The Coordinating Struggle Committee of Persons with Disabilities (SEAAN) and the United Association of Parents and Guardians of the Disabled of Attica celebrated the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, December 3, with a protest on Friday afternoon in the center of Athens and marching to the Parliament and the EU offices.
The mobilization sought to head to the Prime Minister’s office to deliver their Resolution and demands, but the police forces blocked their way.
“Poverty, unemployment, racism, is EU’s culture”, was the slogan under which the protest reached the EU offices in protest for the privatizations and deterioration of Public Healthcare.
The gathered, holding flashlights, lanterns and torches, dedicated their “torchlight march” to the memory of the hundreds of thousands of victims, disabled and chronically ill who lost their lives in institutions, and because of the pandemic as a result of the transformation of the Health system into one-disease.
“We are illuminating the path of the struggle based on our modern needs in the 21st century against the policy of the government and the EU, who in the name of profits, of entrepreneurship, want to take us back to the Dark Ages,” they stressed. At the same time, with their slogans, banners and pickets, they denounced the government’s “national plan” for disability, which is launching a new round of massive cuts in the treatments, benefits and pensions of people with disabilities and chronic diseases.
“Profit kills Health”, shouted the gathered and demanded effective measures of protection from the pandemic. They complained that among the victims of the pandemic are thousands of people who are disabled and chronically ill from the poor “They call it ‘underlying diseases’ … This is a mass crime in the name of profit!”.
“We want public and free health, end profit from disability” they demanded. In this regard, they called for a struggle for the decisive strengthening of the public system of Health and Welfare, Special Education and Rehabilitation, for the requisition of the big private clinics in order to be able to deal with the pandemic.
Photos https://flic.kr/s/aHsmXi8W1K
