The fatal Tempi train crash has reignited the streets of Greece with some of the largest protest rallies the country has ever seen

~ Rob Ray ~

Mass demonstrations have taken place on the streets of Athens, Thessaloniki and other cities in Greece on the second anniversary of the Tempi train crash. Fifty-seven people were killed when their passenger train collided with a freight train on 28 February 2023, and anger over the tragedy has grown alongside a series of failures to improve track safety, deliver the results of a formal judicial inquiry, or convict anyone for their role in enabling the accident.

With hundreds of thousands of people turning out across 200 cities, towns and villages and a general strike shutting down infrastructure, the protests have taken on the character of a more general dissent against the Mitsotakis government—following on from widespread protest in January.

Greek media reports have consistently focused on the rioting that flared up in Athens throughout the day. Against widespread attempts to present large-scale rioting in the city centre as the work of agents provocateurs, Greek anarchist groups have weighed in on the situation. The Void Network, in a statement, said:

“The biggest protests ever in this country proved, in a way, that the vast social majority is demanding a life far different from the one imposed on us by corrupt politicians and scumbag businessmen. We are, in our millions, fighting for a life of solidarity, equality, freedom and justice.

“If the most radical sections of the left and anarchism have anything to offer, beyond our participation and empowering of a movement demanding “Justice” for the crime of Tempe, it is precisely to replace that idea with an expectation for Social Justice, capable of demanding basic state and social rights, regardless of and beyond national identity, beyond the boundaries set and enforced by sovereignty.

“In order to do such a thing, however, it requires that radical forces move beyond tired slogans simply affirming their identity, and the tendency to idealise the social margin that has prevailed within them. Because, in the end, what is the limit of the kind of crowd that appeared in the squares? Its classically social-majority character is at the same time its real power. A collective force that seeks not only to bring about significant institutional changes at the political level, but in the long term to achieve a radical transformation of our lives and the way of production.

“In the grim historical and global environment that is shaping up, this demand for Social Justice, this ‘temporary’ perspective, is perhaps the most current thing there is.

“Justice is not just a goal, but a process that develops through freedom, equality and solidarity. Justice cannot be imposed by a central authority or a hierarchical system. Instead, it must emerge from communities, from the collective efforts of people acting freely and consciously for the common good.

“The crimes of the State are obscured to protect the mechanisms which underpin systemic inequality and exploitation, the privileges of the powerful, the days and nights of toil and agony of us all.

“Social Justice, which we cry on the streets, is an not equality in oppression, but the ability of every person to live with dignity, without exploitation, without fear. It is about creating a society where resources are fairly distributed, where work is free and creative, and where relationships between people are based on trust and solidarity.

“Justice cannot exist without equality and freedom.

“Social Justice is not just a theory, it is an action that requires constant effort and revolution against every form of oppression. We need to abolish hierarchies in every aspect of life, destroy systems that perpetuate inequality, and build a society based on self-management, helping and caring for one another.

“In such a society, justice will not be in the hands of corrupt politicians, mafios and scoundrels, it will not be an abstract idea, but a vivid reality developed through experience and equal participation of all. It will be a society where no one will be rich while others go hungry, and where no one will have power over others.

“Social Justice is the freedom to live, create and collaborate without fear and without oppression. It is the promise of a society based on love, solidarity and respect for every human being. And this society will not come from heaven, but will be born from the hearts and actions of all of us.”

Meanwhile, on Athens Indymedia a perceptive essay draws an explicit line between the government’s arrogant dismissal of police murder and its covering up of institutional malpractice. In the article, the Open Assembly on the State Assassination of Kostas Manioudakis calls for joining seemingly disparate campaigns:

“The Tempe case condenses – to a superlative degree – the basic characteristics of the State’s all-out attack of domination on the lives of the lower classes:

• • Central to this is neoliberal policy, which includes the gradual retreat of the welfare state, with the cost being passed on to the lower social strata; a policy that goes so far as to deem our lives “expendable”

  • The communication management by the State is mainly characterised by arrogance, to such an extent that multi-layered cover-up mechanisms are set up, so that on the one hand the profits of capital are protected, and on the other hand the criminal responsibilities of state officials and their collaborators are concealed.

“The cover-up is a “common” methodology of the Greek State, frequently deployed in recent years in cases of State and capitalist crimes, in the absence of social resistance. It involves the enlistment of high-ranking government officials, judges, prosecutors, police officers, journalists and forensic experts – each playing a very special and specific role in the process. The pattern of the cover-up includes concealment, alteration or destruction of evidence (with the most striking example being the clearing of the accident site), and a simultaneous dissemination of the State narrative through the media (with references to “tragic human error” by the station master, or “silicone oils that caused the explosion”).

“The case of the State assassination of Kostas Manioudakis, in September 2023 in Vryssas, is one such example, which follows exactly the same pattern: Then the Souda Police Department cops Stelios Lianidakis, Manolis Georgiadis, Konstantina Moschou and Iosif Tsichlakis beat 58-year-old Kostas Manioudakis to death. A mechanism was immediately set up that ensured that the narrative of the “sudden death of a private individual” during a police check was pushed to the public, something that the public medical examiner, Stamatis Belivanis, initially confirmed. Then, additional snapshots of this cover-up operation are:

• • the fact that no autopsy was ever performed at the “random check” site despite testimonies that the cops were cleaning up the blood on the same night of the murder,
  • the political cover provided by the respective (deputy) ministers of the Ministry of Justice – in general and specifically – to the cops who murdered Kostis,
  • the attempt to silence and intimidate witnesses, family and members of the open assembly through threats and lawsuits – for the exercise of which the cops do not even bear the financial cost,
  • and the recent refusal of the judicial authority to suspend the four murderous cops.

“The family of Kostas Manioudakis, like the families of the Tempe victims, have begun a fight for justice for their own dead. A fight that is intertwined with mourning, and manages to converse with society and open up avenues of resistance.

“For the past 1.5 years, through the struggle against the cover-up of the state assassination of Kostas Manioudakis, we have come to understand that when MPs, ministers, or the Prime Minister talk about “justice,” they are referring to the judicial power. They mean the institutionalised power that dispenses “justice” in such a way that it systematically serves state policies and capitalist dictates. In this context, we know that vindication for the Tempe case will not come from behind closed doors.

“We recognise that the specificities and stakes of the legal struggle, depending on the time phase, help such cases to return to public view, and to interact with a sense of justice that pervades the social imaginary. We recognise that a “positive” outcome in court can provide a platform for similar cases that in future. We recognise, finally, that the possible acquittal of perpetrators will give a judicial seal to the official (co)cover-up.

“No matter how satisfying a judicial “victory” may be, as a legal recognition of social resistance, it will be too small to meet our own concept of justice. We have no confidence in the institutions of civil justice. Whatever happens in closed courtrooms, we insist that justice is served through collective processes on the street.“

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Sources in adapted machine translation. Athens photos from Void Network.