Riots broke out in the streets of central Athens on November 12th 2015, day of general strike. Before the morning demonstration, hooded protesters chased a team of uniformed cops who were patrolling on foot near the Archeological Museum, in Patission Street, and beat up at least one of the pigs. Just after Omonoia Square, a Bazaar supermarket chain store, which was open despite the general strike, was trashed until its managers lowered the roller shutters. A little further on, near the Old Parliament building, a minivan belonging to OTE telecommunications company was burned. Rioters smashed street furniture (bus stops, traffic lights, etc.) and spray-painted anarchist slogans on the walls along Stadiou Street. At Syntagma Square, anti-riot squads who were guarding the luxury hotel Grande Bretagne on Vasileos Georgiou Street were attacked with firebombs. At the lower side of Syntagma, the ministry of Economy was also attacked with Molotov cocktails. At the upper side, in front of the Parliament, a giant Greek flag was removed; the patriots that tried to retrieve it were beaten (several times), and later their shitty rag was burned. A quick Molotov cocktail attack was also carried out against anti-riot squads next to the Monument of the Unknown Soldier. As the demonstration was nearing its end, the Bank of Greece building on Panepistimiou Street was attacked with fire, and clashes with cops took place near the Propylaea. These are only a few moments that we witnessed ourselves, together with other comrades. No arrests or injured protesters were reported.
Among other incendiary slogans, “Organising informally and insurrectionally, Black December in the whole wide Earth” was chanted (which is devoid of rhyme in its English translation, but shows we are warming up over here).
Some individualities that joined clashes in downtown Athens that day released a text, stating among others: “On November 12th, we also participated in the general strike with the clear objective of clashing; a clash that is not framed in the context of regaining our labour rights, or any sort of humanisation of the system. We clashed with the aim of highlighting the insurrectionary practice, with a view to sharpening and making it long-lasting, in the face of every authoritarian institution or relation. (…) We also call for a Black December, for the coordination and organisation of insurrectionary, polymorphous anarchy. Discourse without praxis is not more orphaned than praxis without discourse. (Signed:) A street group.”
This year’s November 17th marked the 30th anniversary of the murder of 15-year-old Michalis Kaltezas, shot dead by the cop Athanassios Melistas on the sidewalk of Stournari Street. On November 17th 1985, Michalis Kaltezas was killed by a police bullet in the back of his head as he was running towards Exarchia Square along with other anarchists and rioters who had firebombed a police bus of the MAT anti-riot squads.
On November 17th 2015, after the annual commemoration of the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising against the regime of the colonels, and once the peaceful demonstration in Athens was finished, several hundred hooded rioters took to the streets of Exarchia and clashed with police forces, from about 8pm until the small hours of November 18th. Rioters used all available materials – stones, sticks, Molotov cocktails, flares, etc. – to attack anti-riot squads and teams of plainclothes cops. Also, a car was set on fire in Stournari Street. That night, amid flaming barricades and clouds of tear gas, rioters stormed a Bazaar supermarket at Soultani Street en masse, completely looting and vandalising the store.
At least six people were arrested downtown, before the commemoration demo and during late-night clashes.
Some of the slogans that were shouted during the street clashes in Exarchia:
“That’s right, that’s right, that’s right, bursts of Kalashnikov to make it stick in your mind”
“One does not kneel before Democracy – Conspiracy of Cells of Fire”
“Scumbags Snitches Journalists”
“Cops Pigs Murderers”
“One – three, Christos Tsoutsouvis” (In memory of acratist urban guerrilla Christos Tsoutsouvis, who executed three cops on May 15th 1985 in Athens, during a shootout in the neighbourhood of Gyzi, before he fell by police bullets.)
footage by “ALFA TV” comrades