Inspiration.

       The tributes to Stuart Christie, who died on the 15th August, still pour in, proof that the strands of this man's life are woven through a vast fabric that is the continuing world wide struggle for a system of justice, peace and freedom. A life of unstinting effort and sacrifice to that one cause, the better world for all, deserves to be honoured and remembered. His life should be an inspiration to all of us, young and old, who hold those same desires.

Stuart Christie, Luis Edo, Albert Meltzer, Doris Ensinger, Barcelona.

 The following from 325:

     ‘Stuart Christie, comrade, friend’ by Octavio Alberola
Stuart Christie, el compañero, el amigo
      The news of the death of Stuart Christie was communicated to me by telephone, the day before yesterday in the afternoon, by my comrade René after asking me if I was aware of the new bad news and after answering him abruptly: who has died? Well, from the tone of his voice, I immediately sensed that it must be the death of someone close to me.
       His answer left me stunned, because although Stuart had confirmed to me a week earlier that he was still suffering from cancer and that the results of the medical examinations were not very encouraging, at no time had I thought of such a quick end for him. Close to me are several comrades -more or less my age- who are not in very good health, and the “normal” thing, at my age (soon ninety-three years old), is to think that it is you that time is counting down on.
      So, in Stuart’s case, how can I think about it when he’s eighteen years younger? Besides, we were both in common projects and determined to continue participating in the fight against the world of power and exploitation.
      For me, his death is not only the loss of a comrade, of a friend; it is the end of a collaboration of many years in common actions and initiatives to denounce the injustices of the world in which we live and to fight for a more just and free world. A world that is possible and for everyone, which we have not ceased to long for and to try to build through the consistent practice of active revolutionary and internationalist solidarity.
     We had many years of a fraternal relationship since our first meeting, in that month of August 1964, until this one of 2020. More than half a century of our lives being linked, in one way or another, in a common cause in spite of the borders… Since, in spite of being focused on the political and social ups-and-downs of the Spanish people, first under Franco’s dictatorship and then under that false democracy born from the Transition/Transaction, that struggle was always framed in a revolutionary internationalist perspective.
      The proof, for him, is his prison experiences in Spain and England, and for Brenda, his companion, in Germany, and for Ariane and me in Belgium and France. These experiences bear witness to those struggles without frontiers, being aware that the condition of freedom is for everyone and for everything.
      How, then, can we not feel the need to remember this at this time when this comradeship with Stuart ends with his death. And also because of the death a few days ago of our German companion Doris Ensinger, the companion of Luis Andrés Edo, with whom Stuart also shared prison experiences and fraternization in the struggles; since it is obvious that Doris’s disappearance also meant for me, in a certain way, the definitive end point of my fraternization in the struggles with Luis. An end that began a few years before with his death.
       The fact is that with Doris I was also left in a state of shock, surprised by the news of her death that Manel communicated to me; since it was barely a week ago that she had sent us, Tomás and me, a mail to announce that she had been called to the hospital suddenly and had had a transplant… And that she was already at home and was feeling well…
        So once again I am confronted with the temporariness of our existence and the need to preserve the memory of what we have tried to be and do until death.

Perpignan, 17 August 2020
Octavio Alberola

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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: 

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