50 / 181
42
Greece entered the European Union in 1980 as one of the first ten countries and entered the Euro in
2002. The vision being; a united Europe, people prospering and educated to continue that way.
When Greece entered the Euro though lives were not facilitated and the quality of life actually went
down though belonging to Europe was a good tool to negotiate and seen as a great asset.
Greece’s financial crisis has been building up since 2009 – since then there has been extreme
austerity plans, several Eurozone rescue packages/loans and many protests often violent against
austerity laws.
In 2014 the radical Left Syriza coalition (The Coalition of the Radical Left) won the European
election. It is the largest party in the Hellenic Parliament; with party chairman Alexis Tsipras serving
as Prime Minister of Greece from 26 January 2015 to 20 August 2015 and from 21 September 2015
to Present.
In 2015 Greece and its creditors agreed to a third bailout after blackmail tactics were used against
them, imposing further spending cuts on the country to avoid bankruptcy and exit from the
Eurozone
After the blackmail Europe is seen by many in Greece and other countries as a totally undemocratic
with a criminal central bank and commission. They should have been guarantying the Treaties but
instead they are acting as guarantors and getting money
The GFTU delegation visit to Athens comes at a time when its country is broken. During our visit we
hear about the impact the debt is having on the Greeks and in addition we see what help is being
done for the increasing Syrian refugees.
Solidarity Piraeus
We first visited and witnessed the great efforts of Solidarity Piraeus, a small charity that helps the
homeless. They have been operating for over three years and work around four times a week -
offering food to the homeless, unemployed and the refugees. They have over 200 volunteers, which
is a real help especially with the influx of refugees. Over 100 people will arrive for food and clothes
every day. They operate in 4 different centres, they don’t just offer food and clothes but they also
have an education programme teaching French and English to adults, for children the lessons cover
all subjects including geography and history and they especially help children with learning
difficulties or who are struggling at school.
The volunteers only work 4 hours a week and don’t get paid, they do however get to take a selection
of food goods home with them twice a month as payment for the work that they do or often they
will give to others.
The food is donated by supermarkets and are mainly dry goods though while we were there they
had a large delivery of fresh fish to hand out and is collected by volunteers; the clothes are donated
by the public and people can pay donations to the charity as one offs or more regularly
The unemployed get free health care and often medical professionals will volunteer their time to
help, the unemployed have to show a card so that they can get free medicine. These cards do not
provide eye care for free though this is subsidised for unemployed people which makes it
inaccessible to most.