On Sunday 23 July, another man died on a heatwave day while working. He was 49 years old, a municipal employee, working as a security guard at a playground of the Municipality of Kallithea. M.D. belonged to a vulnerable group, and on Sunday, with the temperature reaching 43 degrees, this man was on duty, following administrative orders. According to eyewitness information, he was unlocking the playground in Davaki Park. Shortly after 4:45 in the afternoon, he was found dead due to a heat stroke. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. The worker, a father of a minor child and a member of a vulnerable group, at the behest of a city administrator, was working midday hours in extreme heat, swinging heavy iron gates. At this time, municipalities were instructed not to stress the workers.
The story goes back further in the past, where, according to information from the union of municipal workers, M.D. had lost an eye to infection, as a worker in another sector of the municipality, as a gardener. Despite his compromised health due to working in the gardens, he continued to work for the municipality until it killed him. Poor people, let alone when they have a family, cannot afford to give up a living wage when they have health problems, even if the job itself robbed them of their livelihood. Due to his health, M.D. was transferred to a guard position in the garage of the municipality of Kallithea but was removed from this position and moved again to the playgrounds.
The blue mayor of Kallithea, Dimitris Karnavos, asked for a formal investigation into the case of M.D., as is done almost every time in industrial “accidents”. These are the well-known procedures by which the causes that led to dead or disabled workers are supposed to be investigated. As is also well known – to those who don’t chew the cud fed to them by the government parrots – the “investigation” will show what city hall wants it to. At the very most, a petty supervisor could be sacrificed; or they’ll say that the employee was working on his own initiative and was in the wrong place at the wrong time; that it was tragic timing, and that he “heroically” fell into overzealousness on the job. One can get an idea of how D. Carnavos treats municipal workers from reports two years ago that to break the resistance of municipal employees on a symbolic strike; he called the police to arrest them for obstruction of duty.
Today we made a symbolic intervention inside the town hall to remind us that our lives are not expendable. Those responsible have names and addresses; we do not expect any investigation; we do not trust the civil justice system. The state could never, nor did it ever want to protect the socially weak; only self-organization can do it. In the very long list of dead workers, we count one more. If we do not organize, if we do not collectivize our voices and our forces, we will not stop counting victims.
Either with our class, or with its enemies.
We have chosen sides.
SOLIDARITY WITH THE FAMILY OF THE M.D.
ALL WE HAVE IS EACH OTHER
Image: Rouvikonas / It reads: MURDERERS [signed] ROUVIKONAS
