This is a really good text about the autonomous social movements in 1970′s Italy: Autonomia: Post-Political Politics
Everywhere the cops aren’t – and they can’t be everywhere all the time – there are banks, gentrifying condos, government offices, surveillance cameras, blank walls, and the infrastructure of capitalism (railroads, highways, pipelines, construction projects). Those who attack are those who don’t believe history has only one path, written by the authorities, towards a society that is increasingly controlled and increasingly dead. The pervasive surveillance around us shows us that the authorities fear our potential to act for freedom. By choosing to revolt against everything that keeps us from truly living, we can contribute to destroying this world that has been imposed on us while creating a new one.
A world where people are free to build the networks and associations they desire to meet their needs in common with others, without the coercion of capital. Where the prisons are razed to the ground, and patriarchy, police, politicians, borders, and bosses are a thing of the past. Where gift economies of mutual aid and solidarity lay waste to wage slavery and the commodification of our lives. A world where the earth is understood not for us to exploit, but of which we are a small and dependent part.
A world of anarchy.
THE ONLY TERRORISTS ARE THE STATE AND CAPITAL, NOT THE FIGHTERS AND REVOLUTIONARIES
SOLIDARITY TO THE MEMBERS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
HONOUR TO MEMBER OF REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE LAMBROS FOUNDAS, WHO WAS KILLED IN A CLASH WITH ARMED GUARDS IN DAFNI ON MARCH 10TH 2010.
Solidarity demonstration for the members of the armed organization Revolutionary Struggle, Saturday 21/1 at 12.00 in Monsatiraki. Athens
The poster reads:
“I am a revolutionary, and I have nothing to apologize for.
Terrorists, criminals, robbers are those who compose the economic and political life; the institutions and governments that, through the memoranda, are waging the most violent, the most heinous attack on the social base in the name of a “way out of the crisis.” Terrorist, criminal, robber is the State and Capital; those whom I fight committed with all my soul to armed struggle, to Revolutionary Struggle; those whom my organization has targeted all these years of our activity.
(…) when the economic and political establishment attacks the social majority in the most merciless way, armed struggle for social revolution is a duty and obligation; because that’s where hope lies and nowhere else. The only hope for a definitive way out of the systemic crisis we are living in this historical period, for a definitive way out of every crisis. It is the only hope towards overturning capitalism, the system that gives birth to crises; the only hope towards overturning the State and Capital.
It is the only hope for an armed counterattack of the social base against a system that crushes them.
It is the only hope towards overthrowing the State and Capital; for Social Revolution.
For a society of economic equality and political freedom for all.”
“I am an anarchist, member of the armed revolutionary organization Revolutionary Struggle. The only terrorists are the State and the Capital.”
Demonstration in solidarity with Revolutionary Struggle members
Saturday January 21st 2017 at 12:00 in Monastiraki (downtown Athens)
SOLIDARITY WITH THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE MEMBERS
STRUGGLE AGAINST THE STATE AND CAPITAL BY ANY MEANS
–Solidarity Assembly (Athens)
Full text of callout in Greek.
Text above is from a statement by members of Revolutionary Struggle, an anarchist urban guerilla group based in Greece, which has waged war on capital and the state for the past decade.
On January 5th 2017, two Revolutionary Struggle members, fugitive comrade Pola Roupa and anarchist Konstantina Athanasopoulou were captured in Athens. Anti-terror cops raided a hideout with Pola and her six-year-old son inside, while Konstantina was arrested in another house nearby.
Some posters in memory of anarchist comrade Lambros Foundas.
On the 10th of March 2010, Lambros Foundas was killed in armed battle with the police in the suburb of Dafni, Athens, in his attempt to expropriate a car which would have been used in an action of the organization Revolutionary Strugge. Lambros Foundas gave his life fighting for freedom.The comrade’s action was linked to the struggle against the economic and political elite that, under the pretext of the global financial crisis, wants to impose a new totalitarianism on the planet.The best way to honour a comrade who lost his life in battle is to continue the struggle for social revolution, for a society of equality and freedom. From his years as a high school student he was socially active and would later join the anarchist group MAVRO AGATHI (Black Thorn), who issued the DROMI TIS ORGIS (Streets of Rage) magazine. He was active and participated in marches, rallies, social conflicts, demonstrations, flyposting, discussions and social events. In recent years he was a member of the urban guerrilla group Epanastatikos Agonas (Revolutionary Struggle).
The following text was written by Lambros after his arrest in the Athens Polytechnic in 1995 and distributed by his comrades as a leaflet:
“The State terrorizes, …. slanders, ridicules, enervates, pretends. Its omnipotence is now a myth. Our rage strengthens us, its alienation does not touch us, we smash the windows of authority with rocks, we melt the chains of subjugation with the insurrectionist fire that burns in the heart of every oppressed human. Our eyes are open, our ears hear every sound, our thoughts are crystal clear, our rage is unimaginable. Our choice is one: violent, uncontrollable, continuous struggle for the destruction of the State and authority. We are enraged, we are insurgent, WE ARE YOUR WORST NIGHTMARES.”
fuckyeahanarchistposters reblogged
On May 21st 2015, the Solidarity Assembly for political prisoners & imprisoned and prosecuted fighters reported that the anarchist prisoners Nikos Maziotis and Kostas Gournas were transferred from Domokos prison to the dungeon in Koridallos women’s prison ahead of the second-instance trial on the Revolutionary Struggle’s first-period action (2003-2010).
Gournas and Maziotis are currently separated from other prisoners convicted as members of armed revolutionary organisations, who are also being held in the basement of Koridallos women’s prison (i.e. four CCF anarchists, and the convicted 17N member Iraklis Kostaris).
The appeal trial in the Revolutionary Struggle case (first-period action) will begin on Friday, May 22nd 2015, at 9am. The Solidarity Assembly for political prisoners & imprisoned and prosecuted fighters call everyone to express their solidarity with the comrades on trial and attend court proceedings at Koridallos prison.
The comrades who were sentenced in the first-instance court ruling are the prisoners Kostas Gournas and Nikos Maziotis, as well as the fugitive Pola Roupa, who have assumed political responsibility for their participation in the organisation, but also the conditionally released Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christoforos Kortesis, who have denied their involvement.
A few notes on the Revolutionary Struggle case:
The anarchist urban guerrilla group Revolutionary Struggle (Epanastatikos Agonas) has carried out direct actions in Athens since 2003, targeting structures and organs of the State and the Capital, defending armed and class struggle, and aiming towards social revolution. Their revolutionary action includes a rocket propelled grenade attack, car bomb explosions, bombings and gunshots, among others, against the Finance and Labour ministries, the United States Embassy, the Athens Stock Exchange, anti-riot cops, police stations, court buildings, multinational corporations, banks, as well as a politician implicated in high-profile scandals.
In March 2010, anarchist Lambros Foundas was killed in a shootout with cops. A month later, Pola Roupa, Nikos Maziotis and Kostas Gournas (in pretrial incarceration at the time) claimed political responsibility for their participation in the Revolutionary Struggle and explained that Lambros Foundas was also a member of the same organisation.In no way does the claim of political responsibility mean that these anarchists accept criminal charges such as ‘terrorist association,’ and so forth. Below are short excerpts from a letter of the three members on their reasons for undertaking responsibility after they were caught by police:
“By claiming political responsibility, we wanted to defend the armed struggle, and to highlight its timelessness and importance within the broader struggle for the overthrow and social revolution. (…)Also, by undertaking political responsibility we wanted to restore the memory and honour of our comrade Lambros Foundas, who was a member of the Revolutionary Struggle and was killed in an armed battle with cops in March 2010 during an attempted expropriation of a car —a preparatory act of a wider action plan of our organisation.”
The first trial on the Revolutionary Struggle’s first-period action (2003-2010) started in October 2011 and reached its end in April 2013. Out of 8 defendants, only three were self-admitted members of the Revolutionary Struggle: Pola Roupa, Nikos Maziotis (both of whom became fugitives in the middle of the proceeding) and Kostas Gournas. The three members received sentences of up to 50 years imprisonment.Two other accused comrades, Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christoforos Kortesis, were sentenced to (a little over) 7 years, even though they have denied their participation in the organisation. They were then taken to prison alongside Kostas Gournas. In July 2013, Kortesis and Stathopoulos were granted conditional release and walked out of Koridallos prison under restrictive conditions.In July 2014, Nikos Maziotis – who had gone underground along with Pola Roupa two years earlier – was seriously injured after a shootout with cops in the area of Monastiraki, central Athens, and taken captive. A few days later, he was transferred to a prison in northern Greece. The comrade was the first prisoner to be moved, on December 30th 2014, to the (then) newly-inaugurated ‘type C’ maximum security prison in Domokos.
Nikos Maziotis faces another trial, accused of the bomb attack against the Supervision Directorate of the Bank of Greece at Amerikis Street in Athens, in April 2014, the shootout in Monastiraki, and bank robberies. As a member of the Revolutionary Struggle, Nikos Maziotis assumed political responsibility for the bombing at the Bank of Greece, which marks the second period in the ongoing action of the organisation.
Already in 2009, the anarchist urban guerrilla group Revolutionary Struggle was designated a ‘foreign terrorist organisation’ by the U.S. Department of State, in the aftermath of a rocket propelled grenade attack against the U.S. Embassy in Athens in January 2007. Recently, in April 2015, the State Department issued ‘terrorist designation’ against anarchist prisoner Nikos Maziotis, member of the Revolutionary Struggle.
Beginning May 22nd 2015, the appeal trial on the Revolutionary Struggle case (first-period action) will be held in the special court of Koridallos women’s prison. In Athens, trial sessions in cases regarding so-called ‘terrorist’ organisations take place at courtrooms inside the prison. Each time that visitors and lawyers enter the specific courtrooms, their identity cards are kept upon entry, with all that this entails.
Solidarity with the urban guerrillas Kostas Gournas and Nikos Maziotis, members of the Revolutionary Struggle, and the comrades Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christoforos Kortesis, who stand trial in the same case.
Solidarity with the wanted comrade Pola Roupa, member of the Revolutionary Struggle.