SOME 20,00 Greek trade unionists and workers staged a militant demonstration last Saturday in the northern city of Salonica where the Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis was outlining the economic policies of his government.
These are the privatisation of the big state industries and services (Greek telecom, gas and petrol refineries, electricity and water boards), the sacking of thousands in the public sector and cuts in wages and pensions.
These are all dressed up in the cloak of ‘necessary reforms’ demanded by the European Community.
There were three different marches at Salonica; the official GSEE (Greek TUC) one with participants mainly from the public sector industries and delegations from trades councils.
The second was organised by PAME (the Greek Communist Party’s trade union sector) with industrial workers and students making up the bulk of the march; and a third one was organised by the so-called ‘anarchist’ youth.
The most lively contingents in the GSEE-led march were large delegations of Greek Telecom workers, fertiliser industry workers and many fire-fighters.
The Greek Prime Minister has specifically targeted Greek Telecom as his government privatisation priority.
This means the sacking of literally some 6,000 workers and cuts in wages for the rest of the workforce.
When the government announced last year the closure of the Salonica industrial complex, the State Fertilisers Company (SFC), the 300-plus workforce responded with demonstrations and the occupation of the factory since January.
They are now in their ninth month of occupation and have won the support of the Salonica Trades Council and of the GSEE.
Still, the other two SFC plants in the towns of Kavala and Kastoria continue to work normally.
SFC is the leading fertiliser firm in the Balkans with almost 80 per cent of its chemical products exported to Europe.
Elias, a SFC worker for the last 18 years, who spoke to the New Line at the march, said that the government wanted to sell-off the plant to capitalists who are demanding the sacking of two thirds of the workforce and the imposition of wage cuts.
Some five hundred fire-fighters took part in the march and stayed until the early hours of the morning outside the building where the Greek Prime Minister was delivering his threats to beat the working class.
These where the so-called ‘temporary’ fire-fighters employed only for four and a half months a year with a 800 Euros (about 500 pounds) monthly wage.
These fire-fighters were very angry against the government and their trade union leaders who refused to mobilise all fire-fighters in defence of their rights and wages and against the ‘reform’ of ‘temporary’ employment.
The KKE (Greek Communist Party) and PAME rally was dominated by their leaders’ calls for the formation of a ‘popular front to resist and overturn the government’s economic policies.’
The Stalinist leaders of the KKE and PAME are still tied up to the PASOK (social-democrats) and to New Democracy (the government party) and thus unable to give a lead to the Greek working class and youth and wage revolutionary struggles.
Such a defeatist and reactionary leadership led PAME trade unionists to call off strikes and vote against occupations. For the KKE the central issue right now is not the mobilisation of workers and youth against the government, but electoral activities for the October local elections.
Some 5,000 armed police where employed in Salonica last weekend during the demonstrations.
They eagerly and savagely attacked a few hundred anarchist youth with tear gas and smoke bombs in such quantities that effected the whole of the Salonica area.
During the weekend armed police in military-style uniforms were posted throughout the city centre as an occupation force.
Meanwhile, the workers of BFL Fertilizers have occupied their Thessaloniki factory in rejection of the deal to save only a third of their jobs.
The deal was made between their trade union leadership and the right-wing New Democracy.
News Line spoke to George Michaelidis, the president of the Union of Fertilizer Factory Workers (Thessaloniki), who said that the factory occupation had the support of all opposition parties in Greece, including the politically bankrupt PASOK social democrats.
The Fertilizer Company BFL is known in English as ‘Phosphoric Fertilizers Industry’ or PFI.
It is not merely a producer of fertilizer but a major chemicals company, manufacturing a wide range of products which it distributes internationally through subsidiaries such as the retail chain Agroefodia.
It was formed by the merger of PFI and Chemical Industries of Northern Greece in the year 2000.
The largest shareholder in PFI (with 42 per cent) is the Commercial Bank of Greece, but this is really just a shell for Credit Agricole, whose stake in the Greek bank is 72 per cent.
Credit Agricole (which exists in 60 countries and whose clients worldwide number twice the population of Greece) has been described as the largest bank in France, the second largest in Europe, and the sixth largest in the world.
Its interests would therefore appear to dwarf those of the Greek state itself.
This is the bank, says Mr Michailidis, which has led the draconian attempts at closure.
All the Thessaloniki PFI workers have now received letters advising them to make arrangements in accordance with the plans of the company.
Their reply has been to continue and extend the occupation of their factory and develop the struggle to defend their jobs.
