Interview Panousis Panagiotas, member of the Board of Directors of the EK Arcadia and the Union of Employees in Commercial Enterprises and Services, Stores and SA. N. Arcadia
EVERYONE ON STRIKE MAY 1ST, M. WEDNESDAY
The 1st of May is the day of the workers of the whole world and as such it marks the continuous struggle of the workers for the rights of our class with the final destination of abolishing the exploitation of man by man, for a world without exploitation, poverty, wars and refugees.
130 years since May Day in Athens and the claim of 8 hours, as a mature need at the time, we are faced with the counter-productive EU Directives that all governments and the current one have turned into laws for its abolition, the establishment of 13 hours – 6 days and 7 days of work, to strike down Collective Bargaining Agreements and keep the minimum wage and wages down at a time when punctuality and the cost of living have skyrocketed.
80 years since the execution of the 200 communists in Kaisariani and the 40 National Resistance fighters in Tripoli in 1944, this May Day sees us face an all-out attack by the EU, governments and capital, aiming to obstruct our struggles , to present this barbaric reality we live in as a one-way street.
The working class with its struggles shouts that we do not compromise with injustice and exploitation, with wars for the interests of the few.
We continue the struggle on our own path that will make it possible for us workers to enjoy the wealth that comes from our work and our hands. This is our perspective. This is the only real path that benefits our needs and the needs of our families.
Colleagues,
75 years since the founding of NATO, the peoples are experiencing the consequences of the imperialist wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and in our country the consequences of the ever deeper involvement in them. By tying it to NATO and the EU for the interests of shipowners, industrialists and businessmen.
The strike battles on February 28 and April 17, despite the obstacles of the leaderships of GSEE and ADEDY, PASKE, DAKE, SYRIZA/New Left, showed that we put our lives before the profits of the few. This is our answer:
In imperialist wars and imperialist designs. In the involvement of our country in the “mouth of the wolf”, in Ukraine, in the support of the murderous state of Israel that slaughters the Palestinian people.
No one, neither the government nor the Minister of Labor, is paying attention to workplace crimes, which since the beginning of the year have killed 32 workers, 12 of them in the construction industry.
In the accuracy, revaluations and tax evasion, with our struggle we claim:
Measures to support our income, increases in wages and daily wages, signing of a new Branch Collective Labor Agreement. 7 hours – 35 hours – 5 days. Repeal anti-labor laws that crush the 8-hour shift, that criminalize strikes and union action.
Leaving aside the strike battles we have fought, we commit all our forces to the FIRST STRIKE to give new impetus, new dynamics to our struggle. To strengthen the assertion so that we can have results that will relieve our lives.
We don’t back down, we don’t compromise. We choose the strength of our struggle.
We choose what the historical legacy of the dead, the tortured, the imprisoned of our class teaches us about the rights of the worker. The History of our class, filled with blood, sacrifices and struggle, which educates us, inspires us for the struggles of today and heralds the great struggles of tomorrow, the great victories, the great History that the people will write
On the 1st of May, everyone is on strike
All at the strike meeting of the Unions in Tripoli on 10.30 in the morning at pl. Petrinou
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