Vol. 71/No. 22      June 4, 2007

Both articles by Jack Barnes, the national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United States and a member of the editorial board of the New International magazine, have been published in issues 12 and 13 of New International. They are also available in the French- and Spanish-language editions of the magazine.

The Greek translation of “Our Politics Start With the World” was published in late April. “Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun” was published in Greek last year and also contains “Their Transformation and Ours,” an SWP resolution.

The May 6 event was held in the working-class neighborhood of Kato Patissia. Those attending included Palestinian and Syrian immigrants, several airport workers, and a teacher and a student who had been part of the four-month struggle against further privatization of public education.

“Athens is very much part of the imperialist world discussed in these books,” said Georges Mehrabian, who presented the titles on behalf of Diethnes Vima. “And, the transformation of the U.S. military discussed in ‘Their Transformation and Ours’ is on the agenda here too as Athens seeks to modernize its armed forces into units of rapid deployment for use in the Balkans and in the Middle East in order to ensure its share of plunder. Greek troops are stationed in both regions.”

As the document points out about the working class in the United States, “there is also a transformation of our class here in Greece, with its own rhythm and peculiarities,” he said. “Over 1 million immigrants now work here out of a population of 11 million. Women are massively part of the work force. These developments strengthen our ability to resist the bosses’ offensive. Who would have expected the tenacity of the four-month resistance, first by school teachers and then the university students? Who would have expected the rebellion and occupations in close to a dozen of the country’s prisons last week? This was a fight about simple human dignity by workers behind bars.”

According to the Athens daily Kathimeriní, overcrowding in Greek prisons has reduced cell space to 0.7 square meters per prisoner (1 square meter = 1.2 square yards). European Union guidelines require 7 square meters. Half the prison population is immigrants. Greece has the largest per capita prison population in the European Union.

On May Day, at a rally of some 10,000 trade unionists, a large literature table staffed by five volunteers sold three copies of each of the two titles. A total of 22 books on revolutionary working-class politics were sold. Volunteers will be fielding sales teams to bookstores in Cyprus, northern Greece, and Athens in June.  
 
 
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