Hunger Strike

Exarcheia, Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for the 28/5 clashes as a sign of solidarity with the hunger striker G. Michailidis

Posted on 2022/06/30 by darknights

On Saturday 28/5 we chose to enliven the neighbourhood of Exarcheia a little more.

It was clear in our minds to give the state a clear message about how things will be from now on if the struggle of the anarchist G. Michailidis was not vindicated.

The comrade has been incarcerated since 2013 in the Greek prisons and already since 29/12/2021 he fulfils all the formal requirements for his conditional release. However, the judges of the Amfissa Magistrate’s Court rejected his application.

He decided on 23/05/2022 to start a hunger strike, forced by the obscene tactics of the state to hold him hostage on the sole basis of his political identity and the dignity with which he supports it.

The target of our attack was the much-publicised DRASI Group. One of the two main pillars of repression of society along with the riot police.

Our attack caught them completely off guard, not having the practical ability to approach us they were limited to picking up their fallen colleagues and throwing flash bangs. At our tactical retreat the DRASI felt they had the ability to fight back.

Then something happened that made us even happier. Along with us, a large crowd of people got up from the shops and benches, left for a while the classic hanging out in Messolonghio and joined us in the conflict. The aftermath was beautiful, the garbage of the DRASI Team running chased through the alleys of the Exarcheia.

Against the violence of the state we will always stand ready and willing to return a piece of it to them.

We will always respond to plots and terrorism with solidarity and comradeship.

Immediate release of the anarchist hunger striker G. Michailides

Solidarity to all political prisoners and persecuted persons

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” →

Thessaloniki, Greece: Arson attack on Eurobank ATM

Posted on 2022/06/25 - 2022/06/25 by darknights

The anarchist hunger striker Giannis Michailidis is on his 33rd day of hunger strike and is being treated in Lamia hospital with his health condition being extremely poor.

The state, exhausting its vindictiveness, is pushing the hunger striker into a life-or-death struggle, a struggle for freedom or submission. The games played by the Ministry of Propaganda and the Amfissa Judicial Council, which for the umpteenth time rejected the comrade’s request for temporary release, clearly demonstrate that their “correction” against the declared enemies of the state and capital is extermination and torture.

We, for our part, stand on the side of dignity and freedom in the face of the world of oppression, imprisonment and power. We take responsibility as a minimal sign of solidarity with the struggle of our comrade and in the context of the international day of action for the arson of a Eurobank ATM in Agios Pavlos Thessaloniki in the early hours of Friday 24/6.

LIBERATION TO ANARCHIST HUNGER STRIKER GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS

NO ONE ALONE IN THE HANDS OF THE STATE

Anarchists

Source: athens.indymedia

Athens, Greece: Anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos denounces deep parastate with far-right tendencies

Posted on 2022/06/23 - 2022/06/23 by darknights

Our anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos releases a text denouncing the parastate and fascist actions of the Greek cops inflicted upon him, his family, friends and comrades. The comrade has been under surveillance on and off since his release three years ago by the fascist scum of the Anti-Terrorist Unit, which has now hit a new level since the beginning of the hunger strike by his friend and anarchist comrade Giannis Michailidis, who has been subject to further imprisonment despite serving the required amount of time that would trigger his release.

The repression our comrade is facing should be considered and analysed within the international context of repressive tactics by states against those who dare to fight back without fear. With the current international environment, such as the war in Ukraine, the impending economical crisis threatening on the horizon, technological developments, the repressive apparatus of all states is entering a new stage to counter the struggles that are coming.

Nothing is over, the conflict continues…

Without further hesitance, we let our comrade’s words speak for themself:

The events that I am about to recount took place on Monday 20/6 in the afternoon outside my friend’s house in the centre of Athens. They concern yet another incident where police surveillance by the anti-terrorist police crosses the boundaries and red lines that exist and defines the peculiar relationship between a secret service and its potential target victims.

So let’s get to the facts. The hunger strike of our friend and comrade Giannis Michailidis, who is fighting against the arbitrariness and methods of the bourgeois justice system by putting his body in a barricade, has been going on for the last period of time. He is in a regime of preventive detention because while he has served the sentence imposed on him, the judicial councils, acting as thought police, reject his requests for release, foreseeing his future behaviour as other Pythias*. In essence, they are punishing him not for what he has done and for which, according to their laws, he has served his sentence, but for what they think he will do, based on interpretations that have nothing to do with reality.

During this period, the surveillance of the anti-terrorist police against me has become a daily occurrence, while their presence outside my family’s house has become daily and provocative, with large groups of anti-terrorist police officers defiantly rushing around in their vehicles. This event was interrupted following an engagement with these police officers on Saturday 18/6, where it was emphatically stressed to them that their defiance must end and that their continued presence there would not be accepted. Which was accepted and they ceased their defiant presence, so there is no point in me expanding on evidence that exists and will not be published unless there is a substantial reason. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos denounces deep parastate with far-right tendencies” →

Greece: Judicial Council of Amfissa rejects the request for release of the hunger striker Giannis Michailidis, who has been on hunger strike since 23/5

Posted on 2022/06/20 - 2022/06/20 by darknights

Today 20/6, the Judicial Council of Amfissa rejected the request for the release of fellow hunger striker Giannis Michailidis. The Judicial Council of Amfissa and its judges signed with their dirty hands the attempted extermination of our comrade. Next to their name, the word executioner will carry with it the stigma that must accompany them for the rest of their miserable lives.

The Amfissa Judicial Council has carried out part of a wider repressive plan to deal with our comrade’s hunger strike. Systematic silencing by the mainstream media, bureaucratic delay of the response in order to damage and exhaust the striker, rejection of the application at a time when he is in a critical condition in the Lamia hospital.

As we speak, after a month of hunger strike, Giannis has reached 57.5 kg, has lost more than 21% of his body weight and his life is in danger. He is locked up in a squalid cell in the Lamia hospital, without even a television to keep him informed, which he is deprived of by the ridiculous argument of the cops that “there is a fear of suicide from the TV cables”. Visits with his companion are refused, and she is not given an official update on his medical condition.

We denounce the vindictive treatment of the hunger striker and call on the mass bodies and the doctors’ trade unions to take a public stand against these outrages. Hunger strikers are not suicidal, they are putting their lives on the line and fighting for life itself to triumph.

Dead hunger strikers do not commit suicide, they are murdered by capitalist states, imperialism, fascism. This is how it is done in Turkey, this is how it has been done in Germany, Northern Ireland and elsewhere. We warn for the last time those responsible, the executives and deputies of the New Democracy, the appellants of Lamia who will examine the appeal of the hunger striker, those willing servants of the state apparatus who give any kind of cover to the plan of extermination of our comrade: Those of you who put your hand on our comrade’s extermination, those of you who become part of the repressive tactics against him, those of you who do not separate your position while it is still early, we will make sure that nothing goes unanswered.

We call upon the solidarity movement, as well as every progressive person who recognizes in Giannis a selfless fighter who fights with his life against state arbitrariness and vengefulness, to unite his voice, to join the solidarity demonstration on Friday 24/6 at 18.00 at the Propylaea. To do everything in his power to set up the roadblock that will prevent the extermination of our comrade.

Assembly of solidarity with the anarchist Giannis Michailidis today 20/6 at 18:00 at the ASOEE.

VICTORY IN THE HUNGER STRIKE OF GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS

ALL IN THE STREETS

Assembly of solidarity with the anarchist hunger striker Giannis Michailidis

Source: athens.indymedia

Kaisariani, Greece: Responsibility claim for the arson of luxury vehicles

Posted on 2022/06/20 by darknights

The anarchist prisoner Giannis Michailidis is being treated in Lamia hospital, being on hunger strike since 23/5 demanding the obvious. His release from prison, which the Council of Amfissa is vengefully denying him.

We take responsibility for the arson of 8 luxury vehicles in the area of Kaisariani in the morning of 18/6.

We make it clear to all those responsible for the torture of our comrade that for every day that passes and his health deteriorates , we will make sure with all our efforts to disrupt the normal functioning of the metropolis. In the person of Giannis, the judicial mafia is taking revenge for consistency and commitment to the anarchist struggle, trying to terrorize each and every person who dares to fight.

We call on every comrade, every grouping and individuality to organize their own attacks with simple means and imagination. To multiply the dynamic actions and to stand as a barrier to the plans to eliminate the striker.

John’s struggle for his liberation is a struggle of all of us.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS

solidarity shadows

Source: athens.indymedia

Greece: Georgia Volugari and Thanos Xatziagkelou start hunger strike in solidarity with the anarchist comrade Giannis Michailidis.

Posted on 2022/06/18 - 2022/06/18 by darknights

The dictatorship of confinement is the mirror of democracy. It is the morbid representation of a tyranny that is not content with its military victories. It wants to see those it subjugates bend, sink into deprivation and decadence. To see in the faces of the captives that laughter disappears and misery takes its place. Power builds mass graves of souls to bury in concrete the voices of the invisible.

And yet some continue to shout. They shout loudly about injustice, inequality, arbitrariness. They shout for freedom and their voices break the concrete, cut the wires and travel free as birds in the sky. They contemplate the meanness of this world and from their proud height they fall like thunderbolts on the heads of the lords.

Comrade Giannis Michailidis belongs to these voices. A disobedient fighter both outside and inside the walls. Intransigent with the demand for encirclement to this day. Humble as a personality as much as a sworn enemy of exploitation, our comrade condenses in his journey the meanings that today we are called to defend collectively. Revolutionary consciousness against subjugation, abnegation against self-interest, the sharpening of the struggle against disarmament and generalized resignation.

In the face of the general decadence that prevails around us, there are people who, with their faith and dedication to revolutionary ideals, have left their own special mark in the militant struggle for total liberation. The lives of these people, whom we are honored to call comrades, weigh like mountains. Therefore, the struggles they wage are the struggles of all of us. Giannis placed a stake on his body to defend the collective current of those who chose to march, from the first to the last day, on the paths of intolerance through the walls. Continue reading “Greece: Georgia Volugari and Thanos Xatziagkelou start hunger strike in solidarity with the anarchist comrade Giannis Michailidis.” →

Greece: International Day of Action and Solidarity with the Anarchist Hunger Striker Giannis Michailidis EN, DE, FR, SP, IT, JA, RU

Posted on 2022/06/17 - 2022/06/20 by darknights

International Day of Action and Solidarity with the Anarchist Hunger Striker G. Michailidis

“After 8.5 years in prison, after all these arbitrary actions against me, I decided to put an end to my 11 years of suffering, by putting up a mound against the practice of preventive imprisonment, or else the additional punishment of escape with legal loopholes. After 5 more months of preventive detention, I am starting a hunger strike for my release. This choice, with the deep motivation of the much desired freedom, I intend to support it with the same consistency that I have supported my choices so far and for which they are avenging me.”

Giannis Michailidis, preventively imprisoned in Malandrinos prison, 23/5/2022

Throughout his life, Giannis Michailidis, has been an integral part of the struggles against the state and capital from an anarchist perspective. He participated from a young age in anarchist student groups, in demonstrations against the Iraq war, in anti-state/anti-capitalist demonstrations of the 2004-2006 anti-globalisation movement and was arrested during the conflicts. He participated in the 2006-2007 student struggles against the reactionary reforms in higher education (privatization of universities, abolition of university asylum, etc.). He fought against the plundering of nature and was arrested in an intervention against the deforestation of Mount Parnitha in 2007. He was an integral part of the December uprising, when police officers murdered in cold blood the anarchist 16-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the Exarchia area. He was present in the battles against the memoranda in 2012 and chose to expropriate the bloody wealth of the banks, remaining steadfastly committed to the vision of the overthrow of the state and capital, holding a militant – feisty stance, against the police-judicial complex, the material expression of state terrorism. Continue reading “Greece: International Day of Action and Solidarity with the Anarchist Hunger Striker Giannis Michailidis EN, DE, FR, SP, IT, JA, RU” →

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for attack two branches of Lidl

Posted on 2022/06/17 by darknights

On 8/4 and 19/5 we chose to attack two branches of the multinational company Lidl. These targets were not chosen at random. A few months before, in an attempt by an elderly woman to squeeze, without paying the price of products for her living, she was bullied by security guards – protectors of the bosses’ profits. In a period of constant impoverishment of the lower classes of the population, and over-inflation of the bosses’ profits, the class gap seems to be constantly blurring. The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. The steady decline in wages and the simultaneous increase in the cost of living (food, electricity, rent, fuel) leave us with no other answer than to attack the devaluation of our lives. Within the framework of the counter-attack we include both the frontal confrontation with the bosses and the act of expropriation. An act politically coloured, embedded in a context of taking back what belongs to us. Precisely because we understand it as a political choice we cannot separate it from a context of solidarity supportive of the individuals who choose or are pushed down this path. At the same time we are outraged by the care of a legal framework that leaves its own people (Noor1 shipowners, Floros Energa) in the clear but at the same time it is also unacceptable in its severity to the persons that it pushed into these choices. In the frontal assault on the people of our class, we do not choose to bow our heads, but rather we advocate direct action, solidarity and resistance by any means to the oppressors of our lives.

EVERYTHING IS OURS BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS STOLEN

“DOO* TO THE SUPERMARKETS

REFUSALS OF PAYMENT WAR ON THE WAR OF THE BOSSES

SOLIDARITY WITH HUNGER STRIKER C. MIKHAILIDIS FROM 23/5

Anarchists

Source: athens.indymedia

*DN Note: A phrase that is not translatable into English, that is shouted by anarchists when an attack normally with molotovs is begun during a riot or an attack on cops.

Athens, Greece: Incendiary attack against a National Bank branch in solidarity with Giannis Michailidis

Posted on 2022/06/17 - 2022/06/17 by darknights

Since 23.5, comrade Giannis Michailidis chose to put his body on the line, starting a hunger strike demanding his immediate release. The comrade has served 3/5 of his sentence and meets all the formal conditions for his release. However, the judicial council vindictively rejected the comrade’s request, using as an excuse that Giannis does not meet the substantive conditions for release as the same council considers him to be a risk of committing new offences.

Class power wants to impose on us a world where ‘danger’ is identified with the vision of a world of equality and solidarity. Where any form of self-determination, self-institution and self-organisation, any attempt to overcome state mediation is considered a crime. The same system that creates and reproduces exploitation, oppression and the culture of power uses itself as regulator and judge. Thus it imposes laws that protect sovereignty, punishments that unfold at the grassroots level. And when the latter realises that if it does not fight it cannot survive and chooses self-defence, the omnipresent regulator puts on its most bloodthirsty face, because at this moment not only is sovereignty threatened but its own role is called into question. This is how his political courts are built. On moments of practical questioning of a devastated world, moments of questioning those who guard it.

Incarceration is nothing but the consolidation of the proletarian condition in contemporary capitalism. Democracy is imposed not only by tactical victories, but also through the constant effort to subjugate those who challenge its rule and fight for their survival through its overthrow. It attempts to bring the resisting parts of society to their knees by burying them in mass repositories of souls, condemning them to a fate of permanent captivity, deprivation and torture. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Incendiary attack against a National Bank branch in solidarity with Giannis Michailidis” →