The new government is setting up an unprecedented offensive against the libertarian and self-managing movement, which has become embarrassing and reputed over the years.
The newly elected Prime Minister and leader of the right, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, promised to “clean up Exarchia” during the summer and “get rid of Rouvikonas”. Beyond the famous libertarian neighborhood and the elusive anarchist group, the entire revolutionary nebula and the squat network are targeted, using various repressive tools and processes.
Once again, what is happening in Greece gives food for thought to what is also being prepared elsewhere in Europe, as the Greek example has clearly shown the way, in the past, for the new hardening of capitalism on the continent and for an increasingly authoritarian society.
The government will start by reactivating the rogue laws already in place in the 1920s, which were then aimed at both the Greek Communist Party and the anti-authoritarians.
This time, the aim is, first of all, to hinder anarchist propaganda by literally considering its revolutionary political project as an immediate threat, and therefore liable in these terms to prosecution. In short, censorship, not anarchist propaganda as such, but as “threatening speech” whenever it represents a “danger to social order and civil peace”.
It is also a question, in particular in the specific case of Rouvikonas, of classifying his direct actions, although without bloodshed, in the category of “terrorist actions” (Article 187A of the Criminal Code in Greece), with serious legal consequences for all the members of the group.
Worse still, the Greek State will systematically hold all Rouvikonas members responsible for any action taken by even one of the group’s members. In other words, if tomorrow morning, the office collecting the files of over-indebted people (Tiresias) was again destroyed, for example, by five members of the group, the other hundred or so members would also be prosecuted, questioning the subtle legal strategy of the group which, until now, had skillfully proceeded by rotation.
Not only is the penal code changing to strengthen this imminent offensive, announced a month ago, but the State’s resources are also increasing to hit Exarchia and then the entire squat and anti-authoritarian community in Greece.
2000 Delta police officers on motorbikes are being recruited (1500) or reassigned from another function in the police force (500) to participate in operations of repression and then surveillance of the famous areas to be recaptured by the State, starting with the famous rebel and solidarity neighborhood of Athens.
Intelligence material made in France is also reportedly being made available to Greek services (thanks Macron), as often in recent years throughout the Mediterranean countries. We remember, among other things, the support of French political and economic leaders for the Tunisian regime in the late 2000s, which did not prevent the fall of Ben Ali in early 2011, despite the arrival of important equipment. Michèle Alliot-Marie even proposed later, on 12 January 2011, to send the French CRS and mobile guards to help the Tunisian police check the demonstrators, even as she began firing live ammunition at the opponents.
The withdrawal zone of the Polytechnical School, west of Exarchia, known for its historical role in the insurrection against the Colonels’ dictatorship in 1973 and several times since then (notably in 2008 and 2014), will come under police control with the promulgation of the end of the university asylum and the beginning of pharaonic work to transform the premises into an antique museum, an annex to the neighboring museum.
A strong signal has also just been sent by the State to its police, a real encouragement to strike violently in the coming days: Epaminondas Korkoneas, the policeman who murdered Alexis Grigoropoulos coldly with his service weapon, a young anarchist aged 15, on 6 December 2008 in the Exarchia district, was released last night (while he was sentenced to life imprisonment). This murder caused three weeks of resounding riots in December 2008, bordering on social insurrection, and clashes have occurred every year since then, every December 6. Of course, this is not about endorsing the prison system, but about the full promulgation of anti-anarchist rogue laws and heavy threats against Exarchia and Rouvikonas, this release is perceived in Greece as a provocation and a message of impunity spread to all police officers who are preparing to strike.
Tonight, the libertarians still present in Athens despite the period (one of the few that provides some work, especially in tourism and often on the islands), and beyond the whole revolutionary social movement, will gather at 8 p.m. in Exarchia, at the very place where the young anarchist was murdered on 6 December 2008.
After dusk, the night will be hot in the centre of Athens, from Charilaou Trikoupi to Stournari and all around Exarchia, clashes will certainly take place. And again, Athens is three-quarters empty, as it is every year during this season. But autumn will probably be even warmer than summer, if the rebels manage to hold out against this new historic attack by the state.
As the whole world becomes fascist, in Greece as in France, pseudo democracies are surfing on the global wave of extreme right-wing extremism by hardening both capitalism and its self-preservation system.
No wonder the worst enemies of the authoritarian world are first on the list. Faced with this, two choices are possible: either let it happen and say nothing, hoping not to be part of the next ones, or react and let it be known. For example, Rouvikonas proposes to those who wish to support us to put various forms of pressure on Greek embassies, consulates and official institutes in the country where you are located, among the many possible forms of action. Further information or suggestions will follow in the coming days, including from the many squats in Exarchia (under discussion).
Thank you for your support, across borders and our political differences.
Yannis Youlountas
Some 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
http://blogyy.net/2019/07/31/grece-la-chasse-aux-anarchistes-est-ouverte/?cprotect=1
