Solidarity with the migrants hunger strikers in Paranesti camp
A few weeks have passed since greek society has been shuddered by the repugnant images of concentration camps shown by the media. Thereafter hordes of reporters and humanitarian organizations have rushed to condemn the inhumane conditions that prevail behind the detention centers’ bars, while the new minister of the cops, Panousis, states all around his intention to close them down… or to fix them up anyhow.
It goes without saying that all this sentimentality is pretended, especially given the fact that the left government was broadcasting that “there is indeed a problem with the migrants”, winking at the greek racist sewer that was heading towards the ballot boxes. Judging the “humanitarian” proposals on the supposed problem by what they really are, they obviously continue to agree on the administration of the underrated/redundant lives of the immigrants and do not oppose to the essence of anti-migratory policy. And they go on to demonstrate that fact even more, as the international slander and the fines for not holding up to the functioning specifications consist one of the main arguments of those promoting the beautification of the camps.
Apart from the denunciations made from the safe side, the condition of the confinement remains torturous and agonizing all the same for those experiencing it. Cops and prison guards inside the camps and the detention centers keep reminding to the imprisoned migrants the audacious claims of the head of syriza that “the state has continuity”. Continuity in the assassinations… Because each and every suicide in the face of confinement and its despair, each and every death caused by the deliberate indifference of the cops towards those suffering from diseases are assassinations with the full meaning of the word.
Faced with the maneuvers and promises of syriza, the immigrants do not care about “changes” and “hopes that are on their way”. They do not compromise neither with a “humanitarian” 6month detention nor with its equally “humanitarian” 6month suspension of their deportation.
Since the 23rd of March, 23 migrants prisoners in the concentration camp of Paranesti in Drama, are on hunger strike. They demand their immediate release and legalization. Considering the condition of their detention as irrational and unjust, they do not accept to remain imprisoned, waiting for any process of getting papers. At this moment there are 210 imprisoned migrants and about 80 underaged in Paranesti, while among them there are people with serious health problems that are only given painkillers.
The migrants claim their freedom and their dignity and they start their struggle relying on their forces as well as on the solidarity of the movement that has to stand decisively by their side. It is them that are calling us to build a community of struggle with them, against anything that divides and represses us.
All these days the migrants hunger strikers are being threatened continuously by their guards. Threatened to be dispersed into distinct camps, threatened to stop the hunger strike if they want to receive things or money sent by their friends outside the camp, and facing the indifference of the camp doctor to their broken health due to the hunger strike are only just a few examples. Meanwhile, inflictions of self-harm by migrants that can no longer stand the condition of being detained are a daily phenomenon.
Of course, it is not just in this specific camp that migrants are revolting. On the 16th of March more than 300 migrants started a hunger strike in the camp of Korinthos, while since the 9th of March there have been massive hunger strikes in 7 camps in Great Britain.
The function of migrant concentration camps in the greek territory dates back to the former decade, contributing, in a different way depending on the era, to the ambitions and purposes of the anti-migratory policy of the greek state. Regardless of the fancy names given to camps, hundreds of migrants are getting packed in there due to the “crime” that they committed, that of pursuing a better future. A future far from their native lands (Middle East, Africa, Asia) that are being plagued by the imperialism of the western nations.
During the times of the financial prosperity, it was the exploitation and the devalued labor of the migrants that helped Greece build a powerful state. However, nowadays the formerly useful slaves/forbidden workers along with a big part of the local proletariat have become redundant as a cheap labor force. That is why they have been given another role, that of the advertised victims of the state of exception, of human-trashes, prey to the hatred of every kinds of racist and fascist.
There are many ways in which the “industry” of recording, stigmatization, extended war inside and outside Europe, entrapment and even extermination could turn out as a profitable channelization for a certain part of the capital. However, the specific part of that process, the construction and maintenance of the camps, does not come without its firsthand financial profits. It is already known that lots of money is flowing from the eu to supply the camps with alimentation, blankets, cleaning, custodianship, etc. This is how local bosses (security companies, cleaners, caterings and many more) are trying to make money using the lives of the forbidden migrants as their “raw material”.
We have no reason to believe that the new managers of the greek state have something better in store for those ab initio excluded from all attempts for social consensus. Like any other capitalistically organized state, regardless of which its talking head is, its one and only strategic dealing of the migrants is confined to maintaining a regime of constant manhunt and loss of freedom. A regime that neither starts nor ends inside the concentration camps, structured diligently around the borders and the police departments and realized by the cops and the mafia. What if camps are beautified and the beatings along with the manhunt take place tactfully. The only thing that we can be sure of is the continuation of incidents of people getting exterminated in the borders, or getting trapped in almost unpaid labor, or having to live under the constant tone of gunfire.
We neither can nor are we allowed to back off believing in futile parliamentary hopes, encouraging our own self-destruction. Against any kind of intermediation, we feel obliged to support the struggles of the migrants that are our own struggles as well. All together, locals and foreigners, parts of the same class, to fight until the demolition of each and every detention center. Until the end of the discriminations that are imposed on us by the capital and the state.
assembly no lager in Thessaloniki