We document this short text by comrades from Movements for Class Autonomy KTA from Greece on the recent mobilisations against the state’s response to the Tempi railway accident.

The facts

Two years after the Tempi railway crime, we may not yet know exactly what happened that February night, but what everyone knows now, is how things are run in this country: the Greek government and the bosses of the railway have been working together so that Hellenic Train can reduce the cost of operating the trains, thus making profit from the transportation of people and goods, legally or illegally. The Greek state has been turning a blind eye, constantly reducing the funding for rail transport, therefore demonstrating indifference towards the value of providing a decent service for passengers, but also securing fundamental safety to the basic safety standards for the lives of passengers. In the last two years, this has been proven dozens of times since one railway “accident” follows another, with mathematical precision. At this point, it is important to note that right before the collision of trains in Tempi, railway workers had repeatedly warned, through announcements, about the tragic and dangerous state of the railway infrastructure and the risk of an accident.

Cover-up

Was this what prompted hundreds of thousands of people to take matters to the streets once more and protest about a month ago? The answer is yes, but there is more to it. It was also the ruthless attempt by every part of the state apparatus – the government, the police, the fire department, the judiciary system, the official propaganda, state and private – to cover-up what happened. The area was dug by the fire department to prevent evidence of an explosion from being retrieved, audio and video footage was hidden or distorted, the guilty ones were not brought to justice, witnesses were not called to testify, senior judges recommended prayer and patience to mothers who have lost their children. And if it wasn’t for the relatives and friends of the victims to persistently claim their right to know why they lost their loved ones, the case would have been archived without a conclusion.

However, we think that the public debate should not be limited to the issue of the presence of illegal flammable cargo. Those who choose to “act as the opposition to the government” by limiting the debate to the issue of smuggling do so deliberately to abdicate their own responsibilities. Smuggling has always existed and continues to exist in the railway sector, similarly to the health industry and in every service of the private sector in the form of tax evasion. And all of these are crimes that place a burden on our shoulders, which must be paid for. But it is not only that. Most importantly, what needs to be highlighted are the policies that have paved the way for this crime by devaluating the railway industry.

Similarly to two years ago, there is a danger that the long-standing liability for the criminal status of the greek railways will be attributed exclusively to the current government. We must not forget that the entire power structure is responsible for this, i.e. — political parties (Nea Dimokratia, PASOK, SYRIZA) and its employees (the management of the train company), the state-run union leaderships, the private companies Aktor and Alstom that undertook the maintenance projects, and the bosses of Hellenic Train.

They are all responsible for dismantling the unified form of the railway and partially privatizing it, the absence signaling system & remote control system, the understaffing of services. All of them chose or agreed to “tip the scale” favoring profiteering at the expense of travel safety. All of them will have to pay for our 57 dead people.

Justice

How is it possible to expect this complex network of power relationships and interests to be held accountable? What does it mean when they say “lets leave justice do its job”, other than allowing it to cover up this crime?

We have seen for so long the maneuvering of powerful groups and the arguments they have been employing to obscure the case. After the first few months since the incident, they have been presenting it as outcome of human error, attempting to transform the issue from political to technical. Also, they often refer to it as an issue of mismanagement and – after the massive demonstrations of the 26th of January – offered to demonstrate governmental readiness to put the blame on specific government executives and directors, with the aim of venting the anger of the people. From the above it becomes clear that the game of cover-up is ongoing and has many levels.

We believe that “justice” is neither independent nor neutral: it is class-based. If the children of a member of parliament or a big businessman had been on the train, the cases would have resolved, those responsible would have been convicted and huge compensation would have been given to the victims. The only way to deliver justice based on the interests of the ones at the bottom of the power hierarchy, is to expose the truth and those responsible for the crime with continuous, mass and collective struggles.

It is a fact that many people have understood this. If there is something that brought so many people to the streets on January 26, it is certainly the deep conviction that the lives of all of us, who are forced to sell our labor to live, have become more uncertain and very cheap. And this is not only to do with safety in transportation, but also in our work place ; education; healthcare; in the fulfilment of every basic needs and in every aspect of our daily lives. The reason for this is because the bosses, – i.e. the employers and the political personnel that represent them – have managed to put the burden of the crisis on our shoulders, by presenting problematic situations as issues of individual responsibility or invoking external factors for every evil that afflicts our class. E.g. a virus from China is to blame for the health disaster of the pandemic, not the degradation of public healthcare. The war in Ukraine is to blame of the raising of prices in the stores, not the pampering of the stores’ bosses. The stationmaster is to blame for the railway crime in Tempi, not the complete devaluation of the railway.

If we can extend this understanding to the point of realisation that simply staying home on our couch is not the solution then we will have taken another step in the right direction. It might seem costless to express statements on social media such as “everyone is the same,” “I feel frustrated with the political system,” “nothing is happening,” “things will never change,” “there is no alternative to capitalism”. However, in our day-to-day lives, such statements cost a lot, because they offer no solution to anything.

It is a fact that the antagonist movement has fallen back at all levels since 2012. However, it is also true that between 2006 and 2012 there were mass struggles against educational reforms, austerity policies and fascists in the streets. During this time, we managed to block – to some extent – the huge attack that the greek and international bosses launched against us. And we did this because we relied on our own collective forces, creating neighborhood assemblies, self-organized collectives in workplaces and universities, collective groups of survival in the midst of the crisis, putting into practice the perspective of autonomy of our class.

However, it is because we abandoned this collective effort, that is why we have reached the point where we are now. On the other hand, only if we find oxygen to revitalize new communities of struggle, in every social field, that perhaps we will have a chance that things evolve differently, beyond some sort of political laundering or a mere governmental change in a few years.

This requires initiatives for the formation of new horizontal, self-organized and autonomous processes of struggle, which will pursue three basic demands:

– to shed light on the Tempi crime and hold all those responsible accountable

– to offer support to the survivors and relatives of the victims, who to this day have been subjected to criminal indifference by the state

– to establish social control of the railway as well as all public transport by passengers and employees, who will determine how the sector will be run, e.g. the frequency and safety of every transportation medium, the cost and routes that will best serve social needs

ΚΤΑ | Μovements for Class Autonomy

February 2025