These protests were a culmination of a week of farmer protests that included a 3,500-strong tractorcade of cotton growers in the town of Karditsa. The actions have been organized by the main farmer organizations in the country to protest the low prices of cotton and the planned cancellation of tobacco subsidies by the European Union Commission. Tobacco and cotton are two of Greece's main cash crops.

The European Union (EU) Commission was due to cut subsidies for tobacco production by 20 percent each of the next five years. The price of cotton is so low that farmers are simply storing it in their barns and on their fields. Roads in the area are lined with trailers full of harvested cotton, which farmers are not shipping to processing firms.

"My parent's barn is full to the limit," said Despina Siropoulou, who works as a janitor working at a factory in Athens. Siro-poulou worked on the family farm in the Karditsa region prior to moving to Athens. "They will not sell at the ridiculously low price farmers are being offered," she continued. "The problem we face is that this year's harvest was very good.

"The continuing fall in cotton prices has been devastating to our village. In the last two years, three out of about 50 families went bankrupt and their farms were auctioned off. This was the first time auctions were held for us!" Siropoulou said. "Two families are buying everything. One lives in Thessaloniki, and he now rents out the land to some of the same people who used to own it.

"The situation is desperate," she said, "and so many young people have been forced to migrate to Athens, Thessaloniki, and other big cities. Those that stay behind are forced to also get part time jobs in order to make ends meet. You can't make it off of your farm income unless you are a big producer," Siropoulou said.  
 
Maintain tobacco subsidies
Among the demands being raised by the farmers are that the tobacco subsidies be maintained; elimination of rules that levy fines against small- and medium-sized cotton farmers for "overproduction"; that controls be placed on multinational corporations to check the high cost of production; that the Agricultural Bank renegotiate terms of the farmers' debts and eliminate debt accrued on interest and interest on late payments.

Minister of Agriculture Giorgos Drys spoke at one rally, declaring he would fight on the side of the tobacco farmers at the next EU agriculture ministers meeting. As for the price of cotton, he stated that he would clarify the situation after November 24 when a clear picture of the harvest is available.

Following the protests the November 21 EU Commission meeting decided to postpone implementation of the phasing out of tobacco subsidies by three years.  
 
 
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