The Ta Paida Tis Galarias (The Children of The Gallery) group report on the recent demonstrations in Athens against austerity measures, including the events leading to the tragic deaths of three bank workers and its implications for the movement of opposition.
What follows is a report on the demo of the 5th of May and the one that followed the day after and some general thoughts on the critical situation the movement in Greece is in at the time being. [Read More]
May 6th, 2010
Names of the dead announced; bank workers strike today in memory; police launch unprecedented attacks in Athens
The names of the three bank workers who died in the Marfin bank branch that was set alight have been announced. They are Paraskeui Zoulia, 35; Aggeliki Papathanasopoulou, 32 and Epameinondas Tsakalis, 36.
We are all very shocked and saddened by their tragic deaths and it is extremely hard to keep on reporting from here in Athens. However, the events unfolding are so crucial that it is important to do so. In brief:
May 5th, 2010
The statement below was issued a few hours ago by the anarchist squat of Skaramanga and Patision in Athens:
The murderers “mourn” their victims
(Regarding today’s tragic death of 3 people)
The enormous strike demonstration which took place today, 5th of May turned into a social outflow of rage. At least 200,000 people of all ages took to the streets (employees and unemployed, in the public and private sector, locals and migrants) attempting, over many hours and in consecutive waves, to surround and to take over the Parliament. The forces of repression came out in full force, to play their familiar role – that is, of the protection of the political and financial authorities. The clashes were hours long and extensive. The political system and its institutions reached a nadir.
April 11th, 2010
Gentrification in Berlin continues: after the eviction of Brunnenstr. 183, a house project that was hosting a Free Shop, all inner city areas are becoming posh. This is more visible in Kreuzberg than anywhere – a quarter that was during the time of the divided city an island of alternative live-style, the area is now becoming interesting for investors such as Starbucks and McDonald’s. A nice cafe on Heinrichplatz, just by Oranienstr., had to leave as the rent was doubled. Now the space has been squatted and another Free Shop been established there.
Athens seems to be going through exceptionally tough times: austerity measures that make society kneel under great pressure are put to practice, police units are stationed in every single block downtown, the big unions (GSEE, ADEDY) are completely silent, while demonstrations are weak, with little participation and even less passion. And yet, although society seems to be numb and not to know how to react against the intensifying pressure from all sides (needless to mention that the mass media have been very creative in the way they combine terrorism with the anarchist/antiauthoritarian movement every single day on the news), a new squat is born in the neighborhood of Marousi (northern suburb of Athens).
In their introductory text they write, among other things:
“While many young people have no interest in what is going on in society, and spend their time in clubs and internet cafes, our need and desire to articulate political discourse through various actions and to resist the repression, breach and limitation of our rights, in a society which has enrichment and individualism as its sole values, all the above urged us to create a free space where we will have the opportunity to self-organize”.
4. April 2010
Grenoble, March 27th: SQUAT ATTACK! http://grenoble.squat.net
An offensive walk against evictions, but not only… Newspaper office, schools, police cars and white walls are covered with slogans.
“RENT STRIKE, TOTAL STRIKE!”
[Read More]
Dijon, March 28th 2010: Fast occupation of abandoned land
A meeting was given on Wilson square, calling to bring gardening tools, but no more details were known. From here, people walked to the occupation place: abandoned land on the side of a main road and some empty houses. City-dweller with their spades, budding gardeners or local truckers in struggle joigned that action.
Ten years ago, a couple of truckers have been evicted from these parcels due to town-planning pressure. Now they are occupied. In several hours, the area has been cleared of brushwood, and ready to be planted.
26 March 2010
From their leaflet :
People pass by, but there’s nobody. At the windows, cameras substituted underwears. It’s impossible to chat in the streets. One gets drunk to forget the bosse’s scurvy tie and the terror of the organiszed reality. And then, on Saturday night, one even goes out to the club. Some people disappear, no one hears about them anymore.
Let’s organize ourselves against the grey sky!
It will be grey as long as we don‘t recreate it…
„One“ opened this big empty flat since years: you could have done it! „One“ occupies this place since December, „one“ doesn‘t own it.
The door will stay opened each Tuesday and Friday, between 4 and 8pm, to read or drink a coffee.
But don‘t come if you denounce your colleague to get ahead or if you applaud when a sans-papiers is arrested by the RATP security [metro pigs] !
SOLIDARITY WITH ROZBRAT SQUAT -IN POLAND- THREATENED WITH REPRESSION
Rozbrat squat, active for 16 years now in the city of Poznan, the longest occupied space in Poland, houses social, political and cultural activities that oppose the world of Authority and profit, of social and class divisions. Today it is one more of the self-organized spaces of resistance which are facing repressive plans. Some of the projects being housed in the squat -connecting it with struggles against globalization, class exploitation, State repression, persecution and imprisonment of strugglers, pillage of nature, racism, war etc.- are the Anarchist Federation and the Anarchist Black Cross of Poznan, the Workers’ Initiative, the Anarchist Library and Trojka publishing house.
On March 26, 2010 an auction has been scheduled for the purchase of the premises where the largest part of the squat is situated so that the debts of the previous owning company can be paid out. It is a process which started in January 2008, when the squat was “visited” by a bailiff with the assistance of the police in order to estimate the value of the ground.
We are facing eviction!
March 18, 2010
The Lowercase Collective has existed for over three years now. It has been a public squat for two years, and opened its doors to countless people, projects, and events. One would be hard pressed to find an anarchist who has travelled through Chicago without ever spending time in this space. When a place becomes so integral to the collective ethos of a community, as Lowercase has in Chicago, its destruction can be simply debilitating.
On December 18th, we received an eviction notice for our landlord, who is in all likelihood a fictitious entity. Shortly thereafter, we proved to the state that we ourselves have been responsible for paying the bills for the past years, making repairs, etc. Unfortunately, our attempts were only able to buy us a few more weeks, as the eviction notice for all occupants came like a cold wind. Despite the machinations of the Federal National Mortgage Association, or any other partial owners, we have no intention of leaving this space without a fight.
„City is not a company!” – 37 anarchists detained in Poznan after clashes with cops
On Monday, 8th March 2010, about 50 people from Rozbrat squat Collective made a demonstration in front of the gate of Poznan International Fair Center, where a congress of local councils from all over Poland was taking place. Shouting slogans “City is not a company. Rozbrat stays!”, the anarchists blockaded the gate. Many cars with the officials were forced to turn back.
After a while, the protesters decided to walk inside the premises of the Fair, they were not stopped by anyone. Then, they tried to go inside the building where the congress was taking place. They were attacked by the police. Some of the anarchists were heavily beaten up, 37 were detained and driven to three different police stations. Most of them are already released with minor charges. From the information we were able to gather, 3 people will be charged with an attack on a functionary, those three are still in jail.
[Read More]
March 10th, 2010
Indigenous communities in the Lacandon Forest in Chiapas are being violently evicted by federal police and army forces, in support of corporate plans for oil palm expansion and other activities, including tourism falsely called eco-tourism.
On 21st and 22nd January this year, indigenous communities living in two villages in the Biospherre Reserve in the Montes Azules region were violently evicted and had their homes, all their belongings, crops and trees destroyed. Please write to the authorities in Mexico and in Chiapas state to support local communities ’and organisations’ calls for an immediate end to the evictions, for return of the comunities to their land, restitution for the damage which has been caused, the prosecution of those responsible and for an end of oil palm monocultures in the area:
http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/protestaktion.php?id=543
g.
