Crossposted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
New general strike over Greek austerity program
By ELENA BECATOROS, Forbes
05.11.11, 06:57 AM EDT
The general strike suspended all train and ferry services, grounded flights between noon and 4 p.m. and disrupted Athens public transport. All radio and television news broadcasts were suspended as journalists walked off the job for the day. The Thursday editions of newspapers were not being published, and news websites were not updating their content.
…
“Every day that passes, (the government) takes back what the working class has won through blood and struggles all these years,” retiree John Pavlidis said.
…
Greek unions say the protracted austerity, amid a two-year recession and unemployment at around 15 percent, is unfairly targeting the less well-off.A statement from the country’s largest union, the GSEE, said Wednesday’s strike expresses “strong protest at the unjust and cruel policies that have caused a surge in unemployment … violated labor rights, and squandered public wealth, while failing to insure an exit from recession.”
In Athens’ port of Piraeus, Greece’s biggest, striking ferry electrician Athanassios Sidiropoulos said the government was trying to scrap rights won over the course of decades by working classes.
“All seamen should have pension and healthcare rights, collective labor contracts, healthcare contributions,” he said.
An opinion poll commissioned by the private Mega TV station and published Tuesday said 71 percent of the public oppose the government’s handling of the economic crisis, compared with 66 percent in February.
We gotta plug and think, we gotta feed it right
There ain’t no danger we can go to far
We start believing now that we can be who we are
They think our love is just a growing pain
Why don’t they understand, It’s just a crying shame
Their lips are lying only real is real
We start to find right now we got to be what we feel
Grease is the word
Grease is the word, is the word that you heard
It’s got groove it’s got meaning
Grease is the time, is the place is the motion
Grease is the way we are feeling
We take the pressure and we throw away
Conventionality belongs to yesterday
There is a chance that we can make it so far
We start believing now that we can be wo we are
Grease is the word
Grease is the word, is the word that you heard
It’s got groove it’s got meaning
Grease is the time, is the place is the motion
Grease is the way we are feeling
This is the life of illusion
Wrapped up in trouble laced with confusion
What we doing here?
We take the pressure and we throw away
Conventionality belongs to yesterday
There is a chance that we can make it so far
We start believing now that we can be who we are
Grease is the word
Grease is the word, is the word that you heard
It’s got groove it’s got meaning
Grease is the time, is the place is the motion
Grease is the way we are feeling
Grease is the word, is the word that you heard
It’s got groove it’s got meaning
Grease is the time, is the place is the motion
Grease is the way we are feeling
Grease is the word
Is the word
Is the word
Is the word
Is the word
Is the word
Is the word
Is the word
Is the word
3 comments
Author
It will be interesting to see if alternatives to austerity are suggested. There are alternatives pioneered by Argentina. Personally, the best thing the Greeks can do is give a big finger to EU and IMF it is time to dismantle the vastly outdated international financial arrangements starting with taxes, internationally applied, on speculation and currency trading. We need to drastically scale back the globalization program not because it is “bad” because it was useful for a time, but because it does not meet the real needs of society any more. We are in a different historical moment and we need major reform.
I think a new localism and “letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend…” may be the order of the day. We need societies to try a variety of solutions rather than the one-size-fits-all rules (favoring the financial elites) that are currently in force. To put it another way, imperialism must be smashed by asserting local autonomy. It will be opposed by the oligarchs but once enough people do oppose it it will probably unravel since, I think even the oligarchs are beginning to understand, the globalization regime is unsustainable without major repressions.
to Greece or Iceland in a heartbeat, if they’d have me, because people there are willing to fight back (also because of their amazing cultures-music, art, and yes, food) and because there’s hope for change in those places, while there’s none in the US. Mexico, where I live, has an entrenched oligarchy, much like the US’s–more in the open, in a way. The difference being that Mexico isn’t running around the world shooting anyone, nor is it ever likely to do so– it’s constitutionally prohibited from foreign wars.