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.
No Pasaran: Thousands take to the streets against the Greek State's attack at Exarcheia.
More on 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.
First they take Exarcheiahttps://roarmag.org/essays/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.
Exarchia: The struggle continueshttp://autonomies.org/2019/08/exarchia-the-struggle-continues/
From Yannis Youlountas, from Exarchia (31/08/2019) …
