7 February 2011
To the ‘300’
Dear Friends and Comrades,
I applaud your courageous struggle for full ‘legalisation’ status and equal rights. I learned about your plight and your [Συνέχεια…] protest hunger strike from my comrades in Xekinima, the Greek section of the Committee for a Workers’ International. A hunger strike is obviously not something anyone embarks on lightly and can only have come about as a desperate struggle by people who feel they are left with no other options.
I understand that many of you were stripped of residence and work permits, despite having lived and worked in Greece for several years. Now that Greece faces a deep economic crisis, the bosses, whose system caused the crisis, no longer need cheap immigrant labour to exploit.
Greece, just like Ireland, is in economic crisis because of the policies of successive pro-market governments and in both cases working people are expected to pay for this crisis of the capitalist system through huge austerity measures. We will not accept this – let the big banks and big business pay for their crisis!
The treatment that immigrants face from the Greek authorities is nothing short of barbaric. I understand that in Athens’ parks and squares immigrants are to be found – homeless, jobless, undocumented and hungry.
The Greek government, the main political parties, the far right and the pro-establishment mass media are more than happy, of course, to blame immigrants for Greece’s economic and social ills and, in doing so, try and ‘divide and rule’ working people.
Your refusal to accept this treatment and to resist outrageous intimidation by the authorities – including forcing hunger striking protesters out of the Athens University Law Department buildings – is an inspiration for the most exploited and vulnerable people everywhere.
I also salute the solidarity actions of Greek working people, which I am told has led to five Greeks from the Solidarity Committee threatened with legal charges for practically aiding your struggle. The full might of the Greek trade unions and other workers’, social and youth organisations need to be brought to bear against the government on this critical issue. The workers’ movement in Greece and everywhere need to fight for workers’ unity and jobs, homes, decent pay, education and health for all.
I pledge to urgently highlight your struggle, to do all I can to alert the workers’ movement in Europe and internationally and to call for them to urgently take action to further your demands.
Yours,
Joe Higgins MEP