Greek Revolt: Update 16th March 2010

Electricity workers on strike at Alimos, southeastern Athens, with a banner "Mr Minister, what kind of social policies are these?"



Electricity workers strike threatens Greece with Black-out (Extracts from Taxikipali's report, see the entire text on Libcom.org - Spanish - German)

The 48h strike of the National Electricity Company (DEH) workers has seen 7 major power-factories shut their engines, with workers threatening to shut-down more and plunged Greece in black-out. The workers yesterday occupied the Unemployed Office Headquarters in Athens, the Company's offices in Ptolemaida and Megalopolis (both major power producing units) and a production unit in Agios Dimitrios. At the same time workers of WIND formed a demo outside the Labour Inspection headquarters in Athens in protest to the firing of one worker by the company, while workers of the textile industry ELITE blockaded the entrance of the Ministry of Labour. Meanwhile in the north of the country, ambulance workers have blockaded the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace in Salonica, and textile workers of ENKLO industries occupied two major banks of the city of Komotini, as well as the County headquarters of Imathia.

On evening ADEDY staged a central protest march against the measures in Athens. An estimated crowd of more than 10,000 people, surrounded by strong riot police forces, reached Klathmonos square on its way to the Parliament, while the tail of the demo was still at the height of Rex on Panepistimiou street. The march was concluded with protesters throwing stones at the riot police squads guarding the parliament, and the cops responding with tear gas. One man has been detained. Similar protest marches took place in Thessaloniki and in Heraklion, Crete.

Moreover, taxi drivers and gas stations have called a 24h strike for Thursday.

About the attitude of the Greeks towards the electricty strikes, Taxikipali gives the followning assessment:

At the moment there does not seem to be any resentment towards the DEH strike, as one hour black-outs are not such a huge problem for daily life. Generally people are tolerant to problems created by strikes, or simply used to them. Of course the media do their best to vilify this and any strike as burdening the people, but such neoliberalist tricks are far off the target in the present situation where so many people are seeing their salaries cut.


Strikes to cause more disruption (by Pantelis Saitas /Athens News Agency)

Greek power strike leads to electricity shortage (from DPA)

Blackouts and minor clashes in Greece (from AP)

Greek labor unions end one more day of protests (from Xinhua News Agency, China)

Lambros Fountas: DNA tests thwart terror probe (by Ekathimerini)

Two cars of the Greek Diplomatic Corps burned in Brussels (from Cemab)

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There's only one thing left to settle: our accounts with capital and it's state by "Proles and Poor's Credit Rating Agency" (TPTG), a Greek autonomous communist group (an analytical memorandum on the working class struggles against austerity measures in Greece, published 14th March 2010)

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Foto from Ekathimerini