Workers Shut Down Greece in General Strike

Unprecedented protests swept across Greece today, as approximately one million people took to the streets in hundreds of localities, demanding justice for the victims of the Tempi train crash. Trade unions, student associations, and political organizations led the mobilization, turning the day into a nationwide general strike that shut down public services, transport, and universities.

Athens

The biggest #strike of modern times
February 28 Greece General #strike #τεμπη_εγκλημα #τεμπη #απεργια #strike #huelga #greve #28_Φλεβαρη pic.twitter.com/AC4fXzyOWH

— PAME Greece International (@PAME_Greece) February 28, 2025

Two years ago, a passenger train and a freight carrier collided on the Athens—Thessaloniki line near Tempi, killing 57 people and injuring 85. Yet today’s mobilization was not only about a tragic accident. Instead, it was a response to what the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) described as a systemic crime decades in the making due to privatization, deregulation, and austerity imposed by successive governments and the European Union.

The protests demanded full accountability for the train crash, rejecting attempts by the New Democracy government to whitewash the event. At the same time, trade unions and left organizations pushed for the collision to be recognized as a crime caused by government choices. Dozens of complaints from trade unionists sent before February 28, 2023, revealed that there were serious safety concerns about the railway line, PAME stated. “Everybody knew, governments, EU, companies. They are all complicit.”

However, the trade unions warned, all of these actors chose not to act in order to protect profits. Echoing this warning, protesters marched behind banners reading “Their profits or our lives,” calling for an end to the status quo. Even in the aftermath of the tragedy, the Greek government has failed to change the policies that led to the Tempi crash, they denounced. The privatization and underfunding of public transport have left the national railway network in a dire state, with 2,000 railway workers positions unfilled and basic safety measures still non-existent.

Greek journalist Vangelis Ilias told Peoples Dispatch that there are still many unanswered questions regarding the circumstances of the crash, including the explosion and if it was related to what cargo the trains were transporting, “everything is open”.  He added that many people are assessing that neoliberalization and privatization of everything “has been destroying the lives of the people in Greece”.

The same trends have led to city buses catching fire while in service, hospitals struggling under severe staffing shortages, and workers dying in their workplace because of unsafe conditions. Over 300 workers have died in workplace accidents in the past two years, PAME pointed out—a direct result of a system where worker safety is treated as an unnecessary expense.

Organized anger against austerity and militarization

While the Tempi crash was the main reason behind the protest, the mobilization captured a much wider anger against the current socioeconomic situation in Greece. People on the streets denounced the lack of investment in public education, soaring living expenses, and stagnating wages, hitting the population hard while the government continues spending billions on militarization. Protesters condemned the use of Greek transport infrastructure to facilitate NATO arms shipments, rejecting Greece’s complicity in imperialist military operations while social needs at home remain unmet.

The success of the mobilization was the result of weeks of organized efforts by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), PAME, and other trade unions and organizations. Throughout this time, dozens of assemblies and meetings were held across Greece, students canvassed universities, and trade union chapters took up the call to action in order to ensure mass participation.

Trade unions which had been planning the strike for more than a month, tapped into the deep “anger and disappointment” of the Greek people, and the “need to do something”, Greek journalist Vangelis Ilias told Peoples Dispatch. He stated, “you have this combination of anger on one side and an organized movement that can put this together and take people into the streets.”

The reaction these efforts created signaled that the working class in Greece is no longer willing to accept a system that values profit more than their lives. As the organizations coordinating the protests stated, the anger that erupted after the Tempi crash was not gone—instead, it has been organized into a movement strong enough to halt the country and demand radical change.

PAME, the KKE, and other left organizations have vowed to continue mobilizing until the people’s demands are met. They pledged in their statements: “We will not live in a vast valley of Tempe. We will fight in an organized way against the policies that sacrifice our lives for the profits of a handful of parasites.”