WE VOTE NO IN THE REFERENDUM on the 5th of JULY: WE VOTE NO TO AUSTERITY!

On the 5th of July the Greek citizens are invited to participate in a referendum in order to decide whether they accept Troika’s proposal of new devastating cuts in return for a new debt funding package. In particular, the Troika demands a dramatic cut in pensions, an increase in indirect taxes and the total liberalization of the labour market.

It is no surprise that since the announcement of the referendum the EU, ECB, IMF and the Greek pro-Memoranda bloc have been trying to terrorize Greek people to vote “yes” to the Troika’s demands. It is likely that they will use the percentage of abstention from the referendum to delegitimize an eventual “no”. Setting off a bank panic and making terrorizing announcements are part of this plan.

The Greek people are left with no other option than to use the referendum as a means of saying a loud “no” to all the neoliberal policies of austerity and not only to this specific proposal of Troika. A “no” in the referendum should not be misinterpreted as an acceptance of other Memoranda such as the last proposal of the Greek government: it will be a “no” to the austerity policies promoted by the capitalist system, either chosen by the Troika and the international capital or by the Greek government and the Greek capital.

People in Greece should not confine their reaction to a “no” in the referendum. Only through collective social and class struggles can we stop the neoliberal attack launched by the capital in Greece and all over Europe. These struggles should aim at the total overthrow of the Memoranda policies of the capitalist system, what the Greek government has so far not attempted.

The entire Left and all the trade unions in Europe have now the obligation to show their solidarity to all people in Greece. This is why we call the Dutch Left, trade unions and political groups opposing austerity policies to put an end to their deafening silence of the last five years and take a clear stance in favour of the Greek people’s democratic right to decide on their future. In addition, it is high time that they expressed an explicit opposition to the austerity policies in Greece and Europe. Last but not least, they should actively support the necessity of a write-off of the Greek fiscal debt and urgently organize massive actions in the Netherlands to this direction.

ReINFORM