threat for "the people's
sacrifices to been blown for ever to the wind". The populist rhetoric came
combined with the proposal of a new electorate system that would deprive
citizens from choosing their MPs, who would be instead chosen by the
parties after the election results.

The pathetic combination of populism and technocratism that is the
trademark of PASOK comes in full force as the farmers blockades enter
their third week. Although only 15 out of the 30 original blockades
remain, these are composed purely of independent farmers who have
repudiated the official unions. For this reason they are despised by the
bourgeois press as "anarcho-autonomous" and by the Ministry of Agriculture
as "anarchosyndicalists". At the same time the greek government is under
pressure by an approaching tide of labour action, starting with the
February 10 strike of all private employees (ADEDY). Already dozens of
strikes have been announced for February. Meanwhile, dozens of attacks
against state and capitalist targets in Athens and Salonica are troubling
the forces of repression. The targets have included UN vehicles, the
political office of the ex-PM Mr Costas Simitis, political offices of the
Conservative Party, banks and many expensive cars. The disruption caused
by such attacks is augmented by the persistent farce calls for bombs
(approximately two every day according to the media in Athens alone) which
cause state buildings and all surrounding streets evacuated for hours.

The climate of tension in expectation of the announcement of harsh
economic measures is further embittered by an extreme-right campaign
against the proposed citizenship for 250,000 second generation immigrants.
The coordination of extreme-right organisations and parties, combined with
the arrest of the 44 fascists last week, and the imprisonment of one of
them (an editor of a newspaper previously funded by the colonels' junta,
and convicted aggressor) resulted last Saturday to an unusually massive
fascist march in Athens. The fascists plan to repeat their show of power
in the coming Saturday, this time using as their demo starting grounds the
Propylea academic asylum, a symbolic disgrace for a century of struggles.

The trial of the murderers of Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Amfissa has been
postponed due to the death of the mother of the Public Prosecutor.