Massive strike in Greece: Thousands took the streets against anti-Social Security reforms

Photo: 902.gr.

With powerful strike demonstrations in more than 60 cities across Greece the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) and the class movement of the country gave a militant response to the government’s anti-people policy on Social Security and pensions. 

From midnight workers gathered in factories, labour places and production units to prevent possible strikebreaking efforts, while in Athens public transportation was stopped. 

PAME calls for strike on February 18th against ND government's Social Security reforms

A nationwide General Strike in both state and private sector has been announced by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) for February 18th, as a response to the anti-people reforms of the Greek government on Social Security and Pensions. 

In a statement addressed to workers, pensioners, farmers, self-employed people and students, PAME calls for mass participation in February 18th’s strike. 

“Social Security has to do with our lives. The unacceptable anti-Social Security draft law must be withdrawn!” is the headline of the call which reads:

General Strike in France - Grève Générale en France: Solidarity from WFTU and PAME

Today, December 5th, thousands of workers across France participate in a nationwide general strike against the anti-people, anti-worker reforms announced by Emmanuel Macron's government. The government's reforms include several blows to the pension system, including rise in retirement age limits and reduce of financial recompensation. 

In a statement, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) expresses solidarity with the general strike of December 5th. The statement reads:

Greece: "Hands Off Social Security" — Large demonstrations held in Athens and other cities

"Hands Off Social Security Rights", that was the message that thousands of working men and women, pensioners, self-employed people, students sent during a large demonstration held earlier today in downtown Athens. 

The protests were organized by Trade Unions, Labour Centers and Pensioner's Associations. Among the speakers were Dimos Koumpouris, President of the Pensioner's Federation, Giorgos Stefanakis, President of the Trade Union of Catering-Tourism-Hotels of Attica and Dimitris Vitalis, member of the Federation of Craft Industry Unions of Athens. 

"Hет" to reform: Thousands rallied against pension reform in Moscow (Photos)

The Communist Party (CPRF) demonstration in Moscow.

Thousands of people of every age demonstrated on Sunday 2 September in Moscow and other major cities in Russia against the proposed governmental reform which rises in retirement age limits. 

Several thousand workers gathered in central Moscow in a large rally organized by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, while similar protests were reported in Novosibirsk, Simferopol, Vladivostok and other urban centers. 

"The reform that the government offers deprives our women of a normal pension. This reform doesn't give our youth the chance to get a good job," the CPRF chairman Gennady Zyuganov said at the Moscow rally.

Genieße den Kapitalismus: 48% of German pensioners earn less than €800 per month

Even in the European Union's economically most powerful country, Capitalism shows its rotten, barbaric nature. 

More specifically, as Deutsche Welle reports, poverty towards Germany's senior citizens becomes more and more threatening, as long as almost half (48%) of the country's retirees earn a pension of less than 800 euros per month!

It must be noted that the poverty limit in Germany – the monthly net income that someone must earn in order to be considered as “poor”- is 958 euros/month. 

Zyuganov blasts Putin's government over pension system reform: "Pensioners are offered as a sacrifice”

The governmental bill on pensions, which rises retirement age limits, is "the most cruel and cynical of the last 25 years", said the Chairman of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) Gennady Zyuganov during a discussion at the Duma.

In a fierce speech against the anti-people reform proposed by the government, Zyuganov called President Vladimir Putin not to proceed with the pension reform but, instead, to fulfill his promise for improvement of the people's quality of life. "I am appealing to the president: 77% voted for you. But 91% are against this reform.'' said the CPRF Chairman.

Thousands of Russian workers protested against anti-people pension reform

Tens of thousands of Russians took part Saturday in rallies across the country organised by Communists to protest against government's anti-people plan to hike the pension age.

In Moscow, organisers said up to 100,000 people gathered for a permitted rally against the government-backed reform, which is currently going through parliament. However, reporters put the turnout much lower at around 10,000. Protests took place in dozens of cities and towns in far eastern Russia, Siberia and western Russia.

Capitalist Russia: Anti-people pension reform approved by lawmakers in Duma

"So, how is it like living under capitalism?", Lenin asks.
Archive Photo: Billboard in Lugansk.

Do you remember the Soviet Union where the retirement age for men was 60 and for women 55 years? Well, in capitalism's Russia such privileges for the working people cannot exist anymore and the Putin-Medvedev government knows it. 

Russian lawmakers approved on Thursday a hugely unpopular government plan to hike the pension age that has led to protests and a record slump in Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings. A total of 327 lawmakers in the lower house or State Duma, voted in favour of the bill in its first reading, with 102 against.

The anti-people legislation is going to raise the pension age to 65 for men and 63 for women. On the eve of the vote approximately 1,000 people protested against the reform in Moscow while on Thursday hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Duma itself.

Capitalist Russia raises retirement age under the pretext of "budget stability"

According to international and russian media reports, Russia’s bourgeois government wants to raise the retirement age for both men and women and to increase value-added tax, unpopular measures it hopes will ease pressure on state finances, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

As Reuters has reported, Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have long talked about raising the retirement age but have shied away from doing so, in part because such measures risk stirring up popular discontent and damaging politicians’ popularity. 

Lieutenant Katina Manitara

The elderly lady of the photo was one of those who yesterday participated in a large pensioners' demonstration against the austerity, antipeople measures of the Greek government. 

This woman, along with other retirees took the streets of Athens in order to assert their rights; the rights of their children and grandchildren. The Greek police "welcomed" this woman and the other pensioners with violence and tear gas. 

The name of the lady is Katina Manitara, a resistance fighter during the Nazi occupation of Greece. As a child, in the beginning of the fascist occupation, Katina was delivering secret messages "under the radar" of the italian police. At the age of 14 she witnessed her father's torture from Greek fascists. 

On May 1947, at 15 years old, she joined the heroic Democratic Army of Greece; the KKE-led guerrilla army which fought against the bourgeois military forces and their imperialist allies between 1946-1949. During the war, a bullet fragment stucked in her head where it still remains. At the age of 17, Katina Manitara graduates from the Military School of the Democratic Army with the rank of second lieutenant. 

This lady, Katina Manitara, consists a symbol of resistance, of courage and dignity. 

SYRIZA government's police forces fire tear gas at pensioners during protest in Athens- KKE: "The government showed its real face"

The police forces of Tsipras' SYRIZA government confronts
elderly people with tear gas/ Athens, 3.10.2016.

Once again, the supposedly "left"- actually social democratic- government of Alexis Tsipras shows it's real face. After imposing numerous harsh, antipeople-antiworkers measures, after signing a third memorandum of austerity and after cutting wages and pensions, the coalition government of SYRIZA decided to enforce law and order against the protesting pensioners! 

The pensioners who protested against the complete destruction of their lives got a response from the police forces of Mr.Tsipras' government. That response was the use of pepper spray and tear gas against older people!