The PAME Congress, taking place on the 9th and 10th of November in Athens, brings together hundreds of trade unions from across Greece and international delegations. The congress serves as a milestone for the strengthening of workers’ voice, for the strengthening of the struggles of the working class!
The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) proudly participates in the congress with a high-level delegation, including our General Secretary and the President of the WFTU.
Greeting of the WFTU General Secretary in English below:
Address by Pambis Kyritsis, General Secretary of WFTU, at the PAME Conference, November 2024
Dear comrades,
On behalf of the 105 million members represented by the hundreds of unions affiliated to the WFTU in 133 countries across the globe, I extend to you a warm, militant greeting.
Your conference is taking place during a time when one capitalist crisis follows another, global competitions are intensifying, and imperialist wars and interventions continue to escalate.
The murderous state of Israel is intensifying its war, brutally extending it into Lebanon, Syria, and throughout the Middle East. With the support and tolerance of the USA, the EU, and their allies, they label the mass killing of thousands of civilians—mostly women and children—as “self-defense.” The hypocrisy, cynicism, and inhumane nature of imperialism are exposed in all their magnitude.
The WFTU is proud that under its banner, millions of workers in dozens of countries around the world are mobilizing, expressing solidarity, and demanding justice and freedom for Palestine.
Others who claim to represent the global trade union movement have nothing to be proud of and, indeed, should feel ashamed. Their equivocations and guilty silence ultimately equate the oppressors with the oppressed, thus becoming complicit in genocide.
Dear comrades,
The crisis of capitalism deepens. Social inequalities are dramatically widening.
The high cost of living and inflation are brutally undermining the living standards of workers and pensioners. Democratic and trade union freedoms are facing a harsh new assault. The right to organize and engage in collective bargaining is under attack.
Individual contracts, privatizations, outsourcing, teleworking, and “service leasing” are just a few of the harsh forms taken by this neoliberal offensive.
Major social gains, such as social security and public health, are being privatized, while the arbitrary and authoritarian raising of retirement ages continues systematically.
Workers are not passively accepting this anti-people, anti-worker offensive. Despite the sharpening of state repression and authoritarianism—often backed by complacent or complicit trade union leaders and yellow unions—despite the overpowering resources and manipulation mechanisms at the disposal of capital and its allies, despite the threats and intimidation tactics openly or covertly applied globally, workers resist and refuse to pay the cost of the capitalist crisis. Guided by class-based unions, they choose the path of struggle—the only dignified way to defend their trade union, social, and political rights.
On this occasion, allow me, on behalf of the WFTU leadership, to extend heartfelt, comradely congratulations to PAME. Through its massive and militant mobilizations, it upholds the flag of class struggle, solidarity, and anti-imperialist consistency, making us all proud.
For the WFTU, it is clear that only through struggles can we build a front capable of defending workers’ rights and opening a path toward a different course of political, economic, and social development—one leading to peace, social justice, and the abolition of human exploitation.
We are confident that PAME, strengthened and equipped with the decisions made at your congress, will continue and intensify its efforts to secure better days for Greek workers. As a member of the WFTU’s global family, with solidarity and internationalism, it will lead the fight for a world free of imperialist wars and interventions, without discrimination or human exploitation.
I wish every success for your conference and assure you that we are closely following your work and are ready to provide any assistance needed.
- Long live PAME!
- Long live the solidarity and internationalism of the working class!
