Introduction at the meeting on the 9 years of "Odysseus" at the Trade Union Center of Thessaloniki, Greece (9-4-06)

What is "Odysseus"

Today a large part of our country’s working class is comprised of immigrants. As a rule they take the most burdensome and worst-paid jobs, while they are often deprived of not only essential labor rights but also human rights… An important prerequisite for facing all these hardships is good knowledge of the Greek language.
Our collective tried to "answer" to this necessity by creating, in December 1997, the "Initiative for Teaching Greek Language to Refugees, Immigrants and Homecomers", which was hosted at the Union of Organizations of Public Sector of Thessaloniki. The first contact of teachers and foreign workers took place at the Trade Union Center of Thessaloniki and was organized by the trade union organization ERGAS.
The starting point for this actual solidarity has nothing in common, in our opinion, to a "volunteerism" of the "Athens 2004" type, nor to charitable festivities that "correct" the social profile of big shots and at the same time transform the obligation of the state to "optional goodness". During the journey of our own Odysseus we have discovered many weaknesses and problems in what we have tried to do. Our first and biggest mistake was that we thought that classes must be homogeneous as to the country of origin of the pupils.
During the first period (December '97 to May '98 and September '98 to June '99) we formed our classes according to the country of origin.
We thought that if some of us knew or tried to learn the grammatical and syntactical rules of our pupils' language, the lesson would be better. But we still hadn't realized that our night school was also a social place. That nationalism did not only concern the locals, but also the immigrants, especially in a period of great tension in the Balkans, where a big part of our pupils came, and still comes, from. The war in Yugoslavia was, therefore, a good chance to realize this. At that time we faced our biggest internal crisis. So, the years '98-99 showed us what we had to do. This is the period for which we don't have accurate data, due to our internal crisis and to our transfer to the Macedonian Institute of Labor (property of the Trade Union Center of Thessaloniki, it disposed for us three classrooms, a computer lab and our office-secretary). Life itself imposed the coexistence of all. In the next year, 1999-2000, the classes were multinational and this happens until now. The basic criterion is the level of knowledge of the language. At the same time, however, the pupils set their own criteria. They were, and still are, free, to a point, to choose a class. This has also a negative side, which is the progress that every class can make.

Hosting…

After we contacted the manager of the Macedonian Institute of Labor, who helped us a lot, our third academic year (1999-2000) started much better. Our one and only classroom was not enough anymore and our "Initiative" moved to the Macedonian Institute of Labor. Two years after forming the "Initiative" "Odysseus" was founded as a necessity in order to acquire a legal being and therefore be able to ask for books, hosting e.t.c. The Trade Union Center of Thessaloniki supported us in solving the hosting problem and by taking over the cost of heating, electricity and basic equipment.

The name "Odysseus"

The name "Odysseus" was chosen because we wanted to emphasize the struggle of persons fleeing their countries to find their own personal and collective Ithaca, through the Clashing Rocks of exploitation, xenophobia, racism, absence of rights, and exclusion from many and necessary public benefits. We want to make clear that the fighting off of racism, xenophobia, and the absence of rights were added later to the objectives and actions of "Odysseus". All those aims were added easily to our orientation as the most of the three thousand people that have passed all these years from our solidarity school, were facing and still face problems in all sectors of rights and benefits in health, insurance, education, employment, board, and participation in trade union, social, cultural and political activities.

Why we carry the title of NGO

In 2001-2002, after an invitation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and after discussions with friends and pupils, we were registered in the Greek Non Governmental Organizations. Our aim was that pupils, who of course knew very well the needs in their countries of origin, could suggest actions facing real problems. But none of our actions or proposals was supported and, of course, there was no funding by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On the contrary, we were proposed to build a poultry farm in Albania… At the same time we realized that in order for a Greek NGO to act outside Greece, this action should be considered necessary by the Greek State, for example by a Greek diplomatic authority or consulate. Our proposal was to build a computer lab for young people with kinetic problems, so that they could learn the basics of computers, with the hope that this would help them get a job, and after a year to give the lab to a school in Albania. The proposal was made by pupils who knew that many young people were crippled after the events with the pyramids and the uprising that followed.
But the diplomatic authorities in Albania didn't agree that such an act was necessary, but only didn't object. So we are left with the title NGO and we honestly don’t know what to do with it…

What else did we encounter in our own "Odysseus"

Night school is anyway a social space. A place to meet, discuss and form social relationships.
The lack of a place to meet and discuss is important. It is one of the reasons that we need extra space that, in parallel to the classrooms in the Macedonian Institute of Labor, will function as a place to tighten our bonds.
We started from the lessons of the Greek language, but in our nine-year course we met more. We met the huge lack of rights and the exclusion of economic immigrants. We met the pedagogic of Paulo Freire and its special value in our case. We also met the talent and creativity of the pupils of "Odysseus", who started the magnificent multinational Theatrical Group of Immigrants, which has already played four plays in thessaloniki, Athens and Karditsa. All shows were unique. The Theatrical Group was a turning point for "Odysseus". Its members express thousands of people that live and work near us, with us, but don't have the possibility of cultural expression. The Theatrical Group of Immigrants was awarded the second award in a contest for amateur theatrical groups from all over the country, in September 2005.
In the last 6 years we also have courses on basic knowledge of computers.

Aims

This attempt has an emancipative nature. So our main target is to let the people, and mainly the immigrants, manage for themselves. From now on the broad features of the community must be carved more deeply.
We also want to find an extra place to be hosted, in parallel to the Macedonian Institute of Labor. We wish that the Municipality of Thessaloniki and the urban movements present here tell us, in this public discussion, if they agree to support this aim and if they will take an initiative on it.
We would also like to have more active support and solidarity by the Trade Unions, the organized collectives and all our friends.
In our aims is also the reverse function of "Odysseus", that is teaching foreign languages for free (Russian, Albanian, Serbian) for toilers, students, for anyone who wants and can't or won't "buy" the knowledge of a foreign language that he needs to have, where we could use foreign teachers who are also our pupils. This aim was and still is in our intensions, but it is heavily dependent on our hosting issue.
We have the same problem regarding our aims for football, basketball and volleyball teams. We are still waiting for an answer from the University, for the University Campus Gym. We would like to have the opinion ant the proposals of the representative of the Municipality of Thessaloniki and the urban movements present here.

Questions and a few answers

The first question… What makes millions of people to flee their homelands? We must answer this question because the traditional picture of the immigrant is not adequate to give all the new dramatic characteristics of immigration inside the contemporary world economic, social and cultural context.
How correct is then the term "immigrant" for all fleeing their countries? What is really a person who flees his country on account of starving poverty, an economic refugee or an economic immigrant?
The transportation with slave ships and trucks, the passing through minefields, the long marches on mountains, the often forceful fleeing of one’s birthplace, the travel without papers, and the trafficking paint the portrait of a desperate person, a person in danger of his life, a refugee or of one trying to better his life?
More questions arise by the lack of rights, starting from political rights:
How democratic is it that the permanent residents of a region, a Municipality don't have the right to elect and be elected? This is a right which stands on top of bourgeois-democratic rights… Why don't they have the right to elementarily control the authorities by their vote?
Who benefits by the social and political isolation of the economic refugees?
Under which process and under what social, economic and political conditions people are being ghettoed?
Who and what benefits from the creation of ghettoes?
Does the experience of France after the uprising of the socially marginalized and jobless people make us think? We also have here the second generation of immigrants with acute problems. Hovering children and young people, fleeing prematurely from school, unable to return to their homeland and unable to be assimilated here. What happens? How far is an uprising (the "Balkan" way) of this marginalized youth?
What initiatives do the Municipal authorities and the urban movements think that they should take on this issue?
It would be useful if they clearly stated: yes or no to the vote to immigrants as a first step to cure the rising ghettoes in the city?
Is the good knowledge of the mother language a prerequisite to learning Greek? Is the knowledge of Greek a prerequisite to assimilation? The relation of language and thought is undisputable. The poor knowledge of the mother language is a disadvantage to learning any other language, but also of knowledge in general.
Does the State ignore all this? Nobody (authorities, ministries e.t.c.) ever heard anything about the relation og language and thought?
Today the Institute of Continuous Education of Adults "solved" the problem with two or three classes, covering 60 people in Thessaloniki, when the newspaper "Makedonia" mentioned a few weeks ago that at least 10% of the population of Thessaloniki is foreigners. The total population of Thessaloniki is between 1 and 1,5 million. Don't they know in the Institute of Continuous Education of Adults that a prerequisite for a green card for 5 years is, according to the new immigrant law, the knowledge of the Greek language and culture?
Do those who formed this law think that Greek can be learned automatically, since only 60 people are taught by the Institute of Continuous Education of Adults in Thessaloniki?
Who benefits by this limited or non-existent knowledge of Greek?
Shouldn't the teachers' unions take position, by pressing to open the schools for teaching Greek to all that need it and also the mother language for the children of economical refugees?
Another important question:
Who benefits by the black labor, the labor without social security? Maybe the unemployed local and foreign workers?
Why is the worker punished for labor without social security and not his employer? What else but punishment is that for the green card 200 days of work per year are needed, while the State knows that we have 1.100.000 people working without social security? Don't they know who benefit and who lose by this?
How do the Trade Unions think to react to this, at a time that the discussion for social security starts and while everybody knows that the only solution is social security for all?
Where does the new immigrant law stand? Which problems does it cause and which does it introduce? Illegalizing the biggest part of immigrants? Who benefits from this?
The Trade Unions the Association of Lawyers, all of us should take position. A discussion should be started that will mobilize and will explain that a bad immigrant law does not only harm the foreign workers, the economical refugees, but all the toilers because it covers the black labor without social security against all working society and in favor of the employers.
Why, after fifteen years, public services still don't have all the papers and forms needed to the immigrants at least in three or four foreign languages, those of the biggest immigrant communities, or even employ people that can speak those languages? What kind of justice is this, when there are cases of economical refugees that can't understand why they are prosecuted, because of the language?
The unions of toilers in the public sector should take position.
All these, and many more, are by chance or a conscious choice, because exploitation favors in such procedures?
The absence of rights and the barring of public benefits in connection to bias and xenophobia are some of the basic causes of social ghettoes. Who gets hurt the most by ghettoization but the economic refugees themselves along with the poorest people of the city’s debased quarters?
We must all take a firm position. We must count ourselves, see who are for and who against uninsured work, the creation of ghettoes, the negation of essential bourgeois and human rights, the systematic constraint of absorbing public benefits, the vulgar commercialization of all human needs. Everything must have a name and a surname.
"Odysseus" is a multinational "island" of solidarity. In our 9 years of action, more than 3500 immigrants/refugees have entered our literacy classes and more than 140 teachers have teached voluntarily. After 9 years of real solidarity to the economic refugees we ask more questions to ourselves than at the beginning. Aside from the literacy problem, we cannot solve the other major problems that have arisen. We can though point at them and emphasize that a struggle for a better world without exploitation, racism and war is worth to fight. We want to change this world because it is still divided between the "nation" of the exploiters and the "nation" of the exploited; between the nations of the oppressed and the oppressors. All us who support "Odysseus", all us who look forward to a universal Ithaca for the nation of the poor and the oppressed, of all who create the wealth of the world that gets reaped by the few, all us have an important advantage: Our solidarity. We must deepen it and make it a reality. As much and anywhere each of us can.