On June 8th 2016, we occupied a building on 96 Themistokleous Street in Exarchia with the aim of building a community based political space. As a diverse group with a variety of backgrounds we were aware that although we had many common goals and the same political strategy, we disagreed on tactics and levels of risks we were willing to take. Our hope was that through working and learning together within our collective and our involvement within the wider community struggle we would overcome these differences.
However very soon we were faced with heavy police oppression, including a forceful eviction which resulted in three arrests. Instinctively we decided to resist this oppression by immediately re-squatting the building and asked for the support of the rest of the community to defend it. Some squats chose to support us and some didn’t.
We recognise that the lack of support was mainly a consequence of our lack of communication and political engagement with the existing assemblies and we are willing to accept that we made a mistake.
After a long discussion within the collective it became apparent that unfortunately the threat of repeated eviction and arrests divided us even more politically than before. So we decided to leave the house and concentrate our efforts on supporting other existing squats.
Squats in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/GR/squated/squat
Groups in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/GR
Events in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/GR
Contra Info https://en-contrainfo.espiv.net/2016/06/29/statement-by-kleous-96/
