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.

IN BERLIN, RADICAL SPACES FACING CAPITALIST EXPROPRIATION CONTINUE TO RESIST WITH SOLIDARITY AND A REVOLUTIONARY MEMORY ~ Josie Ó Súileabháin ~ It starts with a match, a small wooden stick squeezed into the cracks of our urban decay. It can take a drill, a dozen mates and material for barricades to get it going. Don’t talk to bailiffs and keep the door locked. Landlord lives in Barbados, the neighbourhood lives in hell. Rents have doubled in ten years and only 1% of homes are ‘on the market’. Cops are at the door, the heating is cut. In the early hours of the morning on Habersaathstrasse, the cops break down the door of number 46 in an attempt to evict it’s residents. “The cops have entered to ‘prevent danger’ and yes, it’s true, we pose a threat to vacant property managers, speculators, and their accomplices,” wrote the residents of Habersaath46 (Ha46) “but the violence is coming from those who drag people out of their apartments at 6am.” “The operation ended in our hallway. No-one was evicted,” Ha46 reported to the community. The next day, the police came back with a construction crew and attempted to seal the basement door shut, which acts as their emergency exit. The police had earlier confiscated fire extinguishers, making the entire situation a potential fire risk to the tenants. They failed in this attempt and so came back days later to brick up the exit. For the next weeks, the residents of Ha46 have reported that the law firm von Trott zu Solz Lammek has turned the area into a security fortress for their clients Arcadia Estates, using private security to make apartments systematically uninhabitable as a tactic to prevent re-occupation. The law firm is infamous among squatters in Berlin for their reputation of successful evictions by any means. Across the world it is the same story as the corporations owning our homes are international. Yet the solutions can be found locally in our neighborhoods as we resist evictions and intimidation. This revolutionary dynamic between international and local is what is known as the Interkiezionale. In May of this year, squatters attempted to re-occupy the Meuterei (Mutiny) in Kreuzberg, “a place that was not only a bar, it was a place of collective meeting and sharing,” the squatters wrote. “By re-opening the Meuterei one more time, we want to bring to the present those collective moments that brought closer the idea that other worlds are possible.” “We fought in the streets to reclaim our subversive and political ideas through the defence of Liebig34, Potse, Syndikat, Meuterei, Köpi Wagenplatz and Rigaer94. We remember those times with nostalgia, but also with the powerful thoughts that if one time we were able to confront the state and his mercenaries with fierceness, we can and will do it again,” they wrote. REVOLUTIONARY MEMORY A year ago today, an explosion ripped apart an apartment three floors up on Arkadias Street in Athens. Marianna Manoura was inside the apartment when the detonation occurred. “Time froze, everything went black,” Marianna wrote, “and I was unable to move.” Two figures appeared and offered Marianna help as she went looking for her comrade. “I showed them the place where I last saw my companion, the place where our guilty gazes met, glances filled with rage at the world we live in, filled with faith and hunger for moments of true freedom” Marianna wrote in the aftermath. The anarchist Kyriakos Xymitiris was processing explosives in the next room when a technical issue lead to an early detonation and his death. October 31 commemorations in Athens “Although the thread of my comrade’s action would be abruptly cut short, his life and fighting choices would be a historic flash of determined resistance, perseverance, and dedication,” Marianna writes about her late comrade from prison. She was taken to Evangelismos Hospital following the explosion and was unconscious for the next three days. As Marianna regained consciousness, the Greek authorities began to isolate her and held her under 24/hr constant police watch. As is usual with militant partisans, the Greek authorities decided to prosecute the anarchists under terror legislation based on Article 187a. Marianna and Kyriakos were classified as a terrorist organisation and their apartment was defined as a ‘yiafka’ or a kind of crime operation centre. This would pull two other individuals into the investigation to face charges connected to the anarchists, as well as two other anarchists who had no connection to the original defendants. A flimsy case, as usual. To push the narrative, the Greek media did a circus run of pop-psychology takes on the defendants, speculations on class origins and outright character assassination, repeated into a moral panic projected onto a largely religious audience. The role of the Greek state after these anarchists are detained is to cut off prison solidarity and activism by attacking those close to them – seeking total political and social isolation. “But the question is,” writes Marianna, “Who will name whom a terrorist? Who will judge whom?” The role of the mainstream media is to depoliticize resistance into fear-based narratives, projecting the paranoia of the state directly onto the audience. The explosion on Arkadias Street was the incendiary end to the life of an anarchist who was known by the people who survived him beyond militancy and armed revolution. Kyriakos was known as participating locally and internationally. “For a long time Kyriakos walked together with us in the struggles of Berlin,” write the squatters of Meuterei. “Together we defended our self-organised spaces and fought against the process of gentrification that consumes this city and changes it’s social geography benefiting some, while expelling the poor and marginalised people.” “Through Interkiezionale we confronted this process fighting together with other collectives against evictions.” Kyriakos was part of the Meuterei collective before it’s eviction in 2020. “Our community here has changed time and again,” the residents of Rigaer94 wrote this month, currently under the threat of eviction. “We remember you as a tireless fighter,” they write on the coming anniversary of the death of Kyriakos, “as a friend, as a guest and part of our community. You brought people together instead of losing yourself in the stream of the metropolis.” INVESTIGATE YOUR LANDLORD In 2019, I was hiding in an apartment in Neukölln when my local bar announced they were facing eviction from their British landlords. The Syndikat, and Meuterei in neighboring Kreuzberg, were safe havens for me as well as other “danger zones” (kriminalitätsbelasteter orte) designated by the state. “A place to celebrate our friendship and comradeship,” as the squatters of Mutiny wrote. Further investigation revealed that the landlords of the Syndikat is Pears Global, a multi-billion network of 200 companies, subdivisions and shell companies in tax havens like Luxembourg. One company that had gained notoriety in the UK was Bankway, known for focusing evictions on the disabled, elderly, unemployed and single parents. “We are not social landlords” defended Nick Stanley, Bankway’s Estate Manager, “we’re in it to make money. The idea is to maximise the income from the building.” After years of disputes over the ownership of Rigaer94, the Berlin senate in 2020 failed to clarify the identity of the landlord who was seemingly hiding behind a letterbox company based in the British tax haven of Guernsey. Since then there have been multiple police raids on the building in order, according to authorities, to establish the identities of the residents of Rigaer94. 28 August 2025 — The police forcibly entered Rigaerstraße 94 and broke into all apartments. Photo: Björn Obmann/Umbruch Bildarchiv In reality, the police raids only served to attempt to isolate the house and intimidate its occupants, despite the fact that the Berlin authorities could not prove the identity of the individual who owned the building. The owner of Lafone Investments Limited was kept secret through a system of trustees, those who own the company on paper on behalf of those who would rather not be named. Leonid Medved is one of these people. A Ukrainian citizen born in Berlin, Leonid is the managing director of 20 companies all based at the same address in Berlin, along with Igor Lipiak. Some of these companies operate vending machine casinos, others like Centurious Immobilen Handels GmbH exploit the property market. Since Lafone’s trustee stepped down, its managing director is now Leonid Medved. Rigaer94 is now in an absurd situation where the landlord demands anonymity and ownership, and his lawyer is not even sure if they own the property. “I think we even have a house in Germany… I’m not sure though,” Bernau told the court. “We know we have a house here,” Rigaer94 said in response. “We are sure of it. And we will not give up this house without a fight.” A few days before the raid on Rigaer94 this year, a group of people broke into the offices of Leonid Medved and leaked a trove of documents that gives “insight into the machinations of Lafone Investments Limited, Centurious Immobilen Handels GmbH, and the coordinated efforts of police and politicians with the real estate industry,” they said in a statement. Photo: Björn Obmann/Umbruch Bildarchiv As part of the publication of the documents, it was revealed that Igor Lipniak was named by German tax authorities and accused of distributing laptops with software for manipulation of slot machines, cheating both the tax man and in his own gambling halls. “Here, the destruction of existence is enriched,” those behind the leaking of the documents wrote on the damage of gambling halls on the community. INTERKIEZIONALE! “Right from the start of the proceedings, the court announced its clear tendency – Lafone… seems unable to act legally in Germany,” Rigaer94 write. Despite this clear violation of the process, the judge actually offered suggestions on how to resolve the issues and become a legal entity to operate in Germany. This corruption is open for anyone to see, if they could only look. “Solidarity from those whom joined the manifestation in front of the court, those who visited Rigaer94 to reconstruct what was broken after the raid, as well as actions in other cities,” R94 writes on actions  by the community following police repression of the radical space. On September 7, the windows and doors of a restaurant on Orianientburger Strasse were smashed in. Activists used heavy tools to enter through the closed shutters and spray painted “R94 Bliebt!” on the facade. “To avoid traumatising underpaid employees,” they wrote in a statement, “we decided not to conduct the operation during business hours.” The restaurant is owned by the daughter of Leonid Medved. One day later in the Siemensstadt district, four vans belonging to the multi-national real estate corporation Vonovia went up in flames. “For the majority of people in Berlin,” activists wrote in a statement, “the housing situation is an existential catastrophe… rents in the “lower market segment” rose by 11.6% in Berlin.” Vonovia made a profit of €984 million before taxes in the first half of this year. “We sent Vonovia a message in a language they understand,” activists wrote. “We used the tired-and-tested Berlin model as the incendiary device,” referring to a popular time delay igniter. Yet beyond the fire and fury of armed resistance is a politics of solidarity that brings us together as anarchists. “Solidarity is the weapon of the people,” Marianna writes, still in pretrial detention in Korydallos. October 31 must be remembered “as a day of struggle, a day of responsibility, a moment of resistance. Because struggle doesn’t want compromises, it doesn’t want barriers or egos. There’s no room for laws, conventions, or limits. Because struggle requires determination and vision. It requires faith and commitment, it requires true relationships and dedication.” “Because struggle requires humble and willing people. People who are essentially rebellious and consistent,” Marianna writes, “People like Kyriakos.” The post When they kick at our front door appeared first on Freedom News.

IT WAS “BY NO MEANS OUR INTENTION” TO CUT POWER TO HOUSEHOLDS, SAYS COMMUNIQUÉ, BUT TO “TURN OFF THE JUICE TO THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX” ~ Juju Alerta ~ Anarchists have taken responsibility for a major power outage in southeast Berlin early Tuesday, after two high-voltage pylons were set on fire in Johannisthal, Treptow-Köpenick. The attack, which began around 3.30am according to police, cut electricity to some 43,000 households and 3,000 businesses. Entire areas were left without power, public transport was paralysed, traffic lights went dark, and mobile police units with loudspeaker vans were deployed to inform residents. The state security division of the Berlin criminal police has taken over the investigation. A police spokesperson said arson was suspected and that a political motive “could not be ruled out”. Later, a lengthy statement appeared on Indymedia in which a group of anarchists claimed the action, which they say targeted Adlershof technology park. The authors apologised to local residents for the blackout in private homes, saying this was “by no means our intention”, but described the collateral damage as “acceptable compared with the destruction of nature and the often deadly subjugation of people” caused by the targeted industries. The group singled out several companies, including Atos, Jenoptik, Siemens, and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), accusing them of supplying militaries, enabling border surveillance and fuelling environmental destruction. “Their well-sounding slogans of innovation, sustainability and progress are nothing more than a manoeuvre on the battlefield of discourse, to cover up that they are actually building instruments that bring death and destruction”, the statement declared. Tuesday’s fire is the most significant infrastructure sabotage in Berlin since a 2024 pylon attack cut power to Tesla’s Gigafactory in Grünheide. In recent weeks there have also been attacks on vehicles and businesses linked to the landlord of Rigaer 94, a left-radical housing project which faces multiple court cases and eviction proceedings this month. The post Berlin blackout: Anarchists claim attack on industrial park appeared first on Freedom News.

AMAZON TARGETED FOR COMPLICITY IN ISRAEL’S GAZA GENOCIDE, TELEKOM FOR COOPERATION WITH THE GERMAN MILITARY AND ELON MUSK’S STARLINK—COMMUNIQÉ ~ Juju Alerta ~ An anti-militarist group has claimed responsibility for two arson attacks on commercial vehicles from Amazon and Deutsche Telekom in the early hours of Tuesday. The Amazon vans were torched on a site on Koppelweg, in the south of the German capital, while Telekom parking was situated in Lichtenberg in Berlin’s east, reported German media. No people were hurt. In a communiqé, the un-named group said it was “celebrating” the opening of the new Amazon Tower in Berlin, citing disgust with the company’s lending its computing power to the Israeli military (along with Google and Microsoft). “The destruction and starvation in Gaza unfolding before our eyes, the planned complete relocation of the population, and the AI-based massacre and mutilation of hundreds of thousands of people, including many children, are being calculated and stored on Amazon Web Services’ servers”, said the group. It also named Amazon as a key contractor for the American military and a “generous sponsor of King Trump’s military parade … State and capital in lockstep toward fascism”. Telekom was targeted due to its “support for the Bundeswehr” and as a “supplier of IT to border authorities, police, and intelligence services”, said the communiqué. The activists also cited T-Systems, which works in collaboration with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network. Citing Amazon’s competing Project Kuiper, the text said that “Musk and Bezos, with their corporate networks, are thus technocrats who not only profit from wars but can now influence their course”. “Demanding life against militarism and technologies of death is right, just as it is right to claim and defend antimilitarism against nationalism”, concluded the commuiqué, “It is right to liberate life from all militarism and war, from the state and patriarchy”. Amazon condemned the act, a spokesperson told Reuters, while Deutsche Telekom said it could not comment on pending investigations. These attacks are not unusual, noted observers. In 2020 and 2021 more than 400 cars were set alight in Berlin. In 2021, the total number of cars, including those that caught fire when vehicles in the vicinity were torched, surpassed 700. The post Berlin: Anti-militarists claim arson of Amazon and Deutsche Telekom vehicles appeared first on Freedom News.

DOZENS OF INJURIES AND 50 ARRESTS REPORTED AS RIOT POLICE BLOCKS PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MARCH ~ Josie Ó Súileabháin ~ Thousands of Palestine solidarity activists gathered in Neukölln, Berlin yesterday (May 15th) to mark Nakba Day and protest Israel’s continuing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Media reported dozens of injuries and over 50 arrests at the demonstration. The Nakba or “catastrophe” refers to the displacement of about 700,000 Palestinians who were expelled from or fled their homes in the 1948 war that surrounded the establishment of the State of Israel. The demonstration was due to march on the streets but this was blocked by a wall of riot police and water canon tanks, turning it into a static rally. Speakers took to the small stage on the back of a truck that was meant to lead the demonstration and different people came up and spoke in different languages, including German, English, and French. Once as speech was being made in Arabic, however, a group of German riot police moved towards the stage. The police were blocked from getting to the stage by protesters, and the speaker was able to jump into the crowd. It was the beginning of what was to come. Usually with ‘kettling’ or ‘static rallies’ come the frustration, fear and rage as the police start marching into the middle of the protest, choosing one random person—violently arresting them and dragging them out of the crowd. In an attempt to stop this from happening were a line of activists stopping the police from reaching the main protest. As a woman is dragged out of the crowd, she is followed by an emergency medical support team. They attempt to follow her to provide medical attention but one paramedic is violently pushed back by a riot police officer, joined by several more to prevent them from reaching the injured protester in custody. As the crowd of people move to try to stop one police kidnapping, a group of riot police move in another direction and close the circle. A journalist is arrested wearing a vest marked ‘press’ and holding a film camera. The arrested are taken into the guarded wooded area and behind police vans. A group of young men are lined up against the wall, handcuffed. “What is that?” a legal observer asks me. “A water cannon” I reply, “watch out for your eye.” Most of the arrests are done by two police officers; one holds the person and the other pulls one of their arms at an impossible stress position. For some this triggered a response of screaming which would allow the use of more force. Several other police officers kept people back, but just enough to show them the violence. This intimidation has defined state repression of protests in Berlin for the last year and half. While genocidal Israeli politicians have openly called for a second Nakba in Gaza, this incitement is not a concern of the German government, Instead, it charges Palestinian solidarity demonstrators with ‘volksverhetzung’ or ‘incitement of ethnic hatred’ while continuing to support the Israeli government through arms exports. Germany’s criminalisation of Palestinian solidarity is a widespread, systematic approach of domestic silencing that is deeply embedded in the cultural normality of racism within society. The Index of Repression—a database recently released to the public by the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC)— documents 766 instances of state repression in Germany since October 2023. With the absence of the German media, the only coverage is from those present who feel deeply enough about the issue, and from the protesters themselves who regularly document police violence towards them. The organisers of the demonstration wrote: “From the banning, restrictions and police brutality on the streets, to legal persecution of any active voice for Palestine, to taking away people’s jobs or right to political activity, to the violence of the ongoing deportation policy against Palestinians from Gaza and activists… now it is time to show Germany that being on the wrong side of history comes at a cost”. The post Berlin: Heavy repression at Nakba 77 protest appeared first on Freedom News.