Solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Greece -

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13. Update from the KKE - losses for the people of Greece detailed

Τhe myths concerning the crisis and the response of the KKE and the class-oriented labour movement.

A life of hell for the working class, for all the people who toil is being prepared by the black front of the coalition government-Troika-plutocracy. Their agreement on the measures which have been announced is only the precursor for infinitely worse measures, which they will bring with their “new agreement” by June 2012.

The new memorandum of impoverishment which was voted on 12.2 includes amongst other the following measures:

Salaries

Reduction of basic salaries by 22% (National General Collective Agreement-NGCA, sectoral and professional agreements).
The basic salary for the newly hired workers will be further reduced by 10%, besides the 22% reduction i.e. a reduction of 32%.
Abolition of sectoral bargaining agreements.
Freezing of wages till 2015.
Full time employment will be converted to part-time employment, upon the decision of the employers.
Automatic wage increases based on seniority are suspended till unemployment falls below 10% , in fact they are abolished.
Collective bargaining agreements will last for maximum three years.
All collective bargaining agreements which apply today will expire one year after the adoption of the new memorandum.
Review of the new NGCA by the end of July in order to align with the basic salary in rival countries (Portugal, Turkey, Central and Southeastern Europe).
Abolition of one-sided recourse to arbitration.

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Additional measures in 2012

Reduction in the sector of healthcare and pharmaceutical spending by 1.1 billion Euros.
Cuts in a series of social benefits, by enacting criteria based on income.
Reduction of benefits for families with more than 3 children.
Reduction of operational and consumption spending of the state by 300 million Euros.
Cuts on several entities supervised by the ministries of Education and Culture by 200 million Euros.
Reduction of expenditure on the overtime of doctors in hospitals by 50 million Euros.
Reduction of Public Investment Programmes by 400 million Euros.
Reduction of expenditure on military equipment for the defense of the country.
A new tax system in June 2012 which will abolish a series of tax breaks which have remained for sections of the workers. Larger tax exemptions for big capital


The myths regarding the crisis must be rejected

This massacre of the working class-popular gains which are being implemented by the memorandum of 12/2/2012 as well as Memorandum 1 (2010) and the so-called Medium-term programme were not discovered now, they were clearly described from the Maastricht Treaty to the “Strategy for the Euro 2020” which were agreed on by all the governments in the EU before the crisis. The crisis is of the capitalist system itself and not of the debt as various bourgeois and opportunist claim. The capitalist crisis is the opportunity and pretext for the imposition of measures now which have been already scheduled and are necessary of the competitiveness and profitability of the European monopolies. These are reactionary measures which have as their urgent goal extremely cheap labour power and the mass eradication of small and medium-sized businesses. Without radical changes at the level of the economy and power, as long as the capitalist monopolies are dominant everywhere within the EU there cannot be a pro-people solution, as the opportunist forces, such as SYN/SYRIZA and the forces of the “European Left Party”(ELP). The various so-called pro-people funds, the utopian humanization of the ECB, the various loans which will again be paid for by the people either through Eurobonds or through renegotiation which is proposed by the ELP or through the separation of the debt into allegedly moral and odious debt which again means that the people will pay.

Such management proposals serve capitalist profitability and incriminate the people, so they must be rejected...

Much more here: http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2012/2012-02-16-metra/