“Capitalist development neither is nor can ever be development for all” said the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas during his speech in the Parliament on labour issues.
Koutsoumbas fired against New Democracy government reforms saying that what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis describes as “Greece of development and prosperity” has absolutely nothing to do with what the workers are experiencing.
The KKE leader pointed out that within a few months the government proceeded to new aggressive measures against labour, social security and trade unionist rights. “The real situation is the intensification of labour, the great growth of flexible forms of labour, the fixed-term contracts, the rapid increase of rented labour and the complete lack of hygiene and safety measures that have led to an unprecedented increase in deadly occupational accidents in almost all sectors of industry”.
Dimitris Koutsoumbas stressed out that the government managed to intensify repression through provisions that “crush trade unionist activity and the right to strike”, while it took measures against the functioning of the trade unions.
Speaking about the Social Security issue, he said that the ND government “builds” upon the policy of the previous SYRIZA government, following and extending the so-called “Katrougalos law”.
“This law – said Koutsoumbas – has been the completion of the anti-Social Security attack, as it has incorporated all the reversals against the insured people and pensioners”, adding that “today, ND comes strengthen this law, to pave the way for a new raid with the three pillars of the Pinochet system”.
He stressed that the government has created the ground so that social security will not be a right and an obligation of the state, but a commodity for those who can pay. He furthermore added that there is a total chaos in labour relations which consist a “heaven for business groups”.
Dimitris Koutsoumbas slamed the governmental celebrations about “development”, saying that it is a development cannot be fair because it takes place for the benefit of the few, at the expense of the many.
“You adopt development measures indeed, but this development is for the few, their profits and privileges” underlined the KKE General Secretary.