TENS of thousands of workers and youth held strong anti-government marches and rallies in all Greek cities and towns on May Day. Seafarers, railway, urban transport and local government workers staged 100 per cent solid 24-hour strikes or stoppages.
In Athens several trade union branches, who oppose the treacherous bureaucratic leaders of the GSEE (Greek TUC) organised a most militant rally and march in the centre of the city attended by almost 10,000 workers, mostly in their 20s and 30s, along with big delegations of students.
Left wing and anarchist parties and organisations participated in the march. There were many delegations with their banners of local Committees and Peoples’ Assemblies from all over Athens as well as delegations of immigrant workers.
At the rally doctors and teachers spoke for the need to defeat the bourgeois main parties in next Sunday’s general election and to carry out a mass struggle after the election against the barbaric plans of the EE and of the IMF.
The march was headed by the banner of the technicians’ union which stated ‘Disobedience to the government, EE and IMF – For an indefinite struggle in the hands of working people’. Demonstrators marched to the Vouli (Greek parliament) followed by riot police who attempted a provocation at the end of the march.
After the march riot police paraded in some Athens squares, where young people meet for a coffee, to provoke clashes. None took place although residents protested against the police methods.
During the militant and enthusiastic Athens march the dominant slogans were against the government of banker Papademos and the EE-IMF imposed barbaric agreements.
The Greek Trotskyists of the Revolutionary Marxist League took part in the march with their banner calling for an indefinite general political strike, for the overthrow of capitalism and for a workers’ and small farmers’ socialist government.
The Greek Communist Party (KKE) organised their own May Day rally at the gates of the Hellenic Steel factory, about 15 km away from the Athens city centre, where workers have been on strike for over six months.
The bureaucrats of the GSEE organised a rally and march in Athens attended by just a thousand workers and students. The GSEE rally was supported by the Radical Coalition of the Left party and some left-wing groups.
