Athens: Antifascist gathering in Holargos

On Friday 18th November, just one day after the commemorative demonstration of 17th November, the fascist party LAOS, which is part of the new government of “national salvation” or “national unity”, called for a debate in Holargos Town Hall, at 20.00. Members of the popular assembly of Holargos, and people in solidarity from nearby neighborhoods, gathered outside the Town Hall in order to protest against the fascist members of the new government, aiming at the cancellation of their gathering. At around 18.00, ranks of police forces that had already blocked the area, met with nearly 200 people and soon enough, small scale clashes followed. For more than two hours people chanted antifascist slogans and tried repeatedly to prevent fascist supporters from entering the building. At around 21.30 a march to Holargos metro station spontaneously took place, where the anti-fascist intervention reached an end.

Fascists and Memorandum go hand in hand. Shit on LAOS and Karatzaferis (president of LAOS). Popular Assembly of Holargos–Papagou.

The text that follows was distributed during the anti-fascist gathering:

Nothing’s the same anymore. Illusions fall apart at an unprecedented speed. Under popular pressure (the general strike of 19-20/10, clashes with police forces outside the parliament, [political] banners in football matches, transformation of the national parades into protests of rage), and under the uncontrollable process of the global crisis of the capitalist system, a modern junta has been imposed on us. We refer to the aggressive re-organisation of bourgeois power that aims to impose, by any means and at any expense, the interests of national and international capital.

A national unity government is imposed to us, with a prime minister who is the former deputy director of the European Central Bank, former governor of the National Bank of Greece, and (until recently), member of the European branch of Goldman Sachs and honorary economic advisor to PM George Papandreou. Pasok (socialist party), Nea Dimokratia (right-wing party), LAOS (far right-wing party), Bakogianni (centrist-liberal political party) , Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) and all the media agreed that he came for our own good…

Within this context and – antagonistically – one day after the 17th November, the far right-wing party LAOS organises a debate with the central speakers Aivaliotis Constantinos, Georgiadis Adonis, Karathanos Mpampis, under the subject: “Proposals for the country’s exit from crisis: briefing on the achievements in Laos”. We the residents decided to cancel it and claim that they are undesirable.

Let’s cancel it, because LAOS is responsible for the reduction in payments and pensions, the hundreds of thousands dismissals, the labour cutbacks, the heavy taxes, the memorandums, the “deregulation of closed professions”, the continuous deprivation of our lives. Let’s not forget that according to the president of LAOS, it was his idea for the country’s appeal to the IMF.

Let’s cancel it, because LAOS is responsible for the racist pogroms, the hood-law, the stiffening of repressive policy, the anti-terrorism laws, the abolishment of the university asylum. Within a week in power, the new government had the time to forbid the antifascist demonstration in Nikaia, yet at the same time to permit and secure the gathering of Golden Dawn (Chrissi Avgi), to persecute individuals that supposedly participated in the cancellation of the military parade in Thessaloniki  and the disapproval of the authorities, to permit the extraction of DNA “when there are strong indications that a person has committed a crime or anti-social behaviour punishable by imprisonment for no less than 3 months”

Let’s cancel it, because LAOS is clearly a fascist party that promotes nationalism and racism. One of the current government ministers – Adonis Georgiadis – also a speaker in Holargos’ Town Hall, claims his favourite book to be “K. Plevri’s latest one, which among others says: “The SS, and especially  the armed wing of the Waffen SS, were proved to be the knights of the modern era, unbeatable fighters throughout Europe, who sacrifice their lives to the ideal of “New Order”, for the civilized nations. Within SS classes there is to be found the exquisite part of the Aryan Race”.

No one should hang his head and stand back. If they take power we will work like slaves in “Special Economic Zones” and we will live like savages. We continue to fight against the political and economic elite; against the Troika and its political staff. By organising dynamic strikes and demonstrations, by targeting those responsible for our impoverishment, by organising the suspension of payments  (in hospitals, tax offices, the electricity company, banks, tolls etc), by creating free social spaces and bazaars in every neighborhood.

We do not forget. Polytechnic uprisings overthrow the Junta.

Gathering at 18:30, 18/11, Town Hall of Holargos, Pericleous 55

Popular Assembly of Holargos–Papagou

P.S. We invite the former squatter of Polytechnic school, Ch. Papoutsis (who collaborates with the president of the youth faction EPEN, M. Voridis for “the salvation of the country”) to take his mercenaries (MAT, DIAS, the Anti-terror force etc) and go to Ekali [an “exclusive”, posh suburb of Attica, 20 km north of Athens].

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