...I had an interesting moment with my 14 year old son the other day. I had gone to the US Debt Clock website and was taking a minute to just watch the numbers roll up and down in the various amounts. The site breaks down the debt into a per person amounts.
It is quite depressing. My 14 year old son walked by and I had him take a look at it all, explaining that someday my son, all this will be yours. His first words were "Why the hell should I have to pay that back?"
I found that comment interesting in that he does have a point. It's not like the money that has been borrowed in the past has been used to create world class infrastructures or world class anything. The vast majority of all the money borrowed by the government decade after decade has been just thrown down every conceivable rathole.
Imagine if his entire generation comes to the same conclusion someday. His generation should not have to pay that debt back. Indeed, his generation cannot possibly pay that debt back even if they wanted to.
__6th February 2010__
* The antifascistic gathering took place today with the participation of more than 1500 anarchists/antiauthoritarians. A demonstration of out-parliametary leftish that used to take place against the government's "Stability Program" joined also the antifa gathering. The fascists (military junta & bavarian kings lovers, ultra orthodox, nazis, etc) gathering had to happen in another place. This time, the Queen's Peace minister did not gave a free day to the cop-pigs to join the fascistic demonstration, so only 200 shitheads most of them around the age of 60 gathered around Adonis Georgiadis, a member of LA.O.S (parliament fascistic party).
Fotos from both antifa and fascistic gathering (the proud greeks have spelling mistakes on their plakats): https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1129538
Fotos from mass media that prefered to publish pictures only from the 5 minutes clashes with the pigs but not from the many hours events, gatherings and discussions: https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1129894
* Pigs set under adduction two members of ANTARSYA (anticapitalistic out-parliamentary organisation) in Thessaloniki for having a table on a side-walk and spreading flyers for the general strike on 10th February. The pigs sued the comrades for "occupying the street" and also were asking for fingerprints of the accused persons, thing that never happened after strong denies of the comrades who also sued the pigs.
__7th February 2010__
* Fascistic action against immigrants in Sparta town. Thirty fascists under their idol of KKK methods tried to loot a house of people from Pakistan. Locals who saw the event chased them away. Sparta and the area of Lakonia has a long past of fascistic and military junta ideas.
* Article of a U.S. diplomat who acts in Greece about the "Conspiracy Cells of the Fire" urban guerrilla organisation. Personaly, I don't agree with all the points of it but it gives a kind of picture and a list of the organisation's actions: https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1129729
Meanwhile, authorities make stronger their efforts to arrest the members of the organisations as they publish on their mouth-piece mass media. As they say, more than 50 persons are members of the organisation. According to the same sources, the greek pigs and anti-terrorist pigs in cooperation with foreign secret agences have already used methods of DNA collection and other spying methods which are even against the greek laws.
* COMMON ANNOUNCEMENT OF PATTERNS IN PUBLIC & PRIVATE SECTOR ABOUT THE STRIKE ON 10th FEBRUARY
Workers' Patterns - Struggling Interventions - Clusters - Movements of private & public sector
WE DON'T IDLE - WE DON'T GIVE UP
Not so much time has passed since 4th October, when the new government of PASOK (Panhellenic Socialistic Party, socialdemocrats) was elected and now they open their anti-workers' agenda: frugality, cuts in the public sector, privatization, redundancies, increase of indirect taxes, opening of the insurance system. In the frame of the crisis, the EEU's orders and the Stability Pact, in the name of state debts they try to convince the workers for the "one-way road" of such a hard policy. The government of PASOK (continuing the work of the last government of Nea Dimokratia) sets under target the steady and standing work, the steady timetables, the decent payments, the full insurance and hospitalization and each other right in public but also private sector.
The pre-election commitments of PASOK for "abolition of elastic working" did not mean anything else but the discharge of thousands workers with contracts and STAGE, who will be added to the already existing number of some hundred thousands of unemployed. PASOK DOES NOT REMOVE the "stage programs". They transfer all to the private sector and to the Publib Business of Social Needs (electricity company,etc.) under the mantle of apprenticeship, using this way to overthrow the leftover stable working relationships in private sector. Meanwhile, in the name of "elastinsurance" and life-time education,they want to legalize the uninsured work, the rotation work, the work with unofficial papers, the renting of workers. With the redundancies of under period-contracts workers, they try an unprecedentedshrinkage of the public sector. It is programmed for the public services to set below capacity conditions, to resort rented working, or assigned through Contracts of Public - Private Sector to various entrepreneurs for exploitation.
The government of PASOK in purpose to succeed their targets tries to turn the workers'one against the other: the private sector against the "comfortable" workers in public services, the unemployed against the certain-period-contract workers and so on... They try to fragment the under elastic conditions working persons and the unemployed and load on their backs the responsibility for not finding a standing job. With "leaks" about individual settings, with the different "exceptions" of public bodies from Ragkousis' Draft, with the haunting of titles and certificates for a working position in the public sector they try to put the workers under the rationality of internal competision.
The Association of Greek Industrialists asked openly for the freezing of payments in private sector, threatening the workers that there will come more redundancies. The new estimate of frugality is the first sign of the government's economical plans which means brutal frugality, freezing of payments and rasing taxes. They ask from us to pay for the weights of a crisis that was created by themselves.
At the same time, started the attack against the Insurance System. The government tries to get rid off the insurance's costs and load them on the workers. The governors use the European Court's decision to increase the age limits of retirement for women. They underfund the insurance banks (1,5 billions less for this year's estimate). They exploit the excisting anti-insurance laws (voted by Sioufas, Reppas, Petralia) to increase the working years of people before the pension and release the employers and the state from their obligations. They let the Insurance Banks collapse, with gift settings for the employers who escape from taxes, with the uninsured and black work having a strong position even in the public sector, they will reduce the pensions and the benefits of the insuranced, in the name of "matching" system's method.
Our needs above the laws of the market
The future of our working relationships, the ensure of standing and steady work for everybody is a matter to all the workers, under whichever working-relationship job. The today's consolidation of a status with the public needs covered by elastic working-relationships is the first step to set under controversy the right for steady work at all in future. Mr. G. Papandreou said clearly "we defend the working positions". Thing that means that it is not important for the government's plans the kind of the working relationship but only its existance. For this reason they get ready to release from the insurance contributions anyone who employes a young worker. Each business will fire the old workers and take new so it will not be necessary to pay for contributions!
Already the rotation work with reduced incomes, the work without official papers, the rented work, the long-time unemployment tend to become a status quo in public and private sector. They try to convince us that it is better to work even partly, instead of not working at all. But they forget that the steady work is a right of all the workers, that the produced wealth must come back to the workers who produce it themselves, that in the middle of the "crisis", the big companies and the Banks appeared again ultra-profits.
Against PASOK'S and Nea Dimokratia's choices, we opposite our own working needs. Against the synchronized attack from government, capital, EEU to load the weight of the crisis on the workers' backs, we display our own working answer. Against the arguments of "fixed and standing needs", about cv's and extra points awarded, against the straight attacks about "plugs" we shall demand for serving all the real needs of the society and the workers. The real blanks in the system are formed by the number of needed workers to ensure:
- The total and only public character of education, health , insurance, wealthcare,management of the cultural heritage and the right of everybody for free access to education, health care, culture, with services with high quality.
- That will pass to public the big business of strategic importance (energy, water, telecommunications, transfer services, pharmacie, health). That will return now all the businesses that were privatized during the last years to the public sector (Telecommunications' Organisation of Greece, ports, Olympic Airways), with canceling (and not re-negotiating) the relevant contracts.
- The sufficiency of scientific, governing and other staff in the public services, for the faster and more effective favour of the workers.
- Working with decend payment, human time hours, full working and insurance rights.
FOR THE REASONS ABOVE, WE WANT
Permanent, steady an full job in public and private sector: Contracts of standing work in public sector and contracts of unlimited chronical periods in private sector. Legislative ban of redundancies. Permanent job for workers with limited period working contracts, STAGE programs, hired workers. More and massive employments to cover the real social needs. Remove all the laws which allow the elastic working in public and private sector. 7hours/5days/35hours with view for further reduction. None privatization-contractors of public sector's parts to partnership or assignment companies.
OVERTURNING OF AUSTERITY AND INCOMES POLICY
1400 euros neto the first payment for each worker. Direct payment back of the already worked hours and the wage gaps from the current collective agreements for the elastic working persons in public and private sector. Equal payment and equal work. Increasing of capital's taxation. Unemployments' allowance equal to the workers' first salary, during the whole period of unemployment.
Full public, total, compulsory social insurance. Full pension after 30 years of working without age limit or at 55 and 58, 50 and 55 respectively for heavy and unhealthy jobs. In cases with better (lower) limits they should be maintained. High quality free medical-pharmacie cover and hospitalization for all the workers and unemployed. Remove all the anti-insurance laws. They must bring back all the Insurance Banks' stolen money. No gift settings for contribution evasion. Retroactive insurance cover for uninsuranced workers in private and public sector. Remove any form of financial economical gambling against the stock money of the Insurance Banks. There must be characterized as heavy and unhealthy more kind of jobs. Connection of the pension with the basic salary. Calculation of the pension based on the conclusive salary - full replacement.
One workers' association for each working place. The workers need united syndicates and Federations which shall cover all the sectors of steady and elastic work, Greeks or immigrants, with full syndicalistic rights.
CONTINUES GENERAL STRUGGLE- NO PROTEXT DIALOGUE
The syndicalistic leaderships of GSEE-ADEDY, instead of calling for General Strike, they are moving for "social dialogue" with the Greek Industrialists' Association and the government, while accepting the reasoning of deficits and "sacrifices" to get out of the crisis. They do not support the struggles (port-workers, limit-period contract workers), they do not take initiatives for any struggling answers, they deny to get in the Unions the elastic working.
The hope is in the struggles! It was proved by the struggles in working places where the people made it to cancel anti-labor measures even temporarily. On this road we will keep on, on the road of adamant struggle, of rage unity of the workers, of labor unions' struggling coordination, of class reconstruction of workers' movement. In the procedures of base's syndicates and rage committees we shall steer our massive actions. In this can not contribute the "cogoverning" in GSEE-ADEDY of the Autonomous Intervention, nor the traditional and limited condemning demonstrations of PAME (syndicalists of Parliament Communistic Party), which do not have any escalating logic and lead to defeatism.
Elastic workers, workers with limited time contracts, STAGE programm and unofficial workers, permanent and unlimited period workers of public or private sector, let's overcome the (fake) descriminations and look what connects us. We don't have the luxury of separate action. Through base's procedures we shall steer our massive movements. After the strike on 17th December 2009, let's join our voices for new pan-labor, more massive and strong working movements and strikes.
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