Anarchists Disrupt Popular Jazz Festival

Yesterday, comrades took the stage at an outdoor jazz festival in Athens (you are right to assume they weren't invited.) Two banners were hung across the stage and, in between sets, two texts were read. One was about A. Kiriakopoulos and the other prisoners still held in jail after December's insurrection and the other was about state terrorism against immigrants. Jazz likely hasn't been this interesting since the musicians kicked heroin.

FIRE TO CLEANSE THE EARTH

FIRE TO CLEANSE THE EARTH

A movement that is not capable of looking after its comrades in prison is destined to die, and that at a high price under atrocious torture.’

- Daniela Carmignani, Revolutionary Solidarity

The insurrection in December was a visible and mass expression of the social war that rages at all times and will continue until the destruction of all domination.

Thousands fought in the re-appropriated streets of the necropolis. Hundreds were arrested and, with exceptionally swift procedures, several were thrown in prison. Six of them still remain imprisoned up to this day. Because for those in power someone has to pay the price for the negation in practice shown by all of us against this decaying world.

Within the first two weeks of June the remaining prisoners of December, amongst them the anarchist A.Kiriakopoulos, will be coming in front of a board of judges who will determine whether their imprisonment will be extended. Days of action will take place between the 12-15 of June in solidarity across Greece.

Prison is a direct and violent tool that power has at its disposal to use against those that are not able or refuse to follow its rules. Especially in moments of intensified struggle or revolt, prison plays the role of isolating the “troublemakers” to weaken our collective attack and instill fear in those who may be willing to join the fight. In this way, prison and the justice system are structures that aim to inhibit the generalization of social conflict. Therefore, solidarity with all those imprisoned for the insurrection in December is necessary for the furtherance of the revolutionary project.

Solidarity should not be viewed through the lens of duty, obligation or charity nor does it require a personal relationship or absolute political identification with those imprisoned but is a means to strengthen our ties as collaborators in a conspiracy against the existent. Solidarity is our weapon by which we attack not only the prison but all the structures of power in a continuation of the social struggle as a whole. At the same time, solidarity is a tool used to obtain the immediate practical result of freeing our comrades in prison.

This is a call to comrades wherever they may be to start a wave of solidarity that sends shudders down the spine of the bastards in power. Let’s prove to them that the Athens syndrome is indeed a contagious disease.

Inside and outside the prison bars, the insurrectionary perspective is a permanent condition which does not wait for a specific moment, does not accept charity but attacks directly, everywhere, always.

Until the destruction of all prisons

FREEDOM TO THE COMRADE A.KIRIAKOPOULOS AND TO ALL THE PRISONERS OF DECEMBER

SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE PROSECUTED

- For the generalization of the insurrectional clash

NOTHING IS OVER: EVERYTHING CONTINUES

Insurrection is permanent, everywhere, and inevitable. Insurrection does not wait for the masses, the vanguard or the moment.

Though December will come again every year, nothing will ever be the same. It is war; paths of ashes leave the past behind, towards the total dismantlement of this old dead world, against which the attack accelerated in the past months, that will never be over; there is no going back from it. This war knows no innocence, while living in this reality makes us all a hunter for life: the ones that cry; the ones that sleep, the ones that sigh; the ones that spit in its mouth, the ones that build; the ones that break out. Once ignited the revolt continues in a dynamic of tension, recuperation and attack, by many, by few, by dark, by light; for as long as our time, our bodies and our freedom remain stolen from us. There is no counting on where the revolt begun or where it will go to, the open unknown is in the hands of the ones with the eternal youth, the stones, the passion and the gasoline. It will all continue.

Smelling the fire, the state took hundreds of people off the streets in a fearful attempt to maintain its fragile power, to weaken the attack. But rebellion cannot be outnumbered, cannot be softened. As long as the prison society holds a grip on lives inside and outside, there is no desire to wait for a “second December”, because if waiting in the streets takes long; waiting in the prison takes eternally, while the state, the capital and their dominion find their space to root in the normality of apathy ever more. With an increasing amount of security and surveillance measures, they try to alienate reality more and more from its rebels in high speed and it speaks proudly of clean streets and sweet dreams, of law and order.

But nothing is over, Everything continues.

As long as the world of authority and exploitation builds roads of dialogue and content, there will be holes smashed in them. As long as they hand out candy of dependence and devotion, it will be poisoned. As long as they build their high walls of separation and punishment, they will be burnt down. As long as we are all prisoners; nothing is over, and will the insurrection continue.

6 People were taken out of the negation in practice during December, and now, 5 months later, the state is trying to use their freedom as an example for its revenge on all those revolted. Not one fitting key coming from the politicians, the judges, or the guards will be able to unlock the door of their confinement.

Only a sledgehammer will be able to liberate by tearing down the entire façade of the prison. Therefore we will not make any demands to those in power, nor will we put any pressure on them to do “the right thing”. We are simply digging holes in its fortress, undermining its vests, until we’ve reached our beloved rebels.

- anarchists

Letter from anarchist A.Kiriakopoulos from Koridallos prison

Five months after the explosive events of December, the mass arrests and the prosecutions that took place, six of us remain captives in the claws of the state.

Recently, the so called “justice state” and its servants decided to extend my pre-trial detention (remand) stating that what should come first is the extermination of my person and of my “criminal” activity and the protection of society. According to their characterization, I am a reckless and fanatical person. To sum it up they characterized me an enemy of society. But the enemies of society are all those who after the cold-blooded murder of comrade Alexis Grigoropoulos tried to repress the social phenomenon of the violent insurrection in December with the reckless and mass use of teargas to the extent of torture, the beating of protestors, and their swift imprisonment. Anyway, it is known for years now that the cops, especially when dealing with anarchists demos, unleash chemical warfare with the slightest pretext so they can torture people. Despite the vicious repression of December’s insurrectionary violence, it continues to persist and is proof that the fire that was lit cannot be put out. After all Alexis’ murder was the cause and at the same time the pretext for the outbreak of social rage.

As always, a special role was taken on by mass media and the lowlife journalists brought their propaganda to the limit of vileness. After the state murder of Alexis, they reported about the widespread destruction in the whole of Greece and that the police made no arrests. I believe that the fact that all of us imprisoned for the insurrection face the same charges is no coincidence. The line from the state was exactly the same for nearly all of us.

Inside prison, time is the worst enemy. Especially when you are in custody awaiting trial there is a continuous uncertainty as you never know exactly when you are going to be released. This is a situation that definitely wears you down psychologically. This is also an effect of being locked up against your will with four people for 14 hours a day in a 9 square meter cell designed to fit only one person. It is especially felt when relationships of camaraderie or even of understanding are rare as they are outside the prison bars. Of course there are always those who choose to stand in dignity and struggle.

Incarceration is an everyday psychological warfare enforced upon you by the system when you are in prison. On top of this you also have the screws usually treating prisoners who take part in struggles (hunger strikes, refusal of prison food, demanding their printed material from the censorship) in a derogatory and sly way. One typical example is the last time prisoners were refusing prison food as a protest for the murder of Alexis, the warden of the wing came in together with other screws and threatened the prisoners taking part in the protest with disciplinary prison transfers.

Generally, when you are not subjugated to their correctional system they try to create a climate of fear. Anyway prison is like a large melting pot of souls. If you are a coward it will mince you up and make you even more of a coward but if you are tough it will make you even tougher and colder as a person. The cell makes the prisoner suffocate. Outside in the prison yard is the illusion of freedom…

Still through all of this nothing has ended, the struggle continues

Those who are right are the rebels

not the snitches and those who bow down

(a popular greek anarchist chant)

Police Everywhere, Justice Nowhere

(The text below, translated into English, French, and Arabic, was distributed at today's demonstration against the State's racist and xenophobic policies. The demonstration, sadly, didn't end in a riot, but there was some spraypainting, huge canvas campaign posters were ripped from kiosks, the right-wing party's campaign booth was smashed, and so was a shop window. I think what was actually most significant about the protest was the tension in the air when it left Omonoia square. Of course, I don't know if everyone felt it but if you've been to a demonstration or two you've felt it before... )


Police Everywhere, Justice Nowhere


After three weeks of continuous police operations against immigrants in the center of Athens, one cop tears up a Koran carried by an immigrant. This was the reason for a large immigrant demonstration that clashed with the police, which ended with savage beatings, tear gas and arrests.

We know it is enraging to be driven off from your home, a place where povery and war rule, to be shot and hunted on the borders, to reach countries where you are welcomed with racist looks and behaviors, to live in horrible basements, to be given humiliating jobs and to be forced to wait in the line to get a permanency card. When they send cops into your neighborhood and fascists to humiliate, beat and arrest you, the only thing you can do is defend yourself.

The war of the police against the immigrants in the countries of the west is the other side of the war that the same countries conduct at the immigrants' lands. They are the same countries that cultivate islamophobia and racism because they need immigrants only as cheap labor for their own growth and well-being.

The immigrants' rage is justified and cannot be confied by political parties or any kind of leaders, which try to manipulate the immigrants' struggle for their own reasons. As long as we are split by borders, countries and religions, we will remain divided and weak. We see in the immigrants' struggle, the struggle for dignity and freedom and will be in the streets next to them at every act of resistance and self-defense against the police and fascist gangs.

IN THE BOSSES' WORLD WE ARE ALL STRANGERS
SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON

- Patision 61 & Skaramaga Squat

everybody's mask has now fallen for good

(The greek government has announced its plan to arrest and transport immigrants living in the center of Athens to a camp, that once served as a Nato base, on the outskirts of the city like human cargo. In response to the State's xenophobia and racism, demonstrations have taken place almost daily. The text below was translated into English for a wider readership than usual and was distributed at a rally that took place on Axarnon street. The street, located in the center of Athens, for the past few days has been terrorized by the fascists and their police bodyguards. The filth has gone as far as to lock the gate of a playground closed in order to prevent the children of immigrants from enjoying it. Today, the lock was destroyed!)


everybody's mask has now fallen for good...

"fight against those who want to live a
"quiet" life they are ruthless."

The incidents that have happened here in the last weeks are so clear that they speak for themselves: the racist gathering of May 28 at Omonia square that was called by the neo-Nazi organization Xrisi Avgi or Golden Dawn (signing as the "committee of greek citizens") and the attack they made -together as always with the MAT police force- to the occupied place of the old court at Sokratous street where hundreds of immigrants and refuges found shelter. There was also a police occupation of the whole neighborhood for a repressive attack on May 20th, where hundreds of cops made their presence on Axarnon street, made hundreds of checks, detained people, and made dozens of arrests. Because of all of these police actions, the rightful rage of the immigrants was triggered. The violent demonstration on May 22 was followed by 46 arrests and brutal beatings. The arson attack that happened the same night against a Muslim worship house (mosque) at Attaksi square resulted in the injury of five immigrants. On May 23 and 24, the aggression exhibited by the assholes in "committee of citizens and shop owners" at Ag. Padeleimonas against the leftists and the pograms against the immigrants that happened was always done with the help and tolerance of the police.

All these actions are so loud that they are impossible to misinterpet. Within this condition, there is no room for silence and passivity. The racists, the worshipers of the dictatorship and the "respectable" people of the "committee of citizens and shop owers" at Ag. Padeleimonas, together with the para-state fascists believe that the time has come to develop their actions as if they were the modern assault battalions the Middle Ages. Those who are the most obedient and cowardly become accomplices to the State's plans which include the "cleaning operations," beatins, arrests, and the torture of immigrants. Those who demand quiet, order and security, dream of apartheid, crystal nights, and crematoriums.

We, from our side, will never get tired of reminding them of the obvious with action. The racist violence of the "indignant citizens," their neo-Nazi friends, the police occupations and pograms against people who have experienced the most raw repression and exploitation, against people that have left their homes to escape from military occupation of their countries (in which the greek state participates actively) will always find in front of them an imponderable fact. This is working class solidarity among those who are being exploited, the anti-racist and anti-fascist action against all the defenders of the fanciful "cleanliness and superiority of the race," the collective and self-organized struggle for a world liberated from borders, states, gods, masters and oppressors. And this factor will determine the outcome of the social war...

the neighborhoods and the squares belong to everybody.
racists, "respectable citizens" and para-state fasicsts
crawl back to your holes!

anti-fascists, anti-authoritarians, anarchists

Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except in being lazy.

Most of all, democracy triumphs by telling us where to think. The 1900 paper reader could choose to buy a socialist or a rightwing daily, but he had hardly any influence on the structure and evolution of the press. The organization of the Internet is equally beyond the reach of a website browser or writer : for a start, he was never asked about the birth of the web itself. Saying the Internet was created by (and would not exist without) millions of Internauts, is as true as saying that millions of drivers are responsible for the development of the car industry. Making a principle of maximum information and discussion, is inevitably prioritizing the framework where information circulates and discussion takes place. Of course, everyone wishes the channels of communication to be as much “bottom up” as possible, but how could they be if the whole life of the communicators is “top down” organized ? Society is not the addition of millions of publicly shared experiences or views.

“The idea of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas”: this is as much true as in 1845. The difference is that billions of ideas are now being circulated and (nearly) universally available. But who has the power ? The political system is still tuned to general and presidential elections, and the rest is an accessory to the rhyme. In 1900 or 1950, politics was talked about but not made in village hall debates. Neither is it made today on the Internet. Spectacle-induced passivity (as analysed by the S.I.) has taken the form of a constant show of activity.

- Gilles Dauve


"Don't hate the media, become the media!" argues some asshole in a cowboy hat. I'd like to tell him, "I hate the media, I hate the green party, and I'll become whatever the hell I want. Don't get yourself shot in front of Gilman street." To make a long story short, I'm too lazy to write a post today about Greece, so I'll let the bourgeoisie media do the talking. If you got a problem with that Jello, we can battle with raps or we can battle with gats.

Greece: Arsonists Damage State Buildings

From Etaiwan News

The Greek fire service says arsonists have set off incendiary devices at two state power utility buildings in Athens, causing damage but no injury.

The attacks early Tuesday damaged the ground floor of a Public Power Corporation building in the southern suburb of Agios Dimitrios, and five PPC cars in Psychiko, northern Athens.

A fire service statement did not say what kind of devices were used, and the full extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Small anarchist groups frequently set fire to symbols of state authority and wealth, government buildings and cars with foreign number plates, to protest government economic and social policies.

Arrests are rare.

Greece: Bomb Destroys Athens Bank

From the New York Times

A powerful bomb blast shook southern Athens on Tuesday, wrecking a Greek bank and shattering windows of nearby buildings but causing no injuries, the police said. The explosion was triggered by 44 pounds of explosives stashed in a suitcase left at the entrance of a Eurobank bank branch in the suburb of Argyroupoli.

No one claimed responsibility.

Greek militant groups have staged more than 30 attacks since violent riots erupted after the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy in December.