This year marks the second anniversary of the Tempi rail collision between two trains who drove head-on into each other. Due to continuous austerity measures against the safety authority, train operators were allowed to continue running this cartel with no public accountability. These acts of criminal negligence killed 57 people and the systemic safety ‘gaps’ remain unfilled to this day. Our sister organisation, the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) is working tirelessly alongside the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) to hold all peddlers of austerity politique accountable. This is our expression of solidarity with them as they continue to struggle against this on all fronts.
Dear comrades,
We wish you success and strength in these difficult times – the second anniversary of the Tempi train accident.
Neither the Greek, nor the European bourgeoisie, nor the opportunists in the Hellenic parliament kept public transportation, a national institution, safe for its users. This safety should be a guarantee. Instead, the parasitic train companies want to run their profit cartels with impunity and feed off the pittance the Greek proletariat scrapes together every day.
Greek workers are offered a false dilemma: ride the corrupt and dangerous rail network or submit to themselves by car to another cartel: to oil companies, over neglected and pothole-strewn roads, waiting hours longer than necessary in traffic.
Like the East Palestine train derailment that poisoned Ohio’s air and nature with vinyl oxide. Like the burned-down Grenfell Tower, the latent causes of the Tempi train collision was swept under the carpet. This was a crime against the proletariat through criminal negligence and collusion with actors whose supposed duty it was to keep them safe.
Safety regulations under capitalism are not designed to protect us. Rather, they are there to protect capital from paying damages for their disregard of human welfare by obfuscating who is responsible for these standards – were the standards too lax, or did the public safety authority lack sufficient oversight on their operation? The private operators no longer have any liability to the passengers at all – all responsibility is funneled to the public body.
As the KNE and KKE have proclaimed in their slogan, “it is our lives or their profit.” As communists, we will strive for a society in which our people come first, accepting only the strictest standards. Safety must be used to protect lives on a continuous quest for further improvements, not gambled away in the name of ‘cost effectiveness’. Compensation must be justly provided to the victims with solidarity and a cohesion incomprehensible to us now, not ‘won’ from antagonistic private hands through a stressful and expensive court proceeding.
Until that day, your righteous anger inspires us and millions of workers around the world. Solidarity and keep going.
With comradely greetings,
The International Commission on behalf of the NCPN and CJB