O.K.D.E. Announcement: NO to the dictatorial curfew and the incrimination of people YES to actual protection measures
O.K.D.E. Announcement
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NO to the dictatorial curfew and the incrimination of people
YES to actual protection measures
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With measures of extreme scrutiny and surveillance of citizens, police-law and fines, the government – with the help of the media – is trying to sell its effort to tackle the pandemic. P.M. Mitsotakis used delirious phrases such as “exercising individual liberty beyond its constitutional purpose”, “deficient responsibility” and “few frivolous people”, again placing all the burden of the crisis on “individual responsibility”. In other words, pointing the finger at workers, popular strata and young people alike, to be responsible for the allegedly individual treatment of the pandemic, and referring to “antisocial behaviors” that supposedly justify the generalization of repressive measures.
This anti-democratic turn, increasingly harsh, does not fight the pandemic. Nor are the unprecedented and unjustified bans, the police and the military. The real fight against the pandemic and the protection of the population requires a strong public health system and the government has done nothing in this regard, mocking workers, the poor and the young. Despite the hypocritical “standing ovation” from the government, from Memorandum fans and their puppets, for the “heroes” (who until yesterday were seen as lazy, unionists, high-wage, corrupt!) no medical personnel recruitments have been announced and no one knows if or when they will happen. Masks and Personal Protection Measures do not exist for hospital staff, who are asked to risk their lives for a temporary, petty allowance. Doctors who overcome the disease are back in the battle a few days later, on the grounds that they are the “front line”. There has been no increase in ICU beds. Diagnostic tests are scarce and are only performed here and there, while reagents have not even been conscripted, allowing private examiners to speculate in the midst of a pandemic. Deficiencies and profiteering in the materials for Personal Protection Measures continue, when they should be provided free of charge to everyone and especially to the workers who continue to work. All this while Prof. Dr. Med. Tsiodras himself is talking about tens of thousands of cases, which means that we are one breath away from an exponential explosion of the pandemic…
If the government really wanted to protect society, it would have to exhaust the rigor, fines and closures on the overwhelming majority of employers who continue to run their businesses in miserable sanitary conditions, despite repeated complaints from workers, while most of such businesses have nothing to do with the basic needs of the population in an emergency. If the government really wanted to protect the people, it would take care to protect the workers and the poor people from the poverty and hunger conditions that existed long before the outbreak of the pandemic and which now, with the emergency changes imposed on labor law, are at risk to deteriorate, which will objectively lead to the infringement of the quarantine. If the government really wanted to protect men and women, it would free refugees from concentration camps, which could be transformed into crematoriums.
On the contrary, the “New Democracy” government overnight passes measures that amount to ten years’ memoranda and bans equivalent to the ones set in the 7-year generals’ dictatorship of 1967. This prohibition on movement is unconstitutional, as “freedom of movement and establishment in the Greek territory”, as a form of personal freedom, is enshrined in the Constitution (Article 5), without its suspension being allowed. But the government, after dramatically lagging in decisive action, has no time for such details. It has other priorities. It essentially forbids union action, amid a wave of layoffs, shifting hours and contracts, snatching wages, etc., since even unions are disallowed to convene. It throws students out of their dormitories, with the criminal decision to close them, creating not only an immediate problem for the students but also a risk of spreading the virus (if they go to their places of origin), ridiculing the government’s own “Let’s Stay Home” campaign – and sending police to protect the deans from protests by student interns. That is to say, in the midst of a pandemic, the government continues to serve the interests of entrepreneurs and the rich, while strengthening the Emergency State in order to protect them. And SYRIZA’s miserable cabinet give full consensual support to these atrocities, talking about simple “side effects”.
They should not exploit the patience and agony of the workers, youth and the poorer popular strata. The government, the bourgeoisie and their puppets are being judged harshly will be held accountable for their actions.
Despite the propaganda of the media, workers and poor people do not expect or need their bans to protect one another and especially vulnerable groups. We are the ones who, at the risk of even our lives, continue to produce daily, operate disintegrated hospitals, collect garbage and disinfect, operate public transportation, deliver goods, and so on. They are lying about the “irresponsibility” of the population – in fact the workers, young and poor popular strata have shown exemplary patience and calmness despite the unprecedented conditions! Don’t let those who throw us into the unprotected pandemic portray us as monsters of “anti-social behavior”! Let’s rely on the values of solidarity and mutual help to stand up in this grim period, which will only get worse as the crisis of the capitalist system in Greece and the world begins its march (worse than 2008). We call on the workers, the youth and the poor, the proletarian organizations in unity and alertness. Ιn readiness to act for our social and democratic rights, to protect our lives against impotence and the aggressive anti-labor government policy.
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NO to the incrimination of society with “individual responsibility” and the police law. Fight against the dictatorial curfew. Militant defense of democratic freedoms.
YES to real protective measures: Immediate recruitment of thousands of permanent health care workers. Conscription – Nationalization of all healthcare structures, infrastructures, materials and food, in order to provide protection and dignity to the population.
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Οrganization of Communists – Internationalists, Greece
