On the afternoon of Tuesday 21 February, after the end of the anti-war march that took place in the centre of Patras on the occasion of the visit of the American Secretary of State, we attacked the open offices of the fascist group “Patriotic Union” of the bankrupt* Prodromos Emfietzoglou, who has been involved in dozens of scandals since the Olympic Games and has now decided to turn to patriotism in order to continue receiving a crumb from the state budget, but also to confirm Samuel Johnson’s old saying that “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrels”.
In a city that retains indelible in its political history the class, social, anti-fascist struggles of the past and in which the activity of the fascist and parastatal mechanisms has left irreparable scars since the period of the Temponeras assassination2, it should be made clear and unambiguous in all directions and to all would-be imitators of Emfietzoglou that not an inch of land will be given to the enemies of freedom.
The existence of offices of a nationalist party in the central square of Patras, and anywhere else, cannot be tolerated and there has certainly been some misunderstanding on the part of Emfietzoglou with this choice. He would do well to pack up and leave…
Fascists, nationalists and other misfits, forget what you knew. This is Patras! We’re gonna kick your asses!
Anarchists
Source: athens.indymedia
DN Notes
1 μπαταχτσή is the original word used in Greek, which is not completly translatable exactly as ‘bankrupt’. It is originally from the Turkish batakçi = bankrupt. It means a person or some one who gains from the state, especially the money from taxes, normally from corruption.
2 Nikos Temponeras was a secondary school mathematics teacher, a left-wing member of the Labour Anti-imperialist Front (EAM), who was assissinated by fascists/right wingers (even a member of New Democracy party) attempting to break up the occupation of a Patras school during the student demonstrations of 1990-91. Once again this murder amongst others in Greece’s modern history shows the complicity between racism, fascism and nationalism, that the crossover between the right wing New Democracy party (that is in power now), that members normally come from a fascist background, is a kind of requirement to be part of the party. This continues the well known slogan in Greece that ‘The Junta never ended!’