GFTU BGCM 2017

Solidarity Piraeus We first visited and witnessed the great efforts of Solidarity Piraeus, a small charity that helps the homeless. They have been operating for over three years and work around four times a week - offering food to the homeless, unemployed and the refugees. They have over 200 volunteers, which is a real help especially with the influx of refugees. Over 100 people will arrive for food and clothes every day. They operate in 4 different centres, they don’t just offer food and clothes but they also have an education programme teaching French and English to adults, for children the lessons cover all subjects including geography and history and they especially help children with learning difficulties or who are struggling at school. The volunteers only work 4 hours a week and don’t get paid, they do however get to take a selection of food goods home with them twice a month as payment for the work that they do or often they will give to others. The food is donated by supermarkets and are mainly dry goods though while we were there they had a large delivery of fresh fish to hand out and is collected by volunteers; the clothes are donated by the public and people can pay donations to the charity as one offs or more regularly . The unemployed get free health care and often medical professionals will volunteer their time to help, the unemployed have to show a card so that they can get free medicine. These cards do not provide eye care for free though this is subsidised for unemployed people which makes it inaccessible to most. They also send help parcels to the islands who are dealing with the refugees so they can clean themselves. We were told that most refugees want to leave Greece because of the financial problems they are facing and the fact Greece can’t bear the numbers that are arriving, but Germany wants Greece to keep the refugees as no one else wants to take responsibility for them The volunteers we spoke to had been doing the work for over three years and could not see them stopping any time soon. The project now needs over 200 regular volunteers to keep up with the demand from the refugees as word of mouth around Pireaus and especially down at the port where many refugees are arriving is meaning more and more people are using the services.

GFTU Educational Visit to Athens January 2016 Delegates Bindu Paul, Dami Benbow, Deanne Ferguson, Sarah Woolley Brief Background Greece entered the European Union in 1980 as one of the first ten countries and entered the Euro in 2002. The vision being; a united Europe, people prospering and educated to continue that way. When Greece entered the Euro though lives were not facilitated and the quality of life actually went down though belonging to Europe was a good tool to negotiate and seen as a great asset. Greece’s financial crisis has been building up since 2009 – since then there has been extreme austerity plans, several Eurozone rescue packages/loans and many protests often violent against austerity laws. In 2014 the radical Left Syriza coalition (The Coalition of the Radical Left) won the European election. It is the largest party in the Hellenic Parliament; with party chairman Alexis Tsipras serving as Prime Minister of Greece from 26 January 2015 to 20 August 2015 and from 21 September 2015 to Present. In 2015 Greece and its creditors agreed to a third bailout after blackmail tactics were used against them, imposing further spending cuts on the country to avoid bankruptcy and exit from the Eurozone After the blackmail Europe is seen by many in Greece and other countries as a totally undemocratic with a criminal central bank and commission. They should have been guarantying the Treaties but instead they are acting as guarantors and getting money The GFTU delegation visit to Athens comes at a time when its country is broken. During our visit we hear about the impact the debt is having on the Greeks and in addition we see what help is being done for the increasing Syrian refugees.

Photos courtesy of Bindu Paul and Sarah Woolley

Report on the Study Visit to Greece | Page 36