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International Workers’ Day: resounding struggles from Greece to Russia [LeftEast interviewed six workers from Russia, Slovenia, Macedona, Croatia and Greece. I copied brief excerpts from the interviews with the two Greek workers which btw show that The Greek Reporter did not report on a third May Day demonstration in Athens initiated by Antarsya.] “For more than twenty years have the wage workers of this country begged and prayed their masters, the factory lords, to reduce their burdens. It has been in vain.” – this proclamation could easily have come from a 1st of May rally in 2015, as it remains equally relevant today. But it dates back to the 4th of May, 1886, when August Spies, one of the key protagonists of the Haymarket affair in Chicago incited the rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour-day, which spiraled into a mass protest and inspired the International Workers’ movement. 130 years on, as the struggle continues, LeftEast spoke with those familiar with workers’ conditions and Union organization in Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Macedonia and Russia. <http://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/international-workers-day-resounding-struggles-from-greece-to-russia> interview with Sylvia Koilakou on International Workers Day by Left East <http://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/international-workers-day-greece> Sylvia Koilakou works as a civil engineer in a technical enterprise. She is active in the union of technical employees and is a member of the Board of the Labor Center of Athens. She is a member of the anti-capitalist coalition ANTARSYA, on whose ticket she stood as a parliamentary candidate in the recent elections. . . . "May Day in Greece is a day of struggle for trade unions, with demonstrations all over Greece. In Athens, three demonstrations are called. One by the tertiary confederations (GSEE and ADEDY), one by PAME (All-workers Militant Front, unions and unionists adjacent to the Communist Party of Greece), and one by the grassroots unions, marching towards the parliament and the EU offices. The forces of the anti-capitalist Left, ANTARSYA and autonomous labor collectives participate in the latter. These grassroots unions carry the logic of independent class unionism and grassroots coordination, which is far removed from the GSEE’s logic of unionism, which subordinates itself to the existing system, as well as from the partisan unionism of PAME." . . . "This year’s May Day in Greece finds a labor movement that has faced 5 years of attacks on labor rights. At this instant, capital, the EU and IMF forces, maintain a rigid stance aimed at the signing of a new memorandum, which will include strict anti-labor measures. The SYRIZA-ANEL government is oriented towards a deal with the country’s borrowers, having accepted the obligation of paying the debt as well as the inviolable terms that the EU and the Euro-Zone have imposed. Thus, this year’s May Day is an important milestone for grassroots unions, in order to organize the counterattack of struggles against the new anti-popular agreements and in order to restore workers’ victories." full at: <http://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/international-workers-day-greece> interview with Christos Tsadaris on International Workers day by LeftEast <http://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/international-workers-day-christos-tsadaris> Christos Tsadaris has recently concluded his studies as a physicist, and is currently unemployed, searching for a job. He has been active in social movements of the youth in Greece and is a member of ATTACK, a youth collective against modern slavery, flexibility in work and unemployment. He is a member of the anti-capitalist coalition ANTARSYA. . . . "... the unions never choose to actually defend workers’ interests, but are most often led to compromises and submission to the dominant bourgeois block. "What is crucial today is the overall objective of class reconstruction and the development of a mass, political labor movement, aiming to an overthrow of the current neoliberal attack, a counterattack of struggles, unraveling the memorandum of capitalist barbarism and reactionary reforms, gaining victories for the workers, in connection to the struggle for the objectives of the anti-capitalist program." . . . "Regarding labour rights and specifically the collective contract agreements in Greece, the numbers are really shocking. In 2008 there were 161 sectoral and inter-professional collective agreement contracts, which could cover almost all workers in the private sector. Today only 18 contract agreements are active, while it is estimated that less than 15% of the workers occupied in the private sector is being covered by those contracts. The remaining 85% is covered either by operational agreements or by individual contracts. Altogether, sectoral collective agreement contracts have been replaced by business or individual contracts." . . . full at: <http://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/international-workers-day-christos-tsadaris> _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
