An offensive news report was widely spread in September 2012 linking ‘suspects’ among others with the 7th of May shooting of Adinolfi, the CEO of Italian nuclear firm Ansaldo Nucleare. Below are some reflections of a comrade on the slanderous mention of his name in the bourgeois Press.
I am writing this text because I continue my life normally and publicly as always, and not because I seek to refute the content of poorly constructed press publications that were recently released by the parrots of Power in both print and electronic media.
So, I’m not going to get into the logic of any debate with the imaginative scenarios directed by the authorities; I’m only addressing to friends, comrades and hence to anyone that has the insight and humaneness to recognize his/her position within the existent. My purpose is to shield my social subsistence against the repressive mechanisms and their justice, in which I have no confidence at all anyway, as they exist only to serve the interests of dominators.
I am one of the billions of the oppressed on the planet. I was born in some geographical area and I was given the Greek identity. They baptized me as Christian. I went to the schools and universities of their sterile uneducated knowledge. I went out into the streets of metropolises and I experienced their rottenness getting myself into ‘artificial paradises’, but I got over it with the strength of mutual aid. From an early age, under the eye of cops and the threat of police truncheons, I was out in the streets, the squares and parks of neighbourhoods because I was different – I was looking for every moment of joy and fun in life, relationships and love. I grew up and realized the extent of exploitation at slums. Then they took me away in order to serve the ‘motherland’ and I experienced the utmost of hierarchy and authoritarian relations, the entire model of converting people into docile citizens. As for my everyday survival, I have installed paving tiles on a street you may walk, I have delivered food to your home address, I have carried equipment machines in nightclubs you may go to, and so forth.
My living circumstances made me get sick of the existing social organization, which is based on profit, cannibalism and ‘save-your-own-skin’ attitude. I have always believed that people are able to throw off their shackles by supporting each other, and shape a different social reality. Without masters and slaves. Without any kind of authority. I shared some of my thoughts with others that had the same concerns, and above all the same willingness for a change. After I had read books and brochures, attended discussions at hangouts and taken part in social events, all of my life experiences acquired a political substance through my active participation in the anarchist movement and social struggles.
From the high-school student protests in 1998, to the university student protests in 2006/7. From the antiwar demonstrations against the international political-military machine, to the solidarity with total objectors to military service. From the 2003 protests in Thessaloniki against global totalitarianism, to the social resistance against the suffocating measures imposed by the IMF, the European Central Bank and the Greek State. From distributing leaflets at open-air markets in solidarity with imprisoned fighters, counter-information flyposting regarding various fights, to the December ’08 assemblies and barricades in the city of Patras. I was involved in these and other actions based on the voice of my conscience and always realizing the minimum of my contribution. A conscience that does not recognize the lines that were drawn to divide people, but rather finds friends and comrades in any place to which my life may bring me.
So, I found myself sharing my time with persons I trusted and let into my life over the last years that I’ve been visiting Italy. No doubt I had a little involvement in the movement there as well. Since the early days of my stay, I began to feel the terrorist stranglehold of the Italian State’s repressive mechanism; a totalitarian regime, which does not even save the appearances. From the wiretapped conversations with your own companion, the surveillance operations and stalking on the streets, the constant raids and searches into homes as well as hangouts and squats, the long identification checks without any excuse at airports and ports, the criminal prosecutions of fighters regardless of their political affiliations with unfounded allegations and unsustainable indictments, to the imprisonments which are based on insubstantial evidence and reach the point of penalizing convictions or interpersonal relationships (perhaps that’s also the model that the sharp-witted hounds of the Greek law enforcement agencies are being taught).
The extent of repression, on the one hand, and how they manage to interfere through this repression and infect every aspect of our social life, on the other hand, are a result of the void of social resistance which was created by the assimilation and defeat of the movements of the 70s along with the onslaught of the contemporary spectacular model of life. In recent months we became spectators in multiple mediatic operations at various different cities in the entirety of the Italian Peninsula. Now, after these media campaigns, dozens of people are being prosecuted or threatened with prosecutions, or held hostages in their own homes and in prisons. While the IMF is knocking also on Italy’s door, under the fear of possible social unrest the State prepares itself by upgrading its operational–judicial–mediatic arsenal aiming at an isolation and criminalization of the most radical ideas and practices. We are thus faced with an anti-insurrectionary framework even before any insurrection breaks out.
Currently in Greece, in Italy, as well as in all corners of this world-prison, similar fights are carried out against the plans of domination. Nowadays the modern oligarchies collaborate and synchronize with each other to further intensify the relentless exploitation of poorer people in the name of a common interest, and they violently suppress any voice of resistance while trying to disorientate entire populations from their real enemy, pushing them to eat each other alive in the name of a nation, a religion or some other imaginary identity. Thus, more than ever before, all that is necessary for the exploited around the world is to contact each other in order to communicate their problems, their needs and desires, and to self-organize their struggles against Power.
As for the implication of my name in various different terror-frenzy scenarios: Lots of petty journalists —following the orders of the police authorities— were eager to reproduce false news and accusations against me so as to sell cheap terrorism, violating my personal data. Essentially, they became vectors of terrorism themselves against not only me but also my friends, my comrades and my family. What you must think of your readers is that they’re so stupid to buy that the person who is depicted as an ‘organizer, messenger, propulsor’ and ultimately a ‘hardcore extremist element’ has not been following any conspirative tactic but was rather using his registered cell phone, traveling under his real name and speaking openly in social centres and events. I’m just one piece of the puzzle, an easy target, the ‘Greek anarchist’ that was required to set up their scenarios.
This text does not contain any legalistic declaration. Do not expect from me to condemn any idea or action that move towards an anti-authoritarian perspective. The radical movement is multiform, consisting of various components that are all tending to individual and social liberation. Therefore, I continue to walk on the streets of the city where I live, defend my ideas, get together with friends, and if they live in another city, be it Athens, Naples, or a place on Guadeloupe, if I like to meet them I’ll be visiting them.
Ch.T., September 21st, 2012