AGAINST THE DESTRUCTION OF NATURE
STRUGGLE FOR REVOLUTION AND FREEDOM
On the occasion of the struggles against goldmines in Halkidiki
A small reference to the facts
The struggles against goldmines in Halkidiki go back to 1989, in Olympiada. At the time, the local residents had to confront TVX-Hellenic Gold company and their struggle acquired insurrectionary characteristics, mainly during the period 1995-1997 (an outpost was created on the mountain by the locals in order to block the passage to the workers and their vehicles, demonstrations, clashes as well as direct actions took place, one of the most characteristic being the placing of an improvised mechanism to the “ministry of industry and development” and the arrest on 1998 of the anarchist Nikos Maziotis, who took the responsibility for this action).
From 1999 to nearly 2011, the struggle was transferred to the courtrooms, and the high point was the fact of the decision of the COE (state council) to cancel all mining process in the area. So, after a period of pause, we arrive to the near past, when on July 2009, after a permission of the project in Skouries of M. Panagia, locals and people in solidarity re-built an outpost, in order to prevent the works.
People continue struggling and on the 20th of March 2012, the local people from M.Panagia and Ierissos answer immediately to the attempt of Hellenic Gold Company to start the works. They gather in the area re-blocking the works and after the burning of their outpost by the workers of the gold mine, they occupy the city-hall and demonstrate.
In the months to follow, the reactions of the locals and solidarity people would be continued leading to dynamic actions, demos and gatherings trying to approach the mountain, efforts that would be confronted with cops’ repression and would once again get aggressive features.
Certain moments of the above struggle are pointed out here, such as the demo of 2.500 people in Halkidiki on March 25th, the gathering of 1.000 people outside the city council during its meeting on March 30th, the demo on the 1st of May and on the 5th of August, the burning of the police station on the 16th of April ’13, resulting to the immediate transfer of the department. Those who stood against all these struggles from the very first moment were, between others, the company, its employees (residents of the wider area of Halkidiki) the Golden Dawn, and GSEE (one of the major syndicates).
On the 16th of February, the construction site of “Hellenic Gold” in Skouries, was burned by a group of 50 people. After which, the oppressive mechanisms, in their attempt to terrorize the residents of the area, the people in solidarity and those who struggle against the miner gold, have started to implement similar tactics of detention- “disappearing” of suspects, for as long as needed in order to “obtain” genetic material or any other information. Already counting 16 people from whom they have taken DNA, another 3 people who have been summoned to the police station and 4 people in prison, part of their operations was also the confinement of a comrade in Thessaloniki. The comrade was arrested inside a bus by undercover cops and was transferred in GADTH (central police station) without any explanation. During his detention the cops had taken DNA sample by force and had informed him that he was suspect for felonies concerning the gathering on the 12th of May to the Karatza area, to Kakavos mountain.
DNA as a suppressive weapon
Obviously, this specific tactic isn’t a new weapon in the enemy’s hands; it has been enforced for some years for anarchist prosecutions, both in Greece and outside. We have seen it being used at Simos Seisidis’s arrest, who had been accused for robbery based on DNA “evidence” on scurf, and at Aris Seirinidis’s arrest, who had been accused for attacking a MAT squad (police force) based in genetic material on mask… We have had to deal with it during the detentions and accusations of struggling people, which followed the arrests for the revolutionary groups Revolutionary Struggle and Conspiracy of Cells of Fire and other fighters.
We have seen it in practice, with the 10 years imprisonment of Babis Tsilianidis for a robbery with the “unique evidence” of genetic material on scarf, which was the first conviction based on DNA. It has appeared before us again with Tasos Theofilou’s persecution, as well as with the latest arrests in Velvedos and N.Filadelfia, with accusations and imprisonment based on DNA for a series of robberies, connecting and correlating accordingly the accusation of participation in CCF.
Besides, it is known that the state has often used initially and experimentally new suppressive tactics on some parts of the anarchist community (EKAM-special forces- to squats/shutdown of indymedia athens) and on people who have chosen to fight for its destruction, in order then to use them against anyone who attempts at the present to unite and fight after the suppressive moves-but also against them.
Control and DNA
In fact, what is attempted is the creation of a DNA database, under the threat of being held in contempt, and based on the pretext that “whoever has nothing to hide, should give DNA sample”.
“The building of a whole society of control surrounded by cameras and alarms, the creation of a mechanized system with “special IDs” and databases, the “latest technology” equipment of the repression forces with water jet machines, blinded cars, metallic barriers, super-snitches, etc., are only few of the examples that point out how much the technological science is involved in these operations.’’ In the light of the above and as we talk about a condition of war that the state has declared against our lives, the genetic mapping of an area (and specifically of the people in struggle) has a specific goal.
On the one hand, to terrorize, targeting people in struggle as possible suspects for whatever action goes against the demands of the domination. On the other hand, to establish the use of DNA as one more method for the creation of legal pursuits and the building of new judicial cases.
A close analysis of the trials mentioned above proves that the genetic material, even though not a sufficient evidence of participation of someone in an action, is used on purpose as a irrefutable element of guilt. We consider it important to understand that the stake of refusing to give DNA sample is huge. It has to do with our need and desire to struggle, and with the awareness of refusing the control over our body, our personality, our existence.
It is one more refusal of compromising with the present condition of human and nature exploitation.
From controlling nature to controlling humans and back again
A basic characteristic of capitalism and of the ruling models of economic management is to translate everything around them in benefit or loss. This is exactly what happens with nature, whether it is about tourist-economical exploitation of the natural beauty of a place (leading to its consequent decadence and ugliness), or the exhaustive draining of the land from its natural sources, in order to multiply the benefits. The way domination manages those sources encloses the repressive nature of the capitalist system itself, which is spread in every part of everyday life. Therefore, the natural field ends up as another market product, which will be grabbed, destroyed, treated, sold, and consumed, usually behind the pretext a supposed “green development”.
After all, the assimilating game of power consists of being able to manoeuvre through the current social conjunction, to adapt to it, as well as to be able to assimilate and alienate the social resistance (individual-collective), converting them into endo-systemic, hierarchically built and intermediated demands (NGO, “green” parties) and on the same time promoting lifestyle individualized solutions (alternative-ecological way of life, etc). Even in the cases that the above strategies can’t be applied, money is set as a basic “weapon”, aiming at buying out this resistance indirectly, presenting the huge economical investment benefits, (such as the mines in Skouries, in Mandoudi, in Kilkis), or directly offering work places in these areas, raising the wages as a bonus, etc (a typical example is the attitude of the majority of the workers in the mines of Skouries).
All the above is always presented in the light of a theoretical analysis, where the development and the technological and scientific progress levels with the human well-being. Of course, this situation sets a proliferate ground for the human logic of conceiving nature in general : the point of view according to which the planet is owned by the humans and everything on it exists in order to serve them, makes the work of the capitalist expansion on unspoiled areas of nature even more easier. It is a perspective against which we should fight. We have to make the struggle against the marauding of the nature a part of the whole struggle for total liberation. Since capitalism isn’t the only form of authority that can pillage nature. Every economical and political system that is centered on the accumulation of goods and benefit can very easily have the same impact on nature.
The bet is set in the present…
… on the struggles by every means against the looting of nature, on the non intermediated struggles (away from political parties, hierarchies and authoritarian logics) whether they are being held by local people from the villages of Halkidiki by raising barricades and continuous mobilizations, whether being held by anarchists who attack and sabotage all over the world putting forward the total human, animal and nature liberation. The insurrectional spirit of people who desire to sabotage and destroy everything that oppresses them is born through this attempt to set free.
…on the simmering desire not to follow, but to act, to react, to take one’s life in their hands. As anarchists, we deny the existing structure of domination, whether it is called progress, production, industry, or capitalism, domination, culture. Not only because we don’t agree with it, but also because we reject it to its roots in every possible way and by all means. Let’s join our refusals and let’s create on a liberating perspective.
LET’S STRUGGLE WITHOUT MEDIATIONS OR NEGOTIATIONS
NO CONCESSION TO THE INVASION OF THE CAPITAL DOMINATION