Greek Communists salute the mass uprising of toiling farmers and condemn government repression

Image via the KKE

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) salutes the mass uprising of toiling farmers and condemns government repression

On Sunday November 30, Greek farmers began blocking major highways with tractors and other agricultural machinery. The government responded with repression, using chemicals, riot police and arrests to suppress the farmers’ mobilization, but these efforts proved futile in the face of the toiling farmers’ mass participation, determination and organized disobedience.

The farmers are fighting for their future, to prevent their eventual extermination and to secure the chance to earn a decent living from their work in their villages.

They are demanding support for their shrinking income, which has been eroded by the policies pursued by all governments that have consistently served the interests of business groups and implemented the guidelines of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

These policies, aimed at serving the interests of a handful of exploiters of farmers’ labour, have driven production costs to unbearable levels, left farmers vulnerable to extreme weather and various diseases without full compensation for the destroyed crops, kept product prices low and deprived them of a dignified life, pushing them into poverty and destitution.

Livestock farmers have also joined the mobilizations, as they are suffering significant losses from the sheep and goat pox epidemic and find themselves in dire conditions due to the criminal policies of the bourgeois state, which, in enforcing EU CAP provisions, orders the culling of infected animals. Over 400,000 sheep and goats have already been killed. Furthermore, the state refuses to vaccinate the herds, not for scientific reasons, but to protect the interests of a handful of monopolies exporting Greek feta cheese, whose profitability could be jeopardized if other countries imposed restrictions on feta imports following vaccination.

The KKE, along with many trade unions, supports the just struggle of farmers and livestock breeders.

For more photos see: Communist Party of Greece - The KKE salutes the mass uprising of toiling farmers and condemns government repression