INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE COMMUNIST MILITANTS PROSECUTED FOR THEIR ANTI-FASCIST STRUGGLE

Juanjo Serrano, militant from the Catalan organization of the PCPE (PCP de Catalunya) and member of its Central Committee and two members of the CJC (JCP de Catalunya), are facing a trial in which each of them could be sentenced to three years and ten months in prison.
The state prosecution claims three years and ten months in prison for three Spanish Communists, members of PCPE and the CJC. The prosecutor bases his request on the events that took place in Barcelona on 14 November 2007, on the occasion of the demonstration to protest the murder of a young anti-fascist in Madrid on November 11.
This accusation is a police farce - supported by rigged evidence without any consistency, trying to demobilize the communist organization in this country and other anticapitalist organizations operating within the anti-fascist movement.
The facts that led to this farce are the following:
On 11th November 2007 the young antifascist Carlos Palomino was murdered in the Madrid underground at the hands of a 23 year old fascist - a professional soldier of the Spanish army - which was heading for a rally of the fascist party National Democracy. Immediately after this event, rallies and protests to condemn and protest this fascist murder take place in different Spanish cities, also in Barcelona.
The state of indignation among the anti-fascist demonstrators is proportional to the brutality of the murder and the misrepresentation of information that the sytem mass media execute by presenting the fact with the familiar and interested rhetoric of "clash between antisystem youth groups".
On 14th November in Barcelona, several anti-fascist groups and organizations convened a demonstration, where from the first moment it is clear that the police - Autonomous Police (directed by the Minister Saura ICV-EUiA - Catalan partners of United Left and the PCE -) were instructed to not leave it peacefully discourse. The operation did not have any proportionality with the protest: police take of the center of Barcelona with the anti-riot forces ready to charge, intimidation in the subway to those attending the demonstration, ambulances prepared as if it were a theater of war, threat of charging against the head of the demonstration as it was starting to march, etc.
During the demonstration there were several attempts from the police to cut the demonstration at various points, thereby increasing nervousness and outrage of the demonstrators. This situation worsened during the march, and after having marched only 400 meters there was a brutal police charge that brought an unjustifiable situation of social unrest to the heart of Barcelona as the repression was extended to the commercial area of Passeig de Gracia and ultimately affected bystanders.
As a result of the police charge there were several injured who had to be evacuated by ambulance. There were also 5 arrests, including two comrades from the CJC-JCPC, which were taken to the police headquarters of the Autonomous Police in Barcelona; since one of the detainees was a minor at the time, police had no choice but to notify the family of his detention, if not both they would have been at least 48 hours without external communication.
Immediately, leaders of the PCPC-PCPE and CJC-JCPC, accompanied by a lawyer, presented themselves at the police station along with the parents of the detainees. At that time they were required to be identified and, after a long wait at the station, a policeman called a comrade of PCPC-PCPE and two comrades from the CJC-JCPC, informing them that they had been recognized for their role in the demonstration and had been reported by the police. A real police set-up - as our Party member could not participate in the demonstration because of work reasons - led to criminalize the communist militancy and the struggle against fascism.
In the following days the prosecution settled the report:
On one hand, the three antifascist comrades arrested in the demonstration.
On the other hand, three comrades of PCPC-PCPE and the CJC-JCPC (one of those arrested and two of the defendants in the police station), who are accused "of a crime of assault and a crime of public disorder" for supposedly staging a roadblock with trash bins and throwing stones at the police and asking for "3 years and 10 months imprisonment and being disqualified for exercising the right to stand in elections." The case of the minors was filed, since the juvenile court did not see evidence of crime. To sustain this report, the prosecution presents only one evidence, the testimony of the police, there being no other evidence of the events mentioned.
It is not the first time that the Spanish government (the prosecutos is the government representative in the judicial process) uses false charges against anti-capitalist activists of different ideologies with only the false police statement (in Spain the police statement has the level of evidence, while the other witnesses' statements do not). The difference here is that instead of a single summary that affects all the defendants on the same facts, the prosecutor's summary has split into two: one with the three activists belonging to different organizations, and other one only against Communist militants from the PCPC-PCPE and the CJC-JCPC.
For all these reasons the Executive Committee of PCPE, understanding the situation of persecution and repression against three Communists militants - who may end up being sentenced to prison in the trial to conclude in the coming months - as a planned action by the state apparatus against our political project and against the development of a revolutionary option in Spain agrees:
To conduct an information campaign at international level to increase awareness of the repressive nature of the Spanish monarchist and bourgeois regime, and its false democratic discourse.
To ask for the solidarity of as many people and organizations share the anti-fascist policies anywhere.
To develop protest and solidarity actions with the three defendants in the coming months, demanding the dismissal of the case. Likewise for the other three anti-fascist comrades tried in separate piece.
To continue and intensify the campaign against the rise of fascism in Spain, and the complicity in all state apparatuses. To especialle denounce, the upward mobility of openly fascist individuals to police commanders; promoted in recent years from the same state police academies.

 

FREEDOM FOR THE PROSECUTED OF BARCELONA!
UNCONDITIONAL STRUGGLE AGAINST THE FASCISM OF THE MONARCHIST AND BOURGEOIS SYSTEM!

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PCPE - February 2010

Worker unions are getting ready for the March 11 general strike

March 11 is a day of general strike in Greece declared by GSEE (the General Confederation of Greek Workers)  and ADEDY (the Civil Servants' Confederation).
The Greek workers are reacting the government’s new law --and voted Friday—that raises Greece's top VAT rate to 21% from 19% [It was 18% 5 years ago], freezes public sector pensions, cuts civil service entitlements and bonus pay, while also raising taxes on fuel, alcohol and cigarettes.
"We are expecting a big turnout Thursday, there will be demonstrations in dozens of cities around Greece", said Andreas Petropoulos, spokesperson for ADEDY. "We are just at the beginning of our strike actions".
The tax collectors have declared a 48-hour strike for Monday and Tuesday, while sanitation workers at Athens' municipal waste facility have announced they are closing the facility until Friday, extending a two-day long strike over the weekend.
At the same time, court workers will stage two-hour work stoppages every day through Thursday, and local government officials will stop work for four hours Wednesday.
Teachers’ unions OLME (high schools) and DOE (primary schools) declared a strike for March 11 too and at the same time participate in a rally scheduled for Wednesday.
The Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 supports the strikes and has released posters, flyers, etc. to support the struggle.

Greek FM announcement on new economic and fiscal measures

The Greek Government today announced a package of additional measures designed to safeguard the targets of the Stability and Growth Programme against macroeconomic and financial risks.
The package includes permanent measures on both the revenue and expenditure sides of the budget, which together will contribute 2% of GDP, or 4.8 billion Euro.
These measures are in addition to measures in the Stability Programme totaling 4% of GDP and measures recently announced by the Prime Minister totaling 0.5%.
They signal the Greek Government's determination to ensure a sustainable fiscal path and to restore confidence in the Greek economy.
On the revenue side, the new package includes measures amounting to up to 1% of GDP, or 2.4 billion Euro: Increases in VAT rates (from 4.5%, 9% and 19% to 5%, 10% and 21% respectively) with a fiscal impact of 0.54% of GDP or 1.3 billion Euro.
Increases in excise taxes (additional to those recently voted in Parliament) with a fiscal impact of 0.46% of GDP or 1.1 billion Euro, through 0.08 euro increase in petrol excise tax and 0.03 euro increase in diesel fuel; 2 percentage points increase (from 63% to 65%) in cigarette excise tax and 20% increase in alcohol tax; Introduction of an excise tax for electricity (2.5 euro/MWh for industrial consumption and 5 euro/MWh for household consumption - excluding electricity produced by renewable energy resources) and abolition of the excise tax exemption for diesel used by the Public Power Corporation; Increase in the excise tax for luxury goods (cars, yachts, etc).
On the expenditure side, the package includes measures amounting to up to 1% of GDP or 2.4 billion Euro: Reductions in public sector nominal wages and pensions (additional to the wage cutbacks already announced) with a fiscal impact of 0.7% of GDP or 1.7 billion Euro through 60% reduction of the 14th salary; 2% reduction in wage supplements (additional to the 10% already announced); 7% reduction in the wages and 60% reduction of the 14th salary in public sector companies; Reduction in the pensions of the Public Power Corporation and OTE (telecoms) pension funds leading to a reduction in the relevant budget allocations; Freeze in all public and private sector pensions, canceling out the announced increases incorporated in the budget and leading to savings in budgetary allocations.
Reductions in current and capital expenditures in the public sector, with a fiscal impact of 0.3% or 0.7 billion Euro through Reduction in the Public Investment Programme; (500million Euro) Reduction in the education expenditure (100 million euro from the Public Investment Programme and 100 million euro from the cancellation of the provisions for new education programmes) The whole package is accompanied by measures that highlight the Government's determination to restore and safeguard social justice as well as ensure a fairer distribution of income.
The bill has already been tabled to the Greek Parliament in accordance with the emergency procedure foreseen in the Greek Constitution and will be followed by a number of structural interventions, such as the adoption of a new bill on the reform of the tax system, the implementation of tax collection mechanisms and the fight against tax evasion.

Source:Express.gr / 4/3/2010 – 01:33

March 11: Day of general strike

GSEE (the General Confederation of Greek Workers)  - ADEDY (the Civil Servants' Confederation) decided to declare a general strike on March 11.

Journalists Hold 24-Hour Strike

The Executive Board of the Athens Journalists Union (ESHEA) lashed out at the measures announced by the Greek government, calling for their abolishment as they blatantly affect crucial labour rights.
Therefore, ESHEA called a 24-hour strike on Friday protesting wages cuts. Ertonline will not be updated, as its journalists will join the strike called.

ERT news online will be disrupted from 06:00 on Wednesday, February, 24 till 06:00 Thursday, February, 25 after ERT and POSPERT trade unions decision to take part in GSEE strike action requesting protection of employees labour, financial and social security rights and the signing of Collective Agreement.

ESHEA (Union of Daily Newspaper Journalists) and all employees in Mass Media, apart from reporters covering the demonstrations, take part in the strike action.

Also participating in the strike are employees in the administration sector of Mass Media (EPHEA), magazine journalists (ESPHT), television and radio technicians (ETITA and ETER). In Athens, Mass Media trade unions participate in demonstration at 10:30 organized by GSEE & ADEDY.

Text from: ert.gr

Strikes and Demonstrations

Protesting the tough measures announced by the government, the Greek workers decided to escalate their reactions.

The ADEDY public sector union is staging a demonstration in central Athens at 6pm on Thursday. ADEDY and GSEE will hold work stoppages on Friday. Unions are considering rescheduling the 24-hour strike they had initially called on 16 March and hold it in the coming week. Primary and secondary school teachers will go out on strike on Friday.

The Movement of the Reogranisation of the KKE 1918-55 released a poster against the goverment's meseaures and started distributing it in all major Greece cities.

We call for international support to Greek workers' movement.

Greek public sector union to strike March 16

ADEDY (the Civil Servants' Confederation) called a new 24-hour strike for March 16 to protest against new austerity measures expected from the government to tackle the country's debt crisis.

At the same time the Primary Schools Teachers' Association, DOY, called for a 48-hour strike for March 8 and 9. ADEDY will support with a 4 hours strike on March 8.

ADEDY is calling GSEE (the General Confederation of Greek Workers)  to coordinate for a common struggle.

The Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-55 supports both strikes and calls people tpo participate. No tolerance for all those who bankrupted the country and are now trying to dump the effects of their crimes on poor people’s back.

See also:

The government of the bourgeois PASOK has come to “finish the job”

General strike in Greece