09/03/2023
Mass popular uprising during general strike in Greece
Statements
The indignation of the workers and youth over the train crash in Tempe, in which 57 people —the vast majority of them students— died, is not abating.
On 8 March 2023, a general strike took place in Greece, while university and school students abstained from their classes. Mass strike rallies were held all over the country to condemn the criminal policies that treat safety and human life as a cost and a burden for the profits of the capitalists and the bourgeois state.
This strike highlighted the criminal political choice over railway operation that has been pursued subsequently over the years by the social democratic PASOK, the “leftist” SYRIZA and the liberal ND governments, as well as the EU. The demonstrators
demanded that the real responsibilities and culprits be held accountable
and punished immediately! Through their collective and organized struggle, they fight against a policy that sacrifices the life, health and rights of working-class and popular families for the sake of employers.
The sea of people who flooded the streets of Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa and other cities in the country shouted out loud “IT WAS A CRIME BOUND TO HAPPEN FOR THE SAKE OF CAPITALIST PROFITS”.
The working people and the youth, university and school students with their vitality, turned the grief and anger into struggle. They became the voice of the dead and consigned the government propaganda to the waste bin.
The images of today’s impressive demonstrations can neither be hidden nor overshadowed by the organized provocative plan of the government to disperse the demonstrators in Athens.
The strike took place against the organized attempt to cover up the murderous crime in Tempe, the employers’ intimidation in the workplaces, the measures of repression and intimidation of the people and the obstacles put up by the employer and government-led trade unionism.
Once again the lesson was given on the streets with dozens of thousands school students flooding the streets all over Greece. A big number of schools were kept closed either by the occupying school students or due the great participation of the teaching personnel in the strike. A lot of students went in the streets for the first time and that was the case for many teachers as well.
Dozens have been the decisions of student unions for mobilization while the Student’s Militant Front (MAS) is saluting the staggering participation of thousands of university students by noticing "The message of thousands of students is clear: Do not cover the crime! The rage must become struggle!"
During the demonstration the massive blocks of the school and university students evoked feelings of pride and emotion while the big banner of the Coordinating Committee of the School Students of Athens was applauded as it passed in front of the workers' blocks.
