Revolutionary Self-Defense

Greece: One-day hunger strike in response to the internationalist call for action in solidarity with Marcelo Villarroel

Posted on 2023/03/16 by darknights

One-day hunger strike in response to the internationalist call for action in solidarity with Marcelo Villarroel

“These are times of clarity and definitions”

“I am from the war, a classic son of the working class, of the city growing up in a population where the code of struggle was and is for survival in the always precarious material conditions, but with strong bonds of communal solidarity as a life practice… Respect for the mapu ñuke, the search for a harmonious relationship with the planet, the recovery of spaces and territories and their clean control to build an autonomous path with values that oppose the bourgeois way of teaching and the ideology of the great God of Capital, perpetuated with blood and fire by the Chilean national state, and all its death apparatus, are aspects that make it impossible for me to ignore the bonds with and deep feelings about the struggle for the liberation of wallmapu.

These are times of clarity and definitions. Autonomous, anti-authoritarian and anarchist subversive practices in this part of the world cannot ignore the territoriality of the conflict, nor can they remain only in general and tepid solidarity….

The mode of confrontation is our inalienable choice in prison and on the street, we are not victims of circumstances, but conscious warriors of a fight to the death for the Total Liberation of peoples, individuals and communities. This is where all our efforts are made and renewed. “¹

On March 15, Mapuche anarchist comrade Marcelo Villarroel Sepúlveda passed 15 years of captivity. The decisions of the Chilean state want him to serve 13 more years in prison, according to its junta laws (from Pinochet). Continue reading “Greece: One-day hunger strike in response to the internationalist call for action in solidarity with Marcelo Villarroel” →

Athens,Greece: 12/1/23 The trial of Revolutionary Self-Defence has ended…

Posted on 2023/01/14 by darknights

Information concerning comrades V.Stathopoulos and D. Chatzivasiliadis from the Court of Appeal in Athens.

The trial of Revolutionary Self-Defence has ended

Comrade Vanggelis Stathopoulos was acquitted of the charges of membership of a terrorist organization, possession of weapons as a terrorist act, theft (O.Π.Α.Π.) and aggravated weapons possession.

Found guilty of simple possession of weapons involving a taser, an iron fist and a pocket knife, of the 19 years of imprisonment he was sentenced to in the first instance, he was sentenced to 10 months. A mitigating factor of subsequent good behaviour was recognised and the sentence was suspended.

Comrade Dimitris Chatzivasiliadis was found guilty on charges of forming and joining a terrorist organisation, possession of weapons as a terrorist act, theft (Ο.Π.Α.Π.) and simple possession of weapons. He was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment instead of the 16 years of the first instance.

The struggle continues! Until the last prison is torn down!

Source: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1623131/

Via & translated by Act for freedom now!

Greece: Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis – Speech of internationalist solidarity in the context of the trial of the Organization Revolutionary Self-Defense

Posted on 2023/01/08 - 2023/01/08 by darknights

FOR INTERNATIONALIST SOLIDARITY

There are moments when silence is an invitation to crime. There are moments when silence is complicity. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah

You are guilty not only when you commit a crime, but also when you do nothing to prevent it when you have the opportunity. Dimitris Tsafendasⁱ

Since May ’22, a counter-revolutionary trial has been taking place against anarchist fighters, for participation in the armed Organization Revolutionary Self-Defense. This trial comes at a time when the state-capitalist regime is climaxing its aggression against the oppressed, the exploited and excluded. The anarchist Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis is also on trial for this case, while he has taken responsibility, both in public and in this courtroom, for his participation in revolutionary struggle through the Organization of Revolutionary Self-Defense, as well as for keeping the weapons (which in the repressive operation of November ‘19, fell into the hands of the state), in order to continue the guerrilla struggle through the experience and strategy of the Organization Revolutionary Self-Defense. The court of appeal of this particular military tribunal of the counter-revolution will be completed in January ‘23.

Throughout the course of this trial, Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis has been defending the right of revolutionary struggle, the necessity of guerrilla organization and of the armed social self-defense against the tyranny of power, and has been deconstructing and attacking bourgeois justice and its counter-revolutionary laws, inside the enemy field. With an eye to the world revolution, from the beginning of the trial, Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis is speaking about movements and struggles in all parts of the globe, expressing solidarity with those who are struggling, with current struggles, with the political prisoners and their fight today, and with reference to fighters who have been killed. These days, a struggle in italian prisons is taking place; comrade Alfredo Cospito is on hunger strike already for more than 65 days, against the state of total isolation, 41-bis, that has been imposed on him. With the awareness of how critical Alfredo Cospito’s struggle is, comrade Dimitris made extensive reference to Alfredo’s fight, during the trial. Meanwhile, the italian authorities rejected Alfredo’s demand for his removal from the 41-bis regime, and the comrade is continuing the hunger strike. Continue reading “Greece: Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis – Speech of internationalist solidarity in the context of the trial of the Organization Revolutionary Self-Defense” →

Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for incendiary attacks on the Secretary General of the Greek Police Officers’ Union and SKAI journalist Aris Portosalte by ‘Direct Action Cells’

Posted on 2022/07/04 - 2022/07/04 by darknights

LET FEAR CHANGE SIDES

The Direct Action Cells undertook the incendiary attacks on the homes of the Secretary General of the Greek Police Officers’ Union Evangelos Mantziorou on June 2 in Peristeri and the SKAI journalist Aris Portosalte on June 14 in Vrilissia. Our attacks were carried out in the context of our strategy expressed through the slogan “Fear must change sides”. For the last 1.5 years we have been trying with all our forces to target people who, from their position, staff the Greek capitalist formation. High-ranking police officers, big journalists, government officials, technocrats who plan government policy, judges, have been targeted. At the same time we have carried out incendiary actions against financial and political targets. Our action is aimed at sending a clear message to these puppet masters. Those who from their position participate in the savage attack that capitalism has unleashed on all aspects of our lives are in the crosshairs of the Direct Action Cells.

Their apologetic statements, the terror with which they jump out of bed when they hear the explosions of the devices we place in their homes, the condemnatory statements of the parties and the media, show that we are on the right track. The encouraging comments from our people, our class people, are our strength to carry on. Through our actions we are trying to keep alive the tradition and practice of direct action. To make it clear that our enemies have names and addresses. To prove that our momentum is greater when we become unpredictable and to call on other militants to follow our example.

The choice of the far-right neoliberal university student and his targeting was not the result of a victimhood and a source of disgust caused by his public presence. Aris Portosalte as a persona encapsulates the most extreme aspects of neoliberal discourse in the country and with his shrill voice he challenges and seduces the sympathetic ears of the neoliberal audience. His daily rants are not the opinion of a journalist, as he and those who deplored the attack on his house want to peddle, but the outgrowth of the political footprint of New Democracy in Greece at the cutting edge of its thought and speech production, the media. Like another harlequin, he has taken a leading role in the forefront of far-right propaganda and is doing the dirty work that the ruling party’s political cadres often avoid. Continue reading “Athens, Greece: Responsibility claim for incendiary attacks on the Secretary General of the Greek Police Officers’ Union and SKAI journalist Aris Portosalte by ‘Direct Action Cells’” →

Berlin, Germany: Discussion about the perspectives of revolutionary anarchy

Posted on 2022/05/21 - 2022/05/23 by darknights

Discussion about the perspectives of revolutionary anarchy Starting from the call „International Campaign for Revolutionary Anarchism and Solidarity with Revolutionary Prisoners“, which was published last winter, we want to discuss common perspectives with you. This call was written from solidarians in Athens to the case of Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis and his conviction to sixteen years in prison for participation in the Organization of Revolutionary Self-Defense. 30.05.2022 at 19.00, New Yorck at Bethanien Mariannenplatz 2A, 10997 Berlin

Discussion about the perspectives of revolutionary anarchy

Starting from the call „International Campaign for Revolutionary Anarchism and Solidarity with Revolutionary Prisoners“, which was published last winter, we want to discuss common perspectives with you. This call was written from solidarians in Athens to the case of Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis and his conviction to sixteen years in prison for participation in the Organization of Revolutionary Self-Defense.

Revolutionary Self-Defense was a revolutionary anarchist organization active from 2014-2017. During it’s years, the organization took responsibility for five armed attacks: against the headquarters of the greek political party PASOK, the Mexican Embassy in Athens, the French Embassy in Athens and two attacks against the greek riot police (MAT) in front of PASOK offices in the neighborhood of Exarchia. The group claimed to „put all its strength into the construction of the broad armed social resistance and is struggling to construct a mass internationalist revolutionary movement, by strengthening militant resistance on the entire spectrum of class antagonism.“

After the robbery of a betting office in Ocrober 2019, in which he was injured, Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis was on the run for almost two years. With his arrest in Thessaloniki last year, the period of armed resistance in Greece seems to have been interrupted for the time being. That not only the armed struggle can have a revolutionary potential is obvious and so the above call poses some questions, the answers to which are one of the aims of our event.

Where do our movements stand faced with the immense challenges and demands of our epoch?

Can we retrace our revolutionary roots?

Can we become the creative force that can effectively abolish the cannibalistic authority of the rich few over the many?

In the event, the positions of Dimitris from jail will exchange with ours and hopefully with yours to develop a common ground for the creation of a revolutionary practice. We do not intend to organize an information event about anarchy in Greece, but we want to find out with you the necessities and possibilities in our region. The framework are further questions about the effects of repression and the meaning of solidarity, the meaning of social tensions and the question of the legitimization of self-defense by society. What can be the trigger for a revolutionary movement and do we need a ground like Exarchia or squats? Is the anarchist movement missing a theoretical base or agenda like Maoism or Marxism offers?

Source: de.indymedia

Greece: International Solidarity with Revolutionary Anarchist prisoner Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis

Posted on 2022/01/21 - 2022/01/21 by darknights

Graffiti in Athens: “Let us reinforce the guerilla struggle. Bullets to the servants of authority. – Organization of Revolution-ary Self-Defense.

Banner writes: Freedom For V. Stathopoulos. Mitsos stay strong. Solidarity with D.Chatzivasileiadis

https://www.firefund.net/dimitris

To our comrades around the world who struggle for our common liberation,

We, an initiative of anarchists based in Athens, Greece, call upon international solidarity with imprisoned revolutionary anarchist Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis, who is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence for his armed revolutionary struggle in Greece and his involvement in the urban guerilla organization, Revolutionary Self-Defense.

The funds that we raise with this campaign will cover directly the needs of our imprisoned comrade, as well as the expenses for the continuous solidarity actions and events from the initiative on the ground. The financial support of incarcerated revolutionaries is not only an act of solidarity with the fighters who gave everything for our collective liberation and thus a part of our collective self-defense; it is also a crucial tool in the strengthening of the international revolutionary struggle towards the reconstruction of our world based on the principles of freedom: horizontalism, self-organization and equal solidarity.

A brief history of the case and the organization of Revolutionary Self-Defense

Continue reading “Greece: International Solidarity with Revolutionary Anarchist prisoner Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis” →

Greece: International Campaign for Revolutionary Anarchism and Solidarity with Revolutionary Prisoners

Posted on 2021/12/20 - 2021/12/21 by darknights

International Campaign for Revolutionary Anarchism and Solidarity with Revolutionary Prisoners

With the capitalist destruction of earth and life continuing unhindered and the nearing prospects of an ecological collapse, there is, perhaps more than ever, a serious and immediate need for global revolutionary movements. Where do our movements here in Europe stand faced with the immense challenges and demands of our epoch? Can we retrace our revolutionary roots? Can we become the creative force that can effectively abolish the cannibalistic authority of the rich few over the many?

Outside of Europe, the revolutionary spirit has reaffirmed its historical strength with armed and organized insurrections in Chiapas and the Middle East paving the way for the liberation of life through the self-organization of the people on the bottom, on terms of equality and communitarianism. But also all around the world in recent decades we see that combative resistance and insurrections are breaking out as a result of the increasing violence and totalitarianism of capitalism.

Let’s draw our inspiration from the Black resistance movement in the U.S. and the uprising in Chile. These were popular people-led movements using militant and insurrectionist strategies to directly confront the oppressors and their armed thugs (the police). Daily images of barricades, burning banks and attacks against cops flooding global news are the reminder that the world of those in power is easily set ablaze when the rage of the oppressed finds a collective expression.

Continue reading “Greece: International Campaign for Revolutionary Anarchism and Solidarity with Revolutionary Prisoners” →

Greece: Update on the appeal court of anarchist Vangelis Stathopoulos, set for 9 February 2022

Posted on 2021/11/21 - 2021/11/25 by darknights

19 years in prison without evidence

In April, 2021 the anarchist Vangelis Stathopoulos was sentenced by the Criminal Court of Appeal to 19 years in prison. Our comrade has been in custody since November 2019, in the first repressive operation of New Democracy – after coming to power – regarding the imprisonment of militants through trumped up charges and blatant plots.

Vangelis Stathopoulos, when asked, provided first aid to an injured comrade. The court of appeal, presided over by Maria Giannakopoulou – the same judge who had convicted Tasos Theofilou in the first instance – sentenced him to 19 years in prison for participation in the “Revolutionary Self-Defence” organisation and for theft in an ΟΠΑΠ store (the biggest Gambling company in Greece).

Based on what data? On the basis of the same evidence with which many militants have been imprisoned over the past years: the well-known “anonymous phone calls” of the anti-terrorist police, the anti-scientific “dna samples” of the anti-terrorist police and the “testimonies” dictated by the police. It is significant that during his arrest, the commander of the Anti-Terrorist Service, Lefteris Hardalias, told him: “We know you have nothing to do with the robbery at OΠΑΠ, but you will find the icing on the cake tomorrow.” The cherry on the cake was the police’s methodical claim that Vangelis Stathopoulos was involved in the ‘Revolutionary Self-Defense’ organization.

In a court of law, in which 3 witnesses testified they were with Vangelis in the centre of Athens at the time of the theft at the OPAP store in Cholargos. In a court, in which even the prosecution witnesses themselves testified that they did not identify Vangelis in any of the organisation’s attacks, nor in the theft. In a court, in which a biologist/technical consultant testified that this particular dna sample could be anyone’s. In the same court, our comrade was sentenced to 19 years.
Continue reading “Greece: Update on the appeal court of anarchist Vangelis Stathopoulos, set for 9 February 2022” →

Greece: Text, letter by Anarchist prisoner Dimitris Hatzivassiliadis

Posted on 2021/08/24 - 2021/08/24 by darknights

Informative announcement:

From October 2019, following my injury during the expropriation in a local store of a state casino in Holargos (Athens), I fled the nexus of preventive and criminal repressive control. The side effect of my injury was the discovery of a set of illegal tools of resistance and the revelation of my relationship with the guerrilla organization Revolutionary Self-Defence. Being an outlaw, I made public my political responsibility for the intended reconstruction of the guerrilla struggle, starting with the example of the Revolutionary Self-Defence Organization. Reversing the condition of political isolation of the one who escapes the blackmailing conventions which the state seeks and which serves it (wherever it comes from), I participated to the maximum in the public movement dialogue, with an eye to the evolution of the revolutionary class struggle. The period of exile was a transitional attempt to reposition myself in the global socio-political space of resistance in order to go forward. In the first year, the breaking of deep-rooted barriers was not achieved. I remained trapped in an isolation related to the collective impasses of the Greek movement.

On Monday, August 9, I attempted the expropriation of a bank fund in Pefka area, in Thessaloniki. As I was leaving the area, in a car and having previously ridden a motorcycle, I was stopped and taken prisoner by uniformed state mercenaries who had mobilized to locate and trap the perpetrator of the robbery. My capture is not in the slightest connected with my earlier search by the special anti-guerrilla mechanisms and, more broadly, by police and digital surveillance. Until I said my name, they did not know who they had arrested.

Initially, I was detained at the police headquarters in Thessaloniki (AMET), in the garbage detention centre, together with the other social prisoners. I am now in the underground wing of the women’s prison in Korydallos, which was built 2 decades ago specially for the political prisoners of the repressive operations against the 17N and the Revolutionary People’s Struggle and through which the captured guerrillas of the Revolutionary Struggle organization and the rest of the political prisoners of the most relevant court cases have passed. The political prisoners Dinos Giantzoglou, Christodoulos Xiros and Savvas Xiros are currently in the same wing. The serving of the sentence (16 years) of the expropriation court in Holargos and the case of the Revolutionary Self-Defence Org. has begun.

So far the new case file concerns only the expropriation of the bank and, with the exception of a point of dubious concept (accusation of “use of weapons”), attributes accusations which, according to the ideological codes of bourgeois law, first correspond to acts by which I undertook the expropriation of the bank, the showing of a weapon, the temporary and potentially compensated appropriation of 2 private vehicles as necessary means for the expropriation of the bank and the refusal to be photographed during the pre-investigative phase, as a refusal of consent to the persecuting regime. Although neither the tactical defeats with their serious personal consequences nor their collective and personal background can be hidden, and although I considered a public trial for this specific bank expropriation to be of little importance as a political battleground, I do not recognize the law of what they are historically: a rule of subjugation to idealized class domination. For the political defence of each of my actions and all of them in class and cultural terms, the comrades can refer to the hundreds of pages I have written in the past year and a half. I hope to be able to publish a political account of the latest developments soon.

With the proletarian uprising in the heart, anarchy in the mind, libertarian communism in practice and ecumenical socialist self-government in the program I confirm my presence where a new free world is being conceived.

Dimitris Hatzivassiliadis

16/8/2021

——————

Source: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1613901/

Via & Translated by Act For Freedom Now!

Greece: About the anarchist comrade Dimitris Hatzivassiliadis arrested on 9/8/2021

Posted on 2021/08/11 - 2021/08/12 by darknights

According to the regime 9.8.21, the arrest took place in Thessaloniki. We must not leave it like this. There must be information through his own people (close comrades, friends, lawyers) so that we do not leave him alone in the hands of the State, without knowing his movements.

SOLIDARITY…

Update 10/8/21

After a telephone communication with the comrade D. Hatzivassiliadis, he is fine, they have not transferred him to Athens, they have still got him in Thessaloniki, maybe today he will go before a prosecutor. People in solidarity in Thessaloniki need to mobilize and stand in solidarity in the event that they are passed before a prosecutor or investigator there.

Source: Athens indymedia

Via: Act For Freedom Now!

Dark Nights Note: Dimitris Hatzivassiliadis has been wanted by the Greek police since 2019 accused of involvement for attacks & robberies involving Organisation Revolutionary Self-Defense. Anarchists Vangelis Stathopoulos & D.M. have already been sentenced after being arrested to 16 years and 10 years for the same case, denying any involvement in the organisation.

Organisation Revolutionary Self-Defence took responsibility for an attack on the Mexican Embassy in memory of 20th anniversary of the assassination of anarchist Christoforos Marinos by the E.K.A.M. (Anti-Terrorsist Squad), a hand grenade attack against the French Embassy injuring a cop, two shootings at a MAT riot police outside the PASOK party headquarters in the Exarcheia neighborhood of Athens and are also suspected of an explosive thrown at Russian Embassy along numerous bank and business robberies especially of an OPAP gaming store.