Every Lidl Helps.

          Those large sprawling supermarkets, are they as innocent as the seem? Where ever they open their mammoth consumer machines, local businesses close and local producers suffer. Food is grown in massive agribusinesses usually useing cheap labour, it is packaged and transported thousands of miles, polluting the planet, for no other reason than to monopolise the food chain and create massive profits for the parasite class. They are part and parcel of the corporate capitalist movement to turn our towns and cities into money making consumer munching plots. 

         Following article from Act For Freedom Now:

Received on 23/7/20
     In the night of July 23rd we spayed slogans in solidarity to the squats Liebig34 and Rigaer94 in Berlin on the LIDL supermarket in Neos Cosmos / Athens. After we destroyed all windows with hammers.
     Every eviction has its price. This is a message do all responsibles for the aggressive gentrification of many european cities, which allways goes on with the eviction of squats, the state terror against the radical movement and the rising of rents. We noticed the eviction thread against Liebig34 in Berlin and the attack by so called owners and their companies together with the cops against Rigaer94. With the eviction of Dervenion56 in Exarchia the government of ND continious its operations against the combative and solidarity resistance, which we allways will be – with squats or without.
     One of many answers to an evicted squat is the destrucion of a consuming symbol the capitalist system offers to the inmates of the prisons called Metropolis. To support the struggle of our comrades in Berlin we found a german company, but it can be also real estate agencies or luxury cars or tourism.
    The LIDL supermarkt chain was targeted allready some time ago in Germany because of its bad working conditions for their employees. This action is a solidarity offer to this aggressive campain against the working contitions in LIDL WORLDWIDE. 8 to 10 hours per day with a fake smile for pity money, sitting in front of hundreds of products, in a cashier, becoming a robot which just counts and counts. Or lifting big weights destroying your back. Why all these? Which is the role of supermarkets ?
      Supermarket are big financial mechanisms which seem very innocent to the majority of the people. The truth is, they are not.
Colonilization
      Supermarket are colonilizing the economies of local societies in all the earth. All the small markets, grocery stores and other kind of shops are shutting down whenever a new supermarket is opening. There is no need for a new supermarket in most of the areas, its just matter of expanding and absorbing. Also, is reducing the use of local products and producers. Slowly slowly, the residents of an area are becoming workers, mainly women, of this industry, losing all their indepentace (even in liberal terms)
Anti-ecological
     The opening of chain supermarkets, local or multinational, is also increasing importing of products. This is happening because the production companies are exploiting people in a cheaper way in other countries, or because they make better offers to a multinational company because of the massive consumation. What is happening at the end is a big consumption of petroil by the ships to transfer products all around the world. The paradox of capitalism, the fact that a product from 2000 miles far is cheaper than the local, is killing faster the nature.
Food Control
     All these brings us to the bigger problem. Supermarkets are the greatest tool for multinational food companies to takeover all of our nutrition process. We eat shit, we don‘t produce anything, we need money to buy everything, we need to work for them for ever to be able to buy them and cure our selves from the sickness their food is creating
Do we smash supermarket?
    Yes we do. But we have to know that most of the people will not understand why. So we must do more propaganda against this mechanism. And for sure it is better to smash without people being inside. Our target is to spread fear to the side of the bosses not to the side of the random population. But if somebody break a supermarket with people inside without putting someone in danger, its okay, we can overpass it.
       Solidarity to Liebig34 and Rigaer 94
We hit the german interests in solidarity with the resistance in the german controlled territory
       Solidarity to Dervenion 56 and all the evicted and the still resisting squats in Greece
Support to the workers that suffer in the food and product industry worldwide

source Greek original text: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1606472/

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Arbitary "Justice"!

       The state will always show retribution when an act it sees as an attack on its power and control. Though that retribution will not necessarily be heaped on the "guilty" person, that matters little to the state, what matters is that it is seen to be in control, in a attempt to intimidate others from doing similar acts. The judicial system and its attendant hell-hole prisons, are not there to dispense justice, but to protect the power of the state, and the wealth and privileges of its parasite class, to hold the system together and keep the status-quo. To those who desire freedom and justice, prisons are an obvious target, but to be free of prisons we have to demolish the institution that deems them necessary, the state.

      It is not unusual for an individual to find themselves being sentenced to a term in prison with no direct evidence  linking them to the event in question. It happens day and daily in country after country, it is just the state apparatus defending its power over the population.

The following from AMW:

On July 15, 2020, anarchist Marco Bolognino was sentenced to four years for the fire that broke out at the Vallette prison in Turin on February 11, 2019, following a greeting to the many comrades detained following the eviction of the Asilo Occupato.

Aggravated fire and dangerous ignitions and explosions: these are the crimes alleged against Marco Bolognino, anarcho-insurrectionist arrested in Turin by Digos [General Investigations and Special Operations Division, anti-terrorism law enforcement in Italy]. The disputed facts date back to February 10, when anarchists organized a procession against the eviction of the Asilo Occupato in via Alessandria and the arrest of six anarchists who ended up in the Vallette prison. On that occasion, paper bombs and fireworks exploded. A nautical signal rocket ended up on the roof of a prison shed, where there was a kitchen workshop, causing a fire and the explosion of some gas cylinders. The laboratory was completely destroyed.

Once again the tribunal rite was an end in itself, deaf to the evidence of the facts, which not only questioned the disputed facts, but also the identification of a responsible person: the sentence is typical, 4 years for arson .

A warning to all those in solidarity that often find themselves outside those damned walls, an attack on solidarity!

Fire to all the prisons

Freedom for all

Western Alps antirepression

From: https://ilrovescio.info/2020/07/15/condanna-per-lincendio-alle-vallette-nel-febbraio-2019/

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

Concrete Desert.

      Despite the system trying hard to set up a society where everything is controlled, the city offers up many possibilities of claiming free spaces, where we can function freely with our own desires, mutual aid and respect. All it requires is a little bit of organisation, imagination and ingenuity, and I'm sure we the general public have these in abundance, if we care to use them. The publication, "A Sea of Possibilities in the Concrete Desert" is along these lines and worth a read. 

The following from Act For Freedom Now:

 

Brochure from squatters and resisting spots in Madrid, Athens and Berlin
      ‘A sea of possibilities in the concrete desert: Territory, city and insurrection’ – Madrid & Berlin
       This publication is a compilation of texts that emerges from the discussions and the work we started in the wake of the event “A sea of possibilities in the concrete desert. Territory, city and insurrection” that happened in Madrid during June 2019 in Local Emboscada and Local Anarquista Motin. Is the product of a joint work of some comrades from Berlin and Madrid, that does not finish with the publication of this pages and pretends to extend the discussion that we have shared.
      What does it mean to take territory against the State and Capitalism? How can we take it through our struggles? How does it work domination in the territories that we inhabit? Does it mean our way of living in a territory a conflict with the system?

https://laemboscada.noblogs.or

Concrete-desert.cleaned

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Wyatt Earp In Uniform.

 

       The gun totting cop is becoming more prevalent on the city streets across the world. However I think that America still holds that accolade of the most Wyatt Earps in uniform roaming the streets. We must always remember that these macho psychopaths are armed, trained, supported and payed for by the state, (your tax money) as its guard dogs. I must admit that on my many visits to Athens, I always felt a little bit apprehensive when approaching the Greek police. I just didn't like their menacing swagger, usually in twos or threes, all with their guns strapped to their sides. There has been various cases of where the Greek police have shown their idiotic unbalanced macho instincts when confronted with something they just don't like, remember Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15 year old teenager shot dead by an armed cop, while out having a coffee with his friend. 

     Another incident of the Rambo attitude of the Greek police came quite recently and was met with mass resistance from university students and joined by others.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

       It all started on Monday 24 February inside the grounds of Athens University of Economics, when an off duty cop in plain clothes got off his bike and began harassing an immigrant street vendor outside the front gate. The policeman was spotted by anarchist students due to his boots and his helmet that bore the police insignia and was immediately confronted. In his panic, he began running inside the university grounds and managed to trap himself in a dead end corridor, pulled a gun on students and with his finger on the trigger threatened to shoot them while pointing the gun at them for at least 5 minutes, while desperately calling his colleagues on the phone to come and rescue him. The students, not losing their cool, but at the same time not taking a step back demanded he puts the gun down and exits the university grounds. Few minutes later scores of riot policemen stormed the university and attacked students during school hours with flash bang grenades and asphyxiating gas creating chaos because of one imbecile cop that thought he was a cowboy.
       Following these events, that shook the academic community, a protest was called by students on Wednesday 26 February from Athens University of Economics, that the incident took place, to the greek police headquarters, (2.5 km away). Thousands of people took part in the protest, demanding the university asylum to be reinstated (forbidding the police to enter any university grounds, as it was the case for decades, until few months ago, when the new right wing government abolished it).
      When the protest reached the police headquarters and after the main body of the demo had passed in front of the building, several anarchists attacked it with stones, using fire extinguishers to fog the policemen’s vision.
      Riot police brigades and police bikers charged into the crowd with their bikes, ramming people with them as a weapon and throwing them to the ground, chasing, attacking and arresting anyone they could. Many students managed to get into the metro subway station nearby but the police started to throw asphyxiating gas grenades inside the station and while they gave an order for the passing trains not to make a stop, in order to trap hundreds of people down there, in a horrific atmosphere of people breathing with difficulty due to the gas, while at the same time, disrupting the public transport by creating a problem to hundreds more passengers that were planning to get off the tube at that specific metro station.
        Following the events the students decided to occupy the Athens University of Economics on Thursday and Friday, 27 and 28 of February 2020. On Thursday, February 27, 2020, along with many people in solidarity from the occupied “Athens University of Economics” the squatters of “Vancouver Squat” that was evacuated by the greek riot police on November 2, 2019, took the riot police by surprise and symbolically reoccupied the squat lighting flares on the rooftop.

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

Laugh In Their Face.

       Despite the unbridled brutal repression from the Greek state's minders, against autonomous spaces, migrants, squats and self organising communities, the people of Exarcheia, and further afield, are determined to hold on to these features of their lives and are resisting and fighting back. In the face of the authoritarian, repressive state they are showing it the two fingers. Their struggle and determination should be an inspiration to us all to stand up and resist the ever encroaching tentacles of the state. 

This from Act For Freedom Now:

 

      On Saturday 29/2 at Exarchia Square we will burn our own “cop-carnival-dummy”. We come with our friends, our children, our nephews, our grandmothers and grandfathers, and take back the square from the occupation forces and all those trying to make repression a permanent reality in our neighborhood. We bring our drinks, our masks, our music instruments and all of our toys for a frantic carnival from two in the noon until late in the afternoon!
         Oust the fear, the streets will win!
     Open assembly of squats, collectives,internationalists, migrants and solidarians

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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: 

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

Resistance An Obligation.

       Pick your country, Greece, Spain, Italy and any other capitalist swamp and the patterns the same. Capitalism's minders, the state, battle hard and ceaselessly to extinguish any form of self organising among the people. Capitalism needs a subservient population, it can't permit people to look for alternatives, or their system would collapse, though that's on the cards in any case. This is where the state steps in to try and crush any form of dissent or resistance to the economic train crash that we are riding towards climate disaster. The state simply puts a stamp of legitimacy on their own violence against the people in an attempt to prop up this suicidal economic system.  When tyranny is the norm, resistance is an obligation.

From Anarchists Worldwide:

Milan: Branca Still Holds Out. Two Comrades on the Roof

       21.01.2020: The operation to clear the Brancaleone squat at 1 Piazza Alfieri began this morning. Despite the cold and the now 12 hours on the roof thanks to being pissed off and the determination to resist, 2 comrades are still on the roof and intend to stay there as long as possible.
      There are solidaritarians in the square at the front of the building who are stubbornly refusing to leave the comrades on the roof alone. The night will be long and cold, but together we will warm it with the flame of our anger that burns to the sound of good music.
       Herbal teas and good food await us here and all are welcome.
Some angry and cold comrades. 

Milan – A Reflection from Solidarity (Resistance to Eviction Continues)

       22.01.2020: Despite unsuccessful attempts by the so-called law enforcement agencies to end the resistance on the roof, it has now been 24 hours for the two people that are determined not to give in to yet another eviction, right in this city of luxury apartments and profiteers.
         The fake social peace that Beppe Sala [Giuseppe Sala – the Mayor of Milan] would like to establish in his showcase city, a metropolis of fashion design and gentrification (especially in a neighborhood like Bovisa where this same fact is evident) will never be completely possible as long there are people not willing to bend to social compromise.
         Yesterday as today, always above the roofs, always against the monopoly of the exercise of state force, against capitalists and exploiters.
Brancaleone resists!

Milan – And We’re Still Here…Of Course

       22.01.2020: For 30 hours they’ve been standing on the roof of the Brankaleone house. The comrades are well fed and are determined to stay where they are, do you want to hear about the beauty of Piazza Emilio Alfieri from above?!
          Let’s re-launch for tonite a date at 8:30pm in Piazza Alfieri, under Branka house. Updates on the situation, proposals, music, beer and good food.
         In any case, we’ll be here all day, so come by whenever you want.
        (all updates via Round Robin, freely translated into English by Anarchists Worldwide. All photos stolen from various Italian corporate media sources)

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

Profit Versus People.

        Gentrification is not a new phenomenon, nor is it confined to any one town or city. It is just one of the methods used by the financial Mafia to increase their wealth at the expense of the ordinary local people.
      At the moment there is a battle raging in the district of Exarcheia in Athens. The newly elected government, New Democracy is brutally trying to "cleanse" the district by removing people who wish to live together in co-operation mutual aid and a community of common interests, to allow property investors a free reign in filling the area with luxury apartments, expensive restaurants and high priced fashion shops, to syphon money from tourists to the property developers bank accounts. Tourism is their current milking-cow, their goose that lays the golden egg.
      In our world of high finance, the "economy" profit and growth, outweigh any human values, the poor will continually be pushed to the margins until they decide that enough is enough.
       This extract from an excellent article by Molly Crabapple. It is well worth reading the article in full.

      From New York to Berlin, gentrification is consuming cities, and any enchantment a neighborhood offers is a harbinger of its eventual doom. Hoping to boost low real-estate prices after years of economic crisis, Greece began granting the so-called golden visa, a five-year E.U.-residency permit in exchange for a two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-euro investment in real estate, in 2013. Wealthy citizens of autocracies took up the offer. Chinese investors bought up blocks of buildings; one purchased a hundred apartments in Exarchia alone. Many of these apartments were converted into Airbnbs (the Web site has more than three hundred listings for Exarchia), which drove up the rents, drove out residents, and brought in tour guides, who attempt to repackage the neighborhood’s insurrectionary spirit as vapid, marketable cool.
       “They want gentrification, to promote this as a historic neighborhood while destroying its history of artists, struggles, intellectuals, and anarchists.” Anna told me. “They want to do what Berlin did, to sell the neighborhood’s past while killing its identity.” In the last decade, Berlin rents have risen more than a hundred per cent, and for Athenians like Anna, the city is a cautionary tale. Graffiti offered a succinct rejoinder: “Airbnb TOURISTS FUCK OFF REFUGEES WELCOME.” Neither refugees nor anarchists would fit into the city that had been dreamed by the world’s wealthy. That Athens would be a series of clean, glass-walled, interchangeable rooms, through which capital could frictionlessly glide.
        Throughout the winter, police repeatedly attacked Exarchia Square with tear gas and flash-bang grenades. Sometimes the pretext was a protest; other times, it was an attack by anarchists on the police. One night, police trapped residents inside a café for hours. On November 17th, after a march commemorating the 1973 uprising, social media lit up with photos of protesters left bloody by police violence. Three days later, the Ministry of Citizen Protection issued an ultimatum: squatters had fifteen days to evacuate every squat in Greece. By late December, only a handful of squats remained, the last survivors of a network that had once given thousands of refugees a home.
        I thought of the words of an activist from Exarchia, when I asked him whether the government would succeed in fundamentally changing the neighborhood. “Exarchia is not just territory,” he answered. “Territory without people is nothing. I don’t care about losing Exarchia. I care about losing the people.”

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EU Democracy.

 

         States work very hard with a ceaseless effort and unfailing determination to control the population and create a flock of subservient citizens. From continuous monitoring and profiling and for those more persistent citizens who stubbornly refuse to be part of the subservient flock they have other methods, entangling them in the loaded judicial system and prison.
       From Spain to Greece and across the EU, that so called bastion of peace, freedom and wealth, the pattern is the same.
       Two cases both with the same aim subservience, one from Spain and one from Greece, both members of the EU financial Mafia club.

Spanish democracy.

From Spain:

        Since June 2018, the anarchist prisoner Amadeu Casellas is back in prison, accused of stealing 300,000 euros in Sabadell, Catalonia. As told by Amadeu, at the time of arrest, he was working at his home; they found absolutely nothing and also the victim did not recognize him at first, the judge took no consideration of these details when decreeing detention. He is currently imprisoned in Brians I prison in Catalonia. The following interview comes from the revolutionary website La Haine.
        I first send my solidarity and that of La Haine to you in this new prison in which you’ve been suffering for months. How do you feel?
Very good.
        How was your arrest and this new accusation?
       At about 5 am they blew open the door where I lived. I was sleeping. I heard the noise and at first thought it was a neighbor, did not even think it was for me. Hooded police entered, threw themselves on me. I was hurt in the fifth and sixth vertebrae and I had to be taken to Granollers hospital. I had to wear a collar for about 20 days and was prescribed an anti-inflammatory. I was accused of armed robbery. Some 20 policemen checked, and found nothing.
       After spending years in prison, you came out in 2010 and now, 9 years later, you’ve been taken back to prison. Have you seen any change in the prison reality between these days?
        Yes, the conditions have fallen between 30 and 40 years ago and now, in all aspects. You cannot even maintain a hygienic value; they do not provide prisoners with any free products, so whoever cannot afford to buy it does not have access to them. Those that do not have hygiene are more likely to have scabies (which has already appeared in some prisons), tuberculosis, etc … Also the food has gotten worse, is less in quality, and cold; menus are repetitive and also they cheat with the portions: for example, in the menu it indicates that there are 4 patties per person and they distribute 3, and so on with everything. The commissary prices have doubled; if it was already expensive before, it is now much more; a liter of milk, which in a store costs about 60⁄70 cents, here costs € 1.60. Not only that, the laundry machine is broken and there is no money to fix it. The other day, a light bulb melted and they had no money to change it at that time. Where is that money? Where is that percentage of profit they get from the commissary going?
        You have participated in numerous protests in prison in the different stages that you have been imprisoned. How is the current struggle in prisons?
          I tried to collect signatures on the subject of food, I got very few, about 20 and 30, people are afraid and some came to say that they pulled back from the protest…
         In the years you were out of prison, you witnessed the fascistization (even more, if possible) of the state and the expansion of repression in large parts of society. How have you experienced this process?
        It is also something that is experienced inside, even as some officials carry the flag.
        From the outside, how can we help your situation to denounce injustice and fight for your freedom?
        Go pestering the court of Instruction No. 3 of Sabadell and especially create a lot of publicity, especially with those releases that come out.
         From your perspective as an anarchist, how do you describe the present political situation in the Spanish state?
        Currently, there is no talk of politics, but of parties; people are leaving things as important as the social aspects (health, evictions, maintenance of forests to prevent fires, maintenance of infrastructure to prevent flooding) and are devoted only to discussing and accusing the opposing parties without contributing anything.
       Finally, what message do you want to say to move all people struggling against repression and against prisons?
        Much strength to you all, the struggle continues. Even though we are few, do not be discouraged; it is a matter of desire and not quantity. Often one person or few can move a crowd. It is a struggle for social inequalities, against sexism, racism; if we do not fight, it will finish worse than in the Franco era.

And from Greece:

Greek democracy

SOLIDARITY TO THE COMRADES OF THE KOUKAKI SQUATTING COMMUNITY
      Since the end of August 2019, the state has launched a wide-scale crackdown on self-organized structures, occupations of the anti-authoritarian space and against squats, which also housed refugees and immigrants, mainly families with children. The present ND (Νέα Δημοκρατία / New Democracy) government is attempting to level everything left standing by the previous SYRIZA government, which had made more selective progress, with the goal of evicting squats of either immigrants or self-organized spaces of struggle.
      The Koukaki Squatting Community is one of these self-organized structures of struggle, which was evicted some time ago, but their comrades in arms recaptured it yesterday which led to a second intervention by the police which resulted in the arrests and beatings of the comrades and those acting in solidarity. The dynamic resistance of the Koukaki Squatting Community who fought against the MAT (Riot Police) and the EKAM (Special Anti-Terrorist Unit) twice during eviction operations for the first time in such cases in Greece, is an exemplary stance to defend the options and practices of struggle that we should never abandon.
SOLIDARITY TO THE COMRADES OF THE KOUKAKI SQUATTING COMMUNITY

SOLIDARITY TO EVERYONE WHO DEFENDS THE CHOICE TO STRUGGLE

Pola Roupa – Nikos Maziotis, members of Revolutionary Struggle

12/01/2020, Korydallos Prison

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

Ask Your Gaoler For Paracetamol.

        It becomes more and more obvious that we can't get the type of free and just society we want without a hard and bitter struggle. As state repression crawls further and further into our everyday life, enforced by a well armed police force backed up by a loaded judicial system, more and more people are drawn into conflict with the state. The endless attack on the social fabric of the population by the plundering of the public purse, by the state's money and business orientated policies, while pampering and subsidising their corporate friends, it becomes obvious that the state and big business are not on our side. We stand diametrically opposed to each other in what is clearly a class war, the rich and power with their self protecting state apparatus versus the ordinary people armed with nothing more than solidarity and a desire for a fair and just world for all. To get there will never be done by appealing to the rich and powerful political and corporate Mafia, you are asking them to give up the wealth and power and join us in shaping an equal and fair society, to give up their pampered and privileged life to join us the ordinary people in a building a society that sees to everybody's needs fairly. Such requests are based on an illusion peddled by the political parties, who in reality benefit from the existing unjust and corrupt system.

       The misery, poverty, deprivation, inequality and violence encapsulated in this capitalist system backed up the state is so glaringly obvious, it is crime to look the other way, it's an abandonment of your humanity, it's giving consent and being complicit in perpetuating the injustice. Appealing to your gaoler for an extra pillow to make a your life little bit more comfortable, or asking for a paracetamol to ease your pain, is not an answer, we have to break down the prison walls and free ourselves.

This from AMW:

 

 We are tearing down walls for freedom

         The recapture of Matrozou 45 and Panetoliou 21 is an act against the fear imposed by state repression. It is a signal of resistance and a rallying cry for escalation. Let us not leave our neighborhoods and nature in the heat of development plunder. Do not accept the displacement of our lives. Keep the parks, squares and hills free. Let us oppose the mercenaries of the state. Let us intensify the struggles against the exploitation of labor. Let us completely take up the struggle for survival and freedom. The struggle is neither legal nor illegal.
        Together with dozens of anarchist / antisocial companions, we are taking back the community’s homes in order to meet housing needs that would not have been possible without this occupation, to re-open solidarity structures and re-establish free-living relationships without hierarchy, reopen homes in the neighborhood and in the movement with events, celebrations and organization.
        We occupy buildings and connect illegal electricity and water. We are working to make them sustainable and we are taking on the cost of repression. It is a conscious choice to blackmail with rent and bills. Meeting the basic needs must be a given to all people and not a tool in the hands of the bosses to give us the dilemma of submission or misery.
        Housing seizures are a logical response to the irrationality of a financial system that forcefully keeps people in huts, roads and concentration camps at the same time as there are thousands of vacant buildings. In a suffocating metropolis drowned in cement and drinking places, occupations are places of socialization without institutional and financial control, places where people can redefine their relationships on the basis of solidarity and respect, outside the dominant standards.
         And for those who are complaining about the unpaid occupation accounts, it would be good to dig a little deeper into all that has been stolen by state and international economic policies, all those unpaid party accounts, factories and, of course, the millions in euros. In a forest-burning state with the collapse of the health system and bleeding education system, the state chooses to hire 1,500 cops with extra money for equipment. Because all they care about is protecting their friends and their friends’ investments from an uprising.
       On the other hand, the Greek police and media, the urban propaganda system, are on the verge of collapse after the last operation in Koukaki. They still do not want to admit that high-profile journalists and politicians and the anti-terrorism unit itself condemned without any evidence an “innocent Greek family.” Because this will undermine social trust in the foundations of the urban system and give us space to say once again that THIS IS NOT ABOUT AN INDIVIDUAL CASE. They prepare and construct the next culprits… All this is done to instill fear and terror into people’s minds about squatters and anarchist / antisocial sites.
         The squatters are attacked by the entire state apparatus and not only by the “right government.” The disagreement between SYRIZA and ND is about what is the most effective way to suppress the movement. Police democracy throughout the area with the involvement of anti-terrorism also existed under SYRIZA with thirty examples. One example of extreme repression was when they sent two MAT squads to Philopappou Hill to prevent tree planting. Whether left or right, such an unjust and contradictory system cannot survive without repression, and repression is something that will always exist and we will have to go through it to get what we need.
         The occupation of all the necessary resources, productive forces, spaces, and ultimately our own lives, is the one-way street for the struggles of the oppressed and exploited, and our small occupations foreshadow this happy future.

Occupation Community of Koukaki

Original publication January 11, 2020

via athens.indymedia.org

From: https://mpalothia.net/athina-anakatalipsi-ton-katalipseon-matrozoy-45-kai-panaitolioy-21/

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

Fascism, The State's Natural Home.

      As the capitalist system of neo-liberalism lurches from crisis to crisis, its blatant dangers to all life and the very planet itself become more obvious, the various states response is to march firmly towards fascism. This is an attempt to stop the rapidly rising protests and insurrections that are flaring up across the planet, as people become more aware and more determined to call a halt to this greed driven insanity.
      Populations awash with poverty and deprivation because of this system, are now aware of the cause and are venting their anger with a strong desire to end this engineered injustice.
     The following article is from Greece, where since the election of the new government of the "New Democracy" party their has been a military style brutal attempt to crush any and all dissent. Migrants and any group that supports them, have come in for some savage treatment from the "New Democracy" facade. Autonomous spaces, long standing squats which have been hubs for local communities, groups who openly oppose the authoritarian rule and individuals who stand against the injustice, inequality and corruption of this exploitative system, have all felt the wrath of the Greek state as it strides further into the fascist mode, the states' answer to the rising fight for freedom and justice.

     From Act For Freedom Now, Just one case of many:

Financial support for the persecuted antifascists
firefund.net/persecutedantifa

       On 1.11.2019 there was an arson attack against neo-nazis Golden Dawn’s head offices in Diligianni street, resulting in the destruction of the building’s second floor where N. Michaloliakos’ office (the secretary general of the party) is located. According to the file of the case, while the perpetrators were trying to escape, police cars belonging to the “counter”-terrorist agency pursued a car. The pursuit resulted in a car collision and to the policemen’s injury, with the perpetrators managing to get away.
     This incident was used as an excuse to start a targeting and persecution campaign against anarchists, which reached its peak with the arrest of two anarchist militants and the manipulative police tactics that aimed to put them in provisional custody.
      The bill of indictment’s upgrade by the “counter”-terrorist agency and the leaks to the media created the anticipation that the two comrades would be put in custody. In this climate of terror, the comrades and their lawyers were called to fight an unequal battle.
      More specifically, the state’s repressive mechanisms, with the CT agency in the lead role, fabricated according to the provisions of article 187A (anti-terrorist law) a “terrorist” group named “Taxiarchia” (Brigade) which first appeared in March 2017 with the attack against the (then) HQ of the neonazi party Golden Dawn in Mesogeion Avenue, under the name of “Pavlos Fyssas Brigade”. According to the court file, the group executed 6 attacks against structures and members of the fascist party up to its last hit against the head offices in Diligianni str. in November 2019.
      In that way, the authorities made an attempt to isolate certain claims of responsibility within a plethora of antifascist-anticapitalist actions which led, together with other things, to a significant weakening of the fascist movement in the last few years. Among dozens of attacks and claims of responsibility, they chose a few which, by having the noun “Taxiarchia” as a first component, could be presented to the investigative judge as persuasive evidence of “joining and participating in a terrorist organization”. The law enforcement authorities in their attempt to patch a case together, fabricated the existence of a terrorist group in order to sentence the two comrades to dozens of years in prison. And all this for the CT agency to restore its damaged public profile after the fiasco it suffered in Exarheia.
       More specifically, the court document, apart from the attack to the -then- party HQ in Mesogeion str, alludes to three more attacks against party members and the Local Organization in Aspropyrgos which led to the final shutting down of their offices. For these attacks, responsibility was taken using three different signatures, namely “Sahzat Lukman Brigade”, “Petrit Zifle Brigade” and “Abd Elsalam Brigade”. The arson against the Local Organization of Golden Dawn in the area of Menidi, which led to its shutting down for an indeterminate period of time, under the signature “Durruti Brigade”, is also referred in the court file. The same goes for the destruction of the Führer’s office in Diligianni street, an action for which no one yet has claimed responsibility.
        The expanded and unfounded indictment has been composed, among others, based on anonymous calls to the “counter”-terrorist agency which has no caller ID (!!!). The indictment is full of lies and exaggerations which can easily be demolished just by reading the file. The two comrades who were arrested about two months after the Diligiani incident, are prosecuted for two attacks against the Golden Dawn offices, the one at Menidi and the one at Diligiani str. The “evidence” in the authorities’ possession is that on the dates of the attacks, the comrades happened to rent cars for personal use, a fact that was considered suspicious by the CT agency.
        All this is happening in a conjuncture when the Golden Dawn trial is coming to an end and the state prosecutor (Adamantia Economou)has suggested the charges against the members of the neonazi party be dismissed. In this way, the murderous violence of the criminal organization is downgraded and legitimized.
       All this is happening in a conjuncture when the New Democracy government introduces bills which repress the right to strike, to protest and to the university asylum. In just a few months it attempts to take back everything the society has won in decades of struggles at a great cost and sacrifices. It launches an all-out attack on the social conquests using a policy of social genocide against refugees and migrants, while building an Orwellian racist and authoritarian police state which spies on militants and political spaces, fabricates prosecutions and indictments, aims to eradicate the resistance and to spread fear and conservatism in the society.
        It’s in this conjuncture that our comrades were taken to the state prosecutors on a flimsy indictment for their “crime” of continuing to struggle. The two comrades were released under strict conditions: they have to report to the police four times a month and deposit a 15,000 euro bail (per person) in order to avoid custody, until 17-1-2020. It becomes evident that way that the financial bleeding of the movement is an everlasting goal of the system and a primary instrument aiming at its eradication.
     It should be clear at this point that regardless of the blatant manipulation of the case, the defense of the militant antifascism and the movement’s anti-violence against the system cannot be confined in dilemmas of guilt or innocence. The movement’s self-defense against the authoritarian and market-based neoliberalism, which uses the fascism in order to crush social and class resistance, is the existential position of the struggle for a better world. It is the combat position of the oppressed all over the world and one of their principal means to assert their claims. Because the organized manifestation of the class anti-violence is our only chance against capitalism and state repression. Because the anti-fascist anti-violence may not be tried in civil courts, nor is legal or illegal. It is historically imposed and fair.
       Under these circumstances, we make a call to the movement as a whole to support the efforts of collecting the bail money till the set date, so that comrades will not be remanded in custody; to show again to the state and its mechanisms that the solidarity of the oppressed is the foundation stone for the formation of a revolutionary movement. This is the next fight we are called to give against the repressive mechanisms that attempt to put the comrades in provisional custody.

Solidarity is our weapon

Contact with the assembly:

antifa-initiative@riseup.net – protov2free@protonmail.com

Antifacist Initiative

Αρχεία:

af-en.pdf

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

Athens, State Brutality Continues.

     The latest from Athens, where the state has unleashed a brutal attack against all autonomous centres and squats. It is being met with counter attacks by various members of the public.

From Act For Freedom Now:

       Athens, Greece: The greek government has gone into war with anarchists and anti authoritarians, following the end of a 15 days ultimatum issued by the Ministry of “Public Order”, towards the dozens of political and refugee squats across Greece (some of them more than 30 years old), threatening them with violent evictions by the riot police and police special forces, if they did not evacuate within the deadline. The deadline ended on Thursday night on the 5th of December 2019, a political decision by the greek State aiming to agitate and create an “explosive atmosphere”.
       Following the first wave of attacks and evictions, mainly against squats housing refugees during the fall, the second wave of attacks has just begun, this time against political squats and social centers. Coinciding with the arrest of antifascists and the proposed judicial acquittal of neonazi leaders in the Golden Dawn trial, the right wing greek government and its self proclaimed socialist Minister of Public Order have proceeded with the eviction of “Kouvelou Mansion” Squat in Marousi, Athens on Tuesday 17 December, while another three squats have been evicted today 18 December in Koukaki, Athens, following a massive police operation, that terrorized a whole neighborhood with police brutality, attacking people living in adjoining houses that were no squats. Brutal images of greek SWAT policemen having their boots on people’s heads on the ground and a mother bound on the floor of her terrace with a hood on her head, reminiscing of Abu Ghraib torture images, have been circulated in the media.
        While this info text is being written it has become known that at about 22:00 today 18 December, people attacked shops and banks near the main square of Athens at Syntagma,
       while also the christmas tree at Exarcheia Square in Athens has been set on fire. While the greek government has proclaimed that more than 20 squats, just in Athens, will be violently evicted until the end of 2019, the police attacks seems like the match that will put fire in an already explosive situation during Christmas and New Year’s festivities.

 

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

The Violence Of Democracy!!

   In Athens the Greek state's war on freedom of expression and dissent continues with renewed savagery all dressed up as making the city safe, and clearing it of criminals and terrorists. The latest squats to be evicted have been long standing community centres, hubs of alternative culture and co-operation among local residents. Once again we see how representative democracy works with its usual iron fist against any attempt to live outside its dictate and control.  

     In one recent eviction an incident not reported here, the anti-terrorist police entered a neighbour's yard and when she asked to see a warrant for entering her property, she was wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and arrested. The face of representative democracy.

This from SquatNet:

      Today in the early morning hours, Villa Kouvelos in Marousi (northern part of Athens) was evicted by a strong state anti-terrorist police force.
The empty and dilapidated building was squatted by anarchists in April 2010 and quickly developed into a nationally known social center, providing the district with concerts, lectures, discussions, political events, etc.
      The villa has also been the target of attacks by right-wing groups such as the Golden Dawn. In the north of Athens, Villa Kouvelos was an institution and its eviction is a catastrophe for the neighborhood in cultural terms alone, leaving behind – similar to the eviction of the Villa Zografou – a socio-cultural desert. As far as is known, there is also no special reason for the eviction, there are no plans to use the building or sell the land. The eviction is therefore a purely populist act.
       A few minutes after the arrival of the cops at 7:30 am, residents gathered in front of the building to express their solidarity. Flyers were distributed and the city council meeting of the Nea Dimokratia (ND, New Democracy) responsible for the eviction was disturbed. A spontaneous demonstration was called at 6 pm, attended by about 300 people. The demonstration went loudly through the neighborhood, slogans were sprayed and some banks were smashed.
        Yesterday ND announced the eviction of another 28 squats by the end of the year, which after the events in Exarcheia and the eviction actions so far is tantamount to a further declaration of war on the scene, on alternative life and on all progressive people in Greece. A foretaste of the reaction was already given in the last few days, with smaller attacks throughout the city – and a clear warning on 6 December with 12,000 anarchists in front of the parliament.

And:

Three more evictions in Koukaki. Cops terrorized neighbours

Athens – Greek police evicted 3 more squats in the Koukaki district this morning (December 18th). Neighbours were terrorized by the cops, some of them were also arrested. On Exarcheia square the Nea Demokratia regime put up a Christmas tree. Tonight there will be an emergency meeting in the Gini building in Athens.

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Some squats in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/GR/squated/squat
Groups in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/GR
Events in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/GR

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https://de.indymedia.org/node/54093 https://enoughisenough14.org/2019/12/18/athens-3-more-evictions-in-koukaki-district-cops-terrorized-neighbours/

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