Greek crisis

PUBLIC SECTOR workers in Greece staged another strike last Friday against the savage austerity measures being imposed on workers by the beleaguered Pasok government.

Faced with financial collapse, Greece’s PM George Papandreou has been forced to go cap-in-hand for a 45 billion euro European Union/International Monetary Fund loan.

The terms of the loan will be completed by 6 May and trade unionists rightly fear that the IMF will demand a further squeeze on workers’ living standards with a slashing of spending on healthcare and pensions and attacks on workers’ rights. This likelihood has prompted the trade unions to threaten the government with further resistance.

The financial turmoil in Greece is also impacting on the stability of other Eurozone countries and may yet serve as a trigger that blows apart the whole monetary union project.

See: Eurozone crisis, capitalist conflicts and class struggles, at www.socialistworld.net/index.php/4228