PAME expresses its solidarity with the Pancyprian Federation of Labour (PEO) and the workers of Cyprus, who on Thursday, September 11, are proceeding with a nationwide, all-worker mobilization, with a three-hour work stoppage, with their main demand being the defense of the COLA (Cost of Living Allowance) and their wages. They are fighting for wage increases that meet their needs, against the high cost of living and the inflation that crush their incomes.

High prices are neither a natural phenomenon nor the result of the “obsession” of one government or another. They are the other side of capitalist development itself. They are the result of low wages for the profits of the monopolies, the policy of the so-called “green transition,” the “liberalization” of the energy market, and the wars of the EU and NATO. They are yet another aspect of the increased rate of exploitation of the working class, which capital needs both in the EU and internationally. In Greece, for this purpose and as part of the war economy, the government is bringing a new anti-labour monstrosity of a bill for an even greater extension of working time to 13 hours a day, against which the trade unions are preparing their strike response.

From one end of Europe to the other, we workers wage the same battle against our impoverishment, for wage increases and the signing of Collective Agreements, for a reduction of work hours, for measures against high prices and inflation that will protect workers’ and people’s incomes.

Today it is of enormous importance that our common struggles for the overthrow of the barbarity we live in grow stronger everywhere. Not a single sacrifice for the profits of the business groups and the wars of the imperialists. Let us strengthen our unions and our solidarity with the heroic people of Palestine.

We unite our voice with the workers of Cyprus. Our strength lies in organization, in collective action, in internationalist solidarity!