SONS OF ANTIFASCISM
On Sunday (30th) night anti-fascists clashed with police during an anti-fascist patrol which resulted in 15 people injured and 23 arrested.
Around 9pm the easy riders crossed paths with far-right members of Golden Dawn in the Athens neighbourhood of Agios Pantalaimonos. Unsurprisingly a heated political debate ensued with two fascists requiring hospital treatment as their oratory skills were found lacking. The Greek mainstream media reports residents being present during the incident and one local producing a gun but not using it. Afterwards the anti-fascist motor division was followed and ambushed by Greek police motorcycle units.
On Monday (2nd) an anti-fascist demonstration was called for outside the courthouse. Around 300 people attended the solidarity demo. As the anti-fascists exited the courthouse to be escorted back to the police vehicles and driven to the cells the police attacked the demo dispersing those gathered to the nearby streets. This led to another 20 people being detained with four arrests who were promptly taken to court next day.
The anti-fascist motorbike chapter has come about in response to relentless attacks by fascist groups on foreign minorities. Last month they were several reports posted on Athens Indymedia of anti-fascist patrols burning rubber on Athenian streets. These patrols have mirrored the increase in racist attacks in Athens and across Greece in general. Last week a Tanzanian community centre was attacked by members of Golden Dawn who damaged the building and shops in the area belonging to non-Greek citizens. In a separate attack two people were assaulted with knives after attending an anti-fascist demo, both needing hospital treatment. Earlier during September racist factions stormed foreign stall holders at open air markets. The fascists destroyed their stalls and filmed the event as they were doing it. As if to dispel any doubts of the links between far-right groups and police in Greece on one of these occasions a police man was caught on camera joining in during the attack on the stall holders. The 44 year old officer (whose name has been withheld by the justice system) was playing personal body guard to Golden Dawn MP, Kostas Barbarousis. The officer took an active rôle in the attack. He has been suspended and is facing dismissal from the police force.
In the words of one local anti-fascist, “People are getting organised, the police and the fascists here are the same. We need to protect ourselves and others from racist attacks. If we don’t, who will?”
And now a second more detailed report if you are interested...
The night of September 15th saw the first motorcycle patrol through Athens centre with flypostering and protest chants against neo-Nazi attacks. On September 22nd another antifa motorcycle demo was realized successfully.
In the evening of Sunday, September 30th, a third antifascist intervention–motorcycle patrol passed through downtown locations, but was soon hindered by fascist scum. Consequently, comrades trashed nearly three neo-Nazis close to Phylis street in the sector of Aghios Panteleimonas, downtown Athens. At approximately 9pm, while one of the fascists was still lying wounded on the ground, the demo’s last motorcycles were attacked in retaliation by several thugs of the DELTA motorcycle police unit.
Almost all of the antifascists on motorbikes were chased and attacked, first in the vicinity of Amerikis square (not far from the Tanzanian community centre, which was ransacked by fascists only a few days ago), then on Alexandras avenue, but also as they were heading back to Exarchia. There, also, a couple of youths were persecuted and detained by cops. Several motorbikes were left behind and eventually confiscated by the police. Soon thereafter, many comrades gathered in the central Athenian squats in defense of the sites.
Among an unconfirmed number of comrades injured by cops, one antifascist was seriously wounded. Nearly 23 people who took part in the action were initially reported missing. Among them, 15 were arrested at different locations and held in the police headquarters on Alexandras Avenue, without access to any lawyer.
A gathering was called for Monday noon, October 1st, at Evelpidon courts in solidarity with the arrestees. The proceeding was delayed and finally postponed for Thursday, while the gathering was attended by more than 300 comrades. In the evening, various police units attacked furiously the supporters inside the courtyard and persecuted them in nearby streets, resulting to numerous detentions —4 were later turned into arrests.
The 15 antifascists that were arrested on 30/9 are still held in the police headquarters —due to appear in Evelpidon courts in the morning of Thursday 4/10. The 4 comrades arrested on 1/10 will be held in the police headquarters until Friday 5/10, when they will probably undergo trial in Evelpidon courts.
Antifascists who took part in the action have not yet released their own version of events, but notified there is a need to raise more than 10,000euros for legal expenses and monetary bails. Furthermore, in the late evening of Wednesday 3/10, they called for an open assembly in the Polytechnic School to discuss latest updates on the 15 arrestees of the antifascist intervention-patrol (30/9), the 4 arrestees of the solidarity gathering in Evelpidon courts (1/10) and upcoming actions. The assembly was attended by more than 300 supporters.
On the same night, a video of the intervention on 30/9 was released, containing footage shortly before the repressive strike. In addition, all 19 hostages in the police headquarters sent out a first reportback:
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012
A few words from the detention cells on the 7th floor of the Athens police headquarters
Although three days have already passed since our arrest during the antifascist motorcycle demo and flypostering (on Sunday 30/9), we think it’s good to clear up a few things even now.
After a manifest call-out on Sunday 30/9, an antifascist motorcycle demo and flypostering took place in downtown Athens, which started off from Exarchia. This demonstration came as a response to fascist pogroms and attacks against immigrants that are carried out in several areas of central Athens by fascist gangs, who are disguised as ‘committees of residents or shopkeepers’ and act with the assistance of official state gangs.
Right now, we’re not interested in analyzing or explaining here the given and hackneyed relation of Golden Dawn/Chrissi Avgi with the Greek Police.
Just after the patrol was attacked by Goldendawners(-citizens), there was an onslaught by cops of the DELTA motorcycle police unit, who followed the rear of the demo but also drove parallel alleys.
In the end 15 antifascist fighters were caught, both women and men. They were injured to various parts of their bodies, like the head, arms and legs, while cops also used taser guns (electroshock weapons).
We were brought to the 6th floor of the Athens police headquarters, in front of the department of state constitution protection, where the night was accompanied by beatings, threats, hair pulling, and burnings from the DELTA teams who took our picture for their private photo albums while keeping watch to us.
Threats such as ‘Now that we know who you are, we will bury you just like your grandparents in the Civil War’ are indicative of the terrorism that the cretin praetors of the DELTA teams tried to inflict on us. At the same time, we were not allowed to communicate with lawyers or doctors for 19 consecutive hours. The next day, after they made a transfer–show in order to take our suspect profiles, they ultimately brought us to the courts of the former Evelpidon military school.
While we still remained at the courts, anti-riot police forces attacked the gathered solidaritarians, beating up fiercely many of them. A total of 25 people were detained, and ultimately 4 arrestees were indicted. From the moment of their arrest, they were transferred onto the 6th floor of the police headquarters, where cops implemented a similar tactic of intimidation, including humiliating body searches. After an unprecedented vengeful decision, the temporary detention of the 4 arrestees was prolonged for three more days (until Friday), while the temporary detention of the 15 initial arrestees was extended until Thursday.
They brought us to the detention cells on the 7th floor of the police headquarters, in an overcrowded ward (intended for 30 people, while at the moment 80 people ‘live’ there in incredibly squalid conditions), in an attempt to ‘break our nerves’. However, we encountered a truly exceptional feeling of solidarity from people that have been ‘forgotten’ up to three months in this place.
Amidst the ‘economic crisis’ more and more people are driven to poverty and destitution, social cannibalism is being rewarded as virtue, fascism is raising its head in our localities and neighbourhoods, the State’s offensive is being intensified at all levels; amidst this period, options that promote self-organization, solidarity, comradeship and direct action are those that can not only stand in the way of fear, which they try to impose on our lives, but as the prospect of a different social organization.
You need to deeply grasp what fascism is really about.
Fascism won’t simply die on its own; you need to trash it.
Arrestees of 30/9 and 1/10
(Some among us, proud progenies of anarcho-communist brigands/symmorites.)