Thessaloniki: Political statement of the squat Terra Incognita. International call for solidarity

In the morning of 17th of August Terra Incognita gets TEMPORARILY evicted by the repressive forces of neoliberalism. Police forces intrude in the building and conduct researches for hours and confiscations. Days after the eviction the squat still remains open with cops celebrating TEMPORARILY their capability of violating every corner of our liberalized grounds.

For over 16 years Terra Incognita consituted a meeting place for hundrends of people of the struggling social basis. With constant events, direct acts, demonstrations and conflicts Terra Incognita was present in moments of the violent struggle against the violence of the state, the benefits of capitalistic monopolies, against the violating authority of fascism and patriarchy, against any type of discrimination and speciesism. In the grounds of the self-organised structures of self-education, solidarity and mutual aid of the squat all the “known-unknown” strugglers of freedom met and will continue to meet. Liberating and equallity-based relationships were constructed, subversive plans and operations, dreams that day by day found and still find a space of moral and physical substance. For 16 years the squat proves itself to be the flesh of the flesh of the multiform struggle against any type of authority and opression, without prioritizing or distinguishing the means that contribute to the spreading of libertarian ideas and the organization of social and class-conscious counter attack. Because for us this is liberation. [Read More]

Thessaloniki: Terra Incognita evicted

This morning (17 August), around 5 am, the uniformed scum of the greek police invaded Terra Incognita in Thessaloniki, which is a building that has been occupied since 2004 and constitutes a landmark of struggle and the anarchist movement in the city.

The cops proceeded to evacuate the building, while technical and material equipment was confiscated and a large part of the resources within the building have been withheld.

More specifically, equipment from the following anarchist infrastructures housed within the squat, was confiscated: the medical -first aid infrastructure, the gym, the library and the printing infrastructure, as well as a large archive of posters and other printed material that date decades. [Read More]

Athens: Solidarity action for Dervenion 56. An international call for solidarity

On friday 26 june, in Exarchia, the Greek state evicted and sealed Dervenion 56 and the building at Dervenion 52. An immediate gathering of solidarity was held on Exarcheia square for several hours. In the evening of the same day, a solidarity march was held with the participation of 300 people. The march ended at the Dervenion squat, barricades were set up around the perimeter and then comrades broke the concrete blocks of shame. Police never came and after some hours the protesters left. Riot cops made again an operation the next morning, building again a concrete wall in front of the squat’s door. According to information, in the following days, various solidarity actions followed, a demonstration took place on the main shopping street of Athens, Ermou, where slogans were shouted, and apparently some people attacked multinational clothing companies in Ermou in the occupied -by the police-, center of Athens. Even the rich yuppie nephew of the Prime Minister, the mayor of Athens, Costas Bakogiannis, could not escape the anger caused by the evictions. The pioneer of violent gentrification and his bodyguards were attacked with coffees and other items by dozens of people at a local religious festival. In the following days a march was held again at Exarcheia where comrades demolished the walls of the sealed migrants’ squats at Themistokleous 58 and Spirou Trikoupi 15. All these days, texts of solidarity were written and banners were put in various locations in Greece. [Read More]

Thessaloniki: Two anarchist comrades arrested

In the early hours of wednesday May 27th 2020, in Thessaloniki, Greece, two anarchist comrades were arrested on an attempt of incendiary/explosive attack on the house of Dimitris Stamatis, the ex member of New Democracy (the Greek governmental party) and now president of the Deposit and Loans Fund.
As Greek media report, the one comrade was seen by civil cops passing by and checking the house in Kalamaria district; then the other comrade was caught at the moment he was going to plant the incendiary/explosive devices. The first comrade was caught a few hours later in Thessaloniki, riding his bike.
There was a big police research operation in the comrade’s house, and also in other comrades’ houses. More specifically, 4 squatted houses in Ano Poli district were thoroughly searched and, furthermore, there were totally 10 comrades prosecuted, who were left free some hours later, as nothing was found against them. [Read More]

Greece: Repression and Resistance during the Pandemic

In coordination with the anarchist media collective Radio Fragmata, we present the following report from Greece about the ongoing efforts of the Greek government, along with business owners, police, and fascists, to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to intensify repression—and the efforts of anarchists, migrants, prisoners, rebel workers, and others to fight back and open up spaces of freedom.

These updates are adapted from Radio Fragmata’s monthly contribution to the “Bad News Report” podcast about the current situation in Greece. We hope to spread awareness about this situation and to bring more listeners to the podcast itself; we recommend the “Bad News” report and the Anarchist/Anti-Authoritarian Radio Network as a whole. [Read More]

Greece: Call for financial support. Solidarity Fund for imprisoned and persecuted revolutionaries

The basic aim of the structure is to ensure decent living conditions for the imprisoned comrades through a process that would take place within the political movement; thereby taking the material dimension of solidarity a step beyond close family, friendly and comrade relationships, as well as to help with the immediate coverage of emergencies (such as court expenses and bails for the persecuted). Yet, the actions of practical solidarity and the building and development of communication bridges and united struggles between those inside prisons and those outside of it, remain as priorities of the people who form and sustain the structure. In this current circumstance, especially in light of the new facts about the virus spreading and the restrictive measures imposed by the state on this occasion, it is again extremely difficult to secure the resources to support the material needs of the ones within the walls. Perhaps it is more difficult than ever. The slogan “no one left alone in the hands of the state” is becoming more crucial and tangible these days than ever. We urge you to defend it once again in practice. Factual solidarity will again be our weapon. [Read More]

Thessaloniki: Authorities use COVID-19 lockdown to crack down on self-managed Vio.Me factory

While the Greek people are placed under quarantine due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Greek authorities continue their agenda against the social movements in the country. The state has found the perfect timing to conduct its new attack on the self-managed Vio.Me. factory in Thessaloniki: early this morning, accompanied by two squads of riot police, employees of the state-owned electric company have cut off the power to the factory.
[Read More]

Athens: Anti-Covid19, network for Mutual aid and Struggle

In the unprecedented social conditions we are living in, the spread of coronavirus has taken critical dimensions for the national healthcare systems and the capitalist mode of production as well as social organisation in general. For the system to survive, state and bosses implement totalitarian politics and a further devaluation of our lives. [Read More]

Athens: Cops inside the University of Economics. Vancouver squat symbolically reoccupied

It all started on Monday 24 February inside the grounds of Athens University of Economics, when an off duty cop in plain clothes got off his bike and began harassing an immigrant street vendor outside the front gate. The policeman was spotted by anarchist students due to his boots and his helmet that bore the police insignia and was immediately confronted. In his panic, he began running inside the university grounds and managed to trap himself in a dead end corridor, pulled a gun on students and with his finger on the trigger threatened to shoot them while pointing the gun at them for at least 5 minutes, while desperately calling his colleagues on the phone to come and rescue him. The students, not losing their cool, but at the same time not taking a step back demanded he puts the gun down and exits the university grounds. Few minutes later scores of riot policemen stormed the university and attacked students during school hours with flash bang grenades and asphyxiating gas creating chaos because of one imbecile cop that thought he was a cowboy. [Read More]

Berlin: Reflection of the occupation of the Greek consulate in December 2019

We entered the building at 11 a.m. with 17 people and calmly asked the staff to stop working for the day. The aim was to disturb the smooth running of the procedure, but without causing further damage. The consulate is located on the 4th floor of an apartment building in Möhrenstraße 17 in Berlin-Mitte. As soon as we entered the rooms, we covered the cameras, explained our reason of the occupation to the staff, hung a banner with the words “Solidarity with the Squats” out of the window and threw out flyers. We made no demands whatsoever, but took the room to spread our ideas and show our solidarity.

The supporters down the street distributed flyers and our statement to the pedestrians. As soon as the rooms were occupied, we sent our text to all ministries in Greece via fax and e-mail and also to some of the mass-media, because we discussed beforehand if we want to use the media to propagate our action and decided to send the text to some of them. [Read More]

Athens: Koukaki fell heavy on them

Since 2017, the Koukaki Squat Community (Matrozou 45, Panaitoliou 21, Arvali 3) set up a different competitive example of communal life in the center of Athens. Through horizontal procedures, collective work and persistence, it set up open and social projects of communal housing, public bath and laundry, clothes sharing, spaces for public events and a multilingual library. Operating in an area which has been transforming from residential neighborhood to first-class tourist resort, the Koukaki Squat Community raised an embankment against the repressive and economic policies of the state and the bosses, against fascism, racism, and patriarchy. A living hearth of resistance, it also actively supported and connected with other struggles, political projects and public assemblies [1].

Such an active community of equality and solidarity could not go unnoticed. As many other squats and political projects in Athens, the squats in Koukaki were targeted multiple times by the state, both by syriza and nea dimokratia governments, as well as through fascist attacks [2]. Facing evictions and repression, the comrades resisted and defended their community by retaking the houses and through dynamic interventions. [Read More]

Athens: Update from the trial for the eviction of Gare squat

Three were the accused at yesterday’s trial for the police operation of the 26th of August 2019, when the new wave of state attacks against squats begun. The charges were those relevant with illegal occupation, in another words the offense to private property, and the new package of prosecutions against squatters which is theft of water and electricity.

The accused, each with their own speech , defended the moral right to the use of an abandoned building for social and political work, on top of the “housing needs” and they denied entirely the responsibility of the charges . They referred to the open procedures, events, political and cultural which Gare squat housed, and to the public bath which was operating daily and in a self organized way by its users , the migrants, homeless and excluded. [Read More]