Strawberries and blood .. Manolada / Greece

Statement on the brutal attacks against the strawberry immigrant land workers in Nea Manolada The immigrant land workers, obliged to unbelievable working and surviving conditions in the strawberry fields in the region of Nea Manolada Ilias, were in strike for many days demanding their daily wage to increase from the ridiculous amount of 23 euros to 30 euros.

In the night of 19th April, in an operation of intimidation of the foreign workers aiming to cancel a big rally announced for the 20th of April the local land lords and their private guards brutally attacked the workers´ settlements using guns and other weapons. Many of then were heavy injured and transported to the hospital.

In spite of these attacks the rally was realised next day with the support of the local population and of members of the Communist Party of Greece and of All Workers Militant Front, PAME.

The landlords attacked again brutally, without any reaction by the police forces, the immigrant land workers and the communists supporting their struggle.

In face of the inadmissible conditions for the foreign land workers, the criminal attacks and of the scandalous stand taken by the Greek government, the press bureau of KKE issued the following statement:

KKE condemns the indifference showed by the Greek government, the judicial authorities and the police forces towards the beatings, the acts of pogrom, even towards shots used by bullies hired by landowners against the immigrants in Manolada and members of KKE who supported their fight.

KKE expresses its full support to the immigrants in their struggle under the worst conditions for survival.

KKE calls upon the workers, the popular strata to express solidarity with the immigrant land workers.

We, Greek and immigrant workers face the same enemy, the same anti-popular policy which is supported by the same economical forces. We should united fight back.

Athens, 20th April 2008
--------------------------------
‘Strawberry slaves’ expose plight of immigrants
 http://www.dawn.com/2008/05/14/int17.htm
By Raphael Hermano
NEA MANOLADA (Greece): Nea Manolada was a quiet village in southern Greece unknown to many until a strike by “strawberry slaves” exposed the dark underbelly of one of the country’s key economic sectors.
His face burnt by the sun, 34-year-old Ivan looked around nervously as he recounted how hundreds of migrant fruit pickers stood up to their employers last month and won, briefly.
“Strawberries are particularly difficult to pick,” said the burly Bulgarian who declined to give his real name said.
“You’re squatting down for seven hours, with a break that can be as little as 15 minutes. But the worst thing under those plastic tarpaulins is the heat.” He measures his words. Ivan, in Greece for a decade, only became legal last year after Bulgaria joined the EU, but he is mindful of the lot of many migrant pickers illegal, desperate for work but subject to exploitation that has long met with an official blind eye.
“It’s the definition of modern slavery,” said Ilias Ahmed, a member of the communist-affiliated Workers Militant Front (PAME) who has helped create a union for Bangladeshi workers in Greece.The problem is not confined to the strawberry farms on the west coast of the Peloponnese, where farmers are dependent on seasonal labourers, many from abroad. When the strawberry season ends in July, the workers go elsewhere to harvest potatoes, olives, watermelons and more.
But for three days in late April, hundreds of pickers in Nea Manolada staged an improbable strike to demand higher pay.
Greek media found out and reports on the “strawberry slaves” and the “strawberries of shame” brought inspectors to conduct raids in this farmland corner.
They found entire families from Albania, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece’s minority Roma community working in local greenhouses in temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
More than 2,000 seasonal workers are employed in Nea Manolada, a community of only 1,900 which a few years ago hit upon strawberries as a lucrative crop now heavily exported to European Union partners.
Most of the migrants were living in squalor inside makeshift huts made from the same plastic as the greenhouses and forced to pay a monthly rent of $93-156 to their employers for the privilege.
The farmers also own the onsite markets where migrants buy weekly essentials which returns even more of their salaries straight back to employers.
“The workers of Nea Manolada are almost all without papers. As such, they have no rights and the farmers can do whatever they want,” said Ahmed.
Still, some say they’re grateful. “In Bulgaria, my wife and daughter would have been prostitutes and I would have been unemployed,” one Bulgarian migrant told the Epsilon weekly.—AFP

It's like the early days of indentured servitude in the 'West Indies' : in the EU in 2009!!!