Great European Upsurge (EU)
In every corner of Greece, popular anger over the government’s latest neoliberal assault on job security, pensions and social services has lead to a series of general strikes involving hundreds of thousands of militant workers.
Throughout the sixth century BCE, a remarkable shift took place in Athens and its surrounding territory, Attica. The ordinary mass of the people — the demos — came to view themselves not as passive subjects but as informed citizens making a vital contribution to the economic development and military defence of the state.
A spirit of equality began to prevail among native-born males, undermining the archaic pattern of elite-mass relations. Political strife ensued, with the traditional aristocracy giving way to a populist tyranny.
Bearable at first, the reign of the Peisistratid dynasty soon degenerated into a cruel and arbitrary repression. In 510 BC, pressure from below ended to dynasty.
Two players emerged as rivals for power in the political vacuum of Athens; Isagoras and Cleisthenes.
Both were well-connected members of the aristocracy, but each had different power bases: Isagoras represented the wealthy landowning and commercial elites whereas Cleisthenes drew on the support of the largely disenfranchised though increasingly class-conscious demos.
In 508 BCE, Isagoras seized power in a military coup with Spartan assistance. Cleisthenes and his most prominent supporters were exiled, and a partially representative assembly (the Council of Four Hundred) was dissolved.
The citizenry of Athens took to the streets in outrage. Rising spontaneously and “of one mind” (according to the near-contemporary historian Herodotus), the people surrounded and besieged the Acropolis, where Isagoras and the Spartans had established their stronghold.
It was a genuinely revolutionary moment and a radical departure from anything that had gone before.
On the third day, Isagoras and his backers were forced from the city. Having “taken control of affairs” (as Aristotle later wrote), the demos “sent for Cleisthenes and the other exiles to come back”.
In the months that followed, Cleisthenes enacted a new and, Aristotle said, “much more democratic” constitution. It was (for eligible citizens), a genuinely participatory democracy, offering an immediate engagement with the day-to-day administration of government.
Of course, Athenian democracy was full of glaring contradictions — such as the exclusion of women, foreign-born residents and slaves (the most unfortunate of whom were worked to death by the thousand in the publicly-owned silver mines).
However, the popular uprising remains a watershed moment in human affairs, establishing a key principle of history: real change can only occur when the people mobilise.
In the aftermath of World War II, during which popular resistance to foreign fascist occupation cost Greece over 300,000 lives, the US-backed right-wing embarked on a sustained campaign of repression against left-wing forces.
This culminated in the seizure of power in 1967 by a military junta responsible for the torture and murder of thousands of socialists, trade unionists and youth activists.
Washington looked on approvingly, despite growing international condemnation.
In November 1973, a student collective at the National Technical University of Athens (known as the Polytechneion) spontaneously rose up against the military regime. Standing united on the barricades against tanks and water cannons, the students proved themselves worthy successors of the ancient Athenians who risked everything back in 508/7 BCE.
“People of Greece”, the students’ underground radio broadcast proclaimed, “the Polytechneion is the flag bearer of our struggle and your struggle, our common struggle against the dictatorship and for democracy!”
Although the demonstration was brutally put down, the courageous example of the students proved electrifying. The popular resistance found renewed strength and the faltering junta fell in 1974.
The lesson that popular mobilisation is the driving force for pro-people change remains more relevant than ever. The strikes and protests shaking Greece show the longstanding Hellenic tradition of standing up to unjust rule is alive and well.
David T. Rowlands,
26 March 2010Green Left Weekly issue #832 31 March 2010.
Tens of thousands of people rallied across Italy on March 1 to defend and extend the rights of immigrants, on a day that organisers dubbed “St. Papers”.
In Rome, several thousand immigrants and supporters marched from Porta Maggiore, an area with a high migrant population, to Piazza Vittoria in the centre of the tourist district. Large contingents from a variety of groups marched, representing Romanian, Kurdish and African communities.
There were larger marches in other cities, with 20,000 in Naples, a centre for African agricultural workers, and 10,000 in Padua.
The St. Papers march was the culmination of a “day without migrants” — a strike by some of the more than 5 million documented and undocumented migrants that make up 10% of the country’s workforce. The strike was mostly symbolic, but featured actual stoppages in some places.
More than 50 factories closed in Breschia after the action gained the support of the metalworkers union.
Marchers in Rome voiced frustration with the increasing anti-immigrant mood of the country and a determination to resist it.
“We work day and night”, said Ion, from Romania, who lived undocumented in the country for years before Romania entered the EU. “We pay taxes every time we buy something.”
Others, especially younger participants, stressed their universal rights, with speaker after
speaker exhorting the march to “stand up for our humanity”.
Much of the rally’s organisation came from a rolling call on Facebook, with “spontaneous committees” arising. Practical arrangements for each rally were handled by local anti-racist coalition committees, organised in part through Italy’s network of
“social centres”, a successor to the far-left autonomist movement.
The movement stresses the degree to which Italy excludes undocumented people from full citizenship. “We are all migrants” was one key refrain.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi responded to the protest by stating that the left “wanted to flood the country with migrants”. Since 2001, migrants in Italy have been subject to increasing legislative and political persecution.
Key to this regime is the Bossi-Fini act, drafted by leaders of the anti-immigrant Northern League and the post-fascist National Alliance party.
Bossi-Fini and various supplements to it have imposed dozens of conditions on migrants to Italy, in effect turning them into provisional guest workers. Among other conditions, children born on Italian soil of migrant parents do not gain Italian citizenship.
The St. Papers theme is related to the “St. Precario” campaign, which advances the rights of “precarious” labour — those thrown into part-time and casual work by the roll-back of wages and conditions in the past decade.
The rally was part of a growing multi-focused resistance to the Berlusconi government. Two days before the St. Papers rally, thousands rallied in Popolo Square, wearing purple scarves and banners, as part of the “Violet” movement. This aims to unite a broad anti-Berlusconi coalition.
Students rallied on the morning of March 1 to protest new laws limiting migrant presence in schools to 30% of total intake.
Figures in the opposition Democratic Party expect Berlusconi and his People of Freedom party to campaign strongly on an anti-migrant platform in regional assembly elections in late March — particularly as Berlusconi’s sales-pitch as an efficient, “post-ideological” leader is wearing increasingly thin.
Guy Rundle,5 March 2010 Green Left Weekly March 10.
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France: Public-sector strike over ‘reforms’
But new labour minister Eric Woerth vowed to press on with changes to the “extremely fragile” pension system — the most controversial proposal.
Unions say Sarkozy’s conservative government hadn’t offered satisfactory plans on jobs, salaries, purchasing power and working conditions. They hope to hammer home that message in the wake of the March 21 regional run-off elections in which the opposition Socialist Party won 23 of France’s 26 regions.
Sarkozy reshuffled his government in response to the electoral defeat, notably replacing labour minister Socialist Party, who was trounced in the voting and was considered to have lost the legitimacy needed to continue the contested reforms.
The transport strike caused significant disruption. Fast trains to Britain and Belgium were running normally, but only 65% of rail traffic was guaranteed within France.
The education ministry said an estimated 30% of primary school teachers failed to show up for class nationwide. About 18% were out in junior high schools and 11% in high schools.
[Abridged from the British Morning Star.]
Workers at a factory facing closure in France have threatened to blow up the plant unless they are given better layoff compensation.
About 50 workers at Sodimatex, which makes car rugs, have been occupying the site in Crepy-en-Valois since Thursday. They are pressuring the company for better compensation.
The employees have placed petrol bombs near a large gas tank and are threatening to set them ablaze.
The French industry minister has condemned the move and urged the workers to settle the row through talks. France is suffering a 10 percent unemployment rate — highest in a decade.
The car industry is among the hardest-hit by the economic slowdown.
Plant closings have led French workers to increasingly militant behavior, with numerous cases of boss-napping over the past year and one other case of a threat to blow up a factory.
Press TV, Iran, Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:08:37 GMT
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