Per'volarides Thessaloniki 18.04.16 in Frankfurt/M 19.04 ... · Social/Solidarity economy (2) •“Tools” given lack the emotion and the reliance between each other. •This is

„Widerstand und Alltag im Zeichen europäischer Austerität“

Veranstaltungsreihe

mit

Per'volarides Thessaloniki

18.04.16 in Frankfurt/M

19.04.16 in Mainz

20./21.04.16 in Freiburg

22.04.16 in Darmstadt

Veröffentlichung des Vertrages mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Per'volarides Thessaloniki

Per'volarides Thessaloniki -

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Greece: Grassroots movements

and social/solidarity economy

against crisis

Grassroots movements and

social/solidarity economy as carriers of

transition to a new society

Per'volarides Thessaloniki - Vortragsreihe

Facts and figures of crisis in

Greece (1)

• 6 years, 3 Memoranda and keep going…

• 2009: GDP: 237,5 €

• 2016: GDP: 177 €

• 1/5 of the population don’t have access to

health services


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Greece (3)

• Debt:

• 2009: 300 bn €

• 2016: 318 bn €

• 23.1 % in poverty level (2013)


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Greece (2)

• Unemployment rate:

• 2009: 9.6 %

• 2016: 25 %

• 1.35 million people off-work

• Unemployment rate in younger ages (>25): 50 %

• Official unemployment rate does not calculate

civil professionals like civil engineers, doctors,

lawyers etc, that are practically unemployed


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Brain drain (1)

• Of a total population of 10 million people,

300.000 people (most of them young and

highly educated) left Greece.

• Many of these immigrants were politically

active during Memoranda years. They

were the fuel that pumped political unrest

and awareness.


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Brain drain (2)

• Question: As the immigration tendency

continues, who will stay and fight for a

better future?????????????????????


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Geopolitical factor

• Destruction of the entire territory (North

Africa, Middle East, Balkans, Ukraine)

• Immigrant/refugees fleeing their countries

• More that 1 million people traveled to

Europe through Greece in 2015

• 50.000 immigrants/refugees kept in camps

throughout the country


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Action vs Reaction

• Main points of resistance in the

Memoranda years:

• “Don’t pay movement”

• “Aganaktismenoi” (Indignados) movement

• People’s parade 2011, Thessaloniki

• SYRIZA


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“Don’t pay” movement (1)

• Took place between 2008-2012. National

movement without central administration

or leadership.

• Actions involved: refuse to pay toll fares,

“solidarity” tax, mass media transportation

fees etc.


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“Don’t pay” movement (2)


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“Indignados-Square movement (1)

• May-September 2011

• Discussion for direct democracy,

transparency in political life

• Massive assemblies in the central squares

• More than 500.000 participated in the

biggest demonstration in Athens


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“Indignados-Square movement (2)


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People’s parade, 28th of October

2011, Thessaloniki

• A “traditional” military parade that takes place every year got out of State’s control, when thousands of people got into the parade and made their own, demanding democracy and abolition of the corrupted system.

• President of the Republic was forced to leave its seat in the parade, along with the other members of the State.


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People’s parade, 28th of October

2011, Thessaloniki


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Elections of 2012, May-June

• SYRIZA gets 2nd place.

• A delegative logic (assignment) dominated

the public. “When SYRIZA become

government, everything will be solved”.

• This logic was cultivated from large parts

of SYRIZA also.

• Little by little, civil unrest was calming

down.


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Grassroots movements (1)

• Hundreds of grassroots movements emerged throughout the country, while State withdraws from its duties.

• Thousands of people support solidarity grassroots.

• Solidarity grassroots are deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of our people, by supporting social networks, offering lessons of solidarity and humanity.

• Solidarity grassroots through their own operation and political perception (direct democracy, mobilization and mutual help between people) pursue their own self-abolition, in a state that regards food, health, learning etc as obvious and free rights.


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Grassroots movements (2)

• Solidarity grassroots for:

- Coverage of population needs for food

- Creation/support of public health structures

- Supporting teaching lessons in children

- Greek language learning in immigrants and refugees

- Clothing supply

- Teaching of basic PC operation skills

- Legal aid assistance for Greeks and immigrants/refugees

- Assistance (food, clothing, medical, legal) for the refugees

- Abandoned land cultivation from unemployed people for self-sufficiency


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If there was fire in your house what

would you do?


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2 things to do…

• “Firefighting” method, or humanitarian relief projects: Providing food, shelter, health coverage etc to everyone who needs it. Short-term method, for emergency needs.

• Social/solidarity economy: Building the house again: Creation of self-sufficiency in groups of people, then production of a small income. Long term method.


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Humanitarian relief projects (1)

• Fish/fruits/vegetables from central

fish/grocery market given for free.

• 2) Packaged food distribution

• 3) Cooked food

• 4) Food/hygienic items for

immigrants/refugees.


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Humanitarian relief projects (2)

• Medicines and hygienic materials collection for

social clinics

• Personal hygiene items (soaps, shampoos,

sanitary napkins, diapers)

• Baby and infant food and creams

• Clothes/blankets supply

• Used electronic equipment (PCs, laptops, mobile

phones, digital photographic machines) to cover

the communication gap that crisis has created


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Social/Solidarity Economy projects

• 1) Land cultivation: Abandoned/donated

land cultivation for self-sufficiency.

• 2) Tomato sauce/marmelade preparation

• 3) Bee keeping

• 4) Solidarity olive collection: Unemployed

people collect olives from abandoned or

“donated” olive trees. The same with fruit

trees.


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Social/Solidarity economy (1)

• It is all about co-operation and building

relations based on trust and help between

each other, especially giving help to the

weaker members of the group.

• Infant stage in Greece, mainly focused on

new “tools” that State gives in order to

boom start this type of economy.


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• “Tools” given lack the emotion and the

reliance between each other.

• This is a target to be achieved, and not

always by founding formal “companies”,

but rather informal initiatives that are built

to last and do not depend on marketing

tools but rather on the needs of the people

involved.


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• Need for co-operation

• Need for taking care of each other

• Need for covering basic needs, food,

health, education, etc

• Need for putting ourselves on the move, to

prove that unemployed people are not

worthless but we can be innovative and

creative if only we are given the chance


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Gardeners (1)

• Self sufficiency-solidarity group located in

Thessaloniki.

• Products: Olive oil, honey, cheese,

yoghurt, seasonal groceries, tomato

sauce, marmalade.

• People involved: Filippos, Maria, Christos

St., Giorgos, Christos K, Diamantis, Aris,

Fenia.


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Gardeners (2)

• Through products exchange, we minimize

need for money.

• Work against depression.

• Project to be copied and improved by

other initiatives.


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Gardeners (3)


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Examples on Social/Solidarity

economy: Urban Land cultivation

(1) • Urban land cultivation for self sufficiency

and low-income families.

• We are cultivating seasonal groceries

using local seeds, and manure taken from

sheeps/goats that one of our members

keeps.

• We are making compost from our

household waste.


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(2)


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(3)


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Solidarity grassroot (1)

• Land lies next to our basement, where we

keep the required tools and we store food

(rice, beans, pasta, olive oil, flour, tomato

sauce, marmalade etc) for 30 families.

• Land and basement is owned by members

of our initiative.

• Distribution of fish/vegetables/fruits/food

takes place from this basement.


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Marmalade/tomato sauce

preparation (1)

• In the basement we keep a gas stove and

pig pots for tomato sauce and marmalade

preparation.

• When we have availability in

fruits/tomatoes/vases we are organizing

marmalade/tomato sauce preparation with

members from the 30 families that we

support being the cookers.


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preparation (2)

• With this action, not only these people

cover their needs in these products, but

also “return” –in social terms- the solidarity

that were provided with: They are

producing for other families also, who can

not afford to buy these products.

• Example: 100 kilos of peach marmalade

were given in the refugees in Idomeni.


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preparation (3)


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economy: Bee keeping (1)

• 2 members of the group practice bee

keeping. We wanted to spread the

knowledge to other people also. Members

from the Greek community of Frankfurt

donated us with 300 € to buy protection

equipment for bee keeping. One bee

keeper, member of the “No-Middlemen”

movement provided us with 5 bee hives

with their population.


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• Training and various consumables were

provided for free by us to the new

member.

• As you can see, training has started:


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economy: Sheeps/goats, cheese

making (1) • One member of our group raises

sheep/goats together with his father.

• Next step towards self sufficiency is

cheese/yoghurt making.

• We are starting to train ourselves to

cheese making also.


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making (2)


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making (3)


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economy: Olive collection (1)

• Solidarity olive collection takes place every

November-December in the eastern part

of Thessaloniki.

• We collect olives from

abandoned/donated olive trees, then make

them olive oil.

• Thus, we cover the annual needs of about

10 families.


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• Plus, we make use of trees that otherwise

would be wasted.

• This is a small step towards country’s

productive reproduction.

• Plus: This is organic olive oil!

• We are trying to “rent” some olive tree

fields to make this action more stable and

productive for the coming years.


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Ways to help (1)

• Top priority: Open the discussion with your

friends, relatives, colleagues etc about

“Greek” crisis! Debate with them, try to

locate differences/similarities between

“German” and “Greek” crisis.

• Ask your people if this is the Europe we

want. What can we do to help each other?


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Ways to help (2)

• The idea behind all this is to engage individuals, solidarity groups, trade unions in the process. Examples:

• A trade union in a factory that makes personal hygiene products can raise a campaign between its members for sending a load of these products in Greece.

• A cultural union can start a campaign raising money, diapers or baby’s food.

• An individual can contribute a certain amount of money once, or in a periodic mode.

• All this should be done after getting contact with us, because, although needs are constant and enormous, we don’t want resources, whether financial or material, to be wasted.


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Ways to help (3)

• Financial aid to cover emergency needs

(for example: equipment purchase, paying

of bills like electricity, water etc for social

centers, small farming machinery,

transportation costs for delivery of food,

purchase of food etc).


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Ways to help (4)

• Each one of you can become a “node” for help and support.

• Every help, whether “big” or “small” is invaluable because it adds to the final result which might be new clothes or vaccines for a baby, a new book for someone to read, or psychological help to an unemployed person with suicidal tendencies…


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Ways to help-Supporter (1)

• Supporter on specific projects, like:

• Provide us with bee hives (or money to buy some…)

• Coverage of the transportation costs for food collection/distribution for the months to follow…

• We need 2 big refrigerators for cheese maturation and 1 big deep freezer for storing fishes…


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Ways to help-Supporter (2)

• Money-food-sanitary items to cover

specific needs of the families we support…

• Food-sanitary items-school items-clothes

for the immigrants/refugees in the

relocation camps…


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Refugee/Immigrant crisis (1)

• About 1.500.000 immigrants/refugees,

mostly from Syria and Afghanistan,

Pakistan travelled through Greece to North

Europe.

• Current status: 50.000 people in “camps”

throughout Greece, waiting to be relocated

in the “safe country” of Turkey or united

with their relatives from North Europe.


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• 1 month ago a treatment between Greece-

Turkey was signed that for each

“newcomer” another one will be relocated

to Turkey.

• Numbers, not people…

• There was a time that in the Greek islands

we had 2-3.000 arrivals/day. Now we have

no more than 200 arrivals/day.


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• Huge solidarity movement from Greek

people and also from people from abroad.

• State keeps these people in camps with

basic infrastructure, in many cases

supported by the Army for food and

shelter.

• Main job is done by people in solidarity,

social clinics and some NGOs.


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• Idomeni, North part of Greece: The shame

of Europe.

• 15.000 people, waiting for the borders to

open.

• State provides no shelter, food because

they want to relocate them to the camps.


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Greece: Society in transition (1)

• Crisis: Economic, political, social, cultural

• Geopolitical factor: Our “neighbourhood” is

destroyed. Our turn comes…when?

• Collapse of the traditional center,

significant reduction of the right wing

• Rise of extreme right

• Massive people’s mobilisation


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• Rise of the Left (SYRIZA)

• Dominance of the delegate logic

• Government of the Left

• Defeat of the expectations (SYRIZA)

• Disappointment, withdrawal from the

political scene and lack of mobilisation


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• People come around but don’t expect/fight

for anything

• Silent anger

• Inability to see the future

• Mass mobilisation for the

refugees/immigrants: Not only

leftists/activists, but (mainly) “normal”

people providing food, shelter, clothes


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• Young people, the “fuel” for change flee

the country

• At the same time: debates on direct

democracy, transparency, lack of trust in

both Right and Left


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Epilogue

Please help us maintain the social network

of Greece and build democratic and

participatory peoples’ institutions.

Peoples’ Europe has to prevail against

bankers’ and warlords’ Europe!


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Documents

Per'volarides Thessaloniki 18.04.16 in Frankfurt/M 19.04 ... · Social/Solidarity economy (2) •“Tools” given lack the emotion and the reliance between each other. •This is