History was written last Friday in Greece as truly colossal general strike rallies took place throughout the country when literally hundreds of thousands of workers, students, professionals and pensioners vented their rage and hatred against the Greek government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
It was the day of the second anniversary of the Tempi train crash of 28 February 2023 characterised as a ‘crime’ by the vast majority of people in Greece.
GSEE (Greek TUC) and ADEDY (public sector trade unions) had called a 24-hour general strike supported by the Tempi2023 association of the relatives of the train crash victims, demanding ‘justice’ and the ‘punishment of all the guilty’ and accusing the Mitsotakis government of covering-up the circumstances of the train crash, and of protecting government politicians involved.
On the night of 28 February 2023, a passenger train and a cargo train of the privatised Hellenic Train, collided head on at Tempi in central Greece. 57 persons were killed, most of them university students in their early 20s, and hundreds injured in the worst ever train collision in Greece.
In Athens, hundreds of thousands of people flooded the large square in front of the Vouli (Greek parliament) and the surrounding streets in the biggest ever rally in Greek history.
There were dozens of makeshift banners held by secondary school students and as many held by university students expressing ‘rage’, demanding ‘punishment’ and the re-nationalisation of the railways.
All primary and secondary schools remained shut throughout Greece, last Friday. Teachers went on strike, while secondary school students occupied. University students’ mass meetings decided on the occupation of all universities in Greece.
The 24-hour strike was total in transport, public services, civil service, municipalities, banks, department stores, construction, port, shipyards.
There was very high strike participation in the energy, chemicals, apparel, food industries and supermarkets remained shut between 11am to 3pm.
In Athens, transport workers decided to run the Metro and tram services from 9am to 5pm to facilitate people’s attendance to the rally outside the Vouli. Taxi drivers went on strike too throughout the day, even transporting for free people to the rally.
The notaries’ and courts’ staff associations issued instructions to their members to take part in the strike rallies held in all Greek cities and even small towns.
When notaries are instructed to strike, this is an unprecendented occurance and indicative of a profound social upheaval.
Speakers at the Athens rally included railways trade union leaders who stated that they had repeatedly warned of a crash involving the Hellenic Train as the company was not complying with safety rules. A proper electronic system was not installed despite EU funds received, while management refused to recruit the necessary staff to ensure safety.
Union leaders called for the re-nationalisation of the Greek railways, privatised in stages in 2012-20, and sold to the Italian Railways, on orders of the EU as part of the barbarous Austerity Accords imposed to save Greek capitalism in the 2010s and still in operation.
Parents and relatives of the Tempi crash dead castigated the ‘judiciary system’ which is refusing to accept crucial evidence submitted by the association Tempi2023’s lawyers, and dragging their feet for two years now investigating the crash.
Up to now, the case’s public prosecutor has charged 43 persons for offences relating to the crash – officials of Hellenic Train and of the overseeing state Greek Railways Organisation (OSE) – but no government nor state officials have been charged. No-one has been imprisoned, pending trial.
Last year, a Parliamentary Committee where the government party of New Democracy had a majority, exonerated the Transport Minister and state officials. Prime Minister Mitsotakis has stated that the train crash was ‘an accident’ and there were no illegal factors involved.
In testimony, the Tempi area chief police superintendent stated that a high ranking Transport Ministry official ordered the ‘clearance of the soil’ at the site of the train crash.
Recently, a state scientific committee investigating the crash established that an explosion of ‘liquid substances’ occurred during the trains’ crash and evaporated victims’ bodies.
These relevations, and the Greek government’s insistence of ‘an accident’, have aggravated the rage and pain of the victims’ relatives.
Speaking last Friday at the colossal Athens rally, parents stated that they demanded justice, truth and accountability. They said that none of this was evident in the judiciary’s and in government’s actions and therefore they were accusing Hellenic Train, the government and the judicial and other state authorities of cover up.
The hundreds of thousands at last Friday’s Athens rally listened, their faces in plain expression, in almost total silence to the speakers. But as speakers made a pause, a most tremendous roar of ‘murderers, murderers!’ arose from the people like a threatening thunder from the overcast skies, and countless arms were raised fists clutched.
The Athens rally’s last speaker was Maria Karystianou, a lawyer and president of the Tempi2023 Association of the Relatives of the Victims, who lost her student daughter in the train crash. She opened her speech by pointing to the closed windows of the Vouli building opposite; the rally burst out shouting ‘murderers, murderers!’. She read her speech calmly and determined.
‘Our pain has flared up and has become a force to guide us,’ Karystianou said. ‘We see the depth of decay and betrayal, the monster of corrupt power has appeared, the injustice, the indignity and dishonour govern us,’ she insisted. She ended her short speech in a strong call to arms. ‘While the people seek virtuous justice, we face an unjust, uncontrollable and arrogant governance; we are here for katharsis (purification), we can and will bring the miracle of justice to our country again; the murderers will receive the wrath of Nemesis, because justice and love always win.’ Deafening applause followed, with cries of ‘murderers, murderers!’ and ‘revenge’.
Then the organisers announced the conclusion of the huge rally. People began slowly and hesitantly to leave. For it was clear that to the hundreds of thousands of people, that even the most fiery speeches did not level up with their outrage and hatred of the government. Yet the banners of the trade unions and of the left-wing parties made their way out of the square. The organisers had fulfilled their intention for just a strong protest rally. Workers in their 20s and 30s and students wanted far more than this. They craved for action against the government and they stayed put. It was becoming clear that tens of thousands won’t go away, they would remain in front of the Vouli.
This had been anticipated by Mitsotakis who last Wednesday, speaking to his Cabinet, condemned the mass anti-government ‘occupations’ of the ‘squares’. He explicitly directed the Public Order Minister Khrysohoides to deal with such thing.
Some twenty minutes following the end of the speeches at the rally, about 50 youths all clad in black and wearing masks or helmets attacked with petrol bombs the squads of armed riot police stationed inside the Vouli building’s courtyard.
The riot police responded with liberal use of noise-smoke and tear gas grenades.
They then spread out attacking people in the square in front of the Vouli and in the surrounding streets.
People set fire to plastic dustbins to obstruct the riot police’s attacks and reduce the tear gas effects. Clashes ensued throughout the wider Athens city centre.
Thousands of students and young people with their banners had remained close to the Vouli. They shouted ‘Revenge’, ‘Down with (government party) New Democracy’ and ‘Resign’ to Mitsotakis, and attempted to move in the square in front of the Vouli.
They were attacked by two police water cannon vehicles along with riot police squads. The rally was dispersed and the square was cleared up, as had been ordered by Mitsotakis.
A few hundred demonstrators were allowed to stay late into the night in front of the Vouli’s Unknown Soldier monument but encircled by riot police.
GSEE nor ADEDY have not issued any statement on the significance of the colossal historic rallies of workers and youth last Friday in Greece nor any protest against the riot police’s attacks in Athens and in other cities.
In this they are refusing to identify with the calls of the hundreds of thousands at the rallies of the general strike, many of the participants their members. In such historical events, the trade union bureaucracy is afraid of the power of the working class and youth and end up siding with the power and violence of the state.
The social-democrats of the PASOK party, the main opposition, are to table a non-confidence motion against the Mitsotakis government in the Vouli. The ruling class and all bourgeois parties hoping that a heated parliament debate will contain the rage and hatred of workers and youth.
This is a hopeless illusion. The working class in Greece and the tens of thousands of school and university students who participated in the huge anti-government rallies, cannot be appeased by a corrupt government which must impose barbaric austerity on the people of Greece if it is to survive. And that’s the essence of the situation.
Workers and youth, enraged by the high cost of living and by very low wages, by the privatisations in state hospitals and education, by anti-trade union laws and police violence, are on an insurrectionary road.
The world economic crisis and the EU’s political crisis, and now the Trump – EU schism, have put the bankrupt capitalist system and the Mitsotakis parliamentary junta regime against the wall.
This is the time for workers supported by the youth, to demand that trade unions organise an indefinite political general strike to overthrow Mitsotakis and capitalist austerity.
This is the hour to establish a mass revolutionary party of the International Committee of the Fourth International to lead workers to power and to a planned nationalised socialist economy.