On Sunday 9th August the 33rd camp of Antinazi Zone / YRE (Youth Against Racism in Europe), the antifascist and antiracist campaign built around Xekinima (Greek section of ISp) came to its end. It was unquestionably one of the most successful ones ever held. This is first indicated by the numbers, which were around 420 people. Equally important, if not more, all the discussions held were of excellent quality: very interesting, very lively and with a very important participation of young comrades at all levels.
The youth was clearly one of the central characteristics of the camp, but what is also very important is that all generations were very present at the camp. Even children of a very small age, in the first grades of elementary school, were not only present but had their own separate “assembly”, meeting daily, to present the “children’s council” on Saturday August 8, which focused on war, the wild fires and the need for solidarity and collective activity.
International presence was also very notable, with around 30 comrades from countries outside Greece. These included Romania, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Cyprus (north and south) and Spain. International comrades introduced quite a number of discussions, together with Greek comrades, and spoke in many others.
Last but not least, culturally the camp was a great success, with live music in the evenings and trips and excursions to nearby places, like Akronafplia and the island of Hydra. All of the events were, of course, taking place next to a great beach a few kilometers away from Nafplio, the city that was the first capital of Greece in the 19th century.
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The two central discussions were a) on Palestine and b) on the “commodification of happiness”. They were both very interesting and inspiring and attracted between 130 and 150 participants each.
On Palestine we had a very interesting platform, with the president of the Palestinian workers in Greece, Mihiar Ektami, a leading member of the peace movement (The Peace Partnership) in Israel, Palestinian Solafa Mahoul and a member of the Israeli Parliament elected with the left coalition of Hadash, Ofer Cassif. On behalf of Xekinima, comrade Andros Payiatsos spoke.
The issue of the common struggle between Israeli Jews and Palestinians, on a class basis, was the central theme of the discussion. The speeches, answers to questions and the sum ups of the speakers, enthused and inspired the audience, many of whom said they had never fully realized how important the struggle of the left and aligned forces against Zionism, is in Israel.
The commodification of happiness was also a very important and inspiring discussion, with Eleni Mitsou speaking on behalf of Xekinima and Costas Mantzos as a social anthropologist. The discussion took up aspects of the daily life and the way the capitalist system “destroys” the lives of workers and youth, only to blame them on a personal basis for being “unable to cope” and then propose “cures” so that they become able to cope – actually aiming to make profit out of all this.
There is no inability of people to cope, what there is, is the severe competitiveness and oppression of needs and rights of workers and youth who are made to suffer, by capitalism. The system claims to be invincible and the idea of a future socialist society as unreal. They are badly mistaken.
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Other discussions included:
- Artificial Intelligence with youth comrades leading off, including one from Romania;
- How to fight fascism in the schools, with comrades from the “Education Antifascist Network” and Antinazi Zone leading off;
- Science in the shadow of the swastika was another important antifascist discussion, explaining the conditions under which the bulk of doctors and of the scientific and academic community in Nazi Germany sided with the regime – the first introduction was given by a German comrade followed by two Greeks;
- Two discussions on feminism, one on Tradwives and another on sexism experienced on a daily basis everywhere, also attracted a lot of interest;
- From Akronafplia to Kaisariani was the historical discussion at this year’s camp – dealing with the story of thousands of communists and other left activists who were handed over by the Greek dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas to the Nazis in the course of the 2nd world war, 200 of whom were executed in Kaisariani (in Athens);
- Global rivarlies and militarization – was also discussed with international comrades, especially from Turkey, Cyprus, Italy, Germany and Romania playing the dominant role;
- The discussion on Music against colonialism, was also very interesting, dealing with how the sufferings of the oppressed peoples under colonization and imperialism gave rise to musical currents that inspired millions in the decades that followed and still do;
- New parties, old policies was a discussion specifically aimed at the Greek comrades, with special reference to Tsipras’ new party, ELAS. Comrades from Xekinima, Anametrisi (one of the 5 organisations that took the initiative for a “unified revolutionary Left”) and Anypakoi (closely aligned to MERA 25/DiEM 25 in Greece) spoke on how they see the crisis of the Left in the present epoch and on how they see the way out.
As mentioned above, all discussions were very lively and interesting and captured the audience.
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It is of course impossible to give summaries of all the discussions that took place. In the next weeks we will upload many of the leadoffs given by comrades in the course of these fantastic ten days.
As is usually the case on the last day of the camp many comrades felt very sad because the camp was coming to an end. It was ten days that enabled comrades to have a fantastic time, to discuss working class and youth issues, with everything (from morning coffee to evening food and drinks) being prepared by volunteers, at a cost which is much lower compared to market prices, and to also see a vision not just in the immediate sense of solidarity, collective effort, and comradely discussion and exchange, but also about the future, against capitalism and for a socialist perspective.
On the last day hundreds of comrades made a pledge: we’ll be together again next year, at the next camp.
