(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #227 - Greece: 'One day, young people without future will power " (fr)

Plans to "rescue" imposed since 2010 successive unbearable litany of austerity measures 
that do not end up ravaging the Greek economic system and social fabric of the country. 
The inventory of social resistance test. ---- For three years, the employee-es that 
Greek-s suffered a decline in average salary by 45%, official unemployment above 26% and a 
20% reduction in pensions of more than a thousand euros. Over 200,000 businesses have gone 
bankrupt: across the country, the landscape of desolation, with a succession of closed 
shops, abandoned buildings, construction sites stopped for months... --- Austerity 
measures deadly ---- Privatization affect both oil and gas companies, water, electricity 
highways, ports, transport ... The State must raise 19 billion euros by 2015 through asset 
sales and total of 50 billion by the end of 2020, for the benefit of the financial oligarchy.

In early 2012, Parliament voted to abolish 150,000 civil service jobs in 3 years about 
750,000. Health spending undergo a decrease of one billion, that of raising a billion and 
a half.

One of the dramatic social consequences of these brutal measures, which reflects the 
despair of some of the Greek people, it is the exponential increase in suicides. An 
association Klimaka, was also created to prevent suicides. April 5, 2012, a pensioner was 
shot in the head in front of the Greek Parliament and concluded his letter: " I believe 
that one day young people with no future take up arms and go hang the traitors of the 
people on the Syntagma Square, as did the Italians in 1945 to Mussolini on the Piazzale 
Loreto in Milan. "

Unstable political situation

In this context of relentless attack, the last legislative elections had redesigned the 
Greek political scene with a right-wing government led by New Democracy, forced into an 
alliance of convenience with PASOK (Socialist Party) and the Democratic Left, slavishly 
applying measures austerity.

Several corruption erupted, ending discredit the political class. The work has led to the 
conviction in February of the former mayor of Thessaloniki (Greece's second city), a 
member of New Democracy, and in March a former Minister of Defence member of PASOK. On 
March 6, three former ministers (two conservative, socialist) were charged, too, because 
their reported income did not justify their wealth. They face up to ten years in prison. 
But on the left, the dynamics had brought the radical left coalition SYRIZA to 27% in the 
June 2012 elections barely translate politically, because this organization torn 
internally neither has a strong network of local representatives or to a real boost social 
struggles.

Particularly worrying sign, racist and neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, which has 18 members of 
parliament and relay at the police and mass media, take this situation to say politically, 
especially in the street: soup kitchens segregationist, militias "securitization" of 
certain neighborhoods, aggression activists left and especially punitive expeditions 
against the immigrant-es.

Solidarity against the far right

For migrants and migrant-are entered via Turkey (the Greek State has also started to build 
a wall on the border) or through perilous crossings boats, Greece is a gateway to the rest 
of Europe but turns out to most cul-de-sac where they and they suffer police harassment 
and violence from the extreme right. Racist crimes are becoming more common. In this 
regard, Human Rights Watch published in July 2012 a damning 99-page report entitled The 
hatred in the streets xenophobic violence in Greece [ 1 ]]. Associations and political 
organizations to effectively organize support immigrant-es and fight, with a strong 
anti-fascist tone against the xenophobic climate that developed in Greece. An anti-racist 
demonstration took place January 19, 2013 in Athens against racist violence and for the 
regularization of undocumented migrants.

Labor struggles and solidarity networks

Union struggles remain relatively marginalized and face police repression. The long strike 
and emblematic of the steelworkers Halyvourgia Ellados factory in the suburbs of Athens [ 
2 ] in 2012 has never received such practical solidarity of the single trade union 
federation, the General Confederation of Greek Workers ( GSEE), except that of the 
militant Front of all workers (Pame), linked to the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) union. 
And strike in January of workers of the Athenian metro only knew solidarity of several 
base unions which had called for walkouts support against the requisition and police violence.

In addition to almost daily protests in the country, the struggles are also growing 
through informal networks of solidarity and disobedience movement "We will not pay" 
actions in neighborhoods, parallel system of free health care ...

The anarchist movement has a strong presence in Greece but scattered into affinity groups. 
Early March took the founding congress of the Greek Anarchist Federation. And our fellow 
anarcho-syndicalist Initiative Roccinante are actively involved in the struggle with the 
main axis of the development of autonomous union structures. Faced with the social anger 
rumbling, like the recent mobilizations in Spain and Portugal are the signs of a will to 
fight which will be realized in the development and radicalization of struggles in Greece 
and throughout Europe.

Marcos Vega (AL Paris North-East)

[ 1 ] available
[ 2 ] see [www.bastamag.net-> www.bastamag.net "class =" spip_out "> www.hrw.org.