DEMONSTRATION MARCH OF DEFENSE OF GREEN AND FREE AND PUBLIC SPACES
SATURDAY 19 OCTOBER, 1PM MONASTIRAKI SQUARE
On October 19th at 13.00 in Monastiraki we participate and support together with a number of collectives from different neighborhoods of Attica the course of defense of open spaces and greenery. Parks, squares, hills and the urban green in general are under constant attack by the authorities, municipalities, corporations and the state, which act destructively for profit and the suppression of lives that resist or do not fit into their molds. Greenery is disappearing and the city we live in is turning more and more into a cement city surrounded by the ashes of burnt forests . A suffocating city that welcomes tourists and the rich, while ignoring, repressing or displacing from its center the poorest strata, the immigrant women and people who fight against the violent destruction of everyday life. They want a gray city, sterile and guarded by cameras and uniformed killers, we colorful and self-organized neighborhoods .
In the past, mainly against the Municipality of Athens and Bakoyannis, (mayor) many assemblies for squares and parks resisted the encroachment of capital and the annihilation of greenery, creating a series of collective resistance in the neighborhoods. These battles for the defense of green open spaces were linked to initiatives in various areas of Attica Athens from Baroutadiko in Aegaleo to the Shooting Range in Kaisariani and the Platonos Academy in Kolonos.
Why do we defend free spaces?
The importance for the defense of free spaces lies in the fact that they are spaces of vital importance for the socialization and politicization of the neighborhood, they are refuges for people and animals without a home (especially after the fires many animals come to the urban green). There we meet and create strong relationships, building tomorrow’s communities today . Bridging our contrasts, we hold assemblies, screenings, parties. They are spaces where we try to exist as freely as possible, without discrimination, away from consumerist and capitalist logic, spaces that oppose the violence of repression and surveillance.
The greenery around us, which is difficult to exist in structurally concrete cities anyway, the trees, bushes, animals, soil, land are not commodities or marketable products, but they have self-worth . They are worth much more than the francs of dirty politicians and businessmen, they are vital to existence itself. The destruction of nature, however, is more comprehensive with wind turbines, mining, fires, floods, cement and hotels composing a suffocating landscape under the subjugation of the state and companies. Nature destroyed and cities recreational centers for tourists. The encroachment of free spaces for the profit of all sorts of bosses extends from the sunbeds on the beaches to the table seats on the sidewalks.
How are the plans to destroy the free spaces going?
But of course through repression as it happened recently on Strefi Hill on 11/10 as it has been happening for years now in the neighborhood of Exarcheia, in the square, in pedestrian of Messolonggiou st. and in all the places where comrades seek to meet and politicize. The constant and violent presence of the cops in our neighborhood aims at the political death of the neighborhood and the people who visit it. Along comes our displacement due to high rents and airbnbs. Our neighborhoods are turning into entertainment centers for tourists and flourishing hipster shops, marginalizing the world of the working class and not only the class that cannot comfortably cover rent of €600-700. So people are leaving and the neighborhood is filling up more and more apartments for short-term rentals. The onslaught of gentrification threatens to break our social and neighborly relations, that is, our resistances and our collective strength.
FIGHT FOR LAND AND FREEDOM
FREE PEDESTRIAN PATHS PARKS AND BACK SQUARES LIGHT BUSINESSES
Open Assembly for the Defense of Lofos Strefi Hill in exareia