Murder By "Legal" Hands.

      The 6th. of December is approaching, a date that should be etched on the memory of every freedom loving individual. It should be a date when the haters of repression and lovers of justice carry forever in their minds. It was on an evening on Saturday, December 6th. 2008, in the district of Exarchia in Athens that the young 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos and some friends were out having a coffee, then at point blank range, he was shot dead by a serving policeman. He died on the street in front of his young friends, a cold blooded murder of a youth by a state employee. The state's history is a litany of murder by its bully boys in uniform, we must call out, "enough is enough".

      What followed was the unleashing of pent up hatred of police brutality and state injustice, Greece was gripped by an outpouring of weeks of riots, demonstrations and protests, that went to the very brink, and spread to other countries. The murder of young Alexis Grigoropoulos was the spark that lit a ferocious fire that had been simmering beneath the surface for years. The riots ended but still beneath the surface rumbles the murmur of discontent and anger, that the riots of 2008 did not resolve. The police brutality remains, the state repression goes on, the injustice keeps growing, the poverty and deprivation is endemic. What spark will it take to finally bring this festering cancerous system to an end, how many young Alexis must die before we put an end to the barbarity of capitalism? Let us mark the anniversary of Alexis Grigoropoulos's cold blooded murder with righteous anger. 

From Gatorna, a partial list of murders at the hands of state employees. 

        We call for an international day of action against state terrorism
in rememberance of...
Santiago Maldonado kidnapped and murdered by paramilataries, Argentina 2017
Pellumb Marinkolla thrown out of a police station window, Greece 2016
Remi Fraisse killed by stun grenade, France 2014
Ilia Kareli tortured to death by prison guards, Greece 2014
43 young students kidnapped and murdered by cops, Mexico 2014
Michael Brown shot by cops, Ferguson (USA) 2014
Berkin Elvan shot by teargas canister by riot cops, Istanbul 2013
Mark Duggan shot by cops, UK 2011
Dimitris Kotzaridis killed by teargas, Athens 2011
Lambros Fountas shot by cops, Greece 2010
Stefano Gucci tortured to death by police, Italy 2009
Inigo Cabacas killed by rubber bullet, Basque country 2009
Giuseppe Uva beaten to death in a police station, Italy 2008
Alexis Grigoropoulos shot by cops, Greece 2008
Gabriele Sandri shot by cops, Italy 2007
Oury Jalloh burned alive in his cell by the cops, Germany 2005
Federico Aldrovandi beaten to death by cops, Italy 2005
Carlo Gulliani shot by cops, Italy, 2001
Sole e Baleno led to suicide in prison, Italy 1998
Christophoros Marinos excecuted by cops, Greece 1996
Halim Dener shot by cops, Germany 1994
Conny Wessmann killed by car when chased by cops, Germany 1989
Michalis Kaltezas shot by cops, Greece 1985
Iakovos Koumis beaten to death by riot cops, Greece 1980
Stamatina Kannelopoulou beaten to death by riot cops, Greece 1980
Francesco Lo Russio shot by cops, Italy 1977
Isidoros Isidoropoulos killed by car when chased by cops, Greece 1976
...and of all the unkown and unnamed ones. We don't forgive. We
don't forget. No step back.

Read the article HERE:

Our Inheritance.

Now is the time to arm our desire with anger

time to claim our rightful inheritance.

Inheritance, built by generations of poverty and toil,

river of wealth channelled to financial institutions,

stolen by the power crowned few.

Treasure fearlessly wrestled from angry seas.

Riches, arduously torn from the bowels of the earth.

Bounty laboriously scratched from unforgiving land.

Assets, ours by right of life and limb.

Our toil sent a director's son to Eton.

Our poverty paid his daughter's dowry.

our sweat created the plunderer's sea of plenty.

Our humility gave his crime legality.

Now is the time to arm our desire with anger

time to claim what's ours, with fist and fire.

REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE 11th OF NOVEMBER??

       

       Every day, every month, the workers have a history to tell and write. Though we could go through the month of November and find volumes of working class history worth remembering, I think this one is of special significance. It highlighted the depth of hypocrisy and corruption that the state will go to in an attempt to crush those who stand up to fight for the rights of the ordinary people. This event was not about the deaths of eight police officers, mostly killed by police bullets, it was about trying to crush an idea. An idea that workers could organise together in an attempt to better their conditions. To this day, states all over the world are still trying to put obstacles in the way of workers organisation. Some states more brutally than others but all will go as far as the feel they can get away with in an attempt to keep the workers "in their place".

      Perhaps you could let ann arky know what piece of November working class history you think is significant and why. Write it in the comments for others to read. Our history must be written or it never happened.  Read some of Glasgow's working class history HERE.         

      

      November, 11, 1887, the Haymarket anarchists, Spies, Fischer, Engel and Parsons were executed at Illinois prison. It became know as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American legal history. The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, started in May, 4, 1886 when a mass meeting was held in Chicago at Haymarket Square in support of a strike for an eight hour working day.

       The police moved in to disperse the meeting, at that point an unknown person threw a bomb at the police lines, the unsuing confusion of the bomb and gunfire resulted in eight police officers being killed mostly from “friendly fire”. There was also an unkown number of civilians injured and killed.

       The legal proceedings that followed saw eight anarchists tried for murder, the trial also received international publicity and the verdict received international condemnation. Although the prosecution conceded that none of the accused had thrown the bomb, four men were convicted and executed and one committed suicide in prison. At the execution, Parsons’ last words are reported to have been, “let the voice of the people be heard.”

     The Haymarket affair is usually seen as significant in the origin of the workers International May Day. It was also seen as the event that brought about the caricature of the “bomb throwing anarchist”. Although none of the accused threw the bomb, to this day, that caricature is still used by many, among them the mainstream media.

     The site of the incident was designated a Chicago Landmark on March 25, 1992. The Haymarket Martyrs' Monument in nearby Forest Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark on February 18, 1997.

 

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