October 14th, 2023: Today we resquatted Zizania
For the past two years the building on Fylis & Feron has been a squatted social centre where collectives and individuals from the neighborhood and around struggled for a more collective and more free life.
We resquatted the building to continue the fight against gentrification and for free public space. We resquatted as we see the constant rise of rents, the conversion of the city to a field of consumption and of our houses into Airbnbs, the violent confinement of our migrant-neighbors in detention centers and camps, and the rise the rise of a cop culture that reaffirms all the above.
We resquatted the building because we cannot stand to watch cops bullying people while “protecting” an empty building inside which we held vegan social kitchens, language lessons, film screenings and political events. A space that had a free shop, library and a self-organized barber shop. A space that was open so that people can hang out, socialize or cover their basic needs such as water or electricity.
We resquatted because the building has belonged for 30 years now to the resistance movement. Zizania was the most recent initiative that was built in this house, among a series of horizontal collectives that battled against the exploitation and violence of capitalism, the state and fascism.
We resquatted in order to have a safe space inside the city where we can express ourselves, self-educate and organize against patriarchy, sexism, racism, queerophobia and capitalism.
During a period when we constantly live death from up close: in Tempi, in Pylos, on the borders, amongst fires and the floods, in our work, on the streets, in prisons, and in our houses, we choose to give an answer to the state in our own terms. During this period when we see the state continuing its “function” with the elections, we resquatted Zizania to organize collectively and in solidarity since our lives do not fit in their ballot boxes.
We resquatted to continue existing, organising, and struggling in the neighborhood. We resquatted for a world with squats on every corner, to take back grounds that were taken by state, and because no eviction will remain unanswered. We stand in solidarity with Anokato, Evagelismos, Steki Politexnio, and every squat that keeps struggling.
So here we are again, the queer, the migrants, the workers, the squatters. We are our neighborhood organized from the base to take back our spaces and our lives. We stand one next to the other to defend our existence in the streets until total liberation.
ZIZANIA EVERYWHERE
[18 October 2023, Act for freedom now!]
