Marianna Manoura – Page 2

Berlin, Germany: Wild demo in memory of Kyriakos Xymitiris

Posted on 2025/02/12 by darknights

On October 31 our anarchist comrade Kyriakos Xymitiris was killed and our anarchist comrade Marianna M. was severely wounded in an explosion in an apartment in Athens. She was brought to the Evangelismos Hospital, where she was treated under constant police surveillance, and later transferred to the pre-detention prison in Korydallos. In the aftermath of what happened that day also our anarchist comrade Dimitra Z, our comrades Dimitris and Nikos R. and another person have been arrested and imprisoned in the same case.

Since then sorrow and rage have been present in our lives. Sadness for losing a comrade who committed to the fight to the end and by all means; anger because it is this capitalist, racist and patriarchal system that killed him. Kyriakos did not choose to close his eyes on the economic and political interests of a few who condemn us to a life of misery through the sale of houses to vulture funds, labor precariousness, feminicides, borders and wars. In the city of Berlin Kyriakos he has been committed for years in the defense of released spaces and against gentrification, in the internationalist struggle, in the abolition of prisons, as well as in all social and class struggles.

His passion and believes for a new world free of oppression leave a huge emptiness in those who were around them, as well as in the struggle itself. However, his imprint through words and actions encourages us to keep the thread of the insurrection alive, thus continuing the vision of the social revolution present in our hearts and minds. A revolutionary action that understands the armed struggle as a decisive medium in favor of those of the bottom in the balance of power, which tries and manages to return to the state part of the violence that every day imposes us.

We understand that through the defense of his memory we also stand next to all those who gave their lives or and were imprisoned to fight against injustice, inequality and exploitation.

For all this reason and collecting the call of February 7 and 8 of the Greek comrades from Athens, we want to face those who try to pervert this memory. As well as express our solidarity to the comrades imprisoned in the same case. For this reason we decided to have a short wild demo through Friedrichshain where we had shared together many collective moments of happiness and rage. Obstacles were put on the streets, graffiti in memory of Kyriakos were sprayed. Afterwards in Rigaer Street arriving forces of the occupiers were fought with stones.

This neighborhood of Berlin, as well as other metropols in the world, has faced a huge process of gentrification. In the last years where collective spaces where evicted to be transformed in yuppi restaurants and shops, people with low sources are getting displaced to the periphery, the airbnb are rising while the rents are becoming unbearable and the policies about how to use the public space are more repressive.

We, as Kyriakos did, can’t turn our eyes away of this process that destroys the city and the different communities living there. We, the ones that believe in a better world, want to go out of this precarity where the ones not conforming the norm are condemned. For this reason, as many other protest and answers are taking place in different cities, we want to stand against it and continue the path that we already walk with our friend and comrade Kyriakos. This path that cost his life. Him in our minds, his ideas in our hearts. Together taking back the streets of Berlin and Athens again. Revolutionaries hearts burn forever!

Freedom for our comrades Marianna M., Dimitra Z, Dimitris and Nikos R.!

Kyriakos Present!

Source: https://de.indymedia.org/node/491644

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim by the Cells of Offensive Solidarity for the placement of an incendiary device at Kypseli’s ΕΦΚΑ (National Social Insurance Agency)

Posted on 2025/02/08 by darknights

We take responsibility for the placement of a low powered incendiary device in the early hours of 03/12 at the ΕΦΚΑ office in Kypseli, located on Kefallinias Street.

Although the device, fortunately for you, did not ignite, the message remains the same.

Rest assured that with the same operational ease, we can target any location of our choosing at any time, with a similar device.

The reason we selected this specific target, among the many offered by the metropolis, is that it is a key structure of the state mechanism, one that promotes destitution, subjugation, and consequently, the manipulation of the majority of society. The Social Insurance Agency (ΕΦΚΑ) operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Labour, which in capitalist terms means it acts as an executive organ of the ideological orientation promoted by the current government.

To clarify, ΕΦΚΑ is responsible for distributing pensions of a mere €426.17, withholding contributions from workers, freelancers, and farmers, and combating tax evasion. Taxes for farmers exceed 50%, and for freelancers, they surpass 75%. In summary, ΕΦΚΑ serves as the state’s tax collector, playing a pivotal role in financing its political agenda and legitimizing its existence. But when words fail, numbers speak.

Revenues for the years 2024 and 2025 (approximately) amounted to about €51 billion, while expenses for social security funds were around €50 million. This means only 0.1% of the revenue is returned to society.

ΕΦΚΑ is the hand that gives a pittance to the beggar’s outstretched hand—a currency whose value is dictated by the state and government, within the predefined trajectory imposed on the modern wage slave, who defines themselves based on how productive and disciplined they have been within the capitalist machine, perpetually chasing class advancement and social status validation. Moving beyond the confines of sterile class analysis, which solely blames the state and capital while ignoring the responsibility of those consciously trapped in a condemned life—a life determined by others from birth, bound by servitude, shackled, and surrounded by the glitter of capitalist showcases.

In opposition to the world of social consent and submission, complacency, inertia, and defeatism, against any logic of delegation and waiting, we choose the path of direct action, responding with attacks on the world of power, navigating through the flames of its total destruction. Every call for attack is a proposal for social disengagement, a rupture with all forms of authority, a call for the destruction of the existing order.

With armed hands and words, with a broken heart, and the name of a street etched in memory, we carried out this attack in memory of the armed revolutionary Kyriakos Ximitiris and in solidarity with the anarchist comrade Marianna M., who is held captive in the dungeons of bourgeois democracy. Walking the path of insubordination, dispute, and attack—a path stained with the blood of those who, unrepentant, chose frontal assault on the state and power—every step we take remains unwavering in its purpose.

For every comrade who bore the heavy cost of revolutionary prospects and insurgent action, we promise that with each passing day, as long as our feet tread this earth, we will cut off the heads of our oppressors and dismantle everything they have built with their filthy hands. Comrade, may you have good incursions in the valley of eternal silence.

Strength to imprisoned comrade K.K., accused of arson on a police service van in Mesolongi.

Solidarity to all those prosecuted in the Ambelokipi case.

Freedom for the revolutionary Nikos Maziotis, member of Revolutionary Struggle

IMAGINATION – OPTIMISM – RISK

Cells of Offensive Solidarity

Source: Issue 3 of anarcho-nihilist / insurrectionary newspaper “Blessed Is The Flame”

Via & translated by Act for freedom now!

Athens, Greece: Arson Attacks in Memory of Anarchist Kyriakos Xymitiris

Posted on 2025/02/07 - 2025/02/07 by darknights

Forward, everyone!
Both with arms and with heart,
word and pen,
knife and gun,
irony and blasphemy,
theft, poisoning and arson,
let us wage… war on society!

~Josheph Dejacque (1821-1864), libertarian anarcho-communist

In a world of constant impoverishment, class inequalities, oppression and exploitation, social fascism advances through the dictates of the state apparatus, capital and its mouthpieces, leaving room for more and more impoverishment and repression. The reformist compromises of the once more radical sections of society, together with stupidification, selfish individualism and worship of oppressors, make it no longer able to conceive of conflict with all of the above.

Our anarchist comrade Kyriakos Xymitiris and anarchist comrade Marianna M. are an example of selflessness, revolutionary ethos and political commitment in all aspects of the struggle. From anarchist assemblies, to solidarity with prisoners, to struggles in defense of immigrants, labor gains, to the struggle against gentrification and repression, our comrades gave “body and soul” keeping the flame of the revolutionary cause always alight. The events of October 31st froze our hearts but at the same time convinced us to continue the struggle of Kyriakos and Marianna and so many other comrades over the years who gave their lives or were imprisoned in the battle for individual and social liberation, revolution and anarchy.

In the aftermath of the October 31st accident, we watched the media snitches try to portray the struggle of our comrades, to sell them as amoral bloodthirsty terrorists thirsting for the blood of innocent civilians, while at the same time selling death politics by showing videos from the destroyed apartment on Arcadia Street in order to increase viewership figures and satisfy their far-right audience. Naturally, a new cycle of persecution followed in the political and social circle of the comrades but also against people who had nothing to do with them.

In the intervening period, solidarity actions were carried out for the comrades accused of the Ampelokipoi case and for the memory of comrade Kyriakos Xymitiris worldwide. Marches, microphones, solidarity movements and direct action strikes from Greece to Chile and from Germany to Indonesia.

We know that the real terror is the constant abolition of labour gains, price increases in supermarkets and evictions of the lower social strata for the sake of the banks. Terrorism is the cover-up of state crime in Tempe, as well as trafficking rings in which a large part of the state and para-state apparatus participates (see the Greek police mafia case). Terrorism is the thousands of migrants drowned in the Mediterranean and the wars that push them to displacement, such as the genocidal war in Palestine.

For our part, we come to declare that the revolutionary-insurrectionary thread that connects generations and generations will not be broken. There will always be movements that challenge the monopoly of state and capital violence and return a percentage of it to those who carry it.

We assume responsibility for the following arson attacks between 18/12 and 28/12 on the following targets:

- - HEDNO van vehicle in Elliniko,
  - car dealership in Patisia,
  - police car in Holargos,
  - state SUV vehicle in Kypseli,
  - the study center of New Democracy MP G. Kallianos in Glyfada,
  - cop car in Zografou.

We call on comrades here and everywhere to raise the flame of direct action and insurrectionary prospects.

Kyriakos Xymitiris always present!

Solidarity with anarchist comrade Marianna M.

Immediate release of the anarchists Dimitra Z., Dimitris, Nikos Romanos and A.K.

Solidarity with comrade K.K. in pre-trial detention

Solidarity with former RAF member Daniela Klette in pre-trial detention and wanted former members Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub

night slalom / commando Kyriakos Xymitiris

Source: https://blessed-is-the-flame.espivblogs.net/athina-ellada-analipsi-eythynis-gia-empristikes-epitheseis-sti-mnimi-toy-anarchikoy-kyriakoy-xymitiri/

Via & translated by Abolition Media

Perugia, Italy: Further statements by anarchist comrades Matteo Monaco, Sara Ardizzone & Paolo Arosio at the Sibilla proceedings

Posted on 2025/02/03 - 2025/02/03 by darknights

Statement read by Matteo Monaco during the preliminary hearing in the Sibilla proceedings

I take the floor well pleased to be able to do so in person this time.

I would have liked to be here as early as October 10 on the occasion of the preliminary hearing that was then postponed, but unfortunately the work commitments to which I have to submit for a living and the one thousand five hundred kilometers separating my residence from this courtroom prevented me from doing so. I am not going to rage about the gross errors, certainly not mine, that led to the failures of notification against me and resulted in the postponement of the hearing. They qualify themselves. And they also qualify much more actually. I face this hearing, as well as the eventual trial that will ensue, with serenity. Aware that I have nothing to defend myself against in a political trial such as this one. Proud to be on the stand together with some of the comrades dearest to me. Happy to finally be able to greet to Alfredo and express all my closeness and solidarity with him. Determined to look those who claim the right to judge me in the face.

We are here because we have to answer, in particular, the charge of incitement to commit crimes for the purpose of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order. Good. I’m not interested in going into the merits of the charges, let alone, as already mentioned, defending myself against these crimes of opinion. What I am interested in is to make my considerations clear with respect to this charge.
In my conception of anarchism, as well as of life itself, there is no instigator-instigated binomial, there are no empty heads to be filled, there are no masses to be directed and steered, and I do not claim to instigate anything. The very term “instigation” has a negative, devious meaning, implying a kind of persuasion of the other by deception or trickery or manipulation. And that is precisely why, gentlemen, I believe that there is no better instigator of crime than the state itself. What do you think engenders feelings of revenge and revolt among the exploited and oppressed all over the world? The export of war or anarchists? Are you really convinced that if someone decides to take charge of his life and revolt, it is because the anarchists whispered it in his ear? Does it not occur to you that the systemic violence perpetrated through laws, institutions and repressive apparatuses, always directed toward the proletariat and always in defense of the bourgeoisie, may genuinely produce a backfire? What then is the question? If anarchism propagates ideas of revolt? Whether I as an anarchist point to the destruction of this miserable system? Of course I do. If I write and applaud theories and practices of subversion? That seems like an open secret to me.

The truth is that the state, capital, its apparatuses and their concrete personifications, including you, are afraid. Not afraid of anarchists let’s be clear, they are afraid that the situation will get out of hand, that the control they claim to have over the world may falter. Any sick system inevitably tends to put itself on the defensive, taking measures to try to maintain an internal balance and trying to annihilate threats, whether internal or external. The creaks of this imbalance can be felt just about everywhere, and slowly they are beginning to become more and more evident and, above all, the perpetrators increasingly clear in people’s eyes: economic disasters, environmental disasters, wars, pandemics. Crises, you know, generate discontent, discontent very easily turns into anger, anger triggers riots. And this, all of you, you certainly cannot afford. So you try to act in a preventive way, going to strike relentlessly at those who have already declared war on you for a century and a half and those who consider you enemies regardless of crisis and discontent, trying to prevent certain ideas from spreading among those who have begun to harbor a certain distrust and resentment toward you. Because they are dangerous ideas for your stability and for your comfortable places in ivory towers. Continue reading “Perugia, Italy: Further statements by anarchist comrades Matteo Monaco, Sara Ardizzone & Paolo Arosio at the Sibilla proceedings” →

Berlin, Germany: Message of Comrade Daniela Klette at the 30th International Rosa Luxemburg Conference

Posted on 2025/01/30 - 2025/01/30 by darknights

Political letter from RAF prisoner of war Daniela Klette from the Vechta Women’s Maximum Security Prison, at the 30th International Rosa Luxemburg Conference held on 11 January in Berlin on the topic: The last battle – how dangerous is capitalism in decline.

Dear participants of the Rosa Luxemburg conference,

Dear comrades,

I greet you today from the prison in Vechta. I was arrested almost a year ago after decades of living in illegality.

I am facing years of legal proceedings on charges of participation in armed expropriations. In addition, ‘justice’ is pursuing another trial against me on the charge of participating as a urban guerrilla fighter against capitalism and imperialism.

I was 17 years old when the Vietnamese liberation struggle crushed American imperialism. This incredible victory was achieved with worldwide solidarity – despite the napalm, despite the huge military machine that stood in the way of the liberation movement, and despite the massacres of the Vietnamese population perpetrated by the US army with the help and complicity of the West, especially Germany.

I was 16 years old when I was informed that a man on hunger strike against the torture of isolation had been murdered. It was Holger Meins who actively resisted the conditions of confinement and was murdered by the prison system, through deliberate malnutrition – during state forced feeding – and a complete refusal to provide medical assistance.

It was the era of liberation projects and anti-colonial struggles in many countries: like the Black Panthers against racist oppression rebelling in the USA, or the FSLN in Nicaragua against the dictatorship. I was already beginning to understand what humanity had to expect from capitalism and imperialism. Yes, I saw myself as part of the global movements fighting against exploitation and oppression, against capitalism and patriarchy, and against war and militarism.

Justice is now negotiating my guilt in the legal sense. For me, there is no question of guilt, but there is the following question, which has mobilised and continues to mobilise millions of people: how do we overturn the correlations that reproduce world war, displacement, exploitation, patriarchal and racist oppression, poverty and total ecological destruction?

The powerful of the world, struggling to maintain their power, are preparing for total war. Society is characterized by ever-increasing poverty, militarization and a growing shift to the right. Capitalism is heading towards ecological collapse: the state of the world today makes it abundantly clear that the questions about how to overcome these conditions were and remain legitimate and are now more necessary than ever to be answered. These questions concern us all and can only be answered collectively and by mass movements. I would love to be with you and work collectively on these issues, but state repression and the state’s will to condemn all resistance from below does not allow it.

No one who is imprisoned as a member of subversive and revolutionary movements is persecuted simply because of their alleged or actual actions. We are condemned to years of misery in prison because of the state’s insistence on delegitimizing the history of revolutionary struggles and preventing the struggles of the future. This happens to me, just as it happened to Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier in the US, to the captured anarchists in Greece – Marianna, Dimitris, Nikos, Dimitra – and many other political prisoners worldwide.

In this sense, the legal proceedings against me are proceedings against liberationist, radical and anti-capitalist resistance. My trial is about to begin shortly. I would be very happy if those of you who can attend it, so that it becomes clear that this trial is not a trial against me, but against all those who are engaged in the question of overthrowing capitalism. Every form of solidarity is welcome!

I wish you every success and, yes, I hope you have a lot of fun at this year’s Rosa Luxemburg conference!

Solidarity, fighting and warm greetings to all of you.

Daniela Klette

Women’s maximum security prison Vechta

POSTER : REBELLION IS THE EXPLOSIVE URGENCY OF PUTTING OURSELVES ON THE LINE (LONDON,UK)

Posted on 2024/12/09 by darknights

pdf:

OBEDIENCE IS A PROGRAMMED, ORDERED EXISTENCE

REBELLION IS THE EXPLOSIVE URGENCY OF PUTTING OURSELVES ON THE LINE

An untimely blast in an Athens apartment on the 31st of October left an anarchist dead and another seriously wounded. In a millisecond the preparation of a single liberatory attack on one aspect of domination expands into a wide panorama of the social war.

With a resounding blast the struggle is upturned, its hitherto anonymous players thrown into the forefront of the clash. Shock and anguish invade our hearts and minds for the death of Kyriakos Xymitiris and the wounding of Marianna Manoura – well-known, esteemed comrades active in the many-faceted anarchist struggle in Greece and beyond – but so does resolve and unwavering complicity. Immediately an alchemy of rebel love and defiance surges forth, overrunning the borders by which states segment their control over this ruined earth.

Continue reading “POSTER : REBELLION IS THE EXPLOSIVE URGENCY OF PUTTING OURSELVES ON THE LINE (LONDON,UK)” →

Rome, Italy: Incendiary attack against Italferr, militarism, and nationalism.

Posted on 2024/12/04 by darknights

Rome, November 28, 2024 – Incendiary attack against Italferr, militarism, and nationalism

We live in times of integration, where the boundaries that usually divided the various domains of control are disappearing. We are in the era of cybernetics, of biotechnologies applied to the body, of transhumanism through which the machine continues its war against the living, trying to integrate with the biological.

These are also the times of actual war, times in which the private sector increasingly supports the public sector in establishing and pursuing the strategic objectives of the State. Capital has entered a new phase of competition, the surplus is struggling to find outlets, and the balance of power between capitalist blocs and their respective areas of influence is being redefined. And war is always a good business.

On April 15, Leonardo, the most important Italian defense and technology company and one of the largest in the world by revenue, controlled by the Ministry, signed an agreement to this effect with RFI, part of the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane group, also controlled by the Ministry of Finance. This agreement falls within the scope of the implementation of war logistics required by the changing global geopolitical landscape. The war in Ukraine, along with a broader redefinition of the balance of power between capitalist blocs, is rapidly bringing the military sphere back to the forefront of state concerns. The arms race is already underway (+93% increase in arms imports in 2023), military production is becoming the new driver for the struggling economy, and the entire military machinery must be updated and greased in anticipation of upcoming conflicts.

The agreement aims to “ensure the movement of military resources, within and outside Europe” even “on short notice and on a large scale,” as stated in the announcement of the agreement. It operates within the framework of “Military Mobility, an EU initiative aimed at enhancing existing infrastructural and digital capabilities.” The declared purpose is to create the so-called “military Schengen,” the integration of the individual states’ infrastructure network to allow the rapid and efficient movement of military equipment within Europe. This plan, voted on in 2018 by the Commission, is the only one in the defense sector to have received the approval of all member states. It commits them to “simplify and standardize cross-border military transport procedures” and to “allow the free movement of military personnel and equipment within the EU’s borders” (from the official PESCO website, an initiative of the European Union within the framework of the Common Security and Defense Policy aimed at the structural integration of armed forces). Note that this project was proposed by the commander of the United States Army in Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, highlighting Europe’s subservience to the will of U.S. imperialism. While Europe is increasingly fortifying its borders, and the “free movement of goods and people” becomes a memory, victim as it is of the whims of individual rulers ready to suspend it at the first sign of new “emergencies,” efforts are being made to facilitate the “free” movement of military units and resources through the removal of bureaucratic barriers and the improvement of infrastructure.

Specifically, in this agreement, Leonardo will provide “its expertise and support of advanced A.I. techniques on multiple fronts: census and monitoring of dual-use infrastructures, modeling of infrastructures and articulated services, simulation and optimization of complex networks,” while RFI will provide the physical infrastructure, its management and maintenance, considering that it consists of a communication network that runs alongside the tracks and traverses many vectors across the Italian peninsula. It therefore seems that the main application of this agreement is to provide the company that owns the HPC (High Performance Computing) Davinci-1, one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world in the aerospace, defense, and security sectors, “a secure and interoperable communication infrastructure with the different types of networks (TETRA, LTE, 4G/5G), to ensure high levels of service and security.””What is emerging, in simpler terms, is the transition of an infrastructure primarily designed for civilian use to one of the strongest defense industries in Italy and the world.” Continue reading “Rome, Italy: Incendiary attack against Italferr, militarism, and nationalism.” →

Toulouse, France: Solidarity fire with Kyriakos Ximitiris and the prosecuted anarchists after the explosion in the apartment in Ampelokipi

Posted on 2024/12/04 - 2024/12/04 by darknights

In response to the call from the “assembly of solidarity with the imprisoned, fugitive and persecuted fighters” in Athens, on the night of November 17 to 18, 2024, a fire was set to an MT Energies vehicle, a photovoltaic solar panel company. (mtenergiefrance.com).

Whether in France, Greece, or elsewhere, green capitalism allows civilization to consume ever more resources, territories, and lives. Let’s burn it.
Without sharing the revolutionary ideas of Kyriakos Ximitiris and part of his entourage, the hatred against what oppresses us is shared.

Solidarity with Marianna, Dimitra, and Nikos Romanos! Strength to you

Kyriakos Ximitiris, may your fire always burn.

Source: lille.indymedia

Greece: For my comrade Kyriakos X.

Posted on 2024/12/04 by darknights

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.

I met comrade Kyriakos in the city of Berlin a few years ago. Our common determination and agonizing for a better world quickly brought us together. In midnight talks in the bar where he worked, in walks through the city’s streets, we exchanged views, and Kyriakos had the most in-depth opinions and knowledge regarding each and every one of my concerns. Our shared vision was simultaneously spreading roots within us, creating a strong relationship based on mutual understanding, comradeship and love.
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

Realities Behind the Arrest of Nikos Romanos

Posted on 2024/11/27 by darknights

This is an attempt to provide information and context for those outside Greece concerning the recent state abduction of anarchist Nikos Romanos.

On 31 October, 2024, an explosion in the Athens neighborhood of Ampelokopoi killed the comrade Kyriakos X and severely injured the comrade Marianna M.

They were both in an apartment where an explosive device detonated, knocking out one wall of the building. The state claims they were planning to detonate a bomb elsewhere and that it exploded prematurely. Both Kyriakos and Marianna are anarchists, respected participants in the movement.

The press in Greece is owned by a handful of old families who control most of the remaining greek assets– those that haven’t been sold off to foreign investors. The Greek mainstream media exists to disseminate state narratives, and it immediately began slandering the victims of the explosion as well as engaging in wild speculation– such as that the israeli embassy was the intended target. Whether or not that’s true, it is true that israeli mossad agents came to assist the Greek police in their investigations. Since the explosion, the state has made additional arrests of people it claims are somehow connected to the apartment and its lease, sublease, etc.

As the Greek press promoted the propaganda of the state, there commenced activity in some cowardly corners of the left to distinguish the more “guilty” of those accused from the others. This is the question of who to tar with the labels of “anarchist” and “terrorist” — thereby assumed to deserve repression– vs. who is really “innocent.”

The anarchist movement itself, both in Greece and internationally, has rejected such division and remained strong in solidarity despite a chilling increase in repression. There were multiple support gatherings outside the hospital where Marianna was held under guard and when, shortly after her second surgery, she was transferred to Korydallos prison, comrades also gathered there. Kyriakos has been honored with actions, banners, marches, events and memorials, and will remain a beloved comrade forevermore. There has been no “disavowal,” no step back.

Since the tragedy in Ampelokopoi state repression against those suspected of being “anarchists” has become more aggressive, although this is consistent with an ongoing trend since the pandemic. What we have seen now are not new tactics but an increase in frequency: police actions such as stopping and searching people around the neighborhood Exarcheia, early-morning “preventative detention” of targeted individuals (people considered politically prominent) on the days of demonstrations and marches, and an increase in surveillance of those the greek state has a grudge against, including by parking unmarked cars with surveillance equipment in front of their homes.

Few people in the anarchist movement here have been under as heavy surveillance, long-term, as the comrade Nikos Romanos. He was a friend of the anarchist Alexis Grigoropolous, and witnessed Alexis’ murder by police on 6 December 2008. Since that time Nikos has been arrested many times and accused of many crimes, along with false accusations of involvement with the direct action group Conspiracy of Cells of Fire. Continue reading “Realities Behind the Arrest of Nikos Romanos” →