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HANDS OFF THE IMMIGRANTS ! SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON ! ATHENS.GR.

copypaste | 08.01.2005 06:03 | Repression | World

A communique about the situation of immigrants in greece, the tortures of Afghan refugees in Ag.Panteleimonas police station in Athens, and one view at the action of anarchists, antiauthoritarian and autonomous comrades to attack the station.
 http://thessaloniki.indymedia.org/front.php?lang=el&article_id=22144

HANDS OFF THE IMMIGRANTS ! SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON !
HANDS OFF THE IMMIGRANTS ! SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON !

The end of the olympics and of the biggest part of construction works means for the greek state the beginning of a new period, where immigration policies are being redefined as long as large numbers of immigrants who were used as expendable slaves for the realization of the «grand idea»1 are now considered useless. At the same time, a wider repressive attack against those who resist is in progress, in accordance with the global «anti»terrorist crusade of domination which includes the fortification of the borders to confront the waves of refugees deserting regions that have been turned into war-zones.

Today, an operation of «law and order» -as it was named by the minister of interior P.Pavlopoulos- is launched in order to reduce the number of immigrants, to register them and put them under control so that the interests of the bosses will be better served within a more convenient for them environment. An environment imposing suffocating terms of survival for the immigrants and making more effective the regulation of their movement from one country to another according to the needs of the market.

Practically this operation means that the forces or repression are intensifying the intimidation camapaign and escaleting the terrorism excercised on immigrants, and the Media are cultivating an atmosphere of defused nationalism-racism, in order to gain consent from parts of society.

This operation has many aspects, moments and tactics: The racist pogrom against Albanian immigrants by cops and fascist thugs of the state after a football match in the beginning of September.2 Deportations taking place on a daily basis. Hundreds of deaths in the border-line, either in the minefields or in shipwrecks. Numerous incidents where police guns are supposed to have «accidentaly» gone off and shot somebody in police blockades in the streets. Tortures and humiliation suffered by immigrants inside police stations every day. Constentration camps. The cover up that all institutions of democracy offer to cops-pimps who rape immigrant women.3

One more moment of this campaign was the torture of dozens of Afghan refugees by the cops during the first days of December, at the beginning inside a house they live and then in Ag.Panteleimonas police station, where they were taken by force and tortured in order to give information for another Afghan immigrant who had previously escaped from that police station.
For days, people who could not defend themselves were chained and beaten in the cells of Ag.Panteleimonas station, suffered the torment of «phalanga»(repeated flogging of the feet soles until they bleed and swell), were forced to strip naked, children and juveniles threatened with rape unless they speak. Bruises and wounds on the abused bodies of people harassed and hunted, fear in the eyes of those experiencing in their skin the state brutality.

Against the systemic violence of the state and the bosses, militants oppose tactics of social anti-violence strengthening the social-class struggle.
One important, among others, moment of this struggle was the demonstration of Friday 24/12/2004 from Ag.Paneleimonas square towards the police station by 150 enraged anarchists, anti-authoritarians and autonomous comrades who attacked the station causing property damage to the building and to many police cars parked outside. It was an assault against a police station that had already been targetted in society after the tortures were revealed, reminding Guantanamo and Abu Graib).

The forces of repression, after experiencing the burst of social rage, arrested at first 18 persons. The 17 were immediately released without any charges and one comrade, badly beaten by the cops who satisfied their vengeance on him, was finally accused. This comrade, N.M. who participated in the demonstration in solidarity with the immigrants refused all police charges. His arrest created a new wave of solidarity and on Wednesday 29/12 he was released on parole.

The attack against the Ag.Panteleimonas police station was an action of social justice. An action that has spread wider than the specific neighborhood the message that social and class solidarity among the oppressed finds its significance in the struggle against the domination of the state and capital, in the struggle against the brutality and the daily crimes of authority.

LET’S NOT LEAVE ANY CRIME OF THE STATE AND THE BOSSES WITHOUT AN ANSWER

LET’S OPPOSE SOCIAL ANTI-VIOLENCE TO THE VIOLENCE OF AUTHORITY

December 30, 2004
Open Assembly of anarchists -antiauthoritarians
 anarchist_assembly@yahoo.gr

 https://www.geocities.com/anarchist_assembly


1 The olympic games were referred to as the new national «grand idea» by all the political and economic bosses and their lackeys in the Media.

2 After the albanian national football team’s victory over the greek team in a match that took place in Albania, on September 4 2004, hundreds of Albanian immigrants went out in the streets of many greek cities to celebrate. They faced a pogrom by cops and fascists – nationalists. A 21year-old Albanian worker, Gramos Palusi, was murdered and two of his friends seriously injured in Zakinthos island by a fascist who attacked them with a knife. In Athens at least 70 immigrants were taken to hospital, and in the rest of the country the wounded Albanian immigrants were more than 300.

3 The latest incident (December 23, 2004) is the acquittal by the court of the cop Nikos Brιkolias who had raped in 1998 the 19 year-old Ukranian immigrant woman Olga B. Olga was forced into prostitution after coming in Greece.

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