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Greece, May 5th 2010
News flash…
Long live the revolutionary general strike of the Greek working class!
FLTI emergency appeal to all the World workers organizations and working class.
This May 5th, the Greek working class has put a new milestone in its combat to stop the attack and war declared on workers by the exploiters. The Greek workers have taken in its hands and guaranteed a magnificent revolutionary general strike with combats in the streets, mass mobilizations, and barricades where they confronted openly the police and the shock forces of the bourgeois state. When writing this note, it is getting dark in Greece and the streets combats and barricades continue there.
All the governments of the imperialist Europe-representatives of bankers, exploiters, blood suckers and killers of the working class and oppressed people all around the world- have stuck together with Papandreau so that him to attack definitely the Greek working class. A sacred alliance- (composed by: from the finance oligarchy of Wall Street to the bankers of Bundesbank ) leaned on the government of the murderous Papandreau attacked the working class all along its gains. The bourgeoisie wants the working class pays for the crisis they have provoked to re-gain the money they stole from Greece. For the exploiters, bankers, and imperialist gangs is a question of life and profits to impose this attack on Greece. It will depend of this fact if the working class pays for the bankruptcy and soften the losses the own bourgeoisie have provoked. Thus, if the bourgeoisie succeed with this plan against the working class in Greece, they will launch a decisive attack against the whole European working class. The English butchers imperialists have already announced “blood, sweat and tears” for the exploited of that country. This is what all the capitalist parasites want.
Among the IMF, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, Merkel, the murderers of the French Fifth Republic, the lords of the British crown, the blood suckers of the Spain crown and the other imperialist gangs with hypocrisy speak about “saving” Greece. It is a lie. All of them want to save Bundesbank and the finance oligarchy of the parasites of the four blocks of Wall Street by stealing the salary, pensions and with the over-exploitation of the working class. They are the plunderers of the world who stole and re-created fictitiously values wasting 90 billons of dollars that the human labor force has not yet created.
Greek proletariat- despite and against their leaderships- has carried out heroic combats, from the revolutionary struggles of 2008 to the latest two heroic general strikes of this year. If today the bourgeoisie can launch this attack is because these combats have been led by their union leaderships to put pressure to “moderate the attack” and “soften the adjustment”. These reformist leaderships are the ones that support the government of Papandreau that discharges a brutal counterrevolutionary war over the Greek working class.
The exploiters of the whole Europe concentrated their forces in Greece and today can attack supporting the killer Papandreau because the labour bureaucracies of the imperialist Europe, the traitors of the social imperialist parties paralyzed the forces of the European working class, sold out their combats, their jobs, salary and divided their ranks.
But too many treason and so much water to wet the gunpowder of the Greek proletariat was not enough to set off the spark that today fires again in the magnificent revolutionary general strike that is making the exploiters and their governments shake. Thus, the Greek working class has put itself in the centre of the scene, and in its great revolutionary general strike the working class says who governs and who owns the house: either the parasitic exploiters of the people or the working class. It is an iron alternative. If Papandreou continues in the power, the Bundesbank, Morgan bank, and Goldman Sachs and the other imperialist parasites will be saved. Only by taking power the working class will be able to save itself.
The Trotskyists of FLTI affirm that in the combat of Greece it is at stake the fate of the exploited of Europe and the future of the World working class in the next immediate period.
Weeks ago, confronting a similar attack to that of the Greek working class is suffering, the workers of Kyrgyzstan-due to the 200% increase in prices of basic food basket –took the streets, defeated the police and took the police stattions, kicked out the government, and made justice by their own hands with the ministers- those thieves of the workers salary-. In this way, the working class of Kyrgyzstan stood up and started its revolution.
The revolutionary general strike of the Greek working class poses in the streets of Athens the same motion of Kyrgyzstan. That is the road to the victory in the revolted Greece. The exploiters have declared a brutal and bloody war on exploited. The imperialist butchers of the French Fifth Republic, the German blood-suckers of Merkel and the Bundesbank, the English and Spain crown- plunders of the Latin America and Africa people- deserve, like the killer Papandreu, a revolutionary general strike and a generalized Kyrgyzstan from the Russian plains to Lisbon.
The revolutionary general strike of Greece is more than a spark. It is the fire that must set on fire Paris, Berlin, Madrid or Roma, if the working class wants to live.
The Greek proletariat, despite and against all its union and parties’ leaderships- that yesterday led workers to kneel down before Papandreu by making them believe that with elections and sweet phrases the attack of exploiters would be stopped- has occupied the centre of the scene, has fought and as in 2008 is carrying out revolutionary days against exploiters.
The attack of the bourgeoisie must be responded with the worker revolution, with civil war, with a victorious insurrection.
Either them or us!
The REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL STRIKE of May 5th: again a magnificent fight day of the exploited
Hundreds of thousands of workers and students took the streets in Athens, Tesalónica and in all the cities of Greece confronting physically the killer police with sticks, stones and Molotov bombs.
May Day, this general strike was prepared with the workers and their vanguard in the streets. Again, the working class has occupied the centre of the scene. The war of the exploiters has been confronted with a class struggle of exploited.
Now, the Greek workers strive to take the parliament. On May 6th, that then of thieves, representatives of Morgan bank, Goldman Sachs, Bundesbank and other Greek parasites expect to countersign the brutal attack against the Greek working class and masses. They want to give legality to the list of conditions already decided in the negotiations convened at the back of the workers and people on the part of the parasitic imperialists of IMF, European Bank with its manager Papandreau. Down with the Papandreau government, manager of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan! Down with the puppet parliament, that one that raise their hands each time to vote for imperialist attacks; down with these enemies of the workers and the masses in general! Down with the den of exploiters, thieves of the salaries and work and life of the working class.
The proletariat must not stop its combat till every stone of the institutions of the Greek imperialist regime and its killer state, have been overturned. This is the state that today has launched this brutal war against workers and yesterday, in the ‘70s did not doubt to impose the dictatorship of the killer assassins and massacred the Greek working class.
These murderous colonels have again been prepared and will be used if the working class does not win today in the great revolutionary combat that has started.
The masses, with its class instinct to identify the class enemy, applying maneuvers of combat, attacked the imperialist banks, the buildings of the government and big commerce. Long live the revolt of the Greek masses! Their right to the legitimate defense of the working class and its allies and the right to insurrection are sacred!
To keep in power and defend the prívate property of the capitalists, the killer government of Papandreau responds determinedly against the working class and masses, launching all the force of the murderous police. There are already casualties in the streets. Out the killer Papandreau! Stop the repression! Long live the general strike! We must not stop! The road marked by our brothers workers and peasants in Kyrgyzstan must be followed. The killer police must be defeated in the streets and dissolved! The police stations must be set on fire and destroyed to disarm the killers of people! Let’s not to allow the spread of more workers blood! The generalized arming of the working class must be conquered!
We must extend and coordinate right now the pickets of self-defense that the exploited in the struggle have set up. Sectors of rank and file soldiers have already declared their willingness to join to the struggle. Workers must march over the barracks and call on the soldiers to join to their class brothers and sisters by disobeying any order of repression against the people. On the contrary, sooner or later the killer caste of officials will order a blood bath of workers in the country. Down with the officer caste of the army! Committees of rank and file soldiers must unite, with their weapons in hand, in the struggle of the working class and people! The workers militia must be set up!
The revolutionary general strike has started and posed the question of who owns the house. To defeat the imperialist attack, keep jobs, salaries and life, the working class must set up its own power and prepare a victorious insurrection.
Either them or us!
Against the parliament of the imperialist parasites, the bankers and the bosses, there has to be set up a great parliament of the workers and all the exploited sectors, poor peasants and rebellious students of the revolutionary Greece. It is necessary to coordinate and centralize the workers organizations and the masses in struggle, their strike pickets and their self defence committees and workers councils, in each city, in each region and at national level. It has to be set a real congress of rank and file delegates from every workers organization in struggle that today guaranteed this magnificent general strike of March 5th. In this congress it will be able to centralize, develop and strengthen the workers’ militia. The committees of the soldiers that reject repressing the masses will be able to organize and send delegates. The ruined poor peasants and the students, allies of the working class, will be able to send their delegates too.
With this organization and this real power of the wide majority of the nation (that is to say, the working class and its allies), the masses will be able to take the resolution of the crisis in their own hands, beginning with the organization and preparation of decisive combating actions to overthrow, in the streets, the government and the infamous regime of Goldman Sachs, the Bundesbank and the Greek parasitic capitalists. This will open the way for the masses to begin to take in their hands the resolution of the crisis.
Do they want to reduce workers’ wages? Do they want to steal the pensions and jobs? Do they want to rob the health and education of our children? Then, their factories and banks have to be expropriated without compensation to the capitalists and make them produce under workers control!
They, who are associated with the pirates and gangsters of Wall Street and the German Bundesbank, have stolen 320.000 million dollars, they have to pay for the crisis! They have to pay for the debt! The Greek working class and popular sectors cannot recognize as their own this ‘debt’ that has not been caused by them.
Do they want to increase VAT and taxes on consumption? No more! They have to pay with their immense fortunes stolen to the workers and the people! For progressive taxes on the big fortunes! Papandreau, Karamanlis and the representatives of the Greek capitalist parasites have signed secret contracts with the North American imperialist banks to steal the work, the sacrifice and the wages of millions of workers of Greece. Down with the commercial secrets and the secret diplomacy of the imperialist gangs that conspire against the people! This way, the exploited will demonstrate the robbery and the plunder of the imperialist thieves against the pocket of the workers.
The working class must lead the set on feet of a real dual power of the whole exploited and oppressed masses in Greece. This way, from its own workers councils and National Congress of workers, it has to prepare itself to take power with a triumphant insurrection that has to demolish this imperialist state and its dominant classes of parasitic, blood sucking, expropriators of the salary and the work of the working class. This is the perspective and the motion posed by this new revolutionary general strike of the masses and the exploited people in Greece.
Down with Papandreau and the infamous imperialist regime of the managers of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bundesbank and the parasitic Greek capitalists! For a workers’ revolutionary government based on the fighting organizations and the armament of the exploited masses! This is the only government that can pull Greece out from being forced to pay for the bankruptcy of the imperialist banks.
The working class cannot let its salary, work and pension be expropriated. The working class cannot let its struggle be expropriated again. It cannot let its combat to be put by the reformist leaderships at the feet of the capitalist politicians and bankers with pacts and agreements signed behind the backs of the masses in struggle.
The immediate task is to convene right now from all the fighting organizations a National Congress of delegates from the base of all the sectors in struggle. The working class in struggle needs a general barracks of the revolution to unify all the exploited to prepare and organize an insurrection to defeat Papandreau, this is the only way for workers not to pay for the crisis of capitalists. The exploited must advance with decisive steps to demolish all the institutions of the regime, take the power and impose a workers’ government to expropriate the expropriators.
The struggle of the Greek working class is the struggle of all the workers of Europe and the world
Our Greek brothers and sisters, who are in the front line of the combat against the imperialist parasites, can not be isolated. The Greek masses have launched their call in the streets: “Spark in Athens, fire in Paris, the insurrection is coming! Against the ‘unity’ of the imperialist Europe in bankruptcy, that wants to make the workers and the poor people pay for their crisis: Lets put on feet the internationalist unity of the working class from Portugal to the Russian steppes! All together with our class brothers and sisters that are combating in Greece!
All the trade union bureaucracies and the social imperialist parties, traitors of the European working class, have said to the workers that they will be saved in each country, submitting them to pacts with the bourgeois governments of the whole Europe. With these pacts, the wages and the jobs of the working class were given away. And worse than that, its combat was expropriated. Those servants of the bourgeoisie, as the ones of the British Trade unions, had the brazenness of going on strike under the cry of “British jobs for British workers”, when imperialist Britain in ruins and bankruptcy today, will take off the jobs of the British workers in the first place. Imperialism has no loyalty to any worker, only to their profits. No more servants and lackeys of the bourgeoisie in the workers’ organizations!
The workers’ bureaucracies and aristocracies, the rests of stalinism and the rotten socialdemocratic parties of Europe, together with their new allies the renegades of Trotskyism, today dressed as “anti-capitalists”, have left isolated the struggle of the Greek working class and allowed the enemy to concentrate all their forces to attack there. But they also have allowed the expulsion of the best contingents of the European workers’ movement, the brothers and sisters immigrants from Africa, Turkey, and Middle East. When the imperialist Europe was in decline, the immigrant workers were necessary as slave working force, and when it went into bankruptcy they were expelled like dogs to the Mediterranean, back to their countries. No sector of the working class will be able to save itself in each country. The workers’ bureaucracies and aristocracies and their parties, with their class collaboration and conciliation policies only divide the ranks of the workers and prepare the conditions for the attack of the exploiters.
In spite of and against these leaderships, on March 1st the immigrant workers carried on a great day of struggle in the whole Europe, showing the whole European working class the way to unite their ranks.
The Greek general strike has put a motion before all the workers of the “old continent”: Down with the workers’ aristocracies and bureaucracies paid by big capital, who tie the fate of the life, jobs and wages of the working class to the exploiters! One class, one struggle!
Stop dividing the working class! Same wage for same job! This was pointed out by the Greek exploited masses with their vanguard, the immigrant workers, when they closed ranks in a common struggle against the exploiters! Stop dividing the European proletariat! Stop the slavery conditions in the maquilas in Eastern Europe under the boot of the butcher Putin, on behalf of the German Bundesbank and the butcher Obama and the rest of the European imperialist gangs! The war cry of the workers of Renault in Rumania: “We want to get the same wage as the workers in Paris!” has to be heard again! The factory occupations taking the bosses as hostages as in France, have to come back! Every factory that dismisses or closes has to be expropriated without compensation and under workers’ control! Again, the young workers have to put on fire the citès to make a Bagdad in Paris every night! The struggle of the public servants has to be generalized to the whole Portugal! The Italian working class must stand up! The British working class must break with the electoral farce of the parasites of the British imperialist monarchy, its servant parties and trade unions, in order to make the bourgeoisie put “blood, sweat and tears”. The workers’ mobilizations that shook more than fifty cities in the capitalist Russia of the butcher Putin, have to come back!
Imperialist Europe has to be confronted with the Europe of the working class. Nor Maastricht, nor European Parliamen! Nor NATO, nor imperialist troops, assassins of the masses in Iraq and Afghanistan!
No more “pacts” and “social agreements”! For the revolutionary general strike in the whole Europe! We are all Greek workers! No more wage cuts, dismissals and labour flexibilization! To make the capitalists pay for the crisis: Raise wages according to the rising cost of living, updated monthly! Sliding scale of working hours in order to allow all the free hands to produce in the machines and factories the capitalists have stopped!
To Maastricht and the den of thieves of the European Parliament, we have to oppose the internationalist unity of the European and world working class! One class, one struggle! From all the workers’ organizations lets put on feet a Continental Congress of all the exploited masses in Athens to prepare the General Strike to shake Europe to its foundations.
To the Europe of the imperialist butchers and of the new bourgeois governments of Eastern Europe and Russia, where the stalinist rubbish has restored capitalism, giving the proletariat of those countries away as second class workers in the maquilas for the imperialist powers, there has to be set in motion the struggle for the Socialist United States of Europe.
While there are combats in Greece confronting the representatives of the Morgan bank and Goldman Sachs; while there are combats and the workers give their life for stopping the attack of this financial oligarchy of Wall Street, the traitors of the AFL-CIO and the reformist left in USA, submit the North American working class to the besmudged Bush of Obama, the representative of the yankee imperialist butchers and their banks. Because of betrayal of these leaderships, labour flexibilization was imposed in Toyota, Volkswagen and the rest of the car-factories in USA, 43 million workers have to live with subsidies of 3 dollars per day of food grants given by the state, with millions of unemployed and with immigrants massacred in the jails and on the border with Mexico.
While the imperialist yankee state guarantees the profits for Goldman Sachs and Morgan banks, the North American working class, submitted to Obama by their leaderships, is the one who is paying for the losses of the parasites of Wall Street. Today, the general strike in Greece brings a new opportunity for the North American working class. There, the masses are fighting against the same executioners, the JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs banks, the real supporters of Bush yesterday and of Obama today. Down with the bureaucracy of the AFL-CIO, servant of the Wall Street bankers!
The North American working class must stand up together with its class brothers and sisters of Greece to confront the same enemy.
Let’s put on feet the March of a Million Workers, together with the immigrants and the movement against war!
Stop submitting the North American workers to their executioners! It will not save itself linking its fate to the imperialist butchers in Iraq and Afghanistan, to those who occupy Haiti and who lead the attack against the world working class. The North American proletariat must retake its struggle joining the combat of their Greek class brothers and sisters.
The role of the treacherous leadership, of the World Social Forum and of this Fifth International of the Chavezes, the Castros and the Hu Jintaos, was to desynchronize the struggle of the semicolonial working class and people from the combat of their brothers and sisters of the imperialist countries. They have submitted the proletariat to the counterrevolutionary pacts in Bolivia and in Colombia; they have isolated the Palestinian revolution, the Iraqi and Afghan resistance. They have imposed the opprobrious regime of reconciliation with the assassins of Apartheid In South Africa and have isolated the revolution in Madagascar. And now, the Castroist bureaucracy, in a pact with imperialism and the native bourgeoisies, consummate capitalist restoration in Cuba.
The fate of the working class of the semicolonial peoples is not in the submission to their native bourgeoisies, either if they are Bolivarian, indigenous, or Islamic. They are all servants of imperialism.
Down with the policy of class collaboration of the World Social Forum and the Bolivarian and Islamic bourgeoisies! Down with the Fifth International of the servants of the bourgeoisie!
To synchronize the combat of the world working class it is necessary to put on feet again the world party of the socialist revolution. The 1938 Fourth International must be refounded!
For the internationalist unity of the world working class! For the working class to live, the capitalist parasites and imperialism must die!
International Leninist Trotskyist Fraction
Integrated by:
Workers Internationalist Vanguard League (South Africa)
Liga Trotskyista Internacionalista – Cuarta Internacional (Bolivia)
Partido Obrero Internacionalista – Cuarta Internacional (Chile)
Liga Trotskyista Internacionalista – Cuarta Internacional (Peru)
Internationalist Revolutionary League- FI (Zimbabwe)
Liga Obrera Internacionalista – Cuarta Internacional (Argentina)
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