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An employee of the burnt bank speaks out on tonight’s tragic deaths in Athens

repost | 05.05.2010 20:20 | Globalisation | Workers' Movements | South Coast

Tonight’s tragic deaths in Athens leave little space for comments – we are all very shocked and deeply saddened by the events. To those (on the “Occupied London” blog even) who speculate that the deaths might have been caused purposefully by anarchists, we can only reply the following: we do not take to the streets, we do not risk our freedom and our lives confronting the greek police in order to kill other people. Anarchists are not murderers, and no brainwashing attempted by Greek PM Papandreou, the national or the international media should convince anyone otherwise.

That being said, and with developments still running frantically, we want to publish a rough translation of a statement by an employee of Marfin Bank – the bank whose branch was set alight in Athens today, where the three employees found a tragic death.

Read the letter, translate it, spread it around to your networks; grassroots counter-information has a crucial role to play at a moment when the greek state and corporate media are leashing out on the anarchist movement over here in Greece.

"I feel an obligation toward my co-workers who have so unjustly died today to speak out and to say some objective truths. I am sending this message to all media outlets. Anyone who still bares some consciousness should publish it. The rest can continue to play the government’s game.

The fire brigade had never issued an operating license to the building in question. The agreement for it to operate was under the table, as it practically happens with all businesses and companies in Greece.

The building in question has no fire safety mechanisms in place, neither planned nor installed ones – that is, it has no ceiling sprinklers, fire exits or fire hoses. There are only some portable fire extinguishers which, of course, cannot help in dealing with extensive fire in a building that is built with long-outdated security standards.

No branch of Marfin bank has had any member of staff trained in dealing with fire, not even in the use of the few fire extinguishers. The management also uses the high costs of such training as a pretext and will not take even the most basic measures to protect its staff.

There has never been a single evacuation exercise in any building by staff members, nor have there been any training sessions by the fire-brigade, to give instructions for situations like this. The only training sessions that have taken place at Marfin Bank concern terrorist action scenarios and specifically planning the escape of the banks’ “big heads” from their offices in such a situation.

The building in question had no special accommodation for the case of fire, even though its construction is very sensitive under such circumstances and even though it was filled with materials from floor to ceiling. Materials which are very inflammable, such as paper, plastics, wires, furniture. The building is objectively unsuitable for use as a bank due to its construction.

No member of security has any knowledge of first aid or fire extinguishing, even though they are every time practically charged with securing the building. The bank employees have to turn into firemen or security staff according to the appetite of Mr Vgenopoulos [owner of Marfin Bank].

The management of the bank strictly bared the employees from leaving today, even though they had persistently asked so themselves from very early this morning – while they also forced the employees to lock up the doors and repeatedly confirmed that the building remained locked up throughout the day, over the phone. They even blocked off their internet access so as to prevent the employees from communicating with the outside world.

For many days now there has been some complete terrorisation of the bank’s employees in regard to the mobilisations of these days, with the verbal “offer”: you either work, or you get fired.

The two undercover police who are dispatched at the branch in question for robbery prevention did not show up today, even though the bank’s management had verbally promised to the employees that they would be there.

At last, gentlemen, make your self-criticism and stop wandering around pretending to be shocked. You are responsible for what happened today and in any rightful state (like the ones you like to use from time to time as leading examples on your TV shows) you would have already been arrested for the above actions. My co-workers lost their lives today by malice: the malice of Marfin Bank and Mr. Vgenopoulos personally who explicitly stated that whoever didin’t come to work today [May 5th, a day of a general strike!] should not bother showing up for work tomorrow [as they would get fired].

- An employee of Marfin Bank [greek original]

repost
- Homepage: http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2010/05/05/an-employee-of-marfin-bank-speaks-on-tonights-tragic-deaths-in-athens/

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

Just after the fire .. MARFIN BANK

05.05.2010 20:58

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RP6E-mUEP0

outside the just burned Marfin bank of Mr Vgenopoulos. Three employees burned alive , after the bank was set to fire with Molotov . Earlier today the employess had to work although a day of general strike, and although the obvious risks, as the bank was on the main route of the Demo with extensive window glasses in the ground floor and no usable fire exit. For many the workers in the bank were used as human shields for the building

gr
- Homepage: http://garizo.blogspot.com/2010/05/blog-post_05.html


dubious

05.05.2010 22:26

Strange that this so-called employee doesn't mention anything about the actual fire being the cause of death. And strange that there is not a hint of sorrow or any respect shown for his collegues. Not one mention of how tragic it is, just straight in there with facts and figures rather than a single drop of emotion. Sorry, but it just sounds like a PR campaign to me.

anon


Consequences of actions

06.05.2010 01:10

The only one responsible for the murder in this case is the molotov thrower. People have to face up to the consequences of their actions and be mature about it. If you're going to torch something, you check that it is unoccupied first. End of story!!

I throw rocks at cops


re: consequences of actions

06.05.2010 10:04

stop trolling, fucker.

shouldn't your signature be "I lick arses of cops"?

anon


Marfin ? Marfia sounds like all banks are Mafia Banks !!

06.05.2010 11:54


Drugs Arms, dealer in death, money laundering, where Mafia Money meets PPP (Public Private Project).
London is the center of the wheeling and dealing in Drugs from the 3rd Opium War currently be ìing waged in Afghanistan. Arms 4 all, with big bugs to provide fake "end tickets" Disposal (literally) of the Capitalist systems by products, like Toxic Waste by the boat full, how many off the Italian coast ??
But it appears that the Greeks are not getting a cut of all this "black money" so they are up in arms.
They need to get their crime sector into better shape, start laundering money through London and Amsterdam live and direct to off shore tax havens like the British Virgin Islands and Dutch Antilles

Organized Crime = Capitalisms big success story

Mafia Bank


anon

06.05.2010 14:10

Strange that you fail to realise that these points had been continuously put through to management a lot before the incident occurred. And that even though the cause of death was asphyxiation, the employees would not have had to run upstairs for air had the building contained fire exits or even had the management of the bank not decided to lock the employees in as if they were detainees in a maximum security prison.

The management of the Bank is just as complicit to the murder of these people as the people that threw the petrol bomb into the building.

T


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