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Solidarity with Greek workers
Speech by TUC President Leslie
Manasseh
28 January 2015
Greece Solidarity Campaign rally
On Wednesday, TUC President Leslie Manasseh addressed a
Greece Solidarity Campaign rally at Congress House marking
Syriza’s election victory the previous Sunday. This is an
edited version.
Dear friends
It is a great pleasure to speak at this event, and, as
President of the TUC, to welcome you to the home of the
British trade union movement.
Syriza’s spectacularly successful election campaign was
described as being about hope. I want to say thank you to
the organizers in the Greece Solidarity Campaign, who,
since they organized this event several weeks ago,
obviously believe in faith, as well as in hope!
I want to congratulate the Greek people for their courage,
their defiance and their optimism. They have given us a
true lesson in democracy in the country that invented the
system so many centuries ago.
They face a huge struggle now, and they will need our
solidarity.
briefin
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Let’s reflect on what led to this dramatic election.
The country's conservative elite cooked the books when
Greece entered the eurozone in 2001. The growth that
followed was propped up by capital flows from northern
Europe seeking to invest their savings and surpluses.
Then the mother of all crises hit and Greek government debt
became unsustainable. The PASOK government adopt a first
and then a second round of austerity measures, in exchange
for a £90 billion EU rescue package.
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Greece solidarity campaign speech
The austerity measures ranged from VAT hikes, pension cuts
and a lower minimum wage to the undermining of collective
bargaining and the usual menu of neo-liberal economics,
sparking national strikes and protests by our brothers and
sisters in the trade unions and the public at large.
Those austerity measures failed on their own merits, as the
IMF have now admitted, but led to unemployment rates over
25% and youth unemployment over 50%. And the country’s debt
carried on growing. In 2011 EU countries wrote off 50% of
Greek debt...but only in return for further austerity
measures.
Prime Minister Papandreou suggested putting that deal to
the people in a referendum, but then retracted and
subsequently resigned. Many Greeks saw this as the final
proof that their country had been occupied, their
government supplanted by the infamous troika – the European
Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and European
Commission.
Another bail out plan followed and the 2012 elections saw
anti-austerity forces grow, but also the Nazis of Golden
Dawn – a morbid symptom of austerity and the damage done to
society by the troika - a party whose leadership has been
convicted for money laundering and being part of a criminal
organisation.
So after four bailout packages, Greece’s debt to GDP ratio
stands at 174% - nearly twice the rate in Britain. And a
major part of the reason is that austerity has shrunk the
Greek economy by 25%.
No one denies that the Greek economy needed treatment – tax
evasion by the rich and professional classes, elite
corruption in public sector contracts and jobs - but the
medicine prescribed has been killing the patient.
Inequality has soared, while big wealth has remained
virtually untouched. Austerity was for ordinary people,
while the rich benefited from tax cuts on their properties.
In 2011, even the IMF accepted that tax arrears amounted to
nearly half of the country's budget deficit.
This is the background to Sunday’s election result. Until
Sunday, the term Greek tragedy was justifiable. But now the
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Greece solidarity campaign speech
Greek people have chosen hope rather than resignation and
submission to neoliberal politics and austerity economics.
Syriza's programme, outlined by its leader in Thessaloniki
last September (and in discussion with the TUC just a year
or so ago in this very building) calls for a ‘European New
Deal’ of public investment, to be financed by the European
Investment Bank. That is precisely what the European Trade
Union Confederation calls for in our ‘New Path for Europe’,
backed by the TUC and trade unions across Europe, including
the German DGB.
Syriza called in September for exactly the quantitative
easing (QE) that the European Central Bank started last
week, demonstrating that what ‘experts’ declare impossible
one day can be reality the next.
Syriza’s call for a European conference to discuss what to
do about the debt echoes the help that was provided to
Germany last century, and their proposal to tie loan
repayments to growth would give Greece’s creditors a real
stake in restoring the health of the Greek economy.
Syriza’s leaders have stressed that they are ready to
negotiate and build the broadest possible alliances in
Europe, unlike the previous Greek government that seemed
intent on building an alliance only with their paymasters
Syriza has also pledged to meet Greek trade union demands
for restoring salary levels and pensions to provide social
justice and increase demand. Other commitment included free
electricity and meal subsidies, reinstating a Christmas
bonus, free medical care for the uninsured and free public
transport for the long-term unemployed.
They are committed to tackling tax evasion and corruption,
which are still endemic.
The challenges will be immense, and the Greek people, their
trade unions and their Government will need our solidarity.
We need to build a popular movement to overturn austerity
in Europe and also in Britain – indeed, ending austerity
here in Britain could be the best thing we can do to help
Syriza and the Greek people.
We also need to back the government and the people in
tackling Golden Dawn, which has lost support significantly
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Greece solidarity campaign speech
since the European Parliament elections, and been forced
below their level of support in the 2012 General Election,
although they have still secured a worrying 6-7%.
Syriza's ability to reverse austerity and the social crisis
it has caused will depend on maintaining public support in
Greece, and on the support we can mobilize around the rest
of Europe. But the Greek people have embarked on a new path
– one that clearly rejects austerity and puts the people,
not the markets, centre stage.
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