TEXT FOR THE APARTMENT BUILDING ON ARKADIAS STREET
On 31/10/24, my comrade Kyriakos Xymitiris and I were in the apartment at 4-8 Arkadias Street. During the processing of explosive materials, an explosion occurred that took the life of my 36-year-old comrade, caused my own very serious injury, and resulted in damage to the apartment building. Since then, I have been detained in Korydallos women’s prison under horrendous conditions, having to confront the loss of the person closest to me, my own injury, and very serious accusations.
This explosion obviously was not part of any plan, nor did it happen due to carelessness. This tragic development was the consequence of defective material, something that unfortunately could not be foreseen.
The anarchist political space to which we both belong fights for a world of equality, solidarity, and self-organization. For a world where monthly survival does not cause anxiety, where interpersonal relationships are not based on competition, and where a life in dignity is not a matter of luck. And when this anarchist political space chooses to attack those who impose poverty, exclusion, and insecurity with such means, it takes all necessary measures, often putting the acting subjects themselves at risk, in order to ensure the safety of unrelated people.
Beyond protecting people’s physical integrity, our political spectrum targets those who oppress and exploit us. It sets its sights on the powerful of this world. Those who eat with golden spoons while we make do with the absolute necessities, those who live off rents while we beg that there not be yet another increase, those who reap profit while we work twelve-hour a day. Those who spread death through wars, misery through high prices, fear through racism, extermination through long and uninsured labor. Those who impose uncertainty, insecurity, danger even when you simply take the night train to Thessaloniki or try to cross the border for a life with dignity.
We struggle so that all of this does not remain unanswered. To win back the right to live. To put a stop to injustice, exploitation, oppression, cover-ups. Within this struggle we risk much, we are targeted, we receive violence and repression, we endanger our safety, our freedom, and sometimes even our lives. Not because we are indifferent to life, but because we care about the life of our struggle and then we feel responsible for many people. Thus, we consciously set social solidarity as a priority.
My comrade adopted this stance in life, and that is why he decided to struggle with all means. And if he was still here, he would be the first to try to help the residents of the apartment building, not because he would regret the means he chose to struggle with, but because for him, as for all of us, solidarity and mutual aid are a deeply human feeling, a driving force that pushes us to action.
“We are not terrorists, nor criminals. It is precisely because of our love for life, because we rejoice in the human spirit, that we became fighters for freedom against this racist and deadly imperialist system.”
Marianna Manoura
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