Approval of the austerity package imposes new attack on the workers. The population responds with outrage on the streets of Athens.
The approval of the new austerity package by the Greek Parliament on February 12, was a further dramatic chapter of a nation plundered by the capital. The poll was 199 deputies in favor and 74 against the plan. Members of the Left (Syriza, Democratic Left Party and the Communist Party) voted against, with 21 members of New Democracy and 22 of the PASOK (Social Democrat). The LAOS a right-wing electoral party, which was part of the governmental bloc, also voted against. Now, they try to appear as a major “adversary” of unemployment and impoverishment.
The agreement includes cuts of € 3.3 billion. The resources would come out of monumental attacks on the workers’ social rights. The minimum wage in the country will be reduced by at least 22% (currently € 751), as well as cutting 150,000 public jobs up to 2015 and reduce the value of pensions.
In return, Greece would receive a further loan of € 130 billion, to guarantee payment of part of its debt, an amount of € 14.5 billion, which expires at the end of March. That is, to guarantee payment to the bankers of the European Union, especially Germany, the so-called Troika (European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund) imposes a pact that will suck the last few drops of blood from the Greek workers.
However the plan was not approved without resistance and crisis, a lot of crisis. While the attacks were being voted in the parliament, a crowd of more than 100,000 people took the streets of Athens, capital of the country. A 48-hour strike was called by labor unions. Thousands have gathered on Syntagma Square in front of the parliament in Athens, singing songs of resistance of 1960 and 1970.The same songs that were sung in the fight against the dictatorship of the colonels.
On Sunday, the rebellion caused fires throughout the capital. Scenes of battlefield took the streets. About 50 buildings were burned in the center of Athens.
The political crisis was magnified when, after the vote, New Democracy announced the expulsion of the 21 MPs who voted against the government. The social democrats (PASOK) also expelled 22 MPs. The LAOS, the extreme right-wing party, expelled two former-ministers who voted for the plan. It was the largest story of deputies’ expulsion in the Greek parliament.
Greece was the first country in Euro Zone going to collapse with the crisis of 2008-2009. Since then, the Troika has been imposing insane neoliberal prescriptions which led the country off the deep end. Bailout plans are followed by further attacks, which only have deepened the recession and increased the country’s indebtedness.
At the beginning of the crisis in 2008, the Greek debt was € 263 billion, but rose to € 355 billion in 2011. The country’s GDP fell in the same period from € 233 billion to € 218 billion. The official interest rate is of 32%!
The country has also completely lost its sovereignty and is subjected to constant humiliation on the part of financial capital.
In last November, Prime Minister Papandreou resigned after going back on his proposal of carrying out a referendum on the austerity plans. Blackmailed by France and Germany, Papandreou suspended the referendum. Then he was replaced, as a rotten orange that no longer serves the purposes of the finance capital, by Lucas Papademos.
Today the coalition that supports the Conservative government is supported by the PASOK, Papandreou’s party, and the right wing party, New Democracy.
But the humiliation has not reached the end yet. Financial capital asks major candidates for the next Greek elections, scheduled for April, to sign a letter committing themselves to future austerity policies. The situation is so absurd that The Economist, the leading magazine of the European financial capital, even mentioned the “growing democratic deficit” which prevails in European politics. The rise of the new colonialist policy of the Old Continent is accompanied by a steady erosion of liberal democratic regime and their parties.
Read below the main measures of the new economic package:
• The minimum wage, which until now was defined through a Collective Negotiation between the National Trade Union Confederations and the Businessmen Association, will be cut by 22%. This is a cut that for new workers under 25 years will reach up to 32%. This measure immediately affects around 25% of Greek workers. Furthermore, the seniority (which increases according to the years in job) is going to be frozen.
• The reduction will also affect private small plants that have their own collective agreements. As these agreements become due, it will be established a new system of collective bargaining and mediation which openly favors the employers. The terms of the new agreement also demand that individual contracts can be modified, which will mean, in some sectors, a pay cut of 50%.
• Pensions will be reduced by 15%, a reduction to which is added those imposed recently. The agreement also requires updating of the pension system, which makes room for further reductions as well as the increase in the retirement age.
• The public spending will be drastically reduced, like the funding for hospitals, social security coverage and social assistance.
• Further privatization of public utilities will be required, including vital infrastructures such as airports and ports.
• There will be a new round of layoffs in the public sector, the closure of public institutions such as primary and secondary schools and the removal of some university departments and agencies responsible for public housing. There will also be a change in the employment contract in public enterprises (partially dependent on the State) and banks, eliminating employment guarantee, which will lead to massive layoffs.
