A very large and enthusiastic meeting of Embros on Sunday 23 May decided to continue the defense of the Free Self-Managed Theater. The attempt of the police and the Public Property Company to reseal the Embros on the morning of Monday 24 May was met by the lawyers of the movement and the people of the struggle, the united solidarity forces and the works were stopped. We start today Monday 24 May and every day from 5 pm a week of Art and Freedom in front of the building and collective works to repair the damages caused by the eviction.
On Saturday 29 May, we call for a nationwide Day of Action of artists, neighbourhood assemblies and social centers in every corner of the country to defend not only Embros but all liberated spaces. The power of self-organization can stop the destruction of our neighborhoods and nature threatened by the tide of exploitation and the insolence of obscenity.
The weekly program of events starts now! It will be enriched daily with new entries. We invite art groups to present their ideas and work during the day outside the building.
Why is Embros being evicted?
Because its daily non-profit functioning is a living counter-example to the dominant way we are forced to live, think and feel. If you are silent for a moment outside of Embros and listen, you will hear the commercialization rolling rushing down the adjacent alleys. In this country where economic and political power turns everything into a commodity to be sold and bought, Embros offers without a fee, without a price, art, and culture, creation and solidarity, offers the public, the free, the common, what belongs to all of us and what we all want to share freely. This is what annoyed the rulers and big business, this is what they wanted to brick up. They wanted Embros to be silenced because it impedes the free movement of money, of the market, because it proves that we can live, think and feel free.
This is the message that Embros communicates and in it it meets the Park Drakopoulou and Ano-Kato in Patissia, the occupied refugee shelters in Alexandra, Nosotros and K*Vox in Exarcheia, Lelas Karagianni in Kypseli, Rosa Nera in Chania and Evagelismos in Heraklion, Terra Incognita and Yfanet in Thessaloniki, the social struggles against the enclosures and privatization of Filopappos, Areos Field, the Botanical Garden in Petroupolis, Plato’s Academy, Strefis and the destruction of Exarcheia Square. It is there that it meets the struggle against fascism, against economic and labour misery, the despair of the young and the suicides of the unemployed, the persecution of militants, and the actions to stop the auctioning of houses. There it meets the struggle in defence of nature in our mountains, islands and villages, there it meets the self-organised projects, the squats and student hangouts, the social kitchens, the neighbourhood assemblies, the groups playing music in the street, a girl walking fast in the dark because someone is following her.
Embros is the place where we meet with the blood of our dead – Zack, Killah P, Alexis Grigoropoulos, where artists without a stage and children without trees in their schoolyard live, where we produce art against the art industry, that’s where Embros lives; between liberated social spaces and moments of collective happiness, in the streets, parks and squares, where people reclaim the public, the free, the public, without commercialization and exchange value.
On Saturday 29 May we call for a gathering outside Embros at 5 pm and a nationwide Day of Action of artists, neighbourhood assemblies and social centers in every corner of the country to defend not only Embros but all liberated spaces.
We will not surrender our dreams to the darkness.
When we fight, we fight for our lives!
24 May 2020
Free Self-Managed Theater Embros
Riga Palamidou 2, Psiri
Athens, Greece
https://squ.at/r/7hz7
https://www.embros.gr/
Some squats in Athens: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/athens/country/GR/squated/squat
Some evicted squats in Athens: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/athens/country/GR/field_active/1/squated/evicted
Groups in Athens: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/athens/country/GR
Events in Athens: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/city/Athens/country/GR
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
