At the height of the Greek crash in 2011, staff at Viome clocked
in to confront an existential quandary. The owners of their parent
company had gone bust and abandoned the site, in the second city of
Thessaloniki. From here, the script practically wrote itself: their
plant, which manufactured chemicals for the construction industry, would
be shut. There would be immediate layoffs, and dozens of families would
be plunged into poverty. And seeing as Greece was in the midst of the
greatest economic depression ever seen in the EU, the workers’ chances
of getting another job were close to nil.
So they decided to occupy their own plant. Not only that, they turned it upside down.
For
a start, no one is boss. There is no hierarchy, and everyone is on the
same wage. Factories traditionally work according to a production-line
model, where each person does one- or two-minute tasks all day, every
day: you fit the screen, I fix the protector, she boxes up the iPhone.
Here, everyone gathers at 7am for a mud-black Greek coffee and a chat
about what needs to be done. Only then are the day’s tasks divvied up.
And, yes, they each take turns to clean the toilets.
When
the workers consulted the local community about what they should start
to produce, one request was to stop making building chemicals. They now
largely manufacture soap and eco-friendly household detergents: cleaner,
greener and easier on their neighbours’ noses.
Staff use the
building as an assembly point for local refugees, and I saw the offices
being turned over to medics for a weekly free neighbourhood clinic for
workers and locals. The Greek healthcare system has been shredded by
spending cuts, its handling of refugees sometimes atrocious; yet in both
cases, the workers at Viome are doing their best to offer substitutes.
Where
the state has collapsed, the market has come up short and the boss
class has literally fled, these 26 workers are attempting to fill the
gaps. These are people who have been failed by capitalism; now they
reject capitalism itself as a failure.
An important addition to this post, the Vio.Me factory has been cut off from the power grid by the government in April, and are running on generators at the moment, while producing soap and cleaning supplies that they donate to prisons and refugee camps that have been left to rot duting the pandemic by the same government.
We are asking for the help of the global movement in restoring the
power or acquiring a generator, so that we can continue the production
without obstacles and also help us become more independent. We therefore
call all unions, collectives, Greek, European and global comrades to
help in obtaining a generator with biodiesel capability. Solidarity is
our weapon!
— In solidarity, Workers at Viome Coop
VIOME won’t shut down for some power cables. The solidarity of the people already gave us an electric generator and we are running again, we are starting producing and we are preparing the restoration of power with every means available.
IMMEDIATE RESTORATION OF POWER WITH A BILL IN OUR NAME
FULL LEGALIZATION OF THE FACTORY FOR PRODUCTION WITHOUT HINDRANCES
WE URGE YOU ALL TO SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY
You can support our struggle by purchasing VIOME products in the link: https://www.viomecoop.com
VIOME WILL REMAIN IN THE WORKERS’ HANDS
A glance at the U.S.-Ghana defense agreement raises many questions. Article 12 of the agreement states that the U.S. military can use the Accra airport without any regulations or checks, with U.S. military aircraft being “free from boarding and inspection” and the Ghanaian government providing “unimpeded access to and use of [a]greed facilities and areas to United States forces.”
The agreement allows U.S. soldiers far more privileges than those prescribed in the Vienna Convention for diplomats. They do not need passports to enter Ghana. All they need is their U.S. Army identity cards. They don’t even require visas to enter Ghana. They are not subject to customs or any other inspection.
Got no religion, don’t need no friends Got all I want and I don’t need to pretend Don’t try to reach me, ‘cause I’d tear up your mind I’ve seen the future and I’ve left it behind
This blog is mostly so I can vent my feelings and share my interests. Other than that, I am nothing special.
If you don't like Left Wing political thought and philosophy, all things related to horror, the supernatural, the grotesque, guns or the strange, then get the fuck out. I just warned you.
