On June 3rd 2015, anarchist Rami Syrianos was released from the Cassandra rural prison (in the Halkidiki Peninsula, northern Greece).
The comrade was arrested in Thessaloniki in early 2011. He admitted responsibility for an expropriation against a state corporation (ODDY) that organizes auctions of vehicles confiscated by cops. Rami Syrianos was sentenced to a little over 8 years in prison. After 4.5 years of imprisonment, he was finally granted conditional release.
On March 23rd, anarchist prisoner Yannis Michailidis, participant in the Network of Imprisoned Fighters (DAK), started hunger strike.
Below is the comrade’s statement:
Today, Monday March 23rd, I join the hunger strike in order to counterattack the ever-intensifying repressive campaign of the State against the anarchist milieu and against every resistor in general. I am the last participant in the network of imprisoned fighters to enter the strike; the comrades Rami Syrianos and Spyros Stratoulis are unable to join us because they have not yet fully recovered from last year’s multi-day hunger strike.
We demand:
• the abolition of articles 187 and 187A (terror laws);
• abolition of the aggravating provision regarding acts committed with concealed physical characteristics (“hoodie law”);
• abolition of the legal framework for the operation of type C prisons;
• the immediate release of Savvas Xiros, urban guerrilla of the R.O. 17N, so that he receives needed medical treatment;
• abolition of forcible taking of DNA samples;
• access to DNA samples for analysis by a biology expert witness trusted by the accused;
• abolition of analysis of DNA samples that contain a mixture of genetic material from more than two individuals.
On December 31st, 2013 imprisoned comrades Ergün Mustafa, Rami Syrianos and Michalis Ramadanoglou, who conducted hunger strike since late November in solidarity with prisoner in struggle Spyros Stratoulis, stopped their abstention from eating following this open letter:
Today (December 30th, 2013), after 50 days of hunger strike, I see that the state mechanisms are trying to exhaust me through their neglectfulness. I respond to that by continuing the fight. However I will not allow my decision to be to the detriment of my comrades.
Hunger strikers in solidarity Rami Syrianos, Ergün Mustafa and Michalis Ramadanoglou followed my decision to abstain from food as of November 11th, requesting my acquittal for the fabricated charges pressed against me, in order to receive days of leave from prison again.
I don’t want to let three real fighters on the inside to “fall” just now —Rami Syrianos after 40 days of hunger strike, Ergün Mustafa and Michalis Ramadanoglou after 36 days of hunger strike. I now ask them to adopt my proposal to them, to remain standing and keep both me and our struggle alive. I insistently urged my brothers in solidarity to stop their hunger strike, because they have already accomplished their purpose; that is, they have already transmitted the power of solidarity and the message of collective resistance by standing beside me.
Our bodies and minds have acted as one, and I am able to stay firm thanks to them. Their unbending decision and the act of absolute incorporation into my struggle will remain forever etched in my heart. Their act should also be engraved on the memory of all of us, for it is the culmination of the political responsibility to jointly face the enemy head-on.
Freedom belongs to us; and we will regain our freedom.
I feel like I owed to publicize my request towards my comrades through this open letter.
I continue the hunger strike; we are TOGETHER and will stay TOGETHER until the end.
The passion for freedom is stronger than all prison cells!
Resistance and solidarity unite us and—as of yet—keep us alive.
“Facing our enemies we must declare our attitude simply. We ask for no mercy, and we will make no compromise.” (Terence MacSwiney)
Spyros Stratoulis,
incarcerated in the prison of Larissa
During the holidays, we chose to celebrate in our own way, throwing paint on two central bank branches in Veria and painting slogans in solidarity with Spyros Stratoulis, on hunger strike since November 11th, as well as E.Mustafa, R.Syrianos and M.Ramadanoglou, who are also on hunger strike since late November supporting the struggle of Spyros.
Last Friday, December 13, 2013 we torched a diplomatic vehicle, as well as a van belonging to the Aristotle University, in Thessaloniki. This action is dedicated to the imprisoned hunger strikers Spyros Stratoulis, Rami Syrianos, Ergün Mustafa, Michalis Ramadanoglou, and the community of anarchist prisoners in Koridallos, Athens, who have shown us a way to fight and win under any condition. Our comrades satisfy their hunger with explosions and soothe their thirst with arson.
Everything continues…
Anarchist demonstration at Koridallos prisons, in Athens, on the night of December 14:
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/81901456[/vimeo]
As of Sunday, December 15, 2013 seven anarchist prisoners are on hunger and thirst strike at Koridallos.
Specifically, Fivos Harisis, Argyris Ntalios, Yannis Michailidis, Dimitris Politis and Giorgos Karagiannidis find themselves on hunger and thirst strike already since the 13th of December, Babis Tsilianidis conducts the same strike since the 14th, and Grigoris Sarafoudis joined them on the 15th of December.
The 7 hunger and thirst strikers demand the return of themselves and Yannis Naxakis to the 1st wing of Koridallos men’s prison.
Over the last hours, many gestures and activities of solidarity have been expressed across the territory controlled by the Greek State. Additionally, gatherings were scheduled for December 15th outside the prison of Diavata near Thessaloniki, at the prison of Aghios Stefanos in Patras, and another demo in front of Koridallos prisons, as well as counter-informative assemblies in the Athens Polytechnic School in Exarchia, and at Evangelismos squat in the city of Heraklion, on Crete.
Anarchists Tasos Theofilou, Alexandros Mitroussias, Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos and Stefanos Amilitos (all incarcerated in the 1st wing of Koridallos), as well as imprisoned comrade Elias Karadouman (on Corfu Island) have released open letters in immediate solidarity with the strikers.
Comrades Spyros Stratoulis, Rami Syrianos, Ergün Mustafa and Michalis Ramadanoglou—who conduct hunger strike since November in four different prisons, fighting to vindicate the demands of Spyros Stratoulis—have published a joint communiqué in solidarity with the 7 anarchist strikers in Koridallos.
Every passing minute is extremely crucial for the 7 comrades who are currently on hunger and thirst strike. Therefore, we call for maximum dissemination of their struggle beyond borders.
As of Friday, December 13, 2013 anarchist prisoners Fivos Harisis, Argyris Ntalios, Yannis Michailidis, Dimitris Politis and Giorgos Karagiannidis are on hunger and thirst strike after their disciplinary transfer for assaulting a jailer —read their open letter here.
Currently the five of them are isolated in the disciplinary section of the 3rd wing in Koridallos, while comrades Yannis Naxakis and Babis Tsilianidis were transferred to the 4th wing, and comrade Grigoris Sarafoudis to the 5th wing (the latter was brought to the 4th wing on 14/12).
All eight were previously at the 1st wing of the same prison, alongside other captive anarchists. The prison administration is trying to break up their community on the inside.
On Saturday, December 14, anarchist Babis Tsilianidis joined the struggle, and went on hunger and thirst strike, too.
The six hunger and thirst strikers demand the return of themselves and the other two comrades to the 1st wing in Koridallos men’s prison, and they salute the ongoing struggle of hunger strikers Spyros Stratoulis (in Larissa), Rami Syrianos (in Domokos), Ergün Mustafa (in Malandrino) and Michalis Ramadanoglou (in Grevena).
More updates as they come.
On Monday, December 9th, 2013 we carried out a coordinated sabotage of twelve ATMs at bank branches in Thessaloniki. By doing so, we chose to disrupt even for a while the smooth flow of financial transactions in the city, promoting at the same time a continuation of polymorphous struggle in solidarity with comrades prosecuted for their subversive activity.
We stand beside the imprisoned:
– anarchists Nikos Romanos, Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos, Yannis Michailidis, Dimitris Politis, Fivos Harisis and Argyris Ntalios, currently on trial in the case of double robbery in Velventos, Kozani;
– comrade Tasos Theofilou, currently on trial in the case of robbery at Alpha Bank branch on Paros Island;
– Spyros Stratoulis, who is on hunger strike since November 11th, claiming dismissal of all charges against him in relation to the “criminal organization hangouts of Thessaloniki” and re-granting of exit permits;
– and Rami Syrianos, Michalis Ramadanoglou and Ergün Mustafa, who are also on hunger strike, in solidarity with Spyros and his struggle.
Comrade Spyros Stratoulis was incarcerated in Greek prisons at the age of 17, and has been held for nearly 22 years in a peculiar hostage situation. He has fought for two decades against the rottenness of the prison system, exposing its hypocritical face, and claiming dignity. The dozens of solidarity documents he has signed, his open denouncements of detention conditions, and his involvement in prison riots, hunger strikes and abstentions from prison food are indicative of his long struggle on the inside; and all this at great cost.
Despite his long incarceration, Spyros received days of leave from prison only in the past two years. From 2008 until 2010 he was held on remand, additionally to his sentence, because of his participation in the 2007 prison rebellion that was triggered across Greece when an anarchist prisoner (Yannis Dimitrakis) was beaten by jailers. This resulted in consecutive negative responses—describing Spyros as dangerous—to his requests for exit permits, as well as endless hours in solitary confinement.
In July 2012, the Thessaloniki police directorate unleashed a coordinated operation, during which cops raided homes, hangouts and squats, detaining and persecuting dozens of comrades on charges of involvement in an alleged criminal organization dubbed “Hangouts of Thessaloniki”. The mammoth indictment was based solely on records of phone tapping.
Almost a year later, in April 2013, imprisoned comrade Spyros Stratoulis was summoned by the investigating judge to testify as defendant in the case. Criminal proceedings against him were initiated on the basis of others’ gossiping in phone calls tapped by the police.
Although no remand or restrictive order was issued against him in relation to this case, the provision of article 55 (pending felony charges) of the Greek penitentiary code was automatically activated. Ever since this provision was applied, not only was he deprived of regular exit permits that he fought so hard to get, but he is also bound to remain hostage pending charges, with a high probability of having to serve the maximum prison sentence length, which is 25 years in Greece, awaiting trial in this particular case, while he would have otherwise been able to request his release on probation in September this year.
On Monday, November 11th, 2013 Spyros went on hunger strike, demanding that the aforementioned charges against him be dropped, and claiming his immediate acquittal by judicial decree in order to be granted days of leave again.
As an indicator of solidarity with the struggle of Spyros, three of his fellow prisoners launched a hunger strike, too, namely anarchist Rami Syrianos in the prison of Domokos as of 21/11, and Ergün Mustafa and Michalis Ramadanoglou in the prisons of Malandrino and Grevena, respectively, as of 25/11.
The combative stance and integrity that Spyros has demonstrated all these years can only make us stand beside him in his every fight for dignity and freedom.
We must not leave anyone alone in the hands of the State.
Immediate re-granting of exit permits to Spyros Stratoulis
Dismissal of all charges brought against him in this case
Initiative of anarchists for hunger striker Spyros Stratoulis
Wednesday, December 4th
PA’s gathering at 12pm in Monastiraki Square, Athens
Open assembly at 7.30pm in the Athens Polytechnic School
Saturday, December 7th
Solidarity demonstration at 12pm in Tachydromeiou Square, Larissa
Translators’ note:
Since the 27th of November, 22 prisoners from the 2nd section of Larissa prison as well as 13 prisoners from the Β1 wing of Grevena prison abstain from prison meals, in solidarity with the four hunger strikers, Spyros Stratoulis, Rami Syrianos, Ergün Mustafa and Michalis Ramadanoglou. Numerous statements and gestures have been communicated in solidarity with the struggle of Spyros Stratoulis, and diverse actions are scheduled for the coming days, with a solidarity action day all over Greece called for Wednesday, December 4th. Meanwhile, supporters report that prisoner Spyros Stratoulis was transferred to a hospital on the outskirts of the city of Larissa on the 2nd of December, but he was brought back to the prison of Larissa the next day (3/12).
On November 11th, 2013 brother Spyros Stratoulis started a hunger strike demanding an end of his prosecution for the case dubbed ‘Criminal Organization Hangouts of Thessaloniki’.
At this point, I could write who Spyros is, I could write about his fighting days throughout two decades of incarceration, his indomitable spirit, his integrity and humanity in spite of all brutalization efforts at the democratic prison cells, but all these would only capture a fragment of the reasons why I call this human a comrade and a brother. To be able to transmit the essence, I should be able to find words which can concretely express a period of more than one year that we spent closely together in the prison of Larissa; words which can illustrate the concentrated experience of being with another human twenty-four hours a day; of sharing every moment, every joy, every sorrow, every difficulty, every hope; thoughts, concerns, and dreams. I should be able to find words which can express in a concise manner the unique significance of being able, within the personalized space and time of prison, to say: I am not alone.
On November 11th, Spyros began hunger strike. Today, November 21st, is the tenth day of his struggle.
From today, I also go on hunger strike as an act of solidarity toward Spyros; as an act that reflects nothing less than what this human really deserves, and corresponds to the experiences we shared and continue to share even though we’re locked up in different places now.
For solidarity is to call another human a comrade, and by that meaning to say: together through good times, together through struggles, together in tough times, till the end.
Brother, keep the good moments, take courage, and advance onward…
Till victory.
Rami Syrianos
Domokos prison
Anarchist Rami Syrianos was arrested in 2011 after an armed robbery against a state corporation that organizes auctions of vehicles confiscated by cops. He admitted responsibility for the expropriation, clarifying among others that he denies work and opposes to waged slavery. Rami was sentenced to a little over 8 years in prison, and has fought strongly on the inside.
On July 10th, 2013 the imprisoned comrade was transferred without any previous warning from Larissa to Domokos prison.
‘All my life, I’ve never learned how to bow my head or to swallow injustice. So, starting from Monday, February 4th, I conduct a hunger strike until my struggle is vindicated and my stolen right to days of leave from prison is given back to me, so as to reclaim a breath of freedom which I deserve after so many years of incarceration at the hellholes of the Greek “correctional” system.’
—Excerpt from the recent letter of Spyros Dravilas
Dignified prisoner Spyros Dravilas had successfully conducted another hunger strike in April 2012, when the prison administration finally granted him the first temporary leave to which he was entitled long ago. After some time, and according to the prison regulation, Spyros was granted a second leave. Today, on the pretext of a 2007 case file for bank robbery in the city of Nafplion (in which Spyros states he had no involvement whatsoever), the prison prosecutor deny him the days of leave, even though it is clear that he has this right just like in the past months. The prison administration states that ‘there is a proceeding pending against him, so he is not allowed to be released even for a few days’. Tasos Theofilou, incarcerated in Domokos hellhole as well, and the imprisoned members of the R.O. Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, all support the struggle of Dravilas. Below is another message of prisoners in solidarity:
‘ We stand in solidarity with Spyros Dravilas, who has begun hunger strike since February 4th, 2013 choosing to fight with dignity for a breath of freedom, as he has declared.
Our solidarity to Spyros, and every other prisoner who chooses to stand up against the repressive policy of the State, is non-negotiable.
Babis Tsilianidis, Kostas Sakkas, Alexandros Mitroussias, Giorgos Karagiannidis, Spyros Stratoulis, Rami Syrianos, Ergün Mustafa ’
In addition, 94 inmates of Koridallos women’s prisons sent an open letter to the Greek ministry of Justice, demanding that hunger striker Spyros Dravilas receives his days of leave as provided by law.
In mid July we heard from the TV news bulletins that the police have arrested three correctional officers in Trikala prison on charges of importing drugs and other hard-to-find staples into prison. We are shocked by the lack of esprit de corps in the police force and particularly those police officers that cynically arrested their colleagues, without reflecting on the difficult and dangerous work they are asked to carry out… Without any shame, they arrested these beacons of policing heroism that daily come in contact with dangerous prisoners while leaving their sweet family’s warmth whenever it’s their shift. Caring with such zeal for the smooth operation of their prison… Struggling for survival to raise their kids, to pay tuition fees, loans, installments for the new car they bought to show off to their colleagues. Especially at a time when crisis has reduced wages, allowances for dangerous and unhealthy work, at a time when reserve employment is lurking around the corner…
But the joke goes blunt at this point.
The fact that once again the police stages a spectacular performance under the anti-terrorist law (or criminal organization act) is not something new; on the contrary, once again it confirms what has been written long ago by radical circles, i.e. that all kinds of “anti-terrorist” laws are made for widespread use. Nevertheless, the content of this performance presents a good opportunity to document what everyone suspects (except of course the constantly shocked parrots of the mass media), and this has its value, especially regarding the matter’s implications.
Prison is a first-class business for the administration (or prison service) and the inmates who collaborate with them.
Whilst prisoners are humiliated, beaten, and spend time in disciplinary isolation, the above-suspicion humanguards who impose these measures make a fortune by trafficking objects that they claim they are trying to prevent from entering the prison. It is also common knowledge that the harder the prohibition is, the bigger the gains are for those who have their way to override it.
With a large number of prisoners addicted to drugs before their imprisonment and even more inmates becoming addicted after confinement, the profits of drug trading in prisons are enormous. When Aravantinos, known as the padrino of humanguards, states that “to serve the needs of Koridallos prison a kilo of smack is needed daily”, it is easy to realize that we are talking of an approximately turnover of 200,000 euros. Daily.
And that’s just Koridallos prison, and it concerns smack only (preza, for heroin in Greek). As Koridallos prison has only 20% of the country’s prisoner population and a mobile phone fetches 2,000 to 3,000 euros, it is easy to deduct that we’re talking of a market worth millions.
Obviously, such quantities of drugs and other “commodities” are practically impossible to be imported by inmates. Besides, the arrests of humanguards with large quantities of drugs and mobile phones speak for themselves. The “correctional officers” that have occasionally been arrested, held quantities of pills, smack or cocaine, far beyond the capacity any prisoner has to smuggle in one pass. In 2011, at the beginning of May in Nea Alikarnassos prison (on Crete Island), a humanguard was arrested inside the prison with 250g of smack, 50g of cocaine, 50g of hashish, 30 Subutex pills, 4 mobile phones and 30 SIM cards. Later that same year, in July, in Patras, another humanguard was caught with 100g of smack. In April 2012, in Malandrino prison, another humanguard was caught with 213gr of smack and 2 mobile phones. And of course now in Trikala, with Papaioannou (one of the three accused humanguards) cynically admitting that in less than a year he smuggled “only” 2 kilos of smack and “some” mobile phones while he is accused of smuggling 6 kilos and 500 mobile phones. It goes without saying that we could not forget the resounding and notorious cases of Fotakis and Aravantinos, with 2 kilos and 800g of smack respectively, found in Koridallos prison safe.
Of course, no chief humanguard, deputy humanguard, low ranking humanguard or indeed anyone else from the prison staff indicted needs to worry much. History has shown that Justice, the patron and feeder of the prison system, is perfectly generous to its children gone astray.
If not acquitted during preliminary proceedings or at first instance, the penalties imposed on them are much lighter than those imposed on prisoners for much smaller quantities of drug abuse.
The aforementioned humanguard who was arrested inside Alikarnassos prison walls “got” 15 years’ imprisonment at first instance, and his sentence will undoubtedly go much lower on appeal. By 1994 the warden Fotakis, who was caught with 2 kilos, served just 3.5 years of his prison sentence, while in 1996 the ubiquitous Aravantinos for 800g was incarcerated for 6 months and was finally acquitted by decree. For four simultaneous deaths from heroin in Koridallos women’s prison in 2002, the director was sentenced to 8 months’ imprisonment while the warden got 1 year of unpaid leave. It goes without saying that, even if humanguards are imprisoned, their colleagues provide for their wellbeing in special conditions, which among other things means protection from any “warm hospitality” possibly afforded by other inmates. Continue reading Greek prisons: On the occasion of recent events in Trikala prison
We are witnessing the most extreme contradictions that are born and die in this shit-world. While the calculators of sorcerer’s apprentices of economic statistics are counting 23,000 dead in Syria, billions of people are watching besotted the London Olympic Games; the distance between the Olympic and the ‘practical’ shooting in the field of operations is just a simple push of the button on a remote control. If only it could happen… all these rivers of blood to become an impetuous torrent which will drown athletes and spectators. If only it could happen… We can refer all the same to the thousands of homeless people ‘messing up’ the image of the dire city, while the rich enjoy their luxurious comforts in the gardens of Ekali and Kifissia (two of the richest suburbs of Athens).
Societies that, despite their contradictions, manage to reproduce the stench they’re emitting, partitioning everyone and everything, manufacturing hundreds of microcosms.
Power is not a compact structure but a diffused edifice, located on the systemic structures—economic, institutional, etc.—and human relations. Starting from society’s chopping into antagonistic-with-each-other subsets, the constant fragmentation continues in the individual’s daily life within the capitalist world; in every aspect of the individual’s life, in every field of expression.
At this point the system completes its ‘omnipotence’, at the point where it raises the walls of isolation even in the most trivial of everyday processes. At the point where the paravans of resignation and indifference fall, hence rises the sepsis of the sleaziest kind of selfishness, of the most petty ego, an exalted sense of passive midenism.
For my part, my part, my part. For me, me, me.
The practical recording of the above assessment can be found either in the material possession of illusions in the era of capitalist prosperity—home, car, rapid rise of ‘small property’— or in the emigration for work abroad amidst conditions of economic crisis. It’s the same ideologue of modern lifestyle with modified variables. From illusions of the ownership’s onslaught, to stampede.
“When, at the end of their lives, most people look back they’ll find that they have lived their lifelong ad interim. They’ll be surprised to realize that the very thing they allowed to slip by unappreciated and unenjoyed was just their life. And so a man, having been duped by hope, dances into the arms of death.” (Arthur Schopenhauer)
A result of the intensity observed in the social machine is the fascists’ growing momentum; a fact that in no way goes unnoticed. We’re talking about a general shift of society and the State towards racist/ fascist/ nationalist guidelines. This can either be about the bodies of HIV-positive women that got humiliated through the collaboration of the cops with the KEELPNO (‘Hellenic Centre for Disease Control & Prevention’) and the mass media, or about the ongoing pogroms against migrants and the dozens of murderous attacks against them. ‘Legitimate’ and ‘illegal’ operations become one, under the ironically allegorical name Xenios Zeus. The democratic operation’s culmination was the assassination of an Iraqi migrant (on Anaxagora Street, in Omonia) by rippers identical to the goldendawners.
So, the conclusion is that the state mechanism’s moves against migrants reflect a SOCIAL DEMAND; the racist hatred of every shit-souled macho Hellene is added to the demand for security. The knife of the insulted pseudo-egoism of the Greek-souled wanker is to be found next to the police buses and paddy wagons and the concentration camps for migrants, and the ribs of some random migrant will be stabbed at the first opportunity with that knife, applying the logic of collective responsibility.
Under no circumstances do we highlight these incidents from a victimized perspective, nor will we ever proclaim ourselves self-appointed patrons of nobody; far off from a rhetoric that sanctifies all migrants and turns them into a unified whole, we believe in humans, stances and choices, and based on these we assess others and let ourselves be assessed.
We are at war with the system, and fascists are nothing but one part of it, always apparent in specific historical periods with very specific targeting and distinct roles. That is why the attack on fascists should not be perceived as a strike against the ‘undemocratic’ aberration—using expressions such as gang or making appeals to declare Chrissi Avgi/Golden Dawn illegal—but an attack against democracy in its whole entity and, obviously, against the leftist bullshit-talkers of all kinds and tendencies, too, who consent like foolish virgins and then meet with the Palestinians’ butcher Peres.
Thus, our projectuality could not be other than the all-out conflict with the fascists as much as with every front of the authoritarian complex. With our own knives embroidering their bodies, our firearms targeting their heads, our gas canisters and explosives placed in their offices and homes.
Traveling mentally to the prison brothels where our brothers and sisters are held captives: During the last period, a very important struggle has been launched by anarchist hostages inside Greek prisons; a struggle which is geared towards the refusal of body cavity search —i.e. the attempt to offend an inmate’s dignity. Anarchist prisoners who refuse to undergo this offensive process are dragged to the physical and mental torture of isolation that reached its highest point with the scuffle in Domokos prisons between the humanguards and the comrades and R.O. CCF members Panagiotis Argirou and Gerasimos ‘Makis’ Tsakalos, and more recently with the case of anarchist Rami Syrianos—who managed to exit solitary confinement after a victory in his hunger strike—as well as the case of anarchist and R.O. CCF member Olga Ekonomidou. Both of them paid the price for their choice to break with this ‘penitentiary’ measure by staying tens of days in isolation. Last was the case of anarchist comrade Sokratis Tzifkas: After his return from a hospital (in Thessaloniki), where he had been admitted for health reasons, he denied the prison strip search and was tortured by the pigs in Diavata prisons that kept him in isolation for 10 days in appalling conditions. It’s important to mention that our comrade Olga Ekonomidou was also tortured with solitary confinement for 54 days in the same prisons.
As a minimum token of solidarity with anarchist Sokratis Tzifkas, as well as all anarchist prison hostages who have recently been tortured in solitary confinement, in the evening of Monday, August 13th, we placed an incendiary device against Trastor REIC—formerly Piraeus REIC, a subsidiary of Piraeus Bank—on the 5th floor of the building on 1 Davaki Street and 116 Kifissias Avenue (in Athens), a real estate investment company that also participates in further economic bargains such as purchases, investments, etc.; in sum, a company that consists a target just like any other.
Solidarity with revolutionary hostages at prisons
Strength to wanted comrades across the world
A raised fist for Luciano ‘Tortuga’; your latest letter touched our heart.
With rage, we go about the new battles that are yet to come against the enemy and the weak aspects of ourselves.
Informal Anarchist Federation
International Revolutionary Front
Unit: ‘Fire to sweatshops’
PS. And perhaps one of the few pleasant events this summer was the sight of the dead idiot (civilian who attempted to stop bank robbers on their escape and died instantly after being shot) on Paros Island. His stupidity reached such levels that he sacrificed his own life for a few grand which had just got robbed from a BANK! This is the future that awaits snitches-citizens who wear the cop’s uniform in a hurry and pretend to be heroes.
[ Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 ]
In the past three years, several anarchists are held in Greek prisons and even more are under a judicial hostage, as a consequence of the escalating anarchist revolutionary violence that stepped up during this period.
Faced with an unusually large number of cases, which were also time-consuming as far as legal termination was concerned, the domination sought ways to circumvent the procedural and legalistic limitations that were after all turning against it.
After the legal dead end in which the State found itself in some recent cases due to expiry of eighteen months which, in Greece, is the maximum pretrial detention period (with the case of the three comrades-members of Revolutionary Struggle being the most characteristic), the judiciary sought and still seeks maneuvers to circumvent similar legal complications.
Of course, all kinds of maneuvers lie in the nature of democratic repression, rather than consisting a deviance of some sort, because the dead language of laws always fails to cover the confrontational disposition and insurrectionary acts of those who do not capitulate to the resignation.
The use of DNA sample as incriminating evidence holds a special place among the new repressive trickeries which are being tested by the State. Science has been established in the common conscience as a new religion and body of absolute truth, and thereby the DNA is one of the most ideal weapon in the hands of the State since it lends an elusive impartiality and superficial scientific objectivity to the prosecutions against those who are considered a priori ‘guilty’.
We oppose the legal dipole of ‘innocence and guilt’ that fortifies the judicial authority’s role by only speaking the language of the judiciary, and reproducing the fake distinctions of democracy. Either defendants accept acts attributed to them, or not, every trial is part of a frame-up case; a premeditated construction with the primary aim of depoliticization, in an attempt to cut out acts from their incentives and political causes in general, and to eventually disarm them, in order to be brought before the legal system. A frame-up is not a case-by-case derogation but the essence of every judicial proceeding, and its political stakes impose such a machination. Distantiating ourselves from any legalistic details regarding the existence or non-existence of evidence, to us, all comrades who are being accused can always be found guilty of their political existence, their subversive action, the untamed of their conscience.
On July 18th, anarchist Babis Tsilianidis is called to attend Thessaloniki courts, accused of an armed robbery which took place at the accounting department of the AHEPA hospital in July 2010. Sole evidence of his involvement in this particular robbery is a handkerchief found near the place where, according to the police’s allegations, Babis’ genetic material was also found among other genetic materials.
The repressive mechanisms orchestrate once again a prosecution–firework that is aiming at the entrapment of insubordinate fighters like Babis in a maze of indictments, trial briefs and pretrial detentions, while also being a pilot implementation of new suppressive methods.
We stand beside him, in this new machination of the State against him, and send him comradely greetings of solidarity.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold . . .
[William Butler Yeats]
SOLIDARITY WITH BABIS TSILIANIDIS
Giorgos Karagiannidis
Spyros Stratoulis
Ergün Mustafa
Andrzej Mazurek
Rami Syrianos
The trial against the imprisoned CCF members and anarchist Theofilos Mavropoulos was scheduled for the morning of June 27th at Evelpidon courts, in Athens. In addition to much heavier charges, all ten of them are now prosecuted even for incitement to criminal acts in relation to three texts that had been published online in October–November 2011. The first one was a solidarity text to the anarchist hangout Nadir (in Thessaloniki) and the second one concerned the preliminary investigation due to the text in solidarity with Nadir, both signed by the imprisoned members of the R.O. CCF and Theofilos Mavropoulos. On June 26th, one day before the trial at Evelpidon courts, a solidarity statement concerning this new prosecution against CCF members and Theofilos Mavropoulos was issued by the anarchist hangout Nadir.*
The third among the aforementioned texts that has also been included in the trial brief is not even their own, but it is a responsibility claim for incendiary attack on Studio ATA in Melissia, Athens, signed by the Deviant Behaviours for the Spreading of Revolutionary Terrorism/International Revolutionary Front (the same group that on June 29th, 2012, claimed responsibility for the explosive attack on the Greek headquarters of Microsoft in Maroussi, Athens, an action which was carried out in the early hours of Wednesday, June 27th).
That Wednesday morning, 27/6, a spectacular terror-show was set up by the agents of “citizen protection”. By 8.30am, dark-blue luxury jeeps and blue paddy-wagons of the special terror-unit set off from Koridallos prisons and crossed the city’s streets at high speeds, with flashing sirens wailing like crazy.
Eight of the imprisoned comrades attended the proceeding at Evelpidon courts, while two of them were absent (for non-alarming reasons). Among them was comrade Olga Ekonomidou, who looked well —she had finally come out of the solitary confinement of Diavata prisons and is expected to be transferred to Eleonas–Thebes prisons, given there will be no “unpleasant surprise” on the part of prison authorities.
A small-scale scuffle broke out when the imprisoned comrades were being transferred from the police paddy-wagons into a hellish basement at Building 9, because few thugs from anti-riot squads tried to provoke and push back the gathered people (by that time, nearly over a hundred), and even used police batons against solidaritarians. The incident soon came to an end, with no serious injuries.
The eight prisoners were locked up for approximately five hours in that basement. Numerous random people, and even lawyers passing by, were asking curiously in a whispery voice why were so many repressive forces lined up across the courtyard alleys, evidently terrorized at the sight of not only hooded and fully-armed blue cops but also of a total of five green police squads guarding closely for hours the space between the detention rooms and the solidaritarians.
When the prisoners’ transfer finally began from Building 9 to the courtroom in Building 2, within a distance of nearly 100 metres, it was already expected that the trial would be postponed after the counsel’s respective appeal. Police vehicles were parked close to each other, in order to block any visual contact with the captive comrades. Not more than 80 comrades were present then, what felt at least discouraging, bearing in mind the political importance of this prosecution as an attempted silencing of radical free speech. However, solidarity slogans were chanted lively in the alleys of courtyards, while several of the comrades, friends and relatives managed to accompany the smiling and proud CCF members as well as revolutionary Theofilos Mavropoulos inside the courtroom, who were all handcuffed and “escorted” tightly by “anti”terrorist hooded macho thugs.
Solidarity words included the following slogans: ‘The anarchist discourse cannot be penalized; cops and judges, go fuck yourselves’, ‘Freedom for the Cells of Fire’, ‘Praxis of anarchist is not just words; freedom for the anarchist comrades’, ‘The States are the only terrorists; solidarity with armed guerrillas’, ‘Only bursts of Kalashnikov would do justice and make you [cops] come to your senses’, ‘The passion for freedom is stronger than all prison cells’, ‘Rage and consciousness, denial and violence; down with statism, long live anarchy’…
People who stood outside the courtroom at the time were shouting out loud their solidarity and complicity with the accused, when a police squad passed near them; a cop was particularly irritated at the sound of an anti-Nazi slogan, so much as to raise his middle finger. He got the response he deserved—to put it in his ass, of course—but, other than that, comrades stayed calm, moved closer to the courtyard and focused on greeting with their strength and applauses the anarchist prisoners on their way back to the police vans, after the presiding judge had agreed to the postponement of the trial (set for December 2nd, 2013).
Unlike the conditions at the court-martial of Koridallos women’s prisons, where identity cards of visitors are withheld and returned upon exit from the courtroom, no one must give identity card upon entrance through the metal detectors in Evelpidon courts area. Nevertheless, the day was marked by ambushes of plainclothes cops who conducted identity checks of visitors earlier in the morning, as well as verbal provocations by anti-riot cops against attendees who were walking away from Building 2 after the trial process was over, by midday.
The jeeps and vans of the terror-unit drove off with sirens wailing once again, headed back to Koridallos prisons. After a while, one police battalion harassed two comrades who were leaving the area, asking for their identity cards. A “law enforcement officer” attempted to punch one of them, who was also chased by the murderers in uniform, but quickly got away. The bullying ended only after the squad’s leader ordered his sheep to come back to the herd.
So, this was not just another day at public courts. To try to put it in other words, it was a low turnout of attendees at the umpteenth trial against comrades, a long waiting within the disgusting environment of the temples of bourgeois justice, where court employees were pushing back and forth shopping trolleys (“expropriated” from supermarkets) laden with piles of trial briefs and judicial documents of countless cases against civilians; and it was a harsh reminder of the ongoing captivity of unrepentant revolutionary fighters, in the context of an overt prosecution of freedom of speech and solidarity.
* On July 2nd the anarchist hangout Nadir was raided once again, in the context of an extensive police operation across the city of Thessaloniki.
Here’s the communiqué by the imprisoned members of the R.O. CCF of the first phase and anarchist of praxis Theofilos Mavropoulos concerning the trial farce of June 27th:
[ Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 ]
On June 27th we stand trial charged with incitement to criminal acts in relation to three texts that were released when we found ourselves captives in the State’s prisons. One of these texts is a responsibility claim for arson on vehicle(s) belonging to a television production studio company by the group “Deviant Behaviours…” of the International Revolutionary Front (IRF), and the other two are our own announcements about the cops’ raid in the anarchist hangout Nadir (in Thessaloniki), as well as the interrogation that followed this text…
The phrase in question that annoyed the judicial mafia is “not 1 millimetre back; 9mms in cops’ heads.”
We could have not wasted even a single word about this case. The legal implications of this new prosecution are just a drop in the ocean for us.
We know that we have ahead of us predefined convictions to many decades in prison. How could we be concerned about a few months more, from one misdemeanor charge? But still… an anarchist of praxis cannot think with the legal reasoning of a lawyer.
This prosecution acquires a distinct political value. As already shown, the State, the prosecutorial authorities and police services have repeatedly tried all innovative methods and tactics against the CCF: members of the Conspiracy charged with abetments while being in custody; extension of remand in custody (by an order of new pretrial detention just few hours before the expiry of the 18-month period of the initial pretrial detention) against one of our comrades (Gerasimos Tsakalos) while he was hospitalized as a hunger striker; cooperation of the Italian and Greek authorities for our probable extradition to Italy; further prosecutions in relation to texts, etc.
It is written somewhere that the more your enemy persecutes you, the more it’s proven that you have succeeded hard blows against the enemy.
To us, the charges that fill the thousands of pages of our trial briefs are a title of honour. But we want to stress that, as anarchists of praxis, what we leave behind us unanswered becomes a legacy for the future; to the contrary, what we gain creates our perspective.
The fact that the prison guards can keep for two and a half months comrades locked up in solitary confinement cells, without the aggressive reflexes of anarchist solidarity being activated (with few exceptions), is undoubtedly a defeat.
If the daily attacks by dastard petty fascists and their presence on the street, in the squares and neighbourhoods won’t be met with the corresponding retaliation on our part, with knives, knuckledusters, fires and explosions, then they will mark the retreat of the enemy within.
The recoil of offensive actions from the new anarchist urban guerrilla warfare (with the exception of the anarchists of praxis and the cells of FAI-IRF) against the tension conditions of the social machine is obviously a victory of fear and repression.
We do not want to let fear and defeatism become our shadow. In spite of the times, we remain unrepentantly hardheaded and steadfast. We will not turn down the volume of our discourse or disarm our words.
The fact that we are being accused because of our texts for “inciting others to commit felony offenses” means that our words can still communicate with the doubters and deniers of our era and be transformed into actions. We are proud of it. We never liked hollow words. At the same time we never believed in, nor reconciled with democratic liberties and rights. We have always thought that they serve as a “showcase” for the police state and the social machine.
By the prosecution of our texts, even the last illusions that some people may maintain about democracy are withdrawn. Now the curtain of freedom of speech has been pulled back, and the judicial censorship has been exposed. Yet this is a good thing… Therefore, we will never talk about the “criminalization” of discourse and ideas.
We have always believed that the insurrectionist theory is accompanied by anarchist practices, as well as vice versa.
Logos and praxis (discourse and action) are inseparable concepts. The positive side of our prosecution is polarization. Once illusions are withdrawn from the scene, each and every one takes position. There are no innocents.
We respond to the fear of repression with the momentum of attack. Ignorance and indifference are repealed, and now decisions speak.
The dilemma is clear. Either with the society of the existent or the deniers of our era; either an appeased citizen or oppugning riotmaker; either an eternally indignant protestor or anarchist of praxis; either rule or exception, either now or never.
NOT 1 MILLIMETRE BACK
9MMS AGAINST DIRECTORS AND SERVANTS OF THE SOCIAL MACHINE
PS. In court, where we’re called to appear, we disdain the judicial marionettes and disregard the defense of our rights. After all, we have thrown the rights which democracy “grants” to us into fire long ago, along with our legal identities.
Our presence there and our stance are yet another insult and an affront to the laws’ Inquisitors.
It is a small part of the total anarchist war we declare against society of the State.
The imprisoned members of the R.O. CCF of the first phase and anarchist of praxis Theofilos Mavropoulos
Thursday, June 21st, 2012
WHEREVER YOU LOOK, JUST LOOK CAREFULLY:
Society’s violence is everywhere. It’s simply being transformed each time.
It becomes a bullet wedged in the body of a teenage boy, or a forest burned in the name of industrial or touristic development.
It becomes extinction of populations in the democratic expansionist wars, or concentration camp for those who escaped death.
It becomes a syringe stuck in the veins of a minor girl, or her own photograph published on various screens for the mere protection of her rapists.
It becomes chemical warfare against demonstrations, or chemical cocktail inside the brain of an incarcerated in a mental hospital.
It becomes a knife in the ribs of an immigrant, or (if you’re ‘lucky’) eight-hour intensive production at the service of bosses.
It becomes a commercial with gleaming white smiles deriving from the property of waste products, or even an urgent call for passivity and compromise from the 8pm news bulletins.
It becomes construction of factories and cities, or genetically modified foods in our bodies.
It becomes a reprimand by the teacher concerning your appearance, or a prison sentence delivered by the judge.
It becomes loneliness inside a bolted down apartment, or madness caused by working schedules crushing your time to dust and by surveillance cameras monitoring your space.
It becomes material and spiritual misery, or even cannibalism making you turn against your neighbouring person.
It becomes despair and self-destruction, or suicide at some central square.
It becomes years in prison, disciplinary penalties, beatings or solitary confinement in the case of those who had the courage—continuously over time, with their discourse and acts—to do something that many more dream of, something that many more will have the courage to do in the near future.
SO, WHATEVER YOU THINK, JUST THINK IT THROUGH:
‘Arm yourself and be violent, beautifully violent, until everything bursts. Because remember that any violent action against these promoters of inequality is completely justified by the centuries of endless violence to which they have subjected us.’ [Mauricio Morales]
Strength to anarchist revolutionary and CCF member Olga Ekonomidou, who is being held in solitary confinement in Diavata prisons since May 4th, awaiting her transfer to another prison.
The anarchist prisoners of war
Dimitris Dimtsiadis
Babis Tsilianidis
Giannis Skouloudis
Sokratis Tzifkas
You may also read a statement of solidarity with Olga Ekonomidou (June 16th, 2012) by imprisoned anarchist Rami Syrianos here.
The following extract is dedicated to anarchist revolutionaries Yannis Michailidis and Dimitris Politis, who are wanted by the authorities for suspected participation in the anarchist revolutionary organization CCF and will never give themselves up! May our fires give you strength and our ashes hide your traces, brothers.
“When I look around me, I get the urge to vomit. On one side, the scientists who I am supposed to believe so as not to be ignorant. On the other side, the moralists and philosophers, whose commandments I am supposed to accept so as not to be a brute. Then comes the Genius that I am supposed to glorify and the Hero before whom I am to bow, moved.
Then along come the comrade and the friend, the idealist and the materialist, the atheist and the believer and an infinity horde of defined and undefined apes who want to give me their good advice and finally set me on the true path. Because—of course—the path I walk is false, as my ideas, my thoughts, my entire being are false.
I am a false man. They—poor lunatics—are all obsessed with the idea that life has called them to be priests officiating at the altar of the greatest missions, since humanity is called to the greatest destinies…
These poor, pathetic beasts, scarred by sham ideals and transfigured by madness, could never understand the tragic and merry wonder of life, as they could never see that humanity is not really called to any great destiny. If they had understand any of this at all, they would have at least learned that their so-called likes actually have no desire to break their backs bridging the chasm that separates one from the other.
But I am what I am, it doesn’t matter.
And the cawing of these multicolored magpies only serves to brighten up my personal and noble wisdom. Oh, apostolic apes of humanity and social progress, don’t you hear something thundering above your phantoms?
Listen, listen! It is the piercing roar of my wild laughter that is rumbling overhead, in the heights!”
[Renzo Novatore, under the pen name Brunetta the Incendiary]
First of all, we should make it clear that the aim of this analysis is not at all to formulate a theory. Instead, it is chosen as means for the diffusion of a revolutionary perception and basically aims at the practical establishment (–empowerment) of collective resistances against every authority, in the same way that Power weakens personal relationships and decontextualizes everyday life.
In this historical conjuncture, capitalism finds itself in turmoil and the internal equilibrium of society in fluctuation. The mechanisms inherent in the system to ensure its reproduction and self-counterbalance are now operating more intensively. Thus, the States, as the basic mechanism that exists to ensure totalitarianism, undertake to enhance all means of practical and indirect enforcement at their disposal.
As expected, more and more social groups come face to face with the loathsome side of Power within this condition. This does not mean that individuals process their experiences in the same way. So far, few are those who have realized the truly inhumane nature of capitalism; its malicious soul. Fewer are those who have the balls to liberate themselves in practice—albeit briefly—from the suffocating frameworks of Power. For this reason it is absurd to believe that a change in the world, a world revolution is possible just like that. Nevertheless, the war against all authority exists and will last forever as long as even one human still feels restricted and escapes from his/her prison.
We set our own course through the chaotic authoritarian plexus which expands into society. The aim is to eradicate in practice the deepest notion of restriction that we can identify in each circumstance. To achieve this, we choose actions regarded as extreme in the context of social ethics. Urban law has remained the same as the law of the jungle. After nearly 4,000 years of evolution of civilization, the humans haven’t yet managed to surpass, not even with their logic, the truculent play of law of the strongest. We therefore attack the existent with rage, not to win a fight that will prove superiority, but to tear down the existent completely. We declare, with our every praxis, war on anything that enhances or represents the fucking Power, striving to meet our desires this way. Because we understand that there is no other way to take freedom back than the ceaseless struggle inside and outside the boundaries of self.
Where you stand, dig deep and pry!
Down there is the well.
Let the obscurantists cry:
“Down there’s only – hell!”
[Friedrich Nietzsche]
In the night of Saturday, May 12nd, in Athens, we chose to strike a vehicle of the Hellenic Post (ELTA) which was parked on Cyprou Square in the district of Holargos, with a simple incendiary device consisting of 1.5 liters of gasoline, as well as the Church of Aghios Ioannis (St John) at the intersection of N.Dimitrakopoulou and Petmeza streets in Makrygianni neighbourhood (near Filopappou Hill), using 3.5 liters. The ELTA van was completely destroyed, while extensive damage was caused to the house of God. These actions were gagged by the mass media. As for whether they were made, no doubt about that, as evidenced by the ashes we left behind in the locations in question. Whenever we carry out this kind of actions or we break other laws, whenever we break the social imperatives, dissolving the predetermined boundaries between us to create honest relationships, we are happy because we break free. What matters most is the natural consistency in our acts. Furthermore, we assume that there is a need to publicly declare our revolutionary actions as well as our way of living, our practices and the value code that we ourselves have created, and “dictates” that we follow this personal route towards the realization of the self; towards the highest level of consciousness of human Potential.
Oppugnancy is a source of knowledge. A human can realize the wretchedness of the existent by calling it into question. However, in order to incarnate and turn this oppugnancy into a useful weapon against the enemy, dignified bold and combative people are required, who have well-aimed plans. The revolutionary violence exercised by these people can, under the given circumstances, be considered the most direct and effective undertaking. This is because, to us, “sane” political positions are not a mere conciliation with the enemy but a war in which, instead of conversing with your enemies, you stab them with your knife.
Finally, we want situations to get exacerbated. We want to be faced with the archons of the world. We are aware of the enemies’ power, and we do not expect them to show compassion or understanding towards us. We want every single one of them to remain an enemy, an obvious persecutor. Thus, as for what concerns our action our public statement enables everyone to find clear reasons for each praxis we’ve realized, if he/she so wishes. We do not seek coalitions or associations with any undignified person that denies his/her own personal momentum. We neither make compromises, nor spend our lives as miserable beings. We want the wealth holders to call us thieves pissing their pants in fear.
Inside and outside the walls, solidarity amongst anarchists of praxis exists and relies upon the joint intention of our acts: to head towards the culmination of our ideas with a flaming step.
Consequently, this communiqué is dedicated specifically to Rami Syrianos—who conducted a victorious hunger strike from 15th to 21st of May, 2012, demanding the removal of the special regime of detention that had been imposed on him by the humanguards in the correctional facility of Nigrita in Serres—and also to all dignified prisoners.
Continue to hold strong, comrades, always consistent with your values. We will endow you with many explosions yet to come.
PS.1: We must let the imprisoned members’ cell of the R.O. CCF know that, in the prior period, we chose inconspicuousness because we have been in search of techniques and infrastructures. We remain forever firm in our choices and in quest of new accomplices.
PS.2: As for Roberto Adinolfi, CEO of the power engineering company Ansaldo Nucleare, which is a subsidiary of Finmeccanica, a colossus in the aerospace and defense industry, we wish him nice rides in wheelchair and strolls in crutches. He will now have ample time to consider the results of his choices.
Olga Cell, we thank you!
FAI/IRF
CONSPIRACY OF CELLS OF FIRE
REVOLUTIONARY GROUPS OF TERROR DISPERSION
Note: The name Επαναστατικές Ομάδες Διασποράς Τρόμου, organization of the second phase of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, has also been translated as “Revolutionary Groups for the Spread(ing) of Terror”.
André was one of the thousands of rebellious participants in the December ’08 uprising. The date of his appeal trial is approaching.
Monday, 11th of June 2012, Court of Appeals, Loukareos Street, Athens
Call for morning gathering in solidarity with André, last prisoner of the December ’08 uprising
Here Andrzej himself presents a number of circumstances that led to his arrest and imprisonment (Polish original)
Solidarity poster in Polish
Current prison address:
Αντρέ Μαζούρεκ/André Mazurek
Filaki Larissas, B Pteriga (Larissa Prison, 2nd Wing)
Larissa 21110, Ελλάδα/Greece
Another update (in Greek): Letter of Rami Syrianos, Spyros Stratoulis, Dan Carabulea, Giorgos Karagiannidis from Larissa men’s prison (on June 4th, at noon, there was also an intervention outside the prison walls by various groups of supporters), in solidarity with Andrzej
Monday, June 4th, 2012
December 9th, 2008, amid widespread revolt that had raged for three days already, in the area around the Polytechnic School (close to Exarchia, in downtown Athens) police detained five people, strangers to each other, people who ‘relished’ the beatings and humiliations that the uniformed pigs reserved for anyone who fell into their hands in those days, and were then transferred into the detention rooms of GADA (Athens police headquarters). Two days later, they were brought before the interrogator, where it was announced to them (in Greek) that they will be indicted for attempted murder, possession and manufacture of explosives, causing explosion, and even more charges. They were summarily ordered to be remanded in custody, thus adding their names to the hundreds of other names of people who were sent in prison because of clashes on the streets that lasted for many days. Of the five arrested, the four were released from prison a few months later, while the fifth man, Andrzej Mazurek (an immigrant from Poland), was held in pretrial detention because, unlike the others, he admitted his participation in the protests. A year later, on January 16th, 2010, the first-instance trial in this case was yet another typical example of court hearings against arrestees of December ’08, with total absence of any evidence and contradictory perjuries by thugs of anti-riot police forces. The three were acquitted, while both Andrzej and the fourth co-accused received a sentence of 7 years’ incarceration and 55 months’ imprisonment —which had suspensive effect upon the latter defendant. Andrzej has remained in prison ever since.
Three and a half years later, democracy has not forgotten the deep cut that December ’08 has left on its face. At the same time that the system is being coarsened and fortified to address the instability within its interior, the mechanisms of bourgeois justice put their revenge into practice against those who cracked the fake image of social peace with their rage during the uprising. The case of Andrzej epitomizes this vindictive strategy of democracy, while it is also an implementation scope of the transnational repressive interlocking towards the enemy within. The fact that Andrzej clearly stated his conscious participation in the demonstrations, but also that he was known to the Polish authorities for his subversive action, placed him in a very specific position against the law enforcement mechanisms, a position kept in store especially for people who put themselves in confrontational orbit with the dominant edifice of barbarity. From the first moment of his arrest the Greek and Polish authorities, cooperating with each other in good faith, arranged the harshest possible conviction for Andrzej as an exemplary measure for those who would dare to act in the same way in future, by distorting his initial testimonies (what was easy, because he did not speak Greek, and the interpreter who took over his case had been mandated by the Polish consulate and was well-known as minion of the Greek police), adding further charges to the indictment and finally imposing him a very heavy sentence, which has resulted in his incarceration for over 3.5 years in the democracy’s cells. In addition, when he was already in prison, an arrest warrant of unknown content was issued against him in Poland, where the regime’s media ‘described’ him as perpetrator of arsons.
The appeals court for the December ’08 riots has been set for June 11th, 2012, in the Mixed Jury Court of Appeals on Loukareos Street.
We do not leave any comrade alone in the State’s hands; and we express our solidarity with anarchist Andrzej Mazurek.
Furthermore, we do not forget that the murderer Saraliotis has been freed since early October 2011, after his symbolic temporary and privileged stay in prison; and we remind him that things come around…
The prisoners of the 2nd wing of Larissa prison,
Rami Syrianos
Spyros Stratoulis
Dan Carabulea
Giorgos Karagiannidis
Text that was shared out during the supermarket expropriation:
We won’t beg for a pittance from no boss. We live in a reality full of inequalities. Others wonder what to throw out from their filled fridge, and others look for food in the garbage bins. Others are looking after a career with high salaries, and others chase after a day wage to survive. Others wonder about the ways of exercising their civil rights while others have absolutely no legal right. The balances developed for the preservation of this reality, as it is, are vulnerable; we will be striking right there.
Expropriated products from the supermarket will not be missed as staple goods by anybody; they will only be missed by the store’s boss as profits. Rather than begging a boss for mercy or for a few poorly paid working hours at his/her service, we prefer to take goods without paying when, otherwise, we cannot obtain basic necessities. Thus, we see that for a while we break this cycle of slavery, claiming a few hours of our day for doing something more constructive.
The war rages on. No need for us to declare one. There’s need for us to organize, to defend ourselves against the bosses’ onslaught by finding ways to deal blows to them. Far from the cliché that portrays us as modern-day Robin Hoods, and without claiming any avant-garde position, we want to share motives and incentives. Moves like this one are a way but not an end in itself. We’re not content to simply have bosses around to steal or beg from, or to live from their garbage. We wish to be responsible for ourselves and our relationships, and we don’t want anybody over our heads to arrange things for us.
An open wager that may come at a price…
As we choose to move in this way, we don’t forget the comrades from Larissa who are still prosecuted and awaiting trial on charges of abetting predatory theft, punishable with imprisonment between 5 and 20 years, for an action in February 2009, just like ours today (18/5).
We neither forget comrade Rami Syrianos, who has been imprisoned because he expropriated money from the dealer of stolen property ODDY, an organization that plays the role of the State’s fence by selling cars confiscated from people because of debts at auctions. His trial is rescheduled for May 21st. In Nigrita prisons, where he is now being held, Rami has been targeted by the prison service because of his participation in the inmates’ struggles and his resistance against the humiliation of strip search. A special regime of isolation has been imposed on him, as he has spent the longests time in solitary confinement in this prison, alone in the newcomers’ cells. From May 15th he went on hunger strike demanding an end to this regime as well as his transfer to another prison. We are by his side.
… Yet a wager that’s worth winning.
Downtown Thessaloniki
Friday, 13.15pm
Divided into different groups of comrades, we moved synchronously in order to disrupt, even in a symbolic way, the city’s normality during rush hour, when the metropolitan factory’s machines are working nonstop. We smashed and took 3 ATMs out of service, thus sabotaging the Capital’s smooth flow.
With this action we stand on the side of anarchist Rami Syrianos, who is facing trial on Monday, May 21st, for the expropriation of ODDY’s auction and today (18/5) he is on his 4th day of hunger strike, demanding his exit from the solitary confinement and his transfer from Nigrita–Serres prisons.
The comrade has been in solitary confinement inside Nigrita prisons for almost two months, paying the price of dignity and combative stance, the highest of offenses for the correctional system.
Of course, we neither forget comrade Olga Ekonomidou, member of Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, who is also being held in solitary confinement in Diavata women’s prisons for almost two weeks now, due to her dignified stance inside the prison society.
Solidaritarians with vandalistic tendencies
updates by comrades from flyingtheory.squat.gr
Since Tuesday, May 8th, anarchist comrade Rami Syrianos abstains from prison food in Nigrita prisons (near Serres, northern Greece), demanding his exit from the solitary confinement cell, where he was placed one month and a half ago, awaiting the implementation of a disciplinary prison transfer that has been imposed on him since March 28th. Within the next few days, Rami will release a text, which could not be published yet due to the restricted communication with him.
His trial is on schedule for May 21st, 2012, in the courts of Thessaloniki, after three consecutive postponements.
Rami is being held for over a month (since March 28th) in solitary confinement of Nigrita prisons, and specifically in the ‘newcomers’ cells’. After the latest postponement of his trial—for which he was moved in the morning of March 26th to the courts of Thessaloniki and was turned back the same day to Nigrita prisons—he denied once again the humiliating process of body search (the prisoners are supposed to take off their underwear and cough while bending, etc.). Subsequently, the next day Rami was taken to the prosecutor, who ordered the penalty of ‘disciplinary prison transfer’ against him on March 28th.
Our comrade is being isolated from the prisons’ wings ever since, incarcerated in one of the so-called newcomers’ cells. Regardless of their name, the particular spaces are not at all different than the typical solitary confinement cells: spaces made for the ones that arrive to any prison for a first time, as well as for those coming back from an ‘exit permission’ (a temporary leave from prison). Rami is isolated from all the common-used spaces, without any yard time; in our comrade’s case, he’s permitted to have a walk of half an hour in a corridor in order to make one or two phone calls per day.
We should note (speaking in the State’s own terms) that the maximum disciplinary isolation penalty that someone could get cannot overpass 10 days. We note this not to denounce just another ‘irregularity’ of the prison system, which on its own basis consists anyway probably the worst irrationalism of the human existence, but to let one of its largest aspects be shown. Apart of depriving ‘freedom,’ along with the physical restriction, the constant control and supervision, incarceration is more about the suppression of prisoners’ dignity. When all the previous are not enough to achieve this, the system needs to invent other ways…
And while Rami Syrianos remains isolated for over a month, waiting for the prison transfer that was imposed on him, his lawyer was informed on April 27th through the ministry of Justice that the disciplinary decision has not yet been sent to the ministry, obviously not by any mistake, meaning that his ‘accommodation’ in Nigrita prisons under solitary confinement is being extended.
Let us remind that Rami had launched prison food abstention again on April 11th, in solidarity with the imprisoned hunger strikers Alexandros Mitroussias, Kostas Sakkas and Giorgos Karagiannidis, as well as the members of the R.O. CCF who were on hunger strike demanding the definite transfer of Panagiotis Argirou and Gerasimos Tsakalos from Domokos prisons. Thus, Rami had rejected prison food for 20 whole days—until the end of the CCF members’ hunger strike (30/4)—and he is now conducting similar protest.
We would like to mention the fact that another dignified prisoner, C.D., was the only one from the entire 2nd wing of Nigrita prisons who started a trolley-food denial in solidarity with Rami Syrianos’ situation, a denial that started since the very first day of Rami’s penalty and that is being continued. C.D. has not only abstained from prison food, but also denied entering inside his cell on April 14th, protesting Rami’s absence from the common-used spaces of the prison. C.D. was obliged to spend a night in isolation and threatened to receive a disciplinary penalty as well, a threat that was not realized.
Neither criminal, nor political prisoners; fire and blast for every prison
Always by the side of those who choose to walk in life with dignity
The ODDY (Public Asset Management Agency S.A.) conducts a wide range of different auctions and is responsible for the liquidation of cars, motorcycles and many other assets seized by cops or customs. Rami Syrianos claimed responsibility for robbery after an ODDY auction in Thessaloniki in January 31st, 2011, stating that he is an anarchist and that he attempted armed robbery in the context of his refusal of work. He has also made clear from the very beginning that his co-defendant Kleomenis Savvanidis has absolutely no connection with this case. Kleomenis was set free, but is still prosecuted. Rami has been incarcerated ever since, and is among the few people who have kept a dignified stance inside the walls, constantly refusing to undergo prison strip search.
The trial against both comrades is still pending and has now been rescheduled for May 21st, 2012. The last time, Rami was transferred to Thessaloniki courts for their trial (set for March 26th after numerous postponements). He is now kept in an isolation cell due to his firm refusal to undergo the torture of body search after returning from the courts.
In particular, on March 28th the comrade was punished with the measure of disciplinary transfer after a prosecutor’s order. Despite the fact that prisoners must be kept inside the cell of each wing waiting for disciplinary transfers, in this case the penitentiary authorities verbally announced to Rami that he would be kept in isolation for an ‘indeterminate period’, until the process of his transfer is activated (what could take months) or until he finally accepts to undergo the humiliation of the prison strip search. Due to the continuous cancellations of the trial, this is the fourth time that Rami Syrianos faces this situation.
On Tuesday evening, April 3rd, a PA’s gathering was held outside the prison gate in Nigrita (in the Serres regional unit), in emergency solidarity with Rami. We attended the rally outside Nigrita prisons along with dozens of comrades, coming from several parts of northern Greece —mainly from Thessaloniki, where a coach was provided for transportation.
We chanted slogans in support to the imprisoned comrade and for the destruction of all prisons, such as ‘The Nigrita bomb was only the beginning; explosions and fire to every prison’ and ‘Our passion for freedom is stronger than all prisons’. Also, fireworks and firecrackers were thrown and a warning message to the prisons was written on the asphalt driveway to the hellhole. A text in solidarity with Rami Syrianos and all political prisoners was read several times through the sound system. Although Rami could not hear what was going on outside, since he is held in isolation, comrades knew he was aware of their presence and received our support, love and rage.
After nearly one and a half hours, the gathering turned into a small demonstration in the streets of Nigrita town, with more slogans, leaflets’ distribution and graffiti claiming Rami’s release (photos were released here).
Since April 11th Rami Syrianos has abstained from prison food in solidarity with all imprisoned comrades that conduct hunger strike.
April 4th – Hunger strike declaration of Spyros Dravilas (inmate of Domokos prisons, who is currently held in the hospital of Koridallos prisons), titled ‘The State and its institutions get revenge on those who don’t succumb to their system by depriving them of the acquired right of temporary leave’. Authorities deny Spyros Dravilas the temporary leave from prison he is entitled to for two and a half years now.
April 6th – Hunger strike declaration of Giorgos Karagiannidis, Alexandros Mitroussias and Kostas Sakkas — ‘as of today 6/4 we go on hunger strike demanding the lifting of our arbitrary and vindictive pretrial detentions and the immediate release of our co-defendant Stella Antoniou on health grounds’ — cosigned by S.Antoniou (who is currently protesting with prison food abstention).
April 6th – Hunger strike declaration of CCF imprisoned members Panagiotis Argirou and Gerasimos Tsakalos, who request their final transfer and stay into Koridallos prisons, in order to put an end to their repeated vindictive transfers and physical–psychological wear and tear.
April 7th – Solidarity abstention from prison food by anarchist Vaggelis Kailoglou (who is one of the four arrestees of February 12th that were remanded in custody)
April 7th – Solidarity abstention from prison food by the anarchist captives of war Sokratis Tzifkas (Diavata prisons), Giannis Skouloudis (Avlona prisons), Babis Tsilianidis and Dimitris Dimtsiadis (Koridallos prisons)
April 8th – Hunger strike declaration of CCF imprisoned member Christos Tsakalos, in solidarity with the two CCF comrades on hunger strike
April 8th – Solidarity abstention from prison food by 130 prisoners in the 1st wing of Koridallos men’s prisons
April 9th – Solidarity assembly at Athens Polytechnic School, in Gini building, with telephone intervention by the hunger strikes from inside prisons
April 9th – The rest of CCF imprisoned members and the anarchist revolutionary Theofilos Mavropoulos declare they will gradually join the hunger strike of their brothers Panagiotis Argirou, Gerasimos and Christos Tsakalos.
April 11th – Stella Antoniou’s statement on recent developments: The prosecution authorities did not order that Stella be remanded in custody again; nevertheless, they ordered the remand of Sakkas, Mitroussias, Karagiannidis, based on fabricated charges against them concerning the older 250 CCF arson attacks. Given these facts, and in agreement with her three comrades, Stella explained she broke off her participation in the hunger strike, and despite her health problems, will abstain from prison food until their demands are met.
April 11th – Solidarity abstention from prison food by the imprisoned anarchist Rami Syrianos
April 14th – An assembly in solidarity with G.Karagiannidis, A.Mitroussias, K.Sakkas and S.Antoniou released the following news (among others): ‘Currently, the three comrades Karagiannidis, Mitroussias, Sakkas have been accused for the case of the 250 CCF arsons by the appellate–interrogation experts Mokkas and Baltas, who ordered that all three as well as the members of the R.O. CCF be remanded in custody once again. Stella Antoniou was charged in the case too, but wasn’t remanded in custody again, and so is expected to be released at the end of the 18-month period of her first pretrial incarceration (in June 2012) while her 5th request for release on health grounds has not yet been answered’.
Let us remind that Stella is held in pretrial detention for 16 months already, with the possession of a fake ID as sole evidence against her.
April 14th – News on the three CCF imprisoned comrades after one week on hunger strike: Gerasimos has lost six kilos, Panagiotis five kilos and Christos seven kilos.
April 15th – Three more CCF imprisoned comrades, Haris Hadjimihelakis, Damiano Bolano, Giorgos Polidoros, will go on hunger strike from April 17th: Continue reading Greek prisons: Short notes on comrades’ hunger strikes and prison food abstentions (ongoing)
On Saturday, March 17th, a PA’s gathering and further solidarity actions took place in Thessaloniki ahead of the political trials against the comrades Giannis Skouloudis, Sokratis Tzifkas, Babis Tsilianidis, Dimitris Dimtsiadis and Dimitris Fessas, as well as Rami Syrianos and Kleomenis Savvanidis —today (26/3) the trial against the imprisoned anarchist bandit Syrianos and comrade Savvanidis was postponed for May 21st, 2012. This is a huge solidarity banner which was placed on the roof of an abandoned building on Egnatia Street (near Iasonidou Street)./ more solidarity banners and a stencil regarding the two political trials here
Court decision (today, 26/3) for Giannis Skouloudis, Sokratis Tzifkas, Babis Tsilianidis, Dimitris Dimtsiadis, Dimitris Fessas regarding the case of arson on vehicles of the public electric power corporation (DEI):
Skouloudis – 5 years and 5 months imprisonment
The comrade is considered to have completed 2/5 of his sentence, and therefore he’s expected to be released from prison within the next few days. At the procedural level, a request to the judicial council must be applied first, and then we will wait for the response in order for his release to be officially granted.
Tsilianidis, Dimtsiadis – 2 years and 10 months (suspended sentence)
Fessas, Tzifkas – 2 years and 5 months (suspended sentence)
It must be noted that ‘the 4 of Vyronas’ (Tsilianidis, Fessas, Dimtsiadis and Tzifkas) will stand another trial in Athens, accused of participation in a ‘terrorist’ organization, etc. The comrade Tsilianidis is accused for one more case, of armed robbery at Thessaloniki AHEPA Hospital, for which he has also been ordered to be remanded in custody. Extensive information on today’s court (which only ruled upon the case of arson on DEI vehicles) will be released in the upcoming days.