In early January 2014, an operation of transporting and destroying the chemical weapons of Syria was announced, in the sea area between Crete and Sicily. From the 1500 tons of chemical weapons, 700 (mustard gas and sarin gas) are highly toxic to any living organism. The procedure that will be followed for this destruction is called hydrolysis, and will take place in the conventional cargo ship MV Cape Ray of the American fleet, aged 37 years old. More specifically, hydrolysis is the method by which a complex chemical compound becomes simpler. The problem occurred is that a huge amount of water is required (10,000 tons water for 700 tons of chemical), which will produce, among others, huge quantities of other toxic and corrosive substances along with additional water waste through chemical reactions. Still remains unknown whether this water is going to be transferred again with tankers or is going to be poured in a sea area, with inestimable consequences for the environment and for the food chain, as a result.

Destroying these chemical weapons, which has been chosen in the past, should take place in land-based facilities, where any possible toxic pollution can be under control. For the first time, after the refuse of some countries, to allow this procedure to take place in their territories, the process of hydrolysis has been chosen to take place in a sea area. According to the law, the destruction should take place on a territory of a country that has produced or purchased these chemical weapons. To avoid reactions from the reported countries, it has been decided that this procedure will take place in international waters and, in particular, the Mediterranean Sea.

During this process, the used quantity of water should be checked before flowing from the hydrolysis unit into the sea. Moreover, the chemical compounds that will arise should be removed for further destruction (usually incineration). This way, we realize that dropping part of these substances at sea will surely happen, and will cause, if not immediate death, huge long-term problems in living organisms which may not be visible from us.

Knowing that nature is just another piece of exploitation so that political and economic interests can be achieved, we stand up against not only the destruction of chemical weapons, in land as much as in the sea, but also in their production and the cause that leads to this, meaning war, one of the motivating forces of capitalism.  The state, trying to achieve total imperialism, is attempting to impose on visible enemies, producing other invisible, and uses the term “terrorism” to declare itself as the patron of the citizens. Its own existence constitutes a declaration of war in different per time fields. The internal war in each country uses various forms of repression, such as persecution, imprisonment and deportation, in its attempt to impose on radical social groups and, moreover, to create an illusion of safety to the citizens. As a result, a reproduction and perpetuation of national ideals is possible, which can lead either to passivity or to enthusiastic support of the political-economic expansionism. In addition, a feeling of insecurity is created while trying to maintain the national territories and thus, in order to deal with the external enemy, military forces are being formed and nurtured that enhance and maintain the war industry.

The nuclear power plants are a huge part of this industry, and in order to reinforce it, they constantly produce new weapons, while withdrawing the old ones, as in this case. It also produces more weapons of mass destruction (e.g. toxic chemicals and gases, bombs, etc. ), by testing them in non-human animals, contributing this way to their disappearance, and causing incalculable environmental damage in nature .

The results of this war contain, apart from the massive slaughter of peoples, the exploitation of the “consumable”, violently impoverished human labor in these industries of death, which are directly connected with the energy industries (e.g. nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons). The nuclear reactors, using uranium as fuel, produce plutonium, which is being re-used for the production of energy and for the manufacture of nuclear weapons. All these supply and maintain their own root, capitalism.

From the beginning of its existence, capitalism has created concepts such as ownership, profits, interests, hierarchy, domination-power, all of which have led to the imposition and exploitation of human and non-human animals and nature. It has created nations and states separating people, it has prioritized people by class.

As anarchists, we deny any national identity and choose not to fight for any state. We fight against the interests of capitalism, premising its destruction and we stand against the control of our lives, the pillage of nature and the exploitation of non-human animals.

 

AGAINST THE POISONING OF OUR LIVES AND NATURE

UNCOMPROMISED STRUGGLE FOR

TOTAL LIBERATION AND ANARCHY

 

Anarchist collective
Black/Green

Thessaloniki, April 2014