This text was published in the course of an intervention at EFSYN in Athens, Greece and translated by the Berlin Assembly in memory of Kyriakos Xymitiris and in solidarity with the persecuted in the Ambelokipi-case.
We are intervening at EFSYN’ in order to publicize the following texts. This intervention follows our presence and the distribution of these texts in the area of Ampelokipi and on Arkadias Street in order to show our solidarity with the residents of the apartment building.
At the same time, we went to the spot where our comrade Kyriakos Xymitiris lost his life.
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
Korydallos Women’s Prison Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Intervention at the offices of “Efimerida ton Syntakton” (EFSYN)”
For my comrade Kyriakos X.
Goodbye comrade,
”You will be ashes, old world.
You’re destined for the path of destruction
And you can’t bend us
By killing our brothers in arms…
And know this
We will come out victorious
And even though our sacrifices
Are heavy”
Nazim Hikmet
Belatedly, I would like to write a few words about my comrade and companion for the past 6 years of my life, K. Xymitiris, who passed away in an apartment on Arkadias Street.
Together we struggled and shaped our opinions on anything that troubled us. I grew up with him, on a journey of discovering my combative identity. And Kyriakos was always by my side, not in front or in the back, but next to me. Holding my hand, supporting me, with his smile and his perspicacity. Always giving the correct answers while we were all mincing our words, clearing the landscape while we were all feeling lost. With a well-developed sense of solidarity, he always stood on the side of anyone who needed it, regardless of repression, being targeted, and his own comfort. Always first in all the struggles: against repression, gentrification, the labour sweatshops, colonialism, patriarchy, prisons. Indispensable as a comrade and as a friend, wherever he stood he filled the space with his modesty and militancy.
By advocating for unity in the struggle for the revolutionary cause, for confrontation, militancy and counter-attack, always with respect for those next to him, he made space where others suffocated. So he lived, at least by my side, militant and persistent, hopeful and smiling. Ready for everything, taking risks big and small, he gave his daily life to the struggle without a second thought.
Always by our side
to me, to his friends and his comrades, to anyone who needed him for the smallest or the biggest matter.
Always by our sideto take on the most tedious, the most risky role.Always by our side to hold our hand, to accompany us, to open the way.
Always by the sideof the migrant, the abused, the worker, the prisoner.
And always by my sideto support me, to help me, to listen to me, to struggle together with me, to hug me by pushing away the fear, to encourage me by pushing away the second thoughts, to fill the days and nights with comradeship and combativeness.
COMRADE KYRIAKOSNone of the goodbyes are enough. None of the texts can describe the pain of your loss. On 31/10 I was left half, on a path where I wanted you by my side. On 31/10 I lost that smile that only you knew how to evoke. On 31/10 I lost the hopefulness that only you could transmit to me. But on 31/10 I also made a promise to you, to me, to us and to so many others, that you would not be forgotten. On 31/10 I stayed behind to speak about you, about the struggle you gave and about those you did not manage to give. On 31/10 I raised up my fist and with my bloody mouth I vowed to STRUGGLE. On 31/10 I raised my fist and in the rubble of Arcadia Street I said KYRIAKOS XYMITIRIS, ALWAYS PRESENT!
”Our most beautiful days we haven’t seen yet.
And the most beautiful words I wanted to tell you
I haven’t said yet…”
Nazim Hikmet
With unconditional love
your comrade
Marianna M.
Source: athens.indymedia