THE SERIES OF RAIDS, WHICH TOOK PLACE OVER THE COURSE OF A SINGLE WEEK, HAVE BEEN LABELLED A DESPERATE RESPONSE AS STATE FORCES STRUGGLE TO CONTAIN PUBLIC ANGER OVER PERCIEVED CORRUPTION AND INCOMPETENCE. ~Kit Dimou~ On the morning of April 22nd, the historic Evangelismos squat in Heraklion, Crete, was evicted once again having been reoccupied on 1 December 2023. The brief announcement of the squat stated: “AS IT HAPPENED THEN, SO IT HAPPENS NOW, NOTHING WITHOUT A FIGHT. NOT ONE STEP BACK”. Six people who were inside the building have been held on charges of breaching the peace and possession of weapons (flags and makeshift shields), while the police refused them communication with their lawyers. Evangelismos was an abandoned hospital when leftists and anarchists first took the initiative to open it for the community in Heraklion in 2002. Since then, it has been at the forefront of anti-authoritarian struggle in Crete, particularly in recent solidarity actions with the Palestinian people.  On the same morning, April 22nd, police in Thessaloniki evicted a space at the Physics School of Aristotle University which had been squatted by students for a year, the ‘Steki Fysikou’. Upon the completion of the operation, university management provocatively announced that this space was “liberated from a group of anti-authoritarians and delivered to the university community for the use of the sensitive group of people with special needs”. Local comrades have denounced the hypocrisy and disableist language of this statement, especially given the general inaccessibility of the Aristotle University: “in the university, education, liberated spaces and accessibility only come through struggle”. Finally, on the morning of April 15th, cops raided and evicted the newly-founded ‘Rasprava’ squat in the centre of Exarcheia. Despite the hopes of the state, there were zero comrades inside, while the only ‘evidence’ found was some rubble and anarchist graffiti. ‘Rasprava’ was an abandoned orphanage, squatted by anarchists on March 28th following a public event about revolutionary memory where imprisoned anarchist Marianna M. spoke via the phone. The ‘Rasprava’ squat explicitly intended to promote a culture of revolutionary and insurrectionary direct action in Exarcheia: ‘to turn words into action, to move from defense to attack’ in the struggle to protect the collective memory of the neighbourhood from touristification and integration.  The squatters argued that the eviction was a desperate response of the State to the recent bombing attack on Hellenic Train, as well as clashes with the police at a Palestine solidarity concert in Exarcheia on Saturday 12 April. The collective noted:  “The governing circus […] incorrectly believes that the ideas and practices that Rasprava represents are limited to the walls of a building, and that with its eviction, they will disappear as if by magic. A tear runs down one cheek, but one of laughter. The revolutionary culture we promote and want to return to its predominance in the anarchist space, direct action, will haunt your dreams, as well as your subordinated reality.“ The post Three squat evictions in a week as Greek state ramps up attack on anarchist movement appeared first on Freedom News.

“NO ONE WILL BE LEFT ALONE AGAINST THE REPRESSIVE CAMPAIGN OF THE STATE AND CAPITAL”, DECLARE DEMONSTRATORS ~ Kit Dimou ~ Greek anarchist Nikos Romanos has been arrested in connection with the explosion in an Athens flat on 31 October, which authorities attribute to a bomb-making accident. According to media reports, Romanos’s fingerprint was found on a bag containing a unused weapon in the blown-up apartment. The explosion killed Kyriakos Ximitiris, a long-term activist in the anarchist milieu, and seriously injured another comrade, Marianna M.. Two other individuals connected to the flat were also arrested, allowing the police to invoke anti-terrorism legislation. Marianna M. underwent multiple surgeries and remains heavily injured, but was nevertheless recently transferred to Korydallos prison, which does not even have a hospital. Romanos, who was arrested on 18 November as he was returning to his home, is well-known to the Greek public as a friend of Alexis Grigoropoulos and an eyewitness to his police murder, which triggered the 2008 uprising in the country. Romanos was in prison between 2012-2019, sentenced for possessing and planting explosive devices and for participating in two bank robberies. While in prison he went on hunger strike after authorities refused him access to further education, drawing support from a mass mobilisation on the streets of Athens. Over the weekend, actions, assemblies and demonstrations in memory of Ximitiris and in solidarity with the imprisoned comrades took place in response to an international call for action. Across Greece, In the quarter of Exarcheia in Athens, a political memorial was held where statements written by Marianna and comrades in Greece and Germany were read out. Banner in the Basque country. Photo: Athens Indymedia The event continued with a march to the Polytechnic university, commemorating the 51st anniversary of the 1973 student uprising. The demonstration passed in front of the US and Israeli embassies with a banner in his memory and in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance. In Thessaloniki, the parallel demonstration ended in a mass petrol bomb attack on the police, although there were fewer commemorative clashes than expected. Solidarity actions also took place in London and Glasgow. In Rome, two people were arrested and fined for dropping a solidarity banner in front of the Colosseum. Anarchists across the Iberian peninsula have also dropped banners in memory of Ximitiris. In Hamburg, several dozen angry people marched unannounced and masked through the St. Pauli district. Slogans were sprayed, fireworks set off,and an office of the ruling Social Democratic party was attacked. A convergence of insurrectionary cells in Chile have written a letter to Kyriakos and Marianna titled “A death in action is an eternal call to struggle“. Romanos is expected to appear in court again on Friday to state his defence. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top photo: Solidarity demonstration in Leipzig. Athens Indymedia The post Athens explosion: Prominent anarchist arrested, solidarity actions worldwide appeared first on Freedom News.