NEWS AND ACTION UP DAYS GREECE ATHENS

Wednesday 17th February 2010

• Polykarpos Georgiadis and Vaggelis Chrysochoidis were charged with 22 years of imprisoning for the case of industrialist Mylonas kidnapping.

Reports from the trial on Rioters Press: http://rioter.info/2010/02/08/daily-update-on-industrialist-kidnapping-t...

• Report was published about the last day's event in Vyronas district of Athens, when during a bank robbery the pigs killed a person with 8 bullets on his back and 1 on his head. The innocent victim, Nikollas Todi 25 years old and father of a six months child, used to be close to the spot and without participation in the robbery.

• 9th High-school of Pireaus squatted by pupils because a classmate of them was expelled from the school and enforced to change school for ever after a small conflict with the chairman. The squatters condemn the behavior of the chairman who started with verbal attacks, but also during the last days rises up his authoritarianism and the repression against pupils who have certain political ideas, different dress-code etc.

Thursday 18th February 2010

• Looting attack against the private car of a journalist in Patras town. At the car were caused serious damages and some flames also touched the editor's car.

• The Queen's Peace minister announced that "up to Easter, the presence of police in Athens will rise up to levels that the citizens haven't seen before" ...

• 39 migrants, 27 men and 12 women, are trapped on Farmakonisi islet. The Coast Guards can not sail from Leros island because of lack in ships which can travel in the existed weather. Citizens asked from the guards to sail with their fishing boats but they could not have a lisence because of the wind and the weavy sea. The phenomenon of lack in boats of the public sector for islands in Greece is something usual for years now. Also the islands' residents face lots of problems when their health is in risk but also for daily needs. Meanwhile, the greek government is mostly interested in buying cops and army equipment.

Friday 19th February 2010

• One more dead prisoner, 33 years old, in Alikarnassos jailhouse. He was found dead by human-guard during the night. The jail authorities reported that the causes of death did not come from any criminal action, but on the other hand they do not publish the reasons of it. For one more time "an investigation is in process". We know really well where such 'investigations' lead to. So many deaths of prisoners since now and nobody has ever been blamed for them. When they talk about investigations they just mean that one more file will be closed and forgotten. For lawyers or organisations for prisoners' rights contact here: apodrashteam@gmail.com

• The squat (all functions of school/university are blocked) of 9th Highschool of Pireaus ended today after the promises of teachers' assembly for less repression in the future and taking away the high punishment restrictions that a pupil was sentenced. (watch older update)

• Information spreading in Corfu island by Elaia Squat against state repression, after the pigs' brutality against a woman blamed for throwing some stones to the local pig station.

• The solidarity actions from AGRA's workers with Ntinos Palaistidis keep on. Beside demonstrations and condemning pesences, workers also blockade many shops of the Company.(Watch older Updates)

Fotos: https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1134134

Text-Striking Workers of "AGRA" publications company for the dismissal of Mr Ntinos Palaistidis.

We the workers in AGRA Company, feel the need to state our position in public, about the dismissal of Mr Ntinos Palaistidis. Because a lot of roumors are spread around and some persons talk about us without us, we want to underline that the most qualified to speak about our working relationship is us! We therefore say that working conditions in 'AGRA' clearly do not resemble to Middle Age working conditions as unfortunately happened in many private sector companies, but we are neither in an ideal working environment without problems! There are problems, because of the lack of dialogue and resolve them with employers we face today a dead-end.

The dismissal of Mr Dinos Palaistidi surprised us all. We are able to know exactly the large workload for all of us (and Mr Ntinos) in recent years. A workload that was resulted because of the growth of "AGRA" publish company in which we all helped! The pressure thus exerted because of the busy work, led the colleague Ntinos over the past two years, repeatedly asking to meet with the employer to clarify-restatement of its duties, event that never happened. However, after meeting with the inspection work, the response of employers was to fire him. We can know and say this publicly, that Mr Palaistidis until the time of his dismissal, he was consistently performing in all the tasks assigned. We believe that a labor dispute can not be treated this way.

We ask whether on final time, and after having been on our side efforts of a prior month, for revocation of the dismissal of Mr Dinos Palaistidi, to return to previous employment status and launching the final solution through sincere dialogue and understanding! This is the only way to preserve the character, the morals of publications 'AGRA'! The struggle continues!

Athens, 19.02.2010

Workers-strikers

• Solidarity Initiative Results of METKA factory assembly (Watch older Update)

"WITH A GUN ON THEIR HEAD" VOTED AGAINST THE 24-HOUR STRIKE TODAY THE WORKERS OF METKA (19th February 2010)

Today the workers' assembly in Metka voted against the proposal of the union for a 24-hour strike mobilization on 22nd of February, with 106 votes against and 47 for the strike. After employers' suggestions and threatening phone calls noone could expect from the workers to vote for the strike which was typically proposed by the employer association.

The 'bedridden and weak' Chairman of the association appeared in today's meeting to support the legal process of voting but of course not to denounce the dismissals or terrorist machinations of Mytilineos-Oikonomou bosses, the pimps in pension. The result is not disappointing as the 1 / 3 of workers defied the employer terrorism and voted to strike knowing that the next day they can be in danger to be redundant like the three redundant syndicalists (Pavlidis, Vogiatzis, Kazatzis). For 18:30 got organized a meeting of organizations after the initiative of the Labor Center in Volos town to determine the next move, while at 20.00 the Solidarity Initiative calls a meeting to plan action for the whole next week.

As the workers of METKA said "we are in solidarity with the redundant persons, because in the factory the bosses have stolen our dignity. We know what awaits us, but we can not stand the conditions any more". The bosses Mytilineos-Oikonomou-Tsitsiklis with their current actions clustered the workers of METKA who voted for the strike and this is already a victory.

Nothing is over, now everything begins.

Saturday 20th February 2010

• SOLIDARITY INITIATIVE ANNOUNCEMENT (Volos, 20th February 2010)

The overthrow of the government's stability program passes through METKA and class war against Mytileneos.

Additionally, Mytileneos is .... the State.

In today's meeting of the Solidarity Initiative, with presence of the redundant workers decided:

1. Massive presence at the Labor Inspectorate on Tuesday 23 / 2, where will become the tripartite meeting with employers, redundant persons and the Labor Center of Volos.

2. Participation in the General Strike on 24 / 2. On Monday 21/2 massive presence at the central entrence of METKA, as well as on Wednesday at 24 / 2.

• ANNOUNCEMENT BY 'MOVEMENT FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS - SOLIDARITY WITH MIGRANTS - SAMOS ISLAND

During the mourning of Thursday 18th February, 50 migrants were transfered from Samos' Detention Center to Athens in order to be deported. Since then we have lost them because they can not contact anybody or reach any legal assistance. This event gets added to the illegal transfers for deportation of 85 migrants on 12.12.2009 and the 24 Afghans and Iranis on 14.01.2010 without complying with either the basic guarantees of their rights as refugees and prisoners. The refugees do not get informed about the reason there should be transferred neither about the destination of the transfer. They get signed by the Greek authorities with the assistance of FRONTEX arbitrarily the Afghans as Iranis without the knowledge of their own refugees and they try to be expelled to Turkey under the Greek-Turkish readmission protocol.

While FRONTEX gets upgraded, and in cooperation with the Coast Guard Authorities of Samos intensify the effort to 'secure' the borders - east of the island - from the influx of refugees, the number of refugee shipwrecks also rises up (two in the first two months of 2010) and we are counting corpses on the beaches of the island (9 drawned refugees). The missing persons are also a lot, but Mass Media and authorities do not report about because people who search for them are invisible with voices not heard.

Additionally to these, reports from refugees come on top that talk about the Coast Guards - not for first time - and say: "...they have beaten us up, they sweared against us, we still have scars on our bodies, some of us have broken bones, they threatened us with guns and fired on the air, they threw our mobile phones in the sea", on a text of their own which they gave us during our visit in the Detention Center on 05.02.2010.

The immunity of the borders and the anti-refugee policy that the government enforces, the chase from the side of FRONTEX - that can not stop the waves of refugees but open war in the region against unarmed and persecuted people who come even from war areas - rise up and feed the illegal human (slave) trading. The only aim of such actions are accorded to the Non Tolerance Fortress Europe idea.

REFUGEES GET DRAWNED, CHASED, IMPRISONED AND FROM NOW ON THEY GET KIDNAPPED BY FRONTEX AND AUTHORITIES.

We continue AND expect:

--> Effective access to political asylum.

--> Translations by people who can translate in the refugees' languages and n

ot by agents of Frontex.

--> Stop the 'War' in our neighborhood that serves the requirements of EU. --> We do not want the refugee hunters of Frontex. They shall remove.

• In the frame of solidarity actions with political prisoners: Dimitris Koufontinas statement during the trial of 17N Revolutionary Organisation, imprisoned in the modern 'white cells' of democracy:

"As long as there are classes, rich and poor people, then there will still exist violence. Violence is born by the basic social contradiction of wealth and poverty." And this is not a discovery of revolutionary Link. It was a wording from Platon 2.500 years before. According to Marx the violence, the mute coercion of economical relationships, the barbarity and the wars will continue until the world of work will free themselves and society and humanity finally will start living its history.

This reality that we experience social war and not social peace, social solidarity or real democracy was the fact that enforced the action of 17N. The state violence, the imperialistic dependence that turned the country into a colony, the poverty, the unemployment, the degradation of life, the individualism that creates the inhuman exploitative system, the injustice and the impunity of those who act against the people and the country were the reasons that armed the hand of 17N.

We did not act under conditions of war. Against the indiscriminate state violence and terrorism we opposed the carefully and fairly popular antiviolence. However, we were encountered with totalitarian conditions, furious and savage war, with raw violence, with an enormous propaganda and communication war of distortion and black-mailing, with special laws that were even against your burgeois legality, with devastating detention conditions, with the looming prospect of extradition for some of us to the modern Dachaus.

We are not complaining. Those of us, because there are some among us found here by the vindictiveness of the system and the service of certain considerations, those of us who chose instead of conformism and intergration to find their humanity through revolution and to contribute in their own way next to the fights for social liberation knew very well were they were going.

We do not give a shit about the penalties. You will judge us guilty under the law of the winner and we do not think it's absurd, it is within your logic of war. For us, the social struggles for the liberation of human are neither innocent nor guilty. They are fair and necessary."