Version imprimableVictims of super-exploitation
On 26 January, a liquid gas explosion followed by a fire at a factory killed five workers at the prosperous Violanta biscuit factory in Trikala (central Greece) and injured several others. All five women worked night shifts, and at least one of them had another day job.
This tragedy is added to the macabre list of work accidents, at least 201 in 2025 according to union sources. Here we see the cynicism of super-exploitation: the absence of security (the smell of gas had been reported, but the director refused minimal repair work), legality (the basement where the five victims worked was not included in the official plans, doors were often blocked and so on).
Not to mention a policy of terror: the local union had succeeded in imposing professional elections, but the management had threatened any worker who went to vote, and, even today, the staff are afraid to express themselves, with blackmail for employment in a poor region.
For its part, the government reacted... by denying the figures on work accidents and the difficulties of controls (glaring lack of labour inspectors). Of course, the workers’ reaction was immediate: a national sectoral strike, demonstrations, with hundreds of people in Trikala at the call of the local union proclaiming “this is not chance, these are programmed crimes”. But no general strike in the face of this tragedy which confirms the complicity of the employers and the government for a now unlimited exploitation of workers.
Carnage in Chios
Of the 3,148 dead and missing in the Aegean Sea between 2015 and 2025, how many were victims of the Greek repression aimed at preventing migrants and refugees from reaching Greece? It’s hard to say. On 3 February, fifteen migrants died near the island of Chios. Not drowned, but victims of injuries due to the collision with the coast guard boat. The latter accuse the (overloaded) boat of having manoeuvred against them, it seems more likely to experts that, once again, the coast guard rushed to push the migrants out of Greek sea waters.
This horror was encouraged by the Minister of Migration, the fascist Plevris, who declared in 2011: “The borders cannot be guarded without damage, and to be clearer, without deaths.” The same person places the responsibility for the tragedy on the smugglers and NGOs, while congratulating the coast guard. The entire left denounced a new crime, but the protest demonstrations have so far not been massive enough in the face of the horror.
To top it all off, this government, adopting the new European line of “selective immigration”, is considering the creation of an agency — an official smuggler! — bringing in migrants to work without rights. An additional reason, if need be, for a unified battle against super-exploitation and repression, uniting Greek and immigrant workers.
19 February 2026
Translated by International Viewpoint from l’Anticapitaliste.
