On Saturday morning, September 17th, a counter-information PA’s [mikrofoniki] was held outside the metro station in Maroussi regarding the fascist attack against Kouvelou squat. Several comrades attended the gathering which lasted quite a long time, while a communiqué of the collectivity was distributed. Also, a large number of texts were distributed in the nearby open-air market where people’s reaction was in many cases positive and encouraging for the project’s continuation but also in favor of the squatters’ political identity (!).
Here’s the communiqué that was distributed
HANDS OFF THE SQUATS
In the middle of the night, at around 3 am on September 14th, Kouvelou squat in Dionysou, and Solonos St. in Maroussi was hit by arson attack. As a result of the fire, the roof collapsed and four rooms of the building have been burnt. Kouvelou mansion which is under occupation since April 7th, 2010, is a home for our political ideas and base for our political actions, and also functions as free social space. Within this period, we have worked with self-organization and solidarity as prerequisites/premises within anti-hierarchical structures, and we managed to clean the place and make it functional, hold political events and intervene in the local community with counter-information actions.
In an era of systemic crisis (political, social, financial, institutional) while phenomena of social aggravation and social unrest are being observed, the State chooses to be armored by intensifying the degree of repression in order to maintain its position of power. It aims at attacking on every part of society that resists its plans. Since political hangouts and squats are an integral part of this struggle, they are targeted by the repressive mechanism that acts against them via evictions, investigations and criminal charges —often accompanied by excessive bails. There is a reason for it all: these spaces constitute hearths for political fermentation, coalescence of struggling people and collectivization of their actions.
Naturally, the political action of such collectivities that have increased lately in Greek territory is also faced with various neo-fascist groups; groups directly disturbed by the political claims of these spaces (e.g. equality and solidarity among all social subjects without discrimination and segregation). Their tactic of arson attacks on squatted spaces and hangouts is common, and has also caused several injuries to comrades who participate in these projects. What is more, we have seen many times by now collaboration between the State and the parastate in thuggish attacks, not only on political spaces but also in pogroms against immigrants, strikes, etc.
We thus perceive the arson attack on Kouvelou squat as an anticipated stance of our political enemy who thinks that such a move may intimidate us or weaken our affinity group. On the contrary the fire may have caused material damages, but it strengthened our will and our determination towards the continuation of our struggle as a political entity. Finally, as part of the wider anarchist/anti-authoritarian milieu we believe that such a blow is not an isolated incident against a single collectivity but against a wider political milieu; a milieu based on the principles of solidarity, that resists united and dynamically to these sort of fascist attacks.
10… 100… 1,000 SQUATS
AGAINST A WORLD OF ORGANIZED BOREDOM
‘Epavli Kouvelou’ squat
Dionysou, and Solonos St., Maroussi
sources 1, 2