300 migrants on Hunger Strike in the Athens

300 hundred migrants are on hunger strike since Sunday 23/01/2011. The 300 migrants demand every migrant in the country to get documents. They also demand for migrants in Greece to get equal political and social rights -but also equal obligations- with the Greek workers. For many years now the workers’ and migrants’ rights movements in Greece are requesting equal rights, and viable and humane policies for migrants who want to get the legal documents to stay in the country. Nevertheless, the Greek authorities announced recently the building of a new wall in the borders between Greece and Turkey, while every year on the borders of Greece thousands of migrants die in their effort to come to Europe.

The 300 hunger strikers moved recently in the new building of Athens School of Law (University of Athens) in the center of the city -another group of 50 migrants-hunger strikers moved in Thessaloniki’s Workers Center. The Athens Law-School’s facilities are not being used as yet for teaching – while the executive of the Law School’s students union supports the hunger strikers who moved in their School’s grounds along 20 other political groups. However, the Law School’s Vice-Chancellor locked out the School since the first day. Suddenly the Greek government of PASOK, the conservative ND, the extreme-right LAOS and the Greek president united and agreed that the regime of University Asylum is being abused by the hunger strikers and they proposed a renegotiation of the Academic Asylum.

The Academic Asylum is constitutional provision which defends academic freedom and freedom of speech within universities. It means that police and army cannot intervene within Greek Universities. For many years now Greek governments have tried to cancel the academic asylum while police have attacked to protesters within University grounds several times. However various movements -students, left academics, anarchists, workers etc- have managed to defended physically the academic asylum.

The hunger strikers blogs:

http://hungerstrike300.espivblogs.net/

http://allilmap.wordpress.com/

Article reprinted from: From the Greek Streets #479 - Occupied London Blog.