Vio.Me: workers’ control in the Greek crisis | ROAR Magazine

Vio.Me: workers’ control in the Greek crisis | ROAR Magazine

Just one among thousands of
Greek companies that succumbed to the deep recession brought about by
the austerity measures imposed by a series of governments, the
construction materials manufacturer Vio.Me was abandoned by its owners
in May 2011. Forty of its workers, organized horizontally in a militant
primary workers’ union, occupied the factory, located in the outskirts
of Thessaloniki, to prevent the employers from taking away the machinery
before paying the workers the nearly €1.5 million owed in salaries and
compensations.

After one
year of unfruitful contacts with the Ministry of Labor and the central
trade union bureaucracies, the workers of Vio.Me, with the threat of
poverty and chronic unemployment looming over their heads, announced in
July 2012 their intention to self-manage production in the occupied
factory, with their now famous slogan: “If you can’t do it, we can.”
This declaration was met with the indifference or hostility of most
political parties, right and left, and of the trade union bureaucracies.

However,
a constellation of grassroots initiatives, political groups, primary
trade unions and individual activists, inspired and motivated by the
workers’ bold initiative, came together to form a wide and active
solidarity movement. There was also extensive international networking
and a constant flow of sharing and solidarity with similar initiatives, especially the ones in Argentina.

When a factory near Thessaloniki
was abandoned by its owners in May 2011, the workers decided to occupy
it and resume production under workers’ control.