Solidarity with the families of the victims of the Tempe Train Disaster. A demand for moral catharsis, and the cleaning-up of institutions.

On 28 February 2023, a head-on collision occurred between two trains south of the Tempe Valley in Greece in the Thessaly region. The collision, involving the InterCity 62 (IC62) passenger train and an inter-modal freight train, killed at least 57 people, making it the deadliest rail disaster in Greek history.

On 28 February 2023, the families, friends, colleagues, and teachers of the victims lost their loved ones in an unprecedented and preventable train collision due to criminal negligence of the many in charge including: 

• those responsible for delivering safe and reliable railway infrastructure,
• those responsible for the management of operations and the wellbeing of passengers and staff and
• those overseeing standards of safety are met and law is abided by.  

It is impossible to see Tempe in any other way than as a political crime and the disastrous effect of historic corruption and perverse abuse of office. 

For the February 28 train collision at 11.22pm, bad timing is not to blame. This unprecedented tragedy is the consequence of long-term corruption, irresponsible governance and yet another government that:

• undermines the public interest and flaunts democratic institutions,
• ignores the role of expertise and the voice of professionals
• undermines workers’ and citizens’ safety through underfunding and wasting of state and European funding,
• systematically vilifies trade unions and
• abuses - per its own minister’s public admission - citizens' right to the truth.

This is a crime in which a significant portion of the media is actively complicit, insulting the memory of the dead by presenting the Tempe disaster as an 'opportunity' for modernisation and talking about the dead as a necessary sacrifice for improvement.

Let us be very clear:

There is no “going back to normal”. There was nothing normal and nothing acceptable or healthy which citizens want to go back to.

Disaster is not an "opportunity". It's a revelation. It is a painful lesson that corruption, abuse, negligence, and impunity have very real consequences and are simply not sustainable neither for the many who are at the sharp end of this situation, nor for those who systematically benefit from it.

This is not “business as usual”.
We stand in collective mourning with all those who have been affected by this crime. Many of us might not have lost a loved one that night, but disasters like Tempe make kinfolk of us all.

We demand: 

• reparations and meaningful support for survivors and all families who lost their loved ones,
• infrastructure that is fit for purpose for the 21st Century and
• accountability for decision-making.

We demand dignity.

We demand justice. 

No "ifs" and "buts". 

No future tense. 

Now.