During PAME Congress in Athens took place a meeting of the International Delegations under the theme
Against the system of wars, poverty and exploitation
We RESPOND with Organisation, Solidarity, Class Struggles
The unions exchanged experiences, information and ideas on the ongoing and future struggles of the militant unions and expressed their solidarity with the people of Palestine, with the workers of Greece and debated on many important issues.
The interventions of all international delegations will be published very soon.
Intervention of PAME, by comrade Nikolas Theodorakis, from the Secretariat of PAME, Responsible for the International Department.
Photos
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBRz5y
Against the system of wars, poverty and exploitation
We RESIST with Organisation, Solidarity, Class Struggles
Dear comrades
We welcome you again to the National Congress of PAME and to the meeting we are holding with the international delegations in order to have the opportunity to discuss, exchange thoughts and experiences about the struggles that the workers’ movement is developing in our countries and internationally and to use your presence to strengthen the common actions and initiatives of the militant trade unions.
But first of all, we want to thank your organisations and you personally for the constant solidarity you have expressed over the years to the struggles of the workers of Greece and PAME. A solidarity that is again sealed by your presence here today. In particular the World Trade Union Federation, which all these years has stood by the side of the workers of Greece in every way, next to every small or big struggle, to express the basic principles of the workers’ movement, proletarian internationalism and Solidarity. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the many other trade unions that sent messages of greetings, trade unions and trade unionists who we had wanted to be with us today but the short time and financial constraints did not allow it.
It is particularly important to stress the firm support and solidarity of the militant trade unions to the peoples of Palestine and Lebanon against the genocide by the murderous state of Israel. A crime carried out with the support of the US-NATO-EU and the bourgeois governments of our country and many others. In the face of this crime, the mass, militancy and diversity of the great popular, workers’ and youth solidarity movements with Palestine gives us strength and optimism. Mobilisations that continue in the face of state repression, in the face of propaganda and the persecution – even of Jewish militants – on the alleged charge of anti-Semitism, or, like our comrade Jean Paul, who is here, on the charge of ‘invoking terrorism’.
Dear comrades, our discussion on the theme “Against the system of wars, poverty and exploitation, we RESIST with Organisation, Solidarity, Class Struggles” We think it expresses the common position of workers all over the world, who in recent years, especially after the pandemic, have been under an escalating attack by the barbaric system. In the face of this attack, which has caused enormous consequences for millions around the world, the power of the organised, militant working class has once again emerged, but more powerfully, more loudly than in previous decades.
The great worker-people’s mobilizations of recent years have confirmed that things are not static, that workers have the power. A significant contribution to this was made by the great strike wave in France, with huge mobilisations even in areas that had not moved since May 1968! There were strikes involving millions of workers, in many sectors with a long duration, diversity of struggle, organization from the grassroots. These characteristics inspired workers all over Europe with class optimism about the power of the working class.
As a direct effect of the big mobilisations in France already in the following months there were big mobilisations in many countries for collective agreements, increases in wages and pensions, strengthening of the people’s income against the increase in the cost of living.
In Germany, workers ‘blacked out’ transport, education, hospitals, public sectors. According to the media these were the biggest strikes in decades.
In Britain, in a number of industries, the railways, hospitals, education, public sector, and many other businesses and large workplaces.
In Spain, health service workers in Madrid shocked Spain with their huge mobilisations
Teachers in Portugal, dockers in Finland, health workers in the Netherlands, commerce workers in Belgium and hundreds of thousands of other workers in various sectors in many countries have also shown with their struggles that the class struggle remains at the heart of social developments.
We also note the large mobilisations of poor farmers in many European countries, which reached as far as the European Parliament in Brussels.
Even in the USA, we saw a huge strike wave, with variations and many issues for study and of course criticism, especially towards the role of the trade union leaderships, but even there we had very big strikes in the ports, in the car industries, in hotels, in actors, screenwriters, etc.
At the same time, we have had more intense developments and mass action, with the uprisings and upsurges in countries like Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, in countries in Africa, Asia, etc., again against the background of the sharp, huge increase in the cost of living for the people. Of course, I am not repeating the mobilisations that developed in Greece and were mentioned in detail in the introduction to the Congress this morning.
These great workers’ and people’s struggles prove once again that conditions can be created for a sudden awakening of the popular masses and a rapid rise of the workers’ and people’s movement. The mechanisms of the system see the same, with a recent report of the International Monetary Fund, noting “growing social resistance” to “structural reforms” all over the world and stressing that much more needs to be done than yesterday so that the bourgeoisie can bring the workers into their plans, which include a decisive shift to the war economy, the “green” and “digital transition”.
This assessment comes alongside the IMF’s strong concern, typically expressed in the phrase “Prepare for uncertain times” in its annual Economic report, noting that “global growth is expected to remain stable but unsatisfactory”, further downgrading its forecasts for the Eurozone, China and Japan
These developments go hand in hand with the shift of capitalist organisations towards the war economy, where we typically see in June 2024 the European Commission calling for additional defence investment of around €500 billion over the next decade.”
It also recommends increasing cooperative procurement of military equipment, as well as favouring European business groups over competitors – mainly from the US – even though, as the report records, their annual turnover already exceeded €135 billion in 2022! In order to further inflate these profits, the report points out that …we need …to increase aggregate demand, which is 1/3 that of the US.
It is in this context that the efforts of the monopolies, imperialist organizations, etc. to control and prevent workers’ reactions or even exploit them in the direction of supporting the monopolies’ goals, or to rally them to the imperialists’ wars, are escalating.
Within Europe the attempt to interfere in the orientation of the trade unions to become in many cases a support mechanism in favour of the so-called “progressive”/social democratic forces has left behind any pretext with the ETUC in the European elections making proclamations in favour of these political forces. This even from the same forces that talk about “independent” trade unions.
Similarly in the US, large labour federations, which for years have abandoned any connection with the working class, have been turned into mechanisms for supporting Harris to “keep Trump out.” This effort was supported by ITUC and its branch organisations, with the UNI General Secretary’s statement that “Biden was the most pro-union president of the USA!” She even dared to make this statement over the blood of the children of Palestine, whose genocide the Biden administration is financing-except that it was he himself who had banned the train strike by presidential decree…
The same forces take an oath of loyalty to the imperialists, even if they commit genocide. In particular, the Israeli organization HISTADRUT has launched a campaign of pressure on trade unions that do not openly express their support for Israel, denouncing “anti-Semitism”. So while the President of HISTADRUT was being photographed signing bombs for Gaza, at the same time he was receiving a “solidarity visit” from the new Secretary General of ITUC. That is, the former Secretary General of ITUC was funded by Qatar not to speak out about the killing of thousands of workers in the World Cup projects, and the new Secretary General was congratulating the genocide of 40,000 Palestinians.
These “unions” that do not call for mobilizations and struggles when wages and workers’ rights were being cut, when layoffs were being made, or when people were dying of the pandemic, are the very same unions that see the workers, the people, as a mere voter, to maintain or change governments according to the plans of the bourgeoisie.
This hypocrisy, with the support of the supposedly “progressive” forces that co-promote anti-worker policies, support the imperialist wars, the genocide in Palestine, praise the EU, leave working-people masses exposed to the false “anti-systemic” and “anti-EU” rhetoric of extreme right-wing and nationalist formations.
For us it is clear that the rise of far-right, fascist forces cannot be countered by the forces that serve the profitability of the few, sacrificing the lives of the many.
It is not progressive to support or even tolerate genocide.
It is not progressive to murder hundreds of refugees and migrants by EU and local governments.
It is not progressive to drown the people of Valencia because the EU considers natural disaster protection projects to be a cost.
We are on the verge of a new capitalist crisis, the consequences of which will once again be borne by the people. At the same time, there is a real risk of generalised wars, of a wider conflict in the field of escalating imperialist antagonisms.
On this basis, it is objectively predictable that all bourgeois governments, regardless of their label, will intensify their anti-people’s policies. Along with the intensification of repression, the suppression of democratic and trade union rights, and terrorism against the peoples.
For the unions that are struggling and fighting for the future of the workers’ movement, for the very life of the working class, we need to be ready. It is necessary to prepare the working forces. That is why today we do not need unions of class peace, social dialogues, genocide apologists and imperialist supporters.
The working class gains experience through its action, through its struggles, through even its defeats we prepare the victories to come.
It is our duty today not to waste time. To strengthen the ideological-political counterattack with the working class theory of the class character of exploitative society. To help so that the anger and indignation of the peoples acquire radical characteristics and not be trapped in false dilemmas of bourgeois political forces, between one imperialist or another.
To support, to express our solidarity in every spark of struggle, to stand by every struggling trade union. Despite any differences we may have, we are united by the common opponent, the common struggle.
In this direction, it is necessary to strengthen international coordination, the joint initiatives of trade unions that agree on the need for a workers’ counter-attack.
Initiatives taken, such as the Port Workers against Israel’s death loads, such as the joint call of trade unions for solidarity with Palestine are, we believe, in the right direction but should be intensified.
On 20 November we are going on a General Strike in Greece sending a message of struggle
On 29 November we call for mobilisations in solidarity with the people of Palestine and Lebanon demanding an end to the crime.
We support the preparations of the European Trade Union Conference of the WFTU on 29-30 January in Paris and every effort in the direction of the reconstruction of the workers’ movement in Europe and internationally.
Today here in Athens, you have seen a part of the action and struggles of the workers of Greece. We in Paris, Marseille, Lille, etc. saw the strength of the workers of France. In Hamburg, in Rome, in Rome, in London, in Istanbul, in every city of the world, the working class lives, breathes and struggles.
With our struggles we have proved again and again that without us, without our work, nothing moves. We produce the wealth, we have the power. Today, from better positions, we can bring to the fore the need of our times for a world without wars, poverty and unemployment, for a world without exploitation.
