ARSON IN BERLIN, MARCHES AND REPRESSION IN GREECE MARK A YEAR SINCE FATAL ATHENS EXPLOSION ~ Kit Dimou ~ The past week saw a series of anarchist actions and memorials across Europe, marking one year since the death of Greek anarchist Kyriakos Xymitiris, who was killed on 31 October 2024 in a bomb explosion in Athens. Most lately on Tuesday (4 November), an anonymous group calling itself “the three funny four beavers” claimed responsibility for setting fire to a transformer station at a Virtus data centre construction site in Berlin, dedicating the action to Xymitiris. In a rhymed communiqué titled “Fire and flame to the data centres!”, the group denounced the AI industry’s environmental destruction and its role in militarism, including the use of artificial intelligence in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. It said gasoline and car tyres were used to start the fire, although police gave mainstream media a contradictory account. Palestine, West Bank Commemoration events for Xymitiris began on 30 October with a public gathering at Athens Panteion University, discussing revolutionary memory and presenting a book on armed struggle. The following evening, hundreds marched in central Athens under banners remembering the fallen anarchist and demanding freedom for those imprisoned in connection with the 2024 Ampelokipi explosion: Marianna Manoura, Dimitra Zarafeta, Nikos Romanos, and two others. The march was violently attacked by riot police as it entered Exarchia, with stun grenades and chemical sprays used against people sitting in nearby cafés. Witnesses reported dozens detained during the dispersal. In Crete, the same morning saw large-scale raids in Heraklion targeting anarchist structures including the Evangelismos squat. Several people were arrested after a recent public confrontation with the far-right former minister Makis Voridis, whose long history with Greece’s military junta and neo-Nazi networks has once again drawn scrutiny. The raids coincided with the anniversary of Xymitiris’s death and appeared aimed at disrupting planned memorial assemblies. In Hamburg, comrades gathered to hang a banner reading “Revolutionary hearts burn forever — Kyriakos X.” and to share discussion and remembrance. Further statements of solidarity appeared from Portugal, Palestine, and Germany’s autonomous housing scene. A collective from the squatted building Rigaer94 in Berlin published a long text recalling Xymitiris’s presence in the city and linking his memory to struggles against eviction, militarism and digital control.     -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Verified machine edit The post Attacks and memorials for Kyriakos Xymitiris appeared first on Freedom News.

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.