THE LONGER WE SUCCUMB TO THEIR BULLDOZERS THE MORE WE BECOME PIONS IN THEIR CHESS GAME

 Siakolas, Michaelides, Leptos, Fotiades, Archibishop…

The list of the tycoons who decided to take ownership, privatize and flatten the natural beauty of the Akamas’ penisula, the Laonas’ plateau and the bay of Chrisochous has no end.

We have no personal issues with them. But we have a really big issue with them as a group. And specifically, we have an issue with the capitalistic system that produces them, the neoliberal policies they reproduce them, the neoconservative ideology that sustains them and the “development projects” that strengthen them. With the hierachical, authoritarian and “developmental” connections of power, authority’s and oppression’s who destroy the human, the society, the environment and our lives.

Akamas, Laona, Polis of Chrisochous, Limni is nothing more than additional fractions that this system considers to be a “normal development”, an arbitrary destruction. A system which flattens the perrenial trees and destroys turtles nests… A system that takes everything from us to give us nothing… A system that produces surpluss and wealth for the few and the elite, destorying in process the lives of all of us and the beauties of our island… This is our enemy…

We resist and we fight for a society for us and the rest of the wildlife, the nature and the environment… Without high-rise hotels and the cementation of forests, without golf courses and privatization of our beaches.. For a world of self-organisation, autonomy and freedom.. This is our goal…

WE DO NOT DEMAND THE PARTIAL RESTORATION OF A PROTECTED AREA

WE FIGHT FOR THE COMPLETE TURNOVER OF THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM

Syspirosi Atakton

Saturday, 15 June 2013

Demonstration against the Cyprus Limni Resorts & Golf Courses PLC

GOLF: WHAT IS DESTRUCTIVE, IS NOT DEVELOPMENT

1. Golf cources and the golf tourism are part of a whole “development” package, that involves huge energy and transport infrastructures (dams and desalinations plants, airports, marinas and harbours, roads and bridges), mass tourism facilities (luxurious villas, entertainment facilities, industrial parks and multidisciplinary tourist zones ), as well as non-native types of agricultural and garden plants (consisting of foreign trees, exotic flowers and enormous areas of lawn).
2. At the heart of the golf industry there is another hundred million euros industry, comprised by both local and multinational companies. It includes land developpers, developing consortia and construction contractors, airlines and shipping companies, chains of five star hotels, advertising and marketing companies, and also financial institutions, mostly banks. In such an industry there is no place for simple people and/or local communities, except at the lowest level, which is no more than the low paid works. In this way, the cogwheels of this machine provide a surpluss for the investors (mainly bosses) and increases their profit. The transformation of the sport into a luxury commodity has driven to excessive profit and destrucive practices, the consequences of which are painfull for both, the local communities and the natural environment. In many countries, big golf cources and luxury tourists resorts are in reality a fatal blow to the local community and the local economy.  The now elitist sport, is considered to be one of the tourism sectors that involves the highest risk of investment, because of the uncontrollable profitability that it entails. The largest part of the foreign currency produced from the golf resorts and golf tourism does not remain within the local economy. The benefits that will remail however are accrued a few businessmen and their political patrons, meaning the economic and political elite.
3.  The “green” package of golf tourism can be compred with that of the “green revolution” in the aquaculture sector, which happened during the 1950s and the 1960s and was exclusively supported by some not-so-green products such as the dangerous toxic chemicals of the agrochemical industry (i.e. industrial production feritilizers, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and defoliants). In reality, golf courses present another form of a monoculture, in which the dominant species are non-native trees, exotic flowers and vast areas of lawn, chemical fertilizers and toxic insecticides, along with intensive machinery which are all imported, replace the local biodiveristy and lead directly to the destruction of the natural ecosystems and the extinction of wild life. This type of an artificial environment leads to intsense pressures and shortages in the local water and irrigation systems, precisely because it is maintained through the supply of immense amounts of water.  It also adds a lot of pressure on the land itself and leads to land degradation, precisely because it occupies vast areas. This artifical environment is also very susceptible to diseases and pests. So, just like the not so “green revolution” in the conventional agriculture, which is supported by the agrochemcal industry and is collapsing one country at a time, the route to “green golf tourism” is also filled with ecological obstacles. Essentially, the supposed “green golf tourism” is nothing but yet another kind of “corporate greenwashing”. The environmental impacts include water depletion and toxic contamination of soil, overexploitation of ground and surface water, the creation of energy-intensive desalination plants and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.  These in turn lead to health problems for local communities, the loss of the quality of life of ordinary people, ecosystem destruction and decrease of biodiversity.
4. Besides the enviromental impact, golf courses and tourist resorts often lead to the grabbing and degradation of agricultural and forest land, therefore the displacement of local communities and destructure of the local society. In many cases, the supporters of such projects turn into devotees of the violation of our rights and freedoms, as with their economical and political power they have the ability to use illegal bullying methods in order to stop any type of resistance that opposes their plans, such as legal action threats and oppresive attempts against any enviromental actions and social struggles.
5. The golf industry is aggresively promoting an elitist model of developement and a luxurious way of life, phenomenons that are not only disconnected to the social and economic realities of the island, but phenomenon that actually abolish the concepts of free, open and public green space. This is moreso the case when we are dealing with nature amd wildlife protection areas, such as our forests and ebaches. The abolition of a libertarian and autonomous lifestyle, such as the free use of a public beach, is another form of exploitation and subordination to the business plans of the big developers and the luxurious lifestyle of wealthy golfers who impose their profiteering and illusions across the whole of the community, both through the supposed “job growth” and the apparent “enjoyment of the sporting spectacle and the tourism product.” Consequently, golf courses and golf tourism do not just violate our social and environmental rights, but are effectively alienating and eliminating our freedoms.
6. In the context of the growing criticism and resistance to the adverse environmental, social, economic and political implications of the construction of golf courses, the golf industry has started to promote concepts such as “pesticide free,” “environmentally friendly” or “sensitive development” golf courses. Concepts that in reality are not only non-existent, but are essentially promoted in order to socially legitimize the profitable plans of the developers.  However these “harmonious and green golf courses” are constructed, they will always include artificial turf ecosystems and will inevitably require the intensive use of hazardous chemicals, privatization of public spaces and overexploitation natural resources.

For all of us, golf courses are nothing more than another development mechanism and the enforcement of the capitalistic system for the creation of profit and enjoyment of services by the few elites, on the detriment of the rights and freedoms of the society. It is yet another form of exploitation of our labor with the simultaneous destruction of wildlife and privatization of our natural wealth. That is precisely the reason you will keep encountering us. In front of your businesses and developments, your customers and your bulldozers.

IN THE TIME OF THE GOLF DEVELOPERS.

“I DON’T KNOW” IS COMPLICITY

Sispirosi Atakton 

Saturday, 15th of June 2013

Day of Action Against Cyprus Limni Resorts & Golf Courses PLC

On the Taksim Square’s uprise

During the past few years, the world is shaked due to the uprisings, both in the cities as well as in the suburbs. These uprisings are a result of the structural crisis of a system of over-accumulation of capital which is being re-distributed for the benefit of the dominant elites.  This inhuman system has reached its limits.

The structural adjustment measures being implemented in Turkey, after the suggestion and with the supervision of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other institutions of global capitalism, are moving towards the same direction.  With the memorandums, austerity measures and other extreme policies whose impacts against the people and the workers are well-known and implemented both in Europe and worldwide. These policies are succeding in the deterioration of the lower and oppressed social classes.

Social Conservatism, Economic Neoliberalism and State Oppression

In Turkey, like elsewhere, these policies are supported and implemented under three different axis:

Social Conservatism, even though an introvert process, is the most important ally of neoliberalism. In Turkey, social conservatism has been expressed during recent years through political Islam, and it moves between urban pseudo-democratization and religious fundamentalism. The main characteristic of this socio-political current with its deeply conservative policies, is the the prioritization of a religous ethic over personal, social and political freedoms and rights. This is expressed through policies which restrict and prohibit the use of alchohol and tobacco, policies that prohibit the use of contraceptive methods and abortions, but also a moral reward of patriarchy.

For the establishment of the free market and the domination of the doctrine of economic neliberalism, a series of policies against workers are being promoted, policies which are in fact renouncing social and political freedoms, as well as labour rights. In the case of Turkey, such measures include the prosecution of leftist organisations, anarchists groups and workers unions, but also the privatisation of the public wealth in favour of the capital, as in the current situation, with an effort to transform a public parc in Taksim square into another shopping mall.

For the establishment and the domination of the conservative ideologies at a societal level and the enforcement of economic neoliberalization policies at an institutional level, the repressive mechanisms of the state are shamelessly used. Ignoring all concepts of freedom and justice, they turn against the working class, against the political dissidents and the oppressed social minorities. This is of course not a particularity of the Turkish state, but a common mean used by all insitutional mechanisms and the states to preserve the interests of the capitalist system and the authorative elite.

Taksim square is just another example in an era where we see a dramatic reduction of social and political freedoms and of raw suppressions against every attempt of social opposition to the systemic options.

Public spaces as benchmarks of an uprising radical social movement, have become a target to be eradicated by the powerful. With the excuse of restoring or developing, public and green areas are being privatized and are becoming lest and less. Keeping in mind what is happening in our own city, we stand with absolute solidarity with the rebels of Taksim square and we will do whatever we can to bring the flame of rebellion in our own place.

For a society of self-organization, equality and freedom.

DEVELOPMENT KILLS

OPPRESSORS, PIGS, MURDERES

Syspeirosi Atakton ★