▸Announcement on the overexploitation of the natural environment and people in Mykonos, revealed once more following the criminal attack once morest archaeologist Manolis Psarrou, ANTARSYA issued.
«Large private interests operate as a “state within a state” with the perennial tolerance and cover of the government and relevant ministries, the police, local and judicial authorities, trampling all legislation on the coast, the protection of archaeological sites, the environmental and building regulations. They build fences that cut off free access to the beach, and buildings beyond all legality and imagination“, reports ANTARSYA.
“ANTARSYA supports with all its strength the struggle of the workers and residents of Mykonos and their demands. It salutes the emblematic struggle of the unions of the Ministry of Culture who stood resolutely once morest the mafia threats, but also of all the unions that supported them”, he adds, among other things.
ANTARSYA’s announcement in detail
The criminal attack once morest the archaeologist Manolis Psarrou and the persistent struggle of the unions of the Ministry of Culture to not cover up the case, revealed the cesspool of overexploitation of the natural environment and people in Mykonos, with the limitless tourism, which is advertised as a “model development”.
Large private interests operate as a “state within a state” with the perennial tolerance and cover of the government and relevant ministries, the police, local and judicial authorities, trampling all legislation on the coast, the protection of archaeological sites, the environmental and building regulations. They build fences that cut off free access to the beach, and buildings beyond all legality and imagination. They exploit the last piece of land unchecked while setting up all kinds of business activity, which turns into a modern workhouse for the workers. Illegal constructions are built at night by contractors who over-exploit workers, often undocumented immigrant workers, and send them to be arrested and deported if inspected. Restaurants, hotels and beach bars operate with 10-12 hour “black” labor of workers who live in favela conditions for the season, sleeping in tents or containers. Drugs and forced prostitution are the necessary supplement for this profiteering mafia to maximize its income.
A few days following the beating of the archaeologist M. Psarrou, an Albanian worker who worked without papers and insurance, lost his life in an illegal building. The contractor of the illegal and unsafe project has not yet been found, nor has he been arrested. Not long ago it was revealed that women trafficking rings were holding imprisoned women in Mykonos and releasing them once morest their will. The government, the media and the Prosecutors who are now pretending to be surprised, don’t they know this?
People, cultural heritage and natural environment are sacrificed on the altar of the profit mafia. And if someone reacts, they resort to violence, thuggery, mob attacks. And this is not only happening in Mykonos, but also in Rhodes, and in the coastal zone of Attica, and it is gradually expanding to all the areas surrendered to the anarchic mafia tourist development. It is a “development” model that threatens to expand by forming entire areas into “special economic zones” with uncontrolled activity of official and parastatal activities where profits are laundered regardless of origin. Only the mass reaction and struggle of residents and workers can stop it.
The “staff state” is the state of violence, business interests, mob protection
The Prime Minister hypocritically declared his disgust and announced measures to “impose the law” on the island of Mykonos. This is the same government that targets archaeologists as “enemies of development” and destroys antiquities all over Greece on the altar of profit. This is the same government that sacrifices everything on the altar of tourism capital profitability: Hoteliers and businessmen have been promised immunity for overexploiting workers, keeping them uninsured and locking them in dungeons. It has approved, with the “Strategic Investments” law, the creation of a large hotel unit in an area of Mykonos where, for reasons of protection of the natural environment, construction is normally not allowed! This is the same government that abolished the Labor Inspection, and other control mechanisms, leaving services without employees in the EFKA, in the archaeological service, in urban planning, in the land service that has responsibility for the coast, in the decentralized administration that has responsibility for the demolition of arbitrary . This is the same government that constantly smears the public, talking regarding the “deep state”, while in reality it seeks the absence of any public control mechanism, in order to enrich the profit mafias. This is the same government that has the MAT to guard the sheet metal in Exarchion square, facing the residents, but never puts the police to deal with the drug mafia, prostitution or the contractors of the tyrants.
Hypocritical are also the complaints regarding urban planning arbitrariness in Mykonos and throughout Greece. Both ND and PASOK and SYRIZA passed a series of laws for the legalization of arbitrary, especially from 2011 onwards, and the bypassing of all urban and spatial planning. Instead of tearing down luxury villas and arbitrary pools, the owners paid to “legalize” them, giving the message that everything is allowed. SYRIZA not only did not go once morest this logic, but with a 2017 law, it introduced the logic of “regulating” illegals once morest a “fine” even in unstructured zones, in archaeological sites, in traditional settlements, on the seafront! The private fence on the beach of Panormos Mykonos, the photo of which disgusted all citizens, started to be built in 2016, during the SYRIZA government, to be expanded during the ND government.
ND, PASOK, SYRIZA in implementation of the directions of the EU and the Memoranda, voted and supported, successively, a series of laws that hand over the coast and even the protection zones (NATURA areas etc.) to exploitation and business profit and passed all the public property and entire areas in the TAIPED to speed up their sell-off to business trusts.
To stop the action of the mafia in Mykonos, the speculation at the expense of people and the natural environment. To demolish the arbitrary.
ANTARSYA welcomes the attitude of the fighting archaeologists and every worker who stands up and puts obstacles to looting. “We are not afraid” spoken by the colleagues of Manolis Psarrou is a message for all the working people. It was the unions of the Ministry of Culture and the workers through their assemblies that responded in practice to the mob attack, that raised the issue and forced the government to commit to even demolishing arbitrary ones. It was the unions that rose in stature despite mafia attacks and threats from profit mafias, but also the orders of Minister L. Mendonis who served the same plans. It is the workers and the residents of Mykonos who want to get rid of the profit mafia that is destroying their lives.
ANTARSYA supports with all its strength the struggle of the workers and residents of Mykonos and their demands. He salutes the emblematic struggle of the unions of the Ministry of Culture that stood resolutely once morest the mafia threats, but also of all the unions that supported them.
We support the fight to find the physical and moral perpetrators of the attack on the archaeologist and punish them. To eradicate the mafia, drugs and forced prostitution from Mykonos. Not to surrender the natural and cultural environment to the profit of the tourist industry, big hoteliers and big businessmen. The services should be staffed and public inspections should be reinstated for insurance and safety at work, for violations of urban planning and archeological legislation, the seafront, the beach, public areas and unstructured areas. To put into practice the commitments made under the pressure of the struggle and the revelations of the workers, to tear down the arbitrariness and to restore the natural environment.
