Greece Follow

The Right to Work campaign organised a highly successful tour of Britain by a Greek worker last week. It brought together trade unionists and campaigners to discuss resistance to the attacks on working people.

European Union leaders all agree that deep cuts are needed—but they are sharply divided over how to slash Greek workers’ living standards.

On the eve of Greece’s third general strike last week, Panepistimiou Street in Athens was packed with several hundred people, huddled around lit braziers.

The general strike in Greece on Thursday of last week was even more powerful than the one on 24 February.

Friday 19 MarchDefend Council Housing annual conferenceTUC, Great Russell St, London, WC1B. » www.defendcouncilhousing.org.ukTuesday 23 March to Friday 26 March, Greek workers resist austerity: What lessons for Britain?Vasilis Sylaidis gives an eyewitness account of the recent Greek general strikes at Right to Work meetings in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Dundee. » www.righttowork.org.uk Saturday 10 April,

Union leaders hailed today’s general strike as a complete success. Public services ground to a halt in all major cities from Alexandroupoli in the north to Sitia in the south. Public and private sector workers both joined the action.

The hypocrisy of the British media can still surprise. Look at the warmth with which they bade farewell to Michael Foot when he died last week, after they had vilified him while he was leader of the Labour Party between 1980 and 1983.

Greek workers have stepped up their resistance to cuts while politicians and bosses are demanding more.

Greek workers are to strike for three hours tomorrow in response to the government’s intensification of its austerity measures. George Papandreou, the prime minister, announced yesterday that he would cut public sector workers’ annual bonuses by 30 percent, increase VAT by 2 percent and freeze state-funded pensions.

At one level, the Greek crisis is a familiar tale of market blackmail and bullying. Through giving up its own currency and joining the euro, Greece attached itself to one of the world’s major economies, Germany.