{"id":19809,"date":"2016-02-17T12:25:19","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T19:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=19809"},"modified":"2016-02-17T12:26:14","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T19:26:14","slug":"in-greece-womens-solidarity-faces-and-resists-cynicism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=19809","title":{"rendered":"In Greece women\u2019s solidarity faces and resists cynicism: Areti Karatasiou"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Womens-Solidarity-House-meeting.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A meeting at the Women&#8217;s Solidarity House<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In Greece, in July 2015 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dissentmagazine.org\/online_articles\/europe-greece-memorandum-understanding-mou-galbraith-munevar\">the third memorandum<\/a> imposed on its leftist government, elected in January 2015, has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-eurozone-greece-resignation-idUSKCN0QP1Q820150821\">precipitated its dissolution<\/a>. This <a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2015\/09\/09\/greece-a-capitulation-bearer-of-deadly-threats\/\">change of government<\/a> was also perceived as capitulating. The measures are now being implemented, devaluating pensions, especially the lowest, and dispossessing the country of its assets.<\/p>\n<p>After having opened public spaces and institutions to the wrath of the private market, the Troika and especially the IMF has succeeded in conveying the message that the \u201cvery generous\u201d pensions of the Greek people must be reduced drastically to \u201csave\u201d the Greek\u2019s economy. It is worth noting that beside unsustainable cycles of austerity measures producing higher unemployment and pension reduction, <a href=\"http:\/\/cadtm.org\/Poul-Thomsen-Greece-and-the\">45% of the pensioners live under the poverty line<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We met Areti Karatasiou at the Women\u2019s Solidarity House in Thessaloniki, commonly referred to as \u201cthe venue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a teacher in the public school system, she knows the meaning of the Troika\/IMF\u2019s discourse: it demands people to work longer time in order to collect retirement, while many are being laid off or forced to retirement. This seems contradictory, but it is not. The result is well known: increased precariousness for a majority of people while reducing the social fabric of the society and its safety net to its bare minimum. It\u2019s a clear example of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dartmouth.edu\/~lhc\/docs\/achillembembe.pdf\">necropolitics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Areti mentions that the pension she receives amounts, at the moment, to only 700 Euros (about $700), after 30 years of teaching and contributing to the social safety net.<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-19809-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Areti-first-part.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Areti-first-part.mp3\">http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Areti-first-part.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>For many women like Areti in Thessaloniki it is a struggle to keep decent conditions of life. Areti explains here what it means to be part of the Women\u2019s Solidarity House.<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-19809-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/areti-2.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/areti-2.mp3\">http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/areti-2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Womens-Solidarity-House-banner.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"415\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">No women alone during the crisis!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(Photo Credits:\u00a0Marie-H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Le Ny)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Greece, in July 2015 the third memorandum imposed on its leftist government, elected in January 2015, has precipitated its dissolution. This change of government was also perceived as capitulating. The measures are now being implemented, devaluating pensions, especially the lowest, and dispossessing the country of its assets. After having opened public spaces and institutions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5505,5194,880,5157,5353,1617,5424],"class_list":["post-19809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-areti-karatasiou","tag-austerity","tag-brigitte-marti","tag-greece","tag-radio-wibg","tag-resistances","tag-womens-solidarity-house","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19809"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19812,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19809\/revisions\/19812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}