On Saturday September 16th, antifascist protests we carried out for the 4 years since the murder of Pavlos Fyssas by a raiding battalion of the Golden Dawn – during the day in Keratsini and in the evening in downtown Athens. In the aftermath of the clashes that broke out in the evening protest but also after in ended in Exarcheia, 16-year-old Kostas B. was arrested. During the arrest, he was tortured viciously by the cannibals of a riot cop unit that was camped in the area until he lost consciousness. As soon as he arrived at GADA (Athens police headquarters), and while he was re-gaining consciousness, he attempted to escape but was hit by a passing car on Alexandras avenue.
Heavily injured, he was transferred to KAT hospital with his hands cuffed behind his back and put into intensive care because of how critical his situation was. While he was in an induced coma, fighting for his life, he was guarded by cops inside the room, with the blessing of the hospital director Nikos Kontodimopoulos. During a solidarity intervention protesting his hospitalization conditions, he said that: “the police are above all, even me, and only they can decide”. The mass media played their own role (as always) presenting the incident as a car accident. And as if this all was not enough, on Monday September 25th, and while Kostas B. was recovering, an interrogator visited the hospital, with leaks speaking even of DNA extraction. In the end, this procedure was blocked by a solidarity gathering. In order for reactions to defuse, Kostas B. was released on bail, with a heavy indictment.
And why did reactions have to be defused? The beating and torturing of someone the same age as A.Grigoropoulos and almost the same tragic ending brought the ghost of December over the heads of the Syriza government. The incidents in December 2008 were the largest condition of social de-legitimization of Greek police in modern history. The last thing Syriza wanted is for a social mutiny to break out just when they are promoting their tale of growth, which together with investments to come lead us….to the exiting from the crisis.
THE TIMELESS ROLE OF THE POLICE
In the war that is raging everyone has their role, and the police have their timeless role. Police personnel, via enforcing order, are what guarantees the glamour of state and capital. Historically the police were established as a force whose job is to manage the thoughts, desires, and directions of the population. Prevention, control and wherever necessary, brutal repression. Of course the first targets are all the social groups of those below who are not able to “share” the glamour of the state and its bourgeoisie: the wider metropolitan youth, workers, the unemployed, strikers, all kinds of protesters, “excess” populations such as refugees and immigrants, Roma, the homeless, addicts, the outcasts of the capitalist machine. But first of all, who other than the subversive circles of this era. The catalyst of these situations simmers under the veil of social peace, artfully weaved by the rest of the social control apparatus. The political parties, sell-out unions, mass media, military, church, school, and family.
THE STATE AND ITS POLICE HAVE A CONTINUATION
The vicious torture of Kostas B. – which luckily did not kill him – is not an isolated incident. How could it be anyway, since it comes as a follow-up to so many “accomplishments” of the Greek police over the last decades. Those technically called “police arbitrariness”, but which are the content of the action and purpose of the existence of the police. It is the beatings and chemical warfare in protests, the torturing and “accidental” deaths in police stations, the humiliations during “routine checks” in streets and squares. It is the organization of drug trades, the raping of prostitutes and the participation in the trafficking of their bodies, as well as the trafficking of modern “slaves” coming from across the Aegean sea, remaining thus as a main pillar of the black market economy in the Greek territory. It is the cooperation with and covering up of fascists and all sorts of para-state thugs. It is, of course, the “accidental” shootings (usually in the back and always aimed at their heads) in the city streets and country borders, as well as the murders of militants. The list, like the blood, has no end. Whatever disputes the dominant choices is repressed in any way, let alone their natural and declared enemies of the state and its orders.
The police is the spearhead in keeping the populations under constant pressure. It takes on the defence of the interests of Capital, the unhindered circulation of money and goods, the observance of law and order, the authority of democracy as the sole and absolute government. In the Syriza-era of “social serenity” and the surrendering to the arms of integration, police showed the full range of their possibilities in maintaining order and security. The tales of “fair growth”, “equal opportunities for all”, investments with “respect” to the environment, wherever disputed – now and in the future – will be defended by the state praetorians immediately. The boot of repression will stomp on those who insult the sanctuaries of government and bosses, right or left.
The examples that follow are indicative. The encircling and military-style occupation of “dangerous” neighborhoods, such as Exarcheia, never stopped. The occupation of cities by the scum of the Greek police like in Menidi, reminds us of the recent incidents in Skouries, Keratea or Zoniana in Crete. These police pogroms are an image from the past, present, and future. The torture to death of Pellumb Marnikollaj inside Patissia police station in August ‘16, as well as the murder of a 33 year old from Kazakhstan in September of the same year (from the “accidental” shooting by the gun of an off-duty cop) remind us the timeless character of the state “agents” in question. The attack with batons and chemicals against a protest of retirees at Maximou building against Katrougkalos law in October ‘16. The cannibalism of cops on the anniversaries of the Polytechnic, the murder of A.Grigoropoulos and Pavlos Fyssas. The ban of protests and the shutting down of the entire downtown of Athens during Obama’s visit. All the above shows that the first choice of (every) government and its agents is the stability of the regime and its economy, this is why cops had and will do whatever they please in order to maintain that.
The scum, some will say, once again have stepped over the limits. We say that there are no limits, but are simply placed in the tug-of-war of social/class rivalry. Whoever fights an honest, unwavering, unmediated and dreamless struggle sees no limits of obstacles in the battle raging. Nor does it crash on political promises in order to not attack. We do not care about various special police forces, their disarmament or “democratization”. The “respect to the citizen and human rights” concerned and concerns Syriza’s election clientele and not us. It concerns those who want their peace and quiet or cant be bothered to fight and end up delegating the matters they consider to need “improvement”. As anarchists we do not seek a truce, we seek the subversion of state and capital. This is why they target us, just like we target them.
ATTACKS AGAINST THE POLICE ARE JUSTIFIED AND NECESSARY ACTIONS
“We know what a boot looks like from under, we know the philosophy of
the boot…
We will quickly invade like wild weeds everywhere,
but slowly they will revolt with us,
and thus the fences will be torn down and walls will crack and drop.
And then there will be no more boots.
In the meantime, we eat dirt and sleep,
we patiently wait under your feet.
When we say ‘Attack’, rest assured that you will hear nothing at
first…”
(paraphrased excerpt of Margaret Atwood)
Just like you heard nothing on Wednesday night (25.10.17), when we attacked Pefki police station on Konitsis street with a variety of incendiary means, torching the entrance, the guard booth, a cop car, the personal vehicles of cops outside the station (two cars and a small motorbike). Those were our targets all along and of course not the interior of the police station, something that could expose prisoners to danger, something that was purposefully reported to the mass media by the cops. The shots fired by cops from the station’s window did not affect our attack in any way.
Acts of mutiny, such as the one that took place outside Pefki police station, concretely prove that the state and its apparatus are not invincible – no matter how much it seems that way – but can receive blows that put dents in their profile. It is proof that in this period of social serenity we are experiencing, that there are those who are working towards ending this world and bringing about a new one.
It is an act that keeps alive the flame of rage for those who were beaten, tortured, raped and murdered by the scum of the Greek police. It is an attack dedicated to the memory of S.Isidoropoulos, A.Tsivika, Chr.Kasimmis, V.Tsironis, St.Kanelopoulou and Iak.Koumis, M.Kaltezas, Chr.Tsoutsouvis, Chr.Marinos, A.Grigoropoulos and Lambros Foundas who were killed by the hands of cops, in the struggle for a better world.
The organized acts of violence from the side of fighters should become the catalyst for the multiplication of attacks the regime of social-democracy and its minions receives. When this becomes part of the political work from the entire world of struggle and society, it will be infinitely more substantial and effective as far as its purpose is concerned: the destruction of the capitalist order of things and the construction of cells of freedom, self-organization, and solidarity.
For the coming of the idea we hold in our hearts, for Anarchy and everything it represents.
No form of brutality from the dogs of the regime will remain unanswered, or otherwise, and in the era of Syriza’s police
EVERYTHING CONTINUES….
P.S.1: We cannot resist the temptation to comment the statements of Kiriakos Mitsotakis outside the “creased” Pefki police station. He should not promise situations he cannot accomplish, even if he becomes prime minister. His morbid vision for a society and security at the service of capital was not accomplished in the past (even when he was a minister), and it will remain a dream for the future as well. The world of struggle makes sure of that.
P.S.2: Besides the government and police, the judicial authority also has a continuation. This was shown in the decision of the appellate court for the case of Revolutionary Struggle, in the maintaining of exterminating sentences, as well as the vindictive imprisonment of comrades in remote prisons.
