24-hour General Strike Called in Greece

General Strike Called in Greece Against the Third Memorandum by Kevin Ovenden There are more powerful things than the Troika Solidarity needed more than before The public sector trade union federation in Greece, ADEDY, has called a general strike for Wednesday [it should be noted that the ADEDY press release says "a 24-hour strike," to keep things in perspective. -- ed.]. The strike against the Third Memorandum will be officially announced tomorrow.  But activists throughout the public sector unions have begun organizing for the stoppage this afternoon. Activists in other sectors -- the private sector, the universities, the school students, etc -- are also agitating for whatever action they believe they can get. The parliament has to agree the new memorandum by midnight on Wednesday. If MPs are to vote tomorrow, then the strike will be brought forward to tomorrow.  Militants of the fighting left are pushing for an "active strike" -- in the streets with mass demonstrations, not staying at home. Angela Merkel increased the pressure on the Greek government even after it capitulated.  She said that monitoring of moves to implement the memorandum would be strict and begin immediately. German media sources report that she is not certain that this government can pass the memorandum -- still less implement it. The fight is now on.  It is not off: it's the period of shadow boxing that is over. The Greek government may have capitulated rather than rupture with the mafia eurozone. Now an attempt to impose an austerity "July coup"* against the Greek popular masses risks a different rupture.  Between working-class Greece and the powers that should not be. The Brussels talks settled nothing.  They did crack apart and severely weaken the capitalist institutions of Europe. The power that delivered the Oxi revolt was not in Brussels, but its spectre was felt there. That power is the Greek working class with the political independent fighting forces of the radical left at its heart. Solidarity with resisting Greece.  Not one step back! *  The last such attempted parliamentary coup against the popular will (as opposed to coup d'état) of this magnitude was 50 years ago this week -- July 1965.  It marked the beginning of the end of the post-civil war order in Greece.  It finally ended with the overthrow of dictatorship in 1974.  It is from that date that the rise of the modern radical left in Greece, as an open force, begins. Kevin Ovenden is author of Syriza: Escaping the Labyrinth (forthcoming from Pluto Press).  Follow him at <www.facebook.com/kevin.ovenden/>.