What has been happening in Greece in the past few months (and in a way, extending from December 2008 to present) is simply phenomenal: deep changes, one after the other, in the social backbone come at breakneck speed. This fluid landscape has found us, the wider social antagonist movement (anarchists, anti-authoritarians, the libertarian left) numb – and worse even stuck with our conceptualisations, our beliefs and readings of social reality as it stood only a little while ago.
But so much has changed, so fast.
Do we possibly have the luxury to dismiss the strike of the lorry-drivers as somewhat “reactionary” or “conservative” because they aim at protecting the reserved benefits of their trade? (it is true that this, along with a few more trades, is one of the so-called “closed” trades, requiring licenses of 200K upward, which often pass on via family, political and other often dubious connections). Can we still keep reading developments in this way? Lorry drivers “are protecting their closed trade”; dockworkers are “driven by the Communist Party”; peach producers “only rise up when their profits sink”. Of course, there is some truth in all these statements. But this is no Colonial India, nor should we ever allow it to come to this… To divide and rule is the oldest trick in the book. Our position as anarchists, as libertarians, as people in the grassroots struggle, must be on the side of those who fight from the grassroots, from the wider working class – with all the past wrong-doings of some of its parts. Our aim, to strengthen their struggle with that powerful bond of solidarity – this, which could ensure that next time they don’t get into another dog-eat-dog situation, that they don’t turn against each other, that their aim is where it truly deserves to be, against state and capital intervention in our lives.
These are unprecedented moments when enormous ruptures open up and where the potentials are high. We either seize the day or let everything and everyone around us crumble fall, one by one._
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What the fuck is the point of the reference to Colonial India in this entry ?
i imagine this:
“The concept of “Divide and Rule” gained prominence when India was a part of the British Empire”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divide_and_rule
The weight of the crisis now presses down on the Petite Bourgeois. Threatening them with economic ruin. And tipping the most vulnerable back into the working class. I agree with the article the crisis has reached a new stage. For the rulers it represents a second front. And perhaps a more desperate front. The effective removal of taxi licenses occurred in Ireland. Taxi drivers hours have increased their incomes decreased. These Greek lorry drivers know what the consequences will be for them. And the government cannot afford to be seen to compromise. This social dislocation of the self employed and small owner is occurring across Europe. Providing fertile soil for fascists again.
Vive Le Revolucion..
The stratagem of divide and rule precedes the British occupation of India although of course it was applied during the colonial period in India. The author(s) should have selected a different geographical point of reference, however. The author(s) could have cited any number of other cases of the policy of divide and rule being implemented. As it stands, however, the construction can also be construed as tainted with a Eurocentric attitude even if there was no such intention.
A few minutes ago the lorry drivers announced that their strike continues!
The announcement came after hours of negotiation with the minister that did not end to an agreement. The drivers will hold an assembly on Friday at 12.00 noon to decide the continuation of their struggle, and untill then the strike goes on.
The fuel has run out in most part of the country and serious problems are caused in tourist industry and in the circulation of products. The producers of peaches had serious problems, as their products need to be carried immediately in order not to be ruined, so the drivers announced that they will carry the fruits, as an offer of the drivers to the farmers, as they have announced.
the anti-colonial uprisings across india were on a far more impressive scale and represented greater unity than anything that has happened in greece this century.
After a long General Assembly the lorry drivers decided to continue the strike, despite the civil conscription! The police has started to give the orders to the drivers, but still no trucks are out to the streets, with the drivers saying that they prefer jail than accepting the new law.
Meanwhile, the TV staions have started an open war of propaganda against the strikes. The population disapproves the way the crisis is being faced by all sides, as today start the two weeks of August that the vast majority of the greeks take their days-off.
The more popular assemblies the better!
Actually, and strictly speaking, it is not the “lorry drivers” who are striking but, rather, the lorry owners — the very same who possess the lorry permits worth anywhere from 150,000 to 300,000 euros in current “closed market” prices. Lorry drivers are employed by these “small” lorry owner-permit holders, some of whom aren’t all that small: protagonists of the current fracas own 10 and 20 such permits, a fact that makes them more of the “capitalist class” than of the oppressed ranks. Lorry drivers often work under dismal conditions, underpaid and without insurance. And the lorry owners, who are presently tear their hairs in defense of the little people, routinely break the law over the technical soundness of their rigs and collective labor agreements that do not permit drivers to drive past a certain number of hours every day. So, dear anarchist folk, the situation at hand in this Hellas is a little more complicated than most of the commenters on this blog think. In fact, the clash now under way is between a nakedly “capitalist-imperialist” government and a petite bourgeois class of rather uncouth types, who would KILL for maintaining their means of accumulating personal wealth at the expense of the “proletariat.” By the way, the violent protesters of today have been fixing lorry freight prices for the longest time so that a ton of freight between Athens and Thessaloniki commands a price two and three times ABOVE the price we have to pay for the same ton to travel from Athens to, say, Munich in Germany. So, as I said above, this is a catfight between essentially two sides of the same “capitalist” coin: the small sharks are angry that the big sharks are effectively pushing them out of the market. Very little class “solidarity” involved her.
The same arrogant attitude Ronin displays towards the petty bourgeosie was deplayed 80 years earlier by large parts of the German left.
….Conseqently farmers, small traders, artisans, small business owners were driven into the nazi camp.
Also, I would like to add that much of the followers of the CNT in early 20 century Catalonia were comprised of self-employed and artisans.
I don’t think Ronin is that arrogant, he’s merely pointing out a contradiction of capital, and of blunt ideology…The CNT also joined the Republican government, so caution is required with the petty-bourgeois…
artisans isn’t cronyist small employers tho innit
Thank you for your words.
I fear the efforts of those who determine the flow of money now, after stripping money of everyone, will go towards another fed-war. The fed/boe/bis supported both hitler and England for maximum profits. Now, how does one deal with 40 million USA people on food stamps ? By creating a war ?
I feel we need to talk about survival: do we have wheat stored dryly, and beans? Do we have water? How do we protect culture? Can you provide for a researcher or library or do we fall back to the dark ages?
Can we set up a bulletin board (or something) that the truck driver who hanged himself would have a point of contact? And if we are relatively powerless we offer heartfelt support? No need no need no need to suicide.
With love
BB
I fear that war may not always be the solution, as demonstrated by history, time and time again.
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