A-Infos (en) Greece, liberta-salonica: Neighborhood march against evictions and auctions | Saturday 24/2, 11:00 at the Toumpa Cultural Center (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The predatory attack of recent years coordinated and carried out by the 
state and capital aims to crush the social base as a whole, to devalue 
its working and living conditions, to deprive it of acquired rights, in 
order for the bosses to increase their profits even more. more through 
the toil and sweat of the workers. Those who are at the base of the 
social and economic pyramid are also the ones who have been paying for 
this structural crisis of capital for so many years.
With the decision of the domestic custodian of civil justice, the 
Supreme Court, the possibility has been given to the servicers, i.e. the 
Companies for the Management of Claims from Loans and Credits (EDADP), 
to speed up the auctions. The management companies, which are based in 
Greece, are subject to audits by the Bank of Greece and operate on 
behalf of the funds, which as early as 2016 audit thousands of loans in 
accordance with the relevant law of the then government of SY.RIZ.A.. 
The funds they buy the private debt at a bargain price and then 
cooperate with the servicers, the so-called collection companies, which 
extort the borrowers over the phone. With the said regulation of the 
Supreme Court, the funds and collection companies will have no reason to 
proceed with debt settlements, which they are already starting to 
withdraw. Instead, they will proceed directly to auctions. It is worth 
noting that based on a relevant law of 2003, funds and servicers will be 
exempt from all taxes (14 tax exemptions in total), thus damaging the 
public coffers by 58 billion euros!

"Red" (non-performing/non-repaid) mortgages jumped from 5.4% in December 
2008 to 44.5% in December 2018, while all those anti-people policies 
that crushed wages and pensions, which freed up layoffs and inflated 
unemployment. And then the politicians, who, in addition to the salaries 
of thousands of euros they receive, "eat" whatever and wherever they 
can, their parrots and their businessmen/capitalist agents have the 
audacity to speak publicly about strategic defaulters and fraudsters, 
trying to spread social cannibalism in the ranks of the oppressed. They 
also claim that the country will lose its investment grade, that we will 
go into surveillance and the debt will increase... In short, they 
blackmail us and "work" us outright, without any care, because they 
obviously look at the interests of their class, while we know that those 
who paid and continue to pay their judgment are us, the social base. 
Because, therefore, they are organic members of the same power 
mechanism, they are the ones who shape or violate, depending on the 
occasion, the current legal framework. In this context, they evade 
taxes, owe exorbitant amounts without penalty (such as New Democracy's 
480 million euro debt to the banks), are given debts and enjoy all sorts 
of privileges. They throw their mud at the poor, having a position of 
power, trying to make us "eat each other", instead of turning our fire 
towards them. And if anyone thinks that the issue of housing and 
auctions does not directly concern them, think again... The increase in 
interest rates and inflation, that is, the indirect reduction of our 
income and purchasing power, creates a visible risk of the increase of 
"red of loans. So, the residences of the debtors who are aware today, 
who are able to service their debt for the time being, are also going to 
be at risk, but also new armies of debtors will be created.

The issue of housing is central to the survival of the working class. At 
the same time that thousands of properties are being auctioned, 
including public housing, rent prices and euro interest rates are 
constantly rising (the ECB proceeded with its third consecutive increase 
of 0.5%, with a total increase of 1, 75% and their estimated final jump 
to 2.75% in the eurozone countries), as well as the prices of basic 
consumption items. In fact, from the interest rate increases the annual 
interest income of the banks, which were recapitalized three times with 
public money during the memorandum period, will amount to 100-150 
million euros per bank, i.e. approximately 450-600 million euros for the 
domestic banking system. In addition, based on the bankruptcy code 
passed during the New Republic government, the old owners are 
essentially turning into tenants in their own homes.

Thousands of empty or closed houses and apartments remain throughout the 
territory (around 750,000 based on AADE data), while at the same time 
many people are at risk of losing their homes or even have no residence. 
It is characteristic that in 2011 in the Municipality of Thessaloniki 
the percentage of vacant houses reached 28.2%. In the last year, rent 
prices in Thessaloniki have risen by 15.1%.

It is, therefore, noticeable that housing, instead of an inalienable 
social good, is considered as another commodity in the context of 
capitalism. The strategic goal of housing, brokerage and banking capital 
is the annihilation of home ownership, the removal of the labors of a 
lifetime of toil and work. In this way, big capital seeks the 
concentration of real estate and the consequent regulation of the 
increase in rents. The future that capital and its political personnel 
have in store for us is a nightmarish life where we will work only to 
pay and again the money will not be enough...

The struggle to defend the first home is a struggle that must be waged 
in collective and militant terms by the working class. Far from the 
pre-election promises of bourgeois parties that are responsible for the 
sale of public housing to investment and banking crows, we must organize 
the solidarity and self-defense of our class. The idiom of prosecutions 
of those who obstructed auctions in the justices of the peace and 
subsequently the electronic auctions were the blows orchestrated by the 
SY.RIZ.A. government, in order to serve the interests of capital and 
attempt to suppress the solidarity movement that blocked the auctions. 
With these regulations as its starting point, the current New Democracy 
government is attempting to increase the number of evictions. We should 
have no trust in any government, because they only serve the interests 
of capital. It is, therefore, the duty of all those who "boil in the 
same cauldron", to erect a wall of resistance against state repression 
and the gluttony of funds, banks and management companies, to form 
networks of solidarity guarding the people's roof, the first residence, 
in order to let no man be found without a house.

We will not drown in debt, we will not sink into anxiety and despair, 
nor will we work for crumbs like slaves... We must fight collectively, 
self-organized and militantly for the defense of our class interests and 
the satisfaction of our social needs, setting from now on the 
foundations for the revolutionary overthrow of this barbaric system of 
oppression and exploitation, to build together and from below a society 
of generalized self-direction based on freedom, equality, solidarity and 
common ownership.

HANDS DOWN FROM THE SHELTER

AGAINST THE SALE OF PRIMARY HOMES

HOUSING IS A SOCIAL GOOD, NOT A COMMODITY

NO MAN WITHOUT A HOME, NO HOME WITHOUT A MAN

TO ORGANIZE CLASS SOLIDARITY AND SELF-DEFENSE AGAINST STATE REPRESSION 
AND THE INCREDIBILITY OF BANKS, FUNDS AND MANAGEMENT COMPANIES

NO TRUST IN COURT PARTIES AND GOVERNMENTS, ONLY THE PEOPLE WILL SAVE THE 
PEOPLE

NEIGHBORHOOD MARCH AGAINST EVICTIONS AND EXCLUSIONS:

SATURDAY 24/2, 11:00, TOUMBA CULTURAL CENTER

Freedom Initiative of Thessaloniki

blog: libertasalonica.wordpress.com
contact e-mail: lib_thess@hotmail.com

https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2024/02/23/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en