The sun is setting over central Athens as 3000+ protesters gather in Omonoia Square in opposition to the treatment of immigrant workers by the Greek state. No police can be seen as the crowd gathers, yet the mood is tense with grim determination and anticipation of the real possibility of extreme violence from the state. We march slowly down-town towards the Saint Pandeleimonas district, a suburb mainly inhabited by immigrants. A thunderous chant echoes through the darkening streets, as CCTV cameras and cash machines are smashed, shop fronts graffiti-ed and and hundreds of leaflets tossed across the pavements. On the flanks of the mass are defended by helmeted, pole-wielding marchers, as heavily armored riot police can be seen through side streets, moving down the parallel road. The crowd slows as orange flashes of fire can be seen far off at the front line, suddenly followed by the deafening boom of stun grenades, and plooms of tear gas. Fear spreads through some sections of the crowd as it surges back in retreat. Burning barricades protect our route to the ASOEE university and relative sanctuary. We are told that the front was attacked by moltov hurling nazis working within the police front line.

This co-operation between militant neo-nazi groups and the Greek police is nothing new, but in the last six months it has become increasingly frequent and audacious. The most dangerous neo-nazi group is Chrysi Avyi (Golden Dawn). Although they have relatively little popular support (23,000 votes in the last European elections), they are powerful due to their deep running relationship with the state, particularly the connections and wide spread support within the police force. In 2005 a leaked confidential internal police investigation concluded that:

1. Chrysi Avyi had very good relations and contacts with officers of the force, on and off duty, as well as with common policemen.
2. The police provided the group with batons and radio communications equipment during mass demonstrations.
3. The connections between the neo-nazi group and the Greek police force, helped delay the arrest of ‘Periandros’, a prominent member of Chrysi Avgi, wanted for the attempted murder of three left-wing students.
4. The brother of “Periandros”, also a member of Chrysi Avgi, was a security escort of an unnamed New Democracy MP.
5. Most Chrysi Avyi members illegally carry weapons.

This investigation only exposed a small, nasty taste of what was to come and since it was leaked, this co-operation between Chrysi Avyi and the police has increased dramatically. Even the bias mainstream media has had to accept and shamefully report this widespread collaboration.

Two days after the rally (09 July), as we were sat on the street corner where Alexandros Grigoropoulis was murdered last December, word quickly spread round that Villa Amalias, the 19 year old anarchist squat, had just been attacked by fascists with molotovs and projectiles. The squatters fought them back and the fascists retreated back behind police lines, which protected them. The attack was undoubtedly prearranged between the nazis and the police.

Twenty minutes before the attack, in the suburb of Agios Panteleimonas, the Minister of Public Order, Markoyannakis, met with the fascist vigilantes, headed by an army officer, Pipikios. They then left Agios Panteleimonas and attacked the squat. Attacks on squats are not that uncommon in Greece but this is the first time since the Junta dictatorship that a Minister has openly met with fascist combat groups. Two days later three immigrants (2 Iraqi and 1 Nigerian) were shot in a drive-by shooting in Omonia square. The same day the squatted former Court of Appeals building in central Athens, that accommodated hundreds of homeless immigrants, was hit by an arson attack. The police have attempted to evict the squat numerous times in the past and it has for a long time been the scene of constant nazi and police harassment and violence. Yesterday (21 July) the last phase of the eviction emptied the building. Of the hundreds of immigrants living in the squat, many have been arrested and will be imprisoned in one of the eleven disused army bases that have just been converted into concentration camps. Recently, on the July 12, the largest refugee settlement in Greece, outside the city of Patra, was brutally evicted, bulldozed and ‘mysteriously’ burned to the ground by police. More stark evidence of the rising totalitarianism in the treatment of refugees, a trend that is currently growing, in Greece, as well as most of Europe.

In the recent European elections, extreme-right party LAOS made a political breakthrough, with 7.2 per cent of the vote. Desperate for support, the ruling, conservative New Democracy party has taken to increasingly far-right behavior: the moronic scapegoating of immigrants, squatters and anarchists, fear mongering propaganda and constantly pleading for “national unity” though out the population. The Greek press and television have recently taken extremely xenophobic views, fully supporting the government’s attempt to unite people in an ugly wave of nationalism, and to drive people’s attention away from the economic crisis.

This increased police-nazi cooperation brings the counterinsurgency strategy of the State into harsh, new perspective. The government has previously said that the “terrorist” harboring squats will be evicted this summer, between the middle of July and the middle of August. Tactically this makes sense, as a lot of people have vacated the cities to escape the choking summer heat, leaving the squats more vulnerable to attack or eviction. This week a squat in Thessaloníki, where the local pirate radio station operates, was also attacked with molotovs. The tension is high, defenses are being built and a lot of squatters have stayed in the city and are organising resistance strategies. The threat is uncertain, but there is no doubt that mass evictions would result in a massive flare up of resistance. The authorities are aware of this and are apprehensive to fulfill their desired plan. Instead they have been focusing on the easy targets of immigrant squats and so not losing face.

Another dangerous organisation co-operating with Greek police is Scotland Yard. In March this year British “anti-terrorist experts”, including Sir Ian Blair, ex-head of Scotland Yard; as well as American “security advisors”, were in Athens giving advice on the tactics of oppression. The Greek government is desperate to upgrade its social control and surveillance apparatus, Greece’s parliament has just approved measures allowing police to use surveillance camera footage, create a DNA database and banning anonymous mobile phones. The British state have proven to be experts in these tactics of surveillance and intelligence gathering, and of course the information gained using these techniques, is falling into the hands of neo-nazis.

Despite the savage rise in right wing violence, the anarchist movement is still gathering more popular support, and now even the mainstream media have acknowledge it as legitimate political force. It seems unlikely, that the ruling government can maintain its treacherous course for long. Urban guerrilla insurrectionist groups has kept up a constant stream of attacks on the state and corporate business. Some of the attacks so far this month alone, include a bomb attack on the Athens home of a former deputy minister, a firebomb attack on a tax office, a bomb attack on a McDonald’s causing “extensive damage”, a bomb attack on a prominent Judges car, a failed bombing attempt at the Chilean consulate and there have been a string of strategic arson attacks on offices and vehicles. This month a police bus has come under fire from a masked gunman and last month an anti-terrorist policeman guarding a witness was shot dead by a two gunmen. Different anarchist and leftist guerrilla groups have claimed responsibility for most of these attacks.
The movement has learnt a lot from the December insurrection and while support for the guerrilla groups is widespread, many feel that without more wide spread social change, the revolution is distant. Yet resistance is stronger then ever and stands resolute in the sinister face of fascism. It is also worth noting, that during the recent upsurge in molotov use by neo-nazis, no one has been injured by the bombs, except on two separate occasions when the fascists managed to set themselves on fire. In the words of one Greek anarchist:

“Those comical scum, who have no idea how to handle the simplest of street weapons, the molotov firebomb, they are unable to fight us with our weapons. Molotovs are and will remain the people’s weapon, in defense of their freedom against fascist bastards.”

Amendment: Just before posting this piece, one of the squats, where we have been staying, the big squatted factory space called Yfanet, was attacked at 5 in the morning (25 July). The bomb containing 6 gas cans, a four-liter petrol canister caused no damage. The struggle continues…

LINKS:
ATHENS INDYMEDIA TRANSLATIONS.
ORIGINAL POST.

(A report from Athens IMC follows)

Recently the Greek state and its neonazi thugs seek to intensify their attacks on poor immigrants. Anarchists (most of them are of the anarchist-communist variety, those who read Bakunin and Kropotkin) and antiauthoritarians (a label that includes anyone fighting against state oppresion, not necessarily an anarchist) from Greece called for a march in Athens on 7 July 2009 at 19.00 o’clock, against what they call a “modern apartheid” (refering to the recent attempts by fascists in the Saint Pandeleimonas district, where immigrants many stay, to disallow immigrants from entering into communal spaces such as playing grounds or parks, but also to the cop operations in central Athens “clearing” the city of unwanted immigrants en masse with no regard for their human rights). It worths mentioning that the Greek press and television has taken extreme xenophobic views recently, fully supporting the government’s attempt to drive people’s attention away from the economic crisis. There are also alarming government plans for all unwanted immigrants to be arrested and held at concentration camps for years.

The call to march was publicised on many places, including the Athens Indymedia (athens.indymedia.org) website, which operates from occupied computing equipment in the Athens Polytechnic university (NTUA), and the government and OTE (the major ex-public Greek telecom company) are desperately trying to locate and shut down. Anarchists in Greece also publicise their news and calls with wall posters, graffiti messages, anonymous blogs, through gatherings at occupied buildings or university campuses, and pirate radio stations (some of them operating from university campuses or near them). It is for these reasons that the Greek state seeks to end the anonymity of blogs and put cops inside university campuses, which are one of the few places in Greece still free of cops (the other one being the Exarchia district in Athens downtown which is traditionally controlled by anarchists and any cops there are attacked with molotov cocktails, even though it is only a few hundred metres away from the high-society bourgouoise district of Kolonaki and the police headquarters in Alexandras Avenue).

The march began at 20.00 o’clock in Omonoia Square, downtown Athens, the capital city of Greece.

Hundreds of counter-information flyers were distributed and a speech was made. The march (as shown in the photos) had about 2500 comrades, and this made the cops to keep themselves at safe distance.

During the march various texts were distributed, anarchist graffiti was drawn, security cameras were destroyed, as well as bank ATMs. The march proceeded towards Saint Pandeleimonas (a neighbourhood in Athens were lots of immigrants stay, who have recently came under attack by fascists) and when the head of the march was about to enter the district the cops immediately fired tear gas and shock grenades, with the comrades replying with stones and flare bombs.

The march had good defence and moved towards ASOEE (a public university in Athens specializing in economics; comrades in Greece take advantage of a sanctuary’s law, called asylum, that disallows the cops to enter university premises). There was somewhat of a chaos there for a while, as some comrades where entering the university campus while others were leaving to go fight the cops in the nearby Patision street. The whole Patision street was in fire.

Barricades built with trashbins set on fire were keeping the cops away and after the usual (for Greece) violent fighting between anarchist comrades and the cops (and the huge amount of chemicals released by them) the cops came under a well-organized attack that forced them to take cover in the 3rd September street, while the whole Patision street was again set on fire.

Many immigrants were participating in the march and they attacked Delta guards (Deltades) in Victoria Square (Deltades are stupid thugs the state uses as light-cops until real cops can arrive): when comrades informed the immigrants that real cops were coming to Victoria Square (so that those with no passports could leave in time to avoid arrest and forced repatriation), the immigrants, disregarding their own individual self-interest, attacked the Deltades thugs, who took cover at the nearby OTE bulding (OTE is the Greek National Telecommunications Company, recently privatized and sold to German T-Telekom).

After the march, the Saint Pandeleimonas district was full of immigrants and clear of fascist scum or cops. The fascists supported the cops in their attempt to drive the march out of Saint Pandeleimonas.

A fascist accidentaly set himself on fire while trying to use the anarchists’ weapons against them, a sport the fascists aren’t good at.

The anarchists carried multilingual banners in Greek, English, French, Arabic, Albanian, and other languages known to the immigrants. A banner held by comrades carrying black and red flags, both men and women, read: “war against bosses – solidarity to immigrants”.

Some of the graffiti created during the march included: “death to fascists” on a bank’s window and signed with the anarchists’ circled-A symbol; “don’t touch the Efetio” on the OTE building (telecom company) walls (the Efetio at the Sokratous Street is a big occupied courts building in Athens downtown where lots of immigrants live rent-free and was recently attacked by neonazi thugs and cops, with the government eyeing to re-take it by force); “cops – TV – neonazis, all the bastards work together” on a shop’s security walls and signed with the anarchist circled-A symbol; “immigrants, my siblings, all of us together, black flag we rise to any authority” on a wall and signed with the circled-A; and a big circled-A symbol painted on a bank’s advertisement immediately under the advert’s words: “we are besides you”.

A block of EEK members (EEK or Workers’ Revolutionary Party is a Greek Trotskyist political party with about 6,000 votes) was also seen marching in the streets near the anarchists but not really intermingling with them. Anarchists in Greece generally boycott the elections, but a few antiauthoritarians sometimes do vote for small leftist parties. But even the bigger political parties on the left of the political spectrum, such as the Syriza coalition, try to persuade antiauthoritarians that they support their views, because they want to capture for their interests the dynamism of the anarchist and antiauthoritarian scene, which is particularly powerful and influential in Greece, especially amongst the youth. While antiauthoritarians in Greece sometimes do support particular parties, anarchists keep true to Kropotkin and other classical anarchists’ call for revolution without representatives. The fact that leftist parties carry on trying to win votes from antiauthoritarians and the anarchist-influenced youth reveals the strong influence of anarchism in contemporary youth culture in Greece, and also explains why the Greek government is so desperate to upgrade its repression and surveillance apparatus (it recently asked the Scotland Yard for help and plans to introduce DNA databases and ban anonymous mobile phones).

A march also took place in Thessaloniki in northern Greece (the second biggest city of the country). Bank ATMs were also set on fire there.

Fire engines were seen driving out of downtown Athens by 21.30-22.00 o’clock after their attempts to put down the fires and the revolutionary spirit with them. But no matter how many fires they put down, they and the whole state apparatus won’t succeed to put down the coming revolution, because that’s what the people want.

A wave of recent occupations (permanent or less-so) has occured in some of the major Greek cities – and this in light of an order by the new attorney general of the country’s Supreme Court directly targeting political occupations.

In Thessaloniki, the administration building of the Aristotle University has been occupied for the past two weeks (since 16.03) in solidarity with Konstantina Kuneva and with the demand that the university stops using subcontracting companies for its cleaning operations.The occupation has been at the centre of attention, media and otherwise, as its vice-chancellor has openly threatened that should the occupation not end, he will try and allow access to the police in the campus – directly violating the country’s academic asylum law.

Today, 31.03, the university Senate assembled to discuss the situation. The senate meeting was flooded by members of the university (students and staff) who quickly turned it into an attack against vice-chancellor Manthos for refusing to end subcontracting in the university. It is also positive that the possibility of lifting the academic asylum was not raised. At the same time, the senate buildings of the universities of Athens, Panteion (also in Athens) and Patras were all occupied for a few hours, in solidarity.

Photo from the Senate meeting in Thessaloniki:

Meanwhile, since March 20, a threat has been hanging of a mass operation against occupied social spaces across the country. This was initiated by an order given by the newly-instated attorney-general of the Supreme Court Y. Sanidas to the regional attorney-generals across the country: According to this, regional attorney generals should investigate whether there are public or private buildings in the areas of their jurisdiction that are under occupation and if so, to order their eviction. This has been followed by a series of articles in corporate mass media against specific occupations (such as Lelas Karayianni in Athens, Matsagou in Volos and others). A helicopter was seen flying over the Yfanet in Thessaloniki as well as that of the university administration today and many now believe a police operation against one or more of the occupations might be imminent.

Tuesday’s demonstration was called by local anarchist groups. Participation was phenomenal by the city’s standards – around 3,000 people (some reports put this number up to 5,000) took the streets of Patras behind the anarchist banners and against state violence. The march cruised through the city; banks were smashed. Meanwhile, the city’s police force had gathered around the main police station in order to protect it.

Toward the end of the demo however the riot police launched a major attack, forcing it to retreat toward the city’s historical university building (the so-called parartima). Soon thereafter, the most incredible attack began: Tens of fascists (that seem to had gathered in Patras from across the country, in a pre-planned joint operation with the police) attacked the demonstration with knives and stones. Co-ordinating perfectly with the police, they continued their attack and, according to some reports, even did some joint arrests. The demonstrators were confronted with the following unbelievable spectacle: They were facing a group of people throwing them police-owned tear gas while chanting “blood-honour-golden dawn” (the name of a nazi group in Greece).

The demonstrators’ block (which only numbered around 500 at the time, as this happened near the end of the demo) was completely torn apart; people were chased all the way into their flats; demonstrators had to seek refuge in flats in 10s and 20s, while the cops and the nazis would smash their windows and try to force entry.

Patras Indymedia reports 26 detentions and 9 arrests. Thankfully, the reports that the fascists would head for the city’s Afghan refugee camp have proven false so far.

What makes the above story even more unbelievable is that the mainstream media report it as the “local business owners” being the ones who attacked the demonstrators, “taking the law into their own hands”. Putting aside the …minor detail that absolutely no local businesses were damaged (only multinational banks, the courts and the police station), these supposed “shop owners” and “respectful citizens” were depicted in media in their balaclavas, holding knives! There was an unbelievable joint police-fascist operation in Patras today and they are trying to cover it up and to claim the public has turned against the demonstrators.

It is crucial to confront their lies and to resist their repression – the future of this movement could depend on this. Please spread the word.

Athens, the day after Alexandros’ death: a policeman aiming at demonstrators, the second one pretending to be doing so. On 9.12 in Patras, police shot ruber bullets at the demonstrators

…faced with a dark, dark image from the past.

Fascists working with cops run amok in Patras; they stab two in Athens; police shoot 15 times in the air in Palaio Faliro and a flaming car is driven against the police station of Zefyri, Athens. These are what I consider to be the most important events of the day; there’s so many others (more attacks at police stations; tens of demonstrators arrested in cities across the country etc) – but it’s simply impossible to summarise everything here. The most important events of the day are those of Patras. Please read the separate post and spread the news.

police shoot a total of 15 bullets against youths meters away from Alexandros’ funeral

…and here’s a summary of today’s events in Athens. The day started with the funeral of Alexandros at the cemetery of the southern neighbourhood of Palaio Faliro. There was a mass turnout at the funeral, including many anarchists, high school students and local youth. The small group that took the neighbourhood’s streets after the funeral comprised mostly of these – simply kids from the neighbourhood angered at Alexandros’ death. What the image above shows is a policeman of the “Z-force” (Omada Zita, the police’s motorcyclist unit) who shot a total of 15 shots in the air. This is a few hundred meters from where Alexandros’ funeral took place a few hours earlier.

Meanwhile, in the city centre, there was much tension around Syntagma Square (see previous post), with high school students impressively confronting the riot police. It wouldn’t be until later in the evening that the by now usual rioting zones would start shaping up around two of the occupied university campuses (of the NTUA and of the University of Economics). I want to briefly describe my personal experience of tonight, not because a personal story is that important but because it might be able to help outside readers put things in context (to an extent, I also consider myself an outsider to this!)

Perhaps, the feeling of comfort and familiarity I felt after meeting up with good old friends made the feeling of unfamiliarity even starker once I stepped onto the streets this evening. This was a weird feeling, and one I have never felt before in Athens – a feeling that you had to have a clear reason to be on the streets: For the uprising or against it – but definitely one of the two. Like being in a remotely located demonstration, where you are either a demonstrator or the police; except this is in the heart of a bustling metropolis and all there is, it seems to be, is people angrily reacting to the death of Alexandros on the one side, and those who caused his death on the other. To get around Eksarhia these days you need to master the skill of zig-zaging around streets and blocks, to avoid riot police units, the hoards of undercover police and of course, the fascists.

My poor zig-zaging skills nevertheless brought me to the grounds of the NTUA, where a good 2,000 people quite clearly would show who it is we are fighting with. An absolutely crazy mix of groups of punks, migrants, junkies and anarchists lined up across Patision Ave outside the Polytechnic; dancing, drinking and waiting for the riot police to come.

A few hundred meters (and some more zig-zaging) away, at the grounds of the University of Economics, a 400-500 person assembly was taking place, the subject being the anarchist presence at tomorrow’s general strike. You will have to wait for tomorrow to hear how that went; however, the most important and shocking developments came a good few hours later…

Reports started coming in that fascist groups had started making their appearance in the area and around Victoria Square in particular. One male (a migrant, his ethnicity is not being reported) and one woman have been stabbed tonight. This was after we had heard about the incredible course of events in Patras. Combining the two, it becomes quite clear: The “official” Greek state has reached its limit in dealing with the revolts. Monday’s riots were simply out of the police’s capacity for control. This is the time for its informal forces to kick in: the fascists. Their perfectly coordinated attacks in Patras clearly shows this.

This is not a time to panic, of course – we have so many new allies on our side that if we play this properly the fascists won’t dare strike again. The attack against the police station of Zefyri shows this: Zefyri, in the outskirts of the city, is one of the most deprived (if not the most deprived) neighbourhoods of Athens, with a large Roma majority population. At about 10pm tonight, a crowd of around six hundred besieged the police station, attacking it with molotov cocktails while a flaming car was driven toward the building (though stopped by guards before reaching it).

I guess it is quite evident from the above that this is an extremely tense situation and everyone feels that we are reaching a make or break point. Tomorrow’s general strike is absolutely crucial. People have to fight four days of tiredness; the sold-out trade unions that have turned the demonstration in a static gathering (to prevent mobility of the crowd and make it easier to control); the police running amok – and now the fascists too. Things are going to be far from easy, but there is no other way to get rid of those images from the past.