Striking lorry drivers clash with riot police as they’re being ordered back to work

[Delenda Carthago]

On Wednesday, the PASOK government issued an emergency order against the strike of the lorry drivers. The order (in greek: politiki epistrateusi, i.e. civil conscription) in theory means that every striking lorry driver will receive a personal letter calling them back to work; disobeying this could result in imprisonment. Also, the political conscription allows the army to intervene and to replace the striking drivers in their duties. This, in turn, means that the army could step in to distribute petrol to gas stations, which have all but completely dried up by today, the fourth day of the strike.




Earlier this morning, a group of striking lorry drivers clashed with the police outside the ministry of Transport in Athens (pic). At this time (14.54 GMT+2) a committee of the strikers is in emergency negotiations with the ministry

Updates will appear here as they come.

from Occupied London

[DunyaGongrenKomRevolyutsi]

On Wednesday, the PASOK government issued an emergency order against the strike of the lorry drivers. The order (in greek: politiki epistrateusi, i.e. civil conscription) in theory means that every striking lorry driver will receive a personal letter calling them back to work; disobeying this could result in imprisonment. Also, the political conscription allows the army to intervene and to replace the striking drivers in their duties. This, in turn, means that the army could step in to distribute petrol to gas stations, which have all but completely dried up by today, the fourth day of the strike.




Earlier this morning, a group of striking lorry drivers clashed with the police outside the ministry of Transport in Athens (pic). At this time (14.54 GMT+2) a committee of the strikers is in emergency negotiations with the ministry

Updates will appear here as they come.

from Occupied London

Is the rest of the class out in support of these workers? It's great that they've avoided trade unions and gone for building their own committee, can you tell us anymore about it? Appreciate your post so far comrade.

[Delenda Carthago]

http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2010/07/29/342-the-whole-of-greece-is-now-a-factory-resist-strike-occupy-or-some-notes-on-the-unwillingness-of-the-social-antagonist-movement-to-support-some-resisting-parts-of-society/

What has been happening in Greece in the past few months (and in a way, extending from December 2008 to present) is simply phenomenal: deep changes, one after the other, in the social backbone come at breakneck speed. This fluid landscape has found us, the wider social antagonist movement (anarchists, anti-authoritarians, the libertarian left) numb – and worse even stuck with our conceptualisations, our beliefs and readings of social reality as it stood only a little while ago. But so much has changed, so fast.
http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/33.jpg (http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/33.jpg)
Do we possibly have the luxury to dismiss the strike of the lorry-drivers as somewhat “reactionary” or “conservative” because they aim at protecting the reserved benefits of their trade? (it is true that this, along with a few more trades, is one of the so-called “closed” trades, requiring licenses of 200K upward, which often pass on via family, political and other often dubious connections). Can we still keep reading developments in this way? Lorry drivers “are protecting their closed trade”; dockworkers are “driven by the Communist Party”; peach producers “only rise up when their profits sink”. Of course, there is some truth in all these statements. But this is no Colonial India, nor should we ever allow it to come to this… To divide and rule is the oldest trick in the book. Our position as anarchists, as libertarians, as people in the grassroots struggle, must be on the side of those who fight from the grassroots, from the wider working class – with all the past wrong-doings of some of its parts. Our aim, to strengthen their struggle with that powerful bond of solidarity – this, which could ensure that next time they don’t get into another dog-eat-dog situation, that they don’t turn against each other, that their aim is where it truly deserves to be, against state and capital intervention in our lives.
These are unprecedented moments when enormous ruptures open up and where the potentials are high. We either seize the day or let everything and everyone around us crumble fall, one by one._

[addictedToThinking]

I am new to this forum and the way that it works so dont missjudge me if i get something wrong.But living here in Greece i can clearly understand that the situation is getting harder and harder for everyone here, and as you stretched out we should support the struggles of the working people ,always keeping in mind our future goal.But are all the working people the same? Do those people feel part of the proletarian masses or do they just strike to keep their privilages ? I believe that all people should be able to fight for their rights but what is the position that the left will take towards them? should it support them or just ignore them? cause they might be working people but their only goal is to make more and more profit out of their closed job.

[Coggeh]

I am new to this forum and the way that it works so dont missjudge me if i get something wrong.But living here in Greece i can clearly understand that the situation is getting harder and harder for everyone here, and as you stretched out we should support the struggles of the working people ,always keeping in mind our future goal.But are all the working people the same? Do those people feel part of the proletarian masses or do they just strike to keep their privilages ? I believe that all people should be able to fight for their rights but what is the position that the left will take towards them? should it support them or just ignore them? cause they might be working people but their only goal is to make more and more profit out of their closed job.
They don't strike to keep their priviledges they fight to defend their rights and conditions. The left should support them 100% and help to further and spread their struggle throughout the country, organise these militant workers as they are in the fore of the workers movement to take on the bourgeoise government and their IMF/EU backed austerity program

[Sasha]

whoehaaaa, poor dutch tourists are getting stranded because they are running out of gas and are now calling the "help i'm in danger" hotline... :lol:

[bricolage]

Greek government is telling tourists to make sure they stock up on petrol in Macedonia, how things change!

[DunyaGongrenKomRevolyutsi]

Then let's hope Macedonian lorry drivers strike too, in solidarity. :D

[addictedToThinking]

sure its nice to see something that disturbs the bourgeoise goverment and situation ,but i have to stretch out that this job as many others in greece have become privilage to only a few members of the society that had in previous years the sympathy of the governors,such as the dictatorship in the years 1968-1974 which gave out licenses to drivers that denounced communism .Since then many working as lorry drivers have gone rich and now are in head of some company. What i am trying to say here is that not every strike is for the good of the proletariat or for the revolution. Sure there are a lot of drivers that barely get through the day, they have families to care about and they cant accept that their carrier is going to be ruined in the middle of an economic crisis .But the left shouldn't just go out and say <i support anyone who makes a strike or i support anyone who is against the austerity mesures in greece.>cause trust me there are a lot of the right parties that say that but have no relation to the working movement or social revolution. The left shouldnt relay on such people to make an alliance with. instead it should find out who really belong to the working proletariat and support them straight putting an end to the meaningless speculation of other workers.

[Delenda Carthago]

The strike has been suspended following a general assembly decision by the striking lorry drivers, taken with a thin majority. The strikers now “expect their civil conscription to be lifted” according to the first corporate media reports.

Following the government’s civil conscription order and army vehicles roaming the country’s streets offering gas supplies, the lorry drivers are holding a general assembly at midday today to decide the fate of their strike. The most likely outcome, report the mainstream media, is that they suspend their strike in exchange of the lifting of the civil conscription. Updates as they come.