With the power of the organized class-oriented movement, Federations, Regional Trade Unions and Trade Unions that responded to the call of PAME, gave an answer to the trade union mafia’s arrangements of the outcast leadership of the GSEE (PASOK, ND, SYRIZA).
Continuing the struggle that they have been giving during the previous period, they sent a hopeful message in the working class that there is a different way from the rottenness and degeneration, that the trade unions can be in the hands of the workers, to be their support, the means of developing class struggles for a life of dignity.
The GSEE out casted leadership tried in the island of Rhodes, on the borders with Turkey, to set up a fast-track “congress”. Actually, they wanted to put a ballot box and have “elections” with the participation of fake-delegates and employers, only to keep their positions and to continue their services to the big business groups.
The first measure the trade union mafia took to impose its plans was to organize the congress in the 5star hotel “Rodos Palace”, as far as possible from the big workers’ region. The second measure was the – futile – effort to turn the hotel into an “impregnable fortress”: They brought bullies, people of the night, hired men from martial arts schools, sealed all the entrances of the hotel, leaving only a small door, a few centimeters wide. When their representatives were entering, they had to pass through 4 check points, that lasted even for half an hour… The third measure aimed to no one learning what happens. Therefore, in an unprecedented action, they banned reporters from attending the Congress, seeking in this way to cover up the orgy of fraud that they had organized …
The trade unions rallying with PAME have made it clear that a Congress with fake delegates and employers in side, will not take place. That the only way is to have a Congress with real workers representatives.
Days before the new “congress” – parody, the class-oriented trade union members organized tours of workplaces in Rhodes, informing workers about the plans of the trade union mafia. A few days before the “Congress”, along with the dozens of elected representatives, many other trade unionists arrived on the island, losing their wages, getting leaves, supported by their colleagues in Rhodes, who helped them generously.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/141955787@N05/sets/72157707697846055
On Wednesday, on the eve of the “congress”, the class unions organized a big demonstration in the center of the city of Rhodes, and interventions at each of the responsible parties, the lawyers association of Rhodes, the court representatives who were responsible for the Congress, the prosecutor and the police administration of the island.
On Thursday, in the early hours, with a sudden and disciplined energy, trade unionists and workers entered the hotel area demanding a Workers Congress and that employers to leave.
The outcast leadership team of GSEE, incapable of confronting anything to the truth and momentum of the class trade unions, they staged provocations and insults. It is characteristic that they attacked the President of the Trade Union of metal workers and member of PAME Secretariat, the same trade unionist that the fascist Golden Dawn attempted to murder. Then, with various announcements, they attacked the class unions and PAME, announcements that were officially supported by the Golden Dawn Nazi organization!
At the same time, class trade unions in Athens proceeded to a mobilization at the General Confederation building, and used it to inform workers and to hold a large Trade Union meeting on Saturday, April 13 for the organization and the class celebration of the International Workers’ Day on May 1st.
PAME notes:
“The battle that has been given in Rhodes over the past days against the trade union mafia of the GSEE’s outcast leadership team, following the great effort that has been undertaken over the past few years by Federations, Regional Trade Unions and Trade Unions in response to PAME’s call, is a battle of hope, a battle of perspective. It is a battle that concerns every worker and that’s why this must reach every workplace.
The message is clear: We will not tolerate the brutal intervention of employers in the trade unions! No “legalization” of the orgy of frauds that are taking place so as to strengthen the people of the employers within the trade union movement!
We are all escalating the struggle against the practices of employers and all the other mechanisms of the capital that want to keep the trade unions as tools for subordinating workers to the interests of capital in their “national goals” that destroy the rights of workers and the people.
We are escalating the struggle for unions – organizers of the workers’ struggle against the antiworkers’ attack of the capital and its governments, organizers of the struggle for the contemporary needs of the workers.”
Photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/141955787@N05/sets/72157677542633997
https://www.flickr.com/photos/141955787@N05/sets/72157704394948252
Athens, 12.4.19
