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Anastasia Balezdrova

The civil movement "we do not pay", which became known for refusing to pay tolls drags like an avalanche the Greek society. Very soon, representatives of the movement, which continues its actions at the road cash desks will begin protests against the increase in fares for public transport.

GRReporter contacted Vassilis Papadopoulos, one of the head coordinators of the movement in Athens, who said that the movement is just beginning to extend its activities.

Mr Papadopoulos, how do you plan to protest against the increases in fares?

When we set up the movement 15 months ago we said that we are not "road cashiers", i.e. that will not only deal with tolls. Our slogan is "We do not pay tolls, we do not pay for their crisis". By this we mean the crisis, which was created in the country from some people who put the funds to use, and we were just informed that we must pay the bill.

This logic includes also our tactics not to pay for many things. We think that it is quite illogical for one working person with a very low salary, who at best earns 600 euros or for a pensioner who does not receive a month more than 400-500 euros or for an unemployed person to pay a ticket which costs a euro and a half in one direction to go to work or to the hospital or to the labor market and to pay the same amount to get home. These are three euros or 1000 of the former drachmas it is not a small amount.

If we consider 3 euros per day, which is the minimum, because each one of us may need to use public transportation several times throughout the day. In this case a person would need about 10 euros a day just to move around the city. If you multiply this amount by 25 days because at least one weekend a person will go somewhere, we are talking about 250 euros per month. When his salary is 600 euros consider what will remain for food, rent, etc.

We are in favor of the free public transport for all. There are social benefits such as free traffic, public transport, hospitals, education, electricity, water, communications, the air we breathe, the sea. Nobody is able to take them from us, nor should anyone benefit from them. They will always cause losses, because the stakes for a society is to support the people. We are not talking about something unnecessary or exaggerated, such as a luxury car for exampble, but about essentials.

Our movement is also against the "road fee" of 5 euros for each examination which government want to impose on hospitals. In general, we want to remove all barriers that we have ahead of us. The barriers of the fear in our heads that the various regimes impose on us, barriers at the borders that divide people by color, language, origin and mostly barriers that stop people on the roads.

When will the protests about the fares start?

Tomorrow at 3 o'clock in the afternoon a meeting will take place between representatives of all means of transport (buses, trolley buses, metro, electric train, trams, trains, etc.), traffic commissions of the movement "We do not pay" and also citizens. The meeting is open to all willing to participate. There, in a democratic way we all speak and then we take the decisions about our actions.

Then the implementation of the actions will begin. On 1 February, when the increases in public transport tickets will come into effect, we will hold protests in the buses and metro stations.

What will these protests be like?

We will "occupy" stations we will try to block the machines, that punch the tickets without breaking them of course, we'll just cover them. We will enter the buses and urge the people not to punch their tickets so as for other citizens to also join us and the slogan "I do not pay" to become a common way of thinking.

You know that when a person works, he usually waits for the bus at the same time every day with other people who he sees almost every day at the bus stop. Our goal is for these people at a later stage to organize themselves in refusing to punch tickets and be mutually supportive. Thus the conductors will have a much more difficult time dealing with the discontent of all passengers on the bus.

What this system does is to divide us by instigating one group of people against another one. It tells employees in the private sector that all civil servants are to blame, but to them it tells that in the private sector I don’t know what injustices are going on. Thus we are governed following the ancient Roman motto "divide and conquer". We want to overcome this, and to create links of solidarity between us. To go back in time when we took the hand we were given as a sign of friendship and support, rather than a threat.

How do you comment on the fact that the government began negotiations with companies concessionaires to reduce tolls?

It shows how helpless these people are. Currently, many companies and banks want to withdraw from the concession contracts. They are not profitable for the banks because they have granted the companies loans with very low interest rates and with the increase of the spreads they are losing money. On the other hand, companies are also not satisfied because the construction of sites is slow because appropriation of land is not carried out and in some places there are obstacles related to environmental protection, which can not be overcome easily. And of course, because there is the movement against the tolls, which is constantly growing.