Tens of thousands of workers, struggling farmers and self-employed people, young men and women, students and pensioners from every corner of the country flooded the streets of Thessaloniki, on Saturday 5th of September, sending a message of struggle, hope and counterattack.
We salute the federations, labor centers, trade unions and mass organizations from across Greece that devoted all their efforts to making the rally a success.
The scenes were unprecedented! Τens of thousands of demonstrators, carrying their unions’ flags and banners and chanting their slogans outside the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF), made their own declaration, bringing the people’s real needs to the forefront!
This major nationwide workers’ and people’s mobilization on Saturday constitutes a valuable legacy for the great struggles ahead. It is a resounding response to the climate of passivity and waiting cultivated by the New Democracy government and the parties of the convenient opposition.
The people have nothing to expect from old or new “saviors,” from changes of government or the false hopes accompanying them. They all agree on the policy of exploitation, bloody budget surpluses and military spending that bleeds the people dry.
There is no room for waiting, we will not stop for a single moment!
We are beginning preparations now for the next great battles, for escalating strike action and struggle on every major front: against soaring prices, involvement in war, stagnant wages, 13-hour working days and the commercialization of healthcare and education.
For the people to win, capital must lose!
We demand wage and pension increases, collective bargaining agreements, and the restoration of the 13th and 14th salaries and pension payments. We demand a tax-free income threshold of €12,000 and the abolition of VAT on essential goods; exclusively public and free healthcare and education; and effective health and safety measures in the workplace so that we do not have to mourn any more of our colleagues. Not one euro for imperialist wars!
The great popular river that flooded Thessaloniki shows the way forward, the building of a powerful, militant workers’ and people’s movement with shared goals of struggle, confronting capital, the state, the government, the USA, NATO and the EU.
We are not waiting for saviors, we are taking our lives and our future into our own hands! By organizing in every workplace, building strong trade unions and forging an alliance of workers, farmers and the self-employed.
We will make today’s magnificent mobilization the starting point for new, even larger and more determined struggles to overturn anti-people policies.
The organized people are our only hope!
No sacrifice for their wars and profits!
