Call for solidarity to the workers of ERT, 13 June in Amsterdam.

On Tuesday night, the Greek government blocked the transmission of the Greek public broadcaster (ERT). The decision was taken earlier that day by the government in a totally undemocratic way. There was no prior discussion about it in the parliament.
PM Samaras’ “success story” has not convinced anyone, so he decided to take one more “successful” step towards the Troika’s demand for 4.000 layoffs of civil servants by the end of 2013. This is why he did not hesitate to muzzle the public TV and radio and render 2.900 workers jobless overnight.

Does the government plan to deal with other public organizations in the same way in order to “save” the country and show its discipline to the Troika? Do they plan to do the same with water or electricity?

Now, news in Greece are broadcasted only by private TV channels owned by Greek tycoons. In Greece’s closest neighbor, Turkey, while thousands of protesters were experiencing the violence of the police, the Turkish private TV channels, owned by bankers, were broadcasting cooking shows and soap operas.
Greece as any modern democracy needs a public broadcaster that will inform society in an independent and transparent way. Instead, the new national broadcaster that the Greek government wants to create is an organization fully controlled by the State, with employees working for 400 Euros per month. In addition, the possibility that ERT will be privatized and its property will be sold to private interests is not excluded.

It is already known that private TV and radio stations have been using ERT’s frequencies to broadcast their own programs. However, ERT has been financed by the Greek people and it is a public property. The privatization of ERT or any other public property should not be allowed.

Democracy in Greece has already been severely damaged in the name of austerity and bailout. But how far will this go?

Today, we are standing in solidarity with Greek people who are on strike to resist and organize themselves against authoritarianism, poverty, modern slavery.

Together with them, we shout:

- We want a public broadcaster controlled by the people and not by the government and the Troika.
– No public property given to private interests.
– Hands off the working people in Greece.
– Work-Decency-Justice.

We call on a protest in Beurspein,  Amsterdam at 18.00.

ReINFORM