Responsibility claim for arson attacks on car dealerships and the Ministry of Culture
‘Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached’
—Franz Kafka
The seemingly invisible
We are going through a period of ‘deep’ economic crisis; another artificial crisis, according to a known and much worn plan. The durability of the capitalist system is tested and, unfortunately, at the same time steeled through similar ‘crises’ for quite many years now. An experiment organized by few, usually with weak-willed and tame citizens as their guinea pigs; people that passionately (and sometimes without any passion) support and praise their right to choose for themselves who will impoverish and deceive them over the next four years. But this ‘beautiful’ flow of capitalism is essentially destroyed day by day, since society is starting to realize that capitalism does not deserve correction, but destruction. The once distant, yet tangible dream of the ‘ideal life’, namely the wasteful and constant consumption, has begun to crumble for a large part of society. In effect, those who once may have kept their mouth shut, for the sake of a dream, are now gradually contaminated with the beneficial virus of reaction. Hence, people become radicalized, as history has shown, in times of systemic crisis.
The existent
But the fairytale somewhere here has an ending, and we return to the most savage and brutal reality. We face a septicemic capitalism, where the systemic crisis is ever deepening, fascist remnants begin to establish themselves in the authoritarian structures and the disorderly bankruptcy of the country seems nearby. The system’s permanent features are the continuing economic impoverishment of society and the repeated attacks on all that resists. However, despite the continued degradation of the ‘quality’ of life, a vast part of society is still unable to trace the enemy and the dividing line between the two camps. We do not know whether there will be a coup d’état, whether military anthems will be heard, whether army tanks will roll into the centre of Athens or if fighters will be sent to the firing squad. But we know, all too well, that the State will endeavor to get rid of anything resisting it all too quickly. Hence, faced with the threat of mass and violent clashes, the State takes off the mask of the erstwhile mighty capitalism and shows its real, ruthless face. The condition of financial ‘collapse’ is not a process for the self-destruction of the economic system but rather for its readjustment, under specific terms of survival, which are imposed on the largest part of society.
When the invisible becomes visible
How will the State infuse fear in the radicalized parts of society, if not by sending the murderers of the MAT police squads to stifle demonstrators with chemical weapons and beat people to death during the protest marches? How will the State gag the free flow of ideas and hinder the youths’ fermentation in the transition of concerns into action, if not by turning the neighbourhood of Exarchia into a militarized zone? How to make the social wrath die down, if not by upgrading terrorism laws? How to send those back home who are ready to lift up their heads, if not by inflicting a ‘blow’ to the anarchist fighters, subjecting them either to annihilating criminal sentences out of vindictiveness, or to unjust pretrial detentions? Amidst all these, as an ever-growing number of imprisoned anarchists can be observed, we can now say with certainty that all who stubbornly refuse to choose their place in this war are at least inconsistent with their place in history, but also with their own life.
Making a brief historical review of the near past, over the last two years (in the wake of the arrests in Halandri) the entire anarchist milieu has come under fire from an uncontrollable and constantly upgraded repressive mechanism, which is aiming at its complete inactivation; through close and, in numerous cases, dangerous surveillances, through raids in houses, hangouts and squats, through the daily parade of all kinds of cops in the neighbourhood of Exarchia, through a clear criminalization of friendly and comradely relationships; while fighters’ pretrial detentions are expedited via accelerated procedures, without even taking into account any flimsy or even in some cases nonexistent indictment. Of course, we never had any illusions that, in a period of covert junta, prosecutions would be anything but fabrications and, above all, charges against one’s convictions.
At our end, we chose to place four incendiary devices on Saturday, January 14th, 2012, against Audi and Volkswagen car dealerships, located on Mesogeion Avenue in the suburb of Aghia Paraskevi, and on Friday, January 20th, downtown against the Ministry of Culture in Metsovou and Patission intersecting streets, where its financial management offices are accommodated. We should clarify that, despite the bad weather on Saturday, January 14th, we decided to carry out this move wishing to send an incendiary solidarity message to the comrades P.Masouras and K.Karakatsani, whose motion for suspended execution of their sentences was due in Athens Court of Appeals on Monday, January 16th. The rain (certainly not the fire brigade) may have prevented the vehicles’ destruction, yet we went further, assuming our obligation to carry out a second attack, and we dedicate both actions to:
1. P.Masouras and K.Karakatsani, in which case the State’s vengefulness combined with the denial of the Inquisitor M.Varela to undersign the court’s ruling (it was no coincidence that, after the trial, she was promoted to president of the appellate judges!), are stalling the process month after month, thus waging psychological war on the two comrades.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR ANARCHISTS PANAGIOTIS MASOURAS
AND KONSTANTINA KARAKATSANI
On the 19th and the 5th of March, respectively, when their application will be heard again.
The longer the comrades remain hostages, the more we’ll multiply the fires inside metropolis.
2. Stella Antoniou, who is under pretrial detention in Koridallos prisons over the past year, accused for the CCF case, with sole proof her personal relationships with the co-defendant and companion Kostas Sakkas. And while the denials to her claims to be granted release from prison succeed one another (she is currently expecting one more answer), the comrade’s health is deteriorating every day, due to a spreading eye disease that requires rigorous and regular medical surveillance; something obviously impossible as long as she’s incarcerated.
Stella Antoniou, from the first moment of her arrest, and knowing the cost of her choices, has firmly defended her political identity and her comradely relationships. It is exactly for this reason that she’s still held in pretrial detention, it is exactly for this reason that she’s experiencing the State’s vengefulness.
The question is simple: either with solidarity and dignity, or with submission and fear. And the answer is more dynamic and imperative than ever: utterly side by side with our comrades, until the final victory, until the revolution, the prisons’ demolition and beyond…
SOLIDARITY AND IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR ANARCHIST
STELLA ANTONIOU
‘I would like you to know what the solidarity created inside me, in those days when nothing made sense and learning how to remake my life had no trace of logic, because you should know I was doing poorly, what happened to me I would wish on very few people, because it was horrific, and in the greatest darkness, there you appeared, small gestures that pushed me to not give up. How could I betray those who risk their lives to give me encouragement? And I learned to conquer life anew, and I know that you will never figure how important you’ve been. Now I find myself stronger than ever; prison, far from intimidating me, has made me as strong as in those days, how paradoxical life is, because I always said that to have comrades in prison should in no case motivate one to fear, entirely the opposite, it should be the reason for the wick in the bottle of gasoline, for the fuse in the explosive or incendiary charge, for the smile in the insurgent hearts after each day of attack, this I believed before and I still believe it, and now I am the one who finds himself a prisoner, so if my enemies do not succeed in intimidating me when I find myself in their clutches, I see it will be difficult for them to do so with my comrades.’
—Luciano Pitronello Sch.
UNRESERVED SOLIDARITY WITH THE REVOLUTIONARY COMRADE LUCIANO; with his fortitude and vigor, he gives us even more courage to continue the Struggle.
FREEDOM TO ALL IMPRISONED FIGHTERS
SOLIDARITY WITH ALL WHO STAND WITH DIGNITY BEHIND BARS
‘When the silence spreads to the many, it becomes a precursor to war’
Everything continues…