The fight is in the hands of the people
Although every summer in Attica we live with the fear that we will be spectators for the umpteenth time in the same tragic work of the fires that burn what is left of the forests of Attica, what has been developing since Sunday surpasses even our worst nightmares. It is a fire that has reached the purely urban fabric in Attica and is threatening areas in Chalandri, Vrillisia and elsewhere. In fact, we also mourn a worker who was found charred in a burned down business.
The current situation experienced by the residents of N/A Attica is the result of the criminal policy of the government of the ND and all previous governments, the current and all previous regional authorities.
It is a result of:
· Of the destructive development model that led to the formal and informal conversion of all of Attica including forests, streams and coasts, into a huge building zone!
· The reduction of funds for the maintenance and care of forest areas and the privatization of operations for their cleaning.
· The degradation of critical services for fire protection and firefighting such as the Forestry and Fire Departments for years, without hiring personnel and purchasing modern means and vehicles.
· The policy of anti-environmental and forest-killing laws, based on EU mandates, that commercialize forest lands and the environment.
The government is once again citing climate change, wind and unprecedented drought as responsible for the fire. But who is responsible for the destruction of the climate and the environment if not the policies of capitalist development that, in the name of capital’s profitability, do not consider human lives and the environment? Doesn’t the ND serve these policies with its policy? Didn’t all the governments of the last 15 years vote and implement these policies in the context of bloody memoranda? That is why the parties that have ruled these years and are in the opposition are absent from any support to the people, they are trying to hide their own responsibilities.
At the same time in the Stability Pact that the Mitsotakis government agreed with the E.U. for the three-year period 2025-2028, not a single euro is planned for Civil Protection, when another billion will be given for weapons and equipment! The government is ready to participate in wars like in Ukraine or on the side of the murderous state of Israel, but it is unable to protect Northeast Attica. It’s a matter of choice!
The fire management policy is proving to be just as indulgently inadequate. The only thing the government does when a fire breaks out is to constantly send messages from 112, in an attempt to transfer the responsibility to the residents of the affected or threatened areas. Even doing this, rubber on the first night of the fire managed to bombard the residents of the areas around the fire with constantly contradictory messages about what they should do.
The “staff” state only works when it has to attack the rights of workers and youth and not when human lives and properties are threatened.
The collective organization of the residents of the areas, led by the youth, who from the first moment are fighting against the fire with whatever means they have, has played a decisive role in preventing it from getting even bigger, saving houses and the forest. The collective responsibility of struggle and action proves to be what saves lives and homes, and not the fairy tale of individual responsibility, is the way and example for workers to defend what they have and claim what they are entitled to.
As Anti-Capitalist Upheaval in Attica, we were on the front lines of the fire, contributing together with residents and volunteers to the fight against the fire. We are strengthening in a practical way the effort to put out the fire, we call to express support and solidarity to the residents of N/A Attica and the people who are voluntarily fighting on the front lines of the fire in the most appropriate way.
The government should now allocate all the necessary resources and take all measures to extinguish the fire.
We fight:
Against the destruction they impose on us, for a different model of development with respect for people and nature, which will set as the first goal the interests of the social majority and the protection of the environment, giving importance to both prevention and the timely treatment of corresponding situations.
To abolish all memorandum laws and agreements. To break the “cage” of the EU Stability Pact.
For full and immediate compensation of those affected.
Immediate measures to reorganize fire protection, restructuring of the Forestry Service with responsibility for forest protection and forest firefighting. Permanent recruitment of personnel, reinforcement and renewal of forest protection equipment with ground and modern aerial means. Not even a euro for weapons and frigates, for Greece’s military participation anywhere.
Strengthening the services of the region (and the municipalities) with the necessary means and sufficient permanent staff for the cleaning-surveillance-protection of groves, parks and forests.
No land use change in the burned forest areas. To be protected from residential, business and contracting interests. Not to private reforestation or any private management of forests. TAIPED is out of the woods.
Absolute protection of nature, forests, groves, coasts from “investors”. Repeal anti-environmental laws.
To overturn the politics of government and capital.
Let’s stop being spectators at the same play every summer. It is more necessary than ever to defend the forests of Attica and to claim real protection means and measures. If we don’t organize this lasting battle at the local and central level, the “staff state” and the “European institutions” will save only smoke and ashes for our future.
2024-08-14 12:04:14