from the anarchist wall newspaper in Agrinio city .

The hydroelectric dams in the lower reaches of the Achelou River – Kremasta since 1966, Kastraki since 1969 and Stratos since 1989 – as well as the concrete encasing of the river bed, as major interventions in the natural ecosystem of these areas, have brought already a significant alteration, degradation and change of use in the lower Paracheloite land, with devastating consequences for both the environment and its people.

Entire villages were uprooted and swept away by the waters; arable lands, extremely fertile due to the river’s input and centuries of human labour on them, found themselves at the bottom of man-made lakes, along with the culture and history they housed.

The violent urbanization of the population, which historically constituted the primary capitalist accumulation, today, together with the common agricultural policy (CAP) and the permanent class policies of the depreciation of the primary production sector of the Greek state, are responsible for the huge food production deficit in the Greek area and the consequent maximization of imports, with the known consequences for the economy but also the very sustainability of society.

We recognize that in recent years, the issue of energy, especially electricity, as a conquest of civilization, is of capital importance for society to the extent that it has been reduced to a basic social consumer good. With this logic, kinetic structures in collaboration with ecologically conscious scientists submit to the public debate a series of proposals to serve the energy needs of society in harmonious coexistence with the natural environment. Small, therefore easily assimilated, interventions in nature are proposed, in contrast to the pharaonic constructions made of concrete, which recklessly promote the state and capital.
But here the issue becomes deeply political.

On the one hand, the capitalist logic behind the monstrous constructions for the production of energy that destroy nature, perceives energy as a commodity and plunders the natural resources to exhaustion, since the goal is the maximum possible amount of the product produced and on the other hand, the modern way of life imposed by the system with artificial needs, disposable products, consumer frenzy, the “creative destruction” of goods, cannot coexist with any ecological logic. The sterile environmentalism promoted by the state and capital neither wants to nor can touch the core of the problem; instead of limiting energy demand to the point of achieving a harmonious coexistence with the natural environment, it proposes turning off the lights to save the planet, at the same time as that industry is relentlessly spewing cancer into land, sea and air. Here is a scandalous fact: the overall plan for renewable energy sources (RES) in Greece, which cements mountains, burying rivers and draining fields, is expected to exceed the energy needs of the country 7 times. The myth of “green” development, when energy is produced not to serve social needs but to profit the capitalists, does nothing but confirm itself as such.

Today, the bosses are promoting plans for the further plundering of Acheloos, which as a result will intensify the existing impacts, but also produce new destructive consequences for nature and society. The change in the use of the land, from the forest form and the agricultural activity, and the water, from which a large part of the population of these areas is irrigated, to industrial use, will transform the already burdened natural and man-made environment, into a field of profit and disaster. The secondary consequences in the economy of these areas and the health of the inhabitants, remain to be ascertained in the long term, therefore they are calculated, by the state and the bosses, as parameters of no importance.

The respective administrators of power, confirming their role as grabbers and looters, who are indifferent to social needs and any action for the benefit of society as a whole (Samina, Bus in Tempi, Mati, Mandra, Railway crime in Tempi …), are only interested in the indemnified for the interests of their bosses. The greedy multinational groups are well aware that in Greek society (as elsewhere) there have always been those selfish bastards who, for power and money, are willing to cooperate with any exploiter. A political parastatal that has captured the state apparatus and the party armies of the homely Mr. Pantelis, undoes the remaining democratic pretence and is leading society to destruction and indignity.

Wind turbines, pumped storage and floating photovoltaics, in the ecosystem of the river Acheloos, the threatened diversion of the river in Thessaly, the dams in Mesochora and Sykia, are criminal acts against nature and society. Among other things, they will intensify capitalist fences, pave the way for the privatization of water, turn the country into the (so-called “green”) battery of Europe by destroying the environment and degrading people’s quality of life, intensifying deforestation, countryside and agricultural production, thus undermining the possibilities for self-sufficiency and independence for society. Let us mention here the “green” looting that is being attempted in flood-damaged Thessaly: the announcements for the creation of photovoltaic parks in the plain, which was traditionally the country’s granary, refer only to arable land.

The societies that took their lives into their own hands throughout history have demonstrated that they are capable of managing all areas of life in terms of freedom, justice and dignity. They self-organized production, set up distribution and consumption networks, socialized the means of production and natural resources, flourished in the fields of health, education, and culture. They attempted the abolition of the division of labour, smooth coexistence with the natural environment, they elaborated proposals on the issues of energy and critical uses of modern technologies. In the history that never ends, let us advance the project of social liberation through the universal overthrowing of the existent as the only solution/way-out of the quagmire of the times.

TO STOP THE DESTRUCTION OF NATURE AND SOCIETY

BY DESTROYING THE SYSTEM THAT BRINGS IT STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL REVOLUTION

NOT TO THE FLOATING PHOTOVOLTAIC PLANTS AND PUMPED STORAGE IN the artificial lakes of Kremasto, Kastraki, Stratos.

NO TO WIND TURBINES in the mountain pastures of Etoloakarnania and Evrytania.

DIRECT UNLOCK FROM THE ENERGY STOCK EXCHANGE, electricity and water are social goods and not commodities.

AGRINIOU ANARCHISTS INITIATIVE
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ps:Achelous River, one of the longest rivers in Greece, rising in the Pindus (Modern Greek: Píndos) Mountains of central Epirus (Ípeiros) and dividing Aetolia from Acarnania.

notes: Agrinio is the largest city of the Aetolia-Acarnania regional unit of Greece and its largest municipality, with 89,691 inhabitants as well as the second largest city in Western Greece after Patras. It is the economic center of Aetolia-Acarnania, although its capital is the town of Mesolonghi.