Coronavirus: A video about the latest events in Greece under the Covid-19 crisis, from the perspective of the "Libertarian Collective of Kallithea" in Athens, Greece, as an example of the social solidarity networks that spring up all over the country from libertarian, anti authoritarian and anarchist collectives: "Hello,
We are Eleutheriaki Syllogikotita Kallitheas, Libertarian Collective of Kallithea, and we are active in a district of Athens named Kallithea, which faces severe social, economic and class problems.
We send this statement to inform you about the current situation in Athens during the pandemic of covid-19 that has hit the whole planet and reached us as well one month ago.
To begin with, the first few days after the first case of coronavirus in Greece, the government and the media would try to calm the people down and assure us that the situation is under control.
They purposely tried to conceal a destroyed public health system, whose distraction was caused by all previous governments.
The current reality of public hospitals right now is hopeless.
A few months ago, after mass layoffs, shutting down of hospital facilities and cancellations of doctors and nursing staff recruitment, doctors and nurses went on demonstrations; claiming what should be taken for granted, with the government’s reply being the beating of those people, and the repression of their fight.
Today, the same people that turned their backs to health professionals, dare to call them heroes, while at the same time they spend millions of euros on the economical reinforcement of private clinics, while doctors at public hospitals do not even have masks to protect themselves.
The liberal politics that they followed and continue to follow, even during such a critical time like the one we are experiencing now, which contains thousands of privatizations and investments, have a price that will be paid by the working class, and the weaker of this society.
There is zero care from the state towards the homeless, the poor, the refugees, the immigrants, the prisoners and the unemployed, to those that have lost their jobs, while at the same time they dare to ask for volunteers to confront the crisis that is caused due to the Coronavirus pandemic, while they exploit every public sector.
At the same time, the media keep promoting the campaign ‘menoume spiti’ which means, stay at home, while the establishment of the curfew brings the blame and the responsibility to citizens only.
In order to show our solidarity, we chose to react to this first with banners, where we criticized the current situation.
The misinformation, the fact that churches are still open and hold ceremonies full of people, the fact that all these years the cops are more than the doctors, while we responded to every fascist that blames refugees and immigrants for the virus, by reminding them that the virus came with a plane from Milan, not with a boat from the Aegean Sea.
At the same time, we began a solidarity campaign for the collection of needed items for the refugee camp at Korinthos, where right now the people who live there are on a hunger strike due to the miserable living conditions that they face daily.
Finally, along with other people, we formed a network for solidarity, a team of mutual help for the people who are more vulnerable to the virus and live in our neighborhoods.
With an open call towards other collectives and people from Athens, a big number of people have gathered in order to help our fellow citizens with their shopping, with food and medicine supplies to those who need them and have no access to them.
The propaganda for this campaign was achieved through the distribution of leaflets with our names, phone numbers and ways we can help, to numerous buildings, as well as online.
Meanwhile, at the self-organized space of Buena Vista where we are housed as a collective, is a meeting point for the gathering of items for those who need them, such as food or medicine. We hope that in the future more collectives can be a part of this network and support this action.
Finally, there is a shared depository for money that is supported from each local team that exists in the network, that exists for any possible economic problem that might need to be covered, and is also supported by dozens of people who show their solidarity, to which we are very thankful.
As for the reason that many of us are or live with people who are considered more vulnerable to the virus, in order to stay safe, we set three basic ways of function.
1. Firstly, this network can be supported by people with their physical presence, which can mean the distribution of leaflets, the distribution of food and other supplies and other outdoor activities.
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