An anti-anarchist witch-hunt against anarchist has been unfolding in Athens since the early hours of Friday with at least 6 people until now detained in relation to "terrorism". The media have launched a rumors campaign indiscriminately disclosing names and accusing the detainees of being members of the Revolutionary Struggle. As a response the Athens Polytechnic has been occupied by anarchists in solidarity.
The Athens anti-anarchist witch-hunt started in the early hours of Friday, with anti-terrorist police breaking into three houses and detaining four people in relation to "domestic terrorism". After the first information were leaked to the usual parrot-blogs and parrot-journalists of the Ministry of Public Order the greek public has been bombarded by images of the stormed houses, dubbed "terrorist lairs", and with thinly veiled information about the detainees which the media portray as having been arrested despite no such official police proclamation. The media campaign identifies at least two of the detainees with historical figures of the anarchist movement in greece, well known for previous imprisonments, hunger strikes and the mass movement in solidarity these led at the time. Naturally we are not going to reproduce the names or more info on the persons here. Then followed more operations, with more houses of anarchist broken in, with allegedly two more people detained, a fact not clarified by the police. This led to renewed anti-anarchist allegations and propaganda in the media, which by then were reproducing wild stories about the alleged connection of the detained with the assassinated anarchist Lambros Foundas, and about "weapons and communiques found in the lairs". What seems to be the case is that the police has found "material that could be use to construct explosives" i.e. any domestic cleaning powders, some engine oil etc, and "written material and notes that could be used for writing communiques similar to the Revolutionary Struggle", i.e. any marxist or anarchist literature. Moreover another anarchist was stopped while walking in the streets of Athens and arrested as a suspect for "armed robbery" in a supermarket. The police led him to his parents house where his great-grandfathers 1914 hunting gun was confiscated as evidence of the crime. The man has been led to to the state inquisitor this morning.
The reaction of anarchists in Athens has been the occupation of the down-town Polytechneio and calling a general assembly this afternoon to coordinate a solidarity campaign.
Meanwhile, riots broke out outside the Salonica Aristotelian University last night, during a party in solidarity to an evicted squat. Last Monday the rector had moved in bulldozers and demolished the squatted "lyomena" buildings housing the punk collective Street Attack and the dance-party anarchist collective Freeteza. The notoriously right-wing rector did not hesitate to order riot police forces in the academic asylum. Lawyers have pressed charges against the rector for preventive breech of the asylum and for illegal demolition of buildings with dangerous lime roofs. It is believed that yesterday nights riots in Salonica were fueled by the demolition of the "lyomena".
It must also be noted that yesterday fascist scum attempted to burn down Agros, the squatted area in Tritsis park in Athens. Earlier the same day, a dozen of fascist para-state elements attacked african street-salesmen in Monastiraki. The immigrants managed to hold their gorund until motorised police came to help the fascists in their racist pogrom which had been pre-announced on the internet as a "campaign against illegal trade".
There will be updates on the case of the detained comrades, which is widely believed to be more serious than the usual NFC-fingerprint-arrest parades.
Comments
Update: The police has
Update: The police has announced the names of five men and one woman as arrested, with their pictures published. As the publication of both names and photos of people arrested but not condemned is in breach of any ethical code (let alone of the bourgeois constitution of the country) I will abstain from reproducing them here before the arrested themselves make public announcements signed by their names. It must be noted however that one of the arrested is an all-time usual-suspect favorite of the police who has suffered for years in the cells of the republic.
The sixth man was arrested today and kept handcuffed in his apartment in Exarcheia for many hours while the police searched his apartment. The prolonged process caused the gathering of around 100 anarchists outside the building, leading to clashes and use of tear gas by the police, with temporary barricades erected in defense by the protesters.
The police claims that it has found a hard disk containing old communiques of the Revolutionary Struggle (easily downloaded online from bourgeois websites) as well as "a plan of a communique for a future terrorist attack", probably indicating only notes of general anarchist political analysis.
Rumors that the Revolutionary Struggle was planning a major attack against the Police National Headquarters (GADA) as well as that the police has found the printer with which the communiques of the Revolutionary Struggle were printed are being spread across the bourgeois media, but are not verified by the police. The police has announced that another 10-12 people are wanted. However all information spread by the media are suspicious, especially after two anarchists claimed to be amongst the detained with their names leaked in the media have not been in fact apprehended by the police.
Update2: Another solidarity
Update2: Another solidarity demo took place today afternoon, this time in Petralona, outside the house of a comrade under search by the anti-terrorist police. The protesters chanted slogans against the anti-terror spectacle and came under attack by riot police forces. Then the protesters formed a march to Ekaterini square chanting slogans against police-rule like "when they break into your houses too, only then will you break out of your cages". Meanwhile TV crews outside one of the alleged "lairs" in Nea Ionia came under attack by protesters.
According to radical electronic media the arrested are refusing food and water.
It is the traditional methode
It is the traditional methode of gouverment and the EU's rich elite to cover the social and economic problems
Together with fascistgroups, they attack the socialists, anarchists and immigrants
So we must support and defend the socialists, anarchists and immigrants for their lives and injustice treatment.
We must make an international supporting group, which support them with all kind of activities and possibilities.
If they lose, we get a military state by parlement,military, police and fascistgroups
What is for Greece is an example for Europe. If we do nothing , we will get a parliamentary dictatorship,using new fascist method against immigrants and also citizens against each other
Update3: Last night the greek
Update3: Last night the greek police stepped up its anti-terror spectacle by storming dozens of houses across the country, supposedly in search of the "weapons lair" of the Revolutionary Struggle. In Kypseli, down-town Athens more than 300 anarchists gathered outside the stormed apartment of a comrade while it was being search around midnight, a totally illegal procedure in greece (night searches are in breach of the post-junta constitution). At the time of writing the accused are being transfered to the Evelpidon Athens Courts with many major arteries cordoned off by the police and a solidarity demo having being called at the courts. I must be noted that the courts are sub-functioning due to a 3-day strike of lawyers. Any contact of the arrested with lawyers or relatives has been banned at the moment again breaching any bourgeois judiciary legality.
i'm dreaming and working on
i'm dreaming and working on this "solidarity-group" in Berlin and being in the streets the last days promoting our screenings about Greece let me meet lots of people from different european cities made it easier. I gave them "revolt is no Utopia" video and told them that our info-show could tour. But if they are smart and don't consume the film they will find other folks that will help. So when i would say let's start a solidarity/ information/ communication movement! It will help also to get the proletarians in our lands informed, they could decide on learning from Greece and teaching to Greece. We also need some more short updates from our lands to get posted on indy to mirror, focus and spread all the small struggles. So that they all can come together. It's similiar to what we had called in the eighties the "new social movements" here in germoney: we had working together anti-nukes, peace, squats, anti-nato (since 83) , "for a society without prisons" (that came out of the hungerstrikes of poiltical prisoners when socalled "social" prisoners joint the fights), antifa and also the "jobbers" movement aka wobblies' styled little wild strike actions on construction-sites and factories.
Here it seems like that the folks on internet missed the last sector totally allthough the autonomia was a working class movement! If ya sneak in here you will see that the "social revolutionary" context got understood for parts of the movement:
and here a small article in german from the ABC: http://de.indymedia.org/2010/04/277742.shtml
http://de.indymedia.org/2010/04/277944.shtml
there should come a
there should come a discussion if it's usefull to organize a tourism-boycot or to squat empty hotels and organize some sort of tourism there only the small businesses would live of.
Thing is that already the tourism in Greece gots problems and many small businesses had to close... so may be a list of these businesses could be useful to support them..
if ya Taxikipali find time can you pl give me more input about the attack of the Mat on the block of the blind on 11.3. and the fights of blind and disabled people?
if their is no english source greek would work too...
Thanks
Update4: Clashes erupted
Update4: Clashes erupted inside the Evelpidon Court Houses of Athens when the police armed with machine guns took the 6 arrested anarchists out of the court room. The protesters came under tear gas attack by the riot cops while several policemen were heavily beaten, and one protester reportedly injured and in health care. Two protesters are reported as detained as a result of the clashes. According to the bourgeois media the full range of the draconian anti-terrorist law has been applied against the accused, while the police continues searching houses across the country. The relatives of the arrested have denounced the police as having brutalised the accused while in custody as well as performing vandalisms in the houses searched.
It must be noticed that according to radical media reports, several neonazi scum leafleting racist trash were attacked and hospitalised with heavy injuries by people on their way to the courts demo.
Update5: The two people
Update5: The two people detained during the clashes in the courts today have been declared as arrested and have been taken under custody. Of the six arrested only two appeared before the state inquisitor today. Their lawyer declared that his clients consider their arrest and trial political, and therefore will not engage in any declarations or discussions with the state: «We consider our persecution as political. For this reason we are not legitimating it, recognising or participating in the procedures. We do not apologise". Tomorrow the hearing procedure will continue with the rest of the arrested.
The Athens Polytechnic remains occupied with all classes canceled. The latest communique of the occupation reads:
One note: this is not just yet-another anti-terror case in greece - the people involved are social strugglers with a long and honorable history in the movement, and their persecution marks a major offensive of the state against anarchism and its legacy.
Shouldn't it just be
Shouldn't it just be "anarchist witch-hunt?" Are they going after anti-anarchists? They weren't call anti-witch-hunts. I'm anti-anarchist witch-hunt if I oppose witch-hunts against anarchists. And come to think of it, doesn't witch-hunt mean you're are looking for something that isn't there? Witches aren't real so to be looking for one would mean you are planning on framing someone. But anarchists are real, so the phrase "witch-hunt" doesn't really apply. Not to say they aren't trying to frame anarchists, but they're trying to frame them as terrorists. So it should say "terrorist witch-hunt against anarchists." Or something along those lines.
@griffjam, it's the
@griffjam, it's the "witch-hunt" that explains what is going on so it wouldn't be correct to say "anti-witch-hunt" but saying anti-anarchist witch-hunt means "a witch-hunt done by anti-anarchists"
Update-6: Brutal scenes of
Update-6: Brutal scenes of police violence unfolded yesterday night in Exarcheia after hundreds of riot police cops surrounded the squatted park in Navarinou attacking more than 40 people hanging out there at the time. The operation was suported by strong motorised police teams which blocked all entries and exits to the area. The official police announcement talks about the operation being a response to a molotov cocktail thrown some 200 metres away, but many doubt the event ever took place. 70 people and a dog were detained, leading to the sponteneous formation of a protest march of around 400 from Exarcheia to the National Police Headquarters (GADA). The detained have all been released. The operation is believed to be part of the general anti-anarchist pogrom underway.
they detained a dog?!
they detained a dog?!
Yes, a dog...the greek police
Yes, a dog...the greek police has finally relapsed to the mental state of its junta past. In my opinion this whole paranoid witch-hunt is a preemptive attack against the anarchists in expectation of the mass reactions to the IMF imposed reforms on the way. Making no sense is an excellent tactic of making everyone afraid - remember PASOK's leaders are well versed in Stalinism since their youth. Just think that today the police announced in all pomp and glory that it has stormed a "terrorist lair" in Kypseli which was completely empty of all things...It seems that ever since the Chalandri case the new dogma of the police is "the best evidence is no evidence".
I'm assuming it's the famed
I'm assuming it's the famed 'riot dog' that is seen in a lot of indymedia pics?
Not the old Kanelos dog who
Not the old Kanelos dog who made front pages here, I am afraid he passed away some time ago. It was just an ordinary dog found in the park at the time.