Gentrification

Athens, Greece: Incendiary attack against machinery at a metro construction site in solidarity with Thanos Chatziangelou and Alfredo Cospito

Posted on 2023/01/13 by darknights

On Monday, December 26, we set fire to 2 construction machines used at the construction site for the new metro line in May Day Square.

As soon as the time changed, we attacked the metro machines on Vikou Avenue in Galati. We realized that in the intense humidity in the air, there was a possibility of failure of the action. In any case, we decided to take the risk and the result was that 3 project machines were completely destroyed and probably some more were damaged, which was a positive thing for us.

What happened will in no way stop work on the metro, but it did result in 5 damaged machines which caused a good financial loss and sent a message of resistance. Perhaps our action caused a slight delay in the work process, but we will always prefer action to simply being a spectator to the absurd and sad reality.

It was easy to choose the target, not only for what it represents as a symbol but also for the practical use it contributes to the normalcy of cities. The subway, urban development works,bulldozers and other machinery are only an illustration of gentrification, progress, modernization, the destruction of nature and the imposition of the techno-industrial system. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Incendiary attack against machinery at a metro construction site in solidarity with Thanos Chatziangelou and Alfredo Cospito” →

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” →

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the attack at the metro station Syngrou/Fix

Posted on 2022/10/15 by darknights

In recent times we have seen the intensification of state repression which no doubt aims at the abolition of previous social and class gains. This intensification can be reflected in the violent repression of workers’ strikes, in the entry of police forces into universities, and in the expansion of the attack and repression on any form of social and class resistance (from the repeated police attacks on marches and gatherings to the recent attack on a concert in a university in Thessaloniki*). Amongst the above, another of the main peaks of this attack is taking place in Exarcheia, under the pretext of the metro stop and the redevelopment of the Strefi Hill, the state has launched an unprecedented attack in its attempt to change the political and social correlations within the neighbourhood. The constant presence of MAT riot police and the OPKE (armed SWAT style cop unit) playing the role of an occupying army in order to further territorialise the totalitarian doctrine of order and security within the neighbourhood is the most striking sign of this new strategy and the new reality that the state wants to impose.

However, what is happening in Exarcheia also has a very specific economic and class dimension, since both the metro stop and the redevelopment of the hill of Strefi are included within the more general plans of capital and the state for the reconfiguration of the urban fabric through the processes of redevelopment and gentrification, which have the sole purpose of creating new fields of profitability on the backs of the working class. The airbnb, alternative bars etc. that are popping up one after the other, in combination with the metro and the redevelopment of the Strefi and the army of occupation that is trying to suppress any form of resistance create the necessary conditions for the methodical transformation of the neighbourhood into a politically sterile alternative centre of consumption. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the attack at the metro station Syngrou/Fix” →

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for arson of a UNISON vehicle

Posted on 2022/09/28 by darknights

UNISON is an environmental killer company carrying out Bakoyannis’ orders, with the aim, using saws, of wiping out everything wild that surrounds us. Its employees follow the orders of the cops. The rich want to see the world we dream of wiped out forever.

UNISON kills the trees and bushes, cuts the grass and branches to make our parks and streets more livable. To remove the possibility of hiding from the forces of repression. To facilitate evacuations of homeless people who take refuge in the wild darkness. Place lights to eliminate the darkness. For in the darkness the wild grows. The wild and the darkness scares them – the state, the rich, the cops, the culture.

The last UNISON attack was in Cyprus Park in Patissia. They are also central to the current attacks against Strefis Hill and Drakopoulos Park. The company is also present at metro stations such as Omonia.

It was very nice to find one of their company vehicles parked on the streets of Metaxourgeio, at the corner of Paramythias and Mykalis streets. So in the early morning hours of September 27th we burned it, so they could pay a little bit of what they have taken.

Our attack is in the context of class warfare: while underpaid workers go to work on public transport, middle-class UNISON employees have company vehicles, representing their aggressive concept of a clean and safe metropolis. The location of our fire, in a neighbourhood suffering from a constant gentrification campaign that excludes the poor to establish another silly entertainment and airbnb district. And UNISON is a central part of this gentrification process across the city.

Anarchists

Source: athens.indymedia

Berlin, Germany: Arson attack on a vehicle of the Greek Embassy

Posted on 2022/09/07 - 2022/09/10 by darknights

Attentively we have followed how the Greek state crushes demonstrations in the streets of Athens. The government of Nea Dimokratia and its judiciary have proven that in the hunger strikes of D. Koufontinas and G. Michailidis, they are ready to let prisoners die rather than give in one step. We know the videos of the lynching with the participation of police officers of Zak Kostopoulos. As well as the execution of N. Sampanis in Perama by DIAS is an expression of a ruthless regime, as is the murder of Vassilis Maggos in Volos. Blood drips from the hands of the Greek authorities.

The new junta thinks it is smart to take advantage of the August vacation period to begin construction of the metro station in Exarcheia. Their goal is to destroy every social base and occupy every place of resistance with troops. The evictions of squats in Thessaloniki and the police invasion of the university there have not escaped us either.

Everywhere the Greek state encounters resistance from parts of society. We want to support this resistance in order to bring down the project of ND. The system of ND, its judiciary and its cops, is the state of rapists. The release of rapists and the simultaneous attack on a feminist demonstration in July in Athens, symbolizes the values of Mitsotakis’ government.

At the same time, the killings at Greece’s borders continue. In league with FRONTEX and mercenaries, Greek authorities are responsible for the daily deaths at the gates of the European fortress. Continue reading “Berlin, Germany: Arson attack on a vehicle of the Greek Embassy” →

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: Intervention at an airbnb

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

The analyses about the gentrification of the Exarcheia neighbourhood are now well known and part of the discourse and practice of the anti-authoritarian space. Evictions of houses, cop culture, frugal tourists that frolic undisturbed in their new playground. Squatter evictions, mega real estate companies, and so much more that we see in our neighborhood every day.

Gentrification is our violent exchange with first class citizens and visitors. For what purpose? For political deadening, for counter-insurgency, for profit. But the actions of our diverse movements will sweep them away once again.

As a minimal act of support for the struggle of Exarchia, we intervened in the airbnb on Tsamadou by throwing buckets of stinking paint into its courtyard and breaking the electric bells at the entrance. This building has been targeted many times with spray paint and so on, as it was the site of the Omokentro squat a few years ago. Also the homeless man who had been living across the street from the airbnb for a long time, suddenly disappeared from his place by magic… With a little talk with the neighborhood one understands that this man did not leave there by accident, but most likely he was evicted by the owners so as not to ‘spoil’ their image.

The targets are many and they are everywhere. Right down to the destruction of the last airbnb.

REDEVELOPMENT MEANS POOR DISPLACED PEOPLE

NO TO THE SUBWAY, REDEVELOPMENT OF THE HILLSIDE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF LUXURY HOUSING

COPS – INVESTORS OUT OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD

angry neighbours

Source: athens.indymedia

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the arson of a UNISON vehicle

Posted on 2022/07/22 by darknights

On the 55th day of the hunger strike of Giannis Michailidis, we burned a UNISON vehicle in the area of Metaxourgiou, on Constantinople Street. To support the comrade in his struggle for freedom and as an effort to give strength to the movement in the coming days and nights.

UNISON is a company that collaborates with the municipality of Athens in the privatization and exploitation of parks and streets – with the end result being the death of life in all public spaces, and the transformation of the city into a commercialized Disneyland. The struggle to defend Exarcheia also necessitates an attack on UNISON, as it is responsible for the gentrification of Strefi Hill. The company has an open mandate to facilitate the cops in the repression of public spaces and the evacuation of squats. They are also part of the class war against the poor, as they rent workers. Instead of decent wages and working conditions, the company pays peanuts and violates workers’ rights, earning goodwill for their rich bosses and shareholders.

UNISON advertises on its vehicles that it is an “exclusive partner of ISS”. ISS is a Danish security and site management company that maintains prisons and immigration detention centres in Belgium and France, offers security on public transport, as well as “security solutions”, with workers or surveillance techniques on every dirty job.

The state, in its desire to take all ground from the anarchist space and the broader antagonistic movement, by evacuating squats, attacking universities, tear-gassing neighbourhoods, will face the transformation of the city into a battlefield. If the strike doesn’t end well, we will do everything to turn the next few weeks into a nightmare for those in charge, creating situations they can’t handle. Burning cars, interventions, banners, broken windows and clashes must become the experience of this tourist season.

Let’s burn the rich and their people

Some anarchists

Source: athens.indymedia

Athens, Greece: Spasm of solidarity with G. Michailidis, attack on luxury apartments HESTIA and the company Grivas/Integrated IT Solutions

Posted on 2022/07/03 by darknights

On Sunday night 25/6, we attacked the luxury apartments HESTIA and the company Grivas/Integrated IT Solutions by breaking their windows on Alexandra Avenue.

Since 23/05 the anarchist political prisoner G. Michailidis is on hunger strike from 23.23.2005. His request is his formal release from the cells of bourgeois democracy, as he has served all the formalities set by their laws. Nevertheless, in his person the state is taking revenge for his steadfast attitude of struggle, his continuation of the struggle, his choice of escape and “illegality” far from capitulating to the regime. Thus, it keeps him in prison indefinitely, activating the dreaming of the statists, i.e. the police of thought and the possible commission of new offences.

For our part, we have nothing more to say but to declare that we are on the side of the hunger striker. This is why we attacked these two places.On the one hand, luxury housing is a target in a neighbourhood (Exarchia and Areos Pedion) that is under an all-out attack of appropriation.Our neighbourhoods are becoming unlivable. Rents are reaching a ceiling higher than the salary. Airbnbs are popping up on every corner and evicting anything that spoils their street. The bosses squeeze the workers. Thus, the neighborhood of the parts in particular becomes an investment hotbed, with private citizens, democrats and cops attempting to run the show.

On the other hand, Grivas/Integrated IT Solutions is one of many that offer their services where the money flows abundantly. And of course this is nothing but war. So, it provides solutions and investigations to NATO and by extension with the war machine of the Greek state, while cooperating in the prosecution of migrant(s) with the Greek coast guard. All this at a time when transnational antagonisms are at their peak and now openly with war on European soil. Of course, we do not ignore all these wars of low or high intensity in the periphery of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, etc., but neither do we ignore the role played by the Greek state in the war and annihilation of migrants attempting to cross the borders.

Every day it becomes clearer that we are the meat for their cannons. That we must run out of wages just for rent and electricity. That we must obey every new or old discipline for our own good. That rapists, all kinds of squealing journalists, politicians, cops, the military must have a say over our lives; that we should oppose all of the above with solidarity, self-organization and resistance to the state and capital.

Freedom to the anarchist G. Michailidis, hunger striker since 23/05

We want immigrants in all neighbourhoods and not tourists on holiday

We don’t fight for the states and the bosses, but only against them

anarchists

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” →