April 6 2016 Refugee Voices in the Athens port of Piraeus “In Syria we made a revolution for a dignified life… there we lost our lives and our dignity here (…) We need the support of the Greek and European people. Alone we cannot. We must unite with the Greek and European workers in order to achieve the demands that we all request.” In the Athens port of Piraeus there are more than 5000 refugees. They are staying either in tents that are mostly within abandoned terminals and buildings, or under every roof that can be found inside the premises, as water enters inside their tents when it rains; contrariwise under the sun the heat is too overwhelming. The refugees are mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. They have arrived several days ago. Their registration papers given by the Greek police on reaching Greek soil say they are allowed 6 months of permanence in Greece to continue their way to the northern countries, where these refugees are hoping to reunite with their family, have a job and a dignified life. But trying to cross the northern Greek border into Macedonia, their second stop on the journey, they found that the border was closed. And even more, the governments of the Europe of Maastricht now state that borders will not be opened, while they are carrying out a plan of deportations together with Turkey. The advance party to apply it is the government of Syriza, the "left" of the Troika. Wednesday, March 6 in the port of Piraeus, we find buses prompted to relocate refugees to "camps" within military bases outside the city of Athens and other far away Greek cities. The police had been responsible for "informing" refugees that the port should be emptied and they had to go there, promising there were beds, hygiene, medical care, food, hot water. But all refugees who have lived or live in there complain that this is not like that. We are facing real concentration camps, where the government wants to take the refugees to be deported from there. So Syriza threatens refugees in the port with its police, saying that whoever does not want to leave will be forcibly evicted at any time. These accusations were later endorsed by the ministry of migration in a press conference held at the same port of Piraeus. Passing through the ranks of press cameras, police custody and immigration ministry officials who were at the entrance of the port area of Piraeus, we arrived to the inner harbor, where we could talk with some refugees: "I came here a month and five days ago. I waited 26 days at the border with Macedonia. It was always closed; I could never pass to the other side. I had to go back, but we are still waiting to cross the border. Though today we have been abandoned, not knowing when we can cross. We cannot go back. We cannot stay here. We are human beings and we are treated worse than animals. We need a solution, because here we cannot stay any longer. We need open borders.” Heisam, a Syrian refugee tells us. "Look at the food, it is rotten. People from the Greek government distribute food and it is inedible. All we can eat is what we buy. And at some point we are going to get out of money. We have no bathrooms. I challenge you to enter one of the few chemical toilets there; I bet you won't be able to. They are broken, do not work; they are clogged with dirt." Mohamed, another Syrian refugee who was at his side, told us. "Yes, the worst of it is dirt. It's all dirty, hygiene conditions are very bad. Bacteria abound. Everything is a source of infection. Above all you cannot bathe. You know how we bathe? We get into the sea when it's hot, or throw water over with a bottle in a tent we use as a bath, without soap or shampoo. Not only we do not have them; worse even, they in the NGOs have, because the Greek people have donated us the stuff; but the NGOs do not want to give it to us." Fuad, a Syrian refugee, adds. He continues: "As I know some English I use to accompany people to the doctors who are here in the trailers, to translate. You know what the doctors tell us? You have to change the environment; we have infections due to conditions in which we are. But where are we going to go? " "The government wants to take us to military camps. I swear I'd rather go back to Syria under the regime shelling. There is only one large tent in there in the open for dozens of us sleeping on the floor. It is in the courtyard of a military base that is isolated from the cities, in the midst of mountains and forests. The entrance is forbidden for journalists, solidarity organizations, donations of all kinds, doctors. And the guard is atrocious, many policemen with dogs. The doors are open but it is a prison, because to get out of there you have to leave your papers behind. And there is no transportation, where can I go? It is a prison. They tell it "camp", but it is actually a concentration camp." Hadil says; she was taken to one of the military camps where the government of Syriza wants to send refugees and after six days she got permission to leave and transport for her and their children to return to port, which cost her 120 euros. "And what is the solution? Not the camps. The Greek government says that if we do not want to be deported, we must ask for asylum here, where there is no plan for learning the language; neither funds nor possibility of obtaining housing or work, and once we make the request we cannot leave the country. Moreover, most likely they reject the petition saying that there is no work. And if they reject it, we are also deported. We prefer to push us into the sea before returning to Turkey. We cannot go back; we have just left everything behind. Our solution is that Macedonia opens borders, but it does not. I do not know why it bothers it so much opening them if we do not want to stay in its country; we are only traveling to another country. We must do something, because this is not a life. Here there are no human rights. We are worse than animals. In Syria we made a revolution for a dignified life and there we lost our life and dignity here, we have nothing left" Poses Heisam, and he adds: "We have already made many protests, and were not heard. We need the support of the Greek and European people. Alone we cannot. We must unite with the Greek and European workers to get the demands we all want". Refugees today in Greece and throughout Europe are the heart of the European working class! But they are divided, separated and isolated from all the workers of the old continent, especially after the inside job in Paris, France, the government of Hollande organized to isolate refugees from the European workers who had received them in Europe giving them all their solidarity, and going to the streets in support moved by the photo of Aylan Kurdi lying lifeless on the shores of the Mediterranean. First it was the self-bombing on Charlie Hebdo magazine, then those on November 13 last year with immediately France and other European countries going militarized. From these events, all the imperialist powers and their spokesmen in the world -especially within the labor movement as the trade union bureaucracies, Stalinism, social-imperialist parties of all kinds- launched a campaign "against ISIS terrorism", which resulted in Islamophobia , reaction and attack on all refugees. Parties that call themselves leftist also condemned the attacks as "works of ISIS" and provided the perfect excuse to the imperialist governments for launching an attack of isolation and persecution of all refugees. These currents convinced the whole of European workers that their enemy was the ISIS and not that "the enemy is at home": their own government, their transnationals discharging on them the worst retrenchment measures (known as "austerity") loss of conquests and pensions, wage cuts, increased working hours etc. And the reality was that the more Islamophobia and attacks on refugees grew and more refugees were deported, the more the imperialist powers of Maastricht unloaded the costs of the crisis on the working class. France is a living example of this, where after evacuating the refugee camp in Calais -after a chain of attacks on the refugees- Hollande's government could take the offensive implementing an increase in working hours where the European workers' conquest is lost: from 35 hours a work-week they now have to work 40. To be sure that if refugees in Greece are eventually confined to concentration camps and deported, the attack on the Greek working class will be worse even than those in the fourth memorandum in progress (the retrenchment measures agreed by Merkel and Tsipras last year: tax increase on workers and common people, pensions-and-minimum wage-slashing, etc.). But despite the leaderships of the French unions saying "the enemy is the ISIS" and "We are all Charlie Hebdo", workers and students imposed a general strike fighting in the streets against austerity measures. French militant youth occupies the central Republic Square, carrying banners with slogans with their demands and against the reform of the labor code, known as “law Khomri” (named after the Minister of Labor): "(...) demolish El Khomri . Let's burn the entire Paris ". In Greece, sectors as port workers also march to strike. They must first of all raise the demands of refugees and carry out a unified struggle against imperialist Maastricht looting oppressed peoples, persecuting refugees and downloading a brutal attack on all European workers. We must get rid of the union bureaucracy, the Communist Party and all leaderships of the working class that have prevented this unity! All workers' organizations should recognized refugees as honorable members. The port strike in Greece has to raise in turn a demand to stop deportations and close the port! If refugees are shipped, it amounts to shipping off European and Greek working class’ children’s bread. We must coordinate a struggle of the entire old continent working class against the EU! No to deportations! Not to refugee camps; decent housing for all! Open borders! Papers and citizenship rights, labor and union rights for refugees! We must stop the attack on the European working class! Jobs for all! 35 hour work week with salary equal to the basket for all workers in Europe, born on either side of the Mediterranean! Let’s coordinate right now all committees of solidarity with refugees and workers' organizations that are fighting! It is the same working class, the same demand for a dignified life, facing the same enemy: Maastricht's imperialist transnationals, their governments, regimes and states! For a European General Strike! Correspondents

April 6th- Breaking news The refugees in Greece resist the deportations confronting Syriza and the EU The Greek dock workers go on strike against the cuts... The French workers and youth go on general strike and occupy the Paris Square of the Republic against the reform in the labour law.. The same struggle, the same enemy It is a need to unify the struggle of the European workers against the imperialist Maastrich! Blocking the roads in Greece-Macedonia: "Open the borders, find out a solution" Refugee threatens to commit suicide in Moria camp in Lesvos Today April 6th, the refugees in the Pireous Port are taking the Athens’ streets towards the Parliament to protest there but it was evicted by the Syriza’s police. Inside the Pireous Port they protest for the awful conditions and reject the attempts of eviction of the ongoing occupation of the 5000 refugees. in Chios Island , the refugees are still occupying the port trying not to be arrested and deported since they have escaped from the concentration camp where they were in prison toppling down the razor wire. In Lesvos Island, in the concentration camp Moria, almost 200 refugees were already deported and other 2000 are still in jail behind the razor wires but they denied having the same fate of the others. The desperation caused that one refugee attempted suicide hanging himself from a electricity tower before the media cameras chanting: “Freedom, freedom!” Meanwhile in Northern Greece, Macedonia border, the refugees keep blockading the railway and once again blockade the routes that connect Greece with the Balkans and the rest of Europe. Police evicted the route blockades and tried to do the same evicting the railways but they didn’t succeed.  The refugees affirm that they cannot win alone. During the latest days they have participated in many demonstrations, protests, media rallies, hunger strikes even they have attempted suicide to gain the unity with the European workers. They already are on strike in France and the Greek dockworkers will go on strike next Thursday. A single class, a single enemy, a single struggle! All of them confront the imperialist Maastricht and his measures against the working class of which the refugees are part. A unified struggle is a need. Let`s impose from the rank and file the unity of the trade unions and militant youth organizations side by side the refugees! European General Strike rightnow!