Steps Towards a New World
Nowadays the exit from the so-called economic crisis in Europe has become the main topic of conversation. Various politicians, “experts” and technocrats speak of possible exits from the critical situation in which our societies have been trapped. But their proposals rarely go beyond unlimited economic growth and neoliberal austerity politics, which are being imposed in increasingly authoritarian ways [1], the consequences of which are increasingly difficult to hide. The other alternative which is being presented to us by the mass media is the one of the radical left parties (such as the Greek SYRIZA and the Spanish Podemos).
But in the midst of the heated debates and worsening living standards, on the horizon has emerged a third alternative – one coming from the grassroots. Seeing high unemployment [2], activists from various social movements have decided that since the contemporary system cannot provide them with jobs, they’ll create them outside of it. Workers from the occupied factory Vio.Me. in Thessaloniki raised the slogan: “The bosses can’t? We can!” The populations of the impoverished European societies have gotten tired of waiting for the support of their governments and have decided to take things into their own hands. Seeing that the state is not planning on helping them, that it collaborates with the corporate sector who was partly responsible for the crisis [3] – and not its alternative – the people realized that they can count only on their own powers and the solidarity in their communities.
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