Laugh In Their Face.

       Despite the unbridled brutal repression from the Greek state's minders, against autonomous spaces, migrants, squats and self organising communities, the people of Exarcheia, and further afield, are determined to hold on to these features of their lives and are resisting and fighting back. In the face of the authoritarian, repressive state they are showing it the two fingers. Their struggle and determination should be an inspiration to us all to stand up and resist the ever encroaching tentacles of the state. 

This from Act For Freedom Now:

 

      On Saturday 29/2 at Exarchia Square we will burn our own “cop-carnival-dummy”. We come with our friends, our children, our nephews, our grandmothers and grandfathers, and take back the square from the occupation forces and all those trying to make repression a permanent reality in our neighborhood. We bring our drinks, our masks, our music instruments and all of our toys for a frantic carnival from two in the noon until late in the afternoon!
         Oust the fear, the streets will win!
     Open assembly of squats, collectives,internationalists, migrants and solidarians

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Inspiration And Solidarity.

       In  this exploitative economic system with its state backed callous repression, two things we need much more off, inspiration and solidarity. Below is an example of each, both from Anarchists Worldwide.

Inspiration:

Koukaki fell heavy on them.

 

 

        Since 2017, the Koukaki Squat Community (Matrozou 45, Panaitoliou 21, Arvali 3) set up adifferent competitive example of communal life in the center of Athens. Through horizontal procedures, collective work and persistence, it set up open and social projects of communal housing, public bath and laundry, clothes sharing, spaces for public events and a multilingual library. Operating in an area which has been transforming from residential neighborhood to first-class tourist resort, the Koukaki Squat Community raised an embankment against the repressive and economic policies of the state and the bosses, against fascism, racism, and patriarchy. A living hearth of resistance, it also actively supported and connected with other struggles, political projects and public assemblies [1].
      Such an active community of equality and solidarity could not go unnoticed. As many other squats and political projects in Athens, the squats in Koukaki were targeted multiple times by the state, both by syriza and nea dimokratia governments, as well as through fascist attacks [2]. Facing evacuations and repression, the comrades resisted and defended their community by retaking the houses and through dynamic interventions. Their strong resistance came to become a central political issue on 18/12/2019, when the police evacuated all three squats, and on 11/1/2020, with the spectacular police operations to evict the houses of Matrozou 45 and Panaitoliou 21, both of which had been retaken by comrades earlier that day.

Read the full article HERE:
Solidarity:

Berlin, Germany: 

Reflections on the Occupation of the Greek Consulate on 23.12.2019.

       On 23.12.2019, we tried to interrupt the normal operation with a symbolic occupation of the Greek consulate in Berlin, After several, also brutal, evacuations of occupations in Greece, we decided to set a sign of solidarity on this way. Even though the action was successful, we decided to publish our collective reflections here to give the chance to follow the whole action and our thoughts about it.
      We entered the building at 11 a.m. with 17 people and calmly asked the staff to stop working for the day. The aim was to disturb the smooth running of the procedure, but without causing further damage. The consulate is located on the 4th floor of an apartment building in Möhrenstraße 17 in Berlin-Mitte. As soon as we entered the rooms, we covered the cameras, explained our reason of the occupation to the staff, hung a banner with the words “Solidarity with the Squats” out of the window and threw out flyers. We made no demands whatsoever, but took the room to spread our ideas and show our solidarity.
     The supporters down the street distributed flyers and our statement to the pedestrians. As soon as the rooms were occupied, we sent our text (https://en.squat.net/2019/12/23/berlin-greek-consulate-occupied-solidari…) to all ministries in Greece via fax and e-mail and also to some of the mass-media, because we discussed beforehand if we want to use the media to propagate our action and decided to send the text to some of them.
       In the first minutes of the occupation several visitors came to the consulate, almost all were asked to leave and come back another day, the reactions were different. One visitor refused to leave the premises and remained alone in the visiting room all day.

Read the full article HERE: 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Dogs As Weapons.

      One thing we should all be clear about, the state will use whatever it thinks will work to subdue a population that is resisting its authority, it will attempt to instill fear and stifle any form of resistance to its control mechanisms over the population. Armour clothed robotic looking police, shields, long batons, rubber bullets, and on occasions lethal live ammunition. Dogs are also used to intimidate, they seem to be blind to their hypocrisy, that possessing an aggressive dog can lead to it being destroyed, and then they train dogs to be aggressive and patrol them in public places to try to intimidate the general public. Training a dog to be aggressive is both cruel and against any semblance of animal welfare, but then again, the state and its minders consider themselves above all laws.

    It is good to see that there are people taking a stand against this cruel practice of training animals to be aggressive, and then useing them as weapons against the public.

    This from Athens via Act For freedom now:

      The police have painted targets on anyone who slightly defies the law and order regime. This week marks an imposition of mass patrols designed to sow fear and violence. And worse they have brought trained attack animals onto our streets to roam among crowds. We gather and impose ourselves into and against their narrative.
      Let’s be clear that training animals to be aggressive and placing them in dangerous situations is abuse.
     This weekend 2/15 9pm Plateia Exarcheia against law and order
Against the use of animals as weapons
      We act for Exarcheia, for anarchy
update 15.2.20: About 60 people came through over the call for an hour. We hung three banners in Plateia exarxeia, read statements and listened to music. Was good. Thanks to everyone who came.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Cut Root And Branch.

       Questions used to be asked, would the state system collapse, would capitalism collapse, now the questions are when will the state system collapse and when will capitalism collapse. A look around you and it seems perfectly obvious that both the state system and capitalism are on the crumbling edge of decay. The system that is destroying the planet and human life on it, along with millions of other species, isn't sustainable. In state after state people are taking to the streets to display their righteous anger at the greed driven plunder and destruction of our only home. Inequality is so wide and glaringly obvious, it is no longer accepted, misery and destruction spawned by continuous wars for resources for the rich is now seen for with it is, the destruction and plunder of the planet for power and wealth for the few. A love of humanity and empathy with all other species demands that we hurry the collapsing process of this cancerous system as much and as quickly as we can. Time is not on our side as the planet's changing weather system is already causing unimaginable death and misery across the planet, fires, floods, poverty for countless millions, mass migration, are all on the increase. Can this deliberate destruction be halted? Certainly not if we appeal to the system that caused it to put it right. No use pruning a rotten and collapsing tree, it has to brought down and destroyed.

       As I have said before, trying to build a "Left" political party is just giving the people a paracetamol to ease their pain, but it will  never cure their problems.

       January 17, 2020 by actforfreedom

Athens, Greece: Obsidian: Against Nations, all out on the 18th January against the state
        Anarchy if anything is total opposition to the nation state. Anarchists don’t just critique or hold a strong suspicion of states, our movement was founded on their negation. This new decade is a new era for nations, one that will likely break them from their historical model. Within this vaccuum our ideals will be increasingly relevant and thrive if able to adapt. The opposite is true for the left wing of capital, those Marxists and liberals who already look like caricatures from the past. For this reason we must vigorously oppose any compromise with old ideas. Our world is moving too fast to look back.
      Our current moment is a train crash of climate emergency, forced migration, mass information, war and growing population. To say the old system is only breaking is an understatement. It broke long ago and is now collapsing under it’s own weight like the many empires before it. Unfortunately the same common history still applies, new beginnings come after violent, unpredictable ends.
       As anarchists in this climate of increasing social instability we should not only say the things only we can say. But take action that makes our antistate position clear. Reminding all that compromise has never ended authority, no matter how comfortable a fantasy. Leaving traditional opposition to wither and watch their own states break apart and lash out with dictatorships.
      In Athens, Europe and the world so many ask when the desperation will end. This question fuels uncontrollable rage directed at the parasite latched onto our collective body. Individuals are sick of asking obvious questions, losing the little ground gained over past decades. As the light at the end of the tunnel dims, a vicious fire lights the way.

Support anarchy against nations
Destabilize the repressive machine
Retake and expand space that pains dominant society.
All out on the 18th January against the state. Kaniggos Square. 6:30pm Athens

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Ask Your Gaoler For Paracetamol.

        It becomes more and more obvious that we can't get the type of free and just society we want without a hard and bitter struggle. As state repression crawls further and further into our everyday life, enforced by a well armed police force backed up by a loaded judicial system, more and more people are drawn into conflict with the state. The endless attack on the social fabric of the population by the plundering of the public purse, by the state's money and business orientated policies, while pampering and subsidising their corporate friends, it becomes obvious that the state and big business are not on our side. We stand diametrically opposed to each other in what is clearly a class war, the rich and power with their self protecting state apparatus versus the ordinary people armed with nothing more than solidarity and a desire for a fair and just world for all. To get there will never be done by appealing to the rich and powerful political and corporate Mafia, you are asking them to give up the wealth and power and join us in shaping an equal and fair society, to give up their pampered and privileged life to join us the ordinary people in a building a society that sees to everybody's needs fairly. Such requests are based on an illusion peddled by the political parties, who in reality benefit from the existing unjust and corrupt system.

       The misery, poverty, deprivation, inequality and violence encapsulated in this capitalist system backed up the state is so glaringly obvious, it is crime to look the other way, it's an abandonment of your humanity, it's giving consent and being complicit in perpetuating the injustice. Appealing to your gaoler for an extra pillow to make a your life little bit more comfortable, or asking for a paracetamol to ease your pain, is not an answer, we have to break down the prison walls and free ourselves.

This from AMW:

 

 We are tearing down walls for freedom

         The recapture of Matrozou 45 and Panetoliou 21 is an act against the fear imposed by state repression. It is a signal of resistance and a rallying cry for escalation. Let us not leave our neighborhoods and nature in the heat of development plunder. Do not accept the displacement of our lives. Keep the parks, squares and hills free. Let us oppose the mercenaries of the state. Let us intensify the struggles against the exploitation of labor. Let us completely take up the struggle for survival and freedom. The struggle is neither legal nor illegal.
        Together with dozens of anarchist / antisocial companions, we are taking back the community’s homes in order to meet housing needs that would not have been possible without this occupation, to re-open solidarity structures and re-establish free-living relationships without hierarchy, reopen homes in the neighborhood and in the movement with events, celebrations and organization.
        We occupy buildings and connect illegal electricity and water. We are working to make them sustainable and we are taking on the cost of repression. It is a conscious choice to blackmail with rent and bills. Meeting the basic needs must be a given to all people and not a tool in the hands of the bosses to give us the dilemma of submission or misery.
        Housing seizures are a logical response to the irrationality of a financial system that forcefully keeps people in huts, roads and concentration camps at the same time as there are thousands of vacant buildings. In a suffocating metropolis drowned in cement and drinking places, occupations are places of socialization without institutional and financial control, places where people can redefine their relationships on the basis of solidarity and respect, outside the dominant standards.
         And for those who are complaining about the unpaid occupation accounts, it would be good to dig a little deeper into all that has been stolen by state and international economic policies, all those unpaid party accounts, factories and, of course, the millions in euros. In a forest-burning state with the collapse of the health system and bleeding education system, the state chooses to hire 1,500 cops with extra money for equipment. Because all they care about is protecting their friends and their friends’ investments from an uprising.
       On the other hand, the Greek police and media, the urban propaganda system, are on the verge of collapse after the last operation in Koukaki. They still do not want to admit that high-profile journalists and politicians and the anti-terrorism unit itself condemned without any evidence an “innocent Greek family.” Because this will undermine social trust in the foundations of the urban system and give us space to say once again that THIS IS NOT ABOUT AN INDIVIDUAL CASE. They prepare and construct the next culprits… All this is done to instill fear and terror into people’s minds about squatters and anarchist / antisocial sites.
         The squatters are attacked by the entire state apparatus and not only by the “right government.” The disagreement between SYRIZA and ND is about what is the most effective way to suppress the movement. Police democracy throughout the area with the involvement of anti-terrorism also existed under SYRIZA with thirty examples. One example of extreme repression was when they sent two MAT squads to Philopappou Hill to prevent tree planting. Whether left or right, such an unjust and contradictory system cannot survive without repression, and repression is something that will always exist and we will have to go through it to get what we need.
         The occupation of all the necessary resources, productive forces, spaces, and ultimately our own lives, is the one-way street for the struggles of the oppressed and exploited, and our small occupations foreshadow this happy future.

Occupation Community of Koukaki

Original publication January 11, 2020

via athens.indymedia.org

From: https://mpalothia.net/athina-anakatalipsi-ton-katalipseon-matrozoy-45-kai-panaitolioy-21/

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Athens, State Brutality Continues.

     The latest from Athens, where the state has unleashed a brutal attack against all autonomous centres and squats. It is being met with counter attacks by various members of the public.

From Act For Freedom Now:

       Athens, Greece: The greek government has gone into war with anarchists and anti authoritarians, following the end of a 15 days ultimatum issued by the Ministry of “Public Order”, towards the dozens of political and refugee squats across Greece (some of them more than 30 years old), threatening them with violent evictions by the riot police and police special forces, if they did not evacuate within the deadline. The deadline ended on Thursday night on the 5th of December 2019, a political decision by the greek State aiming to agitate and create an “explosive atmosphere”.
       Following the first wave of attacks and evictions, mainly against squats housing refugees during the fall, the second wave of attacks has just begun, this time against political squats and social centers. Coinciding with the arrest of antifascists and the proposed judicial acquittal of neonazi leaders in the Golden Dawn trial, the right wing greek government and its self proclaimed socialist Minister of Public Order have proceeded with the eviction of “Kouvelou Mansion” Squat in Marousi, Athens on Tuesday 17 December, while another three squats have been evicted today 18 December in Koukaki, Athens, following a massive police operation, that terrorized a whole neighborhood with police brutality, attacking people living in adjoining houses that were no squats. Brutal images of greek SWAT policemen having their boots on people’s heads on the ground and a mother bound on the floor of her terrace with a hood on her head, reminiscing of Abu Ghraib torture images, have been circulated in the media.
        While this info text is being written it has become known that at about 22:00 today 18 December, people attacked shops and banks near the main square of Athens at Syntagma,
       while also the christmas tree at Exarcheia Square in Athens has been set on fire. While the greek government has proclaimed that more than 20 squats, just in Athens, will be violently evicted until the end of 2019, the police attacks seems like the match that will put fire in an already explosive situation during Christmas and New Year’s festivities.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Violence Of Democracy!!

   In Athens the Greek state's war on freedom of expression and dissent continues with renewed savagery all dressed up as making the city safe, and clearing it of criminals and terrorists. The latest squats to be evicted have been long standing community centres, hubs of alternative culture and co-operation among local residents. Once again we see how representative democracy works with its usual iron fist against any attempt to live outside its dictate and control.  

     In one recent eviction an incident not reported here, the anti-terrorist police entered a neighbour's yard and when she asked to see a warrant for entering her property, she was wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and arrested. The face of representative democracy.

This from SquatNet:

      Today in the early morning hours, Villa Kouvelos in Marousi (northern part of Athens) was evicted by a strong state anti-terrorist police force.
The empty and dilapidated building was squatted by anarchists in April 2010 and quickly developed into a nationally known social center, providing the district with concerts, lectures, discussions, political events, etc.
      The villa has also been the target of attacks by right-wing groups such as the Golden Dawn. In the north of Athens, Villa Kouvelos was an institution and its eviction is a catastrophe for the neighborhood in cultural terms alone, leaving behind – similar to the eviction of the Villa Zografou – a socio-cultural desert. As far as is known, there is also no special reason for the eviction, there are no plans to use the building or sell the land. The eviction is therefore a purely populist act.
       A few minutes after the arrival of the cops at 7:30 am, residents gathered in front of the building to express their solidarity. Flyers were distributed and the city council meeting of the Nea Dimokratia (ND, New Democracy) responsible for the eviction was disturbed. A spontaneous demonstration was called at 6 pm, attended by about 300 people. The demonstration went loudly through the neighborhood, slogans were sprayed and some banks were smashed.
        Yesterday ND announced the eviction of another 28 squats by the end of the year, which after the events in Exarcheia and the eviction actions so far is tantamount to a further declaration of war on the scene, on alternative life and on all progressive people in Greece. A foretaste of the reaction was already given in the last few days, with smaller attacks throughout the city – and a clear warning on 6 December with 12,000 anarchists in front of the parliament.

And:

Three more evictions in Koukaki. Cops terrorized neighbours

Athens – Greek police evicted 3 more squats in the Koukaki district this morning (December 18th). Neighbours were terrorized by the cops, some of them were also arrested. On Exarcheia square the Nea Demokratia regime put up a Christmas tree. Tonight there will be an emergency meeting in the Gini building in Athens.

---

Some squats in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/GR/squated/squat
Groups in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/GR
Events in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/GR

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https://de.indymedia.org/node/54093 https://enoughisenough14.org/2019/12/18/athens-3-more-evictions-in-koukaki-district-cops-terrorized-neighbours/

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

State Repression and Resistance.

        The state repression being visited on the district of Exarcheia in Athens against autonomous spaces, anarchists and migrants, continues  however, so does the resistance.

This from Enough is Enough:

        4 days after the evacuation of two squats (1) a few hundred meters west of Exarcheia, the Greek state continues its strategy of encirclement and penetration of the neighborhood.
        Originally published by Blog YY. Written by Yannis Youlountas. Translated by Autonomies.
       The vice is tightening around the rebel and solidarity district of Athens:

EVACUATION IN PROGRESS OF THE SQUAT “FIFTH SCHOOL” NEXT TO EXARCHEIA
         4 days after the evacuation of two squats (1) a few hundred meters west of Exarcheia, the Greek state continues its strategy of encirclement and penetration of the neighborhood.
        This time, it is on the other side, the south-east of Exarcheia, a large squat is being evacuated, in the precincts of a former high school abandoned.
        For now, Mitsotakis does not yet dare to attack the main historic squats of the heart of Exarcheia, especially Notara 26 and the K * Vox, but his desire to “clean up Exarcheia” persists, the desire have disappear a unique political and social experience that disturbs power in Europe.
        Once again, the State shows its true face: a hyperstructure aiming to control everything, not in the service of the large number but of the power that claims to govern us and forbid us to live otherwise.
        However, we showed Friday evening, by symbolically taking over the squat Spirou Trikoupi 17, evacuated at the end of August, a time of festivity over these last three years, that nothing is over and that we will not let matters stand.
         We are seeds. Seeds of utopias. We are not afraid of wind, rain or autumn. Not even of winter.

Yannis Youlountas, September 23, 2019

This from Ekathimerini 31st., August, 2019.

    Tensions simmered in the downtown Athens district of Exarchia over the weekend with several skirmishes between police and self-styled anarchists in the wake of a crackdown on squats and the Vox cafe, a hangout for members of the Rouvikonas anarchist group.
        On Saturday afternoon a group of around 40 people lobbed homemade firebombs and stones at a riot police unit on Tositsa Street, just hours after a smaller group attacked another police unit on Harilaou Trikoupi Street.
         No injuries were reported in either incident but police are on standby for possible revenge attacks by anarchists for evictions from four squats last week and the Vox raid which, Rouvikonas claims, caused injuries.

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“No Pasaran”, Solidarity Is The Weapon.

        Exarcheia is not a militarised controled zone, it is still a battlefield, and the residents and their supporters are fighting back. This latest action took the riot police by surprise, showing it can be done, as they say, "you can't evict a dream". Solidarity of the people will eventually defeat any authoritarian repression, we have the numbers, it is all a matter of coming together and cementing that solidarity.

This from Anarchist News:

Exarcheia Anarchists surprise riot police, reoccupy squat.

 

 On Friday 20 September 2019, on the three years anniversary of the occupation of the building that became known as “Spirou Trikoupi 17 Squat” housing refugees in the heart of Exarcheia (Athens, Greece), people were not deterred by the fact that the Squat had been evacuated on Monday 26 August 2019, following a massive police raid and that the neighborhood of Exarchia has been turned into a “militarized” zone, with constant riot police attacks against people in the area and social centers.
         Instead, they chose to celebrate the anniversary like the evacuation never happened by organizing a collective dinner on Exarcheia square to celebrate the Squat’s birthday, “with their one and only weapon… Solidarity!”, as noted in their public communique.
        During the event, people decided to defy the “militarized” law imposed on Exarcheia and while taking the riot police brigades by surprise, managed to enter the sealed -with bricks- building, symbolically reoccupying it, hang a huge banner writing “No Pasaran”, light up flares ans shoot fireworks, while more activists started to protest in the street in front of the building.
        They then exited the building the same way they entered, unnoticed, leaving the riot police on the spot astounded, that then had to bring a crane to enter the building from the balconies in a big operation, puzzled, trying to figure out what has just happened.

        This was the communique of the “Spirou Trikoupi 17 Squat”:

     “We are waiting for you all, at 7 p.m in the square of Exarcheia!
3 years ago, an abandoned building in the center of Exarcheia was squatted to house the hopes and the dreams of thousands people that passed by, in their pursuit of a better life. The 3rd bday of Trikoupi finds us evicted from our house but still alive and strong, fighting for our principles and our beliefs. We organize a collective solidarity dinner in the square, to make the statement that trikoupi was far more than just a building. It was and still is an idea! An alive and active community!
       Collective dinner this Friday 20/9, in Exarcheia square to celebrate our birthday, with our one and only weapon… Solidarity!

See you all there!

You can’t evict our dreams… You can’t evict a movement!
Our community will never die. Trikoupi is still alive!
Solidarity will win…“

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk    

Organise, Prepare, Act.

         The state repression goes on, however the resistance grows. A short video from Exarcheia showing some of the preparation for the massive protest. that took place in central Athens on September 14th. which was attended by thousands. Of course this part of the preparations took place under the prying eyes of the riot police.

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Thousands March To Defend Exarcheia.

        Happening now, thousands take to the streets in Athens in protest at the riot police and military style violent attacks on the district of Exarcheia. Since mid August the district of Exarcheia has been under continuous police attacks and evictions, with hundreds of migrants evicted and arrested. Exarchia is a district in Athens where there are numerous squats in empty property and used as social spaces, educational and health centres, and for housing migrants. It is run on the principles of mutual aid, co-operation, self-help and respect for the individual, free from the burdening shackles of the state.  The Greek authoritarian state has decided that it will not tolerate people living outside their dictates, rules and regulations, it seeks total control. Besides it sees the district as of value to the developers, so wishes to clear the residents out and see it become another tourist centre pandering to the rich with expensive apartments, high fashion outlets and a source of tax revenue to fund their neo-liberal capitalist expansion.

        The people of Exarcheia need our support and solidarity, and their fight to be put fully in the spotlight of public knowledge, share and spread. First they came for Exarcheia---.

Links:

https://itsgoingdown.org/greek-anarchist-movement-responds-to-assault-on-exarchia/

 http://voidnetwork.gr/category/voidnetwork-news/

 https://twitter.com/th1an1/status/1172831586355752960

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Resistance To State brutality Is The Only Answer.

           Yea, here I go again, Exarcheia, well it is savage, brutal and against all humanity, and I am well aware that this sort of thing is happening all over our planet every day of the week. Perhaps shining a light on this particular one incident, will help to bring home just how brutal any state can be, and their total lack of human consideration. Dialogue and voting for change is pointless, as should be obvious by now. How many ballot boxes have been filled and counted, how many change of governments have we seen throughout history? However, the brutality still persists, the drive for total control increases, and another ballot box is not going to change that. Resistance and solidarity across borders is the only answer.

           A report from resistance in Exarcheia, and a call for solidarity. The brutality of the state goes on, the state is not concerned with human needs, but only with gaining control. Migrants will be treated as non-persons, with no rights, not as human beings in distress, and will be herded into concentration camps. Those who stand up to defend and support migrants will be labelled criminals. The media will dress this savage attack on a way of life based on mutual aid and solidarity, as clearing the area of criminals and terrorists. The repression will not stop until the resistance wins or the state wins and hands the area over to the developers. The outcome is in the hands of the people.

        This entry was posted on Monday, September 9th, 2019 at 2:48 pm, and is filed under Automony. 

 This from 325:

 Greece: We stand against state repression

          The state and capitalism continue to target the freedom of the social base and appropriate its labour and resources. In recent years we have experienced some of the most violent attacks on this freedom through the mass impoverishment of the already oppressed and exploited. At the same time, a widespread social resistance and solidarity movement has formed. People have created a variety of self-organized spaces such as housing infrastructures, social medical centers, community kitchens, open parks and public spaces. In spite of setbacks, the movement has created a solid social ground and accumulated considerable knowledge and experience. Through squats, political groups, base unions, squares and neighbourhood assemblies we have formed communities of struggle with strong social bonds. Communities oriented towards society, with a critical eye all the same. At times, the movement has had to use violence as a means of defending and expanding free spaces against state repression, capitalist interests and fascist attacks. It is a movement that grows in diversity and vibrancy, despite the ongoing criminalisation of solidarity and mobility.
         In the context of this socio-class conflict, on Monday 26/8, the state, armed with police forces, seized Exarchia and evicted four squats. Two of these squats were migrant homes—Transito and Spirou Trikoupi 17, from where the police abducted 144 migrants, uprooting them from their places of residence for a second time and isolating them in what the state calls detention centers. Evictions were also carried out in an ongoing housing and political squat in Assimaki Fotila street, and the Gare squat, where three arrests were made. Police also invaded the homes of comrades from Gare. In the next days, police kicked out homeless persons from Strefi hill, beat up a homosexual couple, attacked the steki of anarchist immigrants and the squatted social space of K’ BOΞ. The movement gave multiform answers with gatherings, actions and demonstrations. In addition to the squats and the movement, this repressive operation targets migrants. These are some of the most oppressed people in society, since their very existence is considered illegal. In a state of ‘illegality’ there is no access to health and education, and working conditions are like slavery. Many choose self-organisation and solidarity structures in order to survive and resist. Together with locals and internationals they build communities and claim visibility, posing a direct threat to political and economic power. The solidarity we are—all of us together—building is antithetical to the humanitarian aid of NGOs that can be seen to manipulate migrants and make money off their problems. Real solidarity is at odds with state ‘humanitarianism’, which covers up deaths at the borders and deflects from the violent conditions in concentration camps. Prisoners do not receive adequate medical care and therefore suffer from potentially fatal diseases. These concentration camps lack basic hygiene, people live with bed bugs and miserable food and are frequently beaten, all to force them to flee Greek and European territory. Transferring migrants from the squats where they have chosen to live undermines their dignity and self-determination. The excuse that these camps are safer and healthier is a shameful lie of the state, an absolute reversal of reality.
           Throughout these years, the solidarity movement has responded to a variety of needs and desires. The most important achievement of the movement is that people of different backgrounds have organized into squats and formed collective bodies to create projects that reflect the world of equality and freedom we desire. Squats are free spaces where social relations can be developed free from state control and economic exclusion. These spaces transgress national, gender and other systemic discrimination and answer basic needs such as housing, breaking out of rent coercion and wage exploitation. In times of mass forced migration, they offer shelter and hope to thousands of people by making inclusive and active spaces. Squats in collaboration with other grassroots forces defend neighbourhoods and public spaces from corporate and political power. The political agenda of New Democracy is a continuation of Syriza’s policy. It aims to transform the whole territory into readily exploitable land for local and foreign capital. The result is further exploitation and destruction of the environment and the aggressive gentrification of urban space that transforms neighbourhoods inside the city into areas of touristic consumption, displacing residents and carrying out an informal “social cleansing”. The militarisation of public space, the imprisonment of those who rise up, the subjugation of workers, students, the unemployed, migrants, women and LGBTQI+ people is essential for implementing such a plan. Some of New Democracy’s first moves were to integrate the correctional system and the immigration ministry under police jurisdiction. At the same time, they hired 1,500 new people to the police force, expanding the state’s army of repression. They further criminalised the means of struggle and abolished university asylum in preparation for the new social and class struggles. The struggles that Syriza assimilated and disintegrated paved the way for an even more aggressive totalitarian state that we saw with the rise of New Democracy.
          We call all people of the struggle–the rebels, squatters, collectives and individuals–here and abroad, to join in strengthening our efforts towards a common front against police and state repression. Our primary aim is to defend the squats and our social achievements against the state and capital.
             Don’t let the struggle be absorbed by any force of the regime! Let’s expand the already existing self-organised structures and create new ones, let’s escalate our class and social struggles. It is time to crush the oppressive forces, to debunk systemic media propaganda, and to bring out the truth of the struggle of the oppressed.

SOLIDARITY TO SQUATS AND ALL SPACES OF STRUGGLE
LOCALS-MIGRANTS WE STRUGGLE TOGETHER

Other report on Exarcheia evictions: 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Our Resistance Must Be International.

        Perhaps I go on and sound like a broken record that is stuck in a track, but I do believe that what is happening in Exarcheia, Athens, is of the utmost importance to all free thinking minds, though it is not the only struggle against state repression that is going on at the moment. Any attack by any state on the freedom of the individual or group that challenges the authoritarian methods of the state is an attack on all our freedoms. What brutal actions one state gets away with the others will look at and borrow when they feel the need. As well as supporting those who are at the receiving end of this brutal attack, we can also learn from their methods of  resistance, as our turn may come sooner than we expect. The Greek state is not unique, it is doing what they all do, attempting to subdue those who wish to think for themselves and shape their lives around mutual aid, co-operation, respect for all, self help and an end to the destructive force of capitalism. It is all a matter of degree, what the state thinks it can get away with in its drive for total control. They will do it with subtle persuasion, smoke and mirrors of propaganda, or by brute force. To the state, to achieve its aim of total control, "all options are on the table", likewise, our desire for freedom and justice should hold the same rules. Authoritarianism is international, our resistance must be international.
This from It's Going Down:

The Greek Anarchist Movement Responds to Assault on Exarchia

Listen to the podcast HERE:

        In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with a long-time anarchist based in the Greek neighborhood of Exarchia. This discussion takes place at a time when the new government, New Democracy, is in the middle of launching a violent assault against the neighborhood which for decades has been a hotbed of anarchist activity, squats, guerilla gardens, rebel art, and is largely a cop-free zone.
       In our discussion, we speak about the history of Greece from World War II up until today as well as the history of the anarchist movement itself, focusing primarily on the last 11 years, and speaking largely on the massive insurrection that broke out in 2008. We then discuss the coming to power of the far-Left Syriza government and their betrayal of social movements as well as the current refugee crisis, and how anarchists have responded by setting up a large network of squats.
       We also talk about the continuing threat of the far-Rigth in Greece, primarily Golden Dawn, as well as the coming to power of a new far-Right party, New Democracy, who campaigned heavily on clearing the anarchists, refugees, and squatters out of Exarchia. We talk about how the movement is responding to the recent wave of violent evictions, raids, and police attacks, and how this mobilization in solidarity with the neighborhood might signal a new turning point for the anarchist movement.
      While its frightening that a ruling party would come into power off of playing up fears and anger directed against the anarchist movement, squats, and refugees, anarchists are hopeful that the energy that is erupting on the streets of Athens will continue to grow.

  

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No Pasaran.

       We should not take the resistance that is happening in Exarcheia, Athens, as some little thing that is happening in a small area somewhere else. It is of international importance, and we should give it all the support and publicity that we can muster. It is an area where migrants are welcomed and where possible provided for, an area where people try to live their lives in a sense of mutual aid, self determination and respect for the individual and individual freedom. A place that flies in the face of control by the strangling hand of the authoritarian state. You can rest assured other states are watching and taking notes, as their aim is the same as the Greek state, total control of the population, a desire to have an army of submissive citizens. If the Greek state wins and destroys the ethos of Exarcheia, locks the migrants up in appalling over crowded concentration camps, imprisons those who supported the migrants through humanity, the flower of freedom has further withered for all of us. Authority and control will have tightened its grip, and that affects us all, no matter where we live. The resistance in Exarcheia demands our full support and solidarity, their struggle is our struggle.

This from Anarchist News:

No Pasaran: Thousands take to the streets against the Greek State's attack at Exarcheia.

        (Athens, Greece) Saturday, 31 August 2019: Two to three thousand people (according to different estimates) marched down the neighbourhood of Exarcheia in central Athens, following a massive police raid against 4 squats (mainly housing refugees) on Monday 26 August and the consequent arrest of 143 migrants and 3 others. Following the police raid, the neighbourhood of Exarchia has been turned into a “militarized” zone with constant riot police attacks against people in the area and social centers.
       But what the government didn't expect was that people in the area, instead of “cowering” in fear, they chose to defy the greek riot police and the government's ideological terrorism, also expressed through its controlled mass media. Thus, thousands of anarchists and other activists sent through the protest a message of resistance to the State's repressive campaign, as well as, signals of solidarity to the squats and social centers evicted and those under the imminent threat of new attacks by the greek State.
        To get an idea of the situation in Exarcheia during the last few days, on Thursday 29 of August 2019, during a live gig organized by bookshops and book publishing companies, scores of riot policemen suddenly attacked more than a thousand attendees with asphyxiating gas, flash bang grenades, and baton attacks, whilst in the chaos that followed, they attacked “Vox” social center (located on Exarchia Square), smashing its window screen and throwing an asphyxiating gas canister inside its closed spaces, an action that could have had resulted to death. Many people inside and outside were also treated with serious head wounds. Then, on Saturday 31 August, following the afternoon demo seen in the video, riot cops attacked again the concert on its 3d day, led by a riot policeman that had drawn his gun aiming at people while charging, according to witnesses of the events. But that was not the last of it. On Sunday 1 September the Vox social center was attacked by the greek riot police for a third time in just four days.
        Another big protest against the greek State's terror at the Exarcheia neighbourhood of Athens has been announced for the 14th of September.

More on Exarcheia:

    First they take Exarcheia
Recent evictions of several squats, some housing refugees and migrants, mark the beginning of a new chapter of repression and dissent in Greece.

 https://roarmag.org/essays/first-they-take-exarcheia/

    Exarchia: The struggle continues
From Yannis Youlountas, from Exarchia (31/08/2019) …

 http://autonomies.org/2019/08/exarchia-the-struggle-continues/

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Modern Democracy At Work.

       The storm-troopers of the Greek state are continuing and intensifying their savage attacks in Exarcheia, in central Athens. This sustained brutal attack is an attempt by the state to crush those who would dare to live outside the authoritarian dictates of the right-wing state. An attack on those who wish to live their lives in mutual aid, co-operation, self help and assistance to those in need, without the interference and the shackles of the state.

     The latest savagery was an attack on the social centre K-Vox, which I have visited several times, and was inspired. It was an old cinema, but is now an autonomous social space with a cafe, meeting rooms and a free to all, health centre in the basement. This is the type of structure that the state can't countenance, as it is outside their strangling control, control is everything to the state. 

      We should be alive to what is happening in Exarcheia, it is just another example of how any so called democracy can move in with crushing violence on those who wish to live their own lives in their own manner. Accept its dictates or suffer the consequences, is their mantra.

      This from Enough Is Enough:

        Written by Riot Turtle.

Modern democracy at work.

         On Monday riot cops evicted four squats in the Exarcheia district in Athens. But the cops did not retreat from the area after the evictions. The district is still occupied by state forces. Last night they attacked the K*Vox social center. One person suffered head injuries and was transferred to a hospital in the Greek capital.

Before that, riot cops were attacked in the area. The Anarchist migrants Facebook page published the following text: “A group of 50 anarchists attacked MAT at tositsa/trikoupi streets around 00:30(tonight) Riot had continued from tositsa/trikoupi to trikoupi and exarchia square with more participaters(a after a few minutes from start)because exarchia square was full of people. When the cops entered next to exarchia square, started to smash the windows of K*VOX and throwing tear gases inside the place. Rioters comrades left the area safe without arrestion. 10 minutes after the riot, MAT from their point in PASOUK, started to come more inside exarchia and terrorize the area by their presence.”

More videos HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk