In April 2010, in a joint letter with my comrades Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis, we claimed political responsibility for our participation in Revolutionary Struggle (Epanastatikos Agonas). We declared that we’re proud of the organization and our fellow fighter Lambros Foundas, who was killed by cops in the armed scuffle of Dafni.
Today I’m standing opposite you, in this special court, facing grave charges that draw many years of imprisonment. All this time there’s been a systematic effort on State’s part at my expense, so as to bend my will for struggle: from the torturing and battering in GADA (Athens police headquarters) and my imprisonment far away from my children’s residence, to the committal for trial against my spouse Maria Beraha, who is present here as co-defendant. However, I’m standing here opposite you and I declare that I’m proud of my struggle, my comrades and the history of Revolutionary Struggle.
In no case is my presence here intended to extenuate my place, since I don’t accept any charge that’s been laid against me by the bourgeois regime. It’s not I who is the criminal or the terrorist; neither do I consider that the organization’s actions were by any means harmful to society. The organization’s actions and interventions were profoundly political and beneficial to society, because they were directed solely against the regime, its officials and lackeys. They were directed against the structures and individuals of the capitalist system, which oppresses and tyrannizes the socially weak.
Thus, it is not we who should stand trial here as dangerous to society. Dangerous to society are those who govern and plunder the people over the past years. It is they who serve the plans of the Troika (IMF/ECB/EU) and the supranational Capital faithfully, aiming at the exsanguination and impoverishment of the Greek people. It is they who impose unbearable economic measures in order to save the credit money system and its excessive profits. It is they who shield all those who have embezzled the wealth and labour of the people, and never put any of them on the stand. It is they who unleash their murderers to repress any social response.
As Revolutionary Struggle fighters, we acted and act for the overthrow of capitalism and the State, for a free world where complete equality of people will be achieved in economic, social and political terms. The organization was born within the proletarian strata of society and has always strived for its interests. Every action of the organization, every proclamation was a glimmer of light for the society, a cry of relief for the oppressed, a hope that this unjust regime can be overthrown. The oppressed, the weak, the proletarians, the unemployed, our class allies are the ones who should judge us, and not you. In the streets, the squares, the assemblies… There where you’re all convicted.
So, I would like to make clear that this special court, like any other court of the bourgeois regime, cannot rule upon armed revolutionary organizations. A very simple reason for this is because the interests you serve and the class you belong to, stand opposite us a priori. This court is classist, and it judges using the ‘law’ of the dominant against the revolutionary law, the law of a handful of fighters who strive for the social liberation. The action of Revolutionary Struggle cannot be judged by you, simply because this action is directed against you, the capitalist system and the classist justice that you serve faithfully. We are two warring forces. You’re armored behind specially modulated spaces inside the prisons, behind special legislations, and intend to deride us and depoliticize our action before you convict us. Our own presence here is intended to reverse the charges against us into accusations against you, against the system you serve, and to demonstrate that your own acts are criminal and dangerous to society. The political battle which will be given in this court, for us, constitutes the tribune so as to highlight the justness of our struggle.
In this battle, we’re not alone. We have a large part of society by our side, which has disdained the political-economic system and dynamically demands that all of its factors leave the place. This fact is a vindication of our choices. The armed struggle against the regime is today more timely and more imperative than ever. Because there’s no other way for us, the proletarians, to successfully overcome the crisis than to conduct revolution. In the class clash which shall follow in the upcoming period, both inside and outside of this courtroom, we will be winners.
Kostas Gournas
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