EXTRACT: The troika certainly wants its pound of flesh - and a
lot more besides. In order for Greece to qualify for the next tranche of
€8 billion in bailout loans - authorised by EU finance ministers on
October 21, pending last-minute finalisation by the IMF - the Athens
government has to
impose on the masses a fresh round of
savage cuts. Like further cuts in public-sector wages of between 20% and
30%; the scrapping of bonus and incentive schemes; the placing of some
30,000 public sector workers on 60% pay for one year pending their
dismissal; the suspension of collective wage bargaining; the cutting of
pensions and lump-sum retirement payments; the lowering of the tax-free
income threshold from €12,000 to €5,000 a year; and on and on it goes.
If the Eurocrats were to get their way, then Greek workers would be
reduced to a virtual slave class - a fate which the bourgeoisie would
like to see extended to Portugal, Spain, Italy, etc. The Greek working
class movement has other plans, of course - which is why Papandreou has
deemed it necessary to try and pre-empt their resistance through a
referendum, that favourite device of dictators and bureaucrats.
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