Hopeful news is needed, say the young colleagues in Argia. Rightly so. The large media that painted the world as a consumer without economic cycles or crises, now play into the wounds of the citizens rejected by the system, every catastrophe. Is no one looking for a way out in the midst of so many disasters? Yes.

On February 14, ARGIA gave one of those hopeful news: “Workers towards self-management in Greece. The factory workers, who have not paid any wages since May 2011 Vio.Me, have occupied the building in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. The owners have long left the factory and the workers have resumed it under their control. They want to show that it is possible to move forward through self-management.” Two days earlier, production had begun on that Thessaloniki pigeon. It has a story to know.

If you ask the Internet search engines “Viomihaniki Metalleytiki”, you will find echoes of the multiple mobilizations that have been carried out in Athens since 2011, as in Thessaloniki. In the whole of Greece, but also in the world, there has been a great wave of solidarity with the workers left by the boss. But the evolution of what they call abbreviations Vio.Me cannot be understood without knowing that of Philkust Johnson.

In 1961, the family Philippou and Christos Constantopoulos founded Philkust to dedicate themselves to tile and ceramics (Phil-kust, hence its name), which until then imported these building elements from Italy and Spain. The Philippou, proud of their pride, had been working for 120 years on the construction of tiles.

40 years later 2000.ean, it had 350 employees who made 4.5 million square meters of ceramics to export to 29 countries, and which on their way introduced English capital and became Philkust Johnson. By the end of the 20th century, it earned ISO certifications, created a penetration subsidiary in the United States. United States and invested over EUR 6 million.

Everything was a compliment for Philkust Johnson until the crisis fell on his head. If the crisis has hit some part of the economy, it has been construction. Sales hit bottom, electricity and gas prices rise, commitment appropriations cannot be met, everything has gone down.

Viomihaniki Metalleytiki is a branch of this one that was a state-of-the-art ceramic manufacturer, dedicated to the production and sale of construction products n.Los workers realized in May 2011 that its pattern had not entered any humphets in its current account. The workers started the long road that starts in similar cases: legal claims, protest, demonstration, lockdown...

He abandoned the major arts that had come to conviction. They gradually approached the argument that has been raised in the previous crises in many places, including the Basque Country, where so many cooperatives and SAL have been seen: “That the boss can’t go on? We will do it!”

Doubts about self-management

Viomihaniki Metalleyti have been welcomed by well-known personalities: Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis, John Holloway, David Graeber, Raúl Zibechi... If the iconography and arguments used by the workers have not been very misunderstood by this journalist, the people who are in anarchism, libertarian socialism or political ecology, against globalization.

Following a solidarity meeting with the workers held on 10 February at a theatre in Thessaloniki, on 11 a large recital was held in a stadium with the participation of Thanassis Papakonstantinou and other groups and singers. The next day the workers would be thrown into a real struggle to survive.

On the new life of the factory he interviewed Makis Anagnostou, chairman of the workers' committee, the electronic journalist Nea Prooptiki, who then shows in English on the site Vio.Me. Anagnostou first thanks all those who, since they decided to take up their jobs, have offered them their help, two euros or a bag that has been handed over to them.

He has also reported on the relations and disagreements that have occurred with the majority unions and with the left-wing groups. The decisions taken in the assemblies by the workers of Viomihaniki have not always coincided with what was proposed to them by the unions. They first went to the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and did not agree when trade unionists advised them to strike to pressure employers to put capital into the company.

For the rest, the debates and doubts that will always be between the workers who have intervened in the crisis and the left-wing militants have been among the following: if it is not a game of capital, if the workers do not forget the changes and start playing within the system and others.

Last October workers took a three-hour tour of Thessaloniki, Larissa and Volos to Athens. “If until then,” Anagnostou said, “many colleagues were in doubt, they did not know whether they entered the movement or not, in the end they clearly said that if they returned to make the mobilization they would participate.”

In early March, survival will be the main headache for the inhabitants of Viomihaniki Metalleytiki.En the interview, Anagnostou says that they have plans to produce and sell their materials also in a very weak market, which knows their trade well, which will reduce costs, which in addition to Greece will make its sale in the Balkans possible.

Are the pioneers among the Greeks condemned to the abyss? “I wouldn’t say they’re pioneers. Our demand has always been a priority for working people. Those who work, more industrial, have always had the hope of being able to take into their hands the tools of production and produce themselves. But the bourgeoisie is many years old and now also workers in a hypnosis, so that he doesn’t think in that direction.”

On the site of Vio.Me you can read this beautiful message of solidarity sent from Ramadan City in Egypt: “The steel workers Kouta of Egypt to those of the Greek factory Vio.Me!” The workers in Egypt also reject the so-called austerity measures, which lead them to share their experiences in self-management. “Millions of workers are looking at us, thinking that we are making the dream they were expecting come true.”