Exarcheia – Page 5 – Dark Nights

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for attack on luxury altenative tourist appartments ‘Graffiti Boutique’ in Exarcheia

Posted on 2022/02/27 by darknights

A new condition is shaping everyday life in the neighbourhoods of the city centre. The pre-election “promises” of Mayor Bakoyannis* for the complete transformation of the centre of the Athenian metropolis into a tourist zone are being put into practice with the fencing of the last squares and their conversion into metro stations.

The displacement of oppressed populations from the neighbourhood of Exarchia, the foundations of which have been laid under the Syriza government, through the evacuation of migrant squats, continues in terms of class warfare through the appropriation of the neighbourhood.

The unaffordable rents, the posh shops with expensive goods and services, the cameras on every corner and face controls at the entrance of shops make it impossible for the social base to stay.

Housing becomes a commodity and capital is called upon to exploit it to the fullest. Houses and former squats are being converted into airbnb and luxury housing, which local and international capital is throwing into the real estate market at the expense of the needs and burdening the lives of those below. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for attack on luxury altenative tourist appartments ‘Graffiti Boutique’ in Exarcheia” →

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the arson attack on a company vehicle of UNISON Facilities Management in Exarcheia

Posted on 2022/02/25 - 2022/02/25 by darknights

Regenaration, development, gentrification. Concepts that have become embedded as spikes in the discourse and action of the antagonist movement, must be seen as another aspect of the attack of the ruling classes against the oppressed class. Capital aims at subordinating the whole of life to its exploitation and reproduction, and therefore organizes more and more aspects of human activity in this logic.

The process of enclosing community/public spaces for the purpose of capital’s reproduction is a process as old as capitalism. In recent decades we have experienced the long deconstruction of social democratic management, with the mediation of the state receding, giving more room for the defensive subordination of activities of social life to capital. In this sense, a concerted attack has been launched in recent years on public spaces, squares, parks in the metropolises, transferring their management from the state to private individuals, with the aim of creating new fields of profitability for capital.

This is exactly the condition of the sale of a series of public green spaces by the Municipality of Athens to the company UNISON Facilities Services, such as the hills (Strefi, Filopappou, Lycabettus, Turkovounia), squares (Protomaya, Victoria, Kypseli, Attiki, Ameriki, Drakopoulos, Agios Panteleimon), parks (Platonos Academia, Kyrpo, Patision, Goudi) and pedestrian streets (Agia Zoni, Fokionos Negri). UNISON (formerly ISS), belongs to a category of a new type of company that, through contractor privatisations, is simultaneously financed by state-taxed, collectively produced surplus value, and at the same time intensifies the exploitation of its workers through miserable wages, flexible working hours and violation of workers’ rights. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the arson attack on a company vehicle of UNISON Facilities Management in Exarcheia” →

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the burning of the Exarcheia Police Station on 4.2.22

Posted on 2022/02/12 - 2022/02/12 by darknights

We take responsibility for the burning of the Exarcheia Police Station on 4.2.22. The attack was carried out by a group of comrades who, armed with the weapons of comradeship and organization, defied police state and succeeded in destroying the myth of omnipotence that the police systematically cultivates in this area. We attacked with more than 10 Molotov cocktails at the outpost and the entrance of the police station, driving the cops outside into disorderly flight.

A few words about the incident

The tragic management of the pandemic, the sweeping changes it has brought about and the developments of the period are revealing of what it has brought about to the social base. Inflation, poverty, energy poverty, the daily deaths from COVID-19 which reach 24,000 are the results of capitalist management in order to recover the profitability of capital.

At the same time, the indirect reduction of wages against the government narrative, the ever greater devaluation of the Ε.Σ.Υ. (National Health Service) are increasingly impoverishing the social base. On the other hand, the cynicism of the rulers is reflected in their statements showing how indifferent they are to the lives of the impoverished.

The recent statements of Mitsotakis: “we may have had 16,000 dead but we saved tourism”, the admission of Plevris: “we have no communism and everything that is commanded is paid for” and the reference of Skertzos that it is a luxury to support the Ε.Σ.Υ. , leave no room for doubt.

At the same time, Development Minister Adonis Georgiades announced the end of the pandemic, at the same time that patients continue to die in beds and the medical and nursing staff, being understaffed, is collapsing from the workload. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the burning of the Exarcheia Police Station on 4.2.22” →

Exarcheia: THIS IS NOT A MUSEUM, THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE!

Posted on 2022/01/21 by darknights

As you may have already understood, on the buses, in the streets, in the shops, cameras are watching and recording our every step. The social media industry has made us accustomed to the presence of cameras at events, in marches and in our daily lives (in workplaces, schools, etc.), so that our resistance to them is diminishing. It seems as if there is no other way and this leaves us no room to breathe.

The state is installing cameras to protect its infrastructure, to record demonstrations and to monitor its citizens. On the other hand, the petty bourgeoisie use them to protect their sacred property while their visual material is always available to the cops and is used as incriminating evidence in court cases. Under the pretext that this system of surveillance and control will create greater security, it shields the system of domination.

Cameras have never prevented any “crime”, nor have they ever “protected” anyone. The goal of surveillance is to create a sense of constant monitoring of our every step, every social media post is recorded and creates profiles with data that can be used against us.

Then we start to think twice, where we go, what we say, who we talk to and what we do. This superstitious obedience is part of repression and self-censorship. When we are not anonymous we do not act and speak as we would like, but according to what is socially acceptable.

Gentrification is also related to the expansion of surveillance. Continue reading “Exarcheia: THIS IS NOT A MUSEUM, THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE!” →

Athens, Greece: A brief review of the events of the last days in Exarcheia

Posted on 2022/01/19 - 2022/01/19 by darknights

We raise this update as we have noticed that in the mainstream media and the wider media, the events of the last few days, as well as the solidarity march for the Biologio steki, completely silence the fact that Exarcheia was, is and will be a neighbourhood that fights against gentrification and repression. We want to make it clear that these events are mass actions spontaneously flanked by people and prove that no matter how much Mitsotakis and his whole family want to, Exarcheia will not submit to their vices.

Wednesday 12/01/22

Since this morning, bulldozers and contractor crews arrive in Messolonghiou and proceed to excavate the pavement in order to electrify the new building where a luxury apartment block is being erected. After the work is temporarily halted due to complaints from residents, police forces arrive at the site. In the evening of the same day, a banner is displayed against the gentrification of Exarchia and people cover the holes that the bulldozers have made in the pedestrian street with earth. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: A brief review of the events of the last days in Exarcheia” →

Athens, Greece: Tearing up Messolonghiou for luxury apartments + Gathering & Intervention against the destruction of Messolonghiou

Posted on 2022/01/19 - 2022/01/19 by darknights

This morning a bulldozer was tearing up the pedestrian street of Messolonghiou for the electrification of a building of luxury apartments.

Some people from the neighborhood approached the workers and asked them the reason for the works. The contractor said it was ΔΕΗ (electric company) works to supply electricity to the building intended for luxury apartments. When asked for the contractor’s documents, he refused them as he also denied the connection of the works with the building, while at the same time they were going in and out of the building.

The individuals managed to stop the works and the contractor left, but Messolonghi remains a wreck. 15 minutes later 6 DRASI and DELTA motorcycles arrived at the site and searched for the people.

Exarcheia is a neighbourhood under threat of gentrification. Residents are being displaced, squats are being vacated, rents are going up. This building in Messolonghiou, intended for luxury housing for the rich and tourists, is another example of the march of capital. Every day we see the neighbourhood being changed and transformed into a playground for big investors. At the same time the square and the turnpike are under constant threat. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Tearing up Messolonghiou for luxury apartments + Gathering & Intervention against the destruction of Messolonghiou” →

Thessaloniki, Greece: Responsibility claim for the arson attack on a drug dealer’s house

Posted on 2021/10/17 by darknights

The most important aspect of the revolutionary war against the tyranny of the state and capitalism is the recovery of moral values, the barrier to universal decline and the redefinition of the word dignity. The head is mechanically lifted from the neck, but it is the soul, faith and determination that are the tools that stand up to the enemy. We are two worlds violently and universally reckoned. And if we are inferior in strength we are always superior in quality. For our stature begins with our eyes and reaches to the full-lit stars.

In the real dimension of the revolutionary struggle, words without deeds are prayers without perspective. And the world is not changed by wishful thinking. The real rupture is in the actual field of military conflict with every mechanism of subjugation, the state and capitalism. Moving from subversive theory to practical aggressive propaganda, we translate into practice the words of the militant formation of the Organization Anarchist Action, taking responsibility for the arson attack on the house of a well-known and unexceptional drug lord at 147 Kassandrou Street in the centre of Thessaloniki in the early morning of October 13, the day when the trial-parody of comrades N. Matarraga and G. Kalaitzidis on the pretextual charge of physical and moral instigation in the execution of the drug lord Habibi in Exarchia.

In our crosshairs is another police collaborator who is trading death and decadence at the expense of the social base. The immunity enjoyed by this particular scumbag is eye-opening as his house and the showcase shops he occasionally maintains to launder money from the black coffers by arranging his business and merchandise, are located in a well-policed zone (of military-political-diplomatic interest) around the Turkish Consulate where one can meet from simple security guards to ranking agents and diplomatic attachés. It is this immunity that we want to challenge, this security and complicity that we are challenging in practice through an arson attack in the heart of the police compound.

But this particular narco-mafia, like his whole gang, is not content with simply spreading decadence in proletarian communities and subcultural neighbourhoods. He is guilty of a series of abusive behaviours and sexist attacks against workers and non-workers who happen to be in the environment where he moves. Trash like this particular mobster should be deep in the earth facing only dirt only to be met and punished again by those who lose their lives thanks to their dirty wares. But to also meet their friends like Habibi who lost his showdown with revolutionary law. Continue reading “Thessaloniki, Greece: Responsibility claim for the arson attack on a drug dealer’s house” →