Greece’s two union confederations, Gsee and Adedy, have called another general strike on 28 and 29 June, this time for 48 hours.
It is to apply pressure on the parliamentary vote on the Pasok government’s new plan for cuts and privatisation, imposed in order to get new IMF, EU, and European Central Bank credit.
Buses, air traffic, docks, power stations, etc. will be all be strikebound. Hospitals and health centres will operate emergency cover only.
Greece’s small-business federation is also backing the site.
The Indignant Citizens’ movement which has demonstrated in Syntagma Square since 25 May, and whose pressure must have contributed to the union confederations moving from 24 hour strikes to a 48 hour one, is holding its own rally, joining the union demonstrations later on Tuesday, and then encircling parliament on Wednesday.
However, yet more action will be needed to defeat the cuts plan, which is pushed by big world powers, promoted by Pasok (Greece’s equivalent of the Labour Party), and opposed, in mainstream politics, only demagogically by New Democracy (Greece’s equivalent of the Tories: they demand more cuts instead of Pasok’s planned tax rises).
Vasilis Grollios writes from Thessaloniki: “Everyone will be on strike on Tuesday and Wednesday [28/29 June] and thousands of people will gather in Syntagma Square and at the White Tower in Thessaloniki. The question is whether the new bill on taxes and privatisations will be voted through by the MPs.
“I think yes, it will. There are a lot of Pasok MPs who grumble, but they will finally succumb to party discipline, as usual”.
A political alternative is needed, too.
