BY GEORGES MEHRABIAN AND NATASHA TERLEXIS
ATHENS, Greece - December 15 marked the 18th day of a nationwide farm protest. Thousands of farmers have maintained a virtual shutdown of the country's major transportation arteries. At the same time, public employees and other workers have launched strikes for wage increases and against the austerity policies of the government of Prime Minister Constantínos Simítis.

Soon after his party, the social democratic PASOK, won parliamentary elections in September, Simítis unveiled his austerity program, justified on the basis of slashing the budget deficit in order to meet standards set by the European Union for the eventual acceptance of Greece in a EU "common" currency.

The farmers set up roadblocks with their tractors beginning November 28. They are demanding higher prices for their products to guarantee them a living income, cheaper fuel, rescheduling $1.3 billion in debts to banks and other financial institutions, and lower value added taxes (VAT) on farm machinery.

These are the same demands working farmers pressed in a 13-day national protest in the fall of 1995. They halted those mobilizations after the PASOK regime promised it would grant many of their demands, which the government never honored.

The blockades have reached a peak of 10,000 tractors. At the heart of the movement are cotton farmers from the province of Thessaly, in the central part of the mainland, whose cost of production is well above the prices they currently receive.

Several blockades in northern provinces and in the southern Peloponese region were dismantled December 14. At the same time, however, roadblocks in central Thessaly were strengthened with new contingents of tractors. Farmers there are preparing for negotiations or a showdown with the government. The Thessaloníki airport and the Athens- Thessaloníki highway, the main road artery of the country, remain closed. Thessaloníki, located in the northern province of Macedonia, is Greece's second largest city.

Meanwhile, pressure on the farmers is building up as the capitalist rulers try to portray the rebellion as a minority movement harming the interests of the majority in the country, particularly in the cities.

The government refuses to negotiate with representatives of the farmers. Government spokesman Dimítrios Reppas said the government will refuse to negotiate as long as the "farmers are holding the country hostage." Reppas called instead on the "farmers' organizations, the entrepreneur classes and the institutions of justice" in a "national institutional dialogue."

A statement issued by the New Democracy Party called on the government to negotiate with the farmers in order to stop the "great blow to the national economy," and the "sharpening of the political climate."

The conservative New Democracy, the main opposition party, holds the majority of seats in many local farm organizations. The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) is the other main political force among farmers organizing the roadblocks.

Big business has thrown its weight on the side of the government.

An editorial in the December 14 Athens News stated, "As the farmers' revolt has continued, breaking the previous record of 13 days set last year, their demands have begun to sound more and more selfish. Caging the country's city dwellers for the holidays is likely to cause a popular backlash with the loss of billions upon billions of drachmas in trade. It will pit public opinion against the social group responsible for stealing Christmas."

Attempt to pit truckers against farmers
According to an article in the December 15 Athens News, "So far ten large Thessaly enterprises have either shut down operations or forced to adopt a two- or three-day schedule." The same article said that 48 clothing manufacturers are ready to issue a statement declaring that they can not pay the wages and Christmas bonuses to 2,000 workers.

The Council of the Union of Industrialists of Northern Greece called on the government to declare the roadblocks illegal and that "charges should be brought against those that are committing these illegal acts."

The president of the Independent Truckers Association publicly denounced the farmers on prime time news on Sky TV December 15.

Clashes have taken place between some stranded truckers and farmers near the cities of Ioánina, the capital of the northern province of Ipiros bordering Albania, and Pátras, the fourth largest city of the country located in Peloponese, as some truckers have tried to drive through a few roadblocks.

On December 15, these reporters, accompanied by three young workers and a student from Athens, visited two blockades in the region of Thebes north of the capital. At the Orhomeno's area blockade we found two families of workers from nearby towns already on the barricades in a show of solidarity.

"If we win, the benefits will be for working people too," explained cotton farmer Angelos Boufas to the workers there. "But if we lose it will set a trend." The farmers had put up a Christmas tree decorated with cotton balls.

Asked why so many cars were passing through, unlike during a visit by Militant reporters a week earlier, Boufas stated "Look, farmers don't have any quarrels with the individual people trying to go about their business. That's what the government wants, for me to get into a fight with you." However, no trucks were let through, nor any cars without small children.

At another blockade near the town of Thebes, about 25 tractors blocked the secondary feeder road. "We do not have the same problems as the farmers in the Lárisa area who have small lots and can only cultivate cotton," said Sotíris Matala's while manning the blockade. "We are out to support those who have it the worst. However, we all have basically the same problems as farmers."

The working farmers in this area diversify their crops and supplement their income with jobs in the nearby industrial areas in Thebes. Many, however, have a harder time finding jobs in factories or elsewhere for a needed second income. Unemployment around many of these rural towns in central and northern Greece has jumped to nearly 30 percent, compared to the official nationwide rate of 10 percent.

Despite the government's portrayal of the farm protests as an anathema to "progress for the country," several unions have sent messages of support. These include the Garment Workers Union; Federal Civil Aviation Union; Construction Workers Union; Tobacco Workers Union; and the Coordinating Committee of Attika, an ad hoc committee of union bodies.

Union actions overlap
Many unions have launched their own strikes and protest actions against the government's austerity plans unveiled recently, when the Simítis administration presented the 1997 budget to parliament,

Public school teachers held a three-day strike beginning December 11, while their colleagues in the private sector struck for one day. Teachers are demanding better pay and a salary of 250,000 drachmas [US$1 = 243 Dr.] per month, increased funds from the state budget for education, and hiring of more staff to deal with the problem of overcrowded classrooms. Their union indicated it may call new walkouts in January.

Construction workers held a 24-hour strike December 12. And seamen organized a march in the country's main port, Piraeus, a day earlier to protest the government's decision to do away with their tax breaks. They threatened strike action. Merchant Marine minister Stávros Soumákis told them that "strikes on seagoing ships constitute a criminal act."

The civil servants union ADEDY held a nationwide strike December 17 and a rally of 600 people in Athens. The same day, some 4,000 demonstrated in Athens in a march on parliament called by the General Confederation of Labor (GSEE) against the government's austerity budget. The GSEE had called a nationwide three-hour work stoppage for that day.

Some of the striking unions are linking up their actions with the farmers' revolt. The construction workers union in Thessaloniki, for example, as well as the tobacco workers union there have sent messages of solidarity to the farmers. A delegation of union members from the Piraeus Labor Council joined the blockades in the Peloponese recently.

A message of solidarity to the Greek farmers from MODEF, The National Federation of Unions of Family Farmers of France, denounced "the European Agricultural policy that in France translates into 30,000-40,000 farmers disappearing every year."

The farmers' strike coordinating committee announced it will hold a protest march in Athens December 19.  
 
 
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