Greece: Anarchist refugee squats prepare for State onslaught

By: fawda - June 21st, 2017  Filed under: News

City_Plaza_AthensA new spate of recent evictions and interventions by the Greek State against refugee solidarity occupations run by the anarchist movement in Athens has prompted callouts for a major emergency gathering this Friday.

The callout and associated international day of action comes in the wake of a series of crackdowns and repression [1][2] against the solidarity movement, which has helped thousands of refugees self-organise to house themselves and defend against far-right violence since the Syrian crisis began.

It has been supported by six major occupied centres and groups, Oniro, City Plaza, 5th School, Notara 26, Underground Railroad, Spirou Trikoupi, Jasmine School and Acharnon School, which have put out a joint statement on the deteriorating situation in the city:

During the last month we witnessed the State escalating its anti-immigration policy of restrictions against refugees and the solidarity movement. In Addition to the EU management of migration issues which include forcing people to live in horrible conditions ,deporting them and denying them their basic human rights, the Greek government is revealing its totalitarian face by demonstrating its repression power through evicting political and housing squats for refugees. [Read More]

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Athens (Greece): Statement of CityPlaza Squat against the threat of eviction

By: xxx - June 15th, 2017  Filed under: News

City Plaza will not bend / Resist the “immigration & passport bureaus”, the frightful flags of states and diplomacy war weapons factories

The court order for the evacuation of the Refugee Accommodation Space City Plaza is the latest scene in the repressive management of refugees and the solidarity movement. From the closure of the borders to the shameful EU-Turkey deal, from the prisonlike camps to the evacuation of squats, a policy of casting refugees as a peculiar enemy is being articulated. [Read More]

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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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Thessaloniki: Call for Solidarity

By: fawda - May 23rd, 2017  Filed under: Communique

20170523_skg_ThessalonikiLast summer the Squat Orfanotrofio in Thessaloniki was evicted and demolished by the Greek government. One commerade faces repressions now for the squating alone, standing at court for all of us, on the trial on the 31.05.2017. We call for solidarity.

The story begins with the squatting of the Orfanotrofeio in December 2015. Thousands of migrants have been declared illegal overnight and are stuck on Greek territory. Within a months they were also displaced from Idomeni, an massive self-made and to a great extent self-managed settlement near the border with the Rep of Macedonia. They were moved to isolated camps throughout the country, under the surveillance of the army and the NGOs.

Those of us who had been visiting Idomeni frequently during the summer of 2015 had seen a wall being built in front of our eyes, people practically living in the mud, being beaten up by the police, giving birth in offhand tents, burning anything they could find from the ruble for some heat in the freezing cold, being moved around from town to town and from camp to camp, in buses that would just show up and then disappear, being constantly stopped for pointless checks in the middle of nowhere on their way to the border. If when they made it to the border, they were often pushed back to Athens, where many of them fell into the hands of smugglers and even organ harvesting mafias. [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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Lesvos (Greece): Many arrests at squats yesterday

By: fawda - April 3rd, 2017  Filed under: Communique, News

201704_Former_No_Border_Kitchen_camp_LesvosPolice was coming today early in the morning to the squats. They came to the different squats one after the other with 3 cars and two arrest vans. In total 17 people were arrested, sixteen refugees and one person with European passport.
In the squat where they went first two person were arrested. After they went to the other squat. There they arrested one European person and also kicked her during the arrest. Then they went through one of the building taking all the people from their rooms. All papers were checked and then the police took pictures of each person.
At the same time other cops started to go to another building and to the beach were some people were sleeping. When one person tried to run he was severely beaten. He had to be transferred to the hospital for treatment.
In the other buildings also people were arrested.
All people were taken to Moria. 11 of them are still in the prison inside Moria. 5 people were released again today, 4 of the arrested refugees and the person with European passport.
Some of the people that are now in Moria prison will be deported.
We are incredibly sad and angry. Once again today our friends and comrades were imprisoned and beaten for no other reason than being in Europe without having the “right” passport. Now many face weeks or month in prison and after that deportation…for nothing. Only for looking for a safe place to live. [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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Greece: Upcoming eviction of No Border Social Center Lesvos and Call-Out for activists

By: fawda - October 25th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

nbk_lesvos_greeceNo Border Kitchen Lesvos needs your support! Callout for people in November and December.

We from No Border Kitchen Lesvos (NBK) are going to need people joining us on the island in October, November and December. After holiday season, with the start of the new semester for many people and with the approaching winter we will need helping hands from end of October.

Additionally we got an unpleasant visit from the cops tuesday. According to them our Social Center will be evicted in 5 days. This would make the 4th eviction this year that we have to face.

At the moment we (still) have two main projects. One is cooking for the people who refuse to stay in Moria camp and prefer to sleep rough in the forest instead. The other one is our social center . Everyday a lot of people visit us there to hang out, talk, eat and meet each other. Of course thats not all…we also stand with the people protesting on a weekly basis in Lesvos against the inhuman conditions in Moria camp and for freedom of movement. [Read More]

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Calais Research Network: 40+ companies profiting from the Jungle eviction and border violence

By: xxx - October 19th, 2016  Filed under: News

The eviction of the Calais jungle is about to begin, but who does this act of brutality serve? On the one hand, cynical politicians looking to the French presidential election next year, desperately trying to cling onto power with a show of toughness. But also, it will boost the profits of a host of private companies who supply the rubber bullets and barbed wire, bulldozers and deportation buses. [Read More]

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Calais (France): Updates of the October 1st Demo

By: xxx - October 12th, 2016  Filed under: News

A comrade was arrested and charged for attempting to conceal his identity and participating in an unauthorized demonstration; the trial will be on 7 November, in Boulogne-sur-Mer.

The following text has been translated from French, from an article published on October 3rd, 2016 on Squat!net. The next solidarity gathering will take place in Calais, on friday October 14th, at 4pm, Places d’Armes.

This Saturday, October 1st, a solidarity demonstration was scheduled in Calais departing from the “Jungle”, the name given to the largest slum of France, where thousands of migrants are living. The event had to cross through Calais to reach its ending point downtown.

Two days before, the protest had been “prohibited” by the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais, Fabienne Buccio, who announced “a ban on any protest demonstrations in connection with the issue of migrants in Calais, Sangatte, Coquelles, Fréthun and Marck-Calaisis, during the entire day of October 1, 2016.” [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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