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(en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #6-25: Greece is not so far away. Two years after the Tempi massacre (ca, de, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]
Date
Thu, 10 Apr 2025 09:35:01 +0300
I don't remember ever seeing Athens like this. This is one of the most
popular comments online after the huge mobilization in Greece for the
second anniversary of the massacre caused by the Tempi train disaster.
The struggle of the victims' families, the immense participation that
flooded the streets around the parliament, the anger against the
institutions responsible for the massacre, the brutal violence of the
police, the determination of those who resist street by street. It is
difficult to say whether in terms of numbers the mobilization was larger
than the large demonstrations against the austerity policies that
surrounded the Greek parliament several times between 2011 and 2015. Of
course the fire is still burning under the ashes, not only in Athens.
With a general strike and demonstrations throughout Greece on February
28, a clear message was sent that has resonated throughout the world:
"Enough deaths in the name of profit". The mobilization that culminated
in the large squares of Athens and Thessaloniki took place two years
after the collision between a passenger train and a freight train, which
occurred in Thessaly in the Valley of Tempi, which caused 57 deaths, one
missing, and 180 injuries, 81 of which were serious. The worst train
disaster ever to occur in Greece. The impressive panoramic views from
above of the large demonstrations of February 28, and even more so the
images of the Molotov cocktails against the police lined up in front of
the Hellenic Parliament in Syntagma Square in Athens, have gone around
the world. As they say, "they broke the screen," opening a window onto
an event that is rarely talked about outside of Greece, certainly
because among those responsible for the massacre there are also large
companies from our country, such as Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, which
in addition to Trenitalia also controls Hellenic Train. The group, after
all, controls numerous important railway transport companies in Europe:
in Spain, Germany, the UK, France and, of course, in Greece. These are
events that unfortunately we know well, they all seem the same, in every
country. Think of the Moby Prince massacre, the Viareggio massacre, the
Morandi Bridge massacre. They say that safety regulations suffocate
businesses, but in the end it is always those who work, those on board,
who die. Investigations always focus first on human error. Only if
family members and trade unions take the initiative, fighting with
determination, then even institutional justice is forced, at times, to
take into consideration the responsibilities of corporate leaders and
institutions. For each incident, it is obviously important to
reconstruct dynamics and responsibilities, but the dramatic social
reality in which these "accidents" occur is clear for all to see: they
are massacres that could have been avoided, caused by the pursuit of
maximum profit and the natural disorganization of the state system. In
fact, beyond the media representation of the street clashes, there is
nothing exceptional in what is happening in Greece. The situation of
rail transport in Italy is certainly not better, even considering the
differences between the two countries, as unfortunately demonstrated by
the numerous "accidents" of recent years.
Four investigations were initially launched for the Tempi massacre, two
of which have been merged, and of the three remaining, only one has
already had an initial result. On 1 February, the Administrative Court
of First Instance of Athens ruled in favour of the family of a
controller killed in the disaster. Both OSE, the company owned by the
Greek state that manages the railway network, and Hellenic Train,
controlled by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, which manages the freight
and passenger train service, were ordered to pay the victim's family 800
thousand euros in compensation, because both are held responsible for
failing to ensure safety. In particular, the judge wrote that "Hellenic
Train failed to ensure that an essential communication system connecting
stationmasters, conductors and (railway) traffic controllers was fully
and continuously in operation during the journey of the trains it rents
and uses for its own needs, which concerns the safe circulation on the
network of the second defendant, OSE S.A., which controls the railway
infrastructure". An important ruling, because it recognizes, at least in
the administrative office, the safety deficiencies and corporate
responsibilities. According to the so-called contract 717, a major
infrastructure adaptation project, signed in 2014 and illegally extended
7 times, the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) safety
system should have been installed on the line since 2016, which could
have prevented the accident. The same system that was hit in Italy by
500 million cuts from the Meloni government and the Minister of
Transport Salvini in 2023.
The same system that was hit in Italy in 2023 by 500 million cuts from
the Meloni government and the Minister of Transport Salvini.
On the eve of the anniversary of the Tempi massacre, a 178-page report
was published by the Organization for the Investigation of Air and Rail
Accidents and Transport Safety (EODASAAM) which attributed the
responsibility for the disaster to human errors, obsolete
infrastructures and serious systemic deficiencies. An independent expert
report requested by the victims' families, which also highlights how the
"fireball" explosion ['fire that occurs following the immediate ignition
of a certain mass of flammable aerosol] that occurred during the
accident was not possible given the goods officially transported. The
investigation therefore deduces that there must have been an illegal
transport of fuel on the freight train. What is certain is that the
authorities immediately did everything they could to cover up the case,
removing 300 cubic meters of earth from the site of the disaster and
replacing it with gravel, not taking the necessary measures to protect
important evidence such as security camera footage or to ensure that
autopsies were not carried out. The government led by Mitsotakis is held
responsible for this cover-up. For this reason, the squares filled with
anger and determination in Athens and Thessaloniki, where the APO, a
federation of anarchist collectives that adheres to the IFA, was present
in an organized way, which wrote in a statement "What happened to Tempi
was a premeditated murder whose culprits are the Greek state and private
capital". Thousands demonstrated in about 250 other locations in Greece,
but also in dozens of cities in Europe and beyond. There was a
demonstration in Novi Sad, Serbia, which started, after the collapse of
the shelter of the local train station last November that caused 15
deaths, a massive anti-government student movement that is spreading
across the country. There too, on February 28, a banner read "The state
and capital kill".
Dario Antonelli
https://umanitanova.org/la-grecia-non-e-cosi-lontana-a-due-anni-dalla-strage-di-tempi/
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