Athens Polytechnic

Athens, Greece: Text by Anarchist Pola Roupa: November 17, 2023. 50 years from the Polytechnic and my release from prison

Posted on 2023/11/22 by darknights

Pola Roupa: November 17, 2023. 50 years from the Polytechnic and my release from prison

“After 7 years of consecutive imprisonment (from the arrest of 5th January, 2017), 8.5 years together with pre-trial detention (arrested on 10/4/2010) and 13 years and 6 months in total, sentence I served for my participation in Revolutionary Struggle, I have been released. The symbolism of the day was strong as this year’s November 17th marks the 50th anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising of 1973. On that day, everyone remembers the dead of the Polytechnic but also all those who have fallen in the struggle for freedom.

For me, this day was dominated by the memory of our comrade killed in the activity of Revolutionary Struggle, Lambros Fountas. But in my thoughts is also the comrade Nikos Maziotis who, despite the fact that he has served 11 years’ “closed” prison and 14 years in a mixed prison – a very long period for a 20-year sentence -, the judicial councils of Lamia are refusing to release him. It is now clear that a unique status of exception has been imposed on Nikos Maziotis, as no prisoner in a similar situation (with charges based on 187A) and with a similar sentence (i.e. not a life sentence) has remained in prison for such a long period of time. This exceptional regime based on political criteria and motives and which in practice nullifies the institution of parole – which according to the law is mandatory and not “gratuitous”, given that it is not left to the personal will of the respective judge – this exemption regime must come to an end. In addition to the flagrant violation of his rights, this special regime of exception is reminiscent of a junta-style treatment of a political prisoner.

After spending many years in prison, it would be a lie to say that I am not thinking about the many dozens of female prisoners I have lived together with. On the occasion of the – by mistake I believe – publication that they “discovered” that I was released from prison because I am the mother of an underage child, I have to say that in addition to the fact that I have already served the years of detention required for parole, there is no provision by any penal code for discharge of a prisoner on parole because she is the mother of a minor child. Only article 105 of the Criminal Code of 2019 provides for house arrest for mothers with children under the age of 8, a measure that is not particularly applied.

Having lived with women for many years, I know that most of them have a central role in caring for people such as young children, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, and their prolonged detention has a terrible impact on the lives of those who have remained alone, without their help. Conditional release for mothers of minors and for women who take care of categories of people such as those I mentioned above, is a provision whose absence from the criminal code demonstrates that the legislators do not take into account the pivotal position of women-carers in social life. It is a lack that often costs human lives.”

19/11/2023

Source: epanastaticosagonas

Via & Translated by Act for freedom now!

Athens, Greece: For the attack and the damage to Pharaoh in Solomou, Exarchia by Comrades, Anarchists

Posted on 2023/06/27 by darknights

As the struggle between the classes becomes wilder and the ideologies of development pave the way for the plundering of human and natural resources, turning the seas, the trees, the air we breathe into fields of profit at any cost, the upper classes become stronger and increase their wealth. As long as the lives of those from below are nothing but numbers to be managed and percentages of losses, such as the hundreds of dead displaced off Pylos, the passengers and workers on the trains of Tempi and the murdered workers in the sweatshops of the big bosses, capital is contentedly entrenching itself and preparing for new rounds of accumulation, deepening the terms of the devaluation of our lives.

The proclamation of the centre of Athens and especially of Exarchia, as a new field of profitability to which small and big businessmen are turning, is well known. Tourism and consumption have turned every hole into an opportunity. Numerous apartments are being converted into Airbnb, pushing up the remaining rents even higher, displacing poorer residents. Every public and open space, from the Strefi and Exarchia Square, to the May Day Square and the Museum, has been fenced off and included in plans to redevelop it and turn it into a supervised space for tourists and consumers. The police terrorism, the evacuation of squats and political spaces, the bullying and harassment of passers-by and residents by the ELAS men, the sealing of the Polytechnic, the increasing placement of cameras, are central repressive moves and reveal the political sign of this aggressive epicism.

In other words, for the business of white and black capital to flourish in our regions, the resistance that has taken root over the years must be silenced. The blockades of those from above that have been happening over time in the region, with the intolerable presence of politicians, exploiters and bigwigs of all kinds, must stop. To stop the precepts of solidarity among the oppressed, self-organization and opposition to the skinners of our lives and dreams.

But what they all forget is that these neighborhoods are still ours. That their well-polished storefronts can come crashing down on their heads with a bang, no matter how well they are guarded by their all manner of cops. Our small contribution to this reminder was our recent trip to Pharaoh’s on Solomou. On Friday 9 June, in broad daylight and under the nose of the anchored forces of repression at arm’s length, we interfered with the restaurant, damaging its interior and destroying their cellar of very expensive wines.

This shop, borrowing its concept from various other examples in western metropolises, jumped on the chariot of gentrification, selling alternativeism in an expensive wrapper. Pharaoh’s four entrepreneurs, Maidan columnists, TV chefs, troubadour foodies and others, gave rise to the arrival of socialites of all kinds in the area. Amidst the homeless and pissed-up sidewalks, with their expensive cars often guarded by their inflatable escorts, mob bosses, businessmen, and half the government’s cabinet have dined at this establishment. We should note here, of course, that Mitsotakis’ recent visit to this place was not as carefree as he expected, thanks to some angry residents. The clientele of this shop, therefore, validates by their presence the predestined targeting of the rotten world they represent. The opening of the field of profitability of local and foreign capital around the axis of Patision and the repression of anyone who resists it.

The war they have declared against us is sharpening and so must our struggles. Through dynamic responses and persistence, we can impose significant costs on all these would-be entrepreneurs, raising mounds to the touristization of everything and the conversion of our neighborhoods into commodities.

So that ministers, prime ministers, mayors and greasy mafiosi have no illusions that they will dine undisturbed in our parts.

To put smaller and larger cracks in their well-polished windows.

To move from questioning to conflict.

POVERTY, EXPLOITATION AND EXCLUSION
THAT’S WHAT GENTRIFICATION MEANS

SOLIDARITY WITH REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS

Comrades, Anarchists

Source: athens.indymedia

Thessaloniki, Greece: Responsibility claim for a raid on a riot squad of MAT

Posted on 2022/10/17 by darknights

…And life became the biggest lie

There is no police brutality

There are only bloodthirsty protesters in a brutal fury

with the breakneck speed of desperation

the com-mat-asfalites1, the chemical tear gas, the shields.

the helmets, the incubating cages

the snake eggs of the fascist crawling society….

George Tsingos and the Black Circles

Watching the domestic news of the last few months, one will see that despite the social reactions that have developed, the isolation and suppression of the antagonistic movement as well as the imposition of unprecedented social control measures remains a key objective of the Greek state. The gentrification of Exarcheia includes the construction of a metro station in the square, the redevelopment-privatisation of the Strefi Hill and the blocking of access to the Polytechnic and aims to uproot the revolutionary tradition of the area. Similarly, the installation of MAT platoons and all kinds of cops inside the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki aims to sterilize the university premises from any voice of opposition to the bosses. But beyond hitting the movements, the hiring of thousands of new cops, the millions given to equip the police and their constant presence in the public arena on every occasion set the tone of the new social contract. And all this at a time when society is being impoverished anew, with precision pushing those from below to the limits of survival. In a nutshell as Petsas arrogantly informed us adaptation (to capitalist and state dictates) or death.

The effort by the current government to restructure the education system and especially the universities begins the very next day after its election with the abolition of the university asylum. Their pretext was to crack down on lawlessness and instil a sense of security. This was followed by the passing of Law 4777 in the midst of quarantine to avoid major social reactions. The response to those that were manifested was a display of fierceness and brutality. Just a few examples:

the pulling of a gun by a cop at the ΑΣΣΟΕ (Athens School of Economics)
the two evacuations of the occupied rectorate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the space of one month in 2021
the evacuation of the steki at the Biologcko
the hundreds of injuries, beatings and arrests in the last two years in student mobilizations
the firing of asphyxiant inside the ΣΘΕ (School of Sciences) in broad daylight with hundreds of students and workers trapped inside the building and suffocating
the hitting and severely injuring of a student with a flashbang grenade fired at point-blank range
the murderous attack on the crowd attending Thanasis Papakostantinou’s concert during the 3rd Libertarian Festival of Occupied Spaces and Collectives, which almost resulted in people being trampled.

Continue reading “Thessaloniki, Greece: Responsibility claim for a raid on a riot squad of MAT” →

Exarcheia, Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the attack on luxury hotels of Israeli interests

Posted on 2022/07/24 - 2022/07/24 by darknights

On Thursday 23/6/22, a group of comrades attacked and destroyed with hammers and sledgehammers the facades of three luxury hotels of Israeli interests located on Kleisovis Street in Exarcheia. In one of the hotels, paint was also thrown inside the hotel, where the dining room and wine-bar are located. Leaflets were thrown at the spot which read:

“TOURISTS GO HOME! This is class-war Zone” “Cops and big investors out of Exarcheia”

These hotels, with a cost of 100+ euros per day, like so many others that spring up every day in the area, are part of capital’s strategic planning to “gentrify” Exarchia and turn it into an investment philanthropy, where the human geography of the population will be shaped for the needs of capital.

The struggle for Exarcheia to remain a militant, multicultural neighbourhood, a symbol of resistance and rebellion, is going to be a tough one. It is a class struggle and it is about our survival both as workers and residents in the neighbourhood and the preservation of the revolutionary memory and the insurrectionary flame.

We support the struggles against the privatization of the Strefi Hill, against the construction of the metro in Exarcheia Square. We fight together with thousands for the Exarcheia of Social Self-Organization and Class Solidarity against the state repression, the violence of capital, the museumization of the Polytechnic, the drug mafias and the thugs who are an arm of capital and the state.

Comrades.

PS: We express our unconditional solidarity with the anarchist political prisoner G. Michailidis who is on 60 days of hunger strike demanding his freedom. Freedom or Death

Source: athens. indymedia

Exarcheia, Athens, Greece: Video from the Day X protest & riots to resist the occupation of Exarcheia square by cops and the building of a metro station

Posted on 2022/06/26 - 2022/06/26 by darknights

Exarchia, Saturday night, around 20:30, 26 June 2022. People are starting to gather in Exarchia Square for the march against gentrification, evictions, political denaturalization and state repression in Exarchia. In front of the astonished eyes of the assembled people 5-6 motorbikes of the police group DRASI are defiantly passing by Exarchia Square. Apart from voices denouncing this provocative move by the police and warning of the response they will get the next time they provoke, there is no aggressive move against the police.

What are the police officers going and doing on their part? They leave and come back with more reinforcements to provoke incidents, about 15-20 motorcycles. The result of this is what is recorded in the video.

During their panicked retreat and after once again suffocating the area with asphyxiating gas, they even left behind radios, according to witnesses.

The march through Exarchia moved dynamically with the participation of hundreds. Continue reading “Exarcheia, Athens, Greece: Video from the Day X protest & riots to resist the occupation of Exarcheia square by cops and the building of a metro station” →