actforfreedomnow
29/4
This morning, three of the six arrested anarchists for the Revolutionary Struggle case have published a 16-page letter (in the Athens weekly “Pontiki”, which has traditionally hosted a few of the armed guerrilla groups’ communiques) in which they claim political responsibility for their participation to the group Revolutionary Struggle. The three are Pola Roupa, Nikos Maziotis and Kostas Gournas. Extracts of their letter follow.
We claim the political responsibility for participation to Revolutionary Struggle. We declare that comrade Lambros Foundas, who died in [the Athens suburb of ] Dafni on March 10, 2010, after a shoot-out with the cops, also participated in Revolutionary Struggle.The fight he gave was one for materialising the subversive plan collectively decided by Revolutionary Struggle. It was a struggle for revolution and for freedom.
We also declare that we are very proud of our group, Revolutionary Struggle, we are proud of our history, of every moment of our political action. We are proud of comrade Lambros Foundas, who we honour and will always do so.
As much as the mechanisms of repression might believe that by imprisoning us they will do away with us, they are wrong. Whether outside or inside prisons the struggle, which for us is a matter of honour and dignity, will continue.
As much as the two terrorists, [PM] Papandreou and [minister of public order] Chrisochoidis laugh smugly, as much as they believe they have safeguarded the security necessary for their social-fascist party to continue with the application of its criminal plans against society, waging their tails now that their American superiors congratulate them, as much as they claim they are done with a serious threat for their regime, we assure them they will not do away with us easily.
As long as we are alive, for as long as we live and breathe, we will do our best to pose problems to their antisocial and criminal plans.
And if our hunters and the political authorities of this country believe they have the entire society on their side, if they believe that the majority of the people consider us to be a social threat, they are mistaken. For the majority of the population, the social threat comes from the government passing one anti-social measure after the other, by dictation of the crows of capital which “bribe”, with the cash they have at their disposal, the state mechanism. Terrorism is the years-long neoliberal policy imposed by the parties in power with the toleration or support of smaller parties. Terrorism is the application of the stability plan which has so far caused large segments of the population to watch this unprecedented attack against them in fear.
Terrorism is not having the most basic material to survive, having your wage and your pension taken away, the bank confiscating your house, living in lethal pollution. Terrorism is living everyday under a regime of fear for your own survival.
[...]
The objective conditions are now ideal. Let’s form the subjective conditions required for us to attempt the revolution. This is our chance.
LONG LIVE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
HONOUR TO COMRADE LAMBROS FOUNDAS
LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION
POLA ROUPA
NIKOS MAZIOTIS
KOSTAS GOURNAS
A letter from Christoforos Kortesis, an imprisoned comrade
30/4
The letter that follows was written in the prison of Corinth by Christoforos Kortesis (one of the 6 arrested anarchists on the “Revolutionary Struggle” case):
On 10th April, 6 people were arrested and taken to the Police Headquaters (GADA). I was one of them. We didn’t know why we were detained, and when we insisted to contact lawyers the cops told us that we couldn’t, because this was a case of adduction. After 56 hours – during which we were not even allowed to contact each other – we were taken to the courts on Evelpidon St. facing the charge of participation in the “Revolutionary Struggle”. The timing of my arrest coincided with the prime minister’s announcement (Papandreou) that Greece will possibly take a loan from the IMF. There is obviously no room left for coincidences here, as is also the case with the police raid in the alleged “Halandri safehouse” and the arrests, by the former ruling party Nea Dimokratia, of comrades only a few days before the elections of 2009.
Following our arrest, we were hardly surprised to see that instantly the leading role in misinformation was taken on by the usual tele-nosy parkers - among all the scum. They presented evidence that was not even written in the legal brief, and started to piece together a puzzle which went as far as… attacking the Twin Towers!!!
Soon afterwards, our guilt was taken for granted in the media that started competing who will be the one to give out more information on our personal lives; who will be the first to take photos of the apartment-safehouse and tell what motorcycles we prefer, what time we go to bed, what time and how many times we make love and things of this sort: nothing more than offerings on the altar of spectacle. However, none of this comes as a surprise to me. I am well aware that mass media in our ‘democratic’ society play exactly the same role as the ministries of propaganda used to play under totalitarianism.
People in Greece will inevitably realize that nothing has changed in their everyday life, even after those blood thirsty terrorists got arrested. If before capitalists were offering the remains of their affluent buffets to the people, at this point they will stop doing even that. But in those times of acute economic crisis and social despair, people can end up doing things that before we could not even imagine. The massive rebellion that spread all over Greece after the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos, two years ago, was just a hint – offering hope for some and despair to others… Repression now will be harsher than ever aiming primarily at breaking the most radical part of society, its greatest internal enemy, the anarchist anti-authoritarian movement. That is why, at the same time as unemployment in general exceeds 15%, Chrisochoidis intends to employ even more people to join the security forces so as to ‘combat’ the growing menace of terrorism, while the only goal is to enforce the defensive lines of the state establishment.
But it is exactly at this time of crisis that we are presented with unique possibilities and diverse social groups can be radicalized. It is exactly at this time of crisis that tones of explosives are accumulated at the foundations of the capitalist establishment and the only thing missing, comrades, is to put fire on them!
On the other hand, I am not going to talk at all about the accusations laid upon us, since innocence and guilt give and go depending on the side that we have chosen to take in life. If the cops, the journalists, the politicians, the bankers, or the judges consider someone as guilty in the name of bourgeois democracy, then, all of them are guilty in the name of public justice.
In the same sense, I am not going to talk at all about the conditions of detention throughout those first days at GADA. As an anarchist, I consider myself and my comrades prisoners of war. This war, which Chrisochoidis became able to see only some months ago, has been actually conducted with rage during centuries between any kind of masters and the masses of revolted.
Everyone has already chosen sides and when some realize that they are at the wrong side of the camp, then, it will be too late…
Patience and determination for all those who chose to march through the troubled path of history towards social revolution…
Honour forever to the anarchist Lambros Fountas
Farewell, comrade
Monday, April 26, 2010
SOLIDARITY GATHERINGS FOR THE 6 ANARCHIST COMRADES PRISONERS
26/4/
Comrades gather outside Korinthos, Trikala, and Thiva prisons where some of the 6 anarchists accused of the "Revolutionary Struggle" case are held.In Korinthos prisons were Christoforos Kortesis is held,there were about 150 comrades.There were many cops, and they had closed all the roads with riotcopvans so there was no view of the prison and so no one could get close. At some point one van left and the people could see the prison yard.The comrades are chanting, throwing leaflets and a loudspeaker has been set up.In Trikala,where Kostas Gournas and Vaggelis Stathopoulos are held,100 comrades gathered and chanted while throwing leaflets,not a big police presence and after the gathering,there was a solidarity demo in the city of Trikala.In Thiva,where Panagiwta Roupa,who is 8months pregnant, is held (along with Kwstandina Karakatsani now since friday, accused of the "conspiracy cells of fire"case),150 comrades gathered. The cops shut the road from far away so noone could hear them inside the prison. The people then cut through some fields and came up right next to one wing of the prison,they chanted and they prisoners responded with chants from the inside. After a while,some riotcops showed up in the inside of the prison yard,where the people chanted and made fun of them.All demonstrations were very strong and emotional and finished with no trouble.THE PASSION FOR FREEDOM IS STRONGER THAN THEIR PRISONSFREEDOM TO THE 6 COMRADES ACCUSED FOR THE"REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE" MORE
Thursday, April 22, 2010
FREEDOM NOW TO THE 6 ANARCHISTS COMRADES
Kostas Gournas is one of the six anarchists arrested recently in Athens, accused by the cops of participating in the urban guerrilla group'' Revolutionary Struggle.''Kostas has since been transferred to the prison ofTrikala in the north of the country where, together with another one of the six arrested anarchists (Vaggelis Stathopoulos) he is being held under ISOLATION – that is, with limited access to toilet and water and with many obstacles in his communication with relatives and lawyers. 19/4
The Philadelphia Experiment athens greece 19/4
Translator’s note: What follows is a communiqué by anarchists on the recent arrests supposedly linked to the organisation “Revolutionary Struggle” and the media-led hysteria that accompanied them here in Greece. Its title is a play of words on the well-known US naval military “Philadelphia experiment” and the Athens neighbourhood of Nea (New) Philadelphia, where the most recent police operations and arrests have taken place. Freedom to the Six, freedom to all of us.
Cops with machine guns in hands; police roadblocks at night, humiliating checks on every corner; secret agents of the regime knocking on doors, demanding from the population that they give names; willing informants rushing to offer their services; scared people walking on their streets trying to “mind their own business”. Is this 1936 Berlin or 2010 Philadelphia, Athens? A return to the past or an experiment for the future?
The only thing certain is that no coup d’état has been declared so far, nor has [greek prime minister] Papandreou decided to trim off his mustache to make it shorter. And the reason why this has not happened is simply because it is not at all necessary. Western democracies, in exactly the same way that they integrated those elements of nazism useful to them, also learned from its mistakes. The state of exception, that is, the condition imposed under the pretext of the capturing of the organisation “Revolutionary Struggle” does the job just fine, without a need for the eye-sore of tanks, let alone concentration camps or the suspension of constitution.
…. and the “job” is nothing else than the turning of a condition now presented as concerning very few into a vehicle for changes that will concern everyone. The state of emergency imposed at this moment in Nea Philadelphia is cementing its functioning as a normality, as something that can take place whenever the state deems necessary. The force of the state is never applied exclusively toward its occasional target. Rather, every time it is applied without meeting any resistance, it gets diffused toward all directions, further establishing itself, establishing its capacity to be applied again, anywhere, against anyone, under any pretext that will be presented as a “necessity”… the state of exception tends to become the rule.
And so, anyone believing that the state of exception imposed in Nea Philadelphia does not concern them, is asleep – and their awakening will not be pleasant at all. Anyone believing that the night road-blocks, the raids, check-points, police patrols on foot and the “friendly interrogations” of the counter-terrorism unit are the logical consequences of a “necessary capturing” [of the organisation Revolutionary Struggle], of a safe lead or at least, some grounded suspicions against someone who was “looking for trouble” does nothing else than to cheerfully saw off the branch they are sitting on.
Anyone calmly watching people in struggle being prosecuted, imprisoned and presented as some kind of beasts on TV screens simply because they are “terrorists” in the eye of sovereign power, must understand that this rationalising is part of the same strategy that names the politicians as innocent, shipowners as philanthropists, cops as citizen protectors, syndicalist leaders as protectors of the workers’ rights, migrants as criminals, strikers as illegal. They must understand that the “capturing of the Revolutionary Struggle” is in its essence a tool for the potential capturing and dismantling of any and all social disobedience. This of course concerns not only the urban guerillas nor just the anarchist/anti-authoritarian scene but rather, everyone for whom the alibi of the capitalist system have started to run out.
No sociology degrees are necessary for anyone to understand that the falling apart of the first-world consumerist euphoria, the emergency fiscal measures and the forthcoming subordination of the country to the IMF combined with the increasingly suffocating everyday reality of surveillance and control leave little leeway for people to remain oblivious. They leave little leeway for silent or scared inaction and most certainly, they should leave no leeway for the formation of a wiling, subservient reserve army and authority collaborators. A reserve army that personifies itself in one or the other scum who find an exit from their individual misery in the social “recognition” of the informant, the one willing to do the dirty job in some “common cause” against the “absolute Evil”.
All those willing to join the ranks of this underground army of the bosses must be isolated and routed immediately. Their position and motives must be exposed and pilloried. The sordid motives they present as a merit must be countered publicly. Every unsolicited protector of the law should take notice.
Zero tolerance against the terrorism of the state and mass media. Immediate release of everyone prosecuted in connection to the case of the organisation “Revolutionary Struggle”.
Anarchists / Anti-authoritarians
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