On May 2019, Bouboulinas 42 squat began as an answer to the operation of the state (governed by SYRIZA) to evict a series of squats, mostly migrant housing ones and throw hundreds of migrants to the streets or transfer them to concentration camps. It was an answer that came from occupied Gini, which said “we, locals, migrants, solidarians, squatters, realize that our answer must be given in common. That is why we decided to occupy the building of Gini in Polytechnio, as an immediate response to the evictions and to organize the resistance against the repression, the defense of the squats, the neighborhood and our lives.”
From then until its eviction, Bouboulinas squat became the house for hundreds of people that are constantly prosecuted, incarcerated and tortured by the Greek state. The same people who are stripped off of any right to exist, are stigmatized as criminals and scum by the media and a national body hungry for human meat and a cheap labor force. Bouboulinas 42 squat was and is the realization of the desire for a better life and the struggle for freedom and equality beyond nations, religions and gender differences.
Throughout this whole period, the community of the squat managed, despite all its very real difficulties, not only to organize, but also to participate in actions and demos, being part of a more general struggle. The school structure (Greek, Farsi and English lessons), the communal kitchens, activities with children, association with other squats was part of sharing our knowledge and building our relationships as equally as we could. More than a few times we had to deal with behaviors and practices that threatened the community itself. We did so in many different ways.
The eviction of the squat on Tuesday 12 november, at 4 am, happened in the familiar state procedure, orchestrating a spectacular operation for the friends of safety and order, placing all the terrifying body of the Greek police in front of children and throwing the belongings of the residents of the squat in the trash. At the same time any solidarity or witnesses that doesn’t fit the states propaganda is not allowed in the area, or is arrested (which is what happened to two comrades that went outside the building for solidarity). The residents end up being transported to Petrou Ralli with four buses, where they were registered. Then they tried to take and detain them in Amygdaleza concentration center. The collective and persistent denial of the migrants to get off the buses that had taken them to Amygdaleza is treated by the authorities with torturous practices of denying them food and water until the morning where their transportation to Athens, Thessaloniki and Larissa is decided. Five of the people tried to hide in the building and as a revenge from the state they were sent to the detention center in Samos.
To us it is obvious that the Bouboulinas eviction is part of a whole intensified wave of state repression that is spreading its far right agenda first and foremost to the most oppressed parts of our class (immigrants) as part of a plan to isolate and exploit them and secondly to the multifaceted struggle in an effort of Nea Demokratia to destroy everything the leftist SYRIZA government did not manage to subdue.
We say that no matter how many building they evict, how much terror and fear they promise, the heart of our struggle is the relationships of solidarity and trust built among the oppressed and struggling people of this world. It is our desire to dream and fight collectively for a life without borders, national separations, exploitation and oppression. It will take a lot more to evict that.
The state and the bosses are the criminals and scum.Solidarity to squats!
Common struggle of locals and migrants for a world of equality, justice and freedom.
Bouboulinas42 squat 14/11/2019
https://squ.at/r/6tk6
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
