MONARCHY PREPARING NEW OFFENSIVE AGAINST WORKERS
' [The following article. has been translated by World Us L208 from ‘the March issue of Ergatike Demokratia (Workers Democracy) publication of the Greek Trotskyist movement. ]
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Since the events that broke out last July 15 [with the forced resignation of Premier Papandreou], we have repeatedly said.that the basic aim of the palace. coup was to crush the workers movement and to take away even the most minor economic:'and political conquests of the working class and the exvloited and oppressed masses.
In a preceding article, we summed up the basic political events of December and January as follows:
"It is obvious. The bourgeois reactionary forces, standing behind the court, are preparing an all-out offensive to crush the workers movement. They are organizing and preparing their forces for the propitious moment. The entire question as they see it is to wear out the masses,: to exhaust. them, to confuse then, and. thus make their victory more. certain.. hos
Almost two months’ have gone by since then.: “And the class collaborationists have not:missed a.single opportunity to sow confusion and to cultivate fatal illusions by calling for the "isolation of the forces of disorder" and: pleading for "order." But how quickly the harsh logic of the. facts is exposing the petty-bourgeois -theories'of class collaboration and class harmony. a
In the past two months the unstable court government, seeking to get out of the blind alley in which it finds itself, and relying on the reassuring line of the EDA [the United Democratic Left] and the XKE [the Communist Party of Greece] in favor of restoring order, has undertaken increasingly Severe measures against the workers movement.
In addition to the continually broadening use of the law for drafting strikers, we have had the following in the two months that have :just ended: the creation of military groups for the organization of the mechanics of strikebreaking; bloody repression of stu-dents in Athens and Thessalonika, including arrests of cadres of the student movement; trials and harsh sentences for the cadres of the left. The terroristic activities of ultra right-wing elements have grown. And on ‘top of all this, the law authorizing administrative deportations has been revived, under the pretext of "limiting the number of foreigners." This fact alone shows how the offensive of ‘the court government to take away the most elementary political liberties of the working: class and the masses of this country is being stepped up.
Who: can ‘doubt the purely political character of these depor-_
tations, since it is common knowledge that the deportees are fighters
for the people who were born in Greece? |
And who can still maintain that these deportations do not constitute a kind. of trial balloon, a way of measuring the reaction of the: working class .and: the broad: masses Of. the people, before. wg worse repressions are undertaken? : mE. pos
All of this should make the aims and intentions of the courtarny camarilla obvious to the blind.
They? ‘are » trying to create a defeatist mood among -the workers. o and broed masses of the people. They are bringing to bear their strongest, most pitiless repressive apparatus. They want to cultivate the idea that any struggle against. them is fraught with danger and doomed to defeat.
Their ultimate goal is to create the proper climate for the abolition of all political and trade-union freedoms , for the establishment of an open dictatorship.
- How has the leadership of the workers: ‘movenent,, the EDA. and KKE reacted to all of this? They have not held a single demonstration-against the arrests and trials. They have no perspective of mobilizing the working class. Their answer is declarations, negotiations, debates in parliament; this is the "fighting" of the pettybourgeois left democrats. of the EDA. They ask the court government to respect national and international .law concerning the rights of men and citizens. They ask those who have wet their hands in the. blood of.-the workers so many times to:respect the political and trade-union freedoms of the working class. They make offers and seek a dialogue and an understanding with those who organized the coup d'état, always with the same goal, "order.
RLY of this” is mere paper warfere, » the : familiar parliamentary. chatter:and illusions of the class-collaborationist leaders. These are the familiar methods with which they cultivate illusions and . seducé’ the workers and the masses of the people. These are the same methods with which they have facilitated the crushing of the workers movement by the exploiting class so many times before. We indict them today, however, for pursuing this policy after the great popular mobilizations of last summer, for allowing fighters for:the Do people to° be. arrested and: deported, without even a protest. demonstration. = ¢ 7 rot
There - is no room for doubt that » entle prosecutions, arrests .
and deportations will multiply every day, if the~ working class and the left’ morvre ment do. not Give a. direct, determined. reply.
Ana ‘the. only effective ‘reply at. this point is- the militant . mobilization of? the working class and the broad masses:of the people, . with rallies and demonstrations in’all of the cities of the country, ©: and organization of a general strike throughout Greece against the presecutions, arrests and deportations. For the abolition of all laws against the workers! For the legalization of all workers parties!
‘By ‘taking the goal. of overthrowing -the court government and the: court—military. camarilla, of halting bourgeois reaction, the workers: movement: will be able to hold and-extend its conquests and . open up ‘the fight to abolish the exploitive regime. There is no other road. The opposite policy of "the peaceful road" and "order" will. lead to a new defeat for the working class -- to the unveiled dicta torship’ of ‘big business. A
We. ‘Gepeat. The responsibility for mobilizing the workers ain a class front of struggle, without compromise with the capitalist. parties, with the above goals and linked to the day-to-day economic struggle, falls on the vanguard fighters who have come to. understand the ‘treacherous role” of the two class-collaborationist parties, She. EDA and the KKE . ae aa
. En face of ‘the danger of a new disaster for. ‘the working class, no doubts. ‘about the solidarity and united action of the working class can be tolerated. :
' The working class, supported by the poor people of Athens and of the country, is continuing its resistance to the offensive of the court-military camarilla. However, the basic obstacle to their struggle is their class-collaborationist leadership. Thus a basic need of revolutionaries parallel to the struggle against the class enemy is to fight the class collaborationists courageously, laying the ena work for the consolidation of a new revolutionary leadership. For 4... revolutionary workers party!
Only thus will the: offensive. of bourgeois reaction be. “pepellea. We will hold our small economic and political conquests and we will . extend them. And we will open the road for the overthrow of this rotten bourgeois society which can offer us only unemployment, hunger and war, and we will lay the foundations for the construction of a. new society, without exploitation and oppression, for socialism.
LUU THANH KIEM
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