Communist Party of Greece (KKE) leader Aleka Papariga visited the Hellenic Shipyards at Skaramangas last week, where she urged the workers not to request the government to pressure the Germans not to decrease activities at the shipyard but, rather, to “demand that the state undertakes Skaramangas as well as the country’s entire shipbuilding and maintenance sector”.
She said that a single, public agency should be created “that will oblige even the shipowners to assign projects to the shipyards, thus limiting their profits”. Papariga met with the shipyard’s workers’ union and also visited the Railcar Unit.
On the impact of the global financial crisis in Greece, Papariga said that three things should be demanded from the government: First of all, that those who gained before the crisis should pay the price of the crisis; second, those who gained during the crisis should pay the price of the crisis; and third, an end must be put, here and now, to the immense cost of the armaments for offensive rather than defensive purposes.
She added that the above also pertained directly to the shipyards, because “the workers who are at the razor’s edge must not pay the price of the crisis”, stressing that it was “unacceptable” that workers have remained unpaid for six months “because a bogus company was set up as part of the privatisation” of the shipyard.
On the new developmental model introduced by the new government, Papariga said that investments were being made “where the profits are big,” whereas the KKE’s position consisted of a pro-people growth for Greece in which all the investments will not be channelled only to the sectors of tourism, shipping and green development.