Protest And Death.

          It is becoming more obvious that the police are now running out of control, all with the blessing of the state. As unrest rises, due to the deteriorating conditions and freedoms of the ordinary people, the state needs to intimidate those who would dare to object to these conditions. The state is in no way capably of remedying  the failings of this economic system, as it blunders from crisis to crisis. So it must bludgeon you into accepting your lot as it unfolds during this latest crisis. The state must defended this decaying system to keep the wealthy and powerful in their privileged positions, and it will fight tooth and nail to ensure that it maintains its wealth, power and privileges right where they are at the moment, in the hands of the pampered, privileged parasitical few. 

The following report from Act For Freedom Now:

July 16th, 2020

Vasilis Maggos was savagely beaten by riot cops at a solidarity demo.
1 month later he is found dead

      The video that you’ll see depicts the brutal riot police attack against 27-year-old Vassilis Maggos on Sunday, June 14, 2020 in the Greek city of Volos, during a rally of solidarity to the detainees of the previous day’s protest (13/6) against the polluting garbage burning by LAFARGE / AGET companies and against the creation of an SRF factory by the Municipality of Volos.

      According to myvolos. net, Vassilis Maggos was found dead in his room by his mother yesterday evening (July 13, 2020). “The mother tried to bring her son back to life and notified the emergency services, but it was already late. The police rushed to the spot and examined the area, ruling out any criminal activity and requested an autopsy – necropsy to determine the causes of death of 27-year-old Vassilis Maggos, who almost a month ago had been recorded to be brutally attacked by the riot police outside the Courts of Volos.

      According to a post at the time by the “People’s Assembly against Garbage Incineration” the originally posted the above video on June 14, 2020, The young man was savagely beaten in front of passers-by in the center of Volos and was taken to the Magnesia Police Department. In the car that transported him, according to his father’s testimony, the police continued to beat and abuse him. The severe beating continued inside the police headquarters building. They beat him mercilessly, breaking his ribs until the young man shouted “I cannot breathe”. At the height of the violence, the police tortured him. When he asked for water, they took him to the freezer and gave him water drop by drop just to torture him and while he could not stand on his legs. In the end, they released him so that he could be taken to the hospital, because he needed immediate medical treatment. His condition was so dire that the doctors were afraid that his broken bones may pierce his vital organs”. “Amongst his injuries, he had suffered 7 broken ribs and vital organ injuries”.

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Democracy?

        What does a thug look like? Does wearing a uniform change them into honourable citizens? Well it seems so in this so called democracy, in this modern supposedly civilised Europe, wear a uniform, get paid by the state, and you can get away with murder. A daily occurrence somewhere in the EU.

The following from Anarchist News:

       15 July 2020, Athens, Greece: This is what democracy looks like. No, really. This is what democracy looks like. These public servants called "officers of the law" are agents of a democratically elected government. Their acts -regardless of the fact that they are dressed, look and act like a criminal gang and regardless of the fact that if these exact same acts were to be committed by citizens, they would be deemed as crimes according to the law- are authorized and take orders by democratically elected governments all over the world, every day, for decades and decades now. Face it. The fact remains, that although many would not characterize this as "democracy", because it so obviously arbitrary and unjust, it is actually Democracy.
       Okay, to exercise this kind of brutal violence on your fellow human beings, as a policeman, (as depicted in the video), you have to have the predisposition in mind and soul to be barbaric, beastly, cruel, brutal, sadistic, savage, violent, vicious, ruthless, monstrous, inhuman, evil, heinous, merciless, remorseless, heartless, cold-blooded, crooked, immoral, foul, wrongful, vile, dishonourable, horrible, corrupt, depraved, malicious, despicable, shocking, atrocious, brutal, murderous, abominable, disgusting, hateful, contemptible, loathsome, repugnant, gruesome, sickening, nauseating, hideous, horrid, gross, appalling, terrible, horrendous, intolerable, shameful, disgraceful, unworthy, immoral, undignified, debasing, indecent, grotesque, horrific, repulsive, repellent, awful, terrible, detestable, malevolent, execrable, teratoid. Nevertheless, these peoplee people are civil servants and they carry out orders of a democratically elected goverment.
      Orders, that in this case, concerned the protection of a racist demonstration in Victoria Square, in the center of Athens, Greece, called by the Golden Dawn neonazi party and several other racist groups, against the refugees forced to stay homeless in that square. The refugees that were thrown in the streets and forced to sleep on the ground due to a recent law by the greek government of “New Democracy”. Eventually, about 20 racists (no kidding) gathered. And all these 20 racists, “cuddled” with an “army” of dozens of armed policemen. And all of them together, on a common front against approximately 400 anti-fascists holding a counter-protest.
        The rally was coming to an end and while the riot policemen were looking ready to attack the antiracists, many people decided to leave in a coordinated manner, in order to disband outside the Athens University of Economics (ASOEE) located a few blocks away. With a defensive stance, as it can be clearly seen in the video. When the anti-fascist bloc was approaching ASOEE, followed by ten police bikes and dozens of riot cops, suddenly the bikers increased speed, ramming people with their motorbikes, chasing and attacking with batons those who began running, and in the midst of suffocation by the asphyxiating gas grenades and the noise from the flash bang grenades, they arrested and savagely beat two protesters.
      The bikes do not start out of the blue to develop speed and ram protesters a few minutes before they disband, without even a teeny-tiny reason. Policemen follow orders. We have a democracy. And this is what democracy looks like.

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Why Police?

       The mass protests that started in America, has mushroomed across the planet. An obvious sign that their is an underlying malaise at the root of this economic system. The anger is not just against the police and their daily brutality, sanctioned and funded by the state, this can be seen by the symbols of the system that are being attacked. What we are seeing is the latent energy of populations that have lived with a murmuring of anger just below the surface. Anger fermented by generations of exploitation, by ever growing inequality, by an ever more blatant plundering of the public wealth, all backed up by state repression and brutality.

       The callous brutality of the police is no aberration within this society, it is a deliberate production of the state, to enforce this continual plundering of the commonwealth for the parasitic few. If by some magic formula we managed to eliminate the police, the state would have to reinvent it to ensure its survival. It would need to recreate an enforcing system to allow its corporate masters to continue their exploitation of populations and destruction of the planet. 

       So let's focus on the real problem with our society, not the activators of the violence, but on the reasons why they are there in the first place, who trains, funds and sanctions them, and why. Answer those questions and you will stand with the protesters and show solidarity in this justified release of generations of pent up anger. The police are being ever more militarised  and are backed up by masses of legislation, devised and brought into law, not by the police, but by the planners of the system, those faces with names that sit in the marble halls of power, for no other reason than to protect the inequality and exploitation, to defend the status-quo. Unless you sit with those who sit in those marble halls, you should be supporting those on the street. Solidarity is the weapon that can bring down the injustice inherent in this savage economic system of violence and inequality.

      Not a new image, but a true reflection of the system under which our righteous anger has grown.

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Don't Be A Cop.

This from Anarchists Worldwide: 

 

APPEAL TO CITIZENS TO AVOID AUTHORITARIAN CONTAMINATION!

      If you see a street-based worker, such as a windscreen washer, sex worker, busker, or coal-biter fundraising on the street, don’t call the police to report them. Give them some cash. Ask them if they need something and offer to help them out. Don’t be a cop.

     If you hear that someone in your neighbourhood is showing symptoms, don’t stand behind your curtains spying to see if they are leaving their house. Offer them assistance, ask them if they need support. If you notice they aren’t wearing a mask, don’t yell at them, try and get them one. Don’t be a cop.

     If you see people walking around your neighbourhood, try not to assume the worst. Maybe they are homeless, maybe they are going to work. A lot of people don’t have the privilege of shutting themselves away at home with a fridge full of food. Don’t be a cop.

      If you go out shopping, don’t make hateful glances at people around you for fear of infection. Other people are like you with the same concerns. Say hello, make conversation. If you see someone shoplifting, give them a wink. Other people aren’t your enemy. Don’t be a cop.

     If you see someone who lives on the street, don’t cross the road out of fear. If you can, offer them food, a mask, water. If they are breaking into an empty building, they may be seeking safe and secure shelter. Offer to be a lookout. Don’t add to their problems. Don’t be a cop.

Let’s not spread the cop virus!
      They are the disease that attempts to infect us all, but together we are the antidote!

(Adapted from a leaflet that originally appeared in Spain, and the French version translated into English by Anarchists Worldwide. Image by Toby Zoates) 

Download as PDF: anticop virus poster

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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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The Usual Police Brutality.

 

      Police brutality is a fact of the state system, there is no other way that the state can keep control of the population. What the people want and what the state want are irreconcilable. People want freedom to choose their way of life, to enjoy the fruits of their labour and to share in an equal and civilised manner. The state wants total control to keep the wealth flowing to the few wealthy power mongers at the top. The moment people challenge that position out comes the iron fist, Chile, Lebanon, Ecuador, Haiti, Bolivia, Iran, Iraq, France, Spain, Hong Kong and lots of places elsewhere.

   Let's not forget Greece, a short video of Greek democracy at work today:

αλλού τον βρίσκει αλλά δεν έχει σημασία που θα σε βρει ο πυροσβεστηρας ...

— Konos (@Kon0s) December 6, 2019

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Yes, Yellow Vests Are Still On The Streets.

      No, it hasn't gone away, one year on and the Yellow Vests are still on the streets of France in their thousands. Though you would never know this from our mainstream media. Of all the mass protests going on across the world, France is the nearest to us here in the UK. but we hear very little, if anything, about what is going on across the channel on the streets of France, but lots of what is going on in Hong Kong, Why?

       The Yellow Vest Movement, is planning a massive protest with strikes across France, on the 5th. December, they deserve our support and solidarity. What they are fighting against is the same problems we have here in the UK. deteriorating living standards, destruction of social services, increase in poverty and homelessness, gross inequality, evaporating working conditions and blatant corruption. All this midst unimaginable wealth, splattered around in the shape of luxury yachts, private jets, opulent mansions, limousines and bank accounts stashed away in tax havens. This is our world, it is only right that we should take to the streets to end this control of our lives by the greedy, wealthy and powerful.

      This from Acorn, Winter Oak: (For clarity I have posted the full article)

                  Thousands of protesters stream across the river, November 16th.

       “I am not ashamed to feel afraid from time to time. I keep on coming, but I understand those who don’t come any more because they’re too frightened”. So spoke Antoine, a 75-year-old Gilet Jaune marking the first anniversary of the Yellow Vest movement in the southern French city of Montpellier on Saturday November 16.
    This was just one of many protests and occupations across the country (notably in Paris) marking the birthday weekend and paving the way for a big day of strikes and actions on December 5. Antoine explained: “I’ve been here from day one and I’ve escaped police batons by a whisker on several occasions, even though my only weapons are my whistle and my gilet jaune!”
     The last of these alarming encounters had come just the previous week in Montpellier, he said, when the “forces of order” had attacked the demo right at the start. He had seen a riot policeman from the CRS bearing down on him, baton raised, but fortunately for the pensioner it was another protester who took the blow.
      I had already noticed that the majority of the demonstrators gathering in the Place de la Comédie were not wearing the trademark yellow singlets, in the stark contrast to the last time I reported from Montpellier, and Antoine said this was because of the massive police violence which protesters had been facing over the months. He was sure this was a deliberate strategy on behalf of the French state and felt that the previous week’s brutality was intended to dissuade people from taking part in the anniversary protest we were attending.
      Julian, an observer with the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme, a human rights organisation, confirmed to me that the previous Saturday’s police behaviour had been particularly bad. “There was kettling and teargassing right from the start, for the first time here and without there having been any violence”, he said. “The state really wanted to stop the demo. It was kettled for an hour and a half”. He said there were some police who did their job properly, but others who certainly didn’t, particularly the plain-clothed BAC (Brigade anti-criminalité) units and the CDI (Compagnie départmentale d’intervention) for the Hérault area.
     With this in mind, it was quite a relief when the demo, a couple of thousand strong, was able to form up and leave the elegant main city square without any visible police presence. To the sound of drums, music and singing, we headed away from the narrow medieval city streets where the police would have been expecting us. But as we surged in the bright Mediterranean sunshine across a bridge over the River Lez and into the suburbs, the seagulls circling overhead were accompanied by a police drone tracking our movements. The protest paused for a moment at Place Ernest Granier, blocking cars and trams on this important intersection and then moved off again.
      It was now clear that the target was the south coast motorway which runs through the outskirts of the city and, an hour after the march set off, it was met with a line of riot cops blocking the road ahead. Not content with merely blocking the way, they advanced towards us and soon were raining volleys of tear gas cannisters down on the retreating protesters. Quickly, a Plan B was hatched and hundreds of us streamed across a small park surrounded by housing estates to seek out another route to the motorway. “Joyeux anniversaire!” sang the Gilets Jaunes in celebration of a whole year of joyful rebellion across the whole of this country.
      Again, police vans turned up to block the way and more tear gas filled the air. Despite successful attempts to create traffic jams to halt the police’s progress, they caught up with us again a mile or so later and this time the protest was cut in two, with hundreds caught in a kettle. The front part of the march ploughed on, still with the idea of blocking the motorway in mind, and came across the Village Jaune, a birthday-weekend occupation of the roundabout at Prés d’Arènes. Here there were tents, a large gazebo, trestle tables, banners, yellow balloons and an astonishing level of honking and waving from passing motorists, confirming once again that this movement enjoys high levels of support from the French public, outside the dominant metropolitan elite.
      What to do next? Some wanted to keep going for the motorway, some seemed happy to be on the roundabout and others wanted to head back and help out the part of the march kettled by police. In the end, there was little choice. Police advanced at speed from two directions, the tear gas began coming again and protesters scattered.
      The first year of this revolt has been a story of non-stop police repression, combined with the relentless sneering hostility of the corporate media. Can it succeed in the face of all that? “Yes,” one Gilet Jaune, Ingrid, told me. “I am quite sure of that, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. We have to have hope. We want people to have a life, we want nobody to be sleeping on the streets, we want wealth to be shared. “The government will give way. We just don’t know when!” A fellow protester, Manon, said: “We’re still here because we have to keep on fighting. They are destroying everything.
      “We have to do this despite the police repression. We are fighting for another world and this is what we find ourselves faced with. It’s totalitarian neoliberalism. “We are fighting for people’s dignity. It is the same struggle everywhere, in Chile for example”. Manon said the strength of the Gilets Jaunes movement was the way it brought together people from all sorts of backgrounds. “We have created something completely different, a new generation of protesters. People have come together who would never have done so before”.
      Antoine, who had spoken to me about the way police violence was scaring some people away from protesting, said he didn’t think it would work in the long run. “I consider myself to be here as a representative of ten other people who have told me they are with me. Most people I know support the Gilets Jaunes. “The aspects that motivate me are social justice and human rights, which exist less and less from one Saturday to the next. “The Gilets Jaunes are much more representative of society as a whole than other movements I have been involved in, such as the trade unions”. There were even people involved who considered themselves to be on the political right, he said, although he questioned whether this self-designation was accurate, given the nature of the cause they supported.
     “The real right is that infernal couple of Macron and Le Pen”, he added, noting that Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, had abandoned her early pretence of supporting the Gilets Jaunes and had since reverted to form by allying herself with a fascistic police trade union which defends the use of violence againt protesters. Asked whether the movement could succeed, he insisted: “It has already succeeded, by bringing together people from very different backgrounds, which is something in itself”. This last point was reinforced by my conversation with Damien, a 74-year-old who explained that he was a retired policeman who had once been part of the notorious BAC units which have been in the forefront of the recent repression. He said former colleagues he had spoken to were now more or less just going through the motions, doing the minimum their job required. Damien said he was involved from the very start of the Gilets Jaunes revolt. “I’ve come back for the anniversary,” he added. “I’m still very unhappy about what I’m seeing”. Macron had managed to hold on to power by dividing people, he said, and by buying their collaboration. “Personally, I have nothing to complain about because I have got a good pension. But I can’t stand seeing people working all their lives and having nothing to show from it. “I am doing this for everyone. This is a movement which came from below. It was a little revolution and it needs to keep going, starting with December 5”.

More photos HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Thousands March To Defend Exarcheia.

        Happening now, thousands take to the streets in Athens in protest at the riot police and military style violent attacks on the district of Exarcheia. Since mid August the district of Exarcheia has been under continuous police attacks and evictions, with hundreds of migrants evicted and arrested. Exarchia is a district in Athens where there are numerous squats in empty property and used as social spaces, educational and health centres, and for housing migrants. It is run on the principles of mutual aid, co-operation, self-help and respect for the individual, free from the burdening shackles of the state.  The Greek authoritarian state has decided that it will not tolerate people living outside their dictates, rules and regulations, it seeks total control. Besides it sees the district as of value to the developers, so wishes to clear the residents out and see it become another tourist centre pandering to the rich with expensive apartments, high fashion outlets and a source of tax revenue to fund their neo-liberal capitalist expansion.

        The people of Exarcheia need our support and solidarity, and their fight to be put fully in the spotlight of public knowledge, share and spread. First they came for Exarcheia---.

Links:

https://itsgoingdown.org/greek-anarchist-movement-responds-to-assault-on-exarchia/

 http://voidnetwork.gr/category/voidnetwork-news/

 https://twitter.com/th1an1/status/1172831586355752960

 

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Don't Call The Cops.

 

       Perhaps cops in this country don't kill as many people as they do in America and some other countries, but they are still the authoritarian minders of an unfair, unequal, exploitative system. The powers that be try hard to present the police as your friendly neighbourhood protectors, and encourage you to call them to every neighbourhood/family crisis, incident and/or dispute. The end result quite often is violence, and someone being unnecessarily "criminalised". Perhaps we should work more at trying to resolve most of these matters in a reasonable supportive neighbourhood manner, not easy, but better than playing into the hands of those that attempt to control your every action by mass surveillance and threat.

This from Montreal Counter Information:

        In the early morning of Monday June 10th, the Montreal police shot a man. A neighbour was having a crisis. Instead of doing anything helpful, they harassed him for hours. They had guns pointed at his head. They finally shot him in the leg through hs own apartment door early monday morning. On Sunday June 17th anarchists in the St-Henri neighbourhood of Montreal put up posters reminding our neighbours to think twice before calling the cops.
       St-Henri is famously undergoing a rapid and brutal gentrification process. Gentrification is fueled by social cleansing. This means arresting and relocating people with mental health issues, the poor, drug users, sex workers, and all of us trying to get by in a cruel world. One way to resist the over-policing and gentrification of our neighbourhoods is to stop calling the goddamn cops. We made posters that name all the unarmed people who have been killed by the SPVM in the last few years, because this is fucking serious. Cops will always escalate the situation, we can’t trust them. Instead let’s build relationships of trust between neighbours — Let’s make police obsolete! Please download and share these posters — let your neighbours know that COPS KILL, and share some alternatives to calling the police, so no one else has to have their neighbours blood on their hands.

 COPS KILL (to print, 11 x 17″)

12 Things You Can Do Instead of Calling the Cops (11 x 17″)

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Callous, Cruel, Capitalism,

       An all too common aspect of capitalism is its continuing gentrification of our town and city centres, and the commercialisation of all open spaces within the towns and cities. This is not peculiar to any one country, it is the global design being forced on the ordinary people. The result being the eviction of those who can't afford to stay in the new up-market, tourist orientated commercial centres. They are horded out to the periphery, usually in large depressing housing estates, where they are left to see their surroundings deteriorate because of austerity and endemic poverty.

       Within the glossy town and city centres there is homelessness and rough sleeping, while property lies empty waiting for the lucrative offer that fits into their glitzy commercial plan, and makes its owners much richer. Any humane attempt to bring the homeless and empty property together, will be met with the full force of the state's minders, the police. People are away down the ladder of concern when compared with profit. This is the only way capitalism can functioning, amassing wealth for the few at the expense of the many, and it will defend this aspect of its purpose with lies, propaganda and brute force.

     However, across the globe people are resisting this frontal attack orchestrated by the commercial/financial Mafia aided and abetted by the state. 

This from Enough is Enough:

     Berlin, German territory: Today (April 6, Enough 14), after the #Mietenwahnsinn (rent madness) -demonstration, the empty Bizim Bakkal shop was squatted, which had been empty for 4 years. Berlin police evacuated without a valid eviction title, without contact to the owner and using massive force against activists, journalists and parliamentary observers.
Originally published by Besetzen. Edited machine translation by Enough 14. Imahe above byZecko Twitter account.
       Last year, we occupied several houses, apartments and shops, all of which were evicted by the Senate and the Berlin police except one apartment in Großbeerenstraße. We see ourselves as part of a movement that is defending itself against Berlin increasingly developing into a city for the rich. A city in which social participation and place of residence depend on income and in which every square centimetre is used. The city is losing its open spaces, and Berlin’s neighborhoods are increasingly shaped by tourism, consumption and property speculation. Despite many promises regarding housing policy, the Senate is only watching or even actively helping in this process of displacement.

pic.twitter.com/CpyWgnuwKW— andi.waffen (@lamda14) 6. April 2019

      Today, 40,000 people took to the streets in a demonstration against rent madness and displacement. How have the demands, which were also supported by parts of the Berlin Senate, been put into practice and how have we begun to get our neighbourhood back? Many demonstrators joined this project on the spot in Wrangelstraße.
      This made it all the more dramatic how the Senate dealt with such practical forms of action. After the police were first prevented from entering by demonstrators present, the police violently cleared blockades in front of the shop and smashed the door of Wrangelstr. 77. The people in the shop, as well as the demonstrators in front, were arrested and many activists and solidary neighbours present were injured by batons and pepper spray. Members of the House of Representatives as well as members of the Bundestag and journalists were also violently prevented from exercising their right of observation by the police. Senator of the Interior Andreas Geisel was informed about the police operation and is politically responsible for it.

pic.twitter.com/MRZf8GPNP8— andi.waffen (@lamda14) 6. April 2019
        Press spokeswoman Alisia Ney: “Today’s eviction without an eviction title is a new stage of escalation and shows that the state is not even abiding by its own rules. Yet every eviction, whether with an eviction title or without injustice, remains in a city where people live on the street while houses are empty.”
      Press spokeswoman Jona Sommer: “Since taking office, the red-red-green Senate has been claiming “The city belongs to you!” Obviously, it belongs to investors and the Berlin police. Either Senator Geisel does not have his riot squads under control or the SPD is now solving its internal government crisis by police. In Wrangelstraße 77 it became clear that a majority of the population supports our concern to set up a non-commercial neighbourhood centre in the shop which has been empty for years. ”
        Both conclude: “We will not let an arbitrary and insane police force, like fickle politicians, stop us from occupying more empty spaces and taking back the city actively and directly. We will continue to occupy until we no longer have to.”  

Besetzen, Berlin, April 6, 2019.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

     

The Police, Functioning As They Were Intended.

 

      The illusion that is peddled by the establishment and its propaganda mouthpiece, that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, that the police are there to protect us, the ordinary people, grows thinner and thinner to the point of evaporation. Every act of police violence and corruption, remember Hillsborough, every brutal attack by police on protestors, the violence heaped on strikers, remember the 1984/85 miners strike, every miscarriage of justice by police lies, should by now have made it perfectly clear where their loyalty lies.  According to the establishment the police are doing what they were set up to do, protect the rich and wealthy from the poor and the desperate, to protect them from those who would challenge their privileged position. The only modifications the state will make to the police is to give them ever greater power and to see they are more heavily armed. The police are not the friends of the people, they stand in the way of justice, equality and freedom. They are the first line of bodyguards of this system of inequality and exploitation, with the troops standing in the background if needed. It is the same story the world over.

This from Anarchist News:

 

        On October 20^th, 2018 around 1am, cops showed up to a call at an apartment above a King St. Shop in Hamilton, Ontario. Inside they found Robyn Garlow, 30yo mother of one, with a knife. They electrocuted her with a taser and, as she was falling to the ground, shot her four fucking times.

     Garlow was known to the police. She was a drug user and was recently out of jail. These details have no relevancy to her worth, her inherent right to freedom from state oppression. Yet, they already have been and will be used to justify her murder. Because the police are a violent organization meant to protect property of the rich, they have no humanity for the poor and the working class. Because the police are a patriarchal organization meant to enforce laws that privilege masculinity, they have no room for women who do not submit to their authority.

        This was not a tragic mistake, this was murder. Badge or no badge. This was not a case of one bad or inexperienced or over-worked officer, this was an officer carrying out the mandate of the police. Just as, earlier this year, police murdered 19yo Quinn MacDougall in his own apartment after he called the cops for help. And so, on October 28^th, Feminist Action Hamilton called a demonstration to protest the ongoing oppression of our communities by this violent organization. Not to demand justice for Garlow – as we know none exists within this judicial system, let alone the SIU – but to mourn and fight for all victims and survivors of police brutality. And to dream of a world without cops or cages.

     Around 40 people met and marched down King St, holding up traffic on a busy downtown street for over 20 minutes. We held a banner that read FEMINISTS AGAINST POLICE: COPS DON’T KEEP US SAFE. We stopped to acknowledge a moment of silence at the scene of the murder and then circled around the block for a moment of screaming rage at the Hamilton Police headquarters. We had a marching band in full effect and we handed out over 300 flyers to passersby that listed 12 things you can do besides calling the cops.

       As feminists, it is important for us to draw attention to the fact that the police repress, harass, and attack Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities more intensely in order to uphold white supremacy. This is a continuation of the legacy of the police as institutions that, in the United States, were born out of slave patrols to protect white people from Black slaves and, in Canada, were created in order to help put down Indigenous revolt in order to secure white settlement of the plains.

      As feminists, it is important for us to draw attention to the fact that the police make sex work unsafe. And that queer, non-binary, and trans people – specifically transwomen – are met with more violence by the police than others. And that the police criminalize and abuse those of us with mental illness and use the prison system as though it were a hospital.

      As feminists, it is important for us to draw attention to the fact that police officers often use their undue authority to coerce and rape women on the job. And that police officers go home and extend their undue authority to their households where nearly 40% of them abuse their domestic partners with impunity.

Every assault, rape, or murder of a person by the police is an attack against us all.

Because the authority of the police breeds monsters…
Because all people deserve to be free from state oppression…
Because the system is working exactly the way it was designed to work…
We cannot call for reform or review, but only the abolition of the police and the world it creates.

***********************************************************************************

      Feminist Action Hamilton is an autonomous collective of women, trans, and non-binary persons which organizes along anarchist principles both within our communities – forming systems of mutual aid – and outside our communities – empowering ourselves to fight back against patriarchy in all its forms.

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

Hypocrisy And Crocodile Tears.

        Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, is all a flutter, shouting “outrage”, “despicable” “savagery turned loose”, and filling papers and TV time with the alleged murder of journalist,  Jamal Khashoggi. Yes, if true, this is a despicable act, though not the worst act carried out by any state, and should be condemned. However, the coverage, to me seems out of all proportion when compared to the vicious, brutal, savage acts carried out by states across the globe. Where is the “outrage”, “despicable” “savagery turned loose” regarding the unbelievable brutality that is happening in Yemen? Where are the reams of paper, the hours of TV coverage on what is turning out to be the worst humanitarian crisis since the second world war. A country being reduced to conditions beyond belief, famine, cholera, daily mounting deaths, maimed and displaced millions. Men, women, elderly and children being encapsulated in unbelievable brutality on a daily basis. All this with the blessing of the imperialist West, it couldn’t happen without the arms from the UK and the US. We pile in the latest weapons of mass destruction into the hands of a medieval, autocratic, dictatorial, brutal regime and turn our eyes away from how they are used. Because it is good for business, large profits can be made from fostering this type of savagery.

        Nor is there much coverage of the Philippine psychopath Duterte’s war on drugs, being floated under the euphemism of “Philippine Drug War” known also as “Operation Double Barrel”. Nothing more than a vicious operation to silence dissent and intimidate the population, giving a free hand to the state minders to beat, terrorise, and kill at will.
       On these matters our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media barely raise an eyebrow, these items of savagery don’t fit their propaganda script. 

On the Philippines, this from Freedom News: 

 

 

  World, Oct 18th
        As most of you probably heard, Philippines’ president Rodrigo Duterte, who assumed office in July 2016, had launched the “Philippine Drug War” known also as “Operation Double Barrel”. The disgraceful campaign aims at “the neutralization of illegal drug personalities nationwide”.
      The policy gave a green light to cops to routinely execute drug suspects and then plant guns and drugs on them. What’s more, there is evidence that the police is using hospitals to hide their killings. Duterte also urged the citizens of Philippines to lynch suspected drug addicts and criminals.
     In Summer 2018, four Food Not Bombs volunteers have been killed, and one has been framed for drug possession and is in jail awaiting trial. The families and friends of the victims believe that both the murders and the arrest are the result of Duterte’s war on drugs.

The four murdered activists are:

Chris Jose Eleazar (aka Mokiam)
Food Not Bombs Bukidnon/Davao volunteer
Born: Nov.17, 1990 Killed: Sept. 15, 2018

Jan Ray Patindol (aka Pating)
Food Not Bombs Davao volunteer
Born: January 2, 1989 Killed: Sep.15,2018

Jessie Villanueva De Guzman
Food Not Bombs Baliwag Volunteer
Born: June 2,1990 Killed: July 6, 2018

Patrick Paul Pile
Food Not Bombs Baliwag Volunteer
Born: December 10, 1988 Killed: July 23,2018
      Chris Jose Eleazar and Jan Ray Patindol were tortured and killed during a police raid on the home of a Food Not Bombs volunteer on in September 2018. Their bodies were covered with cigarette burns and bruises. The police claim that they “fought back”, however, the victims’ friends said the two did not resist and that the wounds on their bodies indicated that the two young men were tortured.
      Jessie Villanueva De Guzman and Patrick Paul Pile were murdered in separate incidents in July 2018. They were very active members of Food Not Bombs Baliwag. Both made their living as night-time tricycle drivers.
      Jessie was killed by the police in Baliwag, Bulacan. A week after his murder, Patrick took a passenger on his tricycle. At the end of the agreed route, a group of police were waiting. Patrick was killed by one gun shot to his back. He is one of many tricycle riders killed in similar way.
      In all four cases, the police claimed that the victims were killed during “legitimate operations” and that they resisted arrest and “fought back.
       In August 2018 in the municipality of Bantayan, Cebu, a Food Not Bombs volunteer Marco was arrested and is awaiting trial after apparently being framed for drug possession. Marco is a long standing activist: he initiated the Food Not Bombs project in Bantayan.
       He is enduring hellish conditions in prison. Despite of the political situation in the country, his supporters would like to do anything it takes for Marco to get a fair trial in what they know first hand is a corrupt state.
      In a crowdfunder website created to help Marco fight his charges, Food not Bombs organiser Chris writes: “A kind person called Marco (Cram) who I met on a quiet island called Bantayan to the north of Cebu was arrested in early August for allegedly using and selling drugs. During this arrest a packet was planted on him. He is innocent of the charges. It seems that he was set-up and if left unaided will become just another jail statistic.”
      Human rights organisations estimate that up to date, Operation Double Barrel lead to the death of more than 12 thousand people. In the first year, the victims included 54 children. Lawyers who defended drug suspects have also been targeted.
      The Amnesty International report from January 2017 details “how the police have systematically targeted mostly poor and defenceless people across the country while planting ‘evidence’, recruiting paid killers, stealing from the people they kill and fabricating official incident reports.” In the report, AI expressed deep concern “that the deliberate, widespread and systematic killings of alleged drug offenders, which appear to be planned and organized by the authorities, may constitute crimes against humanity under international law.”

You can support Marco’s campaign here.

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

Police Brutality.

       Europe, a supposed leader in democracy, yet in every country in Europe we have police brutality on the streets and in those dark rooms of the "security services". Sometimes it against demonstrators, and other times it is against individuals. Here in the UK, probably the worst in recent times was the savage treatment inflicted on the miners during the 1984 miners' strike. It is still a bleeding wound in the history of working class struggles.

      This case from Act For Freedom Now,  is of a particular vicious attack on an individual, an immigrant, in Athens, by those obedient dogs of the state, the police. Despite all this going on, there are some misguided individuals who seem to be deluded into thinking that "we need more police on the streets". They seem to be under the delusion that the police are there for the benefit of the ordinary people, when they should wake up to that fact the the police are there to keep control of the ordinary people, and protect the power, wealth and privileges of our lords and masters.

 State terrorism: Torture on the back streets of Athens.

         On Thursday 27th of July around 2 in the morning in Athens, on Bouboulinas st. in Exachia neighbourhood, a squadron of greek cops kidnapped and tortured an anarchist immigrant. Straight away they began to torture me with a barrage of kicks, using racist and fascist insults. Meanwhile, the police stated that my offence is that I am an anarchist and belong to a known political group of Exarchia. Then the squadron of riot cops forced me into a dark alley. They laid me on the ground and they tried to break my ribs by kicking; I placed my hand on my ribs to protect them. They took away my hand from my ribs and tried to break my fingers with their shields. In order to protect my fingers, I pulled my hand under my belly. At that moment, they hit my ribs again to break them. This action lasted a long time, until one of the cops proposed to break my wrists. So they placed my hands on the curb stone to break them with batons, but I managed to pull my hands away. This escalated their anger, and by saying fascist and racist insults, they all started to beat me.
          They beat me for more than one and a half hours. All the while they were taking several photos of me getting beaten up, as well as when I was lying semi conscious on the street. When cops realized that my body had been seriously damaged and I was not able to move, they started to play a game with me, telling me “you have ten seconds to leave from here, if we catch you again, we will kill you”, and two cops moved a little bit ahead of me to catch me again. They hit my knee several times with batons to make sure that I can not escape. When one of them turned to look behind him, with all of the pain that I had, I started running. One of the cops tried to catch me again but I could escape by running up Tositsa and seek help at a nearby house of comrades.
          Solidarity paramedics came immediately and after examination, told me I should go to hospital. There they found that aside from severe bruising all over my body and head wounds, I aslo had a fructured spinal joint.
       Exarchia, as an area with self-organized projects and revolutionary struggle, is under constant attack from the state because it is part of international social struggle against capitalism, mafia, terrorism and generally the system. Exarchia is a zone of defence where different groups exist together to fight for freedom and equality against the oppression of the system. By mutual cooperation we can meet the needs of each other without any authority. For this struggle the state beats us.
          The state by placing permanent police forces in the perimeter of Exarchia has made a kind of border between us and the rest of Athens, so it is as if they put us in a kind of prison. At the moment we have no other way to resist this prison except riots against the military check points. One of the reasons that the cops wanted to break my wrists is because as they said, I am one of those who participate in the riots. Many persons usually participate in these clashes with the police forces, because they do not want to be in prison, because they do not want control from any authority.
         As an immigrant anarchist I understand that the struggle for freedom is common between locals and migrants. For this reason I work towards unity and making collective body between locals and migrants. We will not fight only for immigrants but for everyone, because we understand that our pain, our problems are the same.
         Immigrants are under constant attack from the state and facists and it does not matter what kind of government is in power, whether it is ultra-right or leftist government. SYRIZA present themselves as supporters of immigrants but the reality is they imprison migrants on mass scale, every day they deport and kill people at the borders. We know that all authority is our enemy.
         In Exarchia today immigrants are under increasing threat of repression. Recently they began to make police sweep operations on the square arresting any migrant that is there. At the same time there are groups in Exarchia who act like police, using the same tactics, like pogroms on the square against migrants. Such as a group known as security team, military part of the political group “Anti-authoritarian Movement” (AK), who have relation with the government and present themselves as supporters of immigrants, but instead they use immigrants as a cover for their mafia business. As an immigrant I have to say to such groups: stop using our name for your dirty business.
          It is clear that cops and mafia work together for the same purpose: control and the crushing of resistance.
          The message of this violent attack by the pigs was: to terrorize immigrants, anarchists and those who actively resist and fight the police. We shall not kneel down. The state’s violence make it more clear that our struggle is just.

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