PAME, from Greece, expresses its solidarity with the militants, trade unions, federations, departmental unions and local unions, CGT trade unions members of the WFTU, who are constantly slandered, attacked and defamed for their militant, unifying and van-guard role in workers’ struggles in France and internationally.
The Unions départementales CGT des Bouches-du-Rhône, du Val de Marne, du Tarn-et-Garonne and the national federations of Commerce and Chemical industries have been particularly targeted in recent months by the government, employers, the media and the ETUC’s servants inside the unions. Through repression, systematic attacks and constant lies, they have sought to tarnish the leading role played by these UDs, federations, local unions and trade unions in workers’ struggles in France and internationally.
They have been targeted, particularly in the unprecedented fight against the so-called Macron’s pension reform. Over the past year, their initiatives have made a decisive contribution to the organization and coordination of workers’ struggles in France against the policies advocated by the European Union and implemented by the government and employers. They have also led important actions to denounce the role of imperialist forces, including the United States and NATO, and to highlight the role of their servants within the trade union movement, including the ETUC and the ITUC. This is also why they are being targeted!
We are well aware that these CGT trade union organizations, in addition to their action in France, have made an important internationalist contribution. They constantly express through action their solidarity with the struggles of workers in other countries. These are unions that have always supported action by the world’s workers against exploitation and imperialism, supporting in many ways the struggles of the peoples of Palestine, Cuba, workers’ strikes in Britain, Greece and Italy, for the rights of women, immigrant workers and young workers.
It is outrageous to describe as “dangerous” to workers, the organizations that lead the struggle in defense of the lives and rights of the working class. They are “dangerous” to business groups and those who defend them.
It is unacceptable to attack workers’ organizations that discuss openly, publicly and democratically, that express their positions with criticism and self- criticism in order to strengthen workers’ common struggles.
In reality, these attacks attempt to conceal the fact that the recent Congress of the European Trade Union Confederation-ETUC saw all delegates applauding:
The presence of collaborators of the AZOF Nazi battalion
Speech by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von Der Leyen
The President of the Employers’ Association of the European Union
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other European political leaders.
And all this while the ETUC congress was chaired by Laurent Bergé, General Secretary of the CFDT, the same man who openly undermined French workers’ strikes by talking of “pre-emptive strikes” and promoting the “social dialogue” of defeat.
Isn’t it suspicious that the same forces that keep quiet about QATARGATE and the corruption of European Parliament leaders, and the involvement of the ETUC General Secretary and other ITUC officials with the IMF, the World Bank, the USA and Qatar, should attack trade unionists who have been at the forefront of struggles in France and elsewhere.
It is hypocrisy to speak of the defense of human rights by those who only recognize as “Democracy and Freedom” those who agree with the actions, maneuvers and wars of the USA and NATO. Trade unions do not accept that workers’ rights and struggles should be subject to the criteria of this so-called “democracy” as defined by the US State Department and the CIA.
Unions that truly serve the working class do not support any capitalist state or government, whatever its color or leadership. They are always on the side of the workers and their struggles. They do not choose or align themselves behind one imperialist camp or alliance or another. This is what the ITUC-ETUC openly does by supporting imperialist interventions and wars, aligning itself with NATO, the USA and the EU, which are the murderers of peoples and persecutors of trade union activists.
We strongly condemn governments that serve monopolies and business groups worldwide. We do not accept any capitalist government as pro-worker, and we support workers’ struggles in all, organized and developed against monopolies and the governments that serve them.
That’s why PAME has supported the workers of France for all these years. That’s why PAME has been at the side of all peoples and workers in struggle. We have supported the health workers during the pandemic, the Cuban doctors, the children of Yemen, the women and people of Iran, just as we have supported the women of the United States who have been denied the right to abortion. We have supported the women of Palestine who see their little children in Israeli prisons, but we have also supported the women of Ukraine and Russia who are victims of the conflict for the interests of the imperialist centers.
Slander is another weapon of the forces that want workers to be divided and disoriented.
Dear comrades, in Greece, we have a duty and an obligation to thank the Unions départementales CGT des Bouches-du-Rhône, du Val de Marne, du Tarn-et-Garonne and the national federations of Commerce and Chemical industries, the local unions and trade unions in France for their constant solidarity and support for the great struggles of Greek workers.
In every difficult moment, they have been at our side. And that’s why the Greek unions, together with PAME, have also always stood by French workers during their major strike mobilizations. We have condemned police repression and violence, the arrests of many comrades, the requisitioning of strikers, organizing demonstrations outside the French embassy and consulates in Greece. PAME delegations have gone to Paris, Marseille and elsewhere, again and again, to support the struggle of French workers.
We stand by our French comrades who, thanks to the struggle they have waged in recent months, have become an international symbol of unity, resistance and hope for the working class, an example for workers all over the world.
We express our solidarity with the workers of France and the militant unions of France and their new great mobilization on June 6!
