ICCG 2015 - Precarious Radicalism on Shifting ...

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their land into an open cast gold extraction mine, to uncover how this process .... share to the canadian mining company Eldorado Gold. corp. at the price of 1.8 ...
ICCG 2015 - Precarious Radicalism on Shifting Grounds: Towards a Politics of Possibility Land dispossession and socio-environmental struggles in times of crisis: Lessons from Greece

Giorgos Velegrakis Slide 1 Slide 2 Introduction Since 2010, Greece became the epicenter of the global crisis. The implementation of extreme unpopular austerity measures lead to the deterioration of working conditions and the massive privatization of public and social assets. These developments caused the de-valorisation of private and public land including land-related resources. Currently in Greece, the exploitation of land comprises investment targets for international and domestic speculative capital at some unprecedented extent and intensity. I assume that this complex process should be researched by taking into account Harvey's question on "how crises create the ground for fresh rounds of accumulation". This paper uses the examination of land dispossession in the case of Halkidiki, Northern Greece, where local communities are mobilizing against the transformation of their land into an open cast gold extraction mine, to uncover how this process is taking place. Furthermore, it researches how a local environment-related struggle (in a crisis period) contributes to a broader antisystemic political project and seeks alternatives. The anti-gold extraction movement in Halkidiki is for sure the dominant socio-environmental struggle in Greece with

local and international support and solidarity within the crisis period. Other important struggles such as the water anti- privatisation movement in Thessaloniki, the movement against illegal landflls and waste combustion in Keratea and the movements against Industrial Renewable Energy Infrastructures in several Aegean islands also emerge. Most of these movements have a long history although they were reinforced during the last years within the crisis. All together have in common an anti-land grabbing basis and constitute what we call "everyday environmentalism in times of crisis". Slide 3 Some theoretical insights Alex Loftus begins his book "Everyday Environmentalism” by saying: “This book is about remaking our world ".This proposal, although ambitious, encapsulates the period in which we live and the challenges ahead. I believe that the current phase of global capitalism in the economic and much more in the social feld raises the urgent need for a new, radical, democratic political act.”

Alex Loftus points out in the introduction of his book that today we should study and be inspired by: a) the philosophy of action as set by Marx and Gramsci developed further, b) the implied critique of everyday life, and c) connection with the above understanding of the diferent production environments. I think this is a key approach because it provides a dialectical and materialistic framework for analyzing and understanding the relationship between capitalism and environment and the production of environments and geographies. According to Harvey (2014): “The continuous circulation of capital depends upon the successful passage (with success measured as the rate of proft) through the two moments of, frst, production in

the labour process and, second, realisation in the market. The unity that necessarily prevails between these two moments within the circulation process of capital is, however, a contradictory unity. (…) Capitalism as a social formation is perpetually caught in this contradiction. It can either maximise the conditions for the production of surplus value, and so threaten the capacity to realise surplus value in the market, or keep efective demand strong in the market by empowering workers and threaten the ability to create surplus value in production.”

This dualism or contradictory unity shows the importance of the realization of value which is always geographically oriented and determined. This is how geography, space and especially land come into the game. According to Swyngedouw (2012) land rent is one of the most powerful and contradictory aspects of the political economy of capitalism: “Not only does it pit landed capital against productive and interest-rating capital (and its associated intra-class conficts) but it also shapes the conficts between land for reproductive use (in housing or subsistence agriculture), land for resource exploitation (or ecological reserve), land as a form or capital investment (for landowners), land as a productive asset (comparable to other means of production) and land as a form of fctitious capital that circulates as a purely fnancial asset (for fnancial capital)”.

These starting theoretical points bring us to the current situation where the question is whether • Capitalism is in its “rentier phase”, where land is not used for production but speculation and fnancialisation? Slide 4 Slide 5 Crisis, austerity and land dispossession in Greece

Crisis Statistics during the last years in Greece are unequivocal and show the huge recession of economy and its impact on

the society within the debt crisis. The indicies shows that austerity works largely as a strategy to squeeze the direct, social, and difered wage in beneft of both domestic and international capital. Hadjimichalis (2014) comments ironically that the only success story of austerity in (5)Greece has been the devalorization of land and land-related resources, besides that of labour power. As a result, land dispossession is becoming widespread. On one hand, this became possible due to the current crisis in which land and housing lost 20–35% of their commercial value since 2008 (Hadjimichalis, 2014); On the other hand, it was due to the permanent conditions of exception introduced by Memoranda, which imposed massive public land privatizations. Slide 6 The key role to the readjusted institutional system and massive land dispossession processes was held by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADFTAIPED). TAIPED, imposed and supervised by Troika, was established in 2011 in order to comply the fscal targets of the adjustment programs as repayment of the national debt. The fund, has been substantially formed for the privatization of public land, state-owned assets, infrastructure, public companies, airports, coastal fronts and, in some cases, even islands. At the same time, privatizations and potential developments are facilitated with the introduction of a special planning law which revises existing planning regulations and restrictions by releasing trespassing, declassifcation of protected areas/buildings, changes in land uses, decrease in the thresholds of land segmentation, etc.). So, to sum up within the crisis framework austerity policies have been implemented not as an irrational policy repertoire but as a receipt to facilitate capital accumulation over labour cost with specifc spatial implications. We here argue that austerity as a governing strategy of the current

crisis has been a catalyst for  land dispossession and  the exacerbation of socio-ecological problems and conficts. Slide 7 Slide 8 The Halkidiki case study The exploitation of land, but also of natural elements linked to it - such as water, forests, the subsurface and biodiversity - nowadays comprise investment targets for local and international speculative capital at some unprecedented extent, intensity and geographical spread. The areas grabbed may be smaller than corresponding ones in the global South, yet they comprise an application of the same international practices, adjusted to Greek society's local characteristics. Such an attempt is being materialized at the moment in Halkidiki, northern Greece. Halkidiki is known for its wonderful beaches, which attract millions of visitors from around the world. Yet it is also historically known for its gold and silver extraction mines and from 1950 up to the present date, consecutive companies continue the extraction of gold in caves; despite numerous environmental problems, mining activity was tolerated by local communities, as it created employment locally. Yet the present case is diferent.The previous Greek governments, agreed to long-term contracts with a the Canadian company, El Dorado for the exploitation of the gold deposits for a ludicrously small sum-ceding 31.000 ha, ignoring both the devastating impact upon the environment and the health of the residents from the open cast mining. These irreversible and negative consequences have mobilised thousands of residents who protested, tried to occupy the premises of the company, clashed with the Riot Police, all the time while villages encountered tear-gas for the frst time and while tens of school pupils were accused

of being "terrorists". Slide 9

Project data and transfer: Land grabbing at a diferent scale In December 2003, the assets of Cassandra Mines of TVX Hellas S.A., were transferred by law, ratifed by the greek parliament, to the greek state for 11 million euros. They were sold the same day to Hellas Gold S.A. for the same price without prior economic assessment of the assets and without an open competition. Slide 10 The concession exempts the company from any transfer tax or other taxes and relieves it in advance from any fnancial obligations concerning environmental damage resulting from previous operation of mines. The european commission has decided that the terms of the contract amount to an illegal state aid in favor of the company equivalent to 15.3 million euros. The greek government immediately appealed for an annulment of the decision. Slide 11 In 2007, European Goldfelds ltd acquired 95% of Hellas Gold S.A. In december 2011 European goldfelds ltd sold its share to the canadian mining company Eldorado Gold. corp. at the price of 1.8 billion euros. According to the greek Mining regulation the mining company has full possession of the minerals contained in the concessions granted and there are no royalties for the state. Slide 12 Slide 13

Social mobilisations: Only some insights In March 2012, thugs hired by Hellas Gold S.A. and 30 police attacked a post set up by people who tried to protect an oldgrowth forest from being cut for gold mining. Fifteen people were badly injured, eight had to go to hospita and one conservationist struggled for his life.

In the night of 16 to 17 February 2013, an arson attack took place on the worksite of mining company Hellas Gold (controlled by the Canadian company El Dorado) in the Skouries forest in North-Eastern Halkidiki. Equipment and vehicles were set on fre. On 7 March 2013, more than 200 fully armed riot policemen invaded Ierissos. Later in the afternoon, when the house searches had been completed, the police attacked once again, with excessive use of chemicals. A demonstration of over 15.000 people followed in Thessaloniki - with the Canadian consulate as target.

A model of socio-ecological struggle in austerity times?  The most intensive and resilient social movement in times of crisis.  Following the methods and the content of the “Syntagma square movement”.  Villagers accused of being terrorists.  From “decent women” to “rebels”.  Production of a new democratic space?  Attempt for a production of environments at diferent scales.

radical

diferent

Slide 14 Conclusions – Beyond the local struggle This presentation leads more to open questions rather than conclusions on both political and epistemological grounds. Furthermore it brings up the issue of action and practices against land dispossession among diferent scales. As Hadjimichalis (2014) points out: “Land dispossession in Greece did not commence with the crisis—and it shall not end with the exit from the Memoranda. It comprises a timeless characteristic of Greek society, with the thousands of grabbings of public land by individuals, businesses, the church, monasteries and

municipalities through all sorts of illegal constructions, the invocation of nonexisting ownership titles and the timelessly severely lacking interest in the safeguarding of public interest in public property.”

Grabbings of public land and public space take place at multiple scales, enjoy an extended presence all over Greece and afect political mentalities and the everyday ethics of citizens and authorities alike, at all levels. Professor Giorgos Kallis: “What Greece experiences today is a regression from a developed to an extractivist state, similar to the process many Latin American countries underwent in the 1980s. Extractivist is a State whose sole function is to provide the global economy with cheap raw materials, often at the cost of its own people and its own development.” Kallis says it is not a coincidence that the gold - which has always been there - is dug out in this time of crisis. The crisis lowered costs by reducing the cost of labour (25%) and reducing the monetary cost of externalities: the health, visual or environmental impacts are no longer valued thanks to the troika conditions to skip the EIA. Furthermore state oppression and police violence is being legitimized in times of crisis or “exception”. Kallis: "Economic crises are necessary for creating new exploitable territories when limits have otherwise been reached. They achieve it by the devaluation of economic, social and environmental capital." Yet, whatever the intensity and scale of land dispossession in the urban and rural space is, the process will take extreme dimensions especially after the latest agreement which legitimizes further land privatizations and land dispossession mechanisms.