18 February 2010
The Communist Party of Ireland and the Communist Party of Britain express our solidarity with the Greek working class, PAME (the All-Workers Militant Front) and the Communist Party of Greece in their struggle to defend the social and economic gains of Greek workers.
The Greek working class in now in the front line of the struggle to resist the anti-people policies being dictated by the European Union, imposed by the PASOK government, and supported by New Democracy and all sections of the Greek bourgeoisie, combining to make the people pay for the crisis of the system.
We condemn the scaremongering and bullying by PASOK and by the European Union and its institutions as they attempt to impose savage cuts in public spending, forcing the shedding of thousands of public-sector jobs and demanding cuts in welfare and pension rights. We reject the concept of “shared blame” for the crisis and “shared responsibility” for overcoming it presented by the European Union and by the governments of all the member-states as well as their ideological voices in their mass media.
Irish workers have experienced similar such bullying and scaremongering by the European Union, both to force through the second vote on the Lisbon Treaty and in its demands for the imposition of massive cuts in public spending in the last budget presented by the Irish Government. British workers will also be facing the prospect of swingeing cuts in public spending and possible pay cuts.
The European Union is attempting to solve the crisis of monopoly capitalism in the interests of the monopolies by attacking the rights and conditions of workers. The role that the European Union is playing confirms our view that this bloc and its institutions are anti-democratic, anti-worker, and anti-people.
We call upon the Irish and British labour and trade union movements and all progressive forces to express their solidarity with the Greek working class at this crucial time with messages of support and other acts of solidarity. The struggle of the Greek people to defend their social and economic gains and to defend the sovereignty of their country is one shared by workers’ movements across Europe.
