Anger over the crimes of Mitsotakis and his ministers is boiling over every day. No matter how hard Mitsotakis tries to cover them up with promises from the Thessaloniki International Fair and with “high-level political” trips from Paris to Cairo, reality keeps coming crashing through, provocatively, in the economy, in the war, and in everyday life. This week, as we demonstrate against fascism 13 years after the murder of Pavlos Fyssas in Keratsini, thousands gathered in Nikaia to bid farewell to Giorgos Mazonakis, who fell victim to the destruction of the health system through the privatizations carried out by Georgiadis and his likes. Schools, municipalities and hospitals are unleashing a wave of strikes against the killers, and everyone—women, men and all of us—must rise up alongside them.
The government’s “package from the Thessaloniki International Fair” has been ridiculed as the price of oil has once again shot through the roof. A new wave of profiteering and price hikes is coming, making a mockery of the “gentlemen’s agreements” between supermarkets and ministers. As you can read on other pages of this issue of Workers’ Solidarity, the “Mecca Agreement” between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey (which the patrioteers dubbed an “Islamic NATO”) proved incapable of confronting the Houthi advance toward the Red Sea in Yemen, while Mitsotakis is rushing to Cairo to highlight the importance of cooperation between Greece, Cyprus and Egypt alongside Israel. A new round of arms spending for more frigates capable of reaching the Red Sea, while there is supposedly “no money” for a 13th or 14th salary, or for Education and Health.
They have gone so far as to turn blood into a commodity
It was under such conditions that the scandal involving the “quacks” and the death of Mazonakis highlighted the cost of privatization by the mechanisms of New Democracy and its ministers. The killers are not only the owners of the “Kolonaki medical practice” who were selling “quantum medicine.” Alongside them, the ministers who promoted “medical tourism” to strengthen private clinics while they were mutilating the public hospitals are accomplices. They have gone so far as to turn blood into a commodity, attacking the National Blood Donation Centre and rushing to develop the profitable plasma trade. See the facing page for how systematic this campaign by Georgiadis and his predecessors at the Ministry of Health was.
Plevris holds a special place, having moved from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. From overseeing privatizations that cause deaths, he has moved to direct death policies as the official in charge of refugee camps such as the one in Sintiki. Plevris, who shook Kasidiaris’s hand when Golden Dawn members were murdering migrants such as Shahzad Luqman, is now implementing Nazi policies by locking refugees and migrants in camps from which they cannot emerge alive.
The rallies this Friday, September 18, are not “commemorative.” We are honoring the memory of Pavlos Fyssas and organizing the struggle against the Mitsotakis government, which has Georgiadis, Plevris and their likes at its forefront and is releasing Kasidiaris from prison. It is crucial that the anti-fascist rallies are not taking place in isolation.
Schools have reopened, and teachers, parents and students are preparing to strike on September 30 to save public Education from the government’s attacks. Alongside them, all the federations representing public-sector workers are mobilizing and are holding a meeting this Thursday to move forward with a nationwide 48-hour public-sector strike on October 14–15.
The strike is our class’s most powerful weapon, and under these particular conditions it becomes even more powerful. Just before the 48-hour strike, the International Day of Action in solidarity with Palestine, against the war of Trump, Netanyahu and Mitsotakis, will take place on October 10. We will demonstrate that day alongside millions of protesters from around the world, shouting that we do not want an Israeli “dome” over the Aegean, nor frigates in the Red Sea; we want money for Education and Health.
Our struggles are interconnected, and that is a source of strength for them to win. For us, the arena is not opinion polls and the creation of impressions. Battles are won in the streets and in workplaces. Come and join us in strengthening the revolutionary Left that places these priorities at the center, both in theory and in practice.