Wuppertal (Germany): Call for solidarity with City Plaza and all other refugee squats in Greece

By: fawda - June 7th, 2017  Filed under: Communique, News

Hands off from City Plaza and all other Refugee Squats!

At June 7th, 2017 the news came out that a court ordered the eviction of City Plaza Refugee Accommodation and two other refugee squats in Athens. Projects like City Plaza succeed in where the Greek government and other EU member states fail; a self-determined life, a life with dignity for those who traveled to a putative Europe under extreme hard conditions. A life where it doesn’t matter which papers people have but instead a life where people can live together in a self-organised way.

Since the former City Plaza hotel was squatted more than a year ago, after the building was empty for several years, more than 1500 people lived in the building. 400 at any one time. Among them where many refugees and supporters from many countries. While EU member states closed their borders, sharpened their asylum laws, detaining and deporting more and more refugees, people in Athens have buildup self-organised projects like City Plaza together with refugees.

In the past year repression against refugees and supporters has increased with evictions, arrests and police violence in various EU member states. Some of the squats where refugees lived in a self-organised way were evicted, for instance in Thessaloniki, Athens and Belgrade. Again and again there are reports from police violence against refugees in France, Croatia, Hungary and other European countries. Since the EU/Turkey deal refugees are being detained at the Greek islands and deported back to Turkey. But also in Germany more and more refugees are being detained and deported. [Read More]

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Athens: Announcement from Gare squat. Call for vigilance against the mafia branch of repression

By: fawda - May 26th, 2017  Filed under: Announcement, News

Gare_squat_Kallidromiou_74_AthensYesterday, Wednesday, May 24th, Gare squat was the target of organized thugs. At midday, during clashes with MAT forces around Exarchia Square, there was a confrontation of protesters with a shopkeeper who tried to prevent a barricade-defense being set up against cops. This particular shopkeeper is known in the neighborhood of Exarchia as being connected with circles of protection rackets, prostitution and drugs, and with state security. A group from an adjacent movement space rushed to defend him. The incident with a portion of those present athte barricade, with this group has been the reason for GARE to attribute responsibility for these events as a whole.

This particular group has been denounced in open movement processes in the recent past by a multitude of collectives, for authoritarian attempts and military-style enforcement against self-organized efforts. The group supposedly acts on behalf of movement spaces and forms. But these, although they have been called upon to denounce the actions of this group, are silent instead.

Immediately after the incident, this specific group along with another bunch of thugs gathered menacingly outside the GARE squat. This larger collection included members of gangs who sell protection to the area’s shops, and who have been involved in attacks and injuries against radicals in the past. After they all had gone, later some of the original problematic group came to our assembly and said they would turn against our squat if we do not identify and deliver to them within 24 hours the people who confronted them at the events earlier in the square. [Read More]

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Athens: Open Letter To Ms. Aliki Papachela, owner of the City Plaza Hotel

By: fawda - April 25th, 2017  Filed under: Communique, News

City_Plaza_AthensOPEN LETTER
To Ms. Aliki Papachela, owner of the City Plaza hotel

Dear Madam,

Sympathizing with your agony for the 81.500 euro bill sent to you by EYDAP (the Greek water company), we feel the need to clarify the following: on the day that we entered the hotel (22 April 2016), EYDAP technicians visited the hotel in order to read the water meter so that, given that the building was now under occupation, the owner, you, that is, would no longer have to bear the burden of the costs, which you too had also requested through an out of course dispute resolution document to EYDAP. In the immediately following period, we requested a regular connection from EYDAP, yet this was refused on the grounds that the owner of the building had to agree to it as well. The strange thing is that the EYDAP bill was calculated using household pricing, when it should in fact be calculated using professional (if not humanitarian) pricing, as was the case when the hotel was in operation, which resulted in a bill that is much higher than it would otherwise be. Therefore, while this bill poses no threat to you, EYDAP gave a «gift of propaganda» to you by issuing an extortionately high bill, which you do not have to pay (you admit as much yourself), but which you use for propaganda purposes. We imagine that, even within your value system, public health is above public order, so we hope you understand our «illegal» act, given that you are not even required to pay for it. [Read More]

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Athens: 400 refugees, 7 floors, 1 home – Solidarity space City Plaza Hotel

By: fawda - April 6th, 2017  Filed under: News, video

city_plaza_athensSince 2015 and the emergence of the refugee movement to Europe, Greece has become a major stopover on the journey of people seeking a better and safer life. Thousands of immigrants from Syria, Kurdistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones have abandoned their homeland in search of a new home, where their life and freedom are not compromised.

Unfortunately, the EU and Greek governments have been unable (and largely unwilling) to respond to the issue. Instead of providing safety and solidarity to war victims, they have signed a (rather shameful) agreement with Turkey, with the purpose of “managing refugee flows” and further securitizing the “forbidden” European borders. As a result, thousands of refugees are currently trapped in Greece, cramped inside detention centers and camps, away from the public eye.

In this context, on 22 April 2016, activists and refugees squatted the City Plaza Hotel in Athens, which had been abandoned for seven years, in order to create “here and now” a model of dignified housing inside the city. Since then, City Plaza became a home for 400 refugees, including 100 families and 168 children. More than 100 solidarians (locals, activists and volunteers) have mobilized to break with the reality of detention, to build new social relations and multicultural forms of coexistence between locals and immigrants, and to animate a living example of self-organization. [Read More]

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Athens: Trial against activists who re-occupied Villa Amalias begins

By: fawda - March 27th, 2017  Filed under: Communique, News, video

2013-01-09_Villa_Amalias_AthensOn January 9, 2013, 93 anarchists fight their way in against riot cops in and re-occupied Villa Amalias, after it was evicted on December 20th, 2012. After more than 4 years, the trial against the 93 anarchists will start on March 28th.

On December 2012 as part of a far-right delirium, the State targets Squats and proceeds to evict several of them in Greece. On 20 December 2012 the State evicts one of the historical and oldest squats in Athens (since 1991) named Villa Amalias. In the morning of 9 January 2013, 93 comrades moving collectively and decisively fight their way in against riot policemen that continue to guard the building and succeed to retake the grounds, sending a message of resistance and solidarity, against the onslaught of State and capitalist barbarism. After a few hours special police forces invade the building and arrest the 93 activists.

After more than 4 years, (a usual State and judicial tactic to keep activists’s lives “imprisoned” in perpetual waiting) on March 28, 2017, the 93 are being taken to trial for the reccupation of Villa Amalias, because they dared to disturb the “peace” during the regime’s war and because they remained unruly against the imposed state of emergency and the authoritarian rules, whilst they declare that ‘for the “crime” of fighting for a world of equality, solidarity and freedom they remain consciously “guilty”’.

Solidarity to the 93 activists that retook the grounds of Villa Amalias Squat. [Read More]

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Athens: Repression against Villa Zografou. It concerns you

By: fawda - March 27th, 2017  Filed under: Communique, News

Villa_Zografou_AthensStatement by the assembly of Villa Zografou and supporters after the eviction on March 13th in Athens, Greece.

1. Because you have been and you are still paying for it.

50% of the Villa Zografou estate was bought with an illegal loan in 2006 amounting to €19.000.000 (excluding interest). A loan which was legalized in 2013 through a majority vote by a municipal faction consisting of the parties: PASOK, NEW DEMOCRACY and SYRIZA.

2. Because you will continue to pay for it.

The ink is still wet on a €154.430 contract budgeted by the municipal and regional authorities for the renovation of the villas Kotopouli, Bougra and Bonaparte. And let us not forget the recent purchase of the theater Dimitris Potamitis amounting to €550.000, likewise bought under the pretext to create a „cultural center,“ and whose renovation will require a truck load of licenses and money. Apparently, municipal funds for „cultural centers,“ „cultural events“ and top artistic directors with annual salaries amounting to €23.000 exist and are available. But when it comes to providing stable and dignified work conditions for municipal workers, who disenfranchised slave away under so-called „charity work“ austerity programs, funds are missing – despite all the electoral and post-electoral declarations and promises to the contrary. These workers are exceptionally poorly payed and are denied basic worker right such as sick leave, right to strike, etc. In the end, it was only through a prolonged strike that municipal cleaning workers succeeded at re-claiming a few basic labor rights. These are the priorities not only of the municipal officials of Zografou, but of each and every municipal authority. [Read More]

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Athens (Greece): List of needs of Themistokleous 58 squat

By: xxx - March 19th, 2017  Filed under: News

After more than a year of existence, Themistokleous 58 anarchist squat and housing project for people with and without papers in Exarchia, downtown Athens, still needs some very practical solidarity to stay functional. Here goes our current list of needs.

Food supplies: Oil (olive oil/corn oil), rice, pasta, tomato sauce, beans, lentils, chick peas, eggs, potatoes, canned milk, dog-food. [Read More]

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Athens: Eviction report

By: sisulscz - March 17th, 2017  Filed under: News

Following the raids on squats and the evictions (previously on s!n), some 60 people have been moved to other squats, after spending hours in police station and rejecting the offer to be transferred to one of the camps nearby Athens. Many experienced life in camps before, and they choose no to go back but rather to rely on alternative accommodation, mostly in squats. City Plaza, as well as other squats, took them in, and volunteers and activists found emergency shelter for everyone else.
[Read More]

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Athens: Two social centres under attack

By: sisulscz - March 13th, 2017  Filed under: Communique

The repression of social liberation movement and the destruction of the occupied spaces of refugees and immigrants will not be left unanswered. The Greek Left government chose at the dawn of 13/03/2017 to listen to the commands of the conservative right and the neo-liberal Media of Mass Manipulation and attack against two occupations of the broader social movement in Athens Greece. Police raids are an ideal example of the policy imposed by the domination during our era: when we sleep the State continues working against all of us.
[Read More]

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Athens: Exarchia, one Year Themistokleous 58 Squat

By: fawda - January 12th, 2017  Filed under: News

One_Year_58_SquatOn January 10th 2017, Themistokleous 58 Squat in Exarchia completed one year of activity. During this year our squat took a series of initiatives towards intensifying social war, and participated in numerous actions in support of projects and individuals targeted by repression of all authority.

We have put forward internationalist anarchic solidarity between rebels, believing that it can only be a reciprocal relationship aimed at building up affinity and complicity against the State, Capital and domination, and we continue to do so by factually tearing down phony divisions based on origin, language, gender, sexual orientation and religious or irreligious background of anyone in any way associated with our project.
[Read More]

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Greece: Solidarity with the U.$. prison struggle from Themistokleous 58 Squat

By: fawda - September 23rd, 2016  Filed under: News

Athens_Exarchia_Themistokleous_58From the wing 58 of this open air prison called Athens we send our warmest greetings to the U.$. prison rebels and all those taking action in solidarity with them around the globe. We understand your fight to end prison slavery as a call to end prison society as a whole. We understand mass imprisonment behind tones of concrete and iron as a reflection of the mass society that shackles us all and as an inevitable consequence of the techno-industrial kingdom that determines our lives daily in all possible ways.

We know that contexts might be different from place to place and that some times we get lost into the partiality of our small or big fights against this or that expression of domination and Power. Nevertheless, we believe this is a good opportunity to build up the so much needed intersectionality, to foment it with a borderless perception of the struggle for total self-determination and liberation from hierarchies and authorities that chain us all.

We salute all means of struggle deployed so far against the murderous apparatus of the U.$. prison-industrial complex, and we are happy to know that at least one jailer got what he deserved. While bars of steel and walls of stone may physically contain those in prison, the recent uprisings all over the U.$. have shown that they can never take away the fighting spirit from countless rebels. [Read More]

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Athens: Announcement of Squat Notara 26 about the attack of August 24th

By: fawda - August 27th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

20160824_incendiary_attack_Notara_26_Athens_GreeceOn Wednesday August 24th at 3:45 a.m. the Housing Squat for Refugees and Migrants Notara 26 received an incendiary attack. The acting method of the arsonists we consider to be a clear murderous act, organised with the goal to cause – apart from the serious material damage – also loss of human lives. The timing of this cowardly act was chosen during August, when as the arsonists believed the reflexes of the solidarity movement would be sluggish. In vain though…

After the attack with molotov and gas-bottle bombs the safeguard of the refugees and the assistance of the solidarity acted immediately, using the fire extinguishers of the squat. The over 130 lives that where seriously endangered where saved solely by the immediate reaction of the total of the residents, of the solidarity and the neighbours of the squat, as well as with the participation of the fire department – although it derogatively characterised the Notara 26 squat as a storage in its press release, implying that no people where resident at the location.

This particular event is one link in the long chain of attacks against the migrant squats, refugees, as well as the free social spaces, which consists of a cooperation of state and parastate – where the first acts using the law (Orphanage, Nikis squat, Hurriya) and the second with the usual mafia practices (Vancouver, Avtonomo Steki, Zaimi, Analipsi, Kaniggos) – targeting the solidarity movement. [Read More]

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