(en) France, Organisation Communiste Libertarie - Greece fight - Migrant workers protest, the boss shoots them! (fr)

Area Manolada, plain rural Peloponnese, Greece, farmers opened fire Wednesday night on 
came to claim their pay migrant workers. Twenty-eight were injured. In 2013, modern 
slavery rampant impunity in Europe. ---- In a country under special "supervision" of the 
European Commission and Economic Ministers of the countries of the euro area, where the 
levels of the economic crisis, fiscal measures, lower wages and pensions, hunting 
"illegal" foreigners and their detention in squalid camps, xenophobic campaigns of the 
state and its right-wing auxiliaries, police violence repeated prisoners and held in 
custody, the repressive practices of the State break resistance movements (requisition 
strikers militarization of territories and public spaces, attacks on the independent media 
...) are worthy of a permanent regime exception and preventive against-revolution can only 
encourage and inflame still further the barbarities, pushing ever further.

Of course all political parties have condemned the practice, left, right, power, or 
outside, even the post-Nazi Golden Dawn. So what?

As stated in the article that we publish, everyone knew what was going on for years in 
this area, as the national local politicians, administrators, police, the silent press 
almost in its entirety and intimidated when she sought namely, the European authorities ...

So now crocodile tears while continuing the outburst of xenophobic rhetoric that 
accompanied that justifies all the shame and shit to supposedly encourage the return of 
economic 'growth', also found .

Yesterday [Wednesday, April 17] to eighteen hours, at least 28 workers from Bangladesh 
were shot in an agricultural area, Manolada, Greece. The workers were not paid for six 
months. They went to meet the employer and its foremen to demand their due 6 months of 
unpaid wages, 125 euros per month each.

The conflict began when the boss and his minions have refused to pay for their work. 
Foremen seized their rifles and fired heavy fire. There are eight migrant workers in 
critical condition, four more seriously affected.

According to data available as of last night, about 80 workers from Bangladesh had made an 
appointment to 17 hours with the owner of the farm fruits and vegetables, especially 
strawberries, and the meeting was known to all workers. It is estimated that more than 200 
were waiting for this meeting. Foremen have refused to pay the arrears and ordered the 
workers to return to work by threatening to appeal to other workers and begin to shoot in 
the air. At the reaction of the immigrants who refused to budge, the three foremen started 
shooting at them, including the backs of those who fled in a nearby field.

Eleven ambulances transported the injured to hospitals bloody incident of Pyrgos and 
Patras. Police arrested the contractor of 57 years, but the three supervisors 21,27 and 39 
fled.

Strawberries of shame

This is not the first time a conflict broke out between workers and their employers 
Manolada, where the strawberry fields of Greece. Or the first time we learn that 
"entrepreneurs" retain migrant workers in conditions of captivity.

In 2011, a Greek and two Romanian citizens were arrested for belonging to a network of 
traffic workforce. In the direction of the police, mafia network workers subjected to a 
regime of intense psychological violence, including beatings and gunfire intimidation to 
force them to work in the strawberry harvest without pay and the making live in huts of 
plastic, in the most miserable conditions.

Workers were captured, many of them in Romania, promising them a contract and 
accommodation, but when they got there, they discovered that they were housed in 
deplorable shacks and their remuneration is successful, they were forced to buy more food 
to those owners of greenhouses, which made them pay large sums of money while they forbade 
them to leave the area.

Police found the victim in a very bad physical and psychological state, and they have 
received assistance from the Department for the Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings.

Nea Manolada: A slave labor camp known by the European Commission and the Greek Government

In 2011, a report by the European Commission on the crime of human trafficking already 
described the situation of Nea Manolada we can resume briefly as follows.

Manolada is a town of 2,000 inhabitants (which must be added in 1500 foreign workers 
several months per year) part of the municipality of Vouprasia belonging to the prefecture 
of Ilia, in the western Peloponnese. Many agricultural enterprises of different sizes 
operating in the region. Their main production is growing strawberries in greenhouses 
through excessive fertilizer and pesticide intensive use. These farms are an example of 
companies that have developed through cheap labor, often in conditions of human trafficking.

Professor Kasimis who has conducted research in the area of ??Vouprasia says that 
companies strawberries grew 60% over three years (2011 data) due to the exploitation of 
immigrant labor. In recent years, production has increased to the point of covering the 
majority (90%) of the Greek market, although most of the production, 70% is exported. The 
volume of sales was 50 million euros that producers intend to double. The figures for 2013 
are expected to 90 million euros.

Most of the workers are undocumented, mainly from Asian countries like Pakistan and 
Bangladesh, but there are also Bulgarians, Romanians and Albanians. Asian immigrants who 
arrived more recently are more vulnerable because their regulation is almost impossible in 
Greece which is why their salaries are below the minimum wage and live in the worst 
conditions. In the fields, working as minors, children of immigrants, who receive much 
less, but work under the same conditions as adults.

Salaries are paid on a daily basis, or at the end of the season. The case of retention of 
wages are common as well as cases where employers at the end of the season, avoid paying 
wages by using the threat that they could be reported to the police and deported. Knowing 
the conditions of detention camps for illegal immigrants, the worst for them is not 
expulsion, but what awaits them "indefinitely" inside and in the worst conditions and feed 
safety , as was reported on countless occasions.

Growing strawberries in Nea Manolada is with heavy use of fertilizers and chemicals and 
workers are exposed without the necessary protections. The accommodations are also nearby 
greenhouses, in most cases, there is no sanitary facilities, no running water and are 
often plastic tents, with fire hazards that entails , sweltering heat. Add to this that, 
as illegal immigrants, they do not have the right to health and medical assistance.

These camps are not just accommodation, it is also an economic exploitation of workers, 
employers paid a rent for the "housing" and workers, to meet all their needs like buying 
food, must do so in "mini market" camp. In addition, their movements are controlled, even 
during their free time. Among the expenses they have to do, there are also paying for 
their "safety", a mafia in what has been reported in the media is usually about ? 3 per 
day for their "protection".

The situation of these agricultural areas has never concerned authorities until 2006 when 
a firefighter reported the matter, going off a fire in plastic shacks, describing the 
situation of human dumping ground. The owner razed the camp erased the traces and banned 
the press from taking pictures.

In 2007, in response to accusations of firefighters and local police, an agreement was 
reached to improve housing conditions for workers, but as the report points out, it has 
not been discussed working conditions.

In 2008, a report in the Sunday Eleftherotypia under the title "red gold: a sweet taste 
the bitter roots," recounted the lives of immigrants and gave details of the conditions of 
life and work of immigrants that can be qualified as real situations drafts of migrant 
workers.

The case went before parliament and then saw that the inspections so far had been for 
nothing, because the mafia bosses (hard to call it something else), had managed to hide 
the workers during inspections and entrepreneurs who have had sanctions or had not paid, 
or that the charges had no legal consequence. Except in specific cases on secondary points.

In April 2008, approximately 1,500 workers went on strike for higher wages and the payment 
of overdue wages. They organized themselves in the camp to carry out this action and 
gathered at the village square. The Communist Party has expressed its solidarity with them 
in the village. At night the "defenders" of contractors attacked unionists making them 
responsible for the revolt. Immigrants have also been attacked in their homes, suffered 
again shooting in the air to intimidate and found refuge in the headquarters of the 
Communist Party, where they spent the night.

The police intervened to stop immigrants and that trade unionists and journalists were 
attacked by those who represent employers, the police did not arrest any of them. For 
journalists, it is important to note that they were also threatened with death if they 
relataient what was happening in the region, the report said.

After three days of strike, they reached an agreement, also thanks to the intervention of 
the Ombudsman [Ombudsman] who expressed the presence of serious indications of human 
trafficking in the area, among which the following stand :

Salaries are low and some of them are collected by employers who provide, exclusively, 
housing, water, electricity, food and protection.
Housing conditions are degrading to human dignity, freedoms are restricted, their 
activities are controlled, including their free time.
Immigrants seem to be under the absolute control of employers.
The situation has not changed, local officials say they are unable to control the 
situation and the area is closed to the press by the threats and attacks it has received.

In August 2012, a migrant worker Egyptian 30 years had his head stuck in the window of a 
car by some Greeks who dragged a kilometer. They wanted to "discipline".

Similarities with the mafia Rosarno in Calabria (Italy)

In 2010, when there were riots of immigrants in Rosarno [1], in Calabria, in agriculture 
operated by the mafia, Miltos Pavlou, Director of the National Observatory on Racism and 
Xenophobia (ENOSI-KEMO / i-RED) was reported similarities with the situation in Nea 
Manolada on some points such as:

Immigrants are below the legal minimum wage.
They are treated with verbal and physical abuse by producers and organized more or less 
visible acting outside the law groups.
The administration and the government openly support producers and outside groups and not 
the victims of exploitation.
Being irregular resident at the place and to be illegally in the country gives no legal 
protection, immigration laws act as a support for the workers in slavery.
The judicial or administrative authorities do not intervene, despite the obvious and 
serious violations of the law on discrimination in employment and incitement to racial 
violence in public, including by officials.
Violence in Calabria was much worse and some 1,000 African workers were evacuated 
following the "hunt" for immigrants who broke out in the Calabrian town and caused 67 
injuries. But Neo Manolada, there are reports of continuing violence against immigrants.
During the summer of 2009, they attached an immigrant behind a motorcycle and dragged 
through the streets of Manolada because, according to the authors, he tried to steal 
sheep. We now know that one of the attackers yesterday was one of those who participated 
in this brutal aggression while, for which, of course, he was released unpunished.

After the attacks against journalists by these "bands" who work for the owners and police 
intervention in their favor during the last strike, the lack of administrative penalties 
for violators, attacks against workers, trade unionists, etc. ., it does not appear that 
the comparison is exaggerated.

Two years after the events of Rosarno, despite improvements and institutional promises, as 
Nea Manolada, everything continues as before. While the Greek government is clearly a 
xenophobic discourse - "Immigrants are the worst invasion suffered by Greece since the 
Dorians" - he launches extensive police operations indiscriminate mass arrests of migrants 
in the streets, that it encloses immigrants in such conditions that even the courts have 
held that the escape of these detention camps is not a crime because the centers of life 
is in danger. That, while agreeing to the presence of immigrants (many of them are brought 
to Europe by the mafia) provided they are operated in a regime of slavery and be 
profitable for the agricultural development of the region .

They can not say they did not know. The European Commission is also known and demanded 
nothing. For cons, the EU sent 100 officials in Athens to monitor the accounts [of the 
state], but not one over the years to end this shameful and humiliating scourge of slavery 
and trafficking in the European Union, Nobel Peace Prize.

Strawberries blood

The reaction of indignation in Greece did not expect, especially because the story comes 
from afar. In social networks began an active campaign for not buying the "bloody fruit" 
and more particularly those of the producer of the "respectable" family Vangelatos which 
is the main supplier of supermarkets in Greece (including Carrefour, Lidl, Sklavenitis 
Metro ...) but that exports 35% of its products mainly to Russia and other European 
countries, including Germany, Switzerland.
Vangelatos The SA is also a prominent member of the Athens Central Market and is part of 
its Merchants Association of fruits and vegetables.

Slavery in Europe

Manolada Greece Rosarno Venosa in Italy (the "slaves of tomato"), the regions of Almeria 
and Jaen in Spain (El Ejido, the "slave salad" and vegetables in greenhouses), cases of 
virtual slavery are increasing in Europe.
But not only on farms. Two recent examples.

Workers cleaning the London Olympic Park during the last Olympics, were housed in a 
temporary camp barracks leaky, 10 per room, 25 per toilet dirty, dirty shower by 75 ... 
they had to pay ? 18 (21 euros) per day. It looked like a slum said these young workers 
interviewed by a reporter from the Daily Mail (15 July 2012). To accept the job, these 
temporary foreign workers, often students from Spain, Hungary, and other countries in 
southern Europe or East ... were due to sign up on a commitment not to communicate with 
the press nor receive family visits. The prison in the mud, dirt, overcrowding in slums.

A few weeks ago, the newspaper The Independent (14 February 2013) revealed, following a 
report by the German TV channel ARD, the company Amazon Germany had hired armed guards 
dressed as (and directed by) Neo-Nazis ( Security company HESS) to closely monitor its 
5,000 guest workers working in logistics centers (packaging, packing, loading trucks ...), 
especially in Bad Hersfeld, Constance and Augsburg. Monitoring that also extended to their 
seats, parking in the street down at home in the corridors of the building, entering their 
rooms (hostels, low-end hotels). These workers were hired in their country through the 
Internet to an already low wages, for periods of a few months. Once there, they learn that 
they are paid below, barely more than a "mini-job" (500 or 600 euros after deductions). 
Most are ... when they are not fired on pretexts.

In Greece, a number of anti-racist organizations, social control, called already put on 1 
May under the sign of solidarity with immigrants, with those who struggle in the detention 
camps as with those who find themselves reduced to the modern slavery of the Europe of the 
XXI century and, despite everything, try to resist.

On April 18, 2013

Notes

[1] See Rosarno: The alibi of racism and the 'Ndrangheta , Alternating Current No. 199, 
March 2010.

(Source: News @ Oke, Todos somos griegos, bloodstrawberries.tumblr.com, tmponline.org ...)

Since writing this article, the three foremen were arrested, and two of their accomplices 
who have hosted their homes.

Seven injured workers are still hospitalized with a would be in a serious condition.

After calls to boycott strawberries, supermarkets, including AB Vassilopoulos supermarket 
chain, announced on Friday they stopped marketing the fruits of the farmer.

We learn that workers demanded 750 euros for six months, that is to say they should be 
paid 125 euros per month, or 5 euros per day. Which joined the journalist had reported 
Dina business chief in its investigation where a worker Jamal, said the starting salary 
was 22 euros per day, which it was removed rent, mandatory purchase of food and hygiene to 
the employer who has the mini-market operations, payment of a debt to the traffickers and 
several other charges of "protection" that allow him to end his true net pay 5 euros. "We 
were told to go in the afternoon to make us pay. We have 200 people and we had over the 
last six months a total of 150,000 euros " , said "Patrice", one of the wounded to a reporter.

The Minister of the Interior ("Protection of the Citizen," without laughing) announced 
Friday that workers would not be expelled despite their illegal status. It would even 
consider granting a temporary stay "victims" of the criminal aggression "on humanitarian 
grounds" .

The owner, who was arrested the same evening of the facts, would have fallen ill and 
hospitalized.
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Video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkCJnXMU9eM
An article (in English) of the journalist Dina business chief who had made ??the report in 
Eleftherotypia . Blood strawberries
http://bloodstrawberries.tumblr.com/post/48347000194/blood-strawberries-by-dina-daskalopoulou

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