(photo published by kollect news)
Comrades from the Anarchist Group Rouvikonas and the Anachist collective Nea Philadelphia attempted to make an intervention at the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) with the purpose to read the following text during live news. The direct action took place on the 23d of February and 20 individuals were put under arrest.
On the 25th of January 2015, Syriza wins the elections and fosters the hope that the agreements signed during the previous years would now be a thing of the past. They made promises to literally ”tear the memorandum documents” and to create a prosperous new age for the sorely tired people suffering from policies created by the previous managers of the state. As time went by, all hopes proved to be deceptive and so, following the referendum in June 2015, the Syriza-Independent Greeks coalition government signed a new onerous agreement with the ”institutions”. That’s what the international loansharks are now labeled, demonstrating once again the historical role of social-democracy, which is nothing more than the management of a system in favour of capitalists and the simultaneous display of a supposedly pro-grassroots facade with the agenda to diminish any reactions coming from the dominated and financially weak majority.
This new agreement includes particularly harsh measures that come to give the final blow to any remaining rights of the opressed.
A social group that has been particularly crushed by memoranda policies and bail-out programs is that of pensioners. During the previous years the state established pension cuts under the guise of ”necessary reductions of public spending”, but in reality, the funding that got cut ended up in the pockets of the oligarchs of the banking industry. Now, pensions are once again in the midst of public spending cuts. We would like to point out that the gradual abolition of the Social Solidarity Benefit for Pensioners (EKAS) is anticipated and that this measure affects disproportionately and exclusively those receiving low pensions. But for farmers, social security contributions are anticipated at the start of 2018. Any promises made by the rapporteurs of the bill regarding a supposed increase of pensions in the future are actually negated by the state of the economy the country. The cherry on top is ofcourse the increase of the average retirement age as well as the abolition of early retirement on account of specific conditions. It is not accidental that the only social group in accordance with this policy is the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises. A characteristic case is that of the Navy Retirement Fund which loaned money to ship-onwners, money that are never going to be given back. The purpose of the state, nomatter who is in power, is the abolition of social security, which was won through social struggles and sacrifices, and its replacement it with a new privatized version. This will be very profitable for capitalists but will worsen the position of workers who are going to be forced to make payments to private corporations in order to ensure a living pension. So, decent pensions will become an unreachable dream.
The Syriza-Independent Greeks government, despite the pro-grassroots profile it exhibits with the help of political marketing, only serves the interests of the financially powerful. Simultaneously with the changes in pensions, more brutal measures are taken, such as first home auctions, the continuous bleeding of the economically weak through direct taxation such as the new property tax ENFIA, or indirect taxation through the preservation of high rates of VAT. Public wealth is being sold out for a pittance while workplace conditions now resemble those prevalent many decades back. Once again, these prove the very fact that the state constitutes a mechansm that always serves the interests of the most powerful. Nomatter how the managers of state authority define themselves, nomatter where they come from, their only purpose is the smooth operation and the presevation of the current status-quo.
State repression- criminalization of subversive political actions
We acknowledge the intensification of police and judicial repression on the part of the so-called leftist Syriza government as an effort to provide evidence of docility to the domestic and international bosses and to also flirt with the most conservative segment of its voters.
We want to briefly clarify the following facts:
– Blackmail of incarcerated fighters to sign repetance statements in order to be given furloughs from prison that they already entitled to claim by law.
-Efforts to violently extract DNA samples from individuals in remand or individuals persecuted for political actions.
-Persecution/pre-trial detention of family members of political prisoners in order to silence them and pressurize them to change their attitude.
-Recreation of the infamous Delta squad, which is resposible for tens of injuries and cases of torture against civilians in Greece. This time their uniforms are green and go by the code name O.
-Direct threats made towards members of the anarchist group Rouvikonas by prosecutors who threatened to press charges on the basis of forming a criminal organization unless their actions of political disobedience stop.
Migrants and the ”refugee problem”
Based on our interpreation of things, the issue of refugees is not an irrelevant phenomenon. MIllions of refugees from Syria came to add to the millions of refugees from other parts of the world and esspecially from poorer countries as a consequence of the choices made by capitalist institutions on the international chessboard. The most immense problem remains that of war, whether it’s civil war or war between countries, which creates waves of refugees. The systematic exploitation of certain regions in the world and indigenous populations by the the global capitalist system, can be identified as another major issue and a contributive factor to the long-term preservation of an almost steady influx of economic refugees/migrants to the so-called western world.
We generally acknowledge that no man or woman who live a peaceful and prosperous life in their home country are willing to head to the unknown unless this choice is the outcome of poverty or war. To us, the only actual distinction between people is the line separating the exploiters from the exploited and we clearly align with the latter, as we find ourselves in that category as well. The E.U. upper-class is well aware of these games since colonialism was not that long ago. The games of influence and authority of Europeans, Americans, Russians and Turks have fuelled a war – or at least a climate of war- for the past decades, from Diyarbakir in Turkey to the mountains in Afghanistan and back to Palestine.
Any ”efforts” made by the greek political leadership in co-operation with a predatory E.U. to manage the scores of refugees arriving in the country could be characterised ridiculous if this had not been about human lives. The Greek state will eventually play the role of border-keeper under the watchful eye of frontex and NATO. To us what’s at stake is the future collective actions of society as a whole towards finding a solution to the issue of refugees and its perception as another consequence of the capitalist crisis that continues to worsen. At this point there is no easy way out. The first possible scenario, which we propose, is to integrate and recognize migrants and refugees as instrumental aspects of society and create a common and polymorphus movement against capitalism, capital and the state serving their interests. The other is to respond to the nationalist call to protect the country and safeguard the borders and surrender to fascism and bigotry until we or our children become ”the foreigners”’ and ”the other” in another country, haunted by our own choices.
Our response:
Terrorists and thieves are the judges and the capitalists
Persistent struggle against state terrorism
NOT A STEP BACK
Anarchist group Rouvikonas
Anarchist Collective Nea Philadelphia
translation BlackCat
