BY NATASHA TERLEXIS

ORHOMENOS, Greece - Cars heading north out of Athens on the county's all important North-South axis highway first meet police barricades about an hour and a half outside the city, where they are instructed to turn back. A few kilometers of totally empty roadway later you come up on the burning tires and the hundred or so parked tractors of the farmers' road block closest to the city.

The farmers here from the Orhomenos and Kastro Agricultural Associations fielded Militant reporters' questions as they dealt with requests from several vehicles to cross. Travel is not possible on this road without a signed and sealed letter from the Coordinating Committee of their struggle, located in Larisa, central Greece. Once such a document is produced to the farmers, who hold large sticks, the chain across the road comes down.

"We have no choice," said farm leader Giorgos Kostis, "not only are we prepared to spend Christmas on the roadblocks, but Easter, too."

Local and international land transport has come to a halt in this country and fuel and food shortages are beginning to appear. With its airport and port blockaded as well, nothing moves in and out of Thesaloniki, the county's second largest city and a major transport center for the Balkans.

The protests began November 28, with 5,000 tractors in the central region of Larisa cutting the country in half. They have now spread throughout Greece to include a fleet of about 10,000 tractors. The farmers are pressing demands for price supports, cheaper fuel, the rescheduling of $1.3 billion worth of debts, and lower value added tax (VAT) on farm equipment.

"I would rather the government fell than back down!" was the response of recently elected Premier Costas Simitis one week into the movement. He has stated categorically that his government will not retreat from its austerity budget by making up for subsidies no longer given by the European Union (EU).

The government's hard-line response is driven by fear that militant resistance to the budget, by public sector workers especially, would mushroom in the wake of a victory for the farmers. Simitis and the capitalists he represents aim to continue their attacks on the standard of living of workers and farmers, cut back further in social spending, and finance an extensive arms program to the tune of $17 billion.

Their fears are well founded. Public employees have set a general strike for December 17, expecting a decision from the General Federation of Greek Workers to join them, while teachers unions are set to go out in the preceding days. Simitis has appealed to those farmers who voted his social-democratic PASOK party into power to turn their tractors back home.

In response to this tough stance, the December 7 national meeting of the local coordinating committees of the farmers' struggle responded that they would escalate the struggle. By the hour more tractors have been joining, including a new wave of PASOK-voting farmers, bringing the number of roadblocks to 97. They have cut off Athens entirely, as well as the passage to the south through the Corinth canal.

Farmers in Crete, who had been allowing the Athens market to be supplied by boat, have also put road blocks up. The coordinating committee is planning a tractorcade with Athens as the destination.

Farmers here in Orhomenos grow mostly cotton. Greek cotton production is the largest by far in the EU. As prices have plummeted and subsidies fade, these farmers have spearheaded the protests. "Last year we got 320GRD per kilo of cotton [$1US = 243GRD], this year we are getting between 185 and 205. All the government is proposing is a 40 GRD loan on top of that," said Kostis. "It costs about 65,000GRD to cultivate one stremma of cotton [one stremma = 1/4 acre], if you have your own well. Now what we get for the cotton is 55,000GRD -how are we supposed to make it?" Farmers are 20 percent of Greece's active population, double the EU average, while the average size of their lots is one-quarter the average.

Farmers here described how there are about 50 companies in Greece that concentrate and market the cotton. These large companies suck off everyone else's work, pocketing the lion's share of the subsidies from the European Union. They pay small farmers for the cotton they produce, the protesters said, and then they show a different weight to the EU people to collect more subsidy money. Also widespread among the farmers at the roadblock was the idea that the EU unfairly imports agricultural products from countries like the US and Turkey.

"We borrow from the Agricultural bank at 23 percent interest, and after 6 months the interest owed is added to the principle. On top of this the penalties for late payments are very high," added Kostis. "I can show you my papers. The result of all of this is that when you borrow 1 million GRD from the bank in May, by next November you have to pay 1.45 million GRD."

Farmers here explained that land prices have dropped in the area by 30-40 percent as a result of foreclosures.

Industrialists' and exporters' associations throughout Greece have been railing against the actions, threatening even to not pay workers their Christmas bonuses. Local prosecutors have filed charges against some of the farmers, though the police have not made any attempt at arrests. There have also been reports of fights breaking out between farmers and stranded foreign truckers, for whom provisions have not been made.

Natasha Terlexis is an airline worker in Athens, Greece.  
 
 
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