Exarcheia Calling

         What is happening in Greece should be of interest to all of us, who wish to bring about justice, freedom, co-operation and sustainability, in other words, who wish to bring about the end of capitalism. Greece is at the forefront of the " refugee crisis" but is also at the forefront of the financial Mafia's attempt to recapitalise it institutions at the expense of the people. How the people react to this criminal act of looting, is something we can learn from.

From Anarchist News: 

Exarcheia Calling

            This statement is based on our personal and shared collective experience of the current situation of anarchist struggle in Greece, Athens and Exarkhia. We did not neither had the time to consult and agree with the older Greek crowd of anarchists and radicals, and is only our sentiment as mostly international people with little experience and limited knowledge of the dynamics within the militant crowds.
           We are an ad hoc collective of international squatters in Exarkhia who just opened a new occupation in a lofty house at 119 Zoodorou Pigis, three weeks ago, pitted together by the necessity of developing a place where to live and organize, with the desire to spread anarchy against a ruthless State at the very entrance of Fortress Europe, and its armies of civil and uniformed minions. This squat 'til now has been an awesome adventure filled with creative energies and has helped several anarcho street travellers as well as refugees to have a stay, be a stake up against society and in the process build ties with new people, something that had become nearly impossible these days in Athens due to not just State repression but also the internal politics of the well-known squats and the demotivation/demobilization of many anarchists in Exarkhia.

Read the full article HERE: 

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

The Surface Glitter Of Athens.

         Just back from a visit to Athens, on the surface, central Athens looks much like the Athens I used to know, the cafés, restaurants, tavernas, all looked busy with pretty pretty butterfly people. One change you do notice is the traffic, it is mainly yellow taxis and motorbikes. They say if you want to know anything about a city, ask a taxi driver, so we did. One driver told us that there are more than 1,700 taxis in Athens, and most are people who have been made redundant. The taxi allows them to work as long as they want, to try to get by, one drive said he worked 16 hours a day, every day and at the end of the month after taxes etc, he was left with €600 to get through the month. Work that out as an hourly rate and you are talking sweatshop money. Another said before the crash he wasn't rich but had €1,800 in the bank and lived reasonably well, now he has nothing and works as many hours a day as he can, every day, just to survive. Two gave conflicting answers to how many had left Greece since the “crash”, one stating almost 1 million, and the other probably 300,00 to 400,000, either amount is a drain on any country. One other we spoke to was leaving in a few weeks to live in Australia to give his kids a chance at a better life. All summed it up as Greece today is dreadful, a disaster. 

       We also went to Exarcheia and visited an occupied cinema, K-Vox, it is run by between 30-40 people, who label themselves as anarchist, communist and libertarian socialist, though the communists emphasising that they had nothing to do with the communist party. It has a café and a library, and they hold various events. All the money raised is used to support political prisoners, it also houses a free medical centre. A wonderful asset, and great to see all the strands of anarchism working together, strength in numbers, and a display of what can be done. If you want to support what they are doing you can contact them at katalipsivox@yahoo.gr

Enjoying the sun outside K-Vox.

        Athens, like all Western city centres, has poverty well hidden, so as not to chase spending tourists away. Though we did see the signs, up side-streets, the bundles of rolled up blankets in doorways and on two occasions, a man lying on the pavement, as if asleep with a crumpled plastic cup in their hand, both were still there hours later when we passed. The temperature was 25 degrees.
       Other facts about Greece, with a population of just over 11 million, it has a prison population of 12,693, 111 per 100,000 of the population, 2014 figures, but there is an anomaly, the prison population is 54.7% foreigners. Unemployment is running at just over 24%, with youth unemployment running at a staggering 51.9%. 

       All the misery, unemployment, families breaking up, poverty, deprivation and long working hours, suffered by the majority of ordinary people in Greece is simply the result of the financial Mafia's gambling spree, and it isn't going to get better any-time soon. The financial moguls of the Troika,( EC, European Commission, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers) are starting to squabble among themselves regarding the next bailout to Greece. The IMF saying Greece's debt is unsustainable, so don't want to pour their filthy lucre into the leaking bucket and say the will not participate in the bailout unless the debt is “restructured” The European part of the Troika will not accept that, but say they could not go ahead with the bailout if the IMF doesn't participate. Meanwhile, while the financial gambling sharks shuffle their chips, the people of Greece bleed. That's capitalism.

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

Greek Anarchists Show Of Strength Against Drug dealers.

From Anarchist News:

       Massive show of strength as anarchists, antifascists and anti-authoritarians took to the streets of Exarcheia against drug dealing mafias and police. The demonstration was guarded by comrades armed with openly displayed guns (who can be seen on the video from 01:53), something that has not been seen at demonstrations in recent times but was deemed necessary due to the serious threat posed by the heavily armed drug mafias who work in collusion with the police.
        This show of armed strength and solidarity was in response to ongoing tensions in the area with drug dealing mafias including a recent incident where 3 anarchist comrades were violently attacked by a drug dealer.

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

Co-operation And Mutual Aid.

This from X-pressed:

       This is a collaborative ethnographic film about Skoros, an anti-consumerist collective in Exarcheia, Athens, that run a space where people could come and give, take, or give and take goods and services without any norms of reciprocity. Soon after came the Greek “Crisis”, a new kind of “here and now” focusing less on trying to do things differently and more on urgency, a need to provide solidarity to an increasing number of people that were nearing and falling below the poverty line.

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

5th Anniverssary Of The Murder Of Alexandros Grigoropoulos.

       Two days before the fifth anniversary of the murder in Exarcheia, Athens, by the police, of the youth Alexandros Grigoropoulos, plain clothes police shot and wounded an anarchist in the same area, Exarcheia.

This from Contra Info:

     Before I start describing the incident, I would like to mention the reasons why I haven’t initiated any formal complaint or lawsuit. First off, I declare myself an anarchist-antiauthoritarian. Therefore, my conscience cannot be misled by legal proceedings. Freedom combatants should draw the battle lines against the system and its “privileges” offered to us. In the following account of the incident (which occurred two days before the anniversary of the murder of comrade Alexis Grigoropoulos, in 2008), I want to make it clear that I do not consider myself a victim of the described attack, because the battle lines are drawn, and we stand against the enemy, as I already mentioned.

      On the night of December 4, 2013 I was in the downtown area of Exarchia alongside other comrades, when we understood that we were followed by three plainclothes cops close to the corner of Benaki and Eressou streets. We briefly talked about what to do, and then we chased and harassed the cops. Two of the plainclothes ran away on Dervenion street toward Zoodochou Pigis street, while the third cop ran off to Eressou street, heading also to Zoodochou Pigis. It came as no surprise when we saw the first two thugs making a turn into Valtetsiou street and then on to Charilaou Trikoupi street, exactly where an anti-riot squadron is permanently stationed. We looked back, towards the third cop, and I yelled at him: “Where do you think you’re going, you fuckin’ undercover?” Suddenly I noticed that he was holding a gun pointed at me, and he shouted: “Come here… I’ll fuck you over” pointing his gun at my chest. In the next few seconds he cocked his pistol, ready to fire, and I shouted back at him: “What are you going to do, shoot me?” He shot me in the leg. At that precise moment, I didn’t realized that I was injured however, and the thought that his next bullet would hit me made me run towards Exarchia square, where I finally saw I was wounded in the leg.

       I considered useful to disclose this information not to spread fear but rage. We won’t chicken out no matter what; they must get it through their heads we don’t bend, not even with bullets.

      Attack first and always, with every possible way and every means, against the State and its minions.

See each other on the streets today, December 6 and every day.

The bullet will be returned to both the instigators and the perpetrators of the shot.

        Strength to the vagabonds who are accused in the cases of Velventos and Nea Filadelfeia.

     Two days later, on the anniversary of the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, the people of Athens took to the streets to mark this cold blooded murder of the young Alexandros, and as normal in Greece, when you take a protest to the streets, you are met with the full force of the state apparatus. As well as the usual stun grenades, baton attacks and detentions, the police spent a considerable effort trying to remove radical posters from the walls in Exarcheia.

These details From The Greek Streets:

20:48 GMT +2 Police have cordoned much of exarcheia.

20:16 GMT +2 The police have already attacked the square in exarcheia. People are gathering and setting up barricades on Benaki street and sidestreets.

19:56 GMT +2 The demonstration in Athens has ended, people are gathering at the place where Alexis was murdered. A couple of hundreds are there already, gathering is called for 9pm local time – the time that Alexis was shot.

14:27 GMT +2 Cops are slowly leaving now and students are being released after being searched by the cops. Seems to be the first time the cops have used the “kettling” technique (well-known in the UK) in a greek demo.

14:16 GMT +2 More students trapped, probably about 300 now.

14:02 GMT +2 They are now pushing all journalists away and more cops are arriving.

13:45 GMT +2 Student demo of approximately 2-3000 people is coming to an end. The cops have kettled about 200 people outside the university.

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

YOU'VE GOT THE AUSTERITY, NOW THE REPRESSION.

           Greece has the austerity part of the formula and now it is getting the repression part. The financial Mafia having plundered the Greek people's public assets, it requires it's managers, the Greek state, to step up the repression in an attempt to terrorise the people and try to prevent more protests and rebellion. The powers that be are well aware that what they are doing to the people will result in anger and people taking to the streets, their next stage will be to terrorise those that do and demonise them through the mainstream media. Just as they had no qualms in dishing out poverty and deprivation on the people, they will have no qualms on dishing out violent repression. As far as they are concerned the people must be controlled as the financial Mafia do their utmost to strengthen and expand the corporate fascism that already exists.

This from FROM THE GREEK STREETS:

            Major police operation in Exarcheia, Athens sees two anarchist social centres evicted; the entire neighbourhood is currently under curfew and cut off by heavy police forces.

         At approximately 06.50 GMT+2 on Friday morning, heavy police forces conducted simultaneous raids at two newly occupied anarchist spaces in the neighbourhood of Exarcheia: the building at 60, Valtetsiou str and the building of the abandoned VOX cinema by Exarcheia square. The latter had been occupied for a few weeks and its opening event was planned for this Saturday.

         It is speculated that the raids took place following the order of I. Tentes, a prosecutor of the High Court in Athens, who launched his career after being appointed in the judiciary by the Junta regime in the early seventies. History, in case it should be noted, does seem to have a peculiar sense of irony.

         At the time of writing (12:33 GMT+2) the entire Exarcheia square is cordoned off by heavy police forces while the K-VOX social centre has been sealed off.

ann arky's home.