Working class movements and youth and student groups in Greece observed a national strike on Wednesday, February 28, to mark the first anniversary of the deadly train collision at Tempi, which killed 57 people.
On February 28, 2023, 57 people were killed and 85 were injured in a deadly head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight carrier train on the Athens-Thessaloniki Mainline in Tempi, near Larissa. People’s movements across the country held vigorous protests, holding that criminal negligence, underfunding, and privatization by the rail authorities and the government had led to the accident. Even after one year, the official inquiry into the tragedy hasn’t been completed.
This year too, workers’ centers and labor federations across the country, along with groups such as the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE), Students’ Struggle Front (MAS), and Federation of Women of Greece (OGE), joined the strike and rallies in 70 cities across the country including Athens, Thessaloniki, and Patras. Demonstrators raised the slogan “their profits, our lives” and demanded justice for victims of the Tempi tragedy.
Protests were also held outside the offices of the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE). The workers slammed the malfunctioning system, degraded by austerity and negligence, that operates the railways in the country that had caused the tragedy. Many have termed the incident as a “predetermined crime with causes and culprits.” All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME) and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) supported the mobilizations.
902.gr reported that KKE General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumpas laid 57 roses at the scene of the deadly accident in Tempi. Across the country in several churches, bells were rung 57 times to symbolize the number of fatalities in the deadly train collision. A monument in memory of the victims was unveiled at the railway station in Larissa.
In his statement on February 28, Koutsoumpas said “We will not allow this tragedy, this crime, to be covered up because new evidence is coming to light. The New Democracy (ND) government is trying to close down the Commission of Inquiry, the investigation of this crime even as new evidence is constantly emerging.”
