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The Unions have declared Wednesday 9 November a 24-hour nationwide strike demanding, among others, substantial increases in wages and pensions, for collective agreements that guarantee stable work with rights, for electricity and basic goods cheap for the people (read PAME statement).
In Athens, a river of protesters, workers, students, men and women of all ages, headed by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME), flooded the streets of the city center, holding banners and shouting slogans. The demonstrators gathered at Propylea, in front of the historic University and marched towards the Parliament, in Syntagma Square.
The strike rally was attended by the General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas who made the following statement to reporters:
"Today's great nationwide strike sends the message throughout Greece, throughout Europe, that the Greek people and their movement will not become complicit, they won't show any tolerance to the anti-people policy of the rulers, of the other parties of the big capital, of energy poverty and EU policies, of the rot of the capitalist system".
In a statement about the success of the strike demonstration, PAME says that "the huge participation of the workers shows the way of clash with business groups and the government [...] Today, the anger and indignation of the working people became a dynamic, mass participation in the struggle. The images of a river of workers flooding the center of Athens can't be hidden".
Similar strike rallies were held in Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city, as well as in more than 60 cities and towns across the country.