![A MODERN THERMOPYLAE: 300 hunger strikers | by SpaceShoe [Learning to live with the crisis]](http://live.staticflickr.com/5251/5430946002_1c0a172d5e.jpg)
SpaceShoe [Learning to live with the crisis]
A MODERN THERMOPYLAE: 300 hunger strikers
Hands rise and form the sign of victory. They smile and are passionate, they have taken a decision. You can see it on the way they look at you.
But others remain thoughtful. They already feel the burden that has to be carried. They think of their friends and families. Dreams that will remain unfulfilled. Simple, human dreams. For only those with simple dreams can decide such a struggle of life and death. Not thieves. Not criminals. A thief will steal, a beggar will beg.
300 is their number. Young and older. Without a Leonidas they guard Thermopylae. Their decision is: freedom or death. And they are immigrants. The “Outsiders”.
In Dostoyevsky’s book “Karamazov Brothers”, Jesus was arrested by the guards of the Great Inquisitor of Seville. In the prison where he was held, his Judge questioned him. Why you came here? You are not needed, he said. He spoke to Him about the Great Temptations he faced: But seest Thou these stones in this parched and barren wilderness? Turn them into bread, and mankind will run after Thee like a flock of sheep, grateful and obedient, though for ever trembling, lest Thou withdraw Thy hand and deny them Thy bread. But Thou wouldst not deprive man of freedom and didst reject the offer, thinking, what is that freedom worth if obedience is bought with bread?
Dostoyevsky, through his Inquisitor declares: Dost Thou know that the ages will pass, and humanity will proclaim by the lips of their sages that there is no crime, and therefore no sin; there is only hunger? "Feed men, and then ask of them virtue!"
The Great Inquisitor was wrong. Virtue does not belong to those who have learnt to fill their stomachs with unnecessary needs. It is not for those who worship whoever gives them “bread”. Those who try to protect their “bread” will sacrifice the lives of others to keep hold of it, but will not fight for themselves. They will account for nothing and they will judge others. They will imprison. They will beg. But they will not fight. For they will be alone. Because they will not be free. Those are the “outsiders” of freedom.
Virtue and freedom then. Not bread. Dignity. The poor immigrants, without any protection, have as their only weapon their lives and the solidarity of a few others. For 4 months, 3 times per week, they discussed democratically about their decision. They discussed as free people, those without any papers or any civil rights. The illegals. To find a way to make their voice heard. Many tried to convince them to change their mind. But they did not succeed. They started their hunger strike on the 25th of January.
Their allies are few. Against them all the peculiarities of our era. The advent of an economic barbarism finds immigrants – those with less bread and rights – as more and more problematic, their presence less economic. And in this countdown to nowhere, the politicians remember that Greece is a nation of Greeks. Now, this is economy.
And thus, 300 rise to struggle against the coming of a new barbarism. For them but also for all the immigrants in Greece. For all Greeks. For Europe. They build a wall with their lives, they make their own “Thermopylae” for freedom. In a struggle that seems impossible to win. Without a reason to be given. Against an army too strong. Now, there are many “Ephialtes”.
It is not the hope of victory that sustains them. It is the certainty that they are right. It is their faith that they have the right to struggle for what is true to them. To prove then that they have a voice, to prove that they exist, and against a dominant logic that perceives them as something less than human, almost dispensable, those rise above all the rest. Not to prove that they are superior. But to prove that they are equal. They accept their share of responsibility.
And if they do not succeed to make this evident alive, then they will make it visible with their deaths. For they want to unite the world. Because, this is what a hunger strike is.
15 days of Hunger have passed. I went at the place of their struggle. Clothes are dirty, people are thin, exhaustion. But they still welcome you with a smile. Rasid told me, we are like brothers, we will be until we die. Lakine told me, we are not criminals, we believe in Democracy. He demanded from me, “if we die, do not forget us”. Haliala looked at me and said with a calm voice, “we are all humans, but our hearts have grown so much that now we are able to feel the pain of each and every one of us. Of all our brothers. Our brothers in life and death”.
Many have shown their support for their struggle. Amongst them, Noam Chomsky, Alain Badiou, Eduardo Galeano and many more. But there is still much to be done. For those of you interested on what happens on the struggle of the 300 hunger strikers in Greece, please visit: hungerstrike300.espivblogs.net/
Also see:
On the photo, two hunger strikers: Lakine and Haliala.
A MODERN THERMOPYLAE: 300 hunger strikers
Hands rise and form the sign of victory. They smile and are passionate, they have taken a decision. You can see it on the way they look at you.
But others remain thoughtful. They already feel the burden that has to be carried. They think of their friends and families. Dreams that will remain unfulfilled. Simple, human dreams. For only those with simple dreams can decide such a struggle of life and death. Not thieves. Not criminals. A thief will steal, a beggar will beg.
300 is their number. Young and older. Without a Leonidas they guard Thermopylae. Their decision is: freedom or death. And they are immigrants. The “Outsiders”.
In Dostoyevsky’s book “Karamazov Brothers”, Jesus was arrested by the guards of the Great Inquisitor of Seville. In the prison where he was held, his Judge questioned him. Why you came here? You are not needed, he said. He spoke to Him about the Great Temptations he faced: But seest Thou these stones in this parched and barren wilderness? Turn them into bread, and mankind will run after Thee like a flock of sheep, grateful and obedient, though for ever trembling, lest Thou withdraw Thy hand and deny them Thy bread. But Thou wouldst not deprive man of freedom and didst reject the offer, thinking, what is that freedom worth if obedience is bought with bread?
Dostoyevsky, through his Inquisitor declares: Dost Thou know that the ages will pass, and humanity will proclaim by the lips of their sages that there is no crime, and therefore no sin; there is only hunger? "Feed men, and then ask of them virtue!"
The Great Inquisitor was wrong. Virtue does not belong to those who have learnt to fill their stomachs with unnecessary needs. It is not for those who worship whoever gives them “bread”. Those who try to protect their “bread” will sacrifice the lives of others to keep hold of it, but will not fight for themselves. They will account for nothing and they will judge others. They will imprison. They will beg. But they will not fight. For they will be alone. Because they will not be free. Those are the “outsiders” of freedom.
Virtue and freedom then. Not bread. Dignity. The poor immigrants, without any protection, have as their only weapon their lives and the solidarity of a few others. For 4 months, 3 times per week, they discussed democratically about their decision. They discussed as free people, those without any papers or any civil rights. The illegals. To find a way to make their voice heard. Many tried to convince them to change their mind. But they did not succeed. They started their hunger strike on the 25th of January.
Their allies are few. Against them all the peculiarities of our era. The advent of an economic barbarism finds immigrants – those with less bread and rights – as more and more problematic, their presence less economic. And in this countdown to nowhere, the politicians remember that Greece is a nation of Greeks. Now, this is economy.
And thus, 300 rise to struggle against the coming of a new barbarism. For them but also for all the immigrants in Greece. For all Greeks. For Europe. They build a wall with their lives, they make their own “Thermopylae” for freedom. In a struggle that seems impossible to win. Without a reason to be given. Against an army too strong. Now, there are many “Ephialtes”.
It is not the hope of victory that sustains them. It is the certainty that they are right. It is their faith that they have the right to struggle for what is true to them. To prove then that they have a voice, to prove that they exist, and against a dominant logic that perceives them as something less than human, almost dispensable, those rise above all the rest. Not to prove that they are superior. But to prove that they are equal. They accept their share of responsibility.
And if they do not succeed to make this evident alive, then they will make it visible with their deaths. For they want to unite the world. Because, this is what a hunger strike is.
15 days of Hunger have passed. I went at the place of their struggle. Clothes are dirty, people are thin, exhaustion. But they still welcome you with a smile. Rasid told me, we are like brothers, we will be until we die. Lakine told me, we are not criminals, we believe in Democracy. He demanded from me, “if we die, do not forget us”. Haliala looked at me and said with a calm voice, “we are all humans, but our hearts have grown so much that now we are able to feel the pain of each and every one of us. Of all our brothers. Our brothers in life and death”.
Many have shown their support for their struggle. Amongst them, Noam Chomsky, Alain Badiou, Eduardo Galeano and many more. But there is still much to be done. For those of you interested on what happens on the struggle of the 300 hunger strikers in Greece, please visit: hungerstrike300.espivblogs.net/
Also see:
On the photo, two hunger strikers: Lakine and Haliala.