Prominent Greek Australians and Australian unions have called on the Australian government to support Greeks and to communicate to the Greek Government and the European Union that austerity measures are “unjust” and “do not work”.
At a meeting organised by the Greek Community of New South Wales, members from the community and unions joined forces in a campaign to show their solidarity to Greece in their time of need.
The main speakers of the event were the President of the Greek Community, Harry Danalis; Greek Australian trade union members, such as Aggelos Gavrielatos, president of Australian Education Union, and Arthur Rorris, Secretary of the South Coast Labor Council in NSW, as well as other prominent members of the community.
In the meeting, Mr Rorris stated: “we have to show everyone that the Greek financial crisis was not caused by Greeks living lives of luxury, when we know that those responsible are not the ones who will carry the burden of austerity for the next decades.
“We want to send a message to workers and employees in Greece, that we, from Australia, support them and demonstrate our solidarity to their fight against the memorandum and the austerity measures,” said the General Secretary of the Community Michael Tsilimos.
After the meeting, those in attendance created this statement:
The continuing economic crisis in Greece is not an isolated phenomenon peculiar to one country. It is symptomatic of a broader systemic economic failure in the global economy and in particular, the European Union.
The people of Greece today, deserve no less assistance than the global banks and financial investment houses received during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008. During the GFC, workers’ savings and collective assets were used to guarantee the survival of some of the world’s biggest banks. These institutions were bailed out of a crisis that they themselves created.
Today ordinary Greek workers and their families are being told they must pay again. They will have their incomes, working conditions, pensions, and their social services destroyed and their nation’s productive capacity severely constrained so that their economy can be ‘saved’.
The broad, popular movement in Greece against the proposed austerity measures deserves the support of the international community and solidarity of the labour movement and the Australian community more broadly.
Accordingly, we call upon the Greek Government, European Union and the global financial institutions to:
(i) Abandon the fiscal austerity program that is strangling the Greek economy and its people, and;
(ii) Adopt an expansionary investment program to break the vicious downward spiral and provide jobs and hope to an increasingly desperate people.
We further call on the Australian Government to support this position and to communicate it to the Greek Government and the European Union.