PAME – ALL WORKERS MILITANT FRONT (W.F.T.U. Affiliate)

5b, Ag. Filotheis str., 105 56 Athens, GREECE, Τel. +30210 3305 219,+30210 3301842,+30210 3301847

Fax +30210 3802 864, E-mail : international@pamehellas.gr  http://www.pamehellas.gr

Athens April 16, 2014

Dear colleagues and comrades,

You are all aware of the heroic struggle of steelworkers in our country that lasted nine months and gave lessons of power, determination, strength, unity, pride, against employers, the state and its apparatuses, revealing the inhuman face and the decay of the exploitative system.

Α tremendous struggle supported by the class oriented trade union movement in our country and met a vast moral and economic solidarity from unions around the world. After an intervention staged by the repressive apparatuses of a government that implements the doctrine of law and order, the avant-guarde workers were dragged to court.

An unacceptable court decision sentenced 24 steelworkers in prison time from 21 to 23 months, revealing that Justice is not blind, but the guardian of the business interests that live off the exploitation of workers. This unacceptable decision confirms that class struggle is what really scares the rotten exploitative system.

Many similar decisions have been taken throughout the history of the labour movement proving that the bourgeoisie and its state have created several mechanisms to repress workers’ struggles and all those who fight for their rights.

The bourgeois state sentenced steelworkers in order to condemn their heroic strike, their militant example, their working class solidarity. It wants to intimidate those who will even think to fight and claim their rights.

But the heroic struggle can not be slandered, can not be condemned. It has taken its place in history in the minds of thousands of workers who struggle against monopolies. It has shown the way for the working class to free itself from the chains of exploitation. The motto of this struggle was “all Greece – a Steelwork”, which captured the content of their struggle and prevailed in all militant demonstrations of the class oriented trade union movement in Greece and throughout the world.

PAME thanks once more all the unions and the workers who generously offered their solidarity .

We call trade unions around the world to express their solidarity and to condemn this despicable decision.

You can send your messages at: international@pamehellas.gr

The Executive Secretariat of PAME