With people's lives getting worse because of government policies that protect the competitiveness and profitability of big corporations, the government is attempting to shift the debate to how "small or large" the prime minister's declarations will be in terms of easing the economic burdens that are weighing down the popular strata.
And this at a time when the working class and the people are paying to increase the profits of capital and finance war budgets.
The prime minister's annual announcements at the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair will be full of old and new measures that put the “sickest appetites” of employers into practice. Such as the extension of the 13-hour working day and the "arrangement" of the exploitation of workers throughout the year, according to the anti-labor monstrosity that has been submitted for consultation in recent days.
This will provide for a further increase in the retirement age from 2027, with the activation of the legislative provisions passed by the ND-SYRIZA-PASOK governments.
They will ready new tax exemptions and privileges for capital, with even greater commercialization vital needs in the spheres of health, education, housing, etc.
Government plans are full of escalating repression and authoritarianism, in order to make the state more "effective" in its hostility towards the people, especially now that war preparations are intensifying. This is the aim of the bill on disciplinary measures in the public sector, which the government is preparing to push through.
In response to all this, which escalates the attack on all fronts, the government is attempting yet another diversionary tactic, announcing "increases" in some pensions and benefits, handing out "crumbs" to reduce tax rates for struggling households. These are crumbs falling from the table of capital and in no way can they provide meaningful relief to the people.
That is why there is no room for waiting. The government is trying in vain to incorporate and manipulate the just reactions of the people. If anything is even clearer, it is that in order for the people to gain anything, capital and business groups must lose. The policy of supporting their profitability must be dealt a blow.
This is the message conveyed by the militant protests already being organized, with demands for a 7-hour, 5-day working week and 35-hour work week, against the outrage of 13-hour work days, for substantial increases in wages and pensions, and against the country's involvement in the imperialists' war slaughterhouse.
Because what is "modern" and "new" is not the destruction of people's lives for the sake of capital's competitiveness in "peace" and war. What is truly modern is to exploit all the possibilities offered by the times we live in to satisfy the needs of the people, and this requires removing the obstacle of capitalist profit and organizing a working-class and popular counterattack to overthrow rotten capitalism.
27.08.2025