GREECE GENERAL STRIKE FEBRUARY 28
2-yearsince the crime-train crash at Tempe
THEIR PROFITS OR OUR LIVES
From the very first moment of the crime-the train crash at Tempe, which cost the lives of 57 people, majority of them young students- we gave our word that ‘we will be the voice of all the dead’ and we will continue till the end. We vowed that we will not live in a vast valley of Tempe, we will fight in an organized way against the policies that sacrifice our lives for the profits of a handful of parasites.
THEIR PROFITS OR OUR LIVES
We call on all workers of the Greece to take part in the strike on 28 February organised by the Railway Workers’ Federation together with hundreds of Regional UnionCentres, Federations and private and public sector unions.
To prosecute those responsible and find out the REAL CAUSESTHAT CAUSED THE CRIME
To achieve real vindication, all political and criminal responsibilities for the crime of Tempe must be attributed. For the real cause of the conflict, the policy that sacrifices even human life for profit, not to be covered up.
We continue the struggle against the policy that deprives us of Oxygen!
The workers of the country, together with the pupils and students, together with all the people, are constantly putting into practice the word we gave two years ago to the families of the victims and to ourselves that we will not let the crime be covered up. It was PLANNED!
This was revealed from the very first moment after dozens of complaints from PAME trade unionists and the railway unions warned of the risk of a major accident. Everybody knew, governments, EU, companies.
They are all complicit. This crime has a history, from all Governments, SYRIZA, PASOK, ND.
The ND government is guilty as well as the previous ones for operating the railway without safety systems, with a typical example being the non-implementation of the necessary projects – contracts. Overall, public transport is in a tragic and dangerous state, catching fire in the middle of the road, derailing etc. They are hugely responsible for understaffing, with thousands of jobs being cut. For the dismemberment, deregulation and privatization of the railways. Provocatively over the years they have been subsidizing HELLENIC TRAIN with tens of millions of euros.
The European Union is guilty of giving the directives and instructions of the ‘liberalization’ of Transport, with tragic consequences in all countries. Only a few weeks ago they congratulated the Mitsotakis government for the reforms in the railways, while he is participating in the cover-up by appointing Tzitzikostas, a member of the New Democracy party, to the post of EU Transport Commissioner.
The Companies Hellenic Train, which has even been “certified” by the EU and governments, and OSE are guilty because they only care about profits. Because companiesmeasure the safety of passengers and workers as a cost.
The complaints of the trade unionists of PAME and the railway unions confirm that the situation is getting worse two years later.
Today at least 2,000 workers, necessary to run the railway safely, are missing. The line is in worse condition than two years ago. The infrastructure and the trains are old and poorly maintained. Despite government assurances, most of the network is without modern safety measures, lighting and communication systems.
The same situation prevails in urban transport, with ageing fleets, old and unmaintained, no health and safety measures, and thousands of job positions cut. That is why we see buses and trains catching fire full of passengers.
Their “Justice” is the courts that are call the rail workers’ strikes illegal when theyhave demands that focus on these very issues of passenger and worker safety.
They do not care about the truth! The real causes that led to the train crash and the horror are the ‘rails of profit stained with blood’ and crushing our lives for the interests of the exploiters of the people! These rails must be torn down!
We will not allow ourselves to live in a vast valley of Tempe.
In the last two years, almost 300 workers have not returned to their families. They breathed their last breath at their workplaces because safety measures are a cost to employers and the government.
Our people are unprotected from natural disasters, fires and floods because the government, region and municipalities refuse to fund the necessary projects and fully staff all necessary services because it is a cost.
Public health structures only function marginally thanks to the self-sacrifice of doctors and all those working in them, while every day we witness schools where ceilings are falling, because maintenance is“cost”.
All this is in addition to the bad situation our people are experiencing with inflation, poverty, low wages, the ‘crows’ that are grabbing people’s homes, at the same time that the government is spending billions of euros on NATO armaments involving our country in imperialist wars.
On the same side as those who blacken our lives are the unionists of the New Democracy, PASOK and SYRIZA/New Left in the GSEE and ADEDY (ETUC affiliates in Greece).
It is shameful the attitude of the GSEE that once again refused to call a strike for this tragedy. It is an insult to the entire labour and popular movement which has been demonstrating for two years to prevent the cover-up by the ND government from going ahead. It is an insult to every honest trade unionist who has been at the forefront of the struggle and before the crime warned of the miserable situation and what was coming.
It is a miserable attempt by the GSEE and ADEDY to exoneratethe EU policy, the policy of liberalisation and privatisation of transport that serves their parties and has led to the liberalisation and privatisation of the railways, their dismemberment, staff shortages and the absence of safety measures. They blame everything on the “pathologies of the system” of the Greek state. They seek to trap popular discontent in channels that are harmless to the system and to deflate popular mobilisations.
Our LIVES are not a cost. On 28 February ALL ON STRIKE!
No waiting, no tolerance to this system of barbarism and exploitation. When the government and the parties that serve this unpopular policy are worried by the huge demonstrations, we must turn their worry into a nightmare. The people must move forward organized, coordinated and massively.
Only when the people go out on the road of strugglewe scare them. We all saw it with our own eyes on Sunday 26 January with 1 million people demonstrating in over 150 cities in Greece and abroad.
This is the way to impose our right, because only this struggle brings results, against policies and the system that ‘does not let us breathe’! One fist, one voice, all workers, students, pupils, self-employed to overturn the barbarity that generates such crimes.
To strengthen the struggle for
No cover-up.
Strengthen the struggle against the policy of ‘liberalisation’ and privatisation of the EU and the governments. For modern, safe, regular, cheap, exclusively public rail transport.
Health and safety measures in all workplaces. Collective labour agreements and fixed daily working hours. Wage increases.
Decisive strengthening of state funding for health, education, welfare, social policy services of municipalities, for protection against natural disasters. Massive recruitment of permanent staff in all these critical sectors.
Strengthen the struggle for the protection of human life. No to military armaments and NATO spending. Greece out of the slaughterhouses of war!
We continue calling on all private and public sector unions to organize the nationwide General strike on 28 February. To flood all the cities of the country with mass popular demonstrations.
In Athens, at Syntagma, at 11am,
THEIR PROFITS OR OUR LIVES
