Dear Comrades,

On behalf of the Executive Secretariat of All Workers Militant Front (PAME), which represents the class oriented trade union movement of Greece, we salute the 14th Congress of your Federation.

Once more, we would like to express our condemnation for the terrorist attack against the working class of Turkey, in Ankara.

Your congress is taking place at a time when the offensive of the capital and its governments against the workers of all countries and the imperialist interventions of US-NATO-EU in our region are escalating, while we are witnessing the uprooting of hundreds of thousands refugees in Turkey and Greece.

Faced with these developments, struggles such as the big strike in Leroy Merlin, the great strike of metalworkers last year, and other struggles of Turkish workers were a point of reference for the militant trade unions around the world.

Similarly, in Greece, PAME has led over the last six years more than 30 general strikes against the onslaught of the capital, its governments and the imperialist organizations.

In the commerce sector, many day strikes took place in multinationals such as PRAKTIKER, Carrefour etc. Only a few weeks ago, we had two new general strikes against the anti workers’ plans of the SYRIZA government.

Today, the Greek Government of SYRIZA is planing a new attack on Social Security, pensions, trade union rights, and the right to strike.

Faced with this development, we are organizing a new national general strike in the coming days, we intensify the struggle. We are revealing the role of the government, which, by using a “left mask” and in collaboration with the European Union-IMF, it crushes Greek workers with a new anti-labour memorandum. At the same time, together with the nationalist, racist ANEL party it supports all the imperialist interventions of US-NATO-EU in the region.

It is certain that the situation for the workers and the people would not be as bad if the forces that cultivate the logic of class collaboration, subordination of workers to the demands of the multinationals did not exist within the trade union movement. It is a typical attitude of employer-controled unions in Europe to comply with the demands of multinationals for wage cuts, a “65 hours” working week, part-time work, and outsourcing as the main form of employment.
This policy is promoted by employer-controled unions in Greece, which said to workers to accept the new barbaric Memorandum that was signed last summer. They are the same trade unions that support the imperialist interventions of the EU-NATO and then shed fake tears for the victims of war and the refugees.

On the other hand, we have the example of militant trade unions from around the world which are on the side of workers and the people of Greece against the anti-labour measures.

In the struggles we gave last years, Sosyal Is has been firmly on our side. Your solidarity messages were read on the strike rallies of PAME in front of hundreds of thousands of workers. Today, at the beginning of your conference, we would like to thank you for your support and solidarity to the struggles of PAME and Greek workers.

We would also like to thank the WFTU forces in Turkey that demonstrated at the Greek Consulate the day of general strike on November 12 to express their solidarity to our struggle.

At the same time PAME has supported your own struggles here in Turkey. The strike in Leroy Merlin, the Metalworkers’ strike and other struggles. We participated in WFTU international activities in Turkey for the victims of Soma, in the global transport trade union meeting in Istanbul.

And, we made one step forward. We met at the European Meeting of trade unions in Commerce to organize the workers’ struggle in Commerce against the multinationals. It is an important work that needs to continue.

Dear Colleagues, We have a solemn duty to fight for the development and coordination of massive class struggles in our countries. To do everything in our power to increase the massiveness of the unions, to create new unions in large monopoly groups, to change the correlation of power in favour of the workers. We need a class oriented movement that fights against the line of the monopolies, the EU, against the governmental and employers’ tradeunionism.

A movement that fights for the satisfaction of workers’ contemporary needs. A movement, which organises the struggle in every workplace, in the whole sector.
An internationalist movement that aims for coordination at European level against capitalist brutality, imperialist wars, the uprooting of the refugees. A movement that expresses its class solidarity to refugees and immigrants, to the struggles of workers. A Movement that aims to abolish the exploitation of man by man.

To the growing offensive of imperialism, the class trade union movements of Greece and Turkey must respond with the strengthening of solidarity, coordination and joint initiatives against the multinationals and capitalist governments.

We wish every success to your congress.

Long live the struggles against exploitation

Long live the struggles for a united working class