In Greece it is now illegal apparently, to be standing still while socially distancing in a public square. Art students decided to act as a display of various paintings and artworks, standing in Syntagma Square hoping to interact with passers by, however their only contact was with riot police shields.
See about: Police violence again in silent protest of artists in the
Constitution [Video] Attack on artists in Syntagma: What really happened
and Chrysochoidis' cameras did not show
March 24, 2021, Athens, Syntagma Square.
While "the new National Gallery is brilliantly performed", students of the drama schools of Athens gathered at Syntagma and built our own National Gallery of the Square. Disguised as well-known paintings and sculptures, we asked the Ministry of Education and Science "If the theater could fit in the gallery, would you give it more importance?" By creating a living gallery, we exposed ourselves to passers-by trying to communicate what we have been experiencing absurdly for almost 5 months. Eventually, for its part, the state only sent the police to "contact" us, resulting in our violent repulsion with their shields and tear gas, as the Deputy Minister of Culture, Mr. Giatromanolakis, was busy with the inauguration. We answered, we answer and we will answer with Art, with our Art. If we want Greece to be more than a theme park of past cultures and greatness, if we want it to be a fertile ground that creates and continues to produce culture, the State owes the practical and direct support of the artistic community. We demand the state care that is owed to us. We demand immediate and clear answers to the questions we have repeatedly asked the leadership of the Ministry. Culture is not inherited, culture is conquered by each generation again. The students of Drama Schools ”
From: alerta.gr **********
Poor translation from the Greek, but the best I could get.
Democracy European style, well Greece is part of the European Union, and I haven't heard any objections from any of the other members of what is happening in Greece. What is happening in Greece is being watch by other EU states, they are looking and learning, should they need to introduce more severe population controls in their own patch. No condemnation, just observation.
Rest assured, the states are aware that the debt mountain that has been paid to their corporate masters needs to be paid back to the financial mafia, and the only method acceptable to their corporate masters is austerity for the people. This time round it will be austerity big-time accompanied with massive unemployment. They will be expecting and preparing for unrest and anger to spill over onto the streets, so population control will be a priority on their minds.
As I have said before, their plans are well advanced, to defend their wealth, power and privileges, where are our plans to to regain our freedoms and protect our living conditions?
A recent Oxfam study found that since the start of the coronavirus
pandemic, the world’s richest 10 billionaires have seen a wealth
increase of half a trillion dollars – enough to pay for every person on
the planet to get a vaccine.
In this UpFront special, Marc Lamont Hill discusses with economist and
former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis what is driving the
staggering wealth inequalities and how governments are offering
socialism for the rich, and austerity for the rest.
The police in most countries are out of control and all with the blessing of the state. I think the Greek police are at the forefront of this charge to suppress any form of dissent. However the citizens of Greece are not taking this lying down, day in and day out they face this police brutality for simple protesting a gross act of inhumanity, and stand their ground, we owe them solidarity and support. There is a bond of unity between all police, there has to be a bond of unity between all citizens seeking that better world for all.
Athens, Greece: For the 7th time in 7 protests in solidarity to the hunger striker Dimitris Koufodinas, scores of riot policemen tried to spread fear and terror amongst those that dared to raise their voices and their feasts in the air to protest the prisoner’s imminent death, but people stood their ground, as you may see in the video. If Dimitris Koufodinas (on strike since January 8, 2021) dies it will be the first prisoner on hunger strike to die in the European Union, since the death of Bobby Sands on May 5, 1981, in Northern Ireland, under the Margaret Thatcher regime. Dimitris Koufodinas, now 63 years old, is on hunger strike for the last 50 days and has begun a thirst strike too since 23 February. His death is considered imminent. His current demand is to be transferred to Korydallos prison, as well as, an end to these arbitrary interventions against him. Even after 50 days without food and 3 without water, the greek government refuses his right to equal treatment. People that dared to protest in Athens today, 26 February 2021, were, once again, forcefully attacked by scores of policemen for no reason, just for protesting. This is the 7th time in the last few weeks that protests for Koufodinas in Athens city centre have been heavily attacked by riot cops.
Not that long ago two prisoners died on hunger strike in one of Turkey's many prisons. A vicious and inhumane set of circumstances that we expect from a deluded dictator like Erdogan. However, here in the EU, that self proclaimed, bastion of democracy such barbarity should be unthinkable, it is forty years since a prisoner died in a European prison due to the intransigence of the state to a hunger striker's requests. That is shortly about to change as the Greek state, probably the most right wing state apparatus in Europe, sits back and lets Dimitris Koufontinas die a slow agonising death after 45 days of hunger strike. Greece, like all other states, consider its authoritarian system and its package of enforced legislation, as more valuable than the life of a citizen. Of course the people in that patch of soil called Greece, don't take such savage barbarity lying down, and they deserve all the support and solidarity we can muster, as the face down this murderous act by the state.
“They follow you secretly and openly gangs and torturers and search day and night to find you but there is no trail to follow because they were never poets to worship the soil they tread on”
On the night of Friday 5/2 we placed an incendiary device in one of the entrances to the courts of Evelpidon (specifically that of the lawyers) wanting to support the struggle of the hunger striker Dimitris Koufontinas. The attack on the central structures of the judiciary is a response to a very clear political choice. The central governmental authority in direct collaboration with the representatives of civil justice is leading to the comrade’s death or at best to irreparable damage to his health. This political decision to assassinate Dimitris Koufontinas cannot go unanswered. Violating even their own legal tools, first legislating an photographic device to remove him from the agricultural prison now they are denying him the obvious, his transfer to Korydallos prison. The whole bourgeoisie and especially its head viciously and vigorously seeks the physical extermination of one of its political opponents, whose contribution to class struggles and to the appropriation of revolutionary violence by the oppressed, deeply challenged the omnipotence of the State beast and practically challenged its monopoly of violence. Their own murderous insistence must be answered with our comradely and fighters’ solidarity. We call on every part of the movement to sharpen its action and stand as a bulwark against the murder of the hunger striker. Dimitris Koufontinas is a link in the chain of the history of the revolutionary movement and part of our struggles. With this action we declare to his tormentors, blinded by authoritarian arrogance, that they must seriously consider the political costs that they will be called upon to manage if they attempt to murder the comrade. Victory to the hunger strike of the revolutionary communist Dimitris Koufontinas
States act with impunity when handing out brutality and do so with the greatest force when it come to those who would dare to demand a change to this authoritarian system that has locked humanity in its grip. A system built on exploitation, by the powerful and privileged, a system that demands submission from the population. Of course they talk of checks and balances on the use of power, however that is always backed up by pieces of paper they have written in their favour, then stamped with their little symbols that is meant to give it legitimacy, therefore binding and can be enforced by what ever force they deem necessary. To appeal to those among the wealthy and privileged to give up some of those privileges and spread that wealth more evenly, is naivety in extreme. The Greek state is ahead of the game in Europe, when it comes to trying to crush dissent, though not by much, most states are walking the same path, all at their own pace. The following two articles apply to the Greek state, but similarities will be found across the globe.
At the end of last December the Greek government approved a reform of the national penitentiary system that, in addition to other measures that worsen prison conditions, establishes that those convicted of terrorism cannot access “rural prisons”, more “open” institutions to which long-term prisoners have access. The approval of this law has led to the immediate transfer of political prisoner Dimitri Koufontinas from the rural prison of Kassevitia. Dimitri is a comrade convicted for participating in the revolutionary organization 17 November, in prison since 2002. The new set of laws stipulates that inmates in rural prisons are reclassified and then transferred to the last prison they were in. In Dimitri’s case it should have been the Athenian prison of Koridallos. However, the prison administration decided to transfer him, manipulating the transfer papers, to Domokos prison. Although there are no differentiated circuits in Greece, in recent years, the prison administration has turned Domokos into a “hard” prison. Such a punitive transfer is aimed at striking a comrade who has always struggled: as a free man, in courtrooms, in prison. Since his capture he has participated in numerous protests and has been on four hunger strikes. This repressive manoeuvre is not only aimed at annihilating Dimitri Koufontinas but also forms part of the Greek’s state repressive project: crushing the most radical and combative parts of society to avoid the hypothesis of future and general conflicts. Faced with the transfer, Dimitri Koufontinas decided to strive once again, using his body as a weapon and last resort. Since 8 January he has begun a hunger strike which will continue indefinitely until he is transferred to Koridallos prison. As the strike continues, the comrade is in a critical and precarious condition in Lamia hospital: according to the doctors he could collapse at any moment. During the strike there were many initiatives and solidarity actions throughout Greece and beyond: protests, demos, wall writings, banners, attacks against multiple objectives (politicians, banks, post offices, etc.). But time is running out and now we think extra efforts are needed. Dimitri’s struggle is also the struggle of each of us. The creation and expansion of international ties is as crucial as ever so we are calling for an INTERNATIONAL day of solidarity and action on FRIDAY 12 FEBRUARY to support Dimitri Koufontinas. THE DEMAND OF HUNGER STRIKE MUST BE IMMEDIATELY ACCEPTED INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON
Athens, 7 February 2021 Solidarity Assembly with Dimitri Koufontinas
On Monday, February 1/2021 the ′′ Solidarity Assembly with the hunger striker D. Koufontinas ′′ intervened with the participation of dozens of comrades at the Athens Bar Association (solicitors general offices union). The intervention included hanging a massive banner on the building and gathering in front of the Board of Directors offices with banners, On Monday, February 1/2021 the ′′ Solidarity Assembly with the hunger striker D. Koufontinas intervened with the participation of dozens of comrades at the Athens Bar Association (solicitors general offices union).The intervention included hanging a massive banner on the building and gathering in front of the Board of Directors offices with banners, texts, flyers, and slogans. At the same time, they handed out texts on all floors of the building to the workers and lawyers who were there. Comrades involved in the intervention then left shouting slogans in Academias Street.
THEY WANT HIM DEAD, LET’S NOT ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN VICTORY TO THE STRUGGLE OF D. KOUFONTINAS Solidarity Assembly with hunger striker D. Koufontinas THEY WANT HIM DEAD, LET’S NOT ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN VICTORY TO THE STRUGGLE OF D. KOUFONTINAS Solidarity Assembly with hunger striker D. Koufontinas
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 tacticsadopted by police last month when they violently broke up a peaceful rally commemorating a 1973 student uprising against Greece’s then-military rulers.
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.
Never have the state authorities been handed such a golden opportunity to massage the population into one large submissive herd, as the covid19 pandemic offers them now. States across the planet have all seized on the opportunity and brought in directives enforced my the force of their laws, that manage and control the population, submissive obedience is now seen as the right thing to do by the vast majority of the population. A far cry from freedom, justice and democracy. All for our own good we are told, but the situation could have been handled much more efficiently and democratically if the communities were in control of how best to protect themselves from this disease, in conjunction with the necessary medical and scientific advisers. However, we are expected to sit back and wait for the directives from our lords and masters, all "following the science", of course. That little phrase has been swallowed and brought people to the position of not only obedience to the state, but sitting waiting for the next directive. They have reshaped society to their desires, and at the same time have refinanced collapsing capitalism with trillions of pounds, which you and I will be obliged to pay back to the money lenders of the financial mafia. We will pay for it in unemployment, austerity, wage freezes, slashing of working conditions, destruction of social services, increase in poverty, and homelessness, and much more, blighting the next generation of ordinary kids. That's the price tag for the reshaping of the capitalist economic system. Of course we the ordinary people could seize this opportunity to take control of our lives, communities and workplaces, and reshape society to suit the needs of all our people, dismantling the pomp, privilege and power of the wealthy parasites that blight our everyday lives.
Greece is currently in a full lockdown. This includes no freedom of movement. To maintain such a lockdown without also expanding medical and financial support for those affected is an exercise in sheer authoritarianism. There are only six recognized justifications for leaving the house: to shop at pharmacies and supermarkets, to exercise (as defined and allowed by police) or walk a dog, to go to work, to attend funerals, to visit a doctor or hospital, or to help a person in need. The latter usually only applies to Greeks helping their grandparents; police have ticketed many people who were trying to give needed supplies to homeless people or people in refugee or Roma camps. You have to text the state to receive permission to go outside and show the SMS confirmation to police if they stop you. These SMS requests to the state provide data and surveillance opportunities to state agencies. Violations can result in a 300 euro fine or other charges. The police most often stop people of color or establish checkpoints in less affluent neighborhoods. A curfew is also mandated between 9 pm and 5 am, during which the only permitted activities are going to work, walking a dog, or going to the hospital.
Many people in Greece are homeless in the midst of the lockdown. Though lockdown is nationally mandated, it is enforced differently in different neighborhoods. Exarchia, for example, is under intense surveillance with almost no one in the street, while wealthy suburbs see little supervision. In the United States, the right condemns safety measures and lockdowns as a liberal conspiracy to sabotage the economy; if they recognized the political opportunities that the pandemic has handed right-wing administrations across Europe, they might change their narrative. The first lock down in March and April took place when cases were averaging around 150 to 200 per day; today, the numbers fluctuate between 2000 and 2500 per day, with ICU beds filling rapidly. The blame for the infection rates rests on the business elite who demanded open borders for tourism in August, despite the obvious danger. Although there was 90% less tourism than in previous years, these policies permitted a few wealthy tourists to spread the virus throughout the mainland and islands of Greece. The New Democracy regime continues to slash hospital and medical staff budgets, redirecting the funds to decorative urban renewal projects, police and prison staff, and an increased military budget. They prioritize adding fountains and potted plants to neighborhoods over addressing rampant homelessness and drug addiction. They have failed to adjust public transportation to allow for social distancing, so subways and buses remain packed with people, likely spreading the virus. This disproportionately affects those who cannot afford to travel to work by car. While failing to provide funding for protection, the government blames individuals for the alarming infection rates.
As in many other countries, elite scientists propose further lockdowns, taking everything into consideration except the plight of those already living precariously under capitalism. A lockdown without parallel support for the poor only offers protection for the wealthy elite, disregarding poverty as an excusable consequence of the pre-existing social order. With everything closed, furloughed workers are paid even less than what was already too little to survive. “Essential” delivery workers, teachers, and grocery store workers receive no increase in pay or free protective equipment. Some wish their work was deemed “nonessential” so they could be paid a small unemployment salary rather than risking their health for so little money. Homelessness has worsened in Greece as the New Democracy government has attempted to reinvent the country as a glamorous, heavily policed tourist destination in the midst of a pandemic. Homeless people continue to face fines, arrest, and displacement. The state is using the virus as an excuse to prevent assemblies of any kind. Police recently attacked and beat people inside a social center in Patras for gathering food to distribute to those in need. Mutual aid efforts continue, despite the constant threats, arrests, and fines imposed by police; the simple act of helping those in need outside of the context of the church is now treated the way that much more controversial or confrontational actions were before. Many in Greece, especially the residents of Exarchia who witness the harshest enforcement of the lockdown in an urban environment, refer to the virus as a “Junta holiday.” Doctors have mobilized to call for more investment in protective equipment and medical solutions to the pandemic, but they are ignored or repressed. Essential workers have faced fines for not having the correct paperwork while outside risking their safety to deliver essential services. People have organized small demonstrations against this sort of political opportunism, but police have responded by kettling them, further endangering the demonstrators with regard to virus transmission as well as police violence. New Democracy and its European counterparts are implementing a lockdown that is designed to “save Christmas” for New Democracy’s right-wing base. In this strategy, a lockdown will be implemented to the fullest extent until retail stores open for those who have money to spend on Christmas shopping. The plan doesn’t go much further than this; except for this temporary period of consumption, the lockdown is expected to continue after the holiday. Formal announcements about this plan came as the state spent thousands of euros to temporarily project an image of Jesus Christ onto the parliament building for “Armed Forces Day,” an expression of New Democracy’s determination to reinvent Greece as an authoritarian Christian state.
Two dates that are enshrined in the minds of the people of Greece, one is the 1973 student uprising that preceded the overthrow of the Greek Military Junta, and the more recent brutal event on December 6th 2008 when 15 year oldAlexandros Grigoropoulos while out in Exarcheia having a coffee with with his friend, was shot by a Greek police officer, he died on the street in the arms of his 15 year friend Nikos Ramanos. Both these dates are marked by mass gatherings in Greece. Just prior to these events, the Greek government introduce a ban on gatherings of more than 3 people. The following report, shows some of the response by the people to this dictatorial measure.
15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos, 15 year victim of police murder.
Nikos Romanos being arrested some years after the police murder of his friend Alexis.
As sates across Europe and elsewhere march in lock-step with each other at trying to crush any and all self organising autonomous structures and individuals, it sometimes appears as if one state is trying to out do the other in the expanse and severity of their actions, with the terrorist label attached to any voice of dissent. Greece appears the worst, then it looks like Germany is trying to lead the pack, and so it goes on, ever lurching to the right and further draconian acts to control the population. How much longer will the people accept this goose-stepping to fascism, how much longer will we let our anger simmer below the surface. No state is immune from this thrust to the right.
The most revolutionary thing one can do is to proclaim always loudly what is happening.” Rosa Luxemburg On Monday, August 31, cops attacked 27 objects, 24 of them in Hamburg and one each in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia. The reason for the searches is the investigation against the Roter Aufbau Hamburg for the formation of a criminal organization. These investigations are a further escalation of an authoritarian formation in Germany. The aim is to smash emancipatory structures and to ensure that fascistization continues to proceed. In this context, stand also the investigations on 129a here in Frankfurt, which have the sole aim of criminalizing and smashing left structures. With our solidarity, however, we are taking the wind out of the sails of repression – widespread and united against this class justice. We send solidarity greetings to those affected by the raids and wish you a lot of strength! Solidarity with the Roter Aufbau Hamburg! Fire and flames to the repression! United we Stand – United we Fight! We are all 129a!
This from another part of this world of neo-liberalism from one who has often felt that brutal lash of state authoritarianism
and remained loyal to freedom and justice.
The prison and I are old acquaintances, on more than one occasion I
have sat at their table, over the years we have changed and we have both
learned from each other…but no matter how much time passes essentially
the prison and I remain the same. Prison is still the power-sucking
monster that grows and spreads submission and repentance, and I continue
to have the same seditious desires as before.
I found this film, informative and inspiring, though there is hardship and bitter struggles, it unfolds in poetic beauty, its narrative is woven with hope and determination and a strong reminder, as the film says, "Remember, you are the You-topia." I hope you get as much from it as I did.
Name your country, and migrants will be seen to be treated as less than human, a group to be feared, despised, rejected, a threat to your "way of life" and stripped of their human rights. The richest and most developed countries are among the worst offenders. With the means available to offer shelter and integration, they do the opposite, they herd them as cattle, intimidate and harass them under the guise of their legal system designed to protect the status-quo, however, where there is inequality and a state, there can be no real justice, no freedom.
In the following report from Greece, anarchists describe the burning of the refugee camp, Moria, and the response countrywide, as well as the latest chapter in other struggles against state repression on a variety of fronts. A report by Radio Fragmata. Another month, another report on the situation here in Greece. There has been no pause in the repression of the state, nor any peace for the marginalized and excluded. Another historic squat has been evicted, the economic despair many already face is becoming generalized, society drifts towards the right at the guidance of state and corporate media, and the largest concentration camp housing migrants in all of Europe has been engulfed in flames, displacing thousands. As in the rest of the world, each morning brings new concerns, new disasters, new forms of precarity. We share the following information in the pursuit of a relentless and borderless solidarity.
-Radio Fragmata, September 2020
Moria Burns—The Greek State Plays Victim
The refugee camp Moria on the island of Lesvos has burned down.
The state claims this was the result of
demonstrations by desperate people inside the camp reacting to new
measures the police had opportunistically declared in response to an
inevitable and now unavoidable outbreak of COVID-19 inside the camp.
Some 35 cases have been made public as of early September;
considering the intense overcrowding of the camp, the number should
be assumed to be much higher. Some wonder whether nearby fascists
took the opportunity to set fires under the cover of the refugees’
protests. It is certain that some of the villagers wanted those
fleeing the flames to burn alive, as they pushed those who tried to
flee to the nearby village of Mytilene back towards the blaze.
If the government’s claim that the fire started from the
demonstrations is correct, we can understand this as an act of
desperation on the part of individuals protesting against an
unbearable situation. Out of all the concentration camps where
refugees are contained on islands near Turkey or out of the view of
the public on mainland Greece, Moria is by far the most famous, both
for its size and for the severity of the conditions. Moria housed
over 13,000 refugees, though it was designed for only around 3000. It
is a symbol of the racism and dehumanizing policies of exclusion that
comprise the basis of modern Europe.
It was inevitable that COVID-19 would enter Moria. Imposing
additional restrictions on the already forcibly isolated and
controlled camp brought an already dire situation to the brink. Now
thousands are going hungry without shelter, including many children.
Facing fascist and police violence, they find themselves in an even
worse situation than before.
In some ways, the New Democracy administration has used the Moria
camp to claim that the EU has failed Greece in the so-called “refugee
crisis” dating back to 2015. At the same time, the administration
has used the camp to fan the flames of xenophobia, framing the
conditions in the camp and the desperation of those who occupy it as
self-inflicted. The state shifts between these narratives according
to what is politically expedient.
The Greek "New Democracy" government is continuing it ruthless policy of trying to eliminate all Squats, autonomous centres and voluntary migrant support groups. Far from this being a police operation these evictions look more like a military operation. Greece is not alone in trying to eliminate these self organising centres, it is the aim of all states to have everybody to follow the rules of the state, to survive. It and it alone needs to have the monopoly on how our lives are shaped. Leaving people to plan and shape their own lives would be the demise of the state. It will muster whatever savagery, terror, and intimidation, with the necessary brutality to ensure its own survival. The state exists by subservience and blind obedience.
Not the best quality of video but you grasp the numbers protesting.
They evacuated a squat but didn't expect 2000 people protesting on the same day...
Following the police raid and evacuation of Terra Incognita 16 years old squat in Thessaloniki, Greece, on 17 August 2020, the police invasion at Libertatia Squat in Thessaloniki on 23 August 2020 and the arrest of 12 people rebuilding the roof that had been burnt by fascists during an attack, another squat was raided on Saturday 5 September 2020, this time in Chania, Crete where Rosa Nera Squat stood ground since 2004. Few hours later, following the police raid, hundreds of people marched in solidarity through the small greek island town in the afternoon and held a public assembly in the evening to decide the next steps of resistance.But that was not the end. The public assembly decided for another protest through the center of Chania on the same night, where beyond the greek government and police expectations more than 2.000 people took part in the small town of approximately 55.000 residents, marching in solidarity to the “Rosa Nera” Squat. The mass participation in the protests and assemblies is a clear sign of the Squat's openness and interconnection with society and the people's reaction to the plans of turning this historic building into a hotel owned by an Israeli company. During the last years, all the greek governments have carried out several campaigns of elimination of the self-managed spaces. What they want to achieve is that people find themselves only in the cafes, in the bars, and in the shopping centers as just consumers and customers. Consequently, the offensive that Rosa Nera is facing in Chania is not fortuitous. The Rosa Nera building belongs to the Polytechnic School of Chania, and for 16 years has been a place of struggle and emblematic culture, also covering accommodation needs. In its facilities, the tireless people who have worked hard to give life to the building have created a theater, a library and reading room, a space for presentations (of artistic creations), a children’s park, a construction workshop, a free bazaar of gifts and a communal kitchen for the production of bread. In these 16 years hundreds of events, concerts, presentations, debates, workshops, parties, cafes to support collectives and actions have been organized. All have had an anti-commercial character contrary to the government’s and the University of Crete plans to convert the squatted building into a hotel, so that only those with pockets full of money may enjoy the beautiful view from the Kasteli hill, where the Squat is located. To turn something which is free and accessible to everyone in the town, to a restricted area for the few willing to pay to enjoy it. The Rosa Nera Squat kept and ensured the free for all character of the place intact. And that is why you see so many people in the streets protesting the eviction.
Most people seem to accept that Trump is the worst President of the USA ever. That's quite an accolade considering the liars and butchers that have held that post before him. To me the main difference with Trump and the other figureheads of American imperialism, is the fact that he has a big mouth and doesn't hide his racism and fascist and homophobic views, he openly revels in them.
Monday, April 16, 2018: Peace protesters trying to tear down the Truman statue in Athens
Two days ago, Greek police forces, on orders from the SYRIZA-ANEL government, brutally attacked anti-war protesters as they tried to topple the statue of US President Harry Truman. This 3.2-meter statue - "a fossil of bloody US imperialism" , as the KKE called it in a statement - has been in the center of the Greek capital since 1963. Recent events give us an opportunity to remember who Harry Truman really was. A representative of US imperialism, Truman was the author of the most horrendous war crime of the previous century. We refer to the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
"Being in possession of a bomb, we have used it ... We will continue to use it until we completely destroy the military power of Japan. Only its surrender will stop us ... We thank God that he has placed it in our hands, and not in the hands. of our enemies, and we pray that He guides us to use it in his path and for his purposes . "
These gruesome words were spoken on August 9, 1945, by the President of the United States, Truman, during a radio address to the American people. It was three days since the terrorist Enola Gay had dropped the atomic bomb called “Little boy” on Hiroshima and another bomb was sowing death, destruction and chaos in Nagasaki.-------
And:
----------Numerous American officials, as well as academics, have exposed Truman's blatant lies. For example, the US Strategic Bombing Survey group, which had been assigned by President Truman himself to study air strikes in Japan, was writing in a report prepared in July 1946: "Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the opinion of the Study that certainly before December 31, 1945, and in all probability before November 1, 1945, Japan it would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not gone to war and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated . " For his part, the then Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces who later became President of the United States, General Dwight Eisenhower, said: "The Japanese were ready to surrender and there was no need to hit them with that hideous thing . " We could cite many testimonies from various officers of the United States Army (Admiral Leahy, General MacArthur, Under Secretary of War McLoy, etc.) that confirm all of the above. History has documented the tremendous effects of the nuclear holocaust on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman and his administration are responsible for more than 200,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of radiation-related post-attack casualties.-------
And:
"Hero" for the Greek bourgeoisie - "Butcher" for
the people.
The war criminal Harry Truman, who sowed destruction in Japan, is the same butcher who, three years later, ordered the bombing of the heroic guerrillas of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) in the mountains of Grammos. It was during the Greek Civil War that the United States intervened to help the Greek bourgeois class against the Democratic Army of Greece . In February 1948, American General James Van Fleet arrived in Athens and became the commander-in-chief of the Greek bourgeois army.
In 1949, the Grammos Mountains in northern Greece became the field where the American air force first used Napalm B bombs. In just one battle, in Grammos, the Americans dropped 338 napalm bombs from US positions. DSE.Years later, napalm bombs were used by American assassins in numerous imperialist wars: from Korea to Vietnam and from the 1991 Gulf War to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
Quite a record for a fundamentalist Christian, one of the many who have no problem with mass killings and then asking their god of love and peace to bless their actions. Trump is at home, among a long line of liars, hypocrites and mass murders, who have sat on that throne of savage American imperialism.
