Exarchia - It has begun

[caveman1917]

The evening news on NEA (Greek TV station) showed the following announcement:

20 - 11 - 2019 ANNOUNCEMENT FROM A DETAILED BUILDING

Workers are urged to increase their salaries by 200%, reduce working hours accordingly, or move into collective ownership of their means of production.

Those who are illegally violating international refugee protection conditions by killing, imprisoning and even abducting children to close them in inhumane detention centers without access to health and education are also urged to resign immediately.

Those who expel refugees are urged to leave the country and surrender their responsibilities for the protection of refugee lives to international solidarity movements.

The deadline for the implementation of our orders is 15 days after the publication of this press release. Otherwise we won't do well ... sweet.

Make an appointment on the streets

Assembly of Solidarity for Refugees and Occupations

 

[caveman1917]

Notara 26, one of the oldest and most well-known refugee squats in Exarchia, responded with their own press release:

PRESS RELEASE

From occupied Exarchia we give a 15day deadline to resign tho all those who dream of the revival of the dictatorship along with their propaganda mechanisms, through beatings, virtual rapes, stripping of women, denial of legal rights, intimidations and surveillance of comrades, workers and students. These are only some of the practices of the increasing repression and onslaught towards the people’s struggle. Their excellence and normality consists of closed borders, closed camps, closed minds and then the smokestacks will follow.

We have been given a 15day deadline. 15 days…
Notara 26 has existed for 1500 days. It has sheltered more than 9000 people from 15 different countries of origin. Hundreds of solidarians from all over the planet have participated in the project. Thousands of different stories. One constant common struggle for solidarity, selforganisation of our lives, acceptance of difference and uniqueness. One struggle in our squat, our neighborhood, the street.

Ideas cannot be supressed. Notara 26 is here and will stay alive !
You cannot evict a movement. Not now, not ever !

HOUSING SQUAT FOR REFUGEES/MIGRANTS NOTARA 26
Athens, November 21th, 2019

 

[caveman1917]

In the meantime the Parents Association of the local school has weighed in as well, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the MAT occupation forces from the neighbourhood.

 

[caveman1917]

The deadline passed yesterday, without any evictions so far. Yesterday was also the yearly memorial of Alexis Grigoropoulos who was executed by cops in Exarchia in 2008 sparking the 2008 Greek uprising. About 15000 people demonstrated yesterday in Athens as well as some clashes with the MAT in Exarchia, ending in about 30 people being arrested (as usual they appear to be arbitrary arrests).

 

[caveman1917]

Now 5 days after the end of the ultimatum, the government side hasn't yet made a move, while the anti-government side has opened 15 new squats. Before that the office of the far-right ruling government party (New Democracy) in Keratsini was evicted and its entrance bricked up.

 

[caveman1917]

We are now one month after the end of the ultimatum. During that time the government has evicted 4 squats on the outskirts of Athens (not in Exarchia) of which 1 was quickly reoccupied. By the end of december it became known that the government plans had been temporarily shelved because of the increasing backlash against extreme police violence and other systemic human rights violations such as large-scale arbitrary arrests since the new government came to power. An example being the use of an abandoned car park at Bouboulinas street for humiliating, beating, and even torturing people being arrested in the neighbourhood - a presumably symbolic choice as Bouboulinas street was where leftists were tortured during the dictatorship. The Greek embassy in Berlin was also temporarily occupied in protest of the Greek government actions. Either way, the temporary freezing of the government plans is the first respite for the squatted social centers in over 4 months, which continue to provide free medical, legal, and other services to refugees and other poor people in the neighbourhood.

Though it's clear that the government offensive isn't over yet, during this month yet another 1500 cops are to be hired to reinforce the MAT, putting the total of extra police hired for the operation at almost 5000 - for comparison, Exarchia has a population of about 22000. In the meantime the government has decided to go after the anti-fascist movement, with numerous arrests of suspected anti-fascists being accused of various attacks against Golden Dawn premises and setting huge bail terms (for which there is a fundraiser, if anyone feels generous).

Here's also a recent documentary on the issue

 

[caveman1917]

In what appears to be a response to the recent conviction of Golden Dawn, their supporters among the police have drawn various Golden Dawn/SS/etc insignia on their helmets and rioted in the streets and homes surrounding the memorial of Alexis Grigoropoulos, a teenager who was murdered by a police officer on this day in 2008, stopping people from leaving flowers before proceeding to trash the memorial itself. At the same time lawyers for the victims in the Golden Dawn trial are being arrested for unknown reasons.

 

[caveman1917]

At the same time lawyers for the victims in the Golden Dawn trial are being arrested for unknown reasons.

The lawyers have been released. Turns out about 4000 cops participated in the events, that's more than 1 cop per building in the blocks surrounding the memorial plaque, with squads at every intersection and such. Yet they still failed to entirely suppress people protesting against this, inhabitants of one apartment building managed to go outside with a banner for a few minutes before the cops made it there and they had to run back in.

In response to the events of yesterday (which of course the cops are lying about) the ruling ND party stated that the state will celebrate the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos in any way it wants and congratulated the police squads involved. He also denounced "social media biologists" which may be a reference to some biologists complaining about the deliberate exposure to viral agents that some of these police squads employed during yesterday's events, by rounding up and locking up dozens of people together in unventilated rooms and cages while refusing to allow them to follow safety measures.

 

[caveman1917]

State celebrations of the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos continue for a second day.

According to the first information and reports of photojournalists located in the area of ​​Exarcheia, MAT and DELTA are stalking people who are trapped in apartment buildings, extensive checks are carried out in the wider area, citizens are beaten, while journalists and photojournalists are prevented from reaching the spot.

 

[caveman1917]

Yet they still failed to entirely suppress people protesting against this

Solution: Even more police. Documents were leaked on the government's plan to recruit another 500-1000 police through the fast-track procedure[*] to function as a university police - I wonder if that has anything to do with those "social media biologists" the government is fulminating about.

* The fast-track procedure was instituted last year to quickly raise 1500 cops for anti-immigrant operations (see also above in this thread), it effectively functions as a mechanism for putting fascists into "counter-insurgency" police units.