“Today, the State declared civil war. Those who are not killed by fascists’ knives are sent to prison through judicial decisions of the junta.
We call fighters and anyone who feels that DIGNITY, SOLIDARITY, EQUALITY and FREEDOM are not empty words, but a life stance, to realize the historical moment in which we live and act accordingly.
IDEAS cannot be repressed, nor imprisoned.
Lately it is becoming clearer and clearer that even the “pretenses of democracy” that the State is constantly using have become not only more shadowy but also more difficult to define. The choice of a full-scale attack against not only those who choose the path of direct confrontation but also even against all those who demand nothing but their self-evident rights, is a clear indication that we cannot talk in the same way as we did five, ten or even more years ago. The continuing economic crisis is pushing every day more and more people towards misery and poverty, while at the same time promoting social cannibalism. Meanwhile inner-class violence and the rise of fascism are evidence of such a social disorder that no one can predict with certainty neither where this is going to lead to nor how, under what conditions, this will take place. Faced with a possible TOTAL social explosion the State is toughening up its tactics of oppression, enforcement and terrorization while it is building up its legal arsenal so as to keep as many “hostages of the legal system” as possible. The methods used are predictable and repetitive. Banning of demonstrations or gatherings, the suppression of strikes, the brutal violence against demonstrators and strikers, the publication of photographs and personal data, the cracking down and the evacuation of squats and social spaces, the invasions of police forces in schools and universities, arrests and detentions, etc.; the list is too big, equal to their perversion.
At the same time they promote the fascist gangs so that they’ll do the dirty laundry, they’ll “sweep” where the official State cannot reach. Along with the pogroms against immigrants, leftists or anarchists, the arson on houses, shops or social spaces, the stabbings and beatings they want to present the extreme right wing as something “anti-systemic”, as a new alternative. What we have to keep on writing in capital letters is that fascism has NEVER presented human societies with something new, that it has ALWAYS functioned as a crutch to the State, and that in periods of crisis (economic, systemic or political) its role was to support the decisions of domination, “buying them time” to regroup, enabling the State to deal with any unrest.
These were the conditions when we as fighters, anarchists and antifascists decided to take part in the antifascist motorcycle demonstration on the 30th of September. The demo was scheduled to meet at Exarchia square and then pass through neighbourhoods where racist and fascist attacks against immigrants are becoming increasingly frequent and more and more violent. Our aim was one of support, to break the fear in everyday lives, to give courage and strength, and at the same time to send those who face racism every day the message of self-organization and resistance. In addition, we wanted to state that such a vague and general thing as the total enchantment of Greek society by fascism is a lie, that there are also people who believe in and fight for EQUALITY, FREEDOM, DIGNITY and SOLIDARITY.
The motorized forces of repression viciously attacked the motorcycle demo that night, and after severe beatings 15 people were arrested, tortured and held in temporary custody facing serious charges. We do not wish, at this time, to give an account as to what took place during our arrest and our detention for five days in the Athens police headquarters (GADA), nor do we wish to participate in any attempt of victimization. For those who haven’t added two and two together, it is time to realize that the State is attacking using any of its auxiliary crutches, it is declaring war, and when you are at war you will have casualties and will face hardships. What is really significant though is the civil-war mentality that is promoted more and more both by the institutional actors and the state security forces, and at this given example by the official (in uniform, but not only) gangs of cops. Their continuous reference to “Grammos and Vitsi” [two mountains in northern Greece where the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) suffered heavy losses in 1949 battles and the remainder of DSE forces had to flee to Albania, as the Greek Civil War was ended in military terms], to the Greek Civil War and to our grandparents is an indication as to where this story is going. They are trying to terrorize fighters, to push them either towards the underground or in a state of fear (since they were threatening us with “house visits”), with direct threats of assassinations and similar frivolities…
Following the same civil-war mentality, the public prosecutor’s office is intensifying the effort to terrorize fighters by threats of pretrial detention, literally abolishing, in this way, their own penal code, the very same one that they are supposed to observe and defend.
BUT BECAUSE…
we understand the importance of this historical moment, our duty towards ourselves and towards history as well, there is nothing we can do but shout NOT A STEP BACK!!!
We have to come together, to pick up the glove that they are throwing and slap it back to their faces. We have to strengthen every source of resistance and struggle, everything that fights back against the barbarity that they are trying to enforce. We have to organize the ferocity of human dignity… for ourselves, for everyone.
“Along the way many of us died or were taken prisoner; many others were wounded and permanently put out of action; and certain elements even let themselves slip to the rear out of lack of courage; but I believe I can say that our formation as a whole never swerved from its line until it plunged into the very core of destruction.”
[Guy Debord, In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni, 1978]
REVOLUTIONARY GREETINGS
TO THE ARRESTED ANTIFASCISTS IN PATRAS
TO THE 4 ARRESTED SOLIDARIANS FROM EVELPIDON
TO ALL COMRADES IN GREECE AND ABROAD WHO SUPPORT US
Nothing is finished; everything goes on
The 15 anarchists, antifascists, fighters
(some among us, proud progenies of anarcho-communist brigands/symmorites)