The Party of the European Left expresses its full support and solidarity to
the movement against gold mining in Greece.
Posted on 22/04/2013 by SOSHALKIDIKI
Ψήφισμα του Κόμματος της Ευρωπαϊκής Αριστεράς *
The Party of the European Left expresses its full support and solidarity to
the movement against gold mining in Greece.
In the era of memoranda, austerity and economic/debt crisis, the Greek
government is promoting an agenda of privatization of common goods and public
services as well as giving away natural resources and public wealth to private
interests. This vision of “development” violates all principles of sustainable
development, sacrifices the environment, and disrespects the people and nature.
It only serves the national and international capital at a huge cost for people
and nature.
A characteristic case study is the gold mining projects in Northern Greece,
which represents an outrageous environmental, economic and political scandal.
More specifically, the mines of Halkidiki were transferred to the private
company Hellas Gold S.A. at the price of 11 million euros. The property sold,
among others, includes 317 square km of ancestral forest and the rights to
explore an ore deposit with estimated value of metals reaching 20 billion
euros.
Scientific research has documented the magnitude of the environmental
destruction that will be caused by the planned mining project, that far exceeds
the carrying capacity of the area: deforestation, emission of millions of tons
of mining dust and atmospheric pollutants, pollution of ground and underground
water resource, pollution of the soil with heavy metals, serious threats for
the health.
A mining project of such a size will also have catastrophic consequences to
the local economy, as it will dramatically affect the present economic
activities such as tourism, agriculture, fisheries, beekeeping, forestry etc.
This job position loss will not be compensated, neither quantitatively or
qualitatively, by the jobs that the mines will create.
The Greek government, facing a strong movement of resistance, has adopted a
philosophy of state repression and police abuse of power: blind detentions,
long interrogations without the presence of lawyers, physical and psychological
violence, illegal DNA sampling, assaults with indistinctive tear gassing even
in schools. This is a terrorizing state operation that violates human and
constitutional rights, and targets the peoples’ movement of resistance.
Europe has to revisit real democratic values and avoid sacrificing acquired
human rights in the name of exiting the economic crisis.
Thus,
We declare our solidarity with the struggle against
gold mining.
We do not accept state and police repression.
We oppose to catastrophic “investments” that destroy
the environment and the sustainable economic activities.
EL Executive Board
Sofia, 20 April 2013
*
Πολιτικό Κόμμα σε ευρωπαϊκό επίπεδο με μέλη σοσιαλιστικά και κομμουνιστικά
κόμματα από Αυστρία, Βέλγιο, Τσεχία, Εσθονία, Γαλλία, Γερμανία, Ελλάδα,
Ουγγαρία, Ιταλία, Λουξεμβούργο, Πορτογαλία, Μολδαβία, Ρουμανία, Άγιο Μαρίνο,
Ισπανία, Ελβετία και Τουρκία
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