A-Infos (en) Greece, APO, Land & freedom: Political call of the Autonomous Struggle Meeting IN ACHELOOS, AUGUST 11-17, 2026 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

NO DAMS, MINING AND WIND POWER... FREE RIVERS - FREE MOUNTAINS! --- 
Against "green" capitalist development, dams and diversion... Acheloos 
will win, Mesochora will live! --- "Development was, is and will be, 
first and foremost, an uprooting. Development is economic war, with its 
winners and even more so with its losers, the unrestrained plunder of 
nature, the destruction of local cultures." --- Nowadays, the gigantic 
aggressive planning of the Greek state for the plunder of the natural 
environment and society in order to serve the interests of domestic and 
multinational political and economic elites, and the energy needs of the 
bankrupt state-capitalist way of organizing society, brings about 
incalculable destructive consequences on natural ecosystems and on the 
possibilities of a dignified living for people in their places.
In addition to the pharaonic-sized projects, such as the dams in 
Acheloos and the open-pit gold mines in Chalkidiki, a series of other 
projects that are destructive to nature and local communities are 
constantly being announced or are already being implemented: such as the 
installation of industrial "wind farms" in almost all mountain ranges 
and many islands, photovoltaic industrial zone programs, the 
construction of hundreds of dams on rivers and streams, the surrender of 
countless natural habitats to the tourism industry, plans for 
hydrocarbon extraction in marine and terrestrial areas across the 
country - with broader geopolitical dimensions -, the burning of garbage 
in Volos as an "alternative" fuel and a way of managing the 
overaccumulation of waste and waste that the overconsumer system itself 
produces, the seizure and privatization of water that is already taking 
place or is being rolled out in a number of areas.
These plans are added to a more comprehensive and unprecedented 
aggression towards nature and society, which has been developing in 
recent years in the Greek reality, with the deepening of the 
restructuring of the political and economic system in the name of 
"development", which in "periods of crisis" appears as a matter of 
"national" interest and necessity, in order to conceal the immeasurable 
social and environmental cost it entails. A restructuring with 
characteristics of a generalized enterprise of selling off social needs 
(education, health, etc.), public spaces and natural resources to 
private capital, which is carried out by the Greek state under the 
tutelage of the EU and is evolving in parallel with the corresponding 
synchronization of the relevant legal framework. Such as the "FastTrack" 
law and a host of other laws and ministerial decisions, in order to 
remove institutional commitments and restrictions on the exploitation 
and commercialization of the natural environment, such as the protection 
of forests and Natura areas, the public nature of the coastline, the 
obligation of environmental studies and controls in large construction 
projects, etc.
Anti-environmental laws (such as 4685/2020) reflect the elimination of 
any substantial protection of the natural world and its surrender to the 
generalized attack of capital, on mountains and forests, on rivers and 
waters, on coasts and the seabed, in the name of "green" development and 
attracting investments to address the economic recession. The intended 
result is the ruthless plunder and destruction of the remaining natural 
world from the mountaintops to the seabed and the annihilation of the 
adjacent local communities, at least as we knew them until today.
As for the so-called "green development" it is nothing more than an 
advertising wrapper to embellish the well-known destructive machine of 
capitalism, so that it appears supposedly friendlier to the environment, 
at the same time that it plunders and destroys it mercilessly, 
sacrificing it on the altar of profit.
Moreover, at a global level, the conditions of wild exploitation of 
nature and society are further degrading human life and the natural 
world, exhausting natural resources and reaching the extreme limits of 
endangering survival itself, as indirectly confessed by state officials 
themselves, now speaking of an irreversible climate and environmental 
crisis. From the Amazon to Siberia and from one end of the earth to the 
other, deforestation and forest fires, the pollution of the seas, the 
melting of the eternal ice at the poles and in the high mountains, 
climate change, the greenhouse effect, the shrinking of biodiversity and 
the extinction of numerous animal species, are just some parts of the 
overall environmental crisis caused by the state-capitalist onslaught. 
Thus, both the future that the state-capitalist culture of pollution and 
development holds and imposes, which passes through the intensity of the 
attack on the environment and on human societies, and its economic, 
social, health and environmental impasses that lead to barbarity and 
war, become apparent.
It is a fact that, in our time, the natural world is receiving an 
unprecedented destructive and plundering attack with disastrous 
consequences, in the name of development. This attack is not made on a 
single point of the natural world or on certain elements of it (the 
mountains, the forests or the waters) and does not have man as its 
carrier in general and vaguely. The attack is made on the natural world 
as a whole and is carried out by a hierarchical and exploitative 
political and economic system for the benefit of the oligarchy at its 
top, to the detriment of nature and humanity. Every point where this 
attack manifests itself and every element that is thrown for its 
exploitation in the name of development, is part of the wider 
destruction that the environment is undergoing and must be addressed as 
such. It does not have only its local dimension so that the reaction 
concerns only a local community, but a much broader dimension affecting 
many more social groups, the entire society of oppressed and exploited 
people.
The defense of the natural world and an organization of social life
harmonized with it, as well as the defense of urban public-free spaces, 
is an important element of the evolution of social struggles from below, 
in the direction of freedom, autonomy, collectivization and creativity. 
Today, the struggles in defense of the natural world as well as public 
spaces, which break out in many places now where their plunder and 
destruction are planned and carried out and even the livelihood of local 
communities is affected, are often trapped within the limits of 
localism, institutionalism, delegation, representation and mediation. 
However, in many cases they rally a large number of residents of the 
affected areas, while several times they go beyond the institutional 
framework of protest, challenging state and local bodies as much as they 
can.
In the face of this condition of generalized attack, plunder and 
destruction, a broad social awakening and a comprehensive social 
critique of the dead-end and bankrupt system are required, the 
overcoming of delegation, mediation and inertia, the strengthening of 
social-class struggles from below, the formation of self-organized, 
anti-institutional resistance fronts - with consistency, reciprocity and 
solidarity - and the creation of every possible embankment at the points 
where state and capitalist aggression manifests itself.
In the face of the dystopian future that the elites of power and wealth 
have in store for us, there is the choice of struggle, when people 
collectively take their lives into their own hands in an organized, 
massive and militant manner against their plans.

LET THE DAM BE BREAKED, LONG LIVE THE VILLAGE - MAY THE WATER RUN FREELY 
FOREVER!

The imminent and final destruction of the Acheloos River through the 
operation of the hydroelectric plant dam and the artificial reservoir in 
the Mesochora area, as well as its planned partial diversion to 
Thessaly, will cause incalculable damage to both the mountain valleys, 
its natural ecosystems and its settlements by submerging them in mud, 
and to the vulnerable delta of its estuary in the Ionian Sea where 
unique wetlands are formed.
In particular, for the historic village of Mesochora in Trikala, the 
removal of its residents by forced expropriation by the PPC is planned, 
as a large part of it, as well as the riverside settlements, will be 
flooded by the waters of the artificial reservoir, while the rest will 
be threatened by erosion.
Today, this disastrous prospect for the region is more visible than at 
any other time since the construction of the giant dams began in the 
mid-1980s.
The decision of the Council of State, on 31/1/24, legally gave the 
government the green light for the operation of the Mesochora dam, which 
means the destruction of the river ecosystem of the Acheloos in Pindos 
over a length of over 20 km and its conversion into an artificial lake, 
the destruction of many thousands of acres of riparian and mountain 
forests, the flooding and destruction of Mesochora. And very recently, a 
decision was issued by the Larissa Court of Appeal, which obliges the 
residents of Mesochora to hand over their houses and land to the Public 
Power Company, as soon as the compensation for the forced expropriation 
is deposited.
Let us add that in addition to these, other harmful plans are being made 
for the region, in order to grant permits and grant public lands to 
private individuals, for the installation of industrial "wind farms" on 
the mountainous masses of Aspropotamos that surround the Acheloos valley.
As well as that, according to the Regional Development Program of 
Thessaly, the entire mountainous western Thessaly is marked as a zone 
for the location of industrial wind installations and as a zone for the 
location of dams, in addition to those gigantic ones in Mesochora and 
Sykia of the mega project of the Acheloos diversion.
Referring specifically to the issue of the partial diversion of the 
Acheloos to Thessaly, a project that is illegal according to European 
standards where the transfer of water from one hydrological basin to 
another is prohibited and blocked by a series of decisions of the 
Council of Europe, continues to be a central target of the Greek state. 
with the maintenance of the projects that have already been constructed 
(the diversion tunnel, part of the dam at Sykia, etc.) so that it can 
proceed in parts.
Here we should emphasize that the non-operation of the Mesochora dam to 
this day, and therefore the protection of the upper reaches of the 
Acheloos and its mountain valley in Pindos, is due primarily to the 
long-term resistance of the Mesochora residents themselves, who do not 
surrender their homes and do not abandon their village to the state's 
plans. This resistance of Mesochora, which has been held hostage for 40 
years and threatened with extinction, became the epicenter of a broader 
struggle of solidarity, and the village a meeting point for many 
struggling people against the plunder and destruction of nature.
And let us note that our belief is that, after the legal decisions of 
the Council of Europe and the Larissa Court of Appeal, it is absolutely 
necessary to restart the struggle with the broadest possible rallying of 
all the struggling Mesochora residents and solidarity groups from all 
over the country, in one front, so that with their mobilizations they 
can repel the Political Decision to annihilate the river and the 
village. Far from any idea of cooperation with self-governing 
institutions and factors that co-sign and support the condemnation of 
Acheloos and Mesochora.
*
For our part, as an Autonomous Struggle Meeting, not expecting anything 
substantial and useful from the institutions and their mediators - and 
being aware of the fact that the logic of delegation and trust in 
political mediation lead to disarmament, disappointment and defeat - we 
continue to steadily organize our resistance from below and to raise 
every possible embankment against the onslaught of the state and 
capital, with the aim of thickening the bonds of solidarity of the 
struggling people, coordinating actions and synthesizing their 
principles and positions in the direction of a more comprehensive choice 
of rupture with power and its anti-social imperatives.
We support local resistance initiatives which are essential for the 
dynamics and evolution of the struggle, and we address ourselves more 
broadly to the entire world of social-class struggles, believing that 
the struggle against the mega-project of dams and the diversion of the 
Acheloos does not concern a local social/environmental issue, but a 
central political issue, the defense of nature and society from the 
state and capital.
Perceiving the Acheloos River as part of the natural world that is being 
plundered and destroyed mercilessly, the common belief of those of us 
who have been in Mesochora since 2007 was to intervene precisely where 
the destructive activities are taking place, in order to contribute to 
the continuous resurgence of the struggle both against dams and the 
diversion of the river, as well as sand extraction and deforestation of 
the riparian forests, and against the more general attack that the 
natural world is undergoing.
Many struggling residents of Mesochora from the mid-1980s until today 
have chosen the dignified path of struggle. And it is up to them to 
continue it today, against the authorities (central, regional and 
municipal) that plot against the village, the interests that are played 
out behind their backs for the sake of the state, the PPC, the 
construction companies and the future buyers of the dam, but also beyond 
institutional, partisan and factorial logics that cultivate illusions.
For our part, not trusting the institutions that sooner or later (as the 
negative decision of the Council of Europe showed) ultimately align with 
the plans of the state and capital, trusting only the movements of 
struggling people and seeking the radicalization and coordination of 
social resistance from below, we stand in solidarity with all those who 
struggle collectively, with strength and dignity.
And we consider the self-organized presence of the ASA in the place 
where the crime of the pharaonic dams on the Acheloos is being committed 
and its diversion is being planned, necessary and useful for the 
awakening of consciences and the development of both the struggle for 
the defense of the river and local societies, as well as for the defense 
of the natural world and society as a whole.

AGAINST NATURE, DESTRUCTION - FIGHT FOR LAND AND FREEDOM!

AUTONOMOUS MEETING OF MATCHES | August 2026

https://landandfreedom.gr/el/agones/2322-politiko-kalesma-tis-aftonomis-synantisis-agona
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