A CGTP-IN enviou à GSEE, ADEDY e PAME, as três principais estruturas sindicais gregas, uma mensagem de solidariedade à Greve Geral de 27 de Novembro na Grécia, que se realiza em protesto contra as medidas de austeridade e anti sociais que têm conduzido a um brutal agravamento do desemprego, da precariedade, da pobreza e da exploração. Abaixo, transcreve -se a mensagem enviada (em inglês).
Dear Comrades,
On behalf of CGTP-IN and of the Portuguese workers we represent, we extend our most sincere wishes of solidarity and success to the general strike you are doing against anti-worker plans, unemployment, impoverishment and exploitation of the Greek workers and people.
In fact, in Greece, Portugal and other EU countries we are currently living, a particularly difficult moment in the lives of men and women workers and peoples. In the context of a very deep crisis of capitalism, we are being confronted with an extremely violent offensive against historic economic, social and labour rights.
To understand the nature and the cause of the crisis is a crucial point. Neoliberals say that it lies in bad management, scandals, the global financial system, speculators, etc and that, with some regulation applied, neoliberalism could be contained and put back into its normal track. In our view, this crisis is not a mere distortion of capitalist development. It is a product of the capitalist development itself.
This situation is leading to very rapid increase in inequalities. The main cause is the domination of pro-capital governments by big financial and speculative capital. A paramount example is the USA where 10% of the population detains 80% of all the wealth in the country. And these figures are not so different in some EU countries, including Portugal. This enormous concentration of wealth has systematically and abusively favoured big capital to the detriment of the workers and poorer layers of the society. At the global level, day after day, we see thousands and thousands of men and women workers becoming redundant and living in social exclusion and poverty.
This process and the policies driving it, apart from being an attack on democracy, have led to a widespread impoverishment of the workers and of the poorer layers, by means of increasing unemployment and cutting social welfare and benefits.
We need to draw lessons from the current crisis. If that is not done, if we do not demand a clear break away from the current model and if we do not propose really alternative economic and social policies, there is the risk that simply something may change so that the essential remains untouched, with workers and peoples making new and increasingly dramatic sacrifices.
In Portugal and in many EU member states, unemployment and precariousness are reaching unbearable levels, salaries and pensions are losing purchasing power, social and labour rights are weakened or mutilated, retirement schemes are undermined, fiscal injustice is increasing and there is a strong wave of privatisations and attack against the public services, nowadays done in the name of the so-called austerity policies, and of cutting the deficit and public debt.
European institutions and the bigger powers (Germany in particular) are imposing "colonial" policies on the weaker states, to the benefit of the stronger economies and of their big banks.
We are in fact at a very crucial crossroads. We only have to look at the measures imposed in a large number of EU countries, being particularly violent in countries where IMF, ECB and EU "troikas" have been imposing "bail-out programmes", which are in fact aggression tools on national sovereignty. This is confirmed by the critical developments in Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and Ireland and in other countries (Spain, Italy). In this spiral of destruction, the European Union and the IMF are always on the side of capital and against workers rights and interests.
For all these reasons, all across Europe, workers and trade unions must step up their struggles and fight for a clear rupture with these neoliberal policies and with the EU model. We need to build a different Europe, a Europe of workers and peoples, with social dimension, solidarity and cooperation, with respect for member states' sovereignties and specific interests and needs.
In Portugal, our struggle is similar and common to yours. We are fighting against the harsh austerity measures and we are organising many strikes, rallies, demonstrations and diverse protest actions for the resignation of the right wing government and the calling of an early election that may create the conditions for a different path for Portugal, for an alternative that puts an end to exploitation and secures a future of economic and social progress.
Fraternal Regards
Augusto Praça
CGTP-IN Executive Board