Workers in Greece staged the country’s largest general strike in decades on 28 February, on the two-year anniversary of the Tempe train crash in 2023.
There were huge rallies in Athens and Thessaloniki as well as across the Greek mainland and islands and even internationally. The crowd in Athens was estimated to be over one million people.
There were an estimated 380 demonstrations globally, including here in Australia in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.
The crash in the Tempe Valley in Greece was an unprecedented state crime. Two trains, one carrying cargo and one carrying more than 350 passengers, crashed while running in the opposite direction on the same line. Fifty-seven people died with many others injured.
Train workers and unions had repeatedly warned that an “accident” like this was waiting to happen. The privatisation of the train system has meant prioritising profits over safety and people’s lives. The result is mass understaffing (with just 590 workers now employed compared to 3200 before 2012-2015) and run down trains and technology, including the breakdown of communications systems and signals that caused the crash.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ right-wing government attempted a cover-up over the crash. The site was bulldozed before a proper forensic investigation could take place, meaning large amounts of materials from the crash were removed, hiding and destroying evidence in the process. The government tried to blame the station master on shift as the only one responsible for the crash, while there were many vile and sexist attacks on Maria Karystianou (the mother of a victim) and the other families of victims fighting for justice.
Yet the government is widely seen as complicit in the crash, which has become a symbol of the failures of the Greek state. Polls show that 72 per cent of those asked believe the government has attempted to cover up the crime.
The strike saw the organised working class united to demand “the collapse of the murderers’ government”.
Schools, hospitals, hospitality venues, the public sector, trains, ports, factories and shops were all shut for the strike. Striking train, bus and even taxi drivers worked for free to take protestors to the rallies.
The Greek Palestinian community, Pylos survivors (from a shipwreck where 650 refugees were killed) and migrant workers were all present, alongside countless banners and contingents from unions, and high-school and university students holding occupations.
They defied the government’s desperate attempts to scare people away, including by unleashing thousands of cops who violently attacked protestors with tear gas.
Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party controls a majority of seats and has survived a confidence motion in parliament. But one thing is clear: neither his government nor the weak parliamentary opposition can bring the justice that people are demanding.
Follow up strikes and marches took place a week later on 8 March, International Women’s Day, organised by the Movement for the 8 March strike. Rallies and strikes are continuing, with another general strike planned on 9 April..
The workers’ movement needs to fight to escalate the strikes and nationalise the entire transport system. In doing so it is important to also address the failures of other public services like education and health, and demand a society organised to meet workers’ needs not bosses profits.
By Marina Dionysiou
