The Canadian activist journalist and author Naomi Klein, declared her solidarity to the Greek people, who have been living under the shock doctrine the last years, as she stated in a press conference she gave at the Mikropolis Social Space in Thessaloniki, where she is also researching the gold mining operations and the anti-gold mining movement in the region Skouries in Chalcidice.
Klein stated that unlike what is believed throughout the country, Greek citizens are “fighting like crazy,” having even inspired other people to react, like, for example, the Indignados movement in Spain.
The activist also referred to Golden Dawn, estimating that to some extent it is taking advantage of the accumulated anger prevailing in Greece. She characterized the austerity applied in Greece as “beastly”, mentioning that the country has passed on to the stage of “the exploitation of the crisis for the sale of its assets,” while she stated that, “If you can’t imagine your life without the euro, then you are trapped in it.”
Klein posed the question why the southeastern European countries haven’t cooperated yet to face together the idea that there isn’t any alternative choice to strict austerity, while she added that the party that will propose citizens a responsible alternative and will convince them that the opposite of austerity is not the Apocalypse will attract great support.
When she was asked whether it would be advisable for SYRIZA to move politically to the center in order to increase the possibility of coming to power, she answered that, “There’s a long story of left parties that turn to the center in order to be more acceptable, but it would be a complete disaster if SYRIZA did something like that,” while she added that SYRIZA should propose an alternative, in cooperation with the social movements. “If there is a real alternative, which SYRIZA can represent, then this is the hope of this country,” she concluded.
Referring to the gold mining issue at Skouries, on which she is preparing a book and a documentary as well, the renowned activist claimed that only in Gaza has she met police controls equivalent to those she experienced in Chalcidice. She pointed out that what attracted her to do research in Greece was the fact that, “The economic crisis is very actively used as a pretext for the sacrifice of the environment.”
Commenting on the role of the mass media, she pointed out that they play a central role in the subjection of a country under the shock doctrine and that states in crisis, such as Greece, need alternative mass media. “We must break the spell, break the hypnosis,” she concluded.
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