No to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, being built in Greece, Albania and Italy, to transport natural gas from the Caspian sea to Europe.
In 2003 the first plans were made. In 2015 the first works started in Albania, now the pipeline is being built as well in Greece as in Italy. Its starting point is near the Greek village Kipoi at the Turkish border (where it is connected to the already existing Trans Anatolian Pipeline). From there it would cross a big part of northern Greece, run through Albania, go into the Adriatic sea, to finally reach Salento, Italy. Along the pipeline in Greece 22 block valve stations would be built (points of possible interruption and/or maintenance), and 2 stations (near Kipoi and Serres) where the pressure is augmented to improve transportation.
In Italy a struggle is taking place against this new project of power which consists of an offensive combination of pamphlets, newspapers and posters, acts of sabotage, deomnstrations and attacks against the structures of the pipeline itself as well as the companies benefiting from its construction and exploitation.
Also in the Greek region of Kavala, local people have managed on different occasions to physically block the continuation of the works. The State and the energy industry would like us to believe that if they spend an unimaginable amount of money, destroy land and militarize entire zones to build new gigantic infrastructures, it is in order that we can live our daily lives.
But besides the money flow it will guarantee to the States and companies involved in the TAP, we should ask ourselves, what is all this energy really for? It is not our basic needs that demand the amounts of energy being produced today. It is the industries of goods that keep this capitalist world going, it is the war industry, it is the constant flux of information and ‘human capital’, it is… It is fuel for the society which keeps on producing wealth for some, poverty and misery for many.
Every plan realized without any real resistance is a lesson in pacification. It carries a social message, which wants to show that our environment does not exist, it will always be their environment. And so they transform a field into a prison, a forest into a gas compression station, a mountain into a gold mine, and so on and so on.
Until one rises up and throws, even by a simple act, sand in the machine. The tentacles of the TAP reach far. There is the pipeline in construction itself, with its digging works, the construction of its block valve and compression stations, spread over hundreds of kilometres.
In Greece alone there are companies like Makedoniki Etm Ee, Siemens and Gaia SA in Thesaloniki, and Ellaktor, J&P Avax SA, Corinth Pipeworks SA, Terna SA, Siemens, Kantor, Geomatics Sa, C&M Engineering, Speed SA in Athens that are directly participating in the construction works. There are the project offices in Thessaloniki, Athens, Komotini and Kozani. And of course there are the politicians, their offices, holiday houses, golf courts, favourite restaurants… And then there is every piece of infrastructure of the money, communication and product flow of the capitalist system which the TAP wants to become a part of.
The veins of domination spread to many places. With subversive creativity we can trace and interrupt them…
For more info on the struggle against the TAP: https://actforfree.nostate.net/?s=against+tap