THE Executive Committee of YENOP (the trades unions federation of the Public Electricity Board), the biggest trade union federation in Greece, decided last Friday to call from tonight, 1st October, continuous ‘48-hour rolling strikes’, that is a national indefinite strike, in case the government goes ahead with its planned savage austerity measures demanded by the troika of EC-IMF-ECB.
The YENOP Executive also decided to call on the GSEE (Greek TUC) Executive ‘to meet at the latest this Tuesday to co-ordinate and escalate the struggle immediately with the aim of overthrowing the (government’s) austerity measures’.
The YENOP statement says that ‘if the GSEE do not call a meeting or if their decision (at such a meeting) does not meet up to the magnitude of the (government’s) attack, then the YENOP invites all trade union federations to a meeting this Wednesday for discussion and decisions.’
YENOP say that they will obey any decision that would be taken at such a meeting.
The YENOP Executive passed a resolution unanimously calling for the ‘annulment of the bail-out Accords (between Greece and the troika) and the write-off of the public debt.’
The decision by the most powerful Greek trade union federation (electricity and power station workers and coal miners) reflects the colossal pressure of the revolutionary movement of the working class upon the trades union bureaucracy.
Last Wednesday’s one-day general strike, with hundreds of thousands on the streets of literally all Greek cities and towns, showed workers’ and youth’s fighting spirit as they realise that one-day protests do not achieve the aim of overthrowing the coalition government and the austerity Accords imposed by the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund since 2010.
Faced with huge wage cuts, mass sackings and working conditions of 12-hour shifts and a six-day week, YENOP members have revolted and are demanding immediate ‘continuing’ national strike action.
In the past, the YENOP leaders, a fine specimen of trade union bureaucrats, have been the main prop of the GSEE.
Now the cracks within the trade union bureaucracy are becoming splits as workers demand ‘permanent general strike’ the most popular slogan chanted at last Wednesday’s general strike.
The YENOP decision followed a letter to the GSEE demanding ‘the immediate escalation of the struggle’ signed by the trades union leaders of SYRIZA party (Coalition of the Radical Left) along with some social democrats that have split from PASOK (the Greek social democratic party).
During the summer the social democrats, who are in the leadership of both the GSEE and the ADEDY (public sector workers federation), were split into two.
On Sunday, the Athens daily Avgi, the voice of the Coalition of the Radical Left party, carried an interview with the YENOP leader Nikos Fotopoulos.
Both the Greek Communist Party (KKE) and the small left-wing parties have dismissed the YENOP decision as yet another fireworks by the trade union bureaucracy.
The KKE’s supporters on the YENOP Executive abstained from the resolution calling for continuous 48-hour national strikes which was carried by 21 votes, none against. The KKE is calling for another one-day general strike.
Likewise the small left-wing parties, such as the ANTARSYA ‘anti-capitalist’ formation (that includes the Greek SWP), have ignored YENOP’s decision.
Both the KKE and ANTARSYA are refusing to organise a struggle for the defeat and removal of the bureaucracy from the GSEE and ADEDY.
Instead they are campaigning for a ‘struggle from below to escalate the struggle’ and for the formation of a separate organisation to the GSEE-ADEDY ‘centre of struggle’.
The Greek three-party coalition government under conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras have said that the new austerity measures will be presented to the Vouli (Greek parliament) early in October.
A few parliamentary deputies of PASOK and of the Democractic Left party, both government parties, have said that they would vote against the new austerity measures.
