General Strike Brings Greece to Standstill; General Strike
Planned in France October 11

1) General strike brings Greece to a standstill as public
sector closes down (Guardian (UK))

2) Oct. 11 French General Strike call by all French trade
union federations (CGT, CFDT, UNSA, FSU, Partners, UNEF of
the Somme) (l'Humanite)

==========

General strike brings Greece to a standstill as public
sector closes down

Protesters flood into streets of Athens

by Helena Smith in Athens

Guardian (UK)
October 5, 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/05/general-strike-in-greece


Greece edged deeper into chaos as workers brought the
country to a standstill with a general strike.

The closure of the entire public sector - from schools to
hospitals to government offices - left Athens airport
looking like a ghost town and kept museums and
archaeological sites shut.

Anger was evident on the faces of the protesters who flooded
into the streets. "We have no work, we have no money," they
screamed, denouncing the EU and IMF which have propped up
the near-bankrupt Greek economy with rescue funds. "Erase
the debt! Let the rich pay. There will, there can, be no
more sacrifices."

Nearly two years after Europe's great debt crisis erupted
beneath the Acropolis, the people on its frontline have
clearly had enough. An austerity programme that has begun to
resemble a bad dream of relentless wage cuts, tax increases,
price rises and pension drops has crushed the middle class
and sent poverty levels soaring.

Wednesday's demonstrations, the biggest anti-austerity
protest since June, were the "beginning of a battle" to
eradicate further emergency belt-tightening measures
announced last month.

"The government is behaving as if it has a pistol to its
head," said Stathis Anestis, a spokesman for the
Confederation of Greek Unions. "It is not just that it is
the poor who are forced to carry the burden of this barrage
of measures," he insisted, denouncing the terms of the
_110bn (£95bn) bailout Greece received from the EU and IMF
in May last year.

"It's not just that all our hard-earned rights are being
peeled away. It is that we wake up every day to another cut,
another tax, another pay rise. No one can keep up!"

The prospect of more public sector strikes in the coming
months was as inevitable as the precision with which the
austerity measures had failed to solve the country's
spiralling debt problem, he added. "None of these measures
have been effective. They have only served to worsen
recession, miss [budget] targets and deepen desperation and
despair worse. We have no choice but to take to the
streets."

George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, says nothing
short of a revolution can change the debt-stricken country.
Since triggering the crisis with the revelation that Greece
had clearly cooked the books, hiding a deficit that was
three times bigger than originally thought, the ruling
socialists have drawn up an array of economic and structural
reforms not seen since the second world war.

"The only way that we are going to see real results, real
change, is if the reforms are implemented," said a source
close to the "troika", which is made up of the EU, IMF and
ECB.

Last week Greece acknowledged that it had missed the fiscal
goals set out in the 2011 budget, blaming a worse than
expected recession. Without the reforms being enacted, the
country has been told that it will not receive the next
vital 8 billion euros tranche of aid needed to pay wages and
pensions in the public sector.

The pressure on a government that is showing all the signs
of becoming increasingly shaky is beginning to mount. This
week Papandreou admitted that the changes he was being asked
to apply were much greater than he would have liked.

"We are forced to take decisions much faster than we would
have wished," the prime minister said after his cabinet
approved the decision to move 30,000 civil servants into a
special labour reserve on reduced pay - the first step
towards mass lay-offs in the bloated public sector.

The demonstrations were much less violent than previous
protests in a capital that has become increasingly used to
toxic chemicals and tears - even if more riot police than
ever were dispatched to the city centre.

Instead, it is a new sense of helplessness and hopelessness
that is haunting Greece. "We are mourning the loss of our
country," sighed Elena Vitali, a national economy ministry
employee who, with black flag in hand, joined hundreds of
others protesters outside the building.

"The 300 people in that place," she said pointing to the
Greek parliament across Syntagma square, "are traitors. They
have decided not just to sell our dignity but to sell out
our country, to sell assets to privatise the lot. Soon there
will be nothing left that is Greek. It will all have gone to
those who are supposedly helping us in the EU."

==========

Action of 11 October in the Somme (CGT, CFDT, UNSA, FSU,
Partners, UNEF)

l'Humanite
October 5, 2011

http://www.humanite.fr/fil-rouge/action-du-11-octobre-dans-la-somme-cgt-cfdt-unsa-fsu-solidaires-unef-

The government announced Aug. 24 measures intended to reduce
"the deficit of France." The trade unions CGT, CFDT, UNSA,
FSU, Partners, UNEF in denouncing the injustice and unfair.
The bill is supported primarily by employees and consumers.
The government does not challenge the tax loopholes that are
known to have no economic and social efficiency. The
contribution of higher income is symbolic and is not likely
to reduce inequality.

These choices lead to tragic consequences in the department
of the Somme. Utilities bear the brunt of the decline in
resources and job cuts, while the threat of closures (ALCAN
Ham, Goodyear Amiens, Trocmé-Vallart The International
Ronssoy) weaken the industrial potential of our department.

To boost growth, while respecting the imperatives of
sustainable development, reduce inequality and control
deficits, a policy to a different distribution of wealth and
promoting economic and social development is essential.

This requires major structural reforms as a comprehensive
tax reform including a more progressive, coordinated
industrial policy at European level of quality public
services.

It also called for urgent action:

* Drop the taxation of additional health eliminate
exemptions and tax exemption for overtime any public aid
package to its social and economic efficiency, social
policies in companies.

* Implement the tax on financial transactions.

* Making employment, particularly youth, a priority. Stop
the job losses in the civil service.

* Support the purchasing power especially low income and
reopen wage negotiations in enterprises and the civil
service to reduce such inequalities between women and men.

Trade unions believe the necessary intervention of employees
to influence the government, employers, and current
parliamentary debates to come.

They condemn all violations of trade union rights and
require compliance with employee representatives.

As part of the national day of action of inter-Tuesday,
October 11, 2011 they call the private and public employees
to participate in rallies to:

Abbeville: 17 h 00 Place de l'Hotel de Ville
Doullens: 18 h 00 Place de l'Hotel de Ville
Friville Escarbotin-15 H 30 Place Jean Jaurès
Ham: 17 h 00 Castle Place
ZI Amiens: 10: 30 pm at the site of Goodyear
Roye: 10 h 30

Communiqué of the CGT, CFDT, UNSA, FSU, Partners, UNEF of
the Somme

Amiens, October 3, 2011

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate