GFTU BGCM 2017

than they were before an the problem is that people expected too much. In the work that she does, she makes sure that people have food but she believes that there needs to be more. She didn’t believe that the public knew the true meaning of solidarity. The project has been running for over 5 years and every day there will be about 10 people volunteering but there are just 5 core people that work there all over Greece though there are little groups attempting to do the same. The main aim of the project is to bring people and communities together, to work together and share good practice of how they can make change. Penny Penny was a volunteer at Costas project and she spoke to us at length whilst we waited for Costas. She explained how the night before whilst we were meeting with Zoe the far right Nazi groups were having a ‘celebration’ across Europe. In Greece they were particularly violent as lots had travelled over from Germany in order to tell the refugees they weren’t welcome. They didn’t just attack the refugees but the volunteers who were trying to help and protect them too. People are not fighting back at them as they are afraid to do so. Most do not understand the whole situation around the refugees or Greece ad they are not facing it themselves. She told us in Greece anarchists are buying buildings and filling them with people to create communities but they are having issues as there is a lot if in house fighting and no direction/ goal to what they want to achieve. According to Penny it is very difficult trying to help others without offending them but at the kitchen the visitors/ users are helping themselves. The project is not about helping someone to make you feel better it is about educating people and communities about what solidarity actually means, working in one direction with shared aims and values and being able to open people’s minds to fight back at the corruption and inequality. Costas We then met Costas who set up the project who told us a very interesting story of his past and how he has got to the point where he is now. At the age of the 35 he lost his job in marketing. For 2 years after he tried to find a job but he was too old and it seemed unemployable. He lived with his mother for 6 months and only left the house to buy cigarettes which made him feel useless. His whole life changed when he saw two children eating from a rubbish bin. People could see what they were doing but just ignore what was happening. This made him angry and realised that these children were worse off than him, and he wanted to do something about it. As mentioned by the volunteer he had the idea of bringing people together (using food). It was like creating a family, where everyone is equal and treats each other with respect. No-one show pity, there is an

Politics can be done differently you don’t have to just repeat bad politics! Zoe is part of a group called European Level Initiatives who are actively looking into alternatives for Europe and want to incorporate and include everyone who wants to be involved in a better alternative Europe. Refugee Crisis There has been a refugee scheme since the summer of 2015. Greece is the first country refugees get to with the Eurozone. This is causing major problems, and the refugees are just seen as burdens not people in trouble. There is no talk about the war being the cause of the problem or discussion around disarmament. There is an increase of far right groups across Europe (most notably – Golden Dawn) with a number of vicious attacks on refugees and the people trying to help them. But on the flip side there has been some great compassion from the left with Greeks opening their homes to refugees despite in a crisis themselves which is helping to slowly reform the mentality. The government is not tabling any kind of thorough or viable proposal with the refugee issue just simply accepting people and making no Euros from it – in the long run Greece will be left to ruin to save the rest of the EU from dealing with the crisis. The EU want to turn the islands of Greece – their main source of income via tourists – into refugee islands in order to release the ‘burden’ elsewhere. Zoe told us of how in Denmark valuables are being taken off refugees upon entering as payment for them! Hitler would be proud. Social Kitchen Athens: The Other Human We visited another project that helped homeless people – called the Social Kitchen. Before we met the founder we spoke to one of the volunteers who gave us her interpretation on what is was like living in Athens at this time. When SYRIZA came into power, a lot of people had hope for a better life but in fact things are worse

Photos courtesy of Bindu Paul and Sarah Woolley

Report on the Study Visit to Greece | Page 38