This is an English-language translation of the following text by comrades Lambros and Panagiotis Vougiouklakis and Fotis Daskalas on Athens Indymedia.
Human dignity is a term we meet in the dictionary, and it defines the choice of a person to act based on solidarity, punctuality, consciousness and the uncompromising struggle against the enemies of freedom.
The history of all hitherto societies is the history of struggles for dignity, a social – class war. Free man or slave, patrician or plebeian, invader or resistance fighter, in one word: oppressor or oppressed, are in constant opposition to one another. A continuous struggle which is expressed either covertly, or openly.
The ruling classes of each age use justice and the legal system to neutralise those who, with their struggle, question the status quo of those above, those who choose to react to the unjust. Justice is but the expression of a power balance, and that is why it was always used to force revolutionaries into silence, to imprison the rebellious, to compel insurgents to renunciation.
Bourgeois justice is the natural result of a society of people who want to deceive as much as possible, since deception is the only path towards power and wealth.
The greediness of the authoritarians leads them to horrible acts, to poverty, imperialist wars, genocides, funds, wretchedness and misery, patriarchal violence and sexism. The daily struggle for housing, electricity, heating, food. The culture of production and the terrorism of the bosses.
History, however, has shown us that the side of the oppressed has massive struggles and sacrifices to brandish. There were always people who stood as a shield against brutality. From workers and feminist struggles in everyday life, to revolts, revolutions, resistance to invasions.
There were always people who sacrificed themselves for the justice of the cause, paying a great price for that choice of theirs. Imprisonments, executions, deportations, exiles. The aim of all of these is simple, the physical and moral extermination of the militants and the use of their cases as an example. The prisoner is considered a hostage in the hands of the state, which aims for the gradual destruction of their will, their personality, their political identity and their emotions through isolation.
Why this text now? On 29/1/24, we were called by the state security to a preliminary interview at GADA for a case of an arson attack at the ministry of information systems in Moschato, which took place on 10/10/21. We were still suspects then, and we were called to give explanations to the cops around the case. A year later, we are now called as defendants in this case, with the court on 24/6/25, with charges of the possession and use of explosive mechanisms, arson and causing an explosion.
Naturally, the obsession of the cops and judicial authorities against us does not surprise us. The state attempts to terrorise us and our comrades with these practices, forgetting that, contrary to them, we have chosen dignity as our fellow traveller in life.
As anarchists, we choose to listen to the instinct for life. We choose to stand on the side that struggles for a world that is free, without exploitation over humans and nature.
That is why we are being prosecuted again.
Lambros Vougiouklakis
Panagiotis Vougiouklakis
Fotis Daskalas