[P2P-F] Fwd: Self-managed VIOME under threat: Call for international support against the auction. November 17-24

Wed Nov 11 09:06:49 CET 2015

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Theodoros Karyotis <tkaryotis at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 5:18 PM
Subject: Self-managed VIOME under threat: Call for international support
against the auction. November 17-24
To:

*Dear friends:*

*As a result of the legal battle waged against the VIOME workers
collective, the state-appointed trustee is now organising a series of
auctions with the aim of liquidating the plot of land on which the VIOME
factory is located. A possible sale of the land would create the legal
ground for evicting the workers from the factory.*

*Although the workers and the solidarity assembly are decided to stand
their ground and defend the factory in all eventualities, the auction
process represents a threat and it requires mobilisation in order to be
prevented. A first step is to block, through direct action, the first such
auction that is programmed for November 26th. This is why we reach out to
you, to ask for help and mobilisation to put pressure on the government to
satisfy the long-standing demands of the VIOME workers for legalisation of
their activity, by expropriating the factory and granting it to the VIOME
workers' cooperative, which will operate it in a horizontal and
self-managed way, as it has been doing for 3 years now. *

*We appeal for an international week of solidarity, from November 17 to
24. *

   - *We urge you to sign the attached resolution and return your details
   to protbiometal at gmail.com <protbiometal at gmail.com>, or even better, hand it
   in to the nearest Greek embassy or consulate demanding that it is
   transferred to the Greek Ministry of Labour.  *
   - *We welcome any international acts of solidarity, especially ones that
   involve non-violent direct action towards Greek embassies worldwide.*
   - *We urge you to organise screenings of this 30-minute documentary by
   D.Azzellini and O.Ressler, detailing the struggle of VIOME through
   interviews and participation in its assemblies (English subtitles
   included): https://youtu.be/2Fg2akSUvFM <https://youtu.be/2Fg2akSUvFM> **You
   can download a good quality version of the documentary here
   <https://www.dropbox.com/s/qxav19zv3gewn0h/Occupy%20Resist%20Produce%20-%20VIOME%20%28Eng%20Subs%29.mp4?dl=0>(407mb).*
   -
*You can send us announcements of your events, and/or photos to be uploaded
   to VIOME´s website, to protbiometal at gmail.com <protbiometal at gmail.com> *

*Please read and circulate the following appeal of the workers for support:*

A call for support of the struggle of VIOME
<https://www.blogger.com/null>Dear solidarity supporters,

we would like to inform you about the latest developments in the struggle
of the workers of VIOME.

<http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-te7f_VwAvyA/Vh-xNo-vmfI/AAAAAAAAW10/cQrFo-jnUTw/s1600/VIOME_28.jpg>As
you know, for four years now *we have been fighting for our life and
dignity*. We, the workers, have chosen to create social alliances. We have
rejected the proposals made by various political organizations to have an
"exclusive" relationship with our struggle and direct it following narrow
partisan criteria. Nevertheless, we have always all accepted invitations to
speak and communicate.

When large parts of society decided to stand by us and support us with
whatever means they had available,* a large network of solidarity was
created*. Consequently  we managed to build relationships of trust, through
common assemblies were the wider community can participate, where together
we make decisions on the political course of the struggle, as well as on
many other issues.

*Many political organizations agreed with the political framework* that we,
together with the wider community, have set. To this day they support our
effort to operate the factory with workers’ control of production and
self-management by the workers’ assembly.

<http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HC2Ki87di2U/Vh-w04t57ZI/AAAAAAAAW1Y/t8O6gnOzF6U/s1600/VIOME_33.jpg>*Among
the political forces that supported our struggle was SYRIZA,* through
statements and commitments for an immediate solution to the issue of
operation of the factory, made by the current prime-minister himself.

Of course, *after SYRIZA came to power, the statements and the commitments
became more and more vague*. The determination they demonstrated when they
were in opposition was replaced by timidity, and by proposals that we make
compromises in a different framework than what we had previously agreed
upon.

Their great “achievement” after eight months in government is to *abandon
the struggle of VIOME to the machinations of the judicial system*. The same
judicial system that, despite having condemned former owner of VIOME
Christina Philippou to dozens of months in prison, allows her to walk free,
supposedly to do community service at a municipality where she has strong
"connections". To this day, she has never showed up at the place where she
is supposed to do community work.

A judicial system that allows those who have abused and destroyed the Greek
society for five years now to walk free, never taking any action to punish
them. The “first ever left-wing government” leaves us in the hands of this
judicial system.

<http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q_h4wzdqcy8/Vh-xNYSAn-I/AAAAAAAAW1s/tTzaAApMH7Q/s1600/VIOME_14.jpg>The
political standpoint of the judges is evident through the decisions they
have made up to this moment: *they have gone as far as saying that we have
no legitimate right to demand the money owed by our former employers! *In
all our attempts to claim our money, both by intervention of the property
of Philkeram, and by demanding to operate the factory again, we have
received the same answers.

And of course, *they do not take any action to find a solution* for the
operation of the factory, so we, the workers who have decided to stay on,
can escape unemployment.

According to the court decisions, the unified plot of land where* the VIOME
premises are located is auctioned on Thursday November 26, 2015,* and for
three consecutive Thursdays thereafter. If no interested buyer is found,
they will continue with the process until they achieve to sell the land,
therefore evicting us from the factory.

This land consists of fourteen separate plots, *some of which were directly
or indirectly donated by the Greek government to former owner Phillipou* in
recognition of the "social contribution" of job creation. Now they are put
to auction to satisfy the creditors of VIOME’s parent company Philkeram:
the Inland Revenue Office, the Social Insurance Service, former workers of
Philkeram, banks and suppliers.

<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v4PTc6W7d-E/Vh-xNrmEErI/AAAAAAAAW1w/TxnHGiz9P20/s1600/VIOME_01.jpg>The
premises of VIOME represent about 1/7 of the total land, and the area in
which it lies could easily be separated from the rest of Philkeram’s real
estate. *But the employees of VIOME are never mentioned in the bankruptcy
proceedings*, although VIOME was a subsidiary of Philkeram, driven to
destruction by the parent company’s bankruptcy. VIOME is completely
neglected, although the mismanagement of the Phillipou family, who
transferred funds from VIOME and *overburdened it with debt for their
personal gain,* was largely responsible for the bankruptcy. This is a
proven fact, since a study by consultants DELOIT concluded there was
capacity for normal operation for both companies.

*The judicial system once again sides with the forces of capital *and makes
rulings against the workers who assert the right to work. And of course,
the state does not stand up to the challenge of providing solutions.

For this reason, we, the workers of VIOME,* invite all of you, who have
been standing beside us during all this time of struggle, to be present on
Thursday November 26 in the auction* of the land, to abort their plan to
evict us from the VIOME factory. A space that we have, for two years now,
managed to turn into a place of work and a place of freedom.

We invite you to stand beside us, to support every effort of the
workers to *make
the forces of production autonomous from the capitalist class,* a class
which anyway has delocalised all production abroad.

*We invite you to support the operation of the factory,* since we, the
workers, have declared that we are not leaving, that our lives are now
linked to this factory.

We invite you to stand beside us, so we can affirm all together that *a
solution exists beyond the advices of the “experts”*: this time around, the
solution lies with those who are directly involved in the struggle, not
with the luminaries.

*in solidarity,*

*the general assembly of the workers at VIOME*

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