Social Workers in Solidarity: Dr. Teloni Discusses Community Social Work During Greek Crisis

“I insisted to stay in Greece, although the working conditions are not good at all,” Dr. Teloni told the audience of nearly 50 Boston-area social work students and professors on Tuesday, November 3. “I do believe that we have to stay there and we need to fight for social change.”

Dr. Dora Teloni joined BU School of Social Work for a special evening event sponsored by the Boston Liberation Health Group, BUSSW Student Org, and BUSSW’s Office of the Dean and the Equity and Inclusion Committee. “Social workers in the United States have much to learn from the Solidarity Movement in Greece,” Professor Dawn Belkin Martinez said. “Dr. Teloni and her social work colleagues have demonstrated that even under the harshest conditions, social justice and change is possible. By standing in solidarity with our clients, we can help individuals, families and communities challenge internal oppressive thoughts and feelings, and act to change the world we live in.”

In addition to her experiences working in the Greek Solidarity Movement, Dr. Teloni is a member of the School of Social Work at the Technical Educational Institute in Athens and an internationally respected social work practitioner, professor, and researcher. Her research interests focus on radical and anti-racist social work.

Dr. Teloni presented “Social Work for Social Justice: New Alternatives for Community Social Work in the Era of Crisis.” She discussed the crushing impact of austerity measures in Greece.

“This is not just a crisis,” Dr. Teloni said. “It’s a humanitarian crisis.”

The Solidarity Movement in Greece emerged as a means of providing support and solidarity across Greece. The movement supports the provision of food, services, helps reclaim public spaces, provides education, and more. Dr. Teloni told the audience that there are currently “over 350 such welfare initiatives” across Greece.

“We are there to provide solidarity,” Dr. Teloni said, “but we are also there because we demand public social services, public health care. We are not there to replace organizations or public social services. We are there because people are starving or people are dying but at the same time we are there to struggle for social justice.”

The Greek people built an inspiring mass movement of resistance in response to the devastating impact of austerity. The result has been a new political model that demonstrates the power of collective resistance and social solidarity networks.

“The model is solidarity and resistance, we struggle for our abolition. We don’t want to exist.”