The working class has a common struggle against governments’
anti-worker attacks and capitalist exploitation
On 12 February, India’s trade unions are going on a general strike
against the new anti-worker legislation being prepared by the Modi
government. Farmers’ associations are also participating in the strike.
The new “Labour Code,” under the pretext of simplifying labour
legislation, delivers a blow to Collective Bargaining Agreements, the
right to union organisation, and the right to strike, while intensifying
insecurity and exploitation.
At the same time, the Indian government is promoting privatisations and
the commodification of Health and Education, as well as of strategic
sectors of the economy such as Energy, Railways, and Telecommunications,
with the sole criterion being the profitability and competitiveness of
business groups. The living standards of workers, already hit by rising
prices and low wages, are expected to deteriorate even further as a
result of this policy.
Workers in Greece know this policy very well, as it has been implemented
by governments of all shades, social-democratic and liberal alike. In
October, thousands of workers went on strike against the 13-hour
workday, against the dismantling of a stable daily working time and the
turning of our lives into a rubber band stretched for capital’s profits.
We demanded a 7-hour day – 5-day week – 35-hour week, collective
agreements, and wage increases.
Against the war economy, against the transformation of ports and
infrastructure into links in the imperialist wars of the EU, the USA and
NATO, dockworkers from six countries and twenty Mediterranean ports
delivered a powerful strike response on 6 February, under the slogan:
“Dockworkers do not work for war.”
In Greece, on 13 February, we continue our mobilisations against the new
disgraceful agreement of the compromised leadership of the GSEE with the
government and the industrialists, which is being brought to Parliament
for a vote and places new obstacles to collective agreements while
further crushing already low wages. We welcome the farmers who are
coming to Athens with their tractors for a large nationwide rally,
demanding the self-evident: to be able to cultivate, to remain in
production, and to have a dignified income. We escalate with a strike on
28 February, three years after the crime of the train collision in
Tempi, under the slogan “Their profits or our lives.”
From India to Greece, the answer lies in mass organisation in the trade
unions, in strengthening the struggles of demands against monopolies,
governments and imperialist organisations, and in confronting the line
of compromise and submission which, at the international level, is
expressed by the ITUC.
PAME expresses its solidarity with the trade unions and workers of India
and wishes you every success in your strike. We strengthen the common
struggle of workers, farmers and all the people against the policy of
profit that sacrifices our needs and our lives. With a class
orientation, with internationalist solidarity, with the unity of the
working class in every country and internationally, we intensify the
struggle for work with rights, for Collective Agreements, for Health and
Education, against imperialist wars and the system of exploitation.
Solidarity is the weapon of the workers!
