Since it almost went broke in 2010, Greece has suffered horrific job losses, soaring long-term unemployment, across-the-board income cuts and over-taxation, despite a constant deterioration in state-provided health, education and welfare services.
The country is now dotted with the hulks of formerly flourishing factories that for decades churned out wealth for their owners and provided a sure if modest livelihood for multitudes of workers. While many predate the country’s financial crisis, the past five years have accelerated the pace of de-industrialization.
Beyond the derelict factories with their cracked concrete platforms and smashed windows, there’s the old Athens airport complex, abandoned since 2001, and former farmland in the southern Peloponnese region.
Some of the plants are guarded by former staff, others padlocked or open to anyone prepared to dirty a pair of trousers. Inside are the relics of their former activity: Piles of wine bottles, stacks of crockery, idle machinery. Scattered among them are the imprints of the people who worked there — rotting boots and gloves, personnel files, dust-infused jackets left hanging on nails and never reclaimed.
Here’s a gallery of photos by Associated Press staff photographer Petros Giannakouris showing some of Greece’s abandoned places.
In this photo taken on Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, weeds have grown at the abandoned former Athens International Airport, which shut down in 2001. The property, along with idling installations built for the Athens 2004 Olympics, is Greece’s most valuable piece of real estate whose sale has been mired in controversy. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this photo taken on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, the husk of a airplane lies on the tarmac of the abandoned former Athens International Airport, which shut down in 2001. The property, along with idling installations built for the Athens 2004 Olympics, is Greece’s most valuable piece of real estate whose sale has been mired in controversy. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this photo taken on Thursday, July 16, 2015, the sun lights the former international terminal at the abandoned old Athens International Airport, which shut down in 2001. The property, along with idling installations built for the Athens 2004 Olympics, is Greece’s most valuable piece of real estate whose sale has been mired in controversy. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this photo taken on Tuesday, May 19, 2015 scattered airliner seats lie on the tarmac of the abandoned former Athens International Airport, which shut down in 2001. The property, along with idling installations built for the Athens 2004 Olympics, is Greece’s most valuable piece of real estate whose sale has been mired in controversy. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this photo taken on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, an abandoned fertilizer factory is lit by the sun near Athens’ port city of Piraeus. The Chemical Products and Fertilizers Company, the owner, founded in 1910 and employing about 4,000 at its peak, was shut down in 1999. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
This photo taken on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015, shows a sign besides the charred remains of a meat factory in Corinth, in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece. The factory was destroyed by fire in August 2014 while it had stop working months before. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
This photo taken on Thursday, Nov. 26, 2015 shows an abandoned Hellenic Ceramics (ELKE) factory in the Greek town of Halkida north of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this photo taken on Thursday, Nov. 26, 2015, machinery used to monitor production lies idle at the control room of an abandoned metal pipe-making factory. Hellenic Pipe Works was founded in 1967 and exported 80 percent of its production to the United States. In 1994 it was acquired by a construction group and was shut down in 2011. It still employs 30 people who show up once a week in shifts to prevent looting and claim they have not been paid in four years.
Sadly, this is where America is headed
The US could be a lot like Greece within 10 years, perhaps 5 to 10. I worked in manufacturing plants for Caterpillar in Illinois from 1974-1986. I saw many machines stripped out and shipped to foreign countries. In 1974 Cat was running 3 shifts in large factory buildings of 20 acres or more each. In 1974 Caterpillar was hiring factory workers. The factory workers decreased in number between 1979 and 1986. By 1986 3rd shift was almost gone and 2nd shift had been cut by probably at least 25%. Some lines in the plants had idle machines and some machines were gone, maybe 20% total by 1984.
We are way ahead of Greece, we have Detroit, Toledo, Chicago, Compton and dozens of other cities just like that.
Those cities have Democrats for Mayors.
Democrat rule for 50 corrupt years… Chicago too. Poor city because they pissed all the money away.
Bernie Sanders wants America to look like this. Hillary Clinton’s policies would make America look like this.
Should have shown pictures too of poverty-stricken Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Nothing to do with Socialism or Capitalism … stupidity occurs under all political systems, just like our current income and wealth inequality. And BTW that has nothing to do with Obama!
These are socialistic governed countries too!
It is sad but, yes, we have permitted this to infiltrate America which is a Republic. Why don’t these people move to a Socialist country? We were never set up from the beginning to be a Socialist country. Yes, we took over America when we should not have done so but, even with all of the atrocities, our forefathers did set up an incredible country that many come to for opportunity and achieve it when there is not other way to achieve it in other countries. So, that being said…while it is not perfect, it is the best government but, we are led to believe we are guilty and shameful.
I have family that are Democrat to the core and it is sad because they are led to believe they are more intelligent than other parties. They believe they are more logical and care more for humanity when it is the other way around and no matter how many times you show them they are wrong; they believe they are wiser than you and you are the ignorant one.
It reminds me when I was in the military and we had very educated officers who would take over management within our command. If they were a Mustang (officer with prior enlisted experience) they knew how to manage and realized their enlisted were the backbone of the military. They made extremely competent and wise decisions and were just awesome! When we had officers that came in thinking they were so much more educated and intelligent they simply made a complete mess of things and were actually so ignorant we could just die. This is what Liberals remind me of every time I hear ignorance spew from their actually unintelligent mouths. Just because the majority are our educators, etc. does not make them wise at all.
And, the point in all of this is “that is why they cannot listen to reason and plain old common sense”, they know-it-all just like those military officers that were completely dumb. 🙂 Give me a Mustang anytime!
This what the current administration is pulling the United States into nothing but a empty shell. Learn alot from Dreams of my father.
SOCIALISM TURNS PRODUCERS INTO CONSUMERS……………………………..
CAPITALISM ENCOURAGES PRODUCTION……………………….
I have been in several stores, noticed THE ONLY THING from Greece is olives. Is that all, & only thing that they can export??