Anger.

Protests marking the murder of 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos by the police

              Young Alexis Grigoropoulos, shortly before he was gunned down by police.

          I happen to be in Athens on December 6th. 2008 when 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos was murdered by police, shot dead at a cafe in Exarchia, he died in the arms of his young friend Nikos Romanos Two then teenagers whose lives were defined by state violence. I joined some of the protests in Athens that followed this brutal murder. It was awe inspiring to see so many ordinary people on the streets displaying their righteous anger, thousands day after day, prepared to face down the brutal authority of the state. This event should never be forgotten and never be forgiven. No youth should ever be shot dead while out with friends for an evening coffee. Sadly, that is the society we live under and to date, tolerate.

Nikos Romanos after his arrest by state enforcers.

This from Act For Freedom Now: 

         ‘A bullet in the heart of Alexandros to close the circle of the statist machine’s omnipotence. A bloodstain on the Messolonghiou pedestrian street to open the circle of rebellion that wrecked the legal order and sowed chaos and anarchy in all cities throughout Greece.’
– Nikos Romanos, Requiem for a Journey of No Return.
         As of today, 6/12/2021, it has been 13 years since the Greek state murdered the anarchist Alexis Grigoropoulos. Alexis was shot by two cops, E. Korkoneas and V. Saraliotis, in the neighbourhood of Exarcheia, following minor clashes with the police. As soon as the news of Alexis’s murder broke, a spontaneous insurrection began. Protests, riots, expropriations and occupations of public buildings were but some of the collective expressions of rage. Despite the attempts of state and capital to depoliticise the murder, we must not forget that Alexis was killed because of his political beliefs – he challenged in practice the authority of the police and, by extension, that of the state. This is the violence faced every day by those whose existence the state deems undesirable, those who are a threat to their social order.
          13 years later, the spirit of the December revolt is alive in the resistance of the Anarchist/Anti-Authoritarian movement. As anarchists, we stand in solidarity with all insurrections against the state apparatus worldwide, present and future. Our struggles take place in our streets and neighbourhoods, in our workplaces, schools and universities. We will reclaim our space and our lives.
FROM ATHENS TO SCOTLAND, INSURRECTIONS ARE NOT A UTOPIA.
COPS-FASCISTS-MURDERERS
    Clydeside Anarchist Noise.

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Attack----

          Back in December 6th 2008 Nikos Romanos was a teenage boy out on that Saturday evening for a coffee with his teenage friend Alexis Grigoropoulos. while having that coffee they had a few words with a police officer, who then drew his gun and in cold blood, shot and murdered young Alexis. Alexis died on the street in the arms of his friend Nikos. From that day on, Nikos Romanos has thrown himself relentlessly in to a constant struggle against the savage state and the violent exploitative system of capitalism that it supports. Even from the dark and brutal dungeons of that savage state he has continued to pursue that struggle for human dignity and freedom.
         The following is a short extract, taken from Nikos's booklet, "I Attack, Therefore I Am". You can find it on Act For Freedom Now,

 

 “Instead of an epilogue…”

        Comrades, the dawn of this new age arriving with the most relentless and revolting visage, while we are in the throes of condensed historical development, in this period of voracious capitalist development that destroys and flattens out all life on this planet, we simply can not speak of revolution and anarchy without promoting a consistent method of struggle that with its antagonism will make wounds on the seemingly invulnerable body of sovereignty. We live in changing times, from which can be born a liberating perspective. In this age in which we live we must make a definitive divorce with hesitation and procrastination; every lost minute,every wasted moment is ground won for the enemy. The war of all against all that capitalism promotes is not a figure from the apparently safe distance of the capitalist periphery, but a living reality experienced by millions of people who literally have had their lives thrown away on the trash heap, reported upon through statistical data extracted by technocrats and military analysts, all of which shows how economic policies and their developments are opening up fronts of a warzone. It is beyond my understanding how anyone who wants to be called an anarchist can remain unconvinced of the urgent necessity for the escalation and increase of revolutionary war, simply by taking a look at what is happening around them. Against the blind violence of wars between states, we propose the violence of insurrection that blows up social conventions. Let’s definitively break with the modern culture of subordination and degradation. The stances of each person are not views of an objective and standoffish neutrality, they demonstrate choices and attitudes related to the logic of societal conditions. Those who postpone for tomorrow in every possible way attacks against representatives of power, only give a breath of life to domination and its organization of mass extermination
       From our side, the proposal submitted did not assert a monopoly over anarchist action, but gave a view of informal organization and the possibilities we can get if we are serious and persistent in our intentions and our actions to cut the Gordian knot of introversion. We want to form an international informal coordination that will be the bridge between public and conspiratorial action, that will be the next developmental step for polymorphic anarchist struggle, attempting to fulfill and qualitatively deepen all the relevant historical experiences of the past. The fact that this text comes to an end does not mean that it dealt in detail with all the issues and thoughts it set out to deal with. Moreover, the aim is not to become one rigidly demarcated proposal, but a bet on a struggle that will be enriched and will move through actions, thus basing its direction on the one thing that can be held to be essential, the endless movement and creative destruction of the anarchist struggle.

        “Hm! And how the fools will scream: stubborn anarchists! Who can understand the storm that roars in our minds? Who could be aware of our hunger for pleasure, for life? Who can understand our defeat stemming from human cowardice? We are alone. We did not find comrades ready to participate in the struggle for the recovery of life. That is why we lost. And one of us vanished. The other remains with his eyes stuck on the horizon. He could not, and did not depart. This is our destiny. Will we find comrades? Otherwise, each of us in his own way will disappear silently or rowdily from the scene of the world. A chapter is closed. A chapter of struggle, hopes, illusions. The end, however, has not yet come. As these strange, unusual lives come to an end, we get to a point where we realize that it would have been better if they had never been born. And that’s all there was to say.” -Bruno Filippi

       Strength and solidarity to all anarchist prisoners! Let’s organize the uncontrollable freedom of human dignity! Anarchy means attack! 

    Nikos Romanos

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It's Law!!

         The Greek state shows how to use Covid19 to control public protests and demonstrations. Since 2008 after the murder of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos by a police officer, the people of Greece have marked his cold bloody murder by mass gatherings, and march to the place where the police officer cold bloodedly gun down the 15 year old teenager. This year the state uses the pandemic to stop this annual commemoration of a child murder. A massive police presence surrounded the memorial to his shooting. This was a mass gathering of heavily armed police formed to stop a mass gathering of unarmed people. The people of Greece have shown in the past that they can hold mass gatherings while keeping social distancing, but the state was more interested in putting a stop to this annual remembrance of a police killing than anything to do with the pandemic. This is a repeat of the police violence launched against the annual march and demonstration marking the 1973 student uprising that eventually lead to the overthrow of the Greek Military junta.

         The state will do all in its power to quash any thought of marking events against authority, this pandemic has given them carte blanche in dealing with public protests. It is a right we relinquish at our peril. No doubt state's across the globe will do likewise drawing on the "emergency" laws to stop the spread of Covid19, to stop mass public gatherings and protests. All for your own good of course.

       Police in Greece’s capital have detained dozens of people who defied a coronavirus-related ban to take part in the annual commemoration of the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a police officer in 2008.
        Some 4,000 police officers were deployed on Sunday to prevent gatherings and will continue to do so until the early hours of Monday. 

Protesters shout slogans after being detained in Athens during a rally marking the killing of Alexandros Grigoropoulos 12 years ago [Yorgos Karahalis/AP Photo]

        Footage posted online showed riot police on Sunday afternoon entering apartment buildings in Exarcheia, a neighbourhood in central Athens, to flush out would-be protesters. One video showed officers throwing stun grenades inside a building. Another clip showed police pushing photojournalists and other accredited members of the media. 

A picture of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, right, at an impromptu shrine at the site of the fatal shooting in Athens 12 years ago [File: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP Photo]

       

         The scenes reminded the heavy-handed tactics adopted by police last month when they violently broke up a peaceful rally commemorating a 1973 student uprising against Greece’s then-military rulers.

The following from AA:

        Over 100 people have been detained in Greece’s capital who gathered to mark the 12th anniversary of police killing of a 15-year-old boy on Sunday, local media reported. Tension rose as police tried to disperse demonstrators that gathered in central Athens where the shooting took place, according to Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

      The government had announced a ban on public gatherings of more than three people as a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Some protesters tried to hold banners, but where stopped by the police.
       Meanwhile, the Greek police said five policemen were injured following a mob attack outside the police station of Kolonos, a northwest suburb of Athens, on Saturday.  Nearly 80 people had been arrested, they said.
      "Yesterday, on December 5, 2020 afternoon, nearly 80 people, with covered faces, wearing helmets and full-face hoods, tried to approach and attack the Kolonos police station," the police said.

 

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Alexis.

 

  

     Across the world on a regular basis, there are mass protests against police violence, it is common practice to hear of police brutality, and racism plays a large part in their acts of violence. However it is not always racism at the root of this police violence, it is part and parcel of their training, restrain, be forceful, intimidate etc., and of course that feeling that they are the law, and above reproach. It was not racism that ended the life of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos, it was police callous brutal arrogance.

Alexis Grigoropoulos, youth murder by police officer.

       Today, December 6th. 2020, marks the 12th anniversary of the murder of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a Greek police officer. It was a Saturday evening and two teenagers are out in Exracheia Athens, having a coffee, a chat, a laugh, a police car passes, and according to who you read, the police officers came back on foot, there were words the police officer fires two bullets and young Alexis falls to the ground and dies on the street in the arms of his teenage friend Nikos Romanos. The police officer claimed that he fired his gun in the air to scare the boy and teach him a lesson, but those two “warning shots” ended the life of a teenager.

Nikos Romanos being arrested years after police murdered of his friend Alexis.

             This brutal unnecessary killing of of a youth by the state's henchmen, brought a hurricane of mass protests across Greece, that lasted for months, and rightly so. Each year since, in Athens and other cities across Greece, people remember this brutal killing of a youth, and mark it with mass protests.

       Epaminondas Korkoneas, the Greek cop who murdered young Alexis Grigoropoulos, was released from prison July 2019. His release follows a verdict of an appeals court in Lamia, central Greece. The court upheld the conviction of Korkoneas for the deadly shooting of Alexis Grigoropoulos, but reduced his sentence from life to 13 years in prison. He was released after serving the most of the reduced sentence. He is not a subject to a parole or any other restriction. Let's not forget, that it was the system that killed young Alexis, a system of authority, governance and control, a hierarchical system of power.

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Wyatt Earp In Uniform.

 

       The gun totting cop is becoming more prevalent on the city streets across the world. However I think that America still holds that accolade of the most Wyatt Earps in uniform roaming the streets. We must always remember that these macho psychopaths are armed, trained, supported and payed for by the state, (your tax money) as its guard dogs. I must admit that on my many visits to Athens, I always felt a little bit apprehensive when approaching the Greek police. I just didn't like their menacing swagger, usually in twos or threes, all with their guns strapped to their sides. There has been various cases of where the Greek police have shown their idiotic unbalanced macho instincts when confronted with something they just don't like, remember Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15 year old teenager shot dead by an armed cop, while out having a coffee with his friend. 

     Another incident of the Rambo attitude of the Greek police came quite recently and was met with mass resistance from university students and joined by others.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

       It all started on Monday 24 February inside the grounds of Athens University of Economics, when an off duty cop in plain clothes got off his bike and began harassing an immigrant street vendor outside the front gate. The policeman was spotted by anarchist students due to his boots and his helmet that bore the police insignia and was immediately confronted. In his panic, he began running inside the university grounds and managed to trap himself in a dead end corridor, pulled a gun on students and with his finger on the trigger threatened to shoot them while pointing the gun at them for at least 5 minutes, while desperately calling his colleagues on the phone to come and rescue him. The students, not losing their cool, but at the same time not taking a step back demanded he puts the gun down and exits the university grounds. Few minutes later scores of riot policemen stormed the university and attacked students during school hours with flash bang grenades and asphyxiating gas creating chaos because of one imbecile cop that thought he was a cowboy.
       Following these events, that shook the academic community, a protest was called by students on Wednesday 26 February from Athens University of Economics, that the incident took place, to the greek police headquarters, (2.5 km away). Thousands of people took part in the protest, demanding the university asylum to be reinstated (forbidding the police to enter any university grounds, as it was the case for decades, until few months ago, when the new right wing government abolished it).
      When the protest reached the police headquarters and after the main body of the demo had passed in front of the building, several anarchists attacked it with stones, using fire extinguishers to fog the policemen’s vision.
      Riot police brigades and police bikers charged into the crowd with their bikes, ramming people with them as a weapon and throwing them to the ground, chasing, attacking and arresting anyone they could. Many students managed to get into the metro subway station nearby but the police started to throw asphyxiating gas grenades inside the station and while they gave an order for the passing trains not to make a stop, in order to trap hundreds of people down there, in a horrific atmosphere of people breathing with difficulty due to the gas, while at the same time, disrupting the public transport by creating a problem to hundreds more passengers that were planning to get off the tube at that specific metro station.
        Following the events the students decided to occupy the Athens University of Economics on Thursday and Friday, 27 and 28 of February 2020. On Thursday, February 27, 2020, along with many people in solidarity from the occupied “Athens University of Economics” the squatters of “Vancouver Squat” that was evacuated by the greek riot police on November 2, 2019, took the riot police by surprise and symbolically reoccupied the squat lighting flares on the rooftop.

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Anger At Warped Justice Of The Corrupt State.

        It seems that the early release from prison of murdering cop Epaminondas Korkoneas, the cop who shot dead in cold blood the 15 year old youth Alexis Grigotopoulos, who was out for a coffee with his friend on that fateful Saturday night, in 2008, didn't go down to well with some of the citizens of Athens.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

        The release of Epaminondas Korkoneas came after a court on Monday 29 July 2019 reduced his term from life imprisonment for premeditated murder to just 10 years, on the sole basis of good behavior prior to the murder, meaning it is ok for any Greek policeman to fire, shoot and kill children because they haven’t killed anyone before. Another outrageous aspect of the case is that the life sentence was reduced to 10 years despite the fact that few years ago during a trial he publicly said in court that “he will not ask for forgiveness from a 15 years old boy for shooting at him”. At the same time, Vasilis Saraliotis, his policeman partner in crime that was on patrol with Korkoneas on the night of the murder was found innocent of any crime, despite the fact that he did nothing to stop his partner next to him from shooting.

    The murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos that sparked the 2008 December Revolt
6 December 2008, few minutes after 9 pm – Time Zero of the December Revolt. Two policemen draw their guns and one of them shoots against a group of youngsters hanging out on a Saturday night, at the heart of the Exarcheia district of central Athens, an area with a long history of insurrection against authority and riots for socio economic and political grounds, inhabited mainly by anarchists, anti-authoritarians and liberals. The police bullet finds in the heart and kills 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos.
      As soon as the news of Alexis’ murder spreads, mainly through the internet, hundreds of people from the rest of Athens gather at Exarchia, which is circled by hundreds of riot policemen, that in turn infuriates people furtherand the neighborhood quickly goes “on fire”, with flaming barricades and stone attacks against the police, that lasted all throughout the night.
     Almost from the same night, the Exarcheia riot spreads all over Greece, with attacks against police stations, even in greek villages. Protests and demonstrations, which escalate to widespread rioting rock Greece every day and night for the weeks to come, while public buildings are being taken over and occupied by protesters in dozens of cities and towns around the country.
      Outside Greece, solidarity demonstrations, riots and clashes with local police also take place in more than 70 cities around the world, including London, Paris, Brussels, Rome, Dublin, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, the Hague, Copenhagen, Bordeaux, Cologne, Seville, Sao Paulo, as well as Nicosia in Cyprus, and Paphos proving for the first time before the “Arab Spring” that people can spread the news and react through protests for the same matter around the globe, from San Francisco to Wellington and Buenos Aires to Siberia.
       While the unrest was triggered by the Alexis Grigoropoulos murder by police, the reactions lasted for so long simply because they were rooted in deeper causes, like the coming financial crisis a year later, which was already being felt by poorer classes and younger generations through rising unemployment rate and a feeling of general inefficiency and corruption of the authorities, institutions and right wing politicians of the Greek state (mainly New Democracy and PASOK political parties).

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Ah, But He's One Of Their Own.

      The powers that be will always look after their own. In 2008 in the district of Exarcheia, in Athens a young 15 year old boy  was sitting having a coffee with his friend, two cops approached and a few words were exchange, then one of the cops drew his gun and shot dead 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos. This event lead to a massive uprising across Greece with support protests across the world. You might think that with time to reflect on his brutal cold blooded action the cop Epaminondas Korkoneas would show some signs of remorse, but no, at his appeal in 2016 he stated "I will not apologise to any 15-year-old". Despite his obvious lack of remorse, he has now been released early, free from any parole or other restrictions, you see, he is one of their own. 

The following from Freedom News:

 

Breaking: murderer of Alexis Grigoropoulos released from prison

World, Jul 30th

Epaminondas Korkoneas, a Greek cop and murderer of Alexis Grigoropoulos, was released from prison today. His release follows the verdict of an appeals court in Lamia, central Greece, delivered yesterday. The court upheld the conviction of Korkoneas for the deadly of shooting Grigoropoulos , but reduced his sentence from life to 13 years. He was released after serving the most of the reduced sentence. He is not a subject to a parole or any other restriction.
Korkoneas, then a police special guard, shot and killed 15-year old Alexis in Athens district of Exarcheia on 6th December 2008, following a verbal interaction. The shocking killing triggered a widespread uprising across Greece, with solidarity actions held worldwide, including in London.
During the first hearing of the appeal in December 2016, Korkoneas told the court in his opening statement that he was innocent, adding, “I will not apologize to any 15-year-old”.
Vasilis Saraliotis, the second police special guard officer involved in the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos, was released on bail in 2012.

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Nikos Romanos Released From Prison.

         The news that Nikos Romanos has been released from prison must bring pleasure to the hearts of all anarchists. I have no doubt the the life Nikos has lead up to now was greatly influenced by that event on a Saturday evening in 2008, when, as a teenager out at a cafe with his teenage friend Alexis Grigoropoulos and was by his side when Alexis was shot dead in cold blood by a police officer. No matter his political views before that event, it is obvious that such a cold blood murder of his teenage friend standing beside him, would sharpen his hate of a system that harboured and armed such cold blooded murderers.

This from AWM English:

• Posted on: 11 July 2019

        Anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos was released from prison in Greece yesterday after six years of imprisonment.
        Nikos was a close friend of Alexis Grigoropoulos, an anarchist teenager who was murdered in Exarcheia by the police in 2008, sparking the Greek anarchist insurrection.
       Nikos Romanos was arrested in February 2013 with 3 more people and charged with attempted armed robbery at the Agricultural Bank and TT Hellenic Postbank in Velvento, Kozani.
        He was also sentenced to 18 years in prison for possession and placement of explosive devices in 2012. Among the “targets” was the home of the former Minister of National Defense, Giannos Papantoniou.
       The court that originally sentenced Romanos had not admitted any mitigating circumstances, including his good behaviour while in prison but this decision was later reversed by the Supreme Court. Taking the Supreme Court’s decision into account, a Five-member Criminal Appeals Court that reconsidered his case recently reduced his sentence by four years, to 14 years in prison.
      This made possible the release of Romanos, whose six years in prison counted “double” due to days of work done while incarcerated, during which time he had also finished high school and sat university entrance exams, getting a place in the Athens TEI School of Management and Economy.
       In an interview earlier this year, Nikos stated, “Our goal should be to sharpen the subversive struggle in every form it can take, to transform it into a real danger for every ruler. Part of this process is reconstructing our historical memory, so it can serve as a compass for the strategies of struggle we employ. We should start talking again about the organization of different forms of revolutionary violence, the practices of revolutionary illegalism, and the need to diffuse these in the movement in order to overcome the “politics” (in the dirty and civil meaning of the word) that have infected our circles… Whoever arms his conscience to overthrow the brutal cycle of oppression and exploitation will definitely be the target of vengeful and authoritarian treatment by the regime. This does not mean that we will give up our fight, in the courtroom or elsewhere.”
        Anarchists around the world will celebrate the release of Nikos, a comrade who has remained intransigent in his revolutionary values in the face of harsh repression from the state.

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The Many Facets Of Struggle.

 

         Anarchist Nikos Romanos, despite more than four years in high security prison and a life threatening hunger strike that brought him near to death, is still vociferous in his condemnation of the state/capitalist system. His writings from prison are still forged with hatred of this exploitative system and a desire to bring it down by all means available, a desire to see freedom for all blossom across the globe. A desire to see our communities shaped by the communities free from fear and repression.

     Nikos as a teenager, was a close friend of murdered teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos, and was with him at the time of his cold blooded murder by a police officer. He saw at a very personal level, and at close quarters, the savagery of the state's protecting minions. I have no doubt this brutal action helped to shape and fashion his anarchist philosophy.

        In June 1914, Nikos penned the article, "The Question of Dignity" well worth a read by all anarchists. The following is an extract from that article:  

Scattered thoughts surrounding the belligerence of today…
        Closing this text I would like to comment on some things concerning the current status quo. Therefore I am looking for words to successfully describe the main characteristics of this monstrosity. Total social control of bodies and minds. Economic crisis, techno-scientific plague, police and military operations, clashes of geo-political interests, diplomatic incidents, generalized unrest, raw violence, diffused confusion and mass disorientation. We are at a critical point of the historical zeitgeist, many analyses have been publicized about the way in which the state is restructuring and fortifying at all levels, as well as the tendency of capitalism to spread its militarization beyond the exploited territories of the third world to the interior of the metropolises, in this way responding to the political instability which is spreading rapidly. Besides the different words and the deviation of some points of view there is a coercion of perceptions concerning the severity of our times. The problem is that even so we are unable to rise to the occasions and challenges of this time and remain trapped in perceptions that feed the cycle of inactivity and introversion. Personally I believe that it is necessary for us to organize through networks and fronts of action which will be coordinated based on minimal political agreements promoting campaigns of multiform action against the spearheads of modern tyranny and answering commensurately to the repressive attacks. By abolishing the bureaucracy of central organization we arm our initiatives and we coil or create fronts for action where we see it necessary. Whether it concerns current matters. (i.e. C type prisons) or thematics of the wider anarchist struggle (i.e. antifascism). In the attempt to break the circle of self-reference we must try to connect all the fires lit against civilization, from militant protests, assemblies and clashes up to armed attacks, a revolutionary attempt for the spreading of militant anarchy. Because what unites us is more than what divides us and since our aim is none other then the full frontal attack on the system, all attempts that are carried out independently of political tension must connect under the vision of absolute freedom. This of course does not retract our critique on incidents, it simply confirms that when critique is combined with dynamic interventions it is more effective because it aims at the spread of revolutionary thought to those who diverge from the dominant dogmas and are seeking ways of clashing with the existent. Placing thus the prospect of connecting our desires in unions of free individualities that collectivize heading towards the chaotic paths of creative destruction. In this attempt we must politically clash with the hysterical reactions of the reformist wing of the anarchist movement that rushes to sign legitimacy certificates to the State. Remembering the political competitiveness of the most intense condemnation from the parliamentary parties after each armed revolutionary action. We have seen written by “anarchist” spaces, phrases such as terrorists and murderers, reproducing the language and arguments of power. It seems that it is not only power that is terrorized but also the reformist wing of the anarchist movement that fears maybe “their shops will be flooded”. It seems that all these prefer the role of the eternal victim, a political masochism that is aroused by taking photos of beaten faces and stabbed bodies from the attacks of the fascists and cops. To conclude, multiform struggle means struggle by all means, nothing more, nothing less. Whoever is not shocked by the thousands of suicides of the economic war in times of “peace”, the drowned immigrants at the sea borders, the torn bodies of the people caught up in the expansion wars of the capitalist superpowers, the animals that are skinned alive inside the multinational industries, the murderous violence of the police, by everything happening in this system, and is shocked – for example – by the bodies of two fascists, that is their problem. The revolution is a constant war for a slave-less life which despite whatever temporary retreats, does not stop fighting and opening ways for our small and big raids. It is not pleasant strolls under the influence of alcohol in order to be obsequious to an invisible ghost called capitalist society. Besides, there are many student magicians of political deceit, more skilled and with more gifts. The above also has the aim of showing that opposing poles between new and old anarchy is false and the only real current question is either with the revolutionaries who fight or with the charlatans of conventionalism. Anarchy therefore that fights is separated from this perversion and transfers its rage to every corner of the world. The rage expressed in the forceful voices in a solidarity protest, the fire that torches the temples of money and symbols of wealth, the personal attacks on State officials and their armed dogs, the ruins left behind by a mechanism that exploded at one of the bases of the ruling class.
      We continue all together, free, wanted and hostages, the struggle for the destruction of capitalist society.
      Signals of solidarity, insurrection and love To all the comrades and friends of the Network of Fighter Prisoners.
      To the Italian anarchists for the upcoming week of international solidarity (16–24 May)
     To anarchist fighter Claudio Lavazza, Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar.
      The comrades from the security case and to Tamara Sol.
       To unrepentant saboteur Marco Camenisch.
       To every imprisoned anarchist at every corner of the world who I unwillingly forgot.
        With my mind on all the anarchists on the run.
        Strength to all those who arm their refusal against the system.
      Honour for ever to Sebastian Oversluij who fell while fighting during a bank robbery.
       Honour for ever to all those who died in the revolutionary war.
Long Live Anarchy!

Nikos Romanos, May 2014

Read the full article HERE: 

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Nikos Romanos.

        On the recent post regarding the murder of Alexis Gigoropoulos by a police officer in Athens. It is difficult to assess the impact of such an act of brutal murder of such a young person. Obviously the family and friends have something die inside them after the event, a part that will never live again. We know that the people of Greece felt anger and outrage at this callous murder by a state minion, the weeks of riots and protests that followed are proof of that. However there was one person on who, not unexpectedly, this act treachery had a deeply profound impact. It was his teenage friend who was having coffee with Alexis that evening, Nikos Romanos.  Alexis died in the arms of Nikos on the street where we was shot dead. Think how that must have impacted on his young life, on his thoughts on the police and the system they protect. Nikos went on to become a very active and dedicated anarchist in Greece, and for his dedication to freedom and justice is now locked up in Korydallos prison in Athens. 

Some links regarding Nikos Romanos:

https://www.thepressproject.gr/article/70024/Video-Nikos-Romanos-just-after-the-murder-of-Alexandros-Grigiropoulos

https://greece.greekreporter.com/tag/nikos-romanos/

https://greece.greekreporter.com/?s=Nikos+Romanos

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/06/nikos-romanos-family-fear-martyr-greece-protests-hunger-strike

https://en-contrainfo.espiv.net/2015/12/29/nikos-romanos-requiem/

https://prisonersolidarity.net/prisoner/nikos-romanos

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Remember Remember!!

        Remember remember the 6th of December. 2008, December 6th, a Saturday evening in Athens, some youths sit in a café in the district of Exarchia, having a night out. There would have been coffee, chat, jokes, laughter, no thought of impending doom. Then in a brief moment young, fifteen year old Alexis Grigoropoulos falls to the street murdered by an on duty police officer. Young Alexis dies on the street in the arms of one of his young friends. That event unleashed years of pent up anger across Greece, in the form of riots for days on end. Every year since, protesters have taken to the streets across Greece, in memory of young Alexis, and to protest at police brutality, a brutality that is  administrated by the institutions of a supposed socialist  government, but is in fact just another authoritarian state machine.

        As I stamp this out on the keyboard there is fierce fighting between protesters and the police in the district of Exarchia, the scene of the murder of young Alexis. So far there has been 28 known arrests. The protests and marches marking the murder of young Alexis started this afternoon, in cities across Greece, and has turned into running battles with the police, continuing into the night. We should never forget how the state tries to monopolise violence as its legitimate tool, to be used as it sees fit on who it deems necessary, with no rebuke.

Exarchia this evening:

        Greece, like the rest of the states in Europe and else where, profess to be democracies, but the reality is very different from the illusion they try to weave. Today Athens was in lock-down, with Metro stations closed and transport disrupted. Thousands of police have been drafted into Athens. Two events today have the establishment on high alert, one is the marking of the police murder of 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos, the other, the visit of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who will arrive with hundreds of his own bodyguards. There are snipers placed at points along his route, this is how European democracy works. It can only carry out its pomp and symbolism under the protection of a ring of armed police and the barrel of the gun. 

Murder By "Legal" Hands.

      The 6th. of December is approaching, a date that should be etched on the memory of every freedom loving individual. It should be a date when the haters of repression and lovers of justice carry forever in their minds. It was on an evening on Saturday, December 6th. 2008, in the district of Exarchia in Athens that the young 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos and some friends were out having a coffee, then at point blank range, he was shot dead by a serving policeman. He died on the street in front of his young friends, a cold blooded murder of a youth by a state employee. The state's history is a litany of murder by its bully boys in uniform, we must call out, "enough is enough".

      What followed was the unleashing of pent up hatred of police brutality and state injustice, Greece was gripped by an outpouring of weeks of riots, demonstrations and protests, that went to the very brink, and spread to other countries. The murder of young Alexis Grigoropoulos was the spark that lit a ferocious fire that had been simmering beneath the surface for years. The riots ended but still beneath the surface rumbles the murmur of discontent and anger, that the riots of 2008 did not resolve. The police brutality remains, the state repression goes on, the injustice keeps growing, the poverty and deprivation is endemic. What spark will it take to finally bring this festering cancerous system to an end, how many young Alexis must die before we put an end to the barbarity of capitalism? Let us mark the anniversary of Alexis Grigoropoulos's cold blooded murder with righteous anger. 

From Gatorna, a partial list of murders at the hands of state employees. 

        We call for an international day of action against state terrorism
in rememberance of...
Santiago Maldonado kidnapped and murdered by paramilataries, Argentina 2017
Pellumb Marinkolla thrown out of a police station window, Greece 2016
Remi Fraisse killed by stun grenade, France 2014
Ilia Kareli tortured to death by prison guards, Greece 2014
43 young students kidnapped and murdered by cops, Mexico 2014
Michael Brown shot by cops, Ferguson (USA) 2014
Berkin Elvan shot by teargas canister by riot cops, Istanbul 2013
Mark Duggan shot by cops, UK 2011
Dimitris Kotzaridis killed by teargas, Athens 2011
Lambros Fountas shot by cops, Greece 2010
Stefano Gucci tortured to death by police, Italy 2009
Inigo Cabacas killed by rubber bullet, Basque country 2009
Giuseppe Uva beaten to death in a police station, Italy 2008
Alexis Grigoropoulos shot by cops, Greece 2008
Gabriele Sandri shot by cops, Italy 2007
Oury Jalloh burned alive in his cell by the cops, Germany 2005
Federico Aldrovandi beaten to death by cops, Italy 2005
Carlo Gulliani shot by cops, Italy, 2001
Sole e Baleno led to suicide in prison, Italy 1998
Christophoros Marinos excecuted by cops, Greece 1996
Halim Dener shot by cops, Germany 1994
Conny Wessmann killed by car when chased by cops, Germany 1989
Michalis Kaltezas shot by cops, Greece 1985
Iakovos Koumis beaten to death by riot cops, Greece 1980
Stamatina Kannelopoulou beaten to death by riot cops, Greece 1980
Francesco Lo Russio shot by cops, Italy 1977
Isidoros Isidoropoulos killed by car when chased by cops, Greece 1976
...and of all the unkown and unnamed ones. We don't forgive. We
don't forget. No step back.

Read the article HERE:

Our Inheritance.

Now is the time to arm our desire with anger

time to claim our rightful inheritance.

Inheritance, built by generations of poverty and toil,

river of wealth channelled to financial institutions,

stolen by the power crowned few.

Treasure fearlessly wrestled from angry seas.

Riches, arduously torn from the bowels of the earth.

Bounty laboriously scratched from unforgiving land.

Assets, ours by right of life and limb.

Our toil sent a director's son to Eton.

Our poverty paid his daughter's dowry.

our sweat created the plunderer's sea of plenty.

Our humility gave his crime legality.

Now is the time to arm our desire with anger

time to claim what's ours, with fist and fire.

What Price a Child's Life?

      It is difficult to grasp the vicious brutality of the Turkish state and its savage repression of the Kurds who live within its authoritarian domain. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, seldom mentions what is happening on the streets of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's fiefdom. For generations these Kurds have had this crazy idea that they would like to control their own lives and speak their own language, for this heinous crime, they have suffered continuous brutal repression from the Turkish state. Recently their treatment has got even more savage and brutal, deaths mount, children killed by the state ever increases, and the Western "democracies" look the other way.

       These links tell part of the story, but can't convey the true personal suffering and misery of the families and friends involved. The video helps to bring home the inhumane callous savagery of the Turkish state and it apparatus of repression. 

KJA – ‘Nekuje’, Children killed by Turkish security forces

KJA – Destruction of our People’s Graveyards

KJA – Lists of civilian deaths, arrests, curfews, and security zones

     This video tells a heart breaking story of child murders perpetrated by the Turkish state. In Athens, December 15, 2008, 15 year old Alexis  Grigoropoulos was shot dead in the street by a police officer. His death sparked some of the worst and longest running riots in Greece's history, covering the whole country. Why no such anger for this list of young lives struck down by the state? So many young deaths should multiply the anger.

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A Victory For Nikos Romanos.

      The best news I've heard in a long while, Nikos Romanos has won his right to study at university, he will be allowed to classes wearing an electric tag. This is a tremendous victory for this young man, but at considerable cost to his general health. 31 days on hunger strike will not leave him undamaged. What comes through in this case, apart from the determination and courage of Nikos, is the state's callous brutality in denying him is legal rights, to the point of near death. Perhaps the state was afraid that if Nikos died in prison, Greece would explode. Let's all hope he makes a full recovery and leads a long, full and active life.

Nikos Romanos after his arrest, and his 15 year old friend Alexis Grigoropoulos, who was shot in 2008 by a thug in uniform.

Announcement on Act For Freedom Now:

 Nikos Romanos has ended his hunger strike. Athens

     Nikos Romanos has ended his hunger  strike after 31 days. The law that will be applied is that he will wear an electronic bracelet to control his movements while studying outside prison. Solidarity with Nikos Romanos and all those arrested.

Act for freedom now!

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

We Are An Image From The Future.

       I can't help but feel for the people of Greece, what has been inflicted on them by the Troika, (EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers), more accurately described as the financial Mafia, is a crime against humanity. Their health service has been trashed, suicides, mental health problems, and substance abuse, have shot up to the stratosphere. Their education system is in a state of collapse, poverty and deprivation is endemic, and homelessness is in epidemic proportions. All this presided over by a cabal of rich, self-centred and corrupt politicians, who always dance to the tune of the financial Mafia.

 Alexis Grigoropoulos.

       Of course it is not all being taken meekly and subserviently by the people of Greece, they continue to fight for the right to dignity and a decent life. This despite being constantly attacked by, what is probably the most brutal police force in Europe. The case of Nikos Romanos epitomises the state brutality under which the people of Greece struggle for dignity. This young man of 21 years at the age of 15, cradled his best friend of the same age, Alexis Grigoropoulos, as he lay dying on the street from a bullet in the chest, from the gun of a member of that brutal police force. Nikos's early youth must have been shaped by this callous act of brutality.

Nikos Romanos after arrest.

      Exactly six years on from that brutal, murderous event on December 6, 2008, Nikos finds himself in prison and on hunger strike, close to death. Acts of solidarity for Nikos take place across Greece, and cities across the world, on a constant bases. If the young Nikos Romanos dies in prison, and with recent reports of his condition pointing to that, it will have been an unnecessary, brutal, callous, vindictive murder, by a brutal callous, vindictive state, that puts its homage to the financial Mafia, above that of the people of Greece. But what will his death mean to the people of Greece, will it finally raise their righteous anger to that point of no return? Their suffering and that of Nikos Romanos, gives them the right to enjoy the ecstasy of their righteous anger.

This from Roar Mag:

      That dystopian future is now. On Saturday, it will be exactly six years since Alexis’ murder — and Alexis’ best friend Nikos Romanos, if he is lucky, will be spending it in hospital. Nikos stopped eating on November 10 in protest against the authorities’ refusal to grant him his legal right to educational furlough. His doctors warn that he is in critical condition and could succumb from heart or kidney failure anytime. The government has given hospital staff the order to force-feed him, but the doctors have refused. As Nikos’ health steadily deteriorates, the streets are becoming ever more combustible — especially in anticipation of the annual commemoration march for Alexis on Saturday.

       On Tuesday night, fierce riots broke out in downtown Athens after more than 10.000 people marched through the city in solidarity with Nikos and four anarchist comrades who recently joined him on his hunger strike. The images of burning cars in Exarchia led many to wonder if a replay of 2008 might be in the cards if the state does not give in to Nikos’ demands soon. Riot police responded with the usual teargas and baton rounds, but what was truly worrisome were later reports that at least 10 detainees had been hospitalized with heavy injuries, including broken limbs and ribs. Two Syriza MPs who rushed to the police headquarters found the sixth floor of the building “covered in blood.”

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk