A text written by persecuted people in the struggle against gold mining and read out at the press conference held on 07.11.13

Now, it is more evident than ever that the Greek state is willing to put everything at risk to salvage whatever is left of its democratic facade. In attempting to do so, one of its ways is to suppress anything that stands in the way of its persistent and ever-increasing fascist attitudes by e.g. the harsh suppression of protests, the criminalization of strikes and the forced evacuation of occupied buildings and social spaces.

The huge leap in the state’s said effort however was the case of Skouries, where it triggered the application of the theory of the two extremes. The state equates the violence and brutality of Golden Dawn (murders of immigrants, attacks to social spaces etc) with the local societies’ struggle for freedom and dignity.

On one end, we have a hierarchy-based fascist group acting as the official para-state, working in close co-operation with the army and the police and financed by organized crime economic activities; on the other, we have the local society struggling to defend its natural wealth against a company that has been robbing society of its capacity for social reproduction.

For the first time, people participating in social struggles face prosecution for setting up a criminal organization; i.e. those who defend nature, their freedom and their dignity are terrorists. If we examine the background of events in Skouries though, we will see that the company and the police protecting it are the ones to mimic the ways of a criminal organization. One and a half year ago, in March 2012, 400 company employees hiked up the mountain, burned to the ground the guarding post creating by the residents and caused one of them to end up in the hospital in a coma.

Ever since, suppression has been fierce in every protest, beating up protesters, injuring them by throwing tear gas straight at people’s faces and by the police invading the village in huge numbers, suffocating the village with tear gas and breaking down doors at the break of dawn to arrest people.

In the name of growth and exit from the crisis, the Greek state is protecting a company, smashing any trace of dignity and fostering a climate of ongoing terrorism. Essentially, en entire local society has been characterized a den of illegality by the state, culminating in a 3500 page-long case-file of 20 CDs containing phone conversations that targets 29 individuals, accusing them for setting up a criminal organization.

We did protest, we do protest and we will continue to protest against an extraction that will ruin our lives and cause irreparable damage to the environment.

Armed with solidarity as our only weapon, we stand by the residents of Northeastern Halkidiki in their fair struggle.

The dens of illegality are the agencies of authority, not the resisting sections of society.

No to the pillage of nature

Struggle for land and freedom