Thomas Riggins
"GREECE : STRIKES AGAINST PENSION CHANGE BEGIN" so begins a World Briefing entry by Anthee Carassava in today's New York Times International section (11/27/07).
The capitalist neoliberal assault on worker's rights in the EU is not confined to France. There is a general trend, since the fall of the USSR and the Eastern European worker's states, to roll back the gains of the European working class since the end of WW2.
The reasons are the same in Greece as in France. "Striking teachers marched through Athens streets, part of a planned wave of strikes against what unions describe as government plans to raise retirement ages and cut benefits to millions of future retirees."
It's not just the teachers. The journalists union was supposed to to go on strike today for 24 hours, and a GENERAL STRIKE [why don't we have those here?] is "scheduled for Dec. 12."
In the same World Briefing, the AP reports that doctors in Italy have walked off the job across the country. "Unions representing 135,000 medical workers called the walkout to protest stalled negotiations over contracts."
More strikes are planned by other unions, AP reports. A "series of strikes on Friday... are expected to idle many trains, ferries and planes, as well as buses and subway trains."
The most effective fight back would be an EU wide coordinated GENERAL STRIKE committee as more attacks on the workers in other EU countries are being planned by the corporations and capitalist elites and their governments.
from PAEditorsBlog
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