(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

     The Greek Parliament has caved in to imperialist pressures, announcing a budget that raises taxes and cuts pensions and public sector salaries. But the struggle against the so-called "austerity measures" continues. A second general strike in nine days shut down much of the country on March 5, as the Communist-led trade union PAME and the civil service ADEDY union workers walked off the job, closing banks, schools, public transit, flights and reducing hospitals to skeleton staff.

     A third general strike has been announced for March 11, backed by the General Confederation of Employees of Greece (GSEE), Greece's largest umbrella trade union group for the private sector, and the civil servants' union ADEDY.

     The March 5 strike saw an estimated two million workers take part in a 24-hour stoppage. Tens of thousands of protestors filled Syntagma Square in the centre of Athens and spilled out beyond, led by unions, activist groups, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) and Syriza, the smaller left coalition.

     Beginning in the northern inner area of Athens around Omonia Square, the march came down Stadiou Boulevard, taking more than an hour to reach the city centre. More than 40,000 protesters chanted "We won't pay for their crisis" with radical songs blaring from speaker vans coming behind.

     The strike and protests came as officials from the EU, the IMF and other financial bodies arrived in Athens at the invitation of Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou to advise on further efforts to impose austerity measures on the country, in a bid to restructure its economy in line with EU requirements. Essentially, the strategy of Papandreou and his PASOK (social democratic) party is to impose the costs of the country's financial difficulties on the working people, while blaming the European Union.

     Financial rating agency Fitch downgraded the ratings of the four major Greek banks, in response to what it said was the banks' "weakening asset quality due to anticipated fiscal adjustments in Greece." The decision will in turn raise yields on Greek bonds, further increasing the deficit.

     "We don't deny there is a crisis," KKE MP Yanis Ghiokas told the Morning Star newspaper. "However it is not our crisis and we shouldn't pay for it. While Papandreou has talked about tax evasion, the corporate tax rate has been lowered from 45 percent to 25 percent. We want it raised back to make up the shortfall, and reduce reliance on indirect taxes."

     Ghiokas also rejected widely publicised claims that Papandreou enjoys up to 70 percent support for the measures.

     "People are polled and they are asked `does something need to be done,' and they say Yes. That is then taken as support," he laughed ruefully.

     This view is backed by the wide participation of unions in the strike movement. On March 2, for example, 30,000 taxi drivers across Greece protested against new laws that would force them to provide receipts and keep accounts in order to increase tax income and eliminate fraud. Even tax inspectors have decided to take industrial action against the government's plans, calling a 48-hour strike of their own.

     In response, Papandreou has increasingly resorted to fear tactics. Greece risks bankruptcy if it does not take radical measures, he warned on March 2, saying the country was in a "wartime situation."

     The measures being proposed by his government include a 2-per-cent increase in value-added tax, freezing public sector wages for 2012, a further fuel tax hike, a new tax on luxury goods and further raising the retirement age from 65 to 67.

     March 16 is the deadline for the European Union to respond to the Greek government's strategy, deciding whether to provide financial assistance.

     The KKE has called the success of the strikes "another response to the anti-people measures announced by the social-democrat government of PASOK such as wage and pension reductions, and increase of retirement age. The workers turned their backs on the call of the government to consent `in order to save the country' from the crisis. They have shown that Greece is not in danger of bankruptcy and that big capital is responsible for the deficits and the debts. Before and during the crisis, big capital has made fabulous profits blackmailing the working and popular strata and placing the burden of the crisis on their shoulders."