Month: December 2010

The Solidarity fund for prisoners in struggle is a collective project initiated by comrades in July 2010.

The aim of the solidarity fund is to contribute, primarily, to the material needs of people who find themselves imprisoned for their subversive actions or their general participation in social struggles.

To the extent that this is possible, the fund also aims at supporting people whose continuous and persistent stance within prison has been one characterized by dignity, solidarity and struggle. The solidarity fund is formed on a greece-wide level, is based on small monthly contributions from as many people as possible within or outside the anarchist/anti-authoritarian milieu and its effectiveness will be evaluated by its capability to function over a long period of time.

Other projects part of the solidarity fund include the publication of the periodical “Storming the Bastille: voices from the inside” with texts written by prisoners in struggle and this blog, which aims at providing a comprehensive list of the names and addresses of prisoners in struggle, an overview of their cases and texts they have written in regards to their case.

We are attempting to provide all the above also in other languages (English, French, German, Spanish), in order to facilitate the flow of information and communication and to broaden the scope of solidarity.

During the last period, the larger part of the society of this country is experiencing an inconceivable attack in its extent and intensity by the mechanisms of repression and exploitation of human life and toil. The new-order socioeconomic plans are commanding the complete leveling of labour, social and political conquests for which continuous and fierce struggles had taken place in the past decades. The forming of social consent for the unobstructed advent of the supranational economic elites is enforced now through the rationale of the stick- the illusion of the carrot having now come to an end- coming down on the backs of the people and of zero tolerance against anyone who resists.

Naturally the anarchist milieu could not but be a receiver of this attack, a milieu who, battling on the front line of the defensive-attack against the looting and blackmailing assaults made by the class enemies of society, is also counting its own painful losses: the confrontation between the comrade and fighter Lambros and the police forces which cost him his life; the very serious- and nearly deadly- injury of the comrade and fighter Simos from a cop’s bullet that cost him his freedom; the passing of comrades into a state of captivity in the hands of the State, as a result of their clashes against the modern economic and authoritarian system, which have increased dramatically.

This is why, at this moment, I could not but be in total agreement with the attempt, as I find it very important – amongst many other things of course-, for the creation of a stable foundation of solidarity, a support structure, which will have the sole purpose of covering the immediate basic needs of comrades who are incarcerated in the greek correctional facilities; the crematoriums. From the moment someone accepts that those who pass through the prison gates belong to the revolutionary camp, and embrace an ethical code which can be recognized within a historical continuance that is either in accordance to, or carries inside it, elements referring to the continuous war against the overlords, the dominators of this world, then he/she can correctly consider these individuals as his/her comrades who are in a difficult and vulnerable position, and are in need of every form of support and solidarity that exists.

We are all aware that, on the one hand, we have many prisoners, and on the other, that in recent years our milieu is experiencing an upward course in the attendance of people in every kind of event or action it carries out; then automatically, one would think that the economic needs of the prisoners should no longer be undertaken solely within the confines of groups of friends, individuals or small collectives and initiatives, but by the wide and broad movement which is now under way.

Let us present some simple calculations to see the theory in practice. If it is assumed that there are 30 comrades (the number is not realistic, it is purely hypothetical) at the moment in the hands of the State and each one needs a minimum amount of 500 euro per month to be able to live in a dignified manner within prison, then in order to cover their economic needs for a whole year the amount of 180.000 euro would have to be raised!

If one, two, ten or one hundred people take on the task of getting this sum together it appears as something very difficult or even impossible. If, however, this real economic need is taken on by 3.000 or 4.000 people then individual contributions verge on 45 to 60 euros!

So the question towards comrades outside the prison walls is: could a first step be made towards a common, collective, consensual and coordinated action in order to cover the imprisoned comrades’ economic needs in regards to their living expenses? Can a greece-wide action be set up with immediate tangible results?  Towards solving a very real problem can this milieu make a personal bet with its self where the minimum is required but the maximum will be contributed?

It is the age we live in which forces us to come together and act in common. It is the social clashes that are becoming more acute that demand the tightening of the cohesive bonds between us. It is the fearless gaze and the smile of our captured comrades that become also our own and must, even if just temporarily, grind the niches of our thought and character. Those comrades’ blood which has painted with honor and courage the struggle for social liberation, equality and justice, has marked indelibly the starting point from which those who struggle, in the present, and in the future, must attack again and again against the enemy’s hordes.

HONOUR TO THE FIGHTER LAMBROS FOUNDAS

SOLIDARITY TO THE WANTED COMRADES MARIOS SEISIDIS AND GRIGORIS TSIRONIS

FREEDOM TO SIMOS SEISIDIS AND ARIS SIRINIDIS

SOLIDARITY TO THOSE COMRADES LIVING IN A STATE OF ILLEGALITY AVOIDING THE SETUP WARRANTS OF THE PROSECUTING AUTHORITIES

FREEDOM FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ARMED THEIR INSURGENT CONSCIOUSNESS

FREEDOM TO THE CAPTIVES OF THE NEW CLASS WAR

FREEDOM TO ALL IN PRISON

With comradely greetings, Y. Dimitrakis

18/05/2010,

Domokos Prisons

Some very first thoughts on my detention

1. This letter does not constitute an overall political analysis of the anti-terrorist operation which began on December 4th, but rather a first political reading of my detention; of its meanings and wider aims.

2. It is a fact that I find myself in prison exactly because I am an anarchist; because for 15 years now I am continuously active through this radical political element. A reading of the legal documents of my case, together with the cynical statement by the chief of the greek police – that I was arrested because I was released in the High-court case*- are indisputable proof of this. I find myself locked up here, and I am deeply convinced of this, for our reactions to the murder of Christoforos Marinos in ’96, for the barricades outside the examination centres in ’98, for the anti-war demonstrations in ’99, for the demonstrations against the european leaders’ summit in Thessaloniki in 2003, for the student protests in ’06-’07, for our solidarity to the prisoners’ struggles and to all those prisoners who refuse to bow their head, for the December insurrection, for…, for… For being everywhere, with our smaller or larger forces, where nothing seemed certain and social entropy gave again a meaning to our lives and strength to our struggles.

3. On the 4th of December we were taken to police headquarters together with my friend and comrade Kostas Barlis, from outside a café in Exarchia by police officers from the Delta force and the antiterrorist unit. My friend is released approximately 16 hours later. I am handed the report of my arrest 26 hours after I was taken in. And then the madness begins. Because if during the last period we can see in a series of cases the criminalization of relationships of friendship and comradeship, in my case they can’t even “invoke” that. I am in prison for a case in which I do not even know my fellow accused. No witnesses recognize me, no police officers are claiming that I met with anyone of my fellow accused, none of the phone taps have a mention of my name and as far as the search carried out in my house the only thing worth mentioning is that they stole my shaving machine, so also my DNA (I will note that this is not even mentioned in the confiscation report). However, according to the antiterrorist unit the first “incriminating” evidence was that on the night of November 24th they saw me moving parallel to Praxitelous street in Piraeus. So what if on Iroon Politehniou street, three side-streets down the road, is were my attorney’s office is situated. So what if I paid him a visit that night as in a few days I had to present myself to the interrogator in regards to the High-court case. The second “indisputable” piece of evidence is that I had a drink in Exarchia, the area in which I socialize with dozens of people everyday, with an “unknown person” who according to the antiterrorist unit had eaten earlier a souvlaki with one of my fellow accused. Each can come to their own conclusion. Of course, for that whole week that I was kept in the antiterrorist division I remained isolated in a 1by3 cell, without a window and with the light constantly switched on. And then came the pre-determined decision for my detention and not only that but in Grevena. Grevena is a high-security prison where only long-term convicts are held and not those accused pending trial, plus it is situated 500km away from Athens, making any communication with friends, comrades, family and lawyers almost impossible.

4. The two very serious prosecutions against me within the space of two weeks and my detention should not spread confusion and be considered only as a continuous effort for me personally to be placed in a regime of suffocative control. On the contrary, this whole setting of extermination lies in the heart of modern repressive policy; in the heart of a multilevel plan aiming at the intimidation and the imposing of discipline on the new “dangerous classes” and the neutralization of the regimes’ political rivals. Aiming at the stultification, in other words, of the projects of self-activity, direct action, solidarity and the struggle for the re-appropriation of life; at the undermining of the anarchist and anti-authoritarian dynamic inside social fermentations. So that the recent general strike and the dynamic demonstrations of December 15th last for only a day, so that resistance is devalued, those in struggle are scorned, Keratea becomes simply an area a little outside of Athens, December is forgotten and celebrated like the 17th of November. And for the kingdom of death and order to be established, for the victorious attack of the capitalist world to triumph, it is necessary to multiply all those that find themselves targeted. The penal spectrum must be widened and legal concepts must be expanded with a permanent character of intentional vagueness; to lose every meaning or rather, even better, to acquire their full meaning with the enforcement of a state of emergency. Without any reserve, the interrogators and the prosecutors keep proving that their only preoccupation is how to crush the enemy within. And after, it’s the turn of the monotony of the correctional facilities and the pure, raw violence of incarceration.

5. The fabricated and canalized prosecutions based on the scenarios and fixations of the antiterrorist unit resemble cluster bombs. They aim somewhere in order to strike in a large radius around them, to destroy a wider area. This prosecution is not about me personally. This prosecution wants to instill fear in everyone. To make us cautious with who we talk. With who we go fly-posting. With whom we bring out a pamphlet. With whom we walk side by side in demonstrations. With who we exchange points of view at different events. And of course where we go. To infuse our everyday life with suspicion and fear. The clerks of the troika offer us generously the permanent “alibi” of obedience, a transient security and the false certainty of submission. Because who will dispute, without making a complete fool of themselves, that if we wanted nothing, if we were anarchists until we finished high-school, if we were “relieved” with the signing of the memorandum, if we hated immigrants, if we were fuming against the koukouloforoi (hooded-ones), if we were in fear of the “terrorists” neither myself nor many others who resist would have suffered the consequences of repression.

6. The struggle, however, will not retreat. The regime and its various officials will never feel neither joy nor relief. We stand by the imprisoned anarchists, the prisoners in struggle. Until their liberation. We continuously contribute to the –theoretical and organizational- composition of our class and we develop the necessary strategic planning for achieving its victory.

Let’s stand up. And let us take the next step. For the social/class counterattack. For the proletarian storming of the heavens.

P.S. As a good comrade once said to me: “Patience. Strength. Faith in the cause. We are right. Final.” These words will be my guide in these truly difficult moments.

Christos Politis

Grevena Prison

16/12/2010

* On May 22nd , 2008 and around noon on the way to get my motorbike which I had left near Panormou metro station I was taken to Police Headquarters where I was asked various questions on my whereabouts the previous night. After some hours I was released. On the previous night an arson attack on vehicles had taken place within the perimeter of the high court of Athens. From this moment in time and onwards published articles start to appear based on police scenarios, which link me in the beginning with the arson attack against vehicles at the high court and later on present me as participating in various organizations and attacks, many times as being a leading figure. Last November they actually reached the point of announcing through the television an arrest warrant against me, which in reality did not even exist. At the same time, for long periods I had visible police surveillance. And the highlight, 2,5 years later I was summoned to defend myself as I was accused for the High court case. Indeed I presented myself to the interrogator on December 2nd and was released (for 2 days!).

On December 4th, 2010, a wide “anti-terrorist” operation took place with comrades being detained and police raids on houses, resulting in the pre-trial imprisonment of Giorgos Karagiannidis, Alexandros Mitrousias, Kostas Sakkas, Stella Antoniou, Dimitris Mihail and Christos Politis. The cops had already targeted and accused the 2 first aforementioned people for the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire case following the arrests that took place in Halandri in the Autumn of 2009, while now they tried to capitalize on the operation using various speculations and scenarios and presented it through the media as an operation by which they dismantled, more all less, all known armed groups. Although their scenarios were not confirmed, they went on to provocatively apply the anti-terrorist law and for the first time they set up a case about participation in a “terrorist group” without naming the group and about “terrorist” action without considering it necessary for any illegal action to have been committed. In the cases of Stella Antoniou and Dimitris Mihail, a well-known tactic used often by the authorities nowadays was yet again put to use, and their prosecutions were based on their personal relationships with some of the other accused. In the case of Christos Politis the authorities went a step further, as there was no pre-existing acquaintance or any prior contact with the other people. In his case, it seems it was enough for the authorities to target him as being generally suspect, an image they themselves had promoted and reproduced for more than a year now through “terror-reports” and articles concerning his person.

Letter from Christos Politis – Some very first thoughts on my detention