A mass strike to mark the anniversary of a terrible crash on privatised railway demonstrates the anger of Greek workers at government neglect and corruption. Kevin Ovenden reports from Athens and argues this can mark a qualitative change in the struggle

Probably over 1.5 million people across Greece took to the streets on Friday in rage and sadness on the second anniversary of the Tempe rail disaster that killed 57 people. They were mainly students returning to university after the semester break. The event tragically symbolises what the crisis years have done to the nation’s young people especially. 

A national strike shut down transport, many public buildings, schools and private sector workplaces. It had the feel of the great upsurges 15 years ago against austerity and the Great Depression era collapses in living standards and public services. Those militant movements broke the back of the old political order. While the Syriza government that was swept to office in January 2015 capitulated to the EU and Greek capitalists over rupturing from austerity, there was, for a time, a great surge of hope in that period ten years ago, both at the base of Greek society and across the international left.

One common refrain among the crowds and on social media this time was: ‘Dare we believe that hope is returning?’ A reason for that is that the strikes and demonstrations were immensely political -perhaps even more so than two years ago in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy when the government moved smartly to announce a three-day period of national mourning and to put back the imminent general election.

It was able to win that election with a shockingly high 41% of the vote. It was an indication of the collapse in faith in the main party of the left, Syriza, after its betrayal and also of a great caution about not risking another failed confrontation with the powers that be. The Tory New Democracy Party under Kyriacos Mitsotakis skillfully played on that. He said the modest economic recovery should not be put at risk and that if given another four years, he would make sure it trickled down to wages and to restoring the health service. But the surprise big win did not mark a shift among working people to a positive endorsement for the neoliberal moderniser, Mitsotakis. It was, by default, in an election where turnout was down.

The huge outpouring on the streets today underlines that.

The big majority of people hold the decades of cuts and privatisation, as well as the corruption and incompetence of one government after another, as responsible for the disaster. That was two years ago. It remains so now but also fused with very real anger at how the government is trying to cover up the Tempe crime and smear the families at the centre of campaigning over it.

So there was a national sentiment of striking, of what the South African liberation movement used to call the ‘stay away’ – that is not only a formal strike but small shops and even supermarket branches shutting. Running through that: a sense of the citizenry taking action.

Burying the evidence 

That’s because more and more has emerged about how the government, which said it knew nothing about the great dangers on the rail system at the time, was already quite literally burying the evidence. Ministers instructed the area around the head-on collision – a crime scene – to be cleared in the first three days, thus losing vital evidence.

It moved to scapegoat a station manager and declared it was ‘human error’ before any investigation was carried out. It then limited and delayed the investigation and prevented it from being independent. More of this has come to light since a near repeat collision took place five months ago where two trains were 30 seconds away from head-on impact. All but a few stretches of the network lack automatic signalling and proximity detection technology.

Then the government moved to exonerate predecessors responsible for the privatisation and running down of infrastructure. To cap it all, after carefully trying to fob off but not be seen to attack the families campaigning hardest for justice for their loved ones, one thuggish New Democracy minister after another started smearing and insulting, in misogynistic tones, the best known of them, Maria Karystianou.

She has emerged as a figure comparable to Magda Fyssa, another bereaved mother in the struggle against fascism and racism and against authoritarianism, following the murder by the Nazis of Golden Dawn of her son Pavlos in September 2013.

Karystianou and the families around her have inspired the social movement we saw on the streets today, organising a major concert in Athens a few months ago and then national rallies in the runup to this week’s commemoration.

Politicisation

That and the cynical efforts by the government to divide the families and paint those most engaged as intransigents and irrational have created a process of intense politicisation. So now 81% of people say they do not trust the government, and 67% do not trust the judiciary to investigate after its complicity in the fast unravelling cover-up.

That speaks to a national feeling that you do not have to have an immediate alternative government in waiting to act upon in order to win things against this one and break its political spine.

Maria Karystianou told demonstrators today:

‘The supposedly innocent are afraid to part with their political immunity, to which they have desperately and cowardly clung.

‘The supposedly innocent are afraid to appear before their natural judges, as all of us Greek citizens have to do before a jury.

‘The supposedly innocent are secretly and insidiously circumventing the articles of the Constitution that ensure equality between all.

‘The supposedly innocent obsessively hold on to their positions and deny any responsibility without even arguing it.

‘They present themselves as blameless. Shame!

‘Beyond immoral, it is also unbearably stupid for someone to be so evil, so unjust, and to think that they can underestimate the intelligence of all of us citizens…’

Those are words that are dangerous to any government. 

Not long after she spoke, unknown black-clad figures launched a violent eruption on the gigantic gathering in Athens outside the parliament. Social media has been flooded with footage and stills of police units rubbing shoulders with men who later appear as apparently enraged protesters with a taste for nihilist violence. Given the distrust in the government and the breadth of engagement in the actions today in a country of just ten million, it is likely that many more people than usual will recognise the tactics of police agents provocateurs and of an unpopular right-wing government trying to delegitimise the protests.

After people were forced to pull back from outside the parliament, many calmly returned. The police had to retreat.

No backing down 

It is difficult to say what will happen after Friday’s inspiring mobilisations. It is a long weekend with Monday as a bank holiday. The Tempe families show no sign of backing down and are conducting a militant and creative campaign. The strikes also condensed a broad feeling of discontent with the government and of working-class and popular demands. There have been important recent struggles, including by construction workers last month over safety and a national contract.

It is in no way to scold anyone on the left, which in all its aspects is with this struggle and agitation. But we must bring ourselves to understand this event and how organic struggles can develop and are developing, throwing up new political actors with whom we need to forge respectful relations in a spirit of openness and common struggle. And dare I say some humility.

The mass sentiment over Tempe was fused with the strike weapon today and powered by more and more evidence of a criminal government whose culpability extends to the Pylos shipwreck disaster that killed over 600 refugees. Many people are making connections between the two.

The left, in a formal, organised sense, has been largely in the doldrums following the convincing win by the Tory New Democracy Party two years ago. There has been a sincere desire to come together after various electoral efforts failed, a background of popular discontent and some struggles, but nothing really making a breakthrough.

It is not automatic, but events on Friday have shown that the possibility to do so exists. That is the meaning of the mobilisations in Greece – and the lesson is not restricted there. The people are prepared to act when they think it is worth it and when they can see how it can be a link in the chain of changing things in their lives. Don’t blame the working class or the common people if the left does not rise to the task of doing so.

A combative bereaved mother and other citizens have played a central role in stirring millions of working people into action in Greece. It is millions when you add up the myriad acts of solidarity through to shopkeepers and even supermarket branches shutting for a period of mourning around midday.

Can the various parts of the radical left come together to assist that process, to learn from it and provide good political answers that this movement needs as it comes up against a ruthless government whose social base is diminishing? And out of that, to offer a political alternative. It’s a question posed across Britain and Europe right now.