GREEK workers have embarked on a series of occupations of state and municipal buildings as well as mass marches.
The actions follow the announcement by the Greek government earlier this week that a third of all public sector services and the civil service are to be annihilated.
Meanwhile, university students are continuing the occupation of over 300 departments against the government’s Education Law.
Last Wednesday and Thursday thousands of workers from the state and municipal organisations to be disbanded occupied buildings and picketed a number of Ministries in Athens including the Finance Ministry which was besieged for hours.
On Thursday some 2,000 staff of the state television and radio stations marched to the Vouli (Greek parliament) where they were attacked by the riot police and told by Greek government deputy Prime Minister Thodoros Pangalos that they will be all sacked.
State TV and radio workers are to continue their fight with a mass demonstration and open air concert in the centre of Athens next week.
Athens university students staged yet another mass march last Thursday demanding the annulment of the recently passed Education Law.
Thousands marched under a scorching sun through the city centre shouting ‘no government laws and regulations – the only decent laws are those which address the needs of the students’ and ‘we want jobs and decent degrees’.
They also shouted slogans against the riot police and for the overthrow of ‘the junta of Papandreou-IMF-EC.’
Despite the students’ protests the government announced the closing down of the state students’ accommodation organisation and the withdrawal of free transport passes for students.
On government orders, the press and TV have launched vicious attacks on students, in alliance with the leadership of the university lecturers’ union POSDEP, which has come out against the occupations.
A delegation from the Revolutionary Marxist League joined the students’ march with their banner, calling for the overthrow of the government and of capitalism.