An odd place to go to find a somewhat favourable article on what some anarchists are up to in Greece, The New York Times!! Though some typical establishment phrases slip in, it in no way condemns the anarchists in the usual way that the babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, do as a matter of form. A lot is going on in Greece and the anarchists involved are a varied and multifaceted array of people, their actions are diverse, but with the same aim, the destruction of the state and its bed partner capitalism, and the creation of a society that offers individual freedom with co-operation, free association, mutual aid, and which sees to the needs of all our people, in a sustainable environment. If that is the sort of society you want, why not join the anarchists in that struggle.
ATHENS — It may seem paradoxical, but Greece’s anarchists are organizing like never before.
Seven
years of austerity policies and a more recent refugee crisis have left
the government with fewer and fewer resources, offering citizens less
and less. Many have lost faith. Some who never had faith in the first
place are taking matters into their own hands, to the chagrin of the
authorities.
Tasos
Sagris, a 45-year-old member of the Greek anarchist group Void Network
and of the “self-organized” Embros theater group, has been at the
forefront of a resurgence of social activism that is effectively filling
a void in governance.
“People
trust us because we don’t use the people as customers or voters,” Mr.
Sagris said. “Every failure of the system proves the idea of the
anarchists to be true.”
These
days that idea is not only about chaos and tearing down the
institutions of the state and society — the country’s long, grinding
economic crisis has taken care of much of that — but also about
unfiltered self-help and citizen action.
Yet
the movement remains disparate, with some parts emphasizing the need
for social activism and others prioritizing a struggle against authority
with acts of vandalism and street battles with the police. Some are
seeking to combine both.
Whatever
the means, since 2008 scores of “self-managing social centers” have
mushroomed across Greece, financed by private donations and the proceeds
from regularly scheduled concerts, exhibitions and on-site bars, most
of which are open to the public. There are now around 250 nationwide.
Some activists have focused on food and medicine handouts as poverty has deepened and public services have collapsed.
In
recent months, anarchists and leftist groups have trained special
energy on housing refugees who flooded into Greece in 2015 and who have
been bottled up in the country since the European Union and Balkan
nations tightened their borders. Some 3,000 of these refugees now live
in 15 abandoned buildings that have been taken over by anarchists in the
capital.
The burst of citizen action is just the latest chapter in a long history for the anarchist movement in Greece.
Anarchists
played an active role in the student uprisings that helped bring down
Greece’s dictatorship in the mid-1970s, including a rebellion at the
Athens Polytechnic in November 1973, which authorities crushed with
police officers and tanks, resulting in several deaths.
Since
the late 1970s and early 1980s, anarchists have joined leftist groups
in occupying portions of Greek universities to promote their thinking
and lifestyle; many of those occupied spaces exist today, and some are
used as bases by anarchists to fashion the crude firebombs hurled at the
police during street protests.
Over
the years, anarchists have also backed a spectrum of causes, such as
opposing “neoliberal” education reform or campaigning against the 2004
Olympic Games in Athens.
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