Today (15/04/20), The Assembly against Bio-Power & Confinement carried out a mass counter-information action in support of workers in different neighborhoods at the center of Athens. Taking all necessary precautions, we found ourselves in the streets with working people of our class, discussing and sharing common fears and concerns. We demonstrated in practice that solidarity for us does not mean “everyone in their private cell” and “everyone for himself”, like the state and its personnel attempt to convince us every day. We discovered with joy that we are not alone in this situation, that the proletarians didn’t fall for the fairy tale that the pandemic is a “matter of individual responsibility”, or that the state and the bosses are putting up a fight for our own good. So, from our point of view, we are already setting the stage in order for the motto “we will deal with you later” to not be just a figure of speech.Below is the text of the action and some photos
WE ARE TOLD TO ENTER QUARANTINE, BUT:
-The ones among us working in super markets, delivery services, pet shops, pharmacies and hospitals have not entered quarantine. We work in health-devastating conditions, forced to work overtime, some of us with lower wages and without the proper means of protection against the virus.
Many workers are not given sick leave (even when they show symptoms of the virus!), others have been fired, others, such as doctors and nurses, work in miserable conditions trying to make up for government shortages,
while in other jobs bosses impose telework and work-by-distance, so that workers’ productivity does not fall. The reality of labour shows that the ones in quarantine are our salaries, the slashed staff and the short equipment in hospitals!
-The lethal policies applied on immigrants, prisoners and inmates in psychiatric hospitals were not been quarantined. Thousands of people are excluded from the social fabric in (psycho)cells with extreme restrictive conditions, without being able to receive visits and without any hygiene measures. The same goes for the rest of the “invisible” part of our society, for the thousands of refugees who are stacked in concentration camps without being offered any type of medical care.
-The plans for the wind farms have not been quarantined. On the contrary, they were now given the opportunity to develop and expand further. In fact, at a time they tell us that they try to protect us from a health crisis, they generate another, more severe health crisis by setting up thousands of wind turbines that are extremely harmful to the environment, the ecosystem and our very health.
-Sexual, gender-based and family violence have not been quarantined. On the contrary, incidents of violence and oppression against children, women, LGBTQI + people and feminine persons have increased in the current conditions, with the paradoxical result that for many of us “outside” is much safer than “inside”.
-For many out there, there is not even a choice of being quarantined. Others are homeless, others have been evicted from their homes, and others are being expelled by the state through auctions or other means, as in the case of student dorms which the state tried forcefully to evict. The state is doing anything else than taking care of «our health», evicting from their first residence thousands of students in the whole of Greece, sending them back to their families, among which there are vulnerable members!
WE DO NOT WANT OUR SOCIALITY AND WAGES QUARANTINED!
NO ONE ALONE – SELF-ORGANIZATION – CLASS SOLIDARITY
Assembly against bio-power & confinement
April 2020