Heraklion, Crete: anarchists occupy the offices of Greek tourism organization and the local department of tourism ministry in solidarity with K. Sakkas

greek original

At Tuesday, 4/6/2013, imprisoned anarchist K. Sakkas is on hunger strike demanding his immediate release. 4/6 is the date that, according to the current legal system, the maximum limit of his remand expires.

From the first moment we were in solidarity with the struggle of his, and his decision to risk his own life for his freedom.

As anarchists of Heraklion we are in  solidarity with the hunger striker and we decided to occupy the offices of Greek tourism organization and the local department of tourism ministry in Heraklion.

In these times that minimum freedoms are sacrificed on the altar of profit for the survival of a cruel system collapsing, in these times when every effort of resistance get suppressed and defamed, the plans of all those who dominate us now seems clear. The majority of people are on the brink of destitution and there’s no prospect of the State to give a solution to the people. So it uses hope as a mean. A hope that is not based on any element of reality. Hope for recovery and growth of the economy, hope to return to the good old times when others where ….. for our own prosperity.

In Crete, in particular, but also in other regions of Greece, the hope of recovery is based on the tourism development. On one hand, funds continue to be given continuously in the heads of the tourism industry, while the tourist season employees are forced to work for little and under squalid working circumstances . On the same time, large hotel complexes on the island violate the natural environment and occupy vast areas of land that remind us landlords of other eras. This whole package is promoted in society as the recipe of the exit from the crisis and as the reason to tolerate suppresses in order to avoid affecting tourism. How many protests slandered and suppressed the last three years alone on the pretext that disturbed tourism? From the evacuation of Syntagma Square from protesters in 2011 to the most recent announcement of Chania traders association that the demonstrations must stop during the touristic period.

But we do not hope to no growth and no return to the golden years of the previous decade. The only thing that the state shows us is that it cares only for the syrvival of the local economy. For this reason we believe that at least in the touristic areas of the country we should be able to disturb the myth of Greece as a touristic. For this reason we chose to occupy the specific building in solidarity with anarchist hunger striker K. Sakka, so our voice and by extension his voice to be heard. On the same time we send a message that we are determined to stand by our comrade until he’s set free.

DON’T BELIEVE IN MYTHS

LIVE THE REALITY OF STATE CRUELTY IN GREECE

Anarchists Heraklion Crete