Athens workers' statements on the killing of Alexandros Grigoropoulos

The workers's union of municipality of Aghios Dimitrios

On Saturday night the greek police killed a 15 year old student.

The murder was the last straw.

It was the follow up of a coordinated campaign, a campaign of state terrorism with the help of the fascist organisation ''Golden Dawn'', which was aimed at university students who are fighting against the privatization of education, the high school students, the immigrants who are under constant state control because they have the wrong colour, the working class who have to work for a nickel and a dime until they die.

The government praetors who have covered up a lot of crimes against society, who burnt the greek forests in the summer of 2007, are also responsible for the burning of the cities these days. They maintain nepotism. They protect the government people who were involved in the mobile phone interceptions scandal, those looting the public pension funds, those who kidnapped and tortured immigrants and were involved in law, stock market and church scandals.

We are in civil war with the fascists, the bankers, the state and the mass media who want the young people to be submissive and society to be pacified. Although they have no excuses, they try again to use conspiracy theories as well as theories of ''irregular attack'' in order to calm spirits down.

The rage that has been accumulated through the years had to be expressed and it shouldn't end.

Throughout the world people set their eyes on what is going on here.
People must rise up everywhere.

This generation of poor, unemployed, precarious, homeless and immigrant young people will smash the display window of this society and will wake up the obedient citizens from their sleep of the ephemeral American Dream.

DON'T WATCH THE T.V NEWS, CONSCIOUSNESS RISES IN THE STREETS

WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE ARE MURDERED, THE OLD PEOPLE SHOULD NOT SLEEP

GOODBYE ALEXANDROS, MAY YOUR BLOOD BE THE LAST OF AN INNOCENT TO RUN.

The workers' s union of municipality of Aghios Dimitrios, Athens,11/12/2008

Initiative from inside
REALITY IS AN ILLUSION.
NORMALITY IS BEYOND US.

During the last days we have been living in a constant contradiction. Work in the mornings, "insurrection" at night. An insurrection triggered by the cold blood murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos by the police. The murder and the explosion of the reactions that followed were not accidental events. It was the catalyst that brought to the fore a situation whose conditions were formed some time ago.

These conditions have much to do with the economic situation, the insurance deregulation, the education reforms and the intesification of our lives in every aspect, the plundering of our space and time. And it's not just these conditions. The era of the first victories of the workers' movement isn't much different from our experiences, with the actual annulment of basic labour rights, the curtailment of the personal freedoms, the attempt to turn society into a "fragmented puzzle" of insecurity, confusion, terror-hysteria and repression. The workers' rights of yesterday are becoming object of dispute for today's struggles.

We are living in an era of intesification of production, of flexible working conditions, the rejection of the collective spirit, and the glorification of individualism at every level. The loss of the worker' s identity inside the production process is the logical outcome of the always intesifying demand of the boss for a worker-"chameleon", that adapts with ease to any condition of wage exploitation. An exploitation that doesn't shrink from legalizing workers who are in reality rented, from throwing the working force into a precarious workers' market. The more extreme part of this uninsured work is done mostly by immigrants.

Simultaneously, as workers we are called to pay for the economic crisis. A crisis that is mostly caused by our inability to exert a shining consuming behaviour, while remaining docile to the commands of the bosses, and contented with crumblings of the basic wage. And it's not just that. Not only do they steal our labour power, they overwhelm us with tax-plundering to cover the deficits of a national budget that does not serve the interests of the workers. And while the socially necessery working time is on the wane, our working hours keeping growing up in direct proportion to the rhythm that a stratum on the margins of society is growing and reproducing - the jobless. To summarize, to solidify the relationships of exploiters-exploited the illusion of a "common interest" is created, while in reality we all work for the interest of the boss.

The title of our text is not accidental. From the ashes of last days' destructive spontaneity, we recognize the power of those "from below" to define the public sphere and create the social frame in which to function. We are not just the producers of the social wealth, we are the social wealth itself. We are the ones who keep the cohesion in society and ensure its viability. As we acquire awareness of our power, we are becoming more dangerous than ever.

We propose:

- immediate blocking of the production process.

- social wages regardless of occupation, to live in decency, and to annul the separations promoted by the State and the Capital.

- social insurance for all

- creation of poles of self-organized collective struggle in every working sector.

- Against the bureaucratic syndicalism of the state "guild" that is GSEE-ADEDY 1 Bring it down!

LETS BUILD TODAY THE WORLD OF TOMORROW

fellow precarious workers from the occupied ASOEE 2 translation by Sotev, slightly edited by libcom

• 1 Greece's two largest reformist unions
• 2ASOEE. Athens University of Economics and Business - the occupation is comprised out of students, workers, jobless, radicals, immigrants etc etc.