The Insatiable Greed for Money..

by Vasilis Giavris (Lawyer & Political Scientist)

An eight story building collapsed in Bangladesh recently. The building contained a bank, shops and offices. It was also the venue of a sweatshop factory part of the multi billion dollar a year garment industry. The building was in a dilapidated condition. According to government officials it had been constructed on unstable land and lacked appropriate permits.

The day before the collapse severe cracks appeared and all the occupants of the building refused to return to work. All but the sweatshop workers. Whilst the bank and office employees were allowed to leave the sweatshop workers were ordered by their boss to immediately return to work. If they refused they risked loosing their jobs and have their pay docked. In desperation they obliged. A few hours later the building collapsed resulting in the death of 1,127 people and 2,438 injured.

It has been reported that the victims were predominantly female sweatshop employees between the age of 13 and 30. However, no one really knows how many people were located in the building at the time of the collapse. No one really knows the true number of people that died. It has been reported that close to 200 dead bodies remained unclaimed and buried in a civic cemetery. Unknown and unclaimed – it seems they were children of a lesser god.

Bangladesh is said to be the world's second biggest supplier of clothes. More than 80% are exported to Europe or the US. The garment industry is said to employ 3.6 million workers.

Most of these workers are abused and mistreated. They work in appalling conditions earning on average 38 Euros a month and are forced to work 14 to 16 hours per day. 

So who is turning a blind eye and profiting from these victims? 

1. The Western clothing industry who pay extremely low wages, ignore working conditions and gain a huge profit for themselves and their shareholders; 
2. The people in Australia, Europe and the US who enjoy cheap clothes and reap the product of the Bangladeshi workers labor;
3. The Bangladeshi sweatshop owners who cut costs and ignore health risks in order to offer cheap products and maximize profits for themselves;

Companies like ZARA, Gap, Benetton, Walmart, H&M, K-Mart and Target have a substantial amount of their clothes manufactured in Bangladesh. Are these companies not aware of the labor conditions in Bangladesh? Do they not care? Do we care?

It is necessary for us to consider the enactment of strict legislation in Australia, US and Europe that will prohibit Australian, US and European companies manufacturing and importing products that are made in breach of Article 23 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7 the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. After all these countries are signatories to these declarations and covenants and should uphold them.

Human dignity is a common entitlement applicable to all humans, irrespective of social status, gender, religion or country of origin. Breach of human rights cannot be tolerated in exchange of material wealth and profit. The lives, health and working conditions of humans cannot be subservient to balance sheets, production costs and economic “growth”. 

It is a shame that despite Senegal’s “Door of no Return” having shut its gates over a century ago many in the Western world still rely on slave labor to enjoy “comfort” and realize “profit”.

“Post Truth” Politics: The Need For New Political Leadership in Greece

by Vasilis Giavris (Lawyer & Political Scientist)

The end of “metapolitfsi” marks a turning point from one epoch to the next. With it, the landscape of power in Greece has changed. Increasingly, voices stemming from the far right & left, in conjunction with those from the various political charlatans who claim “parthenogenesis”, are dominating the political agenda gaining a ‘legitimacy’ previously denied to them.

Offering an over-simplistic analysis full of vitriol, prejudice and fear mongering their polemical rhetoric promotes a policy of distraction and a misplaced rage that marginalizes rational discourse. Such voices serve as a smokescreen designed to achieve their sole objective – polarize the Hellenic people and maintain or obtain political power.  What they express is a brutalism motivated by misanthropy, obsession and compulsion.

Welcome to the “post truth” era. Language is used to deceive, entrap and polarize. When a large amount of people peddle fantasy as fact our society loses it’s grounding to reality. But the burden of today should not be used as an excuse to trample democratic principles, human rights and the rule of law. Tyranny can take many forms. We must not replace one form for another.

Today the “language of truths” remains to be spoken. This is the language that we must seek. As Hellenes we must protect, respect and honor our cultural and historical past. However, it is imperative that we do not become or remain victims of such past.

The word “παράδοση” inherently involves an acceptance, respect and understanding of previous knowledge, customs and heritage developed and adopted by our forefathers. However it does not end there. It is not enough to understand and respect our past. We must build on it for the future. Hellenism is a living organism. We need to “δόση” which entails to hand over. What we need to hand over is an amalgamation of the sum of our past, our struggles of today and our vision of the future.

So where are the voices of truth? Where can we turn? Why aren’t ordinary concerned citizens forming new political parties in Greece? Reform will not be brought by the existing parties who hold seats in parliament. They are part of the dysfunctional system. Reform can only be achieved bottom up – from each and every one of us.

Now is the time for new hope and possibility. The Hellenic people need to replace the politics of fear with post-partisan reform. We must incorporate a new sense of direction where human needs are placed at the forefront of government policy. Where a balance between individualism and collectivism is sought and achieved and individual rights co-exist with communal expectations.

Now is the time to learn from Isocrates and understand that a democracy destroys itself when its citizens abuse their right to freedom and equality, when its citizens are encouraged to consider insolence as a right, illegality as freedom, offensive speech as equality and anarchy as bliss.

Now is the time for a new political leadership that will stand up for all Hellenes and offer a rational vision of rebuilding Greece. A broad based alliance that will oppose the new grammar of power that seeks to distinguish between creditor and debtor states. That will oppose neo-colonialism in the form of German Euro-nationalism.

Greece needs to come of age, to show independence of mind and spirit, to forge its own destiny. We cannot continue to be a “quasi democracy” where decisions about Greek citizens are made by foreign governments. The German “Bundestag” must no longer decide the fate of Greece. The fate of Greece must rest with the Hellenic people for it is the Hellenic people that are the custodians of sovereign power.

We must not loose faith. On the contrary, let’s get active!

Vasilios Giavris

President
Hellenic Democratic Initiative