Members of «Rouvikon» stormed the Ministry of Environment on Tuesday afternoon (07/09), opened a banner reading «State Arsonist» and threw trickaxes inside the ministry.

According to SKAI, the people have reached the office of Minister Kostas Skrekas.

The Police intervened immediately, arresting 24 people, who were taken to the GADA.

Occupation at the Ministry of Environment.
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- crab nebula (@crabnebula5) September 7, 2021

As stated in the text published by «Rouvikon» in the website of the anarchist group, the occasion for the occupation to the Ministry, the devastating fires that occurred and the «failures of the state apparatus».

«The conclusion, if we add up a series of repeated failures of the state apparatus, if we add up the measure of its responsibility for these disasters, but also how it handles the whole issue of compensation immediately afterwards, is obvious.», refers to a point in the text which assumes responsibility for the intervention.

In conclusion, «Rouvicon» turns against «the state» for which «firefighting, flood response and even health protection in a pandemic is NOT the first order of business».

«It is preceded by the distribution of funds and the promotion of agents in the mechanisms. The government's communication milking of prevention, the destruction of compensation and “reshuffling” comes first. The deals with capital come first, whether they involve the installation of wind turbines and the opening of roads on the mountain tops to move them, or the outsourcing of reforestation to private companies. Long-term investments in the best fillets of the region to be sold off come first. The state is not incompetent. On the contrary, it is highly capable of doing its job. Its job, not ours. And as time goes on, it's getting better and better.».

Read the full announcement of Rouvikon below:

Occupation now at the Ministry of Environment

So is the destruction of half a million acres of forest, is the destruction of so many burned houses, is the loss of thousands of jobs of day laborers, farmers, beekeepers, resinators in Evia, a matter of three days of publicity? Is the fate of people of our class a propagandistic snapshot in the media with the sole purpose of not losing votes for their beloved government?;

Apparently, it is. And it is because we, the working people, the poor, the exploited, the unemployed, have given them every right. We have allowed them to lead us to disaster, abandon us to disaster, and then weep for three days over our own fate before our disaster ends up in the dustbin of oblivion.

We allowed them to do so when we saw them not preparing forest protection in the slightest, not hiring thousands of forest firefighters, firefighting equipment rotting in dismantled technical services and the only equipment being hired from abroad. And at the same time, officials are giving press conferences about how well they have prepared for the summer of 2021 forest protection.

For people who have lost everything, for people of our own class, the «three days of publicity» will last for years. And these disasters and the coming ones must also last for years and in the consciousness of the entire social base. Every time the state fails to meet its own «obligations» in the name of which it holds power, we should ask ourselves whether and why we should continue to recognize that power.

Ilia, Mandra, Mati, Varybombi, Evia, neither the spot on the map nor the year nor the party that governs matters. The conclusion, if we add up a series of repeated failures of the state apparatus, if we add up in addition the measure of its responsibility for these disasters, and how it handles the whole issue of compensation immediately afterwards, is obvious. It is unknown whether and how they could have prevented the damage, to the extent that they are not interested in doing so. Firefighting, flood response and even health protection in a pandemic is NOT the first order of business for the state. The distribution of funds and the advancement of agents in the mechanisms comes first. The government communication milking of prevention, compensation destruction and «reshuffling» comes first. The deals with capital come first, whether they involve the installation of wind turbines and the opening of roads on the mountain tops to move them, or the outsourcing of reforestation to private companies. Long-term investments in the best fillets of the region to be sold off come first. Too much in the state's priorities precedes running around putting out fires.

The state is not incompetent. On the contrary, it is highly capable of doing its job. Its job, not ours. And as time goes on, it's getting better and better.

If once it had to channel funds into forest clearance and fire protection zones, today it can market these funds in ways such as press conferences or massive information campaigns on the Athenian transport media about the dangers of fire from agricultural activities and make a commitment. If once he had to save, by coordinating the residents, a village from burning down, today he preaches a communication campaign in favor of «human life», evacuates everything and lets the village burn down demanding to be heard and thanked afterwards.

The state is doing its job better and better and that means that «our jobs» are getting worse and worse. The new standard in an impending disaster has fallen as low as just getting out of it alive. We won't get far that way, certainly not through pandemic and climate change.

And we saw this very clearly even through the media in those days.

The people of the countryside who chose to disobey evacuation orders and often had to overcome the obstacles put up by the police and fire brigade, the people who chose to act and organise themselves, came out winners. They saved their lives, they saved their village, and that is a very big message that we need to take and record as a social base.

We are at the point where outright disobedience and disobedience when it leads to action and self-organization, even in conditions of disaster, even without training and means, is a condition of survival.

And let there be no doubt, we'll be facing this more and more often. That is why it is becoming increasingly necessary to choose the proactive self-organization of the many, not only in response to threats. We have nothing to expect from the state for prevention, nothing for disaster response, only some crumbs and endless false promises for the aftermath, as we see happening again with the fire victims in Evia. We have nothing to expect from the state, neither for the coming winter, nor for next summer, no matter which parrot is appointed minister, whether or not there are elections.

That is why we must not forget what happened this summer. Nor what happened in the previous ones. We must not forget the struggles of the local people for decent compensation for those affected, for the protection of their land from further disasters, for its reconstruction so that it does not become a place of origin for internal refugees.

This is the least we can do: to spread the message of social participation, of self-organization and grassroots appropriation of the public sector, of resistance to the projects of private interests in the burnt areas, and of the struggle for the restoration of the victims and the survival of the areas. We must understand that every time we let such attacks on our class go unanswered, every time we forget our own in need, it is when we sign the ultimate contract of submission to the state. It is then that we give it every right to mock us to our faces after every fire, flood, earthquake or pandemic.

How much longer can we go on like this?;

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