Represses Mass Demonstrations

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Here views a worker The removal of the Papadopoulos military junta in Greece has been followed by the election of the right wing bourgeois democratic government of Karamanlis.

This government continues, using the same laws as the old regime, to act against the mobilisation of the working class in defence of jobs and living standards.

Last week violent struggles took place in Athens when police attempted to break up a demonstration of building workers.

Socialist Press interGreek Trotskyist building on the events and of the demonstration.

Were you on the demonstration on July 23rd? Yes.

Why did the demonstration take place? It was a 24-hour strike against the levels of unemployment faced by building workers today -45% are out of work.

The Greek TUC officially supports the Karamanlis Government, and they tried to sabotage this strike, but about 7,000 builders held a meeting in Athens, at 10 o'clock on the morning of Wednesday 23rd July.

From the Peroke Theatre we moved off to Agiou Constantinon Street, where we were confronted ichardson in Athens Greek builders confront armoured cars in the middle of the road by special police armoured cars known as avres, which had been built by the Papadopoulos regime.

DIVERTED

The police talked to the strike committee members, who were all Stalinists. They agreed with the police that the march be diverted away from the Ministry of Employment.

The Stalinists led the way into the smaller streets where they were confronted by avres and police who started to fire tear gas grenades. The police were specially armed, a technique copied by Karamanlis from the Paris police. The diversion was a trap.

The builders fought back for ten to fifteen minutes, before splitting into groups to fight the police in different sections - which is a usual tactic.

The fighting between the groups of builders, joined by students, workers, along with other professional people from Athens, and the state power, continued until midnight. ninht The police have a long record against the working class. Two days before in a very big cloth factory ETMA, they also used tear gas against strikers.

The day before the march the students had had a big demonstration against the new state laws aimed at bringing their trade union under the control of the Karamanlis "democratic" state. The students were not attacked because the pot ice had plans to attack the builders the next day.

The Greek TUC said that the tranklas moro otartad har Gnenannot_ LUUDIES WEIE SidLIEu uy piuruvaleurs" , "junta supporters" , and Nea Taxis ('New Order' - a fascist group) supporters.

The following morning, all the papers (including the Stalinists) said that the troubles were started and continued by provocatuers. With one voice they all said it had not been building workers, and mixed in together Fascists, Maoists and Trotskyists.

Some MPs, including PASSOK members, despite the fact that their leader: Andreas Papandreou later denounced this, wanted laws against all left groups not represented is Parliament. This was helping pre pare attacks on the semi-lega: lef: organisations.

Was it an official demonstration? It was an official 24 hour strike of all building workers throughout Greece. The police allowed the demonstration but wanted to divert it.

demonstration, Programme There were five points: * A 7-hour working legislated. * A rise in wages. * Security of employment. * An increase in social security. Now for example a building worker who has been permanently unemployed for 2 years will have received in that time only 9,000 Drachma (£1,300). * Independence of the trade unions from the state.

The Trotskyists fought for these demands, along with a sliding scale of wages and the establishment of trade union joint committees of employed and unemployed workers to organise the struggle.

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