For the second time in two weeks, on March 16, thousands of workers in all sectors and workplaces across the country said “Today we Strike”. With their mass participation they stopped production in industries, factories, ports and transport. They stopped services, stood against the strike-breaking attempts of the employers and they gave an answer to the miserable provocation of the government that the day before yesterday was falsely propagating that “the strike in the public sector is illegal”.

Among the places that stood out for the mass participation in the strike were the Athens International Airport, which was completely closed, while a relevant NOTAM issued informing that no flights were taking place. Not a single plane took off as air traffic controllers were on strike, while ground staff in a number of posts were also on strike. The airport workers with their banners participated to the Athens strike rally.

At the same time no ship sailed, trains and urban transport stopped, with Metro and Athens Bus workers operating only during the demonstrations, so as to help people’s participation to the strike rallies.

Massive demonstrations were held in most Greek cities, with specially massive rallies taking place again in Thessaloniki, Larissa, Patras, and more.

The Government tried to block people’s participation to the strike by, initially spreading fake news about the legality of the strike in the public sector and on the day of the strike, ordering the closing of Athens central Metro stations, so as to block people from reaching Athens center and participating in the rallies. At the same time a series of photos and videos on social media and news sites show unprovoked police violence and also persons with civilian clothes, black hoods and covered faces sitting side by side with the riot police forces.

At the same time, it worths noting that in one of the most massive strike actions of the recent years the (ETUC member in Greece) GSEE rally in Athens during the strike in front of the Parliament, managed to gather less than 200 persons.

The massiveness  of the demonstrations of the class unions all over Greece, against the provocations and the obstacles of Government-employers, sent a clear message for the continuation of the struggle under the Slogan “Our lives are not costs”. PAME stated:

For the new, grand National General Strike across the country!

PAME salutes the thousands of strikers all over the country, the thousands of students, pupils, farmers, women who, with their massive participation in the strike rallies, flooded the streets and squares of every city in the country. In Athens, the huge strike march of the trade unions covered the streets of the city center, going in front of the Parliament till the offices of Hellenic Train kilometers away.

March 16 marked 16 days since the crime in Tempe, Larissa when 57 people, workers and young children did not return to their families. The slogan “this crime will not be forgotten; we will be the voice of all the dead” will not fade away. On the contrary, it is heard louder from thousands of mouths across the country!

It is the best answer to those who attempt to put the crime “on ice”, to shake off all responsibility, to turn the crime into a “Human Error”. The state of the few, ruled by the god of profit, that treats the workers and their needs as a cost, will not “get off the hook”.

We do not fit a life whose protection is a burden for the state and the business groups, our dignity will not be squeezed in non-existent wage raises, evictions, and inflation that destroys the people’s income. We will not accept the future that is being prepared for us for lives with coupons and deaths with one-way tickets.

We do not stop! We continue, more determined, more dynamic!

Next militant action is the new big rally on Monday 20 March against the bill that privatizes water and at the Conference of National Federations, Regional Trade Union Centres and base level Trade Unions and other mass organizations that will take place on Wednesday 22 March

Photos https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAvWFZ