ANTARSYA statement to NPA and SWP

22.05.10

ANTARSYA - Front of Greek Anticapitalist and Revolutionary Left

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Dear Comrades,

In light of the measures announced by the Greek Government as part of the deal to get the aid package from the IMF and the EU, we think that the initiative of organizations of the anticapitalist Left in Europe to express their solidarity with the Greek labour movement is more than welcome. These measures are a declaration of war against the forces of labour in Greece. It is the biggest attack against workers’ rights for many decades. The Papandreou government, the bankers, the IMF and the EU want to impose a condition of social barbarism. At the same time anger is growing and mass strikes and demonstrations are offering signs of the workers’ resistance. The Left is facing a challenge of historical proportions.

ANTARSYA insists on the need for an escalation of struggles, with general and sectoral strikes and mass rallies that will challenge the attack by the government, the IMF and the EU, defend workers’ rights and demand that capitalists and not workers pay for the crisis. We will keep on fighting with all our forces. No pasaran!

It is time for a coordinated international answer to the attempt by capitalists, the EU and the IMF to impose the cost of crisis upon workers. The forces of the Anticapitalist Left of Europe must stand up to the challenge. With confidence in the potential of collective struggle and workers’ militancy, we can defeat the forces of capital and open up the way for the anticapitalist alternative. That is why we welcome the proposal for coordinated action of solidarity and against the cuts on European level by forces of Anticapitalist left and the movements.

Now is the time for the forces of the Anticapitalist Left to coordinate their actions and insist on the possibility for an anticapitalist answer to the crisis. What is needed is a set of concrete political goals that represent a clear break with bourgeois politics, offer the possibility to change the balance of forces in favour of the working class and open the way for radical social change, a new socialist and communist future.

We also insist that such an anticapitalist program must take a clear stance against the EU. In our opinion it is not possible to ‘reform’ the EU, the only way is the fight of the workers in each country for the anticapitalist exit from the EU and the common internationalist struggle for the dismantling of the EU. We think that such an anticapitalist program must include the following political goals:

· Disobedience against IMF and EU directives – Exit form the Eurozone and the EMU – Struggle for the anticapitalist exist from the EU.

· Immediate stoppage to foreign debt payments now – Give money to workers not bankers

· Nationalization of Banks under workers’ control

· Tax Capital – immediate cuts to military expenditures

· Ban lay-offs – Secure and decent jobs for all.

· Immediate increase to wages – protect collective agreements

· Legalize immigrants – political asylum and shelters for refugees

· Public social security, Health System, and Education for all!

ANTARSYA, Athens, May 2010