Workers and doctors in Public Hospitals of Greece organized militant actions and strikes all over the country on Wednesday, February 22 demanding the strengthening of the public health care system with permanent staff and state funding, the tenure of contract workers, the inclusion of health workers in the Unhealthy and Hazardous category and more.

The workers of “Evangelismos” Hospital in Athens specifically gave a fierce welcome to the government and the Prime Minister himself, who appeared at the hospital for an event “acknowledging the three-year-long hard fight” of the health workers. For this the government deployed riot police cars and police forces to protect them during the presentation of “honorary awards to the NHS”. In fact, the political leadership of the health ministry and the PM, Mr. Mitsotakis, entered the hospital through the side doors, to avoid the workers who had gathered outside of the Emergency Department, demonstrating their demands.

“No more fiestas and mockery. We are fighting for public and free health care” “Hospitals are not businesses, give state funding,” demanded the Hospital Workers Union, with patients and their attendants applauding from the windows.

#Greece #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the influential Greek labor organization, the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME).

A massive, militant, musical protest took place on Tuesday, January 10 at the Ministry of Education in Athens against the Presidential Decree 85 that downgrades the degrees of Art Schools and the working rights of artists.

Students and teachers of Art Schools, musicians, dancers, actors and more protested in front of the Ministry with music, dance and banners with paintings demanding recognition of their education and studies, demanding to be free and public.

The president of the National Union of Musicians, cadre of PAME, Vasilis Paraskevopoulos noted:

“It is hopeful that young people, especially students of drama schools, have stepped forward to demand in principle an education that is appropriate to their needs. An education that must be public, that must lead to a university degree and that gives full employment rights. In this direction we have faced a series of governments over the years that have attacked this right. A right that is truly denied to thousands of working-class families, children with talent who cannot afford to pay a load of money to study. We must continue. We have to push them. We have to scare them with our mobilizations and win what we are entitled to”

Similar demonstrations took place also in Thessaloniki, Larissa and other cities of Greece.

#Greece #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME

PAME that represents the class unions of Greece, expresses its solidarity with the strike of thousands of nurses in Minnesota and Wisconsin in the USA who are demanding 27% wage increases.

Health workers both before and during the pandemic have been on the front line of protecting the lives and health of the people. But governments and business groups that treat health as a commodity on the one hand treat the sick as customers who must pay to get well and on the other exploit health workers with intensification and low wages.

In conditions of exploding costs of living, workers cannot live with increases that do not meet their real needs. The struggles and mobilizations that are developing in many countries around the world show that workers with organized and collective struggle and with the power of solidarity can win, can overturn anti-workers’ plans and impose their just demands.

PAME supports the just demands of the Minnesota and Wisconsin nurses and expresses solidarity with their strike.

#Greece #PeoplesStruggles #MinnesotaNursesAssociation #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME

Struggle for Collective Agreements and Abolition of Antiworker Laws – General Strike on May 30The government of SYRIZA-ANEL refuses for two whole years to bring in Plenary of the Parliament the bill they 518 Regional Trade Union Centers, Federations and Trade Unions had tabled on 17 October 2016, day of a Panhellenic Rally, with which workers, class trade unions demand the abolition of anti-labor laws, restoration and signing of sectoral employment contracts, coverage of of workers' wages, with increases in wages, pensions and wages social benefits.Trade unions had handed over to all parliamentary groups – except for the fascist party of Golden Dawn – the bill which is still in the drawers of the Ministry of Labor and of the Government.The only parliamentary group that responded was Communist Party of Greece (KKE), which on 18 October 2016 tabled the proposal of the Trade Unions, asking to come to plenary for debate and voting, which the Government has never done. On Thursday, May 24th, the KKE parliamentary group re-submitted it the Law Drift in the form of Question on current issues to the Minister of Labor, Social Security and Social Solidarity and asked to be discussed at the Parliament.At the conclusion of the Question it is noted that “though almost two years from its deposition, the government denies arbitrarily and in breach of the regulation to bring to the debate above Law drift. This denial shows its intentions to continue and escalate the attack on labor rights, further strengthening the ban on collective agreements; and promoting flexible forms of employment aimed at tension of the exploitation of the working class and the popular strata for the supporting the profitability of capital, in line with the guidelines of the EU, promoted in all its member countries, either located in Memorandum status or not.

PAME calls the Unions and the workers more decisively to rally on the path of counter-attack, taking our life into our hands. To put the needs and interests of the working class and the popular strata that are in conflict with the strategy of capital, the EU, and the government’s policy, at the heart of our demands.

All in the General Strike on May 30th!

#Greece #PeoplesStruggles #strike #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #Strikes

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Mass combative strike response of the workers to the anti-people political line of the government-EU-IMF

A 24hr general strike was held in Greece on 17 May 2017, as well as the strike rallies and demonstrations of the All-worker’s Militant Front (PAME) in dozens of cities, against the measures which the coalition government of the “Left” party of SYRIZA and the nationalist party of ANEL brought for discussion on that day in Parliament. Protest demonstrations will be organized by PAME all over the country on 18th of May, the day the measures will be voted on.

Thousands of workers through their mass participation in the strike on the 17th of May all over the country declared: ““We will not become the slaves of the 21st century.”

In Athens, the strike rally of PAME ended with a large march to Parliament.

It is worth noting that the measures the SYRIZA-ANEL government brought after the negotiations with the imperialist unions of the EU and IMF for the 2nd evaluation of the 3rdMemorandum. It is clear from the results that the government negotiated with the lenders on behalf of the interests of the domestic monopoly groups and not the people, with the aim of accelerating the process of an exit from the capitalist crisis that favors capital.

The new raft of anti-people measures further escalates the assault, thrusts new burdens onto the already struggling popular households, at the same time when better conditions are being formed for the activity of the business groups (such as the new measures to liberalize the market and accelerate privatizations).

In brief, the measures provide for:

• New reductions in salaries and pensions, so for example, with the result that the pensioners will lose a sum equivalent to two months’ pensions a year
• Increase of direct taxation even for those who have a low income, through the reduction of the tax threshold. So, for example, a salaried employee who earns 615 euros a month and who does not pay any direct taxes today, will be called onto to pay up to 300 euros of tax a year, i.e. almost half a month’s salary.
• New reductions in public funds for healthcare spending.
• New cuts to various benefits (unemployment, heating).
• There are other measures to support capital in the new agreement, such as the increase of privatizations, the complete liberalization of mass dismissals for big capitalist businesses, the legislation of new obstacles to the calling of strikes, the consolidation of all the anti-workers laws on collective labour agreements passed since 2011, the creation of new obstacles for the signing of collective labor agreements, the legalization of “lock outs” organized by the employers, the abolition of the Sunday holiday with painful consequences for retail workers and small shopkeepers, with aim of accelerating the concentration of the retail sector into department stores and supermarket chains etc.

These new measures will have a cumulative impact in a period when the situation of most employees and self-employed has already deteriorated dramatically due to the policies both of the previous ND-PASOK governments and the current SYRIZA-ANEL government.

In 2016, 45% of the population had an income under the fixed poverty line.

The General Secretary (GS) of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, attended the strike rally of PAME in the Ethnikis Antistasis sq. in Athens and made the following statement to the mass media: “The class war is now in progress, it is a marathon, not a rifle shot in the air. The class war must be a daily and continuous one. The harsh anti-people measures, the 4th memorandum along with the previous memorandums must be thrown in the dustbin of History and the only ones who have the authority to do this are the Greek people, the labor-people’s movement.

For that reason, our call is: Popular uprising everywhere, not a day or hour must be wasted; the struggle doesn't end today or tomorrow but continues.

The KKE, the class-oriented forces, the militant movement, PAME, the Social Alliance will be present, every day, everywhere, in the streets and in the Parliament, in the factories, in the cities and the villages. This is a constant struggle, which must lead to the overthrow of this rotten and corrupt system, of its governments, for disengagement from the EU, with a social and economic plan which will have at its epicenter the working people, the ever-expanding needs of our people.”

#Greece #Labor #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #KKE #Syriza #Europe

Everyone on strike

A 24hr general strike will be held in Greece on 17 May 2017, as well as the strike rallies and demonstrations of the All-worker’s Militant Front (PAME) in dozens of cities, against the measures which the coalition government of the “Left” party of SYRIZA and the nationalist party of ANEL is bringing for discussion on that day in Parliament. Protest demonstrations will be organized by PAME all over the country on 18th of May, the day the measures will be voted on.

The SYRIZA-ANEL government is bringing these measures after the negotiations with the imperialist unions of the EU and IMF for the 2nd evaluation of the 3rd Memorandum. It is clear from the results that the government negotiated with the lenders on behalf of the interests of the domestic monopoly groups and not the people, with the aim of accelerating the process of an exit from the capitalist crisis that favours capital.

The new raft of anti-people measures further escalates the assault, thrusts new burdens onto the already struggling popular households, at the same time when better conditions are being formed for the activity of the business groups (such as the new measures to liberalize the market and accelerate privatizations).

In brief, the measures provide for:

• New reductions in pensions, with the result that the pensioners will lose a sum equivalent to two months’ pensions a year
• increase of direct taxation even for those who have a low income, through the reduction of the tax threshold. So, for example, a salaried employee who earns 615 euros a month and who does not pay any direct taxes today, will be called onto to pay up to 300 euros of tax a year, i.e. almost half a month’s salary.
• New reductions in public funds for healthcare spending.
• New cuts to various benefits (unemployment, heating).
• There are other measures to support capital in the new agreement, such as the increase of privatizations, the complete liberalization of mass dismissals for big capitalist businesses, the legislation of new obstacles to the calling of strikes, the consolidation of all the anti-workers laws on collective labor agreements passed since 2011, the creation of new obstacles for the signing of collective labor agreements, the legalization of “lock outs” organized by the employers, the abolition of the Sunday holiday with painful consequences for retail workers and small shopkeepers, with aim of accelerating the concentration of the retail sector into department stores and supermarket chains etc.

These new measures will have a cumulative impact in a period when the situation of most employees and self-employed has already deteriorated dramatically due to the policies both of the previous ND-PASOK governments and the current SYRIZA-ANEL government.

In 2016, 45% of the population had an income under the fixed poverty line.

The KKE calls on the people to protest against the new agreement in a combative way, on the basis of their needs, which are constantly being sacrificed at the altar of the recovery of the profits of the monopolies. It calls on the people, beginning with the strike of the 17thof May to organize their counterattack decisively, to demand the immediate recovery of the great losses they suffered during the period of the crisis, against the new offensive of the ruling class, EU, IMF, which is being unleashed by the SYRIZA-ANEL government.

The workers with their mass participation in the strike of the 17th of May, in the other mobilizations, with their organization in the workplaces, must declare that: “We will not become the slaves of the 21st century.”

#Greece #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #KKE #Europe

On Tuesday, January 17, the Parents Association and Teachers’ Union of the 1st Primary School of Iconio, Perama (neighborhood of Piraeus, next to Athens, the largest port of Greece), were holding a meeting for the reception of 27 refugee children, who are to start attending at this school.

The school meeting was attacked by a fascist raid battalion, of the Golden Dawn, headed by one of their MPs (who is also accused in the trial for the murder of the Antifascist Pavlos Fyssas and the murderous attack against union leaders of PAME). The fascists attacked the parents and the teachers, while police forces were present and did nothing to stop them. The fascists were repelled by the strong stance of the teachers and the people at the school.

The PAME-affiliated Unions of Piraeus and Perama stated:

“The Piraeus workers and the whole country have accepted the refugee children in schools alongside with their own children since the vast majority of people understand that the refugees are forced to leave their countries, chased together with their family to escape rockets and bullets, getting drowned in rafts to survive, you need solidarity and protection, especially when it relates to infants and young children.

Our Unions from the first moment stood by the refugees, did everything in their power to show their solidarity, material and moral, but also to demand from the government immediate measures so that refugees can reach the fastest in the destinations they wish, but while they stay in our country to live in appropriate conditions.

We urge every parent to isolate the neo-Nazi criminals who trample on the bad situation we are living as workers and trying to present those responsible, as victims.

Responsibility for the tragic situation that forces millions of people to leave their homes, have those who cause people to be slaughtered in wars for the sharing of oil and natural resources of each country. The neo-Nazi Criminals Golden Dawn will do what they can, to hide from the workers that, for the refugee situation and the situation that we live the workers in our country, guilty are the business groups, the monopolies that profit billions from the imperialist wars and interventions.

This is the reason why the capitalists finance and support the fascist Golden Dawn all these years. We call on the workers of the Piraeus region, to welcome the refugee children like our own, together and to strengthen our struggle against wars which cause death and uprooting of people”

The Trade Unions of:

Metal Workers and Shipbuilding Woodworkers Union National Union of Maritime Mechanics-PEMEN National Union of Maritime Workers-Stefenson National Union of Maritime Catering Workers-PEEMAGEN Retail and Private Employees Union of Piraeus Private Healthcare Employees Union of Piraeus Construction Workers Union of Piraeus Chemical-Oil-Soap Workers Union

Athens Jan. 18

#UnitedStates #ImmigrantRights #Greece #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #Antifascism

Patras, Greece – The first day of the big March Against Unemployment, which will travel 220 km from Patras to Athens concluded with enormous success on April 4.

The demonstrators left Patras with a big celebration of thousands of people and reached the city of Aigio, where they were welcomed by the people of the city, who expressed their support. Many of them joined the march.

In addition to the great support by the unions, the workers and people of Greece, international support for the March Against Unemployment is growing as the demonstrators continue their long journey.

The marchers are demanding full time jobs for all people; with full rights – a universal demand of the class unions.

Editors note: the information in this article is drawn press statements of Greece’s All Workers Militant Front.

#PatrasGreece #Patras #CapitalismAndEconomy #Labor #Unemployment #Greece #Europe #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #MarchAgainstUnemployment

Thessaloniki, Greece – Workers of ZOURAS Food Industry who have been on strike since Nov. 14 received solidarity from around the world at a rally and workers' assembly on Dec. 6. The workers are demanding a collective bargaining agreement, back pay and the rehiring of laid off workers.

The striking workers received a donation of material support and a solidarity statement from a delegation of union activists from the U.S. who were in Greece for a labor seminar with the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). The statement was first presented by Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME Local 3800, at a meeting of trade unionists from the All Workers Militant Front (PAME) in Athens on Dec. 4.

PAME then delivered the material aid and U.S. solidarity statement to the strikers along with statements from trade unions from many other countries and from the Trade Union International of Food and Allied Industries of WFTU. The statements were delivered on Dec. 6 as the workers rallied and held a general assembly where they decided to continue their strike.

#AthensGreece #Athens #Greece #strike #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #Strikes #ZOURAS #Europe

Athens, Greece – A delegation of U.S. trade union activists in Greece for a seminar organized by the World Federation of Trade Unions met with leaders of PAME, the All Workers Militant Front, on Nov. 30. PAME, which represents more than 800,000 workers throughout Greece, was founded in 1999 in order to unite all workers and unions who want to fight for the betterment of the working class rather than making peace with the bosses.

Nikolas Theodorakis, International Secretary of PAME, told the U.S. delegation that the trade union movement has two choices: they can try to improve the situation of the working class by having a better relationship with employers, or they can choose to fight the employers. “In every country, whether the economy is improving or worsening, the attack on workers is expanding. We can respond by being class fighters or by being class collaborators. PAME organizes class fighters.”

Theodorakis told the delegation that as the economic crisis in Europe has worsened, particularly in Greece, there are many unions that have advocated for supporting the capitalists, saying that without bosses, there can be no work. The perspective of PAME has been firm: workers should not make sacrifices for capitalist profitability. PAME fights against extreme austerity and anti-union measures that are devastating the Greek population. These include an incredibly high unemployment rate, huge cuts in the public sector, legislation that basically abolishes a minimum wage, and numerous legal challenges to the right to strike.

PAME carried out a successful general strike on Nov. 12 in opposition to austerity measures that have resulted in extreme poverty and unemployment – the youth unemployment rate stands at more than 50%. PAME has called for another general strike on Dec. 3, two days before the government vote on the budget. The strike is in opposition to the following anti-worker measures being proposed by the Greek government:

- Raising the retirement age to 67 - Drastic pension cuts, pensions would only be available after 40 years of continuous employment - Increased flexible working situations, which is exacerbating the extreme youth unemployment rate - Abolishing the employer contribution to health care - Abolishing coverage of numerous medical procedures that benefit pregnant women and mothers - Drastic cuts to the Social Security (National Health) Plan

The U.S. delegation met with the strike organizing committee, which includes representatives from multiple labor sectors and geographic areas, to hear about the strike demands and organizing effort. The delegates will have the opportunity to see the plans for the general strike to be put into action on Dec. 3.

#AthensGreece #Athens #Greece #WorldFederationOfTradeUnions #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #Europe

On December 3 all workplaces to be deserted. Take all necessary steps to prepare and organize the strike, so as every city to be swept by people’s protests! PAME calls all workers, the unemployed, the women, the pensioners, the self-employed and the small farmers, in common struggle to block the premeditated crime of the Capital-the Greek Government-the EU against social security. The vultures of private insurance companies and the merchants of health already sharpen their claws.

No consensus in the massacre! Rise Up Now!

Block the dismantling of social security!

Say no to the new state budget that brings new weights and measures at the expense of poor people, new brutal cuts in social security, tax increases for the poor, privileges for the rich.

#Greece #Labor #generalStrike #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #Europe

PAME denounces the attempts of the monopolies to terrorize the workers, to use the atmosphere of fear that is caused by the Greek Government after the closing of the Banks, so as to advance their attack on workers’ rights and realize their anti workers’ plans.

Every hour that passes we receive new information about businesses that announce cancelation of wage payments, lock out, or even layoffs.

At the same time one side of the employers calls the workers to vote NO and another part calls to vote YES, depending which alternative is more profitable for them. We reject both blackmails.

We call the workers to respond in organized, militant and massive way to this new attack of the employers. Not to submit, not to accept working for free or lock outs. No layoffs.

We will not pay the consequences of the Crisis and the Competitions of the Capital.

We call the trade Unions to be continuously on the side of the workers and take up militant initiatives for the protection of the workers’ rights. No Worker alone!

With Class, Militant Response the workers must not pay the results of the negotiations that continue among the Greek Government and the European Union-IMF-ECB.

We Reject both the Memorandum of the EU-IMF-ECB and the Memorandum of SYRIZA

We demand

Ensure payment in their entirety, the wages of the workers, the unemployment allowance for the unemployed, the pensions. Right Here and Right Now!

No layoffs or compulsory unpaid leave for workers on the pretext of the closure of banks.

The Executive Secretariat

#Greece #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME

People’s mobilization to block the new anti-people’s agreement-butcher,

The new anti-workers’ package they want to burden us with.

NO TO THE LONG LASTING MEMORANDUMS, TO THE NEW MEASURES THAT BANKRUPT THE PEOPLE Enough blood we have shed! Enough we have paid! People, take the situation in your own hands!

We have a duty to our lives, to our children to resist!

The solution lies in the struggles, who carry the flags of the workers’ interests, the banners that write our rights and needs and not those of the bosses. The solution lies in the fight within the work places, in the full front counterattack against our exploiters, those who benefit from the new brutal measures.

We have our own red lines

We turn our backs to those who want us to applaud the Greek Government and its partners, applauders in a negotiation that pushes us to poverty for the profits of the few.

We turn our backs to the defenders of the European Union, the capitalists unions and their servants who demonstrate for their right to continue to live from others hard work, to continue to exploit harder the vast majority of the people.

We have no relation with them! We are not one!

We don’t put our slogans and struggles under foreign flags. We do not have the same interests, the same needs, the same problems and difficulties with our exploiters.

With the monopolies or with the needs of the people! There is no other way! Our path is fight, rupture with the EU and the path of the monopolies.

No support to the new memorandum, no matter how is it called!

No acceptance to the brutal and anti-workers’ EU policies

On June 11 more than 700 people’s organisations gave a strong response In 60 cities all over Greece. On Tuesday, the voice of the workers, the pensioners, the young, the women Will be heard once more.

Our struggles are not a game in the monopolies’ competitions, the proposals and policies of the EU, the IMF, the ECB, of Russia, China. The people have no interest to choose the rope, which he will be hanged with. His interest is to question their power.

The EU’s “only way” is proven disastrous, hurtful for the workers’-people’s interests.

Everyone in the Fight!

Worker, unemployed, young

Do not accept:

• The new and the old legislation that destroy social security
• The continuous blows to people’s income, the wages and pensions
• The new extreme taxes

Our lives cannot bear more measures. Our needs cannot wait! Here and now, against the terrorization and the blackmails, we demand:

• Raises in wages, pensions and benefits
• Cover of all losses
• Reinstatement of the Collective Contracts
• Abolishment of all anti workers legislation
• Real protection of the unemployed

We organize our response! We strengthen our forces! We strengthen our trade unions in every branch! We give a fighting response! We break the fear, the blackmails, the threats of the bosses, the Greek Government, the EU-IMF-ECB. Only our power can abolish the anti-workers’ legislation, the memorandums and the bosses!

#Greece #Labor #PeoplesStruggles #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #Europe

For more than a year the Greek people, the workers and youth, members of the trade union front PAME and the Communist Party of Greece have said NO to the measures that the Greek government authorities are willing to impose on them. They are completely opposed to the fact that the bourgeois class in Greece, its governments, with the support of the EU, the IMF and the ECB, attack the people in order to bankrupt the people under the conditions of the crisis and increase the immense profits of the big financial and industrial capital.

The Greek people, the workers and youth, PAME and the Communist Party of Greece need all our solidarity. Their struggles can give us precious experience.

Greece itself is a rich country. However, the wealth is concentrated in even fewer hands. Indeed, unacceptable measures are taken against the working people. What happens now in Greece will be extended to all countries of the European Union.

In all of Europe the question is being raised: Who has to pay for the crisis of capitalism?

All European bourgeois parties – Social Democrats, Liberals, Christian Social, Conservative and Greens – are united in supporting their colleagues in Greece and the infamous measures of the EU bodies.

The governments and the European Commission are about to intensify the measures against the peoples: a general lowering of wages, generalisation of insecure working condition, a witch-hunt against all people receiving social welfare benefits…

Altogether this means the pillage of the world of workers by the world of capital.

In Greece, the workers, the youth, the ordinary people say NO. They are building a resistance that is exemplary for all Europe.

Solidarity with this resistance is our duty.

Everyone should know: today they attack the Greek working people, tomorrow it will be the turn of the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Italian people – and the day after tomorrow they attack all of us.

We are all Greeks!

Support the struggle against the shifting of the burdens of the crisis onto the shoulders of the working people!

Down with capitalism! For a socialist society!

• Communist Party of Luxembourg (KPL)
• New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN)
• Workers Party of Belgium (PTB/PVDA)
• Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS)
• Communist Party of Bangladesh
• Brazilian Communist Party
• Communist Party of Britain
• New Communist Party of Britain (NCPB)
• Communist Party of Canada
• Socialist Workers' Party of Croatia
• Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KCSM)
• Unified Communist Party of Georgia
• German Communist Party
• Hungarian Communist Workers' Party
• Communist Party of Ireland
• Workers' Party of Ireland
• Party of Italian Communists (PdCI)
• Socialist Party of Latvia
• Lebanese Communist Party
• Socialist People's Front, Lithuania
• Communist Party of Malta
• Communist Party of Mexico
• Popular Socialist Party of Mexico
• Palestinian People's Party
• Communist Party of Pakistan
• Peruvian Communist Party
• Communist Party of Poland
• Communist Party of the Russian Federation
• Communist Workers Party of Russia – Revolution Party of Communists (RKRP-RPC)
• Communist Party of Soviet Union
• Communist Party of Slovakia
• Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)
• Communist Party of Sweden (SKP)
• Communist Party of Turkey (TKP)
• South African Communist Party
• Union of Communists of Ukraine
• Communist Party USA (CPUSA)
• Communist Party of Venezuela
• Belorussian Communist Workers' Party
• Communist Party of Great-Britain-ML
• Pole of Communist Rebirth in France (PRCF)
• l'Union révolutionnaire des Communistes de France (URCF)
• Communist Network (Rete dei Comunisti), Italy
• Communist Party of the Philippines
• Communist Party (KP), Sweden
• Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), USA

#Greece #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #frso #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #austerity #KKE #Europe

*Fight Back!* interviewed Cherrene Horazuk, a U.S. delegate to the 16th Congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) held April 7- 10 in Athens, Greece. Horazuk is prominent Minneapolis trade unionist and a spokesperson for the Minnesota Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

**Fight Back!:** Could you tell our readers what the congress was like?

**Cherrene Horazuk:** The congress was incredibly inspiring. There were trade unionists from around the world who were all committed to building an international labor movement that is open, democratic and unified and that challenges capitalism and builds a fighting working class. Over 800 delegates attended from more than 100 countries, and there was simultaneous translation into five different languages: English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Greek. Speakers gave reports about the situation in their country – workers around the world are facing very similar attacks.

It was great to be part of a group of union leaders that clearly recognize that the global economic crisis isn't the fault of the working class and therefore workers shouldn't have to pay for the crisis the corporations and the rich created.

**Fight Back!:** What were the big issues the congress focused on?

**Horazuk:** The congress focused on the following points. The first is that we, the working class won't pay for the capitalists’ crisis. There was a great deal of discussion about the need to fight back against the austerity programs that are being forced on workers all over the world.

Speaker after speaker reiterated the need to go on the offensive, and not just organize defensive battles. There was also a lot of discussion about the need to involve women and younger workers in the union movement. About 30% of the participants were women and a very dynamic women's workshop happened. The other main message that people raised repeatedly was opposition to imperialist wars abroad. There was uniform condemnation of the U.S. and NATO for bombing Libya as well as strong calls for an end to military aggression in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Colombia.

**Fight Back!:** Do you have any impressions of the Greek labor movement?

**Horazuk:** PAME, the All Workers Militant Front of Greece, is one of the main forces within the WFTU, and with good reason. They are incredibly strong and energetic. They have led very successful general strikes in the past year and have built a base of members that is fired up to fight back against the economic attacks. It is clear that they are a force to be reckoned with. The opening ceremony of the WFTU Congress included a rally with at least 3000 PAME members, who were continually singing, waving flags, and chanting: “The enemy is one – imperialism! Capitalism is not our world. It's the new world, socialism! The worker's right is our law and not the capitalist's profit! Come on people, don't give up, the only way is to resist and fight!” It was incredibly motivating and inspiring.

**Fight Back!:** You raised the issue of the FBI and grand jury repressions against U.S. labor, anti-war, and international solidarity activists. What was the response?

**Horazuk:** A lot of the speeches at the Congress expressed solidarity with people's struggles around the world and people clearly recognized the need for workers around the world to act in solidarity with each other. Given that perspective, everybody I spoke to about the repression was very interested in the case. They were shocked at the attacks against the activists who have done nothing wrong and [they] were outraged that political beliefs and international solidarity are being criminalized by the U.S. government. They conveyed their solidarity with the individuals who have been subpoenaed and committed to take action to stop the repression.

#AthensGreece #AthensAT #Greece #Interviews #CherreneHorazuk #WorldFederationOfTradeUnionsWFTU #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME