About our participation in “The war is over, if you want it”

Last Saturday we participated in the unexpectedly occupation of the Green Line in the Buffer Zone of the Ledra / Lokmaci Street. This action along with the slogan “the war is over, if you want it”, was the response to the ban of the two parallel marches during the mobilisation for a  demilitarised Nicosia, which were planned to meet at the buffer zone, as well as an act of solidarity for Turkish Cypriot conscientious objector Murat Kanantli.

As far as we are concerned it is clear and proved in actions, that the ruling elite doesn’t want the oppressed classes to get involved in the resolution process.

It is also clear that the agony for the resolution of the Cyprus problem right now is directly connected to serve their interests in the region and particularly  the extraction and transport of hydrocarbons from Cyprus and Israel to central Europe via Turkey. In the process of this dealing, each side tries to secure as much profit as possible for its own ruling class and is very little concerned whether the reached arrangement will drive to yet another protectorate state dependent on NATO and the  EU, or whether the arrangement will also mean the end or not of the national controversy. This explains the fact that while in the past the United Nations had been encouraging bi-communal contacts and actions, now they became hostile towards them, especially when these actions come from the below and not from pro-system and neo-liberal political forces.

We believe that there is an even greater risk: An interim agreement to be made, settling the issue of hydrocarbons and garnished with some “confidence building measures” (Famagusta, ports, etc) in order to push for an overall solution in the long run. Therefore, the ruling classes would be able to implement their plans, while people in Cyprus remain trapped and harmless in a dead end national conflict.

The entrapment of the institutional left to the neoliberal visions of development – which, unfortunately, are also adopted by a part of the ‘extra-parliamentary’ left – are blurring more the scene and create false expectations. The latest example is the alleged possibility of the exploitation of hydrocarbons pooling from the two communities as a case of solution with big profits for the Cypriots. Amid  the economic crisis and with an EU as the tool in the hands of the capital and the oppressive elite, these expectations can create new intercommunal conflicts, as tomorrow they will fail in practice.

Certainly a possible solution creates a new reality in Cyprus. The abolition of internal borders, the withdrawal of Turkish and Greek military forces, as well as the dissolution of local armies, can only be identified as positive elements that can contribute to overcome nationalism.

At this conjuncture, however, it is important to express our demand for a solution outside of NATO and other dependencies, but mainly to prepare for tomorrow’s environment, the one after the solution, to connect with the radical libertarian forces of communities living in Cyprus and together fight against our real enemy, which is capitalism.

Along with these initial thoughts and mostly with continuous dialogue and joint activities with our class brothers and sisters, regardless of origin, we declare ourselves present in the struggle for a Cyprus of peace and social equality.

Syspirosi Atakton

Lefkosia 22-3-2014

About the imprisoned conscientious objector Murat Kanatli

Because every individual has the right to be autonomous and able to offer to the society without being a subordinate to power and to the “duty” to serve the country…

Because the military service – either conscript or reservist – is not “sacred”, as the army by nature is turning against human life and as a mechanism “trains” the servant to be completely subordinated without any objections at any authoritarian institution.

Because the conscientious objection is not a liberal individual right, but a libertarian act of civil disobedience and anti-militarist action.

We express our full solidarity to the imprisoned conscientious objector Murat Kanatli and we escalate our action towards a demilitarised Nicosia and a demilitarised Cyprus.

Nobody should be a soldier, never and nowhere, We are not surrendering our lives to the bosses!

Syspirosi Atakton.

DEMILITARISED NICOSIA 2014

• This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the “Green Line” along the historic center of Nicosia, a result of the bi-communal conflicts of 1963. This line in essence signaled the beginning of a ten-year period of ethnic conflicts and the division of the island into control zones. The interference of the English and later on of the UN’s multinational armies between the clashing ethnic troops did not prevent the conflicts, as their presence reflected the balance of the dominant forces in the region rather than a peacemaking force. So, after a decade of conflicts, we have been led to the military coup of the Greek Junta and the invasion by the Turkish Army, events which shaped the current status quo.

The recent history of Nicosia represents in the best possible way the recent history of Cyprus. Its division is a big and continuous failure of its people, who adopted the narration of the nationalists and got pushed into this long term conflict.

Armies, weapons, crisis, growth… and a nonexistent salary,
How beautiful it is, the militarized capitalism!

• It is pretty obvious: The number of troops and military bases that exist in Cyprus are disproportional to its size, but at the same time indicative of its strategic importance in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. The “National Guard”, the “Turkish Cypriot Security Force”, the “Hellenic Force in Cyprus”, the “Turkish Force in Cyprus”, the British and the American troops and the UN’s multinational force, have transformed the island into a huge barrack, making it one of the most militarized regions of the whole planet.

The recent military agreement between the Cypriot government and Israel dangerously escalates the situation in Cyprus and the wider region. The intention of the Cypriot government to extract hydrocarbons, be it natural gas or oil, without solving the Cyprus problem first, creates a new explosive situation, which automatically leads to a new arms race. So, whilst the public debt and the national deficit increases, whilst wages and pensions are being cut, and public spending, as well as the social welfare and environmental protection services are reduced, the Cypriot government expresses its intention to proceed with purchasing warships worth 100 million euros from Israel, as well as spending tens of millions of euros for the maintenance of old weapons.

The increasing militarization of the police and the use of the anti-terrorist special forces to suppress strikes, bi-communal actions, hunt immigrants and more recently, to control the central prisons, where they replaced the “untrained” guards, is also alarming.

The recent attempt by the government to quietly pass a law that would have enabled the government to use the army as an oppressive force in the internal affairs of the country, is another indication of where we are heading. At the same time that the crisis will marginal more and more segments / parts of the society, the repression would be the only weapon that the system will possess in order to take things under its control. The Cypriot state learns from the failures of other countries and it is getting prepared. As the experiment in Gaza – a prison country – is transferred to the so-called “first world”, the ally state of Israel will be a good teacher. Let us not forget that some members of the EU have already voted laws that allow the use of the army as a repressive measure against demonstrators and rioters, while it is no secret that NATO is preparing its army towards this direction as well.

• The ethnic conflict and the geographical division are the perfect excuse for the rulers to maintain the same peculiar and extended state of exception. This regime tries to expand its power and extend its dominance to every part of our lives. It is sufficient, simply by invoking it, to suspend our labor, social, political and environmental rights, but also to suppress class struggles and mobilizations of all insubordinate pieces of the society, those from the lower classes and the outsiders. During this state of emergency, it is not only our rights that are being violated and our freedom neglected, but even the provisions of “constitutional legitimacy” and the principles of the “rule of law” of the so-called “liberal democracy” are lifted.

The time has come for Nicosia to stop being the place of exclusions and of the excluded. The time has come to abolish all armies and stand together as residents of this island against the attacks of the capital and the nationalists, who poison our lives, our bi-communal ties and our quality of life.

We are calling for everyone to participate in the march for a demilitarized Nicosia on Saturday, 15 of February 2014.

We have reached the end of our tether; we are not obeying you anymore

Eco-Polis | Syspirosi Atakton

Saturday, 15 of February 2014, 14:00
Starting point: Peace Park (Roundabout Markou Drakou)
Αποστρατιωτικοποιημένη Λευκωσία – Demilitarized Nicosia – Askersiz Lefkoşa

Unlivable lives for exemplification, correction, and punishment

The frequency of the recent suicides, or what  seem as suicides, in the prisons of Cyprus, as well as the fact that  almost all the people, who were found dead, or attempted to commit  suicide are migrants, are definitely not random. The combination of the  two facts is not random either.

If these are indeed suicides/suicide attempts within  the context of the agency of the people committing them, that is  prisoners, then we are talking about acts of protest against the  conditions in the prison and of resistance against the power structures  within the prison. They are about the use of the right to  self-determination of one’s body; they are about the choice of death as  an act of resistance against the current structures of prisons. The  measures announced by the director of the prison and the ministry of  justice are only efforts to fully restrict the right of prisoners to  self-determination, and to the choice between life and death.

The fact that  institutions like prisons are called “correctional institutions” is not  random. “Correctional” because they aim to “correct” the people, who are  incarcerated there. To “correct” is to impose to someone “the “correct  way to be,” which is a condition of “reason” and “normality.” The  “correct way to be” is “sanity.” It is not accidental that besides  prisons and detention centres, mental health hospitals are also enlisted  as correctional institutions.

A  characteristic the correctional institutions share is (obligatory)  confinement. Persons under correction are usually not allowed to choose  either the correctional procedure, or their institutionalisation. These  are imposed on them, without them giving their consent, or any  possibility to make a choice, restricting in this way their freedom,  their agency, and their self-determination. It is a judge or a  judiciary, a doctor or a board of doctors that get to decide on and  impose to someone confinement in correctional institutions, either a  prison, or a mental health hospital. The infliction of these  restrictions is under the pretext that this is for the “common good,” or  even for the person’s “own good.” In the case of Cyprus, such decisions  can also be administrative, since detention of migrants for “illegal  stay” are usually based on detention and deportation orders issued by  the migration officer.

An  essential element of the correctional procedure is the isolation of the  persons, who are under correction, from society, cutting them off  society, and eventually marginalising them. Persons under correction are  considered to be flagitious for the rest of the society and their  correction is for the purposes of their “purgation.” In the same manner  correction in the Middle Ages was imposed on persons that were judged as  “sinners” for reasons of “purgation.”

Correction constitutes an  exemplary punishment to ensure that the rest of the people in a society  will also conform. By confining the people considered as “socially  malfunctioning and dangerous” in a correctional institution, not only  the punishment of those people is achieved, but it also sets an example  for the rest of the people within the society. Thus, through the threat  and fear of imprisonment and of isolation from the rest of the society,  the compliance of the society members with the set legal and social  framework and their subjection under its institutions are achieved.  “Malfunctioning and dangerous” are considered to be the persons that do  not fit in the legal and social framework, do not comply with the  current social covenant, and do not obey the institutions.

As  a consequence, even the persons that have never harmed anybody, but do  not fit or do not accept to fit in the existing “boxes” of normativity  are also compelled to correction. Historically, and also in modern  times,  women claiming visibility/agency/autonomy, gay persons, trans  persons, persons with “infectious diseases” (tuberculosis, HIV, etc.),  people with “mental problems,” migrants, and other groups of people  outside the normative framework were and continue to be penalised for  being what they are and forced to correction. Not because they harmed or  because they could harm other people, but because they are considered  to be a threat for the current social system and the current order of  things. Therefore, correction was and still is a means to impose power  and to restrict desire and autonomy. It is not a coincidence that at  times of suppression of uprisings, prisons and mental hospitals become  full with people. And the same happens during war periods.

It  should not therefore come as a surprise that prisons, as correctional  institutions, a tool of exercising power, are proven to be places of  torture for the prisoners, and of corruption for those imposing,  exercising, and protecting power.  The surprise of the Cypriot society  with the recent revelations
regarding the events in the central  prisons is nothing but hypocrisy. We all know that prisons do not offer  any improvements, but rather exist in order to impose authority, by  punishing, exemplifying, isolating. Many choose to ignore this and not  pay attention, but it is not strange that the lives of the persons, who  are in prison become unbearable.

Particularly  unbearable become the lives of those confined in correctional  institutions and who diverge from normativity in more than one ways. So,  women, migrants, homosexual and trans people, people with disabilities,  people with mental care/psychiatric past, and any other person, who  diverges from the social norms, experience their incarceration in  prisons in a particularly violent way. The normativity imposed by  society, continuous to be imposed within correctional institutions. It  is no coincidence that those who committed or attempted to commit  suicide in the central prisons are migrants.

On the contrary,  people who are imprisoned, even for serious crimes (murders, rapes),  but are adapted to normal stereotypes receive more advantageous  treatment during their imprisonment. They have a good relationship with  authority and those who impose it, and they can even undertake the role  of punisher for their account, since they also want to make sure that  they have good reciprocal relationships. As we have been informed, one  of those who attempted suicide in the central prisons was repeatedly  raped from other inmates with the complicity of the guards. We are also  informed that punishment for those imprisoned is often their transfer to  the cells of long-term convicts, who have good relationships with the  guards, and who could abuse them. The shock that this information has  (assumedly) caused is also hypocritical.

“Solutions” being forced by the state with the excuse  to control an “unstable” situation are also hypocritical. In reality,  they take away any remaining self-determination and agency the prisoners  have over their own bodies and lives, in order to completely suppress  them. Measures that have been announced in the last few days include  things like: “the removal from the prisoners’ cells  of all dangerous  objects capable of being used for suicides; installation of special  equipment within the cells to eliminate all the possibilities for the  prisoners to find easy ways to commit suicide; instalment of soft  mattresses around the perimeter of the cells to eliminate the  possibility of the people wanting to commit suicide to hit their head on  the wall, in order to cause their death; to create special places  within the prisons to host people with psychological problems; the  installation of anti-vandalism equipment;” and the reinforcement of the  special police forces squat within the prisons.

There has of course been  no hint of changing the correctional system. As if people  attempting/committing suicide are responsible for such  attempts/suicides. The conditions that are imposed to them in the  prisons, the mistreatment of the prisoners, and the deprivation of their  basic human rights seem not to be taken into account during the  discourse around the latest events within the prisons. The measures, as  expected, are not being placed in order to restrict the reasons that  drive prisoners to commit suicide, but rather to restrict even more the  prisoners and their rights. Depriving them completely from their right  to self-determination, aim to restrict their choice between life and  death, when the life of some people becomes unbearable. And of course,  no one questions the responsibilities of such correctional institutions  that drive people into such deadlocks, where death becomes redemption.

Those measures were announced when a few days  before, the (now former) deputy director of prisons had declared that  the hunger strike conducted by the prisoners “was not a hunger strike,”  but “a denial of a few people (60-70 prisoners) to eat,” in an effort to  quickly silence the protest of the prisoners regarding the prisons’  conditions, the brutal punishments, and the tortures imposed on them.  The former deputy director also tried to reverse the situation driving  the society against the protestors and the prisoners in general,  claiming that the prisoners live better than the rest of the society.

The complete control of the prisoners, their  deprivation of any form of agency, and their complete suppression, seem  to be completed with their phychiatrisation. During the last days,  prisoners are portrayed as persons, who have, or possibly have, mental  health problems, which is where the responsibilities for the frequent  suicides are shifted away. It seems that the system considers that  imprisonment, isolation, torture, abuse, marginalisation, social  rejection, and the absence of any possibility for control over one’s own  life are not enough reasons for someone to desire and pursue death. Of  course, admitting to any of these reasons would basically entail the  need for the abolition of prisons and a radical restructure of the  correctional system – something that would be completely inconvenient  for the authorities. On the other hand, the psychiatrisation of  prisoners has the extra bonus of shifting responsibilities from the  system to the prisoners themselves. In this way, the authorities appear  to have no responsibilities (there are some exceptions of course, in  cases of corruption and “abuse of power”). Furthermore, authority  restores and confirms itself, since it promises to consolidate the  correctional system, as well as the prisoners. Psychiatric monitoring  for the prisoners, even without their consent, taking away any  possibility for agency and self-control over their lives and bodies, and  erasure of any possibility for autonomy. Plus, reinforcing special  police force squad in prisons. Restoration of law and order.  Suppression. Full stop.

The transfer of the  deputy director and the psychiatrist of the prisoners are nothing but  attempts on behalf of the government to disorient the society, since  this “proves” the desire to “reform” prisons. in this way, the entire  correctional system is restored as necessary for ensuring the “common  good” and controlling crime through the repression of violence, making  use of… violence! Crime, however, is not due to the inadequate control  of violence, but to the structures of the capitalist – hierarchical  system. A system that reproduces and fuels violence, in order to confirm  and legalise its own existence and, at the same time, it perceives  imprisoned persons as a site where power inscribes itself, and whose  lives are not worth living. Besides, to exercise power is to exercise  control over the choice to have or to not have agency and  self-determination.

Iperastika – Sispirosi Atakton
Nicosia 18/1/2014

Occupy Buffer Zone reflections

Since the turn of 2000s, especially, there has been a shift in the understanding and practice of resistance and struggle. Traditional ways of protesting started to become irrelevant in addressing complex realties of the modern world.  Talking only about the bosses, means of production or alienation in the production process and focusing merely on developing strategies on these matters were not providing a strong ground to stand against the machine. It is now a world of ecological catastrophes, health crises, a world ruled not by governments but banks and their corrupted clients, a world in which people are manipulated with heroic narratives and trapped in their futile pursuit of satisfaction through consumption of “things” and became slaves of the “things”. Today we speak of alienation in a different sense, it’s alienation from the nature, from oneself, from the life itself. What we are dealing with today is less a question of labour and more a question of life and how every sphere of it is in one way or another linked to the subject of unrest. Inevitably, modes of action started to move outside of organizations, establishments, and political parties. Structural shifts in communications pushed forward the emergence of global communities and spread the unrest to an extent that was once unimaginable. In 2011, Occupy Movement marked this transformation in political resistance. It turned the political theory upside down, put ideologies under question. Political action became embedded in the life style, it was a manifestation that political will goes way beyond voting, marching and manifestos, it is now taking active and steady step for what is demanded, embracing alternative ways of living to physically exercise what is desired and revealing all kinds of intrinsic relations that is affecting our lives and so on and so forth.  There are a lot of unanswered theoretical questions about the Occupy Movement but we know now that nothing will ever be the same again.

Global trends tend to reach Cyprus a few years later, except the consumerist ones needless to stress. But we had an exception 2 years ago
exactly on the same day when OWS started. Responding to the global call to take the squares, people from both sides of Cyprus initiated now what we refer as Occupy Buffer Zone. Along with the parallels with the global Occupy movement in terms of its format and composition, OBZ had a unique twist: it was also an anti-border movement exercised on a border. One of the main slogans used at the OBZ is self-explanatory both in the sense of the nature of global Occupy movement and also specifically in the context of Cyprus: We are living the solution.  Theoretical discussion on the Occupy often refers to its function in creation of islands of utopias. Ledra Street/Lokmaci buffer zone witnessed for 7 months an attempt to experience how it would be to live in an un-divided island. It was based on the argument that instead of desperately hoping from the political elite to solve the Cyprus problem one day, why not just transform our demand into practice.

Throughout time, the occupation camp became not only a living space but a space for creation, a space that could generate a common sub-culture. Being divided for 39 years, current generation only had narratives to rely on about the ‘other’. OBZ camp was not only a form of protest; it also provided a ground for redefining the concept of other and challenging the borders created in minds. But it is important to stress that as a form of protest, it brought a whole new perspective to the Cypriot context.  It went beyond temporary reactions to undesired policies, it pointed out and connected the dots between various dynamics that had not been addressed before, it allowed people from across the divide to act, react and produce together consistently, through being visible to the public at all times for 7 months it exhibited the determination of the new generation which is often deemed as “apolitical”. Despite it all OBZ was far from being perfect. There were a lot of internal conflicts, which most basically stemmed from whether or no
t OBZ was a medium to have an influence on the public or whether it was just a squat.

The motivation for initiating OBZ was a vision for a long-term impact that would transcend the camp itself and generate an understanding of solidarity, a sense of community within the wider public. Such an understanding required an all-inclusive approach and ironically it became a destructive factor for the movement. In time there had been an imbalance in terms of quantity between the groups who pursued the initial ideal of OBZ and those who were seeking to exercise a form of authority on the space, as a stance against the so-called authorities. People staying in the camp and those who worked outside the camp became polarized and decision-making process was disrupted by the lack of common vision. Not before long the problems became personal and had a negative impact on people’s motivation and also on public’s approach to the movement. But these dynamics are not very different from the other Occupy examples and today we know it was just a beginning. We know utopias do not exist  as there is no utter harmony in societies. This is a new era for a new kind of political resistance and there are a lot lessons to be learned on the way. Especially the second half of 2013 is showing us a new stage for the Occupy movement in the world and also in Cyprus. Following a year of decentralized action, there is a lot of work put into infrastructural aspects such as communication strategies, synchronizing action globally and establishing tactics that would spread this new culture of resistance to all spheres of the public and mobilise the non-mobilised.  Having enough time to reflect on the mistakes, recover from the conflicts of the learning process, OBZ, too is regenerating itself with a clearer vision and stronger global connections. The next chapter starts here.

An OBZ Activist

*Opinions expressed here are personal reflections of my own and do not necessarily represent OBZ.

Coup d’etat, War, Refugees, Dead, Occupation: Another “glorious” feat of Cyprus’ nationalists from both sides and their local and international bosses.

There have been 39 years already since the day that the turkish state invaded the cypriot land.

Many years of bicommunal and intra-community conflicts preceded this as the aspirations of the dominant nationalists of both communities were completely opposite. The peak of the conflict within the Greek-Cypriot community between the right wing sides of Makarios and Grivas was the military coup d’etat from the Greek Junta on the 15 of July 1974.  This coup d’etat essentially gave the opportunity to the turkish state to invade under the pretext of protecting the Turkish-Cypriot community. Even at the most conservative discourses of that time, there is no question that the developments in Cyprus were directly linked with the lethal chessboard of the cold war and that the invasion as a “solution” was predetermined, as it would prevent future conflicts amongst NATO allies (Greece and Turkey) and it would negate any possibility of Cyprus being in “red” hands.

“Cyprus is a whore from which both Greece and Turkey could profit from”                 Dictatorship Papadopoulos

Nationalism is a phenomenon which occurs in all class societies. In order to reproduce it needs to continuously re-invent the common interest of the nation. In reality, however, in a class society this is impossible. So what it really does is that is transforming selfish capitalist interests into a common one. Within this context anyone who is a stranger to the national backbone, poses a threat of stealing the joy, to ruin the perspective of the nation towards happiness, prosperity, peace, and the local capitalist appears to have the same interests as those of the oppressed classes.

In this way, nationalism becomes automatically a useful tool for the reproduction of a class society.

In Cyprus we have experienced over the last century this reversal of reality into nationalism, which turned the oppressed against each other and led them into a merciless war of mutual extermination on the basis of national origin. This allowed capitalism to develop rapidly turning the biggest part of the population into paid slaves.

Things could have been different had the disaster of 1974 been a lesson for the Cypriots. Instead what we experienced after the war was of climax of the hatred between the two communities and the submission of the class to “nationalistic interests”. Since the coup d’etat and the war, we witness the same people who dragged us to the catastrophe being on the foreground of the political life, perpetuating the status quo with endless conversations accelerating capitalist accumulation via their tools and the financial and banking pyramid.

The current economic crisis was easily included within the nationalistic discourse as being a threat from the ‘Other’. Firstly, it was the immigrant and the Turkish-Cypriot worker but as the crisis worsened it was the hotel worker, the the civil servant, and then that of the bank…

Let’s stop fooling ourselves whilst waiting for our turn in this slaughterhouse

The economic crisis is the result of contradictory and chaotic nature of a diseased system which cannot survive without a continuous exponential “growth” at the expense of the lower classes and of the planet itself. The crisis allows nationalism and fascism to spread with an even greater audacity its racist poison in the society.

We can and we need to intercept them. We have nothing separating us from the Turkish-Cypriot worker, the immigrant, or the other who is oppressed just like us. We need to self-organize with them in our neighborhoods, our streets, our workplaces, our cities. Together, we must dispel this cancerous nationalism and the barbaric capitalism.

Nicosia, July 2013

Syspirosi Atakton

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 ★

RESISTANCE TO THE DOMINANCE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY – FIGHT FOR LAND AND FREEDOM

Mass spread of aspartame in the world’s food chain … channelling of the most dangerous toxic substances – known as dioxins – into the international chemicals’ industry … creation of the first atomic bomb during the second World War … production of the deadly defoliant gas “Agent Orange” during the Vietnam War … dominance of the most commercial herbicide of all time, “Roundup”, in agricultural production … promotion of the “Synthetic Bovine Growth Hormone” in the livestock production … tens of labour accidents within the international line of production of chemical substances … toxic contamination of the natural environmental, the local communities and indigenous populations in almost every corner of this planer … These are some of the most important – but certainly not the only ones – environmental, social and military crimes of one of the biggest multinational agrochemical corporations in the world, which was created in 1901 and since then has the U.S. as a base for its economic activities.

Its name: Monsanto.

Since then, Monsanto has managed to expand its corporate activities, with the result that Monsanto is today the biggest biotechnology corporation in the whole world. In only two decades, Monsanto managed to take under its control, 90% of the global production of Genetically Modified Organisms. These GMOs, as they are widely known, contaminate the genetic chain and lead to the diminution of the planet’s biological diversity, the increase in the use of agrochemical substances and harmful toxic substances and put public health at risk. The latest is most prominent for local communities and indigenous populations who border with GMO cultures which tend to be in poorer and more developed countries. GMOs lead to gradual reduction of agricultural production when compared to conventional and organic ones, but it also leads to an increasing cost of production for the farmers and the livestock producers eventually leading to the control of the international food and the aggravation of poverty, the impoverishment and malnutrition of the lower and poorer social classes.

At the same time, Monsanto and the rest of the biotechnology corporations (such as Syngenta, DuPont, Bayer-BASF and Pioneer) are trying to promote and sell their destructive products, with the pretext of improving and increasing the world’s food production, in a supposed attempt to contribute in addressing the worldwide poverty and hunger crisis. Since the aggravation of poverty and lack of nutrition is nothing but the inherent fabrication of global capitalism and particularly of an unequal system of production, distribution and consumption

of basic goods, we are not deceived by any biotechnology tale. GMOs, not only do they not increase access to land, food and income of the poorest and of the lower classes, but on the contrary, they lead to the inevitable and definite subjugation, depriving them from what is most basic for their survival. Their own land and food. GMOs’ produced are not produced from and are not intended for the poor and weak of this planet like they want us to believe. The only ones who are in reality the winners of this kind of worldwide food production and distribution system is the elite of the biotechnology and agrochemical giants.

So, we resist against the biopiracy and the patenting of seeds and other forms of life. We stand for the right of simple people and the indigenous populations to safeguard their seeds, their land, the ecosystems and their biodiversity. We fight to overthrow the worldwide capitalist system, so that the worldwide food production will fulfil the needs of the people and the planet, and not of big corporations and the capital. We fight for land and freedom, for food security and autonomy.

CAPITALISM IS NOT OUR FUTURE

WE WILL BE NOBODY’S SLAVE

Syspeirosi Atakton Saturday,

25 Μay 2013

World Day of Action Against Monsanto