Nikos Romanos Released From Prison.

         The news that Nikos Romanos has been released from prison must bring pleasure to the hearts of all anarchists. I have no doubt the the life Nikos has lead up to now was greatly influenced by that event on a Saturday evening in 2008, when, as a teenager out at a cafe with his teenage friend Alexis Grigoropoulos and was by his side when Alexis was shot dead in cold blood by a police officer. No matter his political views before that event, it is obvious that such a cold blood murder of his teenage friend standing beside him, would sharpen his hate of a system that harboured and armed such cold blooded murderers.

This from AWM English:

• Posted on: 11 July 2019

        Anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos was released from prison in Greece yesterday after six years of imprisonment.
        Nikos was a close friend of Alexis Grigoropoulos, an anarchist teenager who was murdered in Exarcheia by the police in 2008, sparking the Greek anarchist insurrection.
       Nikos Romanos was arrested in February 2013 with 3 more people and charged with attempted armed robbery at the Agricultural Bank and TT Hellenic Postbank in Velvento, Kozani.
        He was also sentenced to 18 years in prison for possession and placement of explosive devices in 2012. Among the “targets” was the home of the former Minister of National Defense, Giannos Papantoniou.
       The court that originally sentenced Romanos had not admitted any mitigating circumstances, including his good behaviour while in prison but this decision was later reversed by the Supreme Court. Taking the Supreme Court’s decision into account, a Five-member Criminal Appeals Court that reconsidered his case recently reduced his sentence by four years, to 14 years in prison.
      This made possible the release of Romanos, whose six years in prison counted “double” due to days of work done while incarcerated, during which time he had also finished high school and sat university entrance exams, getting a place in the Athens TEI School of Management and Economy.
       In an interview earlier this year, Nikos stated, “Our goal should be to sharpen the subversive struggle in every form it can take, to transform it into a real danger for every ruler. Part of this process is reconstructing our historical memory, so it can serve as a compass for the strategies of struggle we employ. We should start talking again about the organization of different forms of revolutionary violence, the practices of revolutionary illegalism, and the need to diffuse these in the movement in order to overcome the “politics” (in the dirty and civil meaning of the word) that have infected our circles… Whoever arms his conscience to overthrow the brutal cycle of oppression and exploitation will definitely be the target of vengeful and authoritarian treatment by the regime. This does not mean that we will give up our fight, in the courtroom or elsewhere.”
        Anarchists around the world will celebrate the release of Nikos, a comrade who has remained intransigent in his revolutionary values in the face of harsh repression from the state.

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Our Quiet March To Fascism Continues.

         The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative.   Benito Mussolini

         About six years ago I wrote a wee piece, "Inch By Inch We Lose Control", about how I believed we were taking a quiet march to fascism, the following is just a rehash of that article, as I believe we are still taking that quiet march in the same direction, though we are now much closer to that destination.

      Like a tape-loop message, I keep repeating, that we are marching quietly towards full blown fascism. It won't be recognised by the jackboots on the streets, nor by people being locked up for not living to the laid down norms. No, the state has moved on from from those days, though that method will still be held in reserve to be used if needed. It will be much more subtle than that, just slowly bit by bit, the state introducing ever stronger legislation to control every aspect of your life. The establishment making more and more arbitrary decision over our heads. They have already neutered the spontaneity of the trade unions by legislation, and tied protesters in legal loops. There other things that pass almost unnoticed, but show state power acting out what can only be called dictatorial acts, unchallenged. The ever creeping CCTV surveillance, advanced facial recognition, trolling through your phone and internet activity. The interweaving of state and corporate bodies in the interest of “growth” and to the detriment of the people. The introduction of the “minimum wage” gave the employers a low legal standard to adhere to and moved the struggle for improvement away from the employer to the state. Wars are and will continue to be waged, despite the will of the people saying otherwise, remember Iraq, millions on the streets in protest, but the war went ahead. Hardly the hallmark of democracy.
      Surreptitiously and brutally, the all knowing, all powerful, all for your own good, state, reaches in and controls every aspect of your life, for no other purpose than to safeguard its own power and privileges, and it can do it at will, through its various agents, backed up by its own biased judiciary. Who do you believe has the right, the benevolent character, and the humanity to take control of your life? No doubt your answer will be nobody, then why do we tolerate the faceless ones, behind closed doors in their marble corridors of power, to control all avenues of our life?

And another quote from one of the masters of fascism:

       It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of their mission and welds them into unity.

Benito Mussolini

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Walls And Messages.

       I tend to go on about a presence on the street and in our communities by means of the paper, leaflet, sticker and poster. However there is another method of keeping you message on the street, and it doesn't cost a printer, ink cartridges and paper. I am of course talking about graffiti. It seems, like the paper on the street, to have gone out of fashion. Done in the right places it can last much longer than the paper, though it doesn't find its way into people's houses, but it can make its way into their minds. For some of us, a wee walk down memory lane.

       From British Culture Archive:

Anarchists & Underdogs 

Images of Social & Political Graffiti in the UK.

       Long before the days of social media and online petitions graffiti has been used as an expressive display against the corporate and political powers that be. When I say graffiti, I don’t mean the multi-coloured three dimensional ‘tagging’ and artwork that you see aside canal towpaths and scrapyards, I’m talking about early graffiti, hand written messages and slogans written by anarchists and underdogs across the county.

      I picked up a couple of books on this subject ‘The writing on the wall’ by Roger Perry and ‘Graffiti’ by Richard Freeman. These books show a number of early images of graffiti dating from the 1960s through to the 1970s, a long time before the Bronx and subway inspired art reached our shores. Amongst a number of nonsensical written messages and slogans, there are pictures of graffiti which addresses racism, capitalism, greed and inequality, all daubed across the walls and bridges of our inner cities and suburbs.

These images got me intrigued and made me want to dig deeper and seek out more images of this nature. A high number of the images I came across were taken during the turbulent Thatcher years, where tensions were high and the disenfranchised expressed their anger and feelings towards the Tory government and authorities of the era.

There is something about the images below, a bold statement that makes you think deeper about the message being put across and what became of the people who wrote them.

Gallery

‘Black is Beautiful’ Moss Side, Manchester, 1969. Photo © Michael Ward

‘No Nazis in Bradford’, 1970s. Photo © Don McCullin

‘Eat The Rich’ Notting Hill, 1977. Photo © Roger Perry

Dalston, 1978. Photo © Alan Denney.

‘I Fought The Law’ Ladbroke Grove, London, 1977. Photo © Roger Perry

Notting Hill Gate, 1974. Photo © Roger Perry

‘Dada Is Everywhere’ Malden Road, Kentish Town, 1974. Photo © Roger Perry

‘Strike A Body Blow to Capitalism’ Kings Cross, London, late 1970s. Photo © Roger Perry

‘All Submission To Authority Humiliates All Exercise Of Authority Perverts’ Clapton, North East London. Photo © Roger Perry

‘Words Do Not Mean Anything Today’ Chalk Farm, Camden, 1975. Photo © Roger Perry.

Elgin Avenue, London, 1970s Photo © Roger Perry.

‘I Can’t Breathe’ London 1960s Photo © Richard Freeman

‘Anarchy Lives’ East London, 1976. Photo © Judy Greenway.

‘We Want Decent Housing’ Hackney, 1970s. Photo © Unknown.

‘4,000,000 Unemployed, Thatcher Is Guilty’ Brixton, 1984. Photo © Mark McNestry

‘Don’t Cry For Me Maggie Thatcher’ Isle Of Dogs, 1980s. Photo © Unknown.

‘Wake Up Maggie’ Merseyside, 1980s. Photo © Unknown.

Thatcher Is An Android, 1980s. Photo © Unknown.

‘Scargill Rules’ Taken during the 1984-1985 Miner Strike, Easington Colliery, 1984. Photo © Unknown.

‘Why Vote? Anarchy’ Toxteth, 1960s. Photo © Unknown.

‘High Poll Tax’ Bury, 1991.

‘Free Kuwait with Tiger Tokens’ Hulme, early 90s. Photo © Richard Davis.

‘Snort Cocaine For Kicks/Fight Racist Scum’ Hulme, 1985. Photo © Unknown

‘Pigs get the f*ck outta here’ Hulme 1980s Photo © Richard Davis.

‘Ouch!! I’ve Been Hit By The Poll Tax’ Hackney, 1990. Photo © David Corio

It’s Grim Up North, M1 Motorway, circa early 1990s. Photo via KLF online.

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Imprisoned Within The Illusions Of Freedom.

        There is a tendency to refer to people in this society being free or in prison, as if there was a clear demarcation between the two. It is all a matter of degree, in this so called free democratic society. Our society comprises of two types of prisons. The vast majority are confined to the open prison, with its illusions of freedom. However, you are still confined within the framework of controls, managed by CCTV cameras that record your every move and build a record of where you’ve been who you met and when. Then there is the confines of the wage slavery, binding you to a particular routine to earn the right to live a precarious half decent life. Your quality of live is inextricably link to your market value on any particular day. You are obliged to be subservient to the established order of inequality, laid down by the wealthy and powerful powers that be. Otherwise you could be transferred to the other prison, the closed prison. This is the one for those who cannot accept the stifling demeaning restrictions of the open prison, those who dare to challenge the system and its inequality and exploitation. In this prison surveillance is total, complete with bars, locked cages, guards, restricted movement and deprived of family and friends. It is where you end up if you can’t or won’t play by the rules laid down for the smooth running of this unjust and exploitative system. In the open prison your potential is limited to your market value, in the closed prison you potential is demeaned and destroyed by deliberate policies to turn you into a subservient citizen, so that you can be returned to the open prison to be a marketable asset to the system.
        If we talk of tearing down the walls of prisons to create a free society, we will not only have to address the walls of the closed prison, but the walls of the open prison as part and parcel of the same struggle for freedom for all. The walls that prevent equality across the whole of society, the walls that prevent the freedom of unmonitored movement, the financial walls that prevent the full development of the potential of all in society, and governs and stifles the quality of each of our lives. Tearing down one prison’s walls without addressing the other, still leaves us imprisoned within the confines of an unequal and exploitative system.
        Let us in unison start to tear down walls and re-imagine justice.
And again, one of my favourite quotes:

"Ah Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits -- and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!"

A quotation from Omar Khayyam's, Rubaiyat.

Let us with fate conspire.

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A Prophet Or A Deamer?

     Probably in contrast to my previous piece.

PROPHET OR DREAMER?

Am I a dreamer?
Ever dazzled by unrisen dawns,
always hearing the song of liberty
though freedom's flag is torn.

I walk towards a world
no borders, kings or slaves;
history claims the warrior's hand
peace the crown of bays.

I see the hungry feasting
midst the brotherhood of man;
all the children singing
the fear of famine gone.

I find the common man
hold his brother dear
create a world of social justice,
Elysian fields their sphere.

Freedom's flag is torn,
quiet is liberty's song,
unrisen suns still to dawn;
prophet, or dreamer born?

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Hope Or Now??

      Some years ago I read "The Coming Insurrection" by The Invisible Committee, and found it extremely interesting and informative, an excellent read. Since then I have plucked quotes from them every so often. I am now reading "Now" another of their renderings and again I find it fascinating. It is available as a free download from Libcom Library.
       The following is an extract from the first chapter, "Tomorrow Is Cancelled", I wonder if it resonates with you as it does with me? 

 

 

--------Hope. Now there's at least one disease this civilization has not infected us with. We're not despairing for all that. No one has ever acted out of hope. Hope is of a piece with waiting, with the refusal to see what is there, with the fear of breaking into the present-in short, with the fear of living. To hope is to declare one­self in advance to be without any hold on that from which something is expected nonetheless. It's to remove oneself from the process so as to avoid any connection with its outcome. It's wanting things to be different without embracing the means for this to come about. It's a kind of cowardice. One has to know what to commit to and then commit to it. Even if it means making enemies. Or making friends. Once we know what we want, we're no longer alone, the world repopulates. Everywhere there are allies, closenesses, and an infinite gradation of possible friendships. Nothing is close for someone who floats. Hope, that very slight but constant impetus toward tomorrow that is communicated to us day by day, is the best agent of the maintenance of order. We're daily informed of problems we can do nothing about, but to which there will surely be solutions tomor­row. The whole oppressive feeling of powerlessness that this social organization cultivates in everyone is only an immense pedagogy of waiting. It's an avoidance of now. But there isn't, there's never been, and there never will be anything but now. And even if the past can act upon the now, this is because it has itself never been anything but a now. Just as our tomorrow will be. The only way to understand something in the past is to under­stand that it too used to be a now. It's to feel the faint breath of the air in which the human beings of yesterday lived their lives. If we are so much inclined to flee from now, it's because now is the time of decision. It's the locus of the "I accept" or the "I refuse," of ''I'll pass on that" or ''I'll go with that." It's the locus of the logical act that imme­diately follows the perception. It is the present, and hence the locus of presence. It is the moment, endlessly renewed, of the taking of sides. Thinking in distant terms is always more comfortable. "In the end," things will change; "in the end," beings will be transfigured. Meanwhile, let's go on this way, let's remain what we are. A mind that thinks in terms of the future is incapable of acting in the present. It doesn't seek transformation; it avoids it. The current disaster is like a monstrous accumu­lation of all the deferrals of the past, to which are added those of each day and each moment, in a continuous time slide. But life is always decided now, and now, and now.------

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Hooray, We Have Big Bombs!!

       What is it that people see when there is a military parade? What is it that they are cheering? Why such joy at the sight of trained killers and weapons of mass destruction? Can't they see the blood stained rubble, the maimed kids and body parts, the fear, anguish and pain of a population? A population that has no other desired than to get on with their lives, struggling to care for their family and friends, just like you and I. All states do it, glorify their military and try to sell war as some sort of heroic stance against evil, what ever evil is. They always keep war as some sort of moral answer to their problems, concealing the facts that, as well as being the largest environmental polluter on Earth, it is also one of the largest money making businesses, for the few, on the planet. There is something sick at the heart of a society that revels in its ability to inflict mass killings on civilian populations.

        This is a wee bit late, almost a week after the event, but still well worth the read.

This from Common Dreams:

        President Trump’s order to the Pentagon to have an aerial parade of military aircraft over Washington, DC on July 4 provided a history lesson of America’s war mongering in the past two decades, and a terrifying view of what might appear in the skies of Iran if John Bolton gets his way.
      "With the U.S. political and media dogs of war howling again for blood in Iran, Trump’s decision to showcase America’s aerial firepower must have been cheered by the war hawks in the administration and Congress, and their friends in the weapons industry."
      The combat aircraft that were cheered by Trump’s supporters as they flew low over the monuments in the nation’s capital have not been cheered by people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Palestine as the same type of planes fly over their homes—terrifying and killing their children and wreaking havoc on their lives.
      Over those countries, Air Force B-2 Spirit, Air Force F-22 Raptor, Navy F-35C Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-18 Hornet stealth fighters and bombers fly so high they are not seen or heard—until the massive explosions from their 500- to 2,000-pound bombs hit and obliterate everything and everyone in their radius. The blast radius of a 2,000-pound bomb is 82 feet, but the lethal fragmentation reaches 1,200 feet. In 2017, the Trump administration dropped the most massive non-nuclear bomb in its inventory—the 21,000 pound “mother of all bombs”—on a cave tunnel complex in Afghanistan.
     While most Americans have probably forgotten we are still at war in Afghanistan, the Trump administration “eased” the rules of engagement, allowing the military to drop more bombs in 2018 than in any other year since the war began in 2001. The 7,632 bombs dropped by American aircraft in 2018 made U.S. weapons makers rich, but hit 1,015 Afghan civilians.
      The Boeing-made combat attack Apache helicopters, a crowd pleaser on July 4, have been used by the U.S. Army to blow up homes and cars filled with civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Israeli military uses them to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the Saudi military has killed children in Yemen with these death machines.
      Billions of dollars worth of U.S. planes and bombs sold to Saudi Arabia raked in record profits for weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. But they pummeled Yemeni civilians since the air war started in 2015, killing people in marketplaces, weddings, funerals, and 40 children on a summer outing in a school bus. Radhya al-Mutawakel, chairwoman of the Yemeni human rights organization Mwatana, says the U.S. has legal and moral responsibility for selling weapons to the Saudi-led coalition. “Yemeni civilians are dying every day because of this war and you (America) are fueling this war,” al-Mutawakel said. “It is a shame that financial interests are worth more than the blood of innocent people.”
      One notorious vehicle of death that was not flown above Washington was America’s assassin drone. Perhaps it was too dangerous for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to be flown close to the President of the United States and a crowd of American citizens with its history of numerous inexplicable crashes and intelligence failures that have caused the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Iraq.
       John Bolton, who has the ear of the president every day, wrote in an op-ed in 2015 saying that in order to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, the U.S. should bomb Iran. Now that he has goaded Iran into stepping up its enrichment of uranium as a result of the U.S. reneging on the nuclear deal and European signatories bailing out on their responsibilities in the agreement, Bolton is itching to start the bombing. So are Bibi Netanyahu and Mohammad Bin Salman. Both Israel and Saudi Arabia have been trying for years to drag the U.S. into a war with Iran. Colleagues in the humanitarian and refugee arenas in the Middle East tell us a war is coming and are preparing for its nightmarish consequences throughout the region.
       With the U.S. political and media dogs of war howling again for blood in Iran, Trump’s decision to showcase America’s aerial firepower must have been cheered by the war hawks in the administration and Congress, and their friends in the weapons industry. But to those of us who want peaceful resolutions to international disputes, the Fourth of July display was a chilling reminder of the horrific deaths caused by successive Administrations’ propensity for war and the terror that might soon be raining down on the people of Iran if John Bolton gets his way.

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Queer Liberation — Not Rainbow Capitalism

        I'm in agreement with the London Anarchist Federation critique of this years Pride in London parade. It is so easy to go for the big event that requires money and then you draw in the backbone of the exploitative system that stands for anything but equality and freedom.

Queer Liberation — Not Rainbow Capitalism

An anarchist critique of Pride in London

       This year, Pride in London is doing its best to commemorate fifty years in LGBT+ struggle, from the Stonewall riot to now. It is a significant milestone. We must remember those who took part in the riot, such as Stormé DeLarverie, Marsha P Johnson, and Sylvia Rivera, and the ways that their actions as gay and trans activists helped to kickstart the gay liberation movement from the late 1960’s. But if these activists were to show up at Pride in London today, would they be happy with what they find? Would they even be allowed to march?
       It would be shortsighted to stop where we are today and think that Marsha or any of the others who were there on June 28th would be happy with where we are today. We do not yet exist in a society where being gay, bi or asexual is completely accepted. And we definitely don’t exist in a society where being trans is completely accepted or even partially understood.
       And, in case you haven’t noticed, we are still living under a capitalist system that sucks the profit out of anything it can get its hands on, including progressive societal movements. Simply maintaining the status quo is exactly what those in power are trying to do, which means pain and struggle for those caught in the margins.
       Pride in London is no longer an act of resistance in the way that Stonewall was. Stonewall was a riot against the police; Pride in London marches with them. Stonewall encouraged everyone to participate; Pride in London hosts TERFs and requires payment in order to be in the march. Simply looking at their website shows us that this march is not something revolutionary, but simply another route to monetary gain. The revolution will not be televised, but it also cannot be sponsored. Barclays, Amazon Music, and Tesco are sponsoring this year, just to name a few rainbow capitalists. As Peter Tatchell says of these corporations:
       “They’ve got the money, so they have huge extravagant floats that outshine and overwhelm the LGBT+ community groups…Many of the companies have degayed their floats. They don’t mention LGBT+, just Pride.”
       It isn’t new to see companies trying to cash in on societal movements. But if we continue to allow marches like Pride in London to be co-opted by corporations and greed, Queer Liberation will become less of a battle cry and more of a Che Guevara t-shirt.
       We stand in solidarity with groups like Reclaim Pride in New York, and Transgenialer CSD in Berlin. Pride needs to be a people’s movement, not a capitalist’s parade. The Anarchist Federation condemns the way Pride in London has betrayed what pride really means: liberation. We stand in solidarity with our trans family who continue to suffer like Marsha did, and for all those affected by anti-LBGT+ violence. Queer Liberation, not rainbow capitalism! No pride in capitalism!

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Call For Action.

From Act For Freedom Now:

Biarritz,(BasqueCountry):

INTERTERRITORIAL DIRECT ACTION WEEK,

 8 – 14 JULY AGAINST G7

CALL FOR AN INTERTERRITORIAL DIRECT ACTION WEEK AGAINST G7

       It had been called an Interterritorial Direct Action Week from the 8th of july to the 14th against the G7 summit that it would take place in Biarritz (Basque Country). It’s a call to extend the fight that from some months ago has started to organize against this G7 summit from the Basque Country to other places, to respond through the direct action against it and the system that it represents.

We’ll meet in Biarritz.

Autoorganization and fight!

via : g7ezinon.info/en

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Why Vote, It Only Encourages Them.

      When it comes to what I call the "Crooks and Liars Competition", electing your new master, anarchists usually abstain, some might make their way to the ballot box and destroy the ballot paper. However you have to hand it to our Greek comrades, they do things a little bit different in that neck of the capitalist swamp. I like the way the article refers to the "perpetrators" as "self-styled anarchists"!!  Does that mean that their anarchism was not imposed on them?

Protecting your freedom to select a new master.

This from Greek Reporter:

     A group of ten self-styled anarchists stormed a polling station in Exarcheia, the infamous neighborhood of Athens, stole a ballot box and set it on fire a few minutes before the voting ended for the general elections.

       The perpetrators used a sledgehammer to threaten electoral clerks before grabbing the ballot box and making off with it. According to Greek electoral law, the voting at the polling station will be repeated next Sunday.

 

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