Montag, 28. Februar 2011

35 day of hungerstrike today.25 migrants already in hospitals

and the police triying to get the names in the hospitals

ocupation of the Ministery of Labour in Athens today


everyday people have to be brought to hospital

the greek goverment is not existing to listen

Wishing to spread the spirit of the struggle of the migrant workers in the centre of Athens, we are occupying the services of the Ministry of Labour at Korai Square. We call for support of the occupation from 8 a.m and for a gathering today at 2pm, at the Ministry of Labour at Korai square.

The just struggle of the 300 migrant-workers hunger strikers is our struggle, too! For 35 days now, in Athens and Thessaloniki, 300 migrant workers have started a tough hunger strike. They ask for equal rights with their local colleagues and the legalisation of all migrants who live, work and travel in the country.
Wishing to spread the spirit of this struggle to the centre of Athens, we occupied the services of the Ministry of Labour on Korai square. This is the building where on December 2010 migrant worker Emad Aziz was killed, falling from its third floor, while he was working uninsured on a Sunday and under conditions not meeting even the most basic of safety rules. This is one of the state buildings cleaned by migrants who work for contractors-slavers, in which Middle Ages working conditions reign; undeclared labour, employer brutality. What do workers at the ministry of labour have to say about that? What do they have to say about the struggle of the 300 migrants-workers, which concerns all migrants and even more so, the entire working class?
In the last 24 hours alone twenty migrant hunger strikers have been transferred to hospitals in Athens with extreme dehydration and renal deficiency – and another four have been transferred to hospitals in Thessaloniki with fainting episodes. In some of those hospitals they have not been admitted while at others police demanded from the medical staff the migrants’ names.
The 300 hunger strikers risk their lives not on the basis of individual motivation but for a collective right, in a struggle asserting the independence of the entire working class. The migrants were organised through public and horizontal assemblies in Crete, establishing via collective procedures one of the most massive autonomous struggles of migrant workers in greece. They asked from the first moment the solidarity and bridging of their struggle with the propositions of all people and collectives struggling for a world of equality and freedom. We adduce excerpts from the text issued by the hunger strikers’ assembly, with which they ask for our solidarity:
“…we find ourselves in the indignity and darkness of illegality in order for employers and state services to benefit from the wild exploitation of our labour… The more wages and pensions are slashed, the more everything becomes more expensive, the more migrants are presented as the culprits for the abjection and wild exploitation of greek workers… The propaganda of fascist and racist parties and organisations has become the official discourse of the state on the migrant issue… We ask from our greek colleagues, from every human now also suffering from the exploitation of their toil, to stand by our side. To support our struggle; not to allow for lies and injustice, fascism and totalitarianism to prevail in their land too… What has prevailed, that is, in our own lands and which forced us to migrate… us and our children”
The class discourse of the strikers clashes with the entire anti-migration policies which want to see the life and labour of migrants to be illegal, devalued and politically undefended in face of the murderous intention of the bosses and the military and police institutions of national states.
The greek state has its hands soaked in blood. It participates in the transnational alliances responsible for the (supposedly humanitarian) military occupation of the countries of origin of the migrants. At its borders, in co-operation with border forces of other countries, FRONTEX and state-controlled slavers, it directs migrants to minefields, to the bottom of the Aegean sea and in concentration camps at the edge of the country where inhuman conditions of mass confinement, torturing and violent deportation prevail.
The ideological mechanisms of the state, mass media but also a discrete part of greek society capitalising for 30 years now on the wealth produced by the migrant labour force all contribute to these crimes, as well as to the wider devaluation of the life and the labour of migrants by small and big bosses. Migrants, even if invisible and isolated, are right next to us and comprise an enormous productive population which lives, works, moves, desires and creates families, communities and solidarity networks.
The struggle of the 300 migrant workers proves the collective ability of an autonomous, class and social action by all those who are not institutionally considered to be citizens by the states – and this paves the way for the struggles of the migrants to meet with those of the locals. And this is what scares the bosses.
It is precisely for this reason that their struggle was attacked from the very first moment by the state and the mass media; it is for this reason that the academic asylum was lifted and a political protest was banned at the Law School; it is for this reason that for a first time, the political prosecution of hunger strikers is attempted. This cannibalistic and racist discourse is being worked out for years by the mechanisms of the state and during the evacuation of the Law school we heard it from the mouths of the various ministers of interior, labour and citizen pimp [a play of work with “citizen protection” - the ministry of the police –trans] – as well as by the  bullies of the mass media.
As the hunger strike reaches a threshold dangerous for the health of the migrant-workers, the “condition of tolerance” is now being brought up as a proposal to the strikers. This “condition of tolerance” is not a humanitarian but a murky regulation, as it only allows migrants to stay here for six months, with the intention of deportation and without the capacity for them to leave if they so wish. This is why the strikers reject this proposal.
The migrant hunger strikers in struggle are at the forefront of social war. They posit their lives against the barbarism of authority, against the abjection and culture of death that the state attempts to command upon them and the entire society. They struggle for life, for freedom and dignity. For a world where death will behold no authority… For this reason, we call for all the struggling parts of society to stand in solidarity to the struggle of the 300 hunger strikers, which is taking place on everyone’s behalf. Because solidarity between the oppressed is our weapon. Because solidarity is not only support but also a clash for a society of self-management, without borders, fences, concentration camps, racism or exploitation.
“We are not going to cheapen life, which they have made so negligible and dispensable.
We are going to mark up death, so as to make it throbbing and inconceivable” .

We call for the support of the occupation from 8 am and
for a gathering today at 2pm, at the Ministry of Labour at Korai Square.
Solidarity to all migrants in struggle
Common struggles between the oppressed
For a world of equality, solidarity, freedom  
People in solidarity

Dienstag, 22. Februar 2011

TUESDAY, 22nd of February

Press Release

TUESDAY, 22nd of February

DAY 29 of the hunger strike


The 300 migrants (250 in Athens, 50 on the 7th floor of the Labor Centre in Thessaloniki) have been on a hunger strike for 29 days now. Nine of the hunger strikers in Thessaloniki (of which 5 today) have been sent to hospital for fainting. According to the report of the medical health team: All of them are suffering considerable weight loss and the signs of fatigue and advanced exhaustion are apparent… The majority of them show symptoms of frequently recurring postural hypotension, muscle pain, hypoglycemia, difficulty with moving, while some of them already have palpitations and cardiac dysrhythmia.

As doctors we are obliged to note that the hunger strikers are entering a phase in which the continuation of fasting may cause irreversible damage to their health.


Yesterday, the 300 hunger strikers issued an official announcement in which they state their specific demands:


For us, legalisation is neither a generic nor an abstract slogan. We don’t want proposals to be heard without us. For us legalisation means many and very specific things. Between those, first and foremost:

The issuing – since we are entitled to it – of a proper residence and labour permit to us, the 300 hunger strikers, who demand what should be a given for everyone by putting our lives on the line



As well as:

- that residence permits are no longer connected to work credits

- that all who lost their permits because of the above reason are legalised again

- the vindication of everyone whose application was rejected in 2005, after their application submission had been accepted and after they were forced to pay thousands of euros each

- the establishment of a permanent and open procedure for complete legalisation, which will process applications constantly

- the abandonment of any idea of criminalising any of our comrades in solidarity with us, who have been called as suspects of committing criminal acts by the authorities


At the end of their announcement they add:



Anyone who wants to seriously engage with our strike and avoid a humanitarian crisis in Greece, should officially and directly contact us and whatever discussion must be focused on meeting the above demands.

Every human is worth a dignified life and labour

The hunger strike shall win


This morning the Open Solidarity Initiative of Thessaloniki occupied the offices of the General Secretariat of Youth, a department of the Ministry of Labor, to protest the stance of the government. Their banner read: “1 MONTH OF HUNGER STRIKE – THE PASOK GOVERNMENT EXTERMINATES PEOPLE-VICTORY TO THE STRUGGLE OF THE 300 IMMIGRANTS”. The text distributed to people working there as well as to passers by stated, among other things, that “the only ones who will lose from the legalization are the big industrialists, the big contractors, the landowners, the shipowners…all those who, with generous help from professional politicians of every tendency, plundered natural and social resources and are now selling off scorched land”. The text was sent to the Minister of Justice, the Minister and Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs and the Deputy Minister of Labor.


Yesterday, the solidarity concert was held at the Functions Hall of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with the participation of numerous artists and was enjoyed by a massive audience, which did not stop cheering and shouting slogans of support to the hunger strikers, proving once again the broadness and intensity of solidarity. After the concert, a crowd of over 1000 people spontaneously decided to leave in a demonstration, which marched to the Labor Centre.


Yesterday, Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and the historian of the Left Geoff Eley, expressed their support with the struggle of the hunger strikers.


The Open Solidarity Initiative is calling everyone to participate at the General Strike announced for Wednesday the 23rd of February and is meeting at the Labor Center at 10am on that day to join the strike marches.


http://allilmap.wordpress.com/


http://hungerstrike300.espivblogs.net/
http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com

Montag, 21. Februar 2011

21-2-2011 / 28th day on hunger strike


For us, legalisation is neither a generic nor an abstract slogan. We don’t want proposals to be heard without us. For us legalisation means many and very specific things. Between those, first and foremost:
The issuing – since we are entitled to it – of a proper residence and labour permit to us, the 300 hunger strikers, who demand what should be a given for everyone by putting our lives on the line
As well as:
- that residence permits are no longer connected to work credits
- that all who lost their permits because of the above reason are legalised again
- the vindication of everyone whose application was rejected in 2005, after their application submission had been accepted and after they were forced to pay thousands of euros each
- the establishment of a permanent and open procedure for complete legalisation, which will process applications constantly
- the abandonment of any idea of criminalising any of our comrades in solidarity with us, who have been called as suspects of committing criminal acts by the authorities
And many more…
Anyone who wants to seriously engage with our strike and avoid a humanitarian crisis in Greece, should officially and directly contact us and whatever discussion must be focused on meeting the above demands.
Every human is worth a dignified life and labour
The hunger strike shall win
Athens – Thessaloniki
21-2-2011  /  28th day on hunger strike
The 300 hunger strikers

Samstag, 19. Februar 2011

Demonstration in Athens on the 25 th day of hungerstrike

The signs of exhaustion are now apparent and temporary loss of consciousness is a regular occurrence.
In Athens, one hunger striker fainted in the middle of a Press conference (video). Four hunger strikers are in various hospitals of Athens.
In Thessaloniki, the hunger striker who had been admitted to the Agios Pavlos Hospital on Wednesday night (the third fainting incident in Thessaloniki), has returned today.
All 300 hunger strikers are determined to continue the hunger strike until they win.
Their strength derives from their deep conviction that their demands are just and from their will to live -and to live with dignity.

it is rainig so much water, unfortunately not yet papers. said one of the hungerstrikers .




Last night a solidarity demonstration took place in Athens center and arived at the house in Ipatias street where the hungesrikers could see and hear the solidarity.

Bildunterschrift hinzufügen


INFO & SUPPORT

Interview and report on the hungerstrike in german/english











THESSALONIKI SOLIDARITY INITIATIVE PRESS RELEASES

INTERNATIONAL MESSAGES OF SUPPORT

  1. Declaration of solidarity with the hunger strikers – Call for a week of action!
  2. Statement of Solidarity from Afrique-Europe-Interact
  3. ZNet: Support the Striking Migrant Workers of Greece
  4. Solidarity from Barcelona
  5. Austria’s critical law review
  6. Rete BellaCiaoinMovimento
  7. Solidarity from Luxembourg
  8. Call for solidarity with the Hunger Strike in Greece
  9. Solidarity from Chiapas
  10. No One Is Illegal – Toronto
  11. No Borders South Wales
  12. Associació d’Amistat amb el Poble de Guatemala
  13. Alain Badiou soutient la lutte des 300 migrants grévistes de faim
  14. Kaagapay Overseas Filipino Workers Resource and Service Center
  15. Statement of Solidarity from ARCI (Italy)
  16. Karawane München
  17. Call for an action in front of the greek embassy (Berlin)
  18. Solidarity action at the Greek consulate in Munich
  19. Solidarity from Denmark
  20. 37 Euro-parliamentarians express their solidarity
  21. Solidarity from Vienna
  22. Solidarity action in Istanbul
  23. Message of solidarity to hunger strikers in Greece DIE LINKE – Germany
  24. Message of Solidarity From The Campaign To Close Campsfield to the ’300′
  25. Solidarity greetings from hamburg/germany
  26. Message of solidarity to hunger strikers in Greece – Red Green Alliance – Denmark
  27. In Solidarity No one Is Illegal – Toronto
  28. Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers
  29. Antirassistische aktion köln (Cologne, Germany)
  30. Demonstration in Sofia, Bulgaria
  31. Demonstration in Göttingen
  32. CNT/AIT: Comunicado en solidaridad con los 300 inmigrantes en huelga de hambre
  33. Collectif contre le racisme  -  Saint Denis – Paris
  34. Text by Slavoj Zizek
  35. Text by Etienne Balibar
  36. Letter of solidarity by 9 intellectuals (Chomsky, Balibar, Wallerstein, etc.)
http://clandestinenglish.wordpress.com/

Mittwoch, 16. Februar 2011

Occupation of the Amnesty International (Greek section) building από Antiauthoritarian Movement of Athens


Today we worked-in the building of Amnesty International considering that they are jointly responsible for the protection and propulsion of human, social and political rights.
The hunger strike of 300 immigrants has reached the 22nd day. This grand fight marks a turning point to the matter of immigration. The immigrants prefix the only means they have, their body and their lives, trying to make visible an existence that dominion has forced to nothingness. They fight for obvious rights of every human. They ask for their legalization and a life with freedom and dignity.
In times of crisis, like the one that we are experiencing today, authority tries to make up enemies and put the blame on them in order to disorientate society from the true causes that create barbarity against society. This way, immigrants are presented as the ones responsible for the suffering of society and so they must disappear in any possible way. Here implies a logic of camps, pogrom in the center of the cities and the wall of Evros. The finalization of exclusion. Of course nobody speaks the truth as far as the real causes that led those people to leave their countries are concerned.
There is an obvious try of the rulers to create opt zones. The only thing left to the authorities is a spread of fear and threat. And this is the common fact that binds us with immigrants in the first place. The steadily growing suppression, the fact that we are reaching a permanent state of exclusion and alert. In this logic, those immigrants fight is a fight for every single one of us, the workers and the society. Facing this straight attack that the regime unleashes, we are in great need of creating spaces of enlarged solidarity.
Victory to the 300 hunger strikers
Legalization of all immigrants
Antiauthoritarian Movement of Athens

16.2.11.

 

Dienstag, 15. Februar 2011

Ministerium der Gesundheit verbreitet hetze gegen hungerstreikende


Nachdem unangemeldeter besuch vom Ministerium der Gesundheit in Athen  versucht hatten die hungerstreikende zu besuchen und ihre vorsorge untersuchungen anzubieten, obwohl es bekannt ist das die hungerstreikende medizinisch betreut werden von eine medizin gruppe die ständig anwesend ist. Der besuch und ihre untersuchungen würden abgelehnt.
Darauf hin startete der Minister eine Hetze in den Medien das die hungertsreikenden ansteckende krankheiten hätten und eine gefahr für die gesundheit der bevölkerung wären!!!!
Bei eine von den hungertsreikenden und soli gruppen gemachte Pressekonferenz dazu, fingen paar regierungs treue journalisten an zu sagen das sie nicht in dem hof der villa gehen wollen aus angst angesteckt zu werden!
hier die presseerklärung der hungertsreikende zu diese erneute hetze versuche gegen sie:


Presse-Erklärung zu den Horror-Szenarien des Ministers für Gesundheit
14.2.2011

Die heutigen Verlautbarungen von Loverdos zur „Bombe der Ansteckung“ und zur „Gefahr für die öffentliche Gesundheit“, welche  durch den Hungerstreik der 300 Migranten erzeugt werden, ist keine Falschmeldung. Der Minister für Gesundheit beschwört ganz bewusst diese Gefahr herauf, während er andererseits keine Fakten hinsichtlich der Gesundheit der Streikenden und Hygiene in den Räumen des Gebäudes YPATIA auf den Tisch legt. Sowieso ist es bekannt, dass schon vom ersten Tag des Hungerstreiks an die Arbeits-Gruppe Medizinische Unterstützung ihre Arbeit aufgenommen hat, die die notwendigen Untersuchungen der Hungerstreikenden leistet und alle Vorkommnisse veröffentlicht.
Da es offensichtlich ist, dass niemand davon überzeugt werden konnte, dass der Hungerstreik das Ergebnis einer Verschwörung sei und dass die Migranten, die den Hungerstreik auf sich nehmen, eine öffentliche Gefahr seien, versucht man nun, uns davon zu überzeugen, dass die kämpfenden Migranten eine „Gefahr für die öffentliche Gesundheit“ seien. Wir können nun also absolut sicher sein, dass der gestrige Besuch in den Räumen des Streiks durch die „Behörde für Kontrolle und Prävention von Krankheiten“ des Ministeriums für Gesundheit und ihr offensichtliches Interesse an dem Gesundheitszustand der Migranten, 20 Tage  nach dem Beginn des Streiks, Teil des Versuches einer Schlammschlacht der Regierung zu Lasten der Streikenden und zur Einschüchterung der Gesellschaft ist.
Uns bleibt nichts anderes übrig, als das Verhalten dieser Behörde anzuklagen, die sich dafür entschieden gemäß der Regierungs-Absichten zu handeln und selbst ein Rädchen in einer Maschinerie zur Produktion von Lügen zu werden, wie sie vom ersten Tag des Kampfes der Migranten an errichtet wurde.

Der Hungerstreik der 300 Streikenden Migranten wird zum Sieg führen und es wird ein Sieg der Gesellschaft werden!

Kein Mensch ohne Papiere, kein Arbeitnehmer ohne Versicherung!
Athen am 14. Februar, am 21. Tag des Hungerstreiks
Das Solidaritätskomitee für den Hungerstreik der 300 Migranten
http://hungerstrike300.espivblogs.net

a short video sent by an activist

the migrants who are on hunger strike have asked as to foward the following message
they'd love to receive short videos of solidarity statements from abroad
if you wish to support them, as they're on the 21st day of the hunger strike (drinking only water- no tea anymore) you are most welcomed to send them at the following emails, so that we can upload them to the blogs and show them to them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4eXLKBreT4


and here one more video with subtitels

with german/italian/frech/english subtitles

go to cc next to "360p",
there's an arrow
then a red CC symbol
and then another arrow where you can choose the language
enjoy

In solidarity

athens
http://hungerstrike300.espivblogs.net/

Montag, 14. Februar 2011

Hungerstreik der 300 Migranten in Athen und Thessaloniki




foto salinia stroux
Heute ist der 21.Tag.
Hier ein Bericht der letze Tage:
Am 10.2.2011, war der 17. Tag des Hungerstreiks der 300 Migranten in Athen und Thessaloniki.
Ein großer Teil der Migranten kam vor 18 Tagen aus Kreta mit der Fähre nach Athen, um dort den Hungerstreik zu beginnen. Riesige Transparente hingen an der Fähre und machten die Forderungen des Hungerstreiks bekannt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-E4tZhtXJc&feature=related

Die Migranten wurden im Hafen von Piräus von Solidaritätsgruppen in Empfang genommen, um dann gemeinsam in ein leerstehendes Unigebäude im Zentrum von Athen zu ziehen. Ein Gebäude der Universität wurde u.a. deshalb gewählt, weil seit dem gewaltsamen Eindringen von Soldaten ins besetzte Politechnikum am Ende der Militärjunta das sogenannte Universitätsasyl gilt, was der Polizei verbietet, die Gebäude zu betreten.

Kaum hatte der Hungerstreik begonnen, begann eine große Hetze von den politischen Parteien Hand in Hand mit den Mainstream-Medien gegen den Streik. Teil der Hetze seitens der Regierung, war eine Anklage gegen den Prokuristen der Reederei, mit dem die Hungerstreikenden gekommen waren, deren Agenten und den Kapitän, wegen der großen Straftat des Transports von Illegalisierten. Dazu muss man wissen, dass die ANEK-Reederei seit Jahren Abschiebetransporte für die griechische Regierung vornimmt. Ein paar Tage später hatten 2.080 Menschen sich öffentlich dazu bekannt, dass sie Flüchtlinge unterstützen.




Resultat der Hetze war, dass die Hungerstreikenden nach wenigen Tagen das Unigebäude verlassen mussten, um zu verhindern, dass die Polizei gewaltsam in das Gebäude eindrang. „Wir sind mit der Pistole am Kopf dort hinausgegangen“, sagte einer der Aktivisten später auf einer Pressekonferenz. Über Nacht musste eine Ersatzunterkunft für mehr als 100 Hungerstreikende gefunden werden. Nach mehrstündigen Verhandlungen mit der Polizei und dem Besitzer einer in der Nähe befindlichen leerstehenden Villa wurden die Streikenden mitten in der Nacht mit einer Solidaritätsdemo dorthin begleitet. Weil nur der erste Stock und der Keller benutzen werden dürfen, zelten die Mehrheit der Hungerstreikenden im Hof. Durch tagelangen starken Regen war die Situation zunächst äußert prekär. Erst eine Wetterbesserung am 5.2. schaffte etwas Erleichterung.

Die Hungerstreikenden werden Tag und Nacht von Solidaritätsgruppen unterstützt, geschützt und solidarisch begleitet. Da die Hungerstreikenden großen Wert darauf legen, ihre Autonomie zu behalten, werden die Entscheidungen in unterschiedlichen Plenas getroffen, die sich aber austauschen. Die Atmosphäre ist von Entschlossenheit und Respekt geprägt. Viele Menschen unterstützen die Streikenden durch praktische Mithilfe oder durch ihren Besuch.

fotos marily stroux




Am 8.2.2011 erklärten sich auf einer Pressekonferenz viele MigrantInnen-Organisation aus Athen und Griechenland solidarisch mit den Streikenden und ihren Zielen. Die Hungerstreikenden kündigten an diesem Tag an, nun auch mit dem Teetrinken aufzuhören.

Am 9.2.2011 fand auf einem Platz gegenüber ein mehrstündiges Konzert mit vielen griechischen Musikern statt. Neben ihren Liedern waren Beiträge der Flüchtlinge und Solidaritäsbekundungen zu hören, u.a. von Konstanina Kouneva.

Vertreter der Afghanische Hungerstreikenden beim soli-konzert

xaroulis

Fivos Delivorias




Für den 11.2. und den 12.2. sind zwei große Demos in Athen geplant.

mehr fotos und Text in english:
http://w2eu.net/2011/02/14/the-hunger-strike-at-day-21/
der blog vom hs aus Griechenland auch in mehrere sprachen:
http://hungerstrike300.espivblogs.net