KKE sends powerful message to Tsipras' government: "The right to strike is non-negotiable, don't dare to touch it!"

Regarding the SYRIZA-ANEL government's amendment about the right to strike- which provoked the militant response of Trade Unions and workers - the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece issued the following statement:

"The SYRIZA-ANEL government broke any record of political impudence and nastiness, bringing, like a thief in the Parliament - and within an irrelevant law proposal in order to vote it quickly- an amendment in order to begin the rupture of the working class' biggest conquest, which is the right to strike. 

SYRIZA government withdraws anti-strike amendment after Trade Unions' militant reaction

Workers-Trade Unionists invade the Ministry
of Labour in Athens.

The SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government was forced after militant mobilization by PAME and Trade Unions to withdraw a shameful amendment on workers’ strike and other labour issues only hours after they were tabled in parliament. Earlier today (Tuesday), demonstrators supported by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) invaded the Ministry of Labor in central Athens, as an act of protest against the antiworker-antipeople measures of the government.

The government's amendment proposes that for a union to go on strike, at least 50% plus one of active union members must agree. In fact, this measure is a step towards the restriction of the workers' right to strike and consists an escalation of the government-EU's attack against the labour movement.

Against Black Friday: Amazon workers in Germany and Italy are going on strike

More than 500 Amazon employees in Europe will go on strike on Black Friday in a bid to win higher pay from the retailer, according to trade unions.

Large numbers of employees in Germany and Italy will stay home for one of the busiest shopping days of the year in a bid to win concessions from their employer.

Workers at Amazon's main Italian distribution hub posted a statement saying that they would walk out after attempts to secure bonuses from management broke down.

McDonald's workers on historic strike in Britain - Solidarity with their just struggle

Their solidarity towards the strike of the workers at McDonald's fast food chain in Britain expressed labor-trade unions in Greece and Turkey. 

The Trade union of workers in Catering, Hotels, Tourism of Athens issued a statement expressing its solidarity to their colleagues working to McDonald’s in the UK, who went on strike earlier this week, struggling for better salaries and abolition of the “zero hour contracts”. 

More specifically, the union states:

PAME: The anti-workers attack across Europe is unified, lasting and continuous

On the occasion of the visit of French President Macron to Greece, PAME issued the following statement:

The “growth” of the profits of business groups, the competitiveness of capital requires the attack on workers’ rights and gains. 

Therefore, irrespective of the country and the political label of each government, European Union and the political parties of the capital promote anti-workers’ reforms that target to reduce wages, pensions etc., and at the same time to put obstacles (if not to totally ban) in the Collective Action and Demands of Workers, in the trade union rights and freedoms of the working class.

Either with memorandums or without, the antiworkers’ attack across Europe is unified, lasting and continuous.

National Strike: Tourism workers in Greece raised their voice against modern slavery

Source: All-Workers Militant Front (PAME).

With militant demonstrations and picket lines in front of big hotels, the class unions held successfully the National Strike of Workers in Tourism, on Thursday, July 20. The Tourism workers in many cities all over Greece and especially in tourist areas like Corfu, Crete, Rhodes and more, went on strike.

The main strike rally took place in Athens, where the picket lines and the workers of many big hotels met. The strike had great success in hotels like the Metropolitan, Athens Hilton, Νovotel and Royal Olympic. The strike rally took place in front of the Ministry of Labour, protesting against the anti-workers legislation, especially for the young workers, students and apprentices. The rally also stopped in front of the National Union of Tourism, the association of tourism enterprises, where the unions wrote in red paint “Here are those who drink the workers’ blood”, and demanded National Collective Agreement, imposed to all tourism enterprises and hotels.

Anti-workers rage by SYRIZA's newspaper “Avgi” challenges the right to strike!

In an anti-workers delirium that even the right-wing, neoliberal press would envy, SYRIZA party's newspaper “Avgi” launched a vociferous attack against the working people's right to strike! In an article published on 28/6, the newspaper shamelessly attacked the striking mobilizations of the municipal sanitation workers by reproducing the most reactionary arguments of the bourgeois press. Trying to justify the anti-people, anti-worker policy of the SYRIZA coalition government, “Avgi” characterizes the strike as the “ultimate medium” (!) which, according to the newspaper, should not be used frequently by the workers.

Solidarity with the striking workers at FIAT factory in Serbia

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), which is the militant voice of 92 million workers in 126 countries all over the world, stands firmly by the side of the 2.000 workers of the factory of FIAT Chrysler Automobiles, automobile assembly plant in Kragujevac, Serbia, who are on strike since Tuesday 27 June 2017.

The workers have taken strike action against the intensification of work, which increased after numerous workers were dismissed from the factory, while the factory tries to produce a high number of cars per day. Their main demands also include wage increase and transport allowance.

Greek tourism industry: Unpaid labour, starvation wages and huge profits for the monopoly groups

What lies behind the luxurious and idyllic facade of Greece's tourism industry? The answer is that tourism consists another field for monopolies' profitability, based on unpaid workers, layoffs, unsourced workers, starvation wages, lack of collective agreements etc. 

This is the actual meaning of "economic growth" that the SYRIZA-ANEL government, as well as the New Democracy and the other bourgeois parties, promote. 

Even if thousands of tourists arrive in Greece every day, hundreds of employees work daily to the tourism industry with humiliating salaries and exhausting shifts that last from dawn till dusk. The average - daily room rate on all 4-5-star hotels is equal to the salary of a waiter! In a tourist country like Greece, where 25 million of tourists are expected this summer, hotel workers cannot afford a decent vacation and relaxing period. This is Capitalism.

Statements by the WFTU and PAME: Solidarity with the bus drivers' strike in Sydney

World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU):

The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing 92 million workers in the 5 continents, expresses its solidarity with Sydney bus drivers who are on strike as a response to the government’s announcement for a privatization program of bus services in the city’s south and inner west.

The privatization plan was announced, despite the fact that the government assured the bus drivers in writing that the bus route will not be privatized. According to the strikers, the privatization will cost the job of 1,200 drivers, will reduce the bus routes and stops and will adversely affect the quality of service and the maintenance of the buses.

D. Koutsoumbas: "The austerity memorandums must be thrown in the trashbin of history"

"Popular uprising everywhere. The memorandums of austerity must be thrown in the trashbin of history" said among other things the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas who attended the large strike demonstration in Athens on May 17. Talking to journalists, Secretary Koutsoumbas made the following statement:

"Actually, class war is now in progress, it is a marathon, not a rifle shot in the air. Class war must be a daily and lasting one. The harsh antipeople measures, the 4th memorandum along with the previous memorandums (of austerity) must be thrown in the trashbin of History and for that the only responsible are the Greek people, the labor-popular movement. 

For that reason, our call is: Popular uprising everywhere, not a day or hour must be gone; the struggle doesn't end today or tomorrow but continues. 

“We will not become the slaves of the 21st century": The KKE calls for people's counterattack

Source: inter.kke.gr.

A 24hr general strike will be held in Greece on 17 May 2017, as well as the strike rallies and demonstrations of the All-worker’s Militant Front (PAME) in dozens of cities, against the measures which the coalition government of the “Left” party of SYRIZA and the nationalist party of ANEL is bringing for discussion on that day in Parliament. 

Protest demonstrations will be organized by PAME all over the country on 18^th of May, the day the measures will be voted on.

The SYRIZA-ANEL government is bringing these measures after the negotiations with the imperialist unions of the EU and IMF for the 2^nd evaluation of the 3^rd Memorandum. It is clear from the results that the government negotiated with the lenders on behalf of the interests of the domestic monopoly groups and not the people, with the aim of accelerating the process of an exit from the capitalist crisis that favours capital.

People Rise Up: Greece's Labour movement prepares for national General Strike on May 17

A nationwide General Strike is scheduled to take place on May 17, 2017 with rallies and demonstrations in Athens-Piraeus, Thessaloniki, Patras and all major cities of the country. 

On the occasion of the General Strike, the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) calls the people to rise up against the new harsh measures imposed by the bailout agreement of the SYRIZA coalition government and the creditors (EU-IMF). More specifically, the PAME statement writes:

KKE GS D. Koutsoumbas: "The SYRIZA government does the 'dirty job' on behalf of the capitalists"

Regarding the recent agreement of the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government with the creditors on new harsh antipeople-antiworkers measures, the Secretary General of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas made the following statement:

"The new agreement of the SYRIZA-ANEL government with the Quartet, which typically and in fact consists a new memorandum, with new harsh measures against employees, pensioners, self-employed people, confirms once more that the government does the "dirty job" on behalf of the capital. 

The new agreement consists a new attack on the people's income, new large cuts in pensions and benefits, new structural measures for the benefit of the monopolies, such as the substantial abolition of the Sunday holiday and the expansion of privatizations.

PAME expresses solidarity with the General Strike of the workers of Brazil on April 28

The All Workers Militant Front (PAME) that represents the class trade union movement of Greece, expresses its solidarity with the working class and the unions of Brazil, the CTB and the friends and affiliates of WFTU in Brazil, for the General Strike of April 28

The workers of Brazil are going on General Strike on April 28 against the antiworkers’ reforms planned by the Temer Government on Social Security and labour legislation. The General Strike of April 28, which has been prepared systematically by the class trade unions of Brazil for weeks, aims to be the biggest strike action since the great General Strike of 1917.

The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) calls for nationwide rallies in Greece on February 21st

The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) calls workers, unemployed people, self-employed workers, the youth and women to participate in the nationwide rallies on February 21st, in order to give their own answer to the antipeople policy of the SYRIZA-ANEL government. 

Having as a slogan "No fear, no compliance. Struggle for labor with rights. Life with dignity", PAME calls the working people and the country's popular strata to give a powerful response to the new antipeople measures of the government and Troika and to assert the cancellation of the antiworker laws.

General Strike in Greece: Mass participation in PAME's strike demonstrations sent message to government-EU

Thousands of protesters took the streets in Athens, Thessaloniki and several cities in Greece, participating in militant demonstrations organised by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME). 

Workers, self-employed people, pensioners, youth and women associations, unemployed men and women unified their voice against the antipeople policy of the SYRIZA-ANEL government, the EU and the Capital. They demanded, once again, their rights in labour and life against modern slavery. 

The General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas, who attended the demonstration in Athens' Omonia Square, made the following statement to journalists:

General Strike on December 8th in Greece - PAME calls for massive, militant response of the working class

A general, nationwide strike will take place on Thursday 8th December in Greece. Numerous labour unions, confederations and centers, students and women's associations have called for mass participation in the strike, against the policies of the SYRIZA government, the EU and the Capital.

The Government of SYRIZA, with the EU-IMF-ECB, are realizing the demands of the business groups and plan the imposition of: 

Liberalization of massive layoffsNew cut of the-already cut- minimum wage, Abolition of any benefit left, Complete imposition of individual or company based contracts, in order to cut further the average salary, Further imposition of flexible working relations, New cuts in pensions and social security rights, Legalization of employers’ “lockout”, Imposition of new trade union legislation that will abolish the right to strike and destroy trade union rights and freedoms and more measures.

PAME: "Everyone in the struggle" - General Strike to take place on November 24th in Greece

"No waiting, no delay! We respond: General Strike on November 24th!" stresses a recent declaration of the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) which calls in struggle for the rights in labour and life, according to the needs of the working people.

The declaration PAME calls the workers, the self-employed, the youth and the pensioners of the country to give a militant response to the barbaric, antipeople measures of the SYRIZA-ANEL government. "We demand rights in our work and life, according to our era- the 21st century, our needs!" as PAME points out in its call for the strike. 

India: Massive nationwide strike against government's assault on public enterprises and workers’ wages and conditions

Yesterday, September 2nd, more than 150 million Indian workers took part in a one-day general strike against Indian Prime Minister Modi’s assaults on public enterprises and workers’ wages and conditions. It is said to be the largest general strike in the country's history, as long as it involved nearly all sectors of the working class including workers from manufacturing, mining, the public sector, transport and other sectors, along with workers in the informal economy.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) issued the following statement regarding the nationwide strike: 

The Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of India congratulates the working class and employees for the most successful general strike all over India on the call of Central Trade Unions.