On Saturday, January 11th, 2014 people carried out a demonstration in the neighbourhoods of central Athens against the detention centres for migrants and the statist “Xenios Zeus” sweep operation. The demonstration was organized by several collectives who are active downtown (From the neighbourhoods of Aghios Nikolaos, Kypseli and Patissia, Antifascists from neighbourhoods of central Athens, Kypseli-Patissia antifascist action, NoLager assembly), and was supported by other groups and individuals from the city centre, but also the western, eastern, northern and southern suburbs of Athens. There was also significant presence of migrants who participated in the protest from the beginning, or joined the march spontaneously. Nearly 800 demonstrators walked from Amerikis square to the streets of Mythimnis, Acharnon, Skiathou, Epidamnou, Sifnou and Patission, and returned to Amerikis square.
During the march, hundreds of leaflets were handed out in seven different languages, thousands of fliers were thrown, and protesters sprayed slogans and painted graffiti stencils along the route. No problem occurred, and the demonstration was very warmly received by migrant residents. Among others, the following slogans were shouted:
Migrants are our class brothers and sisters / No concentration camps, never and nowhere
Concentration camps, pogroms and Manolada / This is Greece if you’re a migrant
[reference to migrant farm workers, who protested the slavery imposed by strawberry landowners, and got shot by foremen in Manolada, Peloponnese]
Let are professors be Albanian, our teachers Roma, and our classmates from Tehran
Terrorism is job hunting, having no health insurance, and living without documents
That’s right, papers for migrants, kicks at the bosses
Goldendawnist cops / nationalist patriots / we are the traitors of national unity
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