Anarchist killed by Greek police

Just repeating some of what I asked on another news item thread about 14 hours ago:

I wonder if this killing of the "anarcho-terrorist" is a quite deliberate trap on the part of the State to provoke revenge bombings by anarchists that will, eventually, very likely kill blameless proletarians, and then the State can leap in with a vastly intensified repression that'll get everyone involved in defence committees whilst scaring off the majority of strikers and rioters into fearful submission (at least, that would be the State's hope)....?

I have avoided to report on this story so far, because of confused or in purpose misleading press reports fed by the Ministry of Public Order. The official story goes that the dead man and another man engaged two police men in battle when the latter tried to check on them while supposedly trying to steal the above mentioned car. In the gun battle than ensued Lambros Foundas was killed with a bullet on the back, while the other man escaped wounded. Since then the photo above has been circulating in all news broadcasts and webpages by the anti-terrorist bureau which is asking for information. The media are spreading rumors fed by the police that the man is a "top ranking terrorist", a member of the Revolutionary Struggle, or of the Sect of Revolutionaries, with close ties to the "Gang in Black", an imaginary anarchist bank robbery group whose existence has been waived as nonsense by the greek courts. The connection of the supposed robber group with armed groups is the grand scenario of the Minister of Public Order Mr Chrisochoidis who is an expert of constructing evidence and imprisoning innocent people as the November 17 case proves (Mr Giotopoulos has been convicted to life imprisonment as the leader of the armed group, with the only evidence against him being a single fingerprint on a book...). According to the latest news the gun of the dead man is a virgin one, meaning it has never been used in any law-breaking activities before. In general, it would be best to avoid reproducing here media stories about the dead man as they are probably no more than police fables meant to scare, intimidate or confuse the movement. On the other hand if the man indeed is an urban guerrilla, previous battle caused deaths of the kind did not lead to retaliations even during the blood-drenched late 1980s, so it seems misplaced for the State to hope for a strategy of tension. Once again I must stress that in the 35 year long history of urban guerrilla in Greece only one man has lost his life by accident, all other victims being targeted one to one capitalist and statist functionaries. Any blind attack against civilians is bound to be perceived and treated without hesitation as a State trick by the people of the country.

I am translating here for all interested a communique by the Anarchist Archive, one of the oldest, most traditional and best-known anarchist groups in Greece, on Lambros Foundas. I think it makes an interesting and highly controversial public obituary to the man. I do not identify with the text below, and will try to provide any public response to it by other anarchist or revolutionary groups as a documentation of political dialogue on the issue.

The struggle of all of us who struggle against any form of power, who "are anxious" for every moment not to be lost, and who preserve stubbornly the belief that we are not incapable of building a free and power-less world, is as far from any sort of mythology as the earth from the moon. This struggle had and has innumerable dead, hostages but also people who quit because they loose their hopes or they conform as power found a "small" or "big" price to buy them off. All those who, therefore, all looking for hagiographies, for martyrs or for saviours, for heroes, or for "holy monsters" are no different from those who do not loose a chance to point with their finger the "adventurists", the "lost sheep", the "suspiciously diverging", the politically "forever lost". Both the "transcedental beings" glorified by the former, and the "extremists" from which the latter distance themselves are consumable. In both cases the issue is forgetfulness, despite the former or the latter evangelising the opposite. The "ecstatics" talk about "the sacrificed", while the others demarcate of the limits of "loss" with political piety. It is equally insignificant if that converging is achieved due to fanaticism or illusions, naiveness or purposefulness. for reasons of political survival and projection or of dogmatic exercises. The "conficting" voices above are yelling in order to convince that they are enemies, but their trick had hide itself with great difficulty.
Be it. The "play" is sad and a thousand times rehearsed, but known things always convey "certainty/security". Always? Or perhaps not? The words below and all of the above are not the product of some obligation or duty. Nor are they part of some revolutionary necrology. They are far away and hostile to any effort of mythologisation, reclaiming, intervention or distancing, they are against the mud and the devaluation that power is trying to channel via the publication of the identity and photo of a dead "terrorist" after a clash with cops in Dafni.

Lambros Foundas, who fell dead, during the exchange of fire with the crew of a patrol car in the area of Dafni, is known for his anarchist activity. He participated as a high school teacher in social practices and a bit later in the Anarchist Group Black Thorn that published the journal Roads of Rage. He was active in protest marches, demos, social clashes, fly-posting, conversations and happenings. He was one of those thousands of young people who at that time did not enter any party youth group, who participated in the pupil's occupations and clashes after the assassination of the teacher Nikos Temboneras in Patras, who were inspired by the insurrectionary events of January 1991, but also by the anarchist opinions and practices, which they made their own with a liveliness which words are too poor to express. The Anarchist Group Black Thorn until its disolvement participated in the Collaboration of Anarchist Groups and Individuals for Social Solidarity and Multiform Action. During the Polytechnic occupation of 1995, which took place on the anniversary of the 1973 uprising, Lambros Foundas was amongst the 504 arrested by the repressive state forces that invaded on the morning of 18 November 1995 inside the Athens Polytechnic. He was thus amongst the young people of his "generation" who the politically "correct" ones took haste to characterise "lost". He was amongst those comrades who chose a side and "traveled" the 1990s decade from demonstration to demonstration, from barricade to barricade, in pationate solidarity towards any social sector that chose to confront power, bearing each their own mistakes and rights, their difference and their stuborness, making a liar of any power that wanted to portray them as "passers by" of the social struggles. Of course there were also such kind of people. With Lambros since then we have found ourselves so many times next to each other in demonstrations, clashes and in the barricades.

We thus believe unwaveringly that what the struggling people leave behind is ALL THAT CONTRIBUTE REALLY AND NOT SUPERFICIALLY to the process of liberation from the bonds of oppression and exploitation. This is their heritage that is beyond their individual needs, decisions or choices. Because the means are not a goal in themselves, they do not separate those who struggle, but they liberate possibilities; they do not make saints out of those who choose this or that form, nor do they elevate them filling them with decorations. There are no generally and abstractly unjustly lost comrades. Nor is it important in these cases to look for operational errors. Equally however the logic that explanations are the privilege of hieratic councils, of the initiated or of some sublime internal affairs is not good for us. Nor can our answer to those who weave scenarios can our answer start and finish with the saying "losses are a necessary evil". Our positions should be clear and sound.

We close by bidding Lambros farewell with an indian wish (and certainty): next time (we meet) it will be better!

ANARCHIST ARCHIVE OF ATHENS

thanks for the translation, good to have a bit more background. Look forward to hearing your opinion on it

At the moment bourgeois news continue their war of slime, while anarchists have started a campaign in honour of the dead man with posters writing "Lambros Foundas was one of us" posted en mass in Athens. According to the police, the hand grenade found in the man's backpack is not of the type used by any urban guerrilla group in Greece. Thus until now no evidence have been found suggesting that the man was a member of any guerrilla group, despite bourgeois media portraying him as "at the heart of the Revolutionary Struggle" and "as preparing for an imminent terrorist attack".

One more text published online regarding the killing of Lambros Foundas is a short letter from prison by the revolutionary Giorgos Voutsis Voyatzis who is spending time in jail after being convicted for a bank robbery in Athens:

Comrade Lambros was a true examplar of a struggles for all of us. A real revolutionary, sworn enemy of apraxia [idleness or lack of praxis]. Simple, sober, eclectic and decided. UNTIL THE END, LEADER OF HIS OWN SELF. Besides, he made no contract with life so that he cheated on it. A contract with life is signed by those who divorce from the choice of just-praxis [dikaiopraxia]. Consider these not so big-phrased but honest words a last farewell to a comrade and combatant of freedom. Let praxis/actions speak... 11/03/2010.

Spanish translation:

www.klinamen.org

For those interested on the viewpoint of the left regarding the case I reproduce here an article by Roza Kovani, published today in the weekly newspaper Epohi (p. 22), one of the most widely read and "serious" papers of the left aligned with the Coalition of Radical Left.

Title: New Generation of Terror-lust [tromolagneia - a neologism referring to media's lust for terrorist stories]

On the dawn of Wednesday a 35 year old man fell dead on a street of Dafni hit by the gun of a policeman. An exchange of fire and the effort of two persons (the dead and one more) to steal a car had preceded [the event]. AS it became known in the next hours by police announcements, the dead man is Lambros Foundas who was hit on his left shoulder blade (which means he was hit from the back). At the spot, besides the gun of the dead man (which ballistics showed has never been used before) a handgrenade was found. The second individual escaped on foot. Somewhere here facts stop. And fiction begins, "information", sauces [false whitewashing rumors], terror-lust and phonecalls by Michalis Chrisochoidis [the Public Order Minister] to the directors of big newspapers to "be careful" with the case, with whatever this might be implying (by the way, this fine tactic had been institutionalised by his last term in office in an effort to promote the freedom of the press [ironic comment to forced briefings and threats to journalist during the November 17 case in 2002]). The landscape is still foggy, the "operation" of the Greek Police is unfolding and the ground is slippery for any expression of certainty. Yet it is obvious that the "care" advised by the Minister consists in the old trick: talk about it all, the Sect, the Revolutionary Struggle, the Robbers in Black, add a pinch of Tsoutsouvis [urban guerrilla killed in the gun battle of Gizi in 1985], add the classic info that dozens of house searches are being conducted (you can choose your own number, some say 20, others 13, other 17, all of course based on safe and credible information from inside) - let it be noted that the reality and extent of "searches and interrogations" phenomenon until the night of Friday is verified as fabricated - and ending by the all-promising phrase that the man was "beyond suspicion". Ready-made terrorist. And since we have a dead "terrorist" in our hands (who unfortunatelly we cannot torture in intensive care [ref. to Savas Xiros' chemical torture in Evangelismos in the summer of 2002], nor can he most fortunately refuse to cooperate) the looting of the corpse begins through the the discourse of police reportage called profiling: first pages of newspapers claim "in the morning he was a manager, at night a terrorist", vacations snapshots followed by three-digit phone numbers for informations, parents, friends, the girlfriend now called "the key-woman", the one day leave from work which is certain to have been acquired for some terrorist attack, which would probably take place at dawn, the biologist who knew about DNA, and much much more. Whatever the case, Mr Chrisochoidis is struggling with passion since his first day in office for a second "success" of the November 17 type - for political or personal (which are again political) reasons. Excuse my intense style that will surprise some, but I have watched that movie before. And you will allow me to say that this terrorist climate, that cop discourse and perspective that has saddled our minds ever since Mr Chrisochoidis' first success, snitching, the universal line "first condemn then talk", the arbitrariness and the sense that your life can become a rag in the hands of any irresponsible police reporter are equally horrific in every case. And do not concern only those involved in any way, but function paralytically for the movement, corrosively for the totality of society. This is why I can write all these in certainty, while the case is still developing. I could say a few things about the anarchist Lambros Foundas, as we belonged in the same generation and have walked so many times the same streets, and have been so many times in the same assemblies...I could communicate to you the sorrow and rage of his friends and comrades. I dont know however what the point would be of an alternative "profiling". I will simple say that Lambros Foundas was not "beyond suspicion', he was not a ghost as journalists claim, you could see him wherever things happened, on the street. On the streets which three days now are filled with slogans and black posters...

Roza Kovani, Epohi, No.10771, 14/03/2010, p. 22, Athens

Update: DNA tests comparing the DNA of the dead anarchist with the DNA found in urban guerrilla attacks in the past have all proved negative. Also the DNA of the blood on the pavement tested positive against the one of the dead anarchist, casting doubts on police claims that a second man was wounded during the battle. The media continue spreading rumors and thinly veiled threats to individuals, functioning as a direct mouthpiece of the police.

AAA, TAXIKIPALI'S updates & Roza Kovani's translated into german:
http://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/17948

note&link with robin hood!

the "poker"-gang is getting fucked if...
or cuz:
ONE IS A RAT!

media is doing police work with publishing pics and ask to call
thing is not that one got caught but that he moved to pigstation and told about

that's their story, also their story goes we didn't catch all the money!

but we did. if ya meet one of the pictured dudes open ya doors to them

berlin, 16th of greek spring-time
if ya deliver at this hotel called Hyatt - located directly the other side of there the red carpet got rolled for child molester (THE LEWD )"roman polanski, "...imaging what he did! fuckin a 13 year old kid..."(1978) - you will have problem with wasting of time cuz now they got deliveries round the block.received. "Sorry mate, next time not here.. our customers... we don want to see sweaty messengers here in front"
Hyatt located at potsdamer platz that is an expensive fake but cool for the proles of the subproletarian neighborhoods(!)to shoplift for..
one time i was "runnin reds and killin peds" - bag filled with L.K.A. mail to the chief of the berlin police and the minister of public order from berlin. riot-cops caught me with TWO busses. and instead of being smart and showing my have to do tripple rush deliveries i was ignorant. no word to cops, esp when they all jump out in riot-gear (like hockey) and surround me and my bike. with one hand i was fishing for the i.d. with the other i talked with my dispatcher to send a comrade to keep on delivering

hmm, normally vans/busses with riot cops are somewhere else not here, allthough there are still legalized squats and in 1981 lots! whole winterfeld-square--
thing is now CUZ OF THE GANGS from the project
but we were gangs too in 1981
and still are

so props to the robbers, don get caught
ya POKER-GANG
respect"!"
-jacques mesrine

:confused: :confused: :confused:

I am reproducing here the text of an poster that has appeared in Athens signed with an A in a circle. I think it conveys both the sentiments of many anarchists and revolutionaries on the killing of Lambros, as well as a glimpse of revolutionary culture of death and its poetics in greece, which has a long tradition since at least the early 19th century.

IN LIFE HE WAS A LIGHTENING

Charged with the genuine agony for choices, for the future, for his comrades, for the struggle.
With sharp thoughts cast by the the matter of personal work and of the movement.
With decisive actions, unwavering and made of fire.
You showed with your very life that the way of the revolutionary is to say few and well balanced words,
to act with wilderness and dedication. Rabid and Conscious.
In your remembering fists tighten up...tears become weapons.
The old Cause becomes ever more urgent.

AND IN DEATH HE WAS A WOLF.

One breath was enough, one decision and steeled will.
With a gun in your hand and freedom in your gaze,
you chased your dreams to the very end.
You left the way you lived.
Wildly and freely.

REVOLUTIONARIES ARE NOT LOST WHEN THEY DIE

They ride a star and trace tracks of freedom into infinity.
They paint with their blood that which everyone of us is dreaming but afraid to dare.
They are fireflies in the darkness of inertia.
They are the Fire, the struggle, the street.
Let us all catch fire from their fire...
Not to forget - to act.

HONOUR TO THE ANARCHIST LAMBROS FOUNDAS
The struggle continues
Good journey comrade.

(Α)

Wednesday march 17th some people in Helsinki put a 'candle' at the Greek embassy in memory of Lambros Foundas and everyone oppressed by greek state.

http://takku.net/article.php/20100319212429437

Around 1000 people marched today to the spot of Lambros Foundas' murder site, with many locals also gathered at the spot. It must also be noticed that the anti-terrorist bureau has launched an unprecedented interrogation procedure of all neighbours of Lambros Foundas in Ambelokipoi, conducting hundreds of house visits and retaining an intimidating presence in the area.