Deforestation of ancient forests, extinction of biological diversity and destruction of natural ecosystems… Increase of air pollution and worsening of climate change … Loss of ways and means for sustainable livelihoods (such as the fertile land and organic farming or the coastal forests and ecological tourism) and loss of the quality of life… Marginalization and subordination of ordinary people and exclusion and dislocation of local communities… Privatization of public forests and plundering of natural resources… Exploitation of labour and violation of human rights… The consortium between capital and multinational corporations and the neoliberal and neoconservative governments aims to support the operation of the extractive industries of mineral wealth through the authoritarian policies of a police-state and the oppressive practices of arbitrary violence…
These are some of the worst – but certainly not the only – environmental, social, political and economic impacts of one of the biggest “development projects” [sic] in the history of modern Greece, the Greece of foreign debt and the memorandum agreements. A country characterized by the escalating poverty and the increasing scarcity, the intolerable misery and the untenable oppression of ordinary people and local communities brought by the international financial institutions and the national governing alliances. And of course from the long arms of the capitalist and authoritarian system of exploitation and repression: from statist security forces until parastatist neo-Nazi gangs.
However, as it is always the case in the history of mankind, the dominant story of those who are at the top and within the system is contrasted with the “other” story of those who are at the bottom and outside the established political routines. Alongside the story of obedience and oppression, the history of mobilization and resistance is also written. Simultaneously with the continuous development of exploitation and destruction, there is the story of justice, equality and freedom, solidarity, dignity and autonomy, emerging from the bottom of the social stratification and the margins of the political system.
This “other” story from those who are at the bottom and outside the established political routines might be following an underground route, but it is certainly existent. It might not appear in the coloured front pages of newspapers or the central broadcasting TV news, but it emerges from deep within the earth, where the treadmill of production and consumption is based, disrupting its operation and challenging its hegemony. Within the beheaded mountains and clear-cut forests of the North-eastern Chalkidiki, in the area of Skouries, it is not only the story of the rich, rulers and oppressors that is written, but also that of the poor, the weak and the oppressed.
It is in this “other” story that our own struggles also belong to. Alongside these ordinary people and remote communities we also stand, as a small but active part of the anticapitalist and antiauthoritarian movements across the world, who have chosen to take action today and demonstrate their solidarity with the struggle for the protection of the area of Skouries in Northeast Chalkidiki.
We resist to the extractive industries of mineral resources, be it fossil minerals or fossil fuels. We fight against the developmental plundering of natural resources and the corporate control of our ways and standards of living. We support the right of ordinary people and local communities to protect their land, water, forests, seas, ecosystems and biodiversity. We fight to overthrow the capitalist system and its authoritarian structures, the dominant means of production that lead to the exploitation of people and the hegemonic patterns of consumption that plunder the natural resources. We seek to create alternative and decentralized social and political structures, so that the production of goods meet people’s needs and respect the environment without serving businesses and supporting capital.
We fight for land and freedom; we fight for justice and autonomy.
WHAT SHINES IT’S NOT DEVELOPMENT
AND WHAT DESTROYS IT’S NOT DEGROWTH
Syspeirosi Atakton
Saturday, 9 November 2013
Save Skouries
International Day of Action Against Gold Mines in Chalkidiki
translation department of Syspirosi Atakton 