In Greece, workers, communists and trade unions are demonstrating that organized solidarity can stand in the way of banks, real estate funds and the capitalist machinery of evictions. In two separate cases within days, mass mobilizations in Thessaloniki prevented elderly people from being thrown out of their homes, exposing the brutality of a system that places capitalist profits above human dignity.
On October 30, more than 150 people mobilized to prevent the eviction of a 92-year-old woman with an 87% disability rating from the home where she has lived for 64 years. The elderly pensioner, a mother of six, faced losing her only residence after foreclosure proceedings involving the National Bank of Greece. The determined intervention of workers, trade unions and local residents secured a temporary postponement.
Just three days later, on November 2, another powerful mobilization took place in eastern Thessaloniki, where an elderly couple, aged 77 and 75, faced eviction from their home. Trade unions, students and neighborhood residents formed a protective barrier, preventing the eviction from proceeding. A mass demonstration subsequently filled the streets, with the participation of Communist Party of Greece (KKE) MP Leonidas Stoltidis and other communist-backed elected representatives.
These struggles recall the case of Maricarmen Abascal in Spain, whose threatened eviction became a symbol of popular resistance against housing speculation.
The KKE has denounced the Greek government's latest legislation on non-performing loans and housing protection, arguing that successive governments have systematically dismantled safeguards for working-class homes to benefit banks, investment funds and debt servicers.
The Communist Party demand the complete protection of primary residences, a ban on their foreclosure, and the withdrawal of the government's proposed legislation. They emphasize that the predatory practices of financial institutions can be confronted through organized working-class struggle and solidarity.
The two incidents expose a fundamental contradiction of capitalism: while banks and investors accumulate wealth, elderly people who have worked their entire lives can be threatened with homelessness. Yet the response in Thessaloniki sends a powerful message. The homes of working people are not commodities to be sacrificed for capitalist profits. And when workers organize, the plans of banks and financial predators can be defeated.
As the demonstrators declared: “The people's homes will be saved by the people!”
Just three days later, on November 2, another powerful mobilization took place in eastern Thessaloniki, where an elderly couple, aged 77 and 75, faced eviction from their home. Trade unions, students and neighborhood residents formed a protective barrier, preventing the eviction from proceeding. A mass demonstration subsequently filled the streets, with the participation of Communist Party of Greece (KKE) MP Leonidas Stoltidis and other communist-backed elected representatives.
These struggles recall the case of Maricarmen Abascal in Spain, whose threatened eviction became a symbol of popular resistance against housing speculation.
The KKE has denounced the Greek government's latest legislation on non-performing loans and housing protection, arguing that successive governments have systematically dismantled safeguards for working-class homes to benefit banks, investment funds and debt servicers.
The Communist Party demand the complete protection of primary residences, a ban on their foreclosure, and the withdrawal of the government's proposed legislation. They emphasize that the predatory practices of financial institutions can be confronted through organized working-class struggle and solidarity.
The two incidents expose a fundamental contradiction of capitalism: while banks and investors accumulate wealth, elderly people who have worked their entire lives can be threatened with homelessness. Yet the response in Thessaloniki sends a powerful message. The homes of working people are not commodities to be sacrificed for capitalist profits. And when workers organize, the plans of banks and financial predators can be defeated.
As the demonstrators declared: “The people's homes will be saved by the people!”
