A mass rally to commemorate the uprising of the tenant farmers (1910) in Kileler, Sunday 28/2/2016, saw the completion of one phase of the struggle of the small and medium farmers. As their representatives noted, after almost 40 days of roadblocks on all the country's highways, and the experience drawn from these roadblocks, they will continue the struggle with other forms.

Representatives from the various farmers' roadblocks from all over the country spoke at the rally. The central speaker was Vangelis Boutas, member of the Nationwide Committee of Roadblocks and president of the Unified Federation of Farmers' Associations of Karditsa.

V. Boutas noted that farmers were doing what they can to keep their land that this is reflected in their line of struggle. They fight against the monopolies and the multinationals that sell them the machinery and other resources at very high prices, against the banks that drink their blood, against the big retailers that take their crops at unbelievably low prices.

And he also stated that "the EU and the IMF and the governments want to collect money not from the rich, but from us, the poor farmers and workers," V. Boutas stressed that "in this struggle we waged, we came to understand once again that alone we cannot succeed. For this reason, we must strengthen our joint struggle together with the workers and other popular strata."He underscored that the demands they tabled in their meeting with the government had to do with the very survival of the small and medium farmers. For the first time, the government accepted the need for there to exist a tax-exempt level for the farmers' income and other tax credits. Due to the struggle of the farmers and workers, the social-security bill's tabling in parliament has already been delayed by two months. As was stressed by V.Boutas, "We will be ready at any moment to react when the government brings it to be voted on in parliament."Of course, we will wait to see what the final legislation looks like in order to ascertain if the commitments have been honoured. We will be ready for battle. And from tomorrow we will be preparing to return to Athens, if necessary."

29.02.2016