Message From Migrant Hunger Strikers in Greece

I’m talking with absolute sincerity…you have the luck, even if you have a different opinion, especially the media you are working for, to be part of a historic moment, as today begins the biggest hunger strike, at least in the history of migrants in Europe. it’s a hunger strike, that withing the following 3weeks we’ll know whether the government will satisfy the hunger strikers’ obvious demands or we’ll have to deal with serious health problems or even life threats. this hunger strike is demanding the legalization of the migrants, who “put us in the Economic union” as mr Simitis (ex prime minister/pasok) has stated in the past. the migrants who suffer from exploitation, from repression, who don’t come here in Greece on holidays or to become rich, but are fleeing from poverty and wars. the migrants who come here as the civilized west destroys their countries and then builds walls to deal with the intruders

globalization, EU, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the destroy of eastern Europe produce migration and it’s at least stupid to say that those coming here are our enemies. they are our brothers, our friends, our comrades and it’s not possible only to look after ourselves. they don’t take our jobs, they do jobs no greek would do. we don’t only think about our neighbourhood
if the armies, the capital and the stock markets can move with noborder limitations, so the migrants have the right to move also freely. the assembly of solidarity to the hunger strikers, takes the political responsibility for the occupation of this building. yes, we entered in this empty and not in use building of the law school for any purpose, in order to host the struggle of the hunger strikers, based on the decisions of the universities assemblies, after having informed the university rectorate. and in any case, honoring the history of this building and the occupation of 1973, the struggles, all the thousands times we’ve heard the slogan “the asylum belongs to everybody”.

the university is not only for lessons, but to also host the social problem, the society itself. this struggle started on their own decisions and we said yes brothers. we stand by your side. greeks and migrant workers all stand by your side.

abdul
friends hello. we are here 300 migrants from all Greece, we represent thousands of migrants from all over Greece. we demand the legalization for all migrants. we start today a mass and difficult strike, so that our problems are finally heard. that we move from the dark to the light. we’re struggling for many years for equal rights for all, along with our greek brothers. we live here, we’re not criminals. we ask for rights. we ask the legalization of all migrants.

minas
good morning to everyone we’re in front everybody as society and as human beings οf a unique number of people (for the greek and European standards) who ever took such a serious decision. it’s a decision taken with out any intervention and we know that they took it on their own, as they don’t have the right to live in the light of legal status that doesn’t allow them to live in Greece they ask legalization, to work with stamps for the social insurance system and not in undeclared employments, black work. in order to be able to go to the hospital. to be buried as human beings. they live with us, in our neighbourhoods, they work in our fields, in our olive camps. they talk about a tough hunger strike, with only water and sugar that we last in the limits of human capacity of these young people you see right here. our state, should someday be serious and start having a serious migration policy, like other countries such as italy and spain dared to do we won’t allow to the media and the xenophobic voices to poison us and our souls. we ask to everybody who thinks like us, to stand by our side. it’s a very difficult struggle, we know that for sure. no way is unpassable

vassilis
it was said that I’m the lawyer of the hunger strikers, they don’t need a lawyer. I come to talk mostly on the technical issues, they don’t need a lawyer in order to be heard. they’ve decided on their own to come out of darkness and fight for their rights. right now, there’s a movement that asks to be heard, these 300 people live in a gap. for many years, our migration policy reached ground zero. talking technically there’ve been previously chances for legalizations, that within the past few years don’t exist, the last is in 2006 and it was half, under limitations and there are thousands of people who weren’t qualified. there are thousands of people who live among us and with us. but they can’t work legally, they can’t add stamps to their social insurance, they can’t go to public services. since 1991 and the first big migration wave from Albania there’s a provision in the greek law, that doesn’t allow to the public services to serve “illegal” migrants, on technical and clearly legal I don’t find that fair or justified.they start their struggle and they ask for legalization

petros
goodmorning. we us students of the law school and members of the LEFT UNITY (AREN). we can’t but simply welcome their decision to start this struggle by hosting it in the historic building of the Law School. it’s obvious to us, that in times of financial crisis, that the government unleashes a tough attack against workers and all layers of the society, who form its lowest in a way part of it. it’s obvious that the government follows a clear plan, which is breaking down any resistance. now it attacks the migrants, tomorrow students will follow. then workers will follow. in this sense, the students’ union stands in solidarity with the migrants. as we see it a part of our own struggle

and it’s an honor to host such a struggle for 3reasons
a)      the law school students’ union who has a history in struggles, adds another one
b)      there’s never been such a huge struggle in Europe
c)      and because we give one larger sense to asylum, it’s only for students, but for the whole of society, and it’s proven by the fact that all students political parties who’ve signed the consensus to this struggle in this building. in this sense, this mud war against us and the antiracist movement should stop now.

abdul
everybody who’s here have decided. or they live with papers here, legalized or they leave dead. this is not the first, neither the last fight
we’ll fight till the end

nikos
I used to here, that migrants take our job. I wonder if the thousands workers, who work under contracts, of dismissed people go through all these, due to migrants or due to the rapacity of the capital. then they say that our insurance services suffer. they forget though to mention that they “played” with people’s money in the StockHouse, that for many years the state used these money. we ask, if 1000000 of migrants are insured and 1,5milion of greeks working with no contracts (black work) are insured, would it be better for the Insurance Services? they don’t care about that. when a migrant is poor, it’s a prologue to the violation of the rights of the greeks. if we don’t understand that, we’ll fight against shadows.