Anastasia Balezdrova
The civil movement "we do not pay", which became known for refusing to pay tolls drags like an avalanche the Greek society. Very soon, representatives of the movement, which continues its actions at the road cash desks will begin protests against the increase in fares for public transport.
GRReporter contacted Vassilis Papadopoulos, one of the head coordinators of the movement in Athens, who said that the movement is just beginning to extend its activities.
Mr Papadopoulos, how do you plan to protest against the increases in fares?
When we set up the movement 15 months ago we said that we are not "road cashiers", i.e. that will not only deal with tolls. Our slogan is "We do not pay tolls, we do not pay for their crisis". By this we mean the crisis, which was created in the country from some people who put the funds to use, and we were just informed that we must pay the bill.
This logic includes also our tactics not to pay for many things. We think that it is quite illogical for one working person with a very low salary, who at best earns 600 euros or for a pensioner who does not receive a month more than 400-500 euros or for an unemployed person to pay a ticket which costs a euro and a half in one direction to go to work or to the hospital or to the labor market and to pay the same amount to get home. These are three euros or 1000 of the former drachmas it is not a small amount.
If we consider 3 euros per day, which is the minimum, because each one of us may need to use public transportation several times throughout the day. In this case a person would need about 10 euros a day just to move around the city. If you multiply this amount by 25 days because at least one weekend a person will go somewhere, we are talking about 250 euros per month. When his salary is 600 euros consider what will remain for food, rent, etc.
We are in favor of the free public transport for all. There are social benefits such as free traffic, public transport, hospitals, education, electricity, water, communications, the air we breathe, the sea. Nobody is able to take them from us, nor should anyone benefit from them. They will always cause losses, because the stakes for a society is to support the people. We are not talking about something unnecessary or exaggerated, such as a luxury car for exampble, but about essentials.
Our movement is also against the "road fee" of 5 euros for each examination which government want to impose on hospitals. In general, we want to remove all barriers that we have ahead of us. The barriers of the fear in our heads that the various regimes impose on us, barriers at the borders that divide people by color, language, origin and mostly barriers that stop people on the roads.
When will the protests about the fares start?
Tomorrow at 3 o'clock in the afternoon a meeting will take place between representatives of all means of transport (buses, trolley buses, metro, electric train, trams, trains, etc.), traffic commissions of the movement "We do not pay" and also citizens. The meeting is open to all willing to participate. There, in a democratic way we all speak and then we take the decisions about our actions.
Then the implementation of the actions will begin. On 1 February, when the increases in public transport tickets will come into effect, we will hold protests in the buses and metro stations.
What will these protests be like?
We will "occupy" stations we will try to block the machines, that punch the tickets without breaking them of course, we'll just cover them. We will enter the buses and urge the people not to punch their tickets so as for other citizens to also join us and the slogan "I do not pay" to become a common way of thinking.
You know that when a person works, he usually waits for the bus at the same time every day with other people who he sees almost every day at the bus stop. Our goal is for these people at a later stage to organize themselves in refusing to punch tickets and be mutually supportive. Thus the conductors will have a much more difficult time dealing with the discontent of all passengers on the bus.
What this system does is to divide us by instigating one group of people against another one. It tells employees in the private sector that all civil servants are to blame, but to them it tells that in the private sector I don’t know what injustices are going on. Thus we are governed following the ancient Roman motto "divide and conquer". We want to overcome this, and to create links of solidarity between us. To go back in time when we took the hand we were given as a sign of friendship and support, rather than a threat.
How do you comment on the fact that the government began negotiations with companies concessionaires to reduce tolls?
It shows how helpless these people are. Currently, many companies and banks want to withdraw from the concession contracts. They are not profitable for the banks because they have granted the companies loans with very low interest rates and with the increase of the spreads they are losing money. On the other hand, companies are also not satisfied because the construction of sites is slow because appropriation of land is not carried out and in some places there are obstacles related to environmental protection, which can not be overcome easily. And of course, because there is the movement against the tolls, which is constantly growing.
Do you consider that this is a victory for you?
Of course. We rather, believe that this is a sign of victory. I think our movement is the main factor, because if it wasn’t for us the companies and the banks would have reached to an agreement between each other as always.
What scares them is that they have against them a movement that is not under anyone's interests. Neither party nor politicians manage this movement. Of course it is too deeply politicized. The fact that is not under any party’s protection does not mean that it does not engage people who belong to different parties. What we say is that all are welcome in our movement, whether they are members of any party or not, unless they are racists or fascists.
But the government and companies were not only pressured by the movement, but by the hundreds of thousands of citizens who have found through us a way to express their discontent with everything that causes them problems in their everyday life: high prices, unemployment, IMF, stringent economic measures, the memorandum, cutting the social security rights, etc. In the movement participate even people who do not have licenses for driving cars, but their opinion holds the same weight as the opinion of the most educated people among us, if I could put it that way.
However, the fact that we are free from "patronizing" is our greatest wealth. We even expelled from the movement people who tried to put us political "hats".
Can you tell me how many people participate in your actions?
Hundreds of thousands. In this number we do not only include those who come to the organized actins, during which we open the barriers at the road cash desks, but also all those who do it themselves in their daily lives. We say that is very easy to open the barriers and to pass freely, but it is not quite true. To be able to do it before everything else we have to overcome our fear. What the government fears, regardless of which party it’s formed by is the informed citizen. When we learn our rights we stop being afraid and then we understand that we are the strong ones and not anybody else, who presented to be such.
Moreover local committees are continuously formed of people who previously we did not know. People call us all the time and invite us into their cities to meet and discuss and from then on they begin to organize their own actions. In this way was achieved the spread of the movement so far. This process will continue. We will be present in every neighborhood, every workplace, village and city and we will deal with any subject that bothers us until we send away all those who make our lives "bitter".
What are your next steps?
We are preparing ten-days actions. The first will be held on January 28th when we will open the barriers on the road Attiki Odos in Athens. The second will be on February 1st against raising the fare prices. On February 5th in turn we will open the barriers on roads throughout the entire country.
Our movement is constantly evolving. It is like a little child who starts to crawl, then gradually it begins to stand up, fall and stand up again and this continues until it starts running fast. We currently exactly at that phase: we stand up and start walking with quick steps.
Pretty soon we'll start dealing with the electricity bills, along with which they make us pay municipal taxes. We should not pay those because we have paid them thousands of times with our annual taxes.
How will this happen?
There are technical ways. We can pay electricity bills in a fund "Deposits and credits" and thus we will only pay for the cost of electricity.
The price of electricity is also rising.
Yes, this is true. And at one point people will stop paying simply because they would not have money to pay. In these cases, our movement will be in support of the people whose electricity will be cut off.
In what way?
Very easy as long as there are people who are willing to be involved. We will put back the fuse, which the electricity company's employees remove. It is not possible in the 21 century for the people to remain without electricity. In this way, a person literally can not survive because there is no way to warm up, to cook their food, to read etc.
Things are very simple, provided one is willing to make them such. They only seem difficult at first glance. But before it seemed strange for people that someone could lift the barrier and not pay toll, and now many people are doing it.
Our movement gave people hope and gave them a feeling of confidence and dignity that many of them had lost. It is not only a matter of money.
Vassilis Papadopoulos announced protest action against the fee of 5 euros for each visit to the hospital which according to him is imposed even to donors of blood.
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Αλλαξαν τον μήνα των κινητοποιήσεων οι αγρότες, άλλαξαν και τον τρόπο. Φέτος τα τρακτέρ θα εμφανιστούν στην εθνική οδό Αθηνών - Θεσσαλονίκης στις 7 Φεβρουαρίου (και όχι τον Ιανουάριο), όχι όμως για να κλείσουν κομβικά σημεία του δρόμου, αλλά για να ανοίξουν τους σταθμούς διοδίων.
