Thessaloniki: Responsibility claim for an attack on a MAT platoon
…And life becomes the biggest lie
There is no police violence
There are only bloodthirsty protesters with brutal fury
with their breakneck speed of desperation
the party thugs, the chemical gas, the shields
the helmets, the incubating cages
the snake eggs of the slithering fascist society…
– George Tsingos and The Black Circles
Watching the domestic news of the last few months, one will see that despite the social reactions that have developed, the isolation and suppression of the antagonistic movement as well as the imposition of unprecedented social control measures remains a key objective of the Greek state. The gentrification of Exarcheia includes the construction of a metro station in the square, the redevelopment-privatisation of the Strefis Hill and the blocking of access to the Polytechnic, and aims to uproot the revolutionary tradition of the area. Similarly, the installation of riot squads and all kinds of cops inside the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki aims to sterilize the university premises from any voice of opposition to the bosses. But beyond hitting the movements, the hiring of thousands of new cops, the millions given to equip the police and their constant presence in the public arena on every occasion, set the tone of the new social contract. And all this at a time when society is being impoverished anew, violently pushing those from below to the limits of survival. In a nutshell, as Petzas arrogantly informed us: adaptation (to capitalist and state dictates) or death.
The effort by the current government to restructure the education system and especially the universities starts the very next day following its election with the abolition of the university asylum law. Their pretext was to crack down on lawlessness and instill a sense of security. This was followed by the passing of Law 4777 in the midst of quarantine to avoid major social reactions. The response to those that were expressed was a display of violence and brutality. Just a few examples:
– the pulling of a gun by a cop at the ASBOE (Athens University of Economics & Business
– the two eviction of the occupied Rectorate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in a period of one month in 2021
– the eviction of the Biologica Squat
– the hundreds of injuries, beatings and arrests during the last two years of student mobilizations
– the firing of asphyxiant gas inside the SITE (Science Faculty of Aristotle University, Thessaloniki) in broad daylight with hundreds of students and workers trapped inside the building and suffocating
– the hitting and severely injuring of a student with a flashbang grenade fired at point-blank range
– the murderous attack on the crowd attending Thanasis Papakostantinou’s concert during the 3rd Libertarian Festival of Occupied Spaces and Collectives, which almost resulted in people being trampled.
This is the security that is evoked through beatings, by torture, by enforcing graveyard silence. The similarities with the seven years 67-74, as disorienting as they can be as to what it would have been like with a left-wing social democratic government, demonstrate that state and capital, regardless of the regime, do not count neither democratic rights nor human lives in their pursuit of power and profit.
About Law 4777. While the logic behind this law focuses on the sterilization of university campuses, it does not stop there. It establishes a permanent OPPI (University Institution Protection Teams) presence, and stipulates for the installation of cameras and turnstiles at the entrances of the faculties. It further stipulates for the introduction of a disciplinary law to facilitate the expulsion of students, and permanent expulsion if the number of years of study (n+2) is exceeded. It throws thousands of impoverished students out of higher education via the Minimum Admission Base. It reinforces class barriers and further facilitates the profitability of capital.
But what is the role of the universities and why is their restructuring so central to this government’s agenda? In the capitalist division of labour, universities train tomorrow’s skilled workforce of the economy as well as producing the research to be used by the bosses to increase their profitability. The university also trains tomorrow’s bosses or managers. The ideology of social advancement, although it only concerns a small part of the student body, is used to obscure the class interests of the larger majority.
In the antithesis of capitalist imperatives, the university produces not only research and exploitation but also their contestation. Behind the students’ union demands and the regime’s propaganda about centers of lawlessness lies, in latent form and low intensity, an aspect of the war between exploiters and exploited. This is why in moments of great intensification of the conflict the student struggles are embraced by large sections of the proletarian base. This is why the occupation of November ’73 developed into an uprising that challenged the regime.
Since then, the university has been and still is a springboard for social – class struggles and resistances. Since then, the Greek state’s counterinsurgency strategy has set as its goal the gradual reclamation of the state monopoly on violence in the universities.
The murders of Iakovos Koumis and Stamatina Kanellopoulou in the 1980 Polytechnic march by the riot police, the execution of Michalis Kaltezas in the corresponding march of 1985 and the eviction of the old Chemistry building the next day, the clashes and the eviction of the Polytechnic in November 1995 with the arrests of 500 anarchists, the central role of the occupied university buildings in the revolt of December 2008, the choice of the Law School for the hunger strike of 300 immigrants in January 2011, the function of the university buildings in the center of Athens as centers of struggle during the anti-memorandum demonstrations in February 2012, the breaking of the curfew in February-March 2021 with the re-occupied faculties of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki as a base, the thousands of rebellious moments that have been unfolding all these years around the universities are just a few examples of how central the universities are to the process of class antagonism in the Greek metropolises.
It is a central stake and our historical duty as part of the social movement working for human emancipation to connect the struggles of previous generations by defending their gains. Against the unrealistic logic that by struggling we cannot change anything, we can use the memory of struggle as the weapon and inspiration that will reignite the struggles in the here and now.
On the contrary, it is the institutional avenues for social change and the protection of the grassroots against capitalist violence that have proven ineffective time and time again. We could cite hundreds of incidents. We will suffice with the following: SYRIZA’s promises to abolish the memoranda have been translated into new memoranda, death politics on immigration and deepening cooperation with NATO. We have nothing to expect from the establishment left but attempts at assimilation and veiled repression.
As for the independent judiciary, we recall that the child rapist and chosen one of New Democracy, Lignadis, was released from prison after only a short period of incarceration. The murderers of Zak Kostopoulos either fall into the lap of the law (Hortarias, Athanasopoulos) or are acquitted (the cops involved). The accused in the Siemens scandal are all innocent after more than ten years. For the illegal funding of millions by New Democracy and PASOK, the impartial judiciary has decided that no one is to blame.
In contrast to the above, Yannis Michaelides remains imprisoned indefinitely and has completed the necessary time for conditional release. All we can expect from bourgeois justice is that it will defend the interests of the ruling class to the bitter end.
On 21 October the trial of some of the cops who tortured comrade Vassilis Mangos begins. Knowing the role of bourgeois justice, we repeat the comrade’s words “And even if we never win we will always fight”.
The only hope for those from below lies in unmediated multiform class struggles. Whether in the workplaces, in the universities, or in the neighborhoods to oppose state violence and capitalist exploitation with class organization and the right of insurrection. To reject introspection and overcome the divisions imposed on us. To make fear change sides. For a world of equality, freedom, solidarity. For anarchy.
On 07/10 at noon we returned a small share of the state violence that we receive daily by attacking with Molotov cocktails the MAT (riot cops) that guard the pavilion area at the Biology Department of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. We took all necessary measures to avoid endangering passers-by. First we targeted the cops who were falling asleep while on guard duty and after they retreated we attacked their van.
Strength to the captured member of the Anarchist Action organization Thanos Hatziangelou
Solidarity to Georgia Voulgaris and Panagiotis Kalaitzis who are being prosecuted for the same case
Neither 34 nor 100 but permanent occupations of the Biologica
No disciplinary measures or expulsions, cops out of the universities
Anarchist Students
source: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1621188/
translated by Nae Midion
Note: photo not associated with action