Wednesday, 20th of January is the date of the commencing of the trial of the two cops who murdered Alexandros. Although it seems likely that the trial will be postponed, since the killers’ lawyer is “too busy” to attend, many are expected to arrive to the small mainland Greek town of Amfissa to demonstrate. Following an anarchist assembly decision in Athens, around fifteen comrades from Athens and the nearby city of Lamia ventured to the town of Amfissa on Saturday, 16.1 for a first round of counter-information regarding the upcoming demonstration of Wednesday, 20.1. Wednesday morning will see the arrival of anarchists, leftists and other demonstrators in the small town in large numbers.

The report of the anarchist comrads notes that the little town is in the verge of panic, with shops and banks being barricaded against expected riots. However, upon hearing that “anarchists were in town”, crowds of people came to meet them. The comrades report that the feedback was very positive and that the locals, despite being physically isolated, are not falling for the media propaganda at all. The comrades were invited again and again for free drinks at the town’s coffee-shops and left undisturbed by the visibly disturbed police forces that have poured in ahead of the trial. Protest marches have been called at Amfissa and other Greek cities for the 20th of January, the first day of the trial. During the return to Athens, slogans were sprayed across the highway.

What follows is the communique that was handed to the people of Amfissa – to those in shops, cafes, houses, people on the streets…

TO THE RESIDENTS OF AMFISSA

The 20th of January will see the trial of the police officer that executed the 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Exarcheia take place in your city. No matter where one sees this from, even for those who insist to “have confidence in the Greek justice system” this trial is a trial of expediency: they chose a small and quiet town, with the all problems of the greek countryside, and chose to bring to it a main political incident that shocked the whole of Greece and caused the first revolt following the fall of the junta. The objectives of the state are obvious. They want to cut off, they want to keep afar those who want to have a saying against this juridical laundering-operation. The distance [from Athens] and the isolation of Amfissa are for the state its hope to guarantee its much-wanted isolation, not in the name of “delivery of justice” but in an effort to close the chapter of a murder and a revolt in a way that will, communication-wise, bring it “on top”. The police occupation, fear, all this hubbub is part of a scene being set up in your city that the state will use to produce some television propaganda for the entire country.

A 15-year old boy was executed in the most heavily policed neighbourhood of Athens for the last 30 years. If the incident had happened elsewhere, perhaps it would had gone mostly unnoticed. In Exarcheia however, the presence of many anarchists, leftists but also un-grouped people with conscience left no time for the regime to impose any blackout. The first explosion of rage that was expressed in the area created a chain reaction across the entire capital, across the whole country.

For nearly a month, tens of thousands took to the streets, shouted, protested, hit and got hit. It is certain that the death of Alexandros was only the occasion. It is what we live every day that came to find a spontaneous expression in those days. And how could something like this have happened peacefully?

Destruction of properties did take place. And beside the justified ones (who really feels sorry for a burnt bank?) many were random. How can a spontaneous and multi-colour revolt be “self-controlled”? A uninstructed revolt and for this reason, a genuine one. If we shared the logic of the political forces of power, we would without second thought claim “as ours” such a situation. We would name “anarchists” all those who took part and we would claim the responsibility for everything. After all, we would not make any more enemies than we already have, nor are we dependent on the law-abiding rules of elections and parliament.

It was us amongst others who caused the first spark without even knowing how much flammable material of rage exists around us. And were happy for this fire. No for the joy of destruction but because this fire showed that the heart of oppressed society remains alive. It proved that the brainwash, the teaching of obedience, the autocracy of the system has cracks.

Cracks, that while time passes, while the economic crisis goes on, while the capitalists ask for more, while the myths and the false hopes that are cultivated by the power come to a crash, these cracks become the hope for the social emancipation, for the counter-attack of all of us, with new larger Decembers – and beyond. A hope for us and a fear for the state. A state that hit people, threw tear gass, made hundreds of arrests those days, but did not accomplish to control anything. And that as, due to the fear of generalization of the uprising, it did not dare raise the level of violence…

This is the ghost that this trial wants to cast out. Whether it condemns to life in prison the executive body of the murder or not. It is December that this trial wants to condemn.

Kill, sentence and you are good to go – this it is the substance of the trial of Korkoneas in Amfissa on the 20th of January.

We know that as anarchists (who will not stand watching the provocations of power hands-down) we find ourselves in an unfavorable position. We too watch television, we read newspapers, we know of the image that media create for us. So will the hordes of barbarians come to Amfissa to flatten the city? Should each resident of the city barricade their house? Should they take their rifle and stand guard on their rooftops? Are the babies in danger, the olive tries, animals, the kiosks, the drinkable water? The answer is no.

We do not expect anyone to simply take our word for this. Being suspicious of any assurances made by people conducting political struggles is the first step in order for one to have a free mind. It is at this suspiciousness however, and at common logic, that we aim. Anyone who  has fought for anything, anyone who has stood with their head high, anyone who has ever resisted, knowns from experience in what ways the regime-controlled media garble struggles. Anyone who has been part of a news-making event can compare what they saw with their own eyes and what they then saw on television. Shall we speak about how they present every “uncomfortable”, for them, strike? Shall we remember how they defamed (and they continue to do so) the farmers’ mobilizations? The mobilizations of students, of pupils?

And it is not just the production of lies and terror in order to defame struggles. Every time that parts of society rise up, the standard tactic of the propagandists of the state is to try to turn other parts against them. Against the strikers in transportation they will place the workers “who cannot get to their jobs”. Against the port-dockers, they will put “petit-traders who are financially destroyed”. Against the farmers and the blockades, “the drivers, the travelers, the truck drivers that have a rough time”. The bad thing is that they often achieve their objective. It is down to this very success that they manage to get away with whatever they want, to maintain our everyday misery. Let’s all for a moment ponder how things could be if, rather than disputes between the oppressed, there was solidarity…

This time they are attempting to turn a local society against the presence of political entities and simple strugglers who respond to a state murder and what came to follow it. It is down to each one of us whether we will fall for the propaganda of media-tycoons, the ministers, all the powerful who build careers by selling insecurity.

We call everyone to be at the town square on Wednesday morning. Because at the end of the day, even if today we are still unable to get done with the misery power imposes on us we should at least show that we remember its crimes and that we are not mislead by its manipulations.

GUILTY IS THE STATE
EVERYONE AT THE SQUARE OF AMFISSA ON WEDNESDAY 20th OF JANUARY 9.00am

Anarchists-Antiauthoritarians