They’ve done all they could to bury me, yet they forgot I was a seed.” – D. Christianopoulos
On June 9th -at the Thessaloniki Court of Appeal- begins the trial of
21 of our fellow-strugglers, for the case of arson at the Skouries
construction site on February 17, 2013.
The arson of machinery at the Skouries construction site marked the
beginning of an unprecedented campaign of prosecution against an
entire society. Without pretext, the prosecuting mechanism turned
indiscriminately against all citizens who actively participated in
the movement against gold mining. Arrests, interrogations,
detentions, disappearances into police headquarter basements, illegal
DNA sampling and the creation of a database of personal genetic
information, imprisonments in the form of preventive detention.
In March 2013, an army of fully armed men of the Greek Police invaded
Ierissos, in search of suspects for the arson attack at the
construction site of Skouries. It was obvious -by the scale and
brutality of the police operation- that the entire society was
targeted. A resisting society had to be broken for two reasons:
firstly, to enable the uninhibited continuation of the plans of the
multinational mining corporation, and on the other hand, to act as an
exemplary deterrent to any further resistance.
In April 2013, special forces of the Greek police invaded the homes
of two individuals -at dawn and by breaking down the doors- taking
them into custody in front of their children’s eyes. Following a
long interrogation process in Thessaloniki’s Police Headquarters
-and not in Polygyros as procedure dictated- their preventive
detention was decided. The state -once again- chose a violent and
extreme strategy with an obvious goal to terrorize the whole of
society and dismantle the social movement. Two more preventive
detentions followed.
At that moment, it became obvious that the State acted in service of
colonial multinational corporations and the cost was paid, and is
being paid, by those who resisted and of course by our homeland. And
when the State adopts the doctrine of “investments at any cost”,
social struggles are criminalized and Democracy is directly attacked.
The presumption of innocence no longer applies: whosoever resists
“development” and “investments” is guilty. Evidence-based
charges stop being the prerequisite for prosecution, opposition to
extraction practices suffices to find oneself in detention centers,
in hospital, in court or in jail.
This situation is not unnatural for a neoliberal government that
unequivocally states that “investments will be protected at any
cost”. On the contrary, for a political party that is self-defined
as radical left, this situation should be the opposite of everything
that constitutes its ideological existence. A year and a half since
SYRIZAS’ assumption of power, the Canadian mining corporation
Eldorado Gold has been granted one permit after the other and the
local community continues to find itself in the position of being
held accountable and prosecuted. The multinational corporation
continues to destroy and the local community remains under a
hostageship of prosecution. Let it be noted that this Canadian
corporation has stated that it will attend the June 9th trial as
prosecutor. Greatly surprising for a corporation, which makes sure to
stress often that it in no way turns against the local community!
The appeal to legality is simply an evasion. Legitimacy is not a
natural law, it is a human convention and can be changed. Governments
change law in accordance with their ideological orientation: either
towards the end of serving large-scale economic interests and
corporations which lobby, extort, bribe – or towards the end of
serving the benefit of society as a whole and public interest.
The social movement against gold mining in Halkidiki struggles not
only against the destruction of the environment and predatory
exploitation of common resources. It also struggles against all that
which puts profit for the few above life of the many. And in this
struggle none will be left alone.
On June 9th, it is not only 21 members of the struggle who are being
tried, we all are. A whole society struggling for its existence is
being put on trial. The support of these people, just as victory, is
a one-way street. We will persevere until the final vindication of a
just struggle and the salvation of our homeland.
On
June 8th, we call for a protest-by-night in Aristotle Square,
Thessaloniki
and
the next morning we all gather together at the Thessaloniki Court of
Appeal.
Struggle
Committees of Halkidiki and Thessaloniki against mining
