INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT GREECE:

HANDS OFF THE LELAS KARAGIANNI 37 SQUAT:

Across the industrialized world various cities have become like Swiss cheese...full of holes. The "holes", of course, are the numerous abandoned buildings that sprout up like mushrooms as houses and businesses in 'depressed' neighbourhoods are left derelict. At the same time increasing numbers of people are finding themselves homeless in the face of higher and higher costs of housing. It would seem like a good fit; put the homeless people in the tenantless buildings. That, however, is not the way it works in societies where housing is seen not as a basic human right but rather as either a profit making enterprise or the subject of empire building by government social "service" agencies.

In some countries this has led to a mass movement of "squatting" where abandoned buildings are taken over and occupied by self managing tenants. This is especially prominent in Europe where while food may be cheap in a North American sense accommodation is quite expensive. It hardly registers as a 'blip' in Canada for various reasons. One is that any unauthorized occupancy is much more fully "criminalized" here, and the police move much faster on any squatters who, in any case, are the margin of the marginals and lack the political savvy (or maybe any savvy) of the European squatters. Another is that there are six months of the year in which if utilities are cut off any premises become completely unlivable for anyone but wilderness campers. Most homeless people can't afford -40 degree sleeping bags. God knows that my own city of Winnipeg may be the 'derelict building capital of Canada' (it's been commented on by none other than the Globe & Mail), and there are probably enough abandoned buildings in this city alone to house all homeless people in the whole country. God knows, however, that moving to Winnipeg would hardly be popular. That simple sensible solution is not, however, the way it works.

In Europe squatting is a political movement, and it has been far harder for European states to suppress it than it has been here. See Squat Net for general news. In southern Europe squatting has become widespread, and in countries such as Greece it has become part and parcel of the anarchist subculture. Not that I approve of such subcultures as they simultaneously build solidarity amongst their adherents and grievously divide them from others making any outreach immensely difficult. No free lunch here. An anarchist "alternative" is very obviously not a generalization of the norms of a small subculture to the general society no matter how the self-regarding tunnel vision of the subculturists may imagine it to be so. Still...the act of squatting points the way to another vision of housing that is different from that of a profit driven society or government directed "charity".

In Greece one of the oldest squats, that at Lelas Karagianni 37 (established 1988) has been under attack the other day. Here's the story from the Occupied London Blog.

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HANDS OFF THE LELAS KARAGIANNI 37 SQUAT

In a period of intensification of social and class antagonism due to the generalised attack of state and capital on even the most elementary interests and rights of the workers the unemployed and the youth, and during the attempt to raise social and political defences, repression is intensified by targeting, threatening and attacking people in struggle and spaces of struggle.

On the night of July 8th at 2 a.m., only a few hours before the general strike demonstration some heavy police units surrounded without any obvious pretext the occupied building of 37, Lelas Karagianni Street in the Athens neighbourhood of Kipseli – and blocked off the surrounding streets. The Occupation was put under a condition of siege, threatened for many hours with a police raid, while an order had been issued for the arrest of anyone who would attempt to exit or enter the occupied building. Police checked and even detained many passers-by, neighbours or others who just happened to be in the streets around the occupation.

Finally the tight siege ended with the withdrawal of the police forces at 5 a.m., as suddenly as it had started.

Regardless of the undeclared targets and planning of this police operation, the fact is that yet another space of struggle and yet another group of people in struggle was targeted by state repression and terrorism. An occupation which during its entire 22 years always stood steadily within the ranks of the wider anarchist/anti-authoritarian struggle and always on the side of all the social-class struggles of the exploited and repressed people.

For this reason the night-time repressive operation of July 8th against this particular occupation had some wider targets and comprises part of the wider state repression aiming at terrorising and attacking anti-authoritarian struggle and more widely, the social struggles of our time.

And even if this particular repressive operation folded it nevertheless showed the aggressive tendencies and the terrorising methods employed by the state against the self-organised nuclei of struggle, such as occupations, which during this period are particularly important and useful in their support and contribution to the development of collective resistances, both on a more central level as much as in the neighbourhoods of the city.

It is for this reason that despite the very late time [at which the attack against the occupation was launched] there was an enormous struggle interest and tens of comrades were mobilised, expressing their solidarity availability to the besieged occupation on the night of July 8th.


TERRORISM SHALL NOT PASS – HANDS OFF THE OCCUPATIONS

AGAINST STATE AND CAPITALIST BARBARITY, LET’S PREMISE SELF-ORGANISATION, SOLIDARITY AND OUR COLLECTIVE RESISTANCES

Occupation of Lelas Karagianni 37

Friday July 9th, 2010
More Info:
http://www.facebook.com/l/98dc0ZfKjqkqj496sno2kq8uEQw;www.squathost.com/lelas_k/

http://www.facebook.com/l/98dc0dpEQPnjeKMWaleKCafuzgw;athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1191859

http://www.facebook.com/l/98dc0bJePLKXABarl37CwP49yTw;www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2010/07/10/330-statement-by-the-lelas-karagianni-squat-in-athens-regarding-the-reppresive-operation-against-it/

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-GREECE:

ANARCHISTS TO THE RESCUE:

It's amazing where reports of anarchists will turn up, often quite unexpectedly. For some years now Molly has been a subscriber to 'The Economist'. However much I might disagree with their politics The Economist is rightly famed for good news and commentary. The Greek anarchists have been mentioned before in its pages, without the customary tirades that one would usually expect from a "right wing" publication, but also with the usual, probably fully justified, comment that they lack any sort of visible plan or strategy.

So, here I am, reading the May 16th edition when I come across a brief article entitled 'Fear and Loathing in Athens. The article is basically about the recent (May 9) attack on an abandoned court building in Athens(squatted by immigrants) by members of the neo-fascist organization 'Golden Dawn'. As per usual there were accusations that the police involved in "controlling" the mob did little to protect the people inside the building. There were, however, those who did. Here's a excerpt from the article:

"One resident, Moncef. a mechanic from Morocco, says, "The police stood there and did nothing". It took a group of Greek anarchists to come to the rescue"

This sort of thing is good publicity that no amount of money could buy. There is some peripheral comment in the English language section of the Athens Indymedia site ( see http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=en&article_id=1028974 ) by an American apparently visiting in Greece. The comment, however, misses a point that is quite obvious to me. The author seems quite thrilled with the level of militancy in Greece, but he misses the glaring fact that a lot of it is "useless"(to put it kindly). The defence os the immigrants squatters, however, is far from useless. It is the sort of productive way that bravado of street fighting should direct its energies to- rather than pointless, endlessly repeating ritual combat with the police with no imaginable goal besides...more confrontations.

I know that there are some floating about the anarchist milieu to whom the word "effective" might as well be spoken in some sort of obscure dialect of a tiny tribe in Mongolia for all the effect it has. There are, however, many others to whom it makes a good sense as it would to any person possessed of common sense. The action described above actually had a point to it- the defence of the immigrants- and the fact that it can elicit favourable comment even from The Economist might give some pause for thought as to why it should be imitated rather than pointless ritual street dances with the police. I like it a lot.

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-ICELAND:

SQUAT IN REYKJAVIK AND ITS SUPPRESSION:

Molly is always inspired by the actions of the Icelandic anarchists. Here is a whole country with about half the population of the city in which Molly lives (which is hardly the throbbing, pulsating centre of the universe itself). Yet the Icelandic comrades played an important role in the overthrow of the previous government of that country, and they continue to grow and experiment. Here is the latest report of one of their actions from the English language section of the Icelandic anarchist blog Aftaka.

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Anarchists Squat in the Center of Reykjavík:
Last Thursday, 9th of April, an empty house in the center of Reykjavík was squatted by Icelandic anarchists. The house has been empty for over a year and is only one of many houses that are owned by a construction company that plans to tear down all it’s old houses and replace with big shopping and office center.

When inside the house, the squatters cleaned a part of the house and opened it up for an opening party. Food was served, music played and talks given on the ideas behind squatting. The party was well attended and met with positive reactions by the guests, including the neighbours.

During the next days the squatters finished cleaning the house and started organizing it as a social center. A free-shop was set up as well as a little infoshop with radical literature, a D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself!) publisher/label and a communal kitchen. On Saturday there was an open day where the local Food Not Bombs collective served food and guests were welcomed to take a look at the space and share their ideas about how the social center can be used.

This letter was sent out by the squatters:
A social center has been squatted at Vatnsstígur 4.

Empty houses stand everywhere; houses that were supposed to be torn down for the building of shopping malls, houses that were supposed to be rented out on sky-high prices, houses that were supposed to make the rich even richer and the society culturally poorer.

We did not ask for permission to use this house. We do not need permission from those who think they can boss around with lives and land in the name of finance. We do not take part in that system.

We take what rightly is ours and in this house we will create a social space where people can meet and use it in the way they think matters, e.g. organizing info-nights and lectures, cooking food, start reading circles, attending political activities and do all kinds of arts.

The space will be open to all those who want to work towards radical changes on the money-driven society we live in.

The capitalistic democracy like we know it, is in fact only one more power structure, designed to boss around with people and make money by it. People are taught that it is the only just system that the human being has ever created around itself, but that is not true. Inside the democracy the majority represses the minority and only very few people end up on the top of the power pyramid, at the expense of the majority. For every prime minister there are millions who are not. Consensus decision making is a method that anarchists and other radicals use to get decisions inside groups, small and big, instead of the democracy’s majority elections. We use the opportunity to create alternatives, instead of only choosing between them.

Capitalism gives people or companies the change to own houses but let them stand empty, even though many people need homes and other places to stay. The banks own most of the empty houses and the public is supposed to pay for the games of lies that was accepted “before the collapse”. We will not pay for them!

This squat is headed towards authority, capitalism and all kinds of power playing. Our house will be free from the current Icelandic authorities and free from any kind of power structures on our behalf.

We, the people, toppled the former government and we are far away from having finished the deconstruction of the system of inequality and greed, as well as the parallel construction of the society we want to live in. We encourage others to refuse to pay for the banks’ debts, refuse to leave their own houses and start squatting!

Threat of eviction Yesterday, Tuesday April 14th, the paper-owners of the house came along with civil-dressed policemen and announced that the house would have to be empty at 16:00. With very short notice the squatters barricaded the house and asked for a solidarity demonstration to take place in front of the house. Around 15:00 people starting coming, a fire was lit, drums played and slogans shouted in favor of the squatters. Couple of hundreds of people attended the demonstration and the free shop was opened.

A speech was held by one of the squatters:
This is what we call solidarity!
It is amazing to see you all here today. This is what we call solidarity! We who have squatted this house are going to change the society we live in. A part of it is to protect this house; a house that was supposed to enter the gob of the capital since a shopping mall was planned to be built on this spot.

Now this house belongs to us - the people here inside and those who stand outside - and will be used for our revolution. To destroy this society’s power structures we need a revolution - not elections! Today, we who are inside and you who stand outside in this disgusting weather, stopped the corporate scum from getting their way with the violence that only them have the right to use.

But since the police is not going to be sent towards us now, the government will send it tonight, tomorrow, later in the week or after elections. No matter if we will be thrown out or if we will be aloud to stay, we will get stronger. This house is ours! The struggle is ours; a struggle against authority and capitalism.

The revolution is - and has to be - international. With this squat we announce our support and solidarity with the oppressed people living in Palestine and their siblings on the other side of the wall, Anarchists Against the Wall; the Zapatista resistance movement in Mexico; the Polish squatters in the Rozbrat-squat in Poznan; Mumia Abu Jamal, Rod Coronado and all other political prisoners in the U.S.; the Dongria Kondh tribe in Orissa, India, who fight against bauxite mining… and all other people and/or movements that fight against power abuse, corruption, capitalism, exploitation, oppression and violence - all around the world.

Squatting is one part of the revolution and therefor we encourage everybody to squat houses; take over empty houses or refuse to leave their own house.
Long live the revolution!

The squatters at Vatnsstígur 4.

In the end the police did not show up. The reason is unknown but the threat of eviction still remains. The squat has received very good coverage by the mainstream media and of course by the alternative ones. It has lead to big support and the squatters hope that the solidarity continues as the threat gets even bigger.

Until later.


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A video from the demonstration can be seen by clicking here.
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Unfortunately the squat in Reykjavik didn't last long. here is a follow-up from the Aftaka Blog about its suppression. As I said in the introduction to this post it is part of the essence of anarchism to be experimental ie "scientific" by testing various hypotheses against reality. In this it differs from ideologies such as Marxism that always try and fit reality to a pre-existing system of ideas. For anarchists, if one thing doesn't work, then try another. There is no absolute reason why squats cannot "work". There are many arguments about their importance and how they should be organized and presented to the surrounding society. This, of course, is part of the "experiment", and it is to anarchism's credit that it is open to seeing what works and what doesn't, and the "why" of both.

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The Squat Evicted - Two Hours of Resistance Against the Special Force :
After a whole day of the threat of an eviction, solidarity demonstration and support, the police finally showed up at the recently opened squat in the center of Reykjavík. At 08:00 in the morning between 40 and 50 policemen, including many members of the special force, came towards the house, attacked and arrested three people who were standing outside, sweeping the ground around the house. The squatters inside were told to leave the building and if not, they would get arrested. Of course, they refused to leave.

The police authorities might have believed that by coming early in the morning, the eviction would not get any attention and support. But they were wrong. Very soon, the neighborhood was crowded with people who came to follow what was happening and to show solidarity with the squatters. Many of the neighbors had already announced their support with the squat and denounced the plans to build shopping and office spaces on the spot.

The police closed the nearby streets and started attacking the house but the squatters had built proper barricades on all floors. When the police tried to enter the house from the back, they were met with expired dairy products that were thrown at them. After a bit of a struggle they finally got on to the first floor were nobody was. The squatters had barricaded the second floor extensively, so well that it took the special force two hours to get through, by using chain saws. All of the police’s attempts to get through were met with resistance; more things and liquids were thrown at them and sticks were used to push them down the stairs of the building.

During the police’s entry attempt the squatters held speeches through the windows. Statements against capitalists and authority were read out and the public was encouraged to take direct action against these violent forces of corruption.

“In this society, the most easy thing is to be silent; to stay behind the yellow police line and stand still; to stay at home and obey to authorities’ orders. That behavior leads to personal comfort. And isolated and personal comfort seems to be the main goals of many people’s lives.
The financial crisis are not the problem. The period of prosperity is the problem! It spoiled and silenced the public; it killed every sign of resistance.

We squatted this house as an act of resistance. Do the same - again and again and again. That’s how we change this society.”

The police’s struggle became harder and harder, since the resistance was to heavy for them. Every time the chainsaw became visible to the squatters, it was immediately attacked; every time it looked more like the police was getting on to the second floor, the heavier did the barricade become.

After two hours of struggling the police finally managed to enter the second floor. The squatters resisted but were attacked with peeper spray and violent behavior by the police. They were all handcuffed and put on the floor, while the police broke every second window of the house without any noticeable reason. The squatters were carried out and thrown into police vans, which were supposed to drive them to the police station. But supporters from the outside sat down and blockaded the street, with the purpose to stop the cars from getting their way, but were removed quickly.

A photographer was pulled out of the crowd by the police, dragged on the ground and half undressed. When he asked the police for the reason of his arrest he was told that it was because he had spat on a policeman in a protest by the parliament in January. Witnesses say it was obvious that the photographer was arrested because of how closely he photographed the police actions and how loudly he protested against it.

The squatters were driven to the police station were they were interviewed and kept there for up to 5 hours. Many of the arrested had breathing problems because of the pepper spray and one of them had been brutally attacked by a policemen. When being carried out of the squat, one of the policemen who was holding the squatter by her throat, kicked her head heavily to the door. In the police station the squatter was refused medical treatment if she would not give out her security number. Well, this is not a surprise; in the capitalistic democracy one does not deserve medical treatment except fitting to the regulations of this system of surveillance.

At the same time people had gathered by the police station to protest against the arrests and to show solidarity with the squatters. A black flag was pulled up on a flag pole in front of the police station and music played from a ghetto blaster. After several hours the arrested started to appear out of the station and were welcomed by the crowd, interviewed by the the media and fed by its supporters.

One of the squatters had a photo camera inside during the eviction, which was taken from her when she was arrested. She was refused to get it back when she was released but finally got it the day after. Then, the police had deleted all the photos from the camera. But the policemen are more stupid then they look like… and the photos are back. Many of them decorate this article.

The squat and all the public attention around it has brought up the necessary discussion about the conflict between property rights and the right to use. In the current atmosphere in Iceland, after the collapse of the economy, this discussion is way more positive than one could have believed. The banks own most of the empty houses and the banks are for sure not the most popular right now. The squat got heavy support from all directions, likely and unlikely, and showed that this is the time to start a squatting movement. The squatters of Vatnsstígur are far away from retiring.

A statement from the squatters will be published soon.

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Molly urges her readers to go to the Aftaka Blog for many photos of both the squat and its suppression. If one thing can be said for the Icelandic anarchists it is that they truly love to take pictures...and they do it well.

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-RUSSIA:

SQUATTING-THE FILM:

The following is from the English language section of the Russian anarchist news site Avtonom. It's about the release of a new movie on the international phenomenon of "squatting". Squatting ties into the general anarchist attitude to "property rights" in that those who actually use property should be deemed to have its ownership. This applies not just to residences but also to workplaces. Here's the article.

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Squatting. A film by Larisa Matteissen:
Release date 3rd of February 2009 1 hour 25 minutes

The movie follows anarchists and activists, who occupy different empty buildings and territories - from rooms, houses and industrial buildings to complete villages and ports. Dutch and Russian activists are telling about their experiences of squatting and reactions of authorities to self-organisation. Anti-squatters explain why they are in side of the state. You may freely distribute the film for non-commercial purposes.

Contact: kalevala_com@mail.ru

This is version with English subtitles:

Torrent: http://onebigtorrent.org/torrents/4679/Squatting--A-film-by-Larisa-Matteissen

Please seed it!

You may download Russian version of the movie here:

http://hippy.ru/v/video/squatting.avi

Made available by http://squat.anho.org

GERMANY:

ACTION DAYS IN BERLIN:

The following is a report from the A-Infos board about recent actions around squatting in Berlin, Germany.

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Germany, Berlin: Action Days Report Back

A personal report from last week's action days for autonomous spaces in Berlin. This report reflects the thoughts and opinions of the authors, not of any campaign, although these opinions may be shared by others.

---- Berlin - in Chaos! ----

Report back from Action Days for Autonomous Space May 27 to June 1

"We do not wish to find ourselves in a world where no one really lives, where no one really knows anyone else, where everyone has become a mere cog in a machine meshing with other cogs but remaining truly alone, then we must have the strength to attack alienation in every way we can." ---- "We believe for a space to be truly autonomous it must first be liberated. Liberated in our sense doesn't just mean taking something out of the hands of capitalists (the mere re- appropriation of a building) but rather taking space and finding ways to use it as a weapon against the State and Capital."

Last week, anarchists set their own dates for a confrontation with the State and Capital. Not prepared to be crushed by increasing repression against the spaces in which we live, plot and fight from, the Action Days for Autonomous Spaces put Berlin in chaos.

Following the three-day 'Interspace' meeting in Kesselberg (a previously squatted land project outside Berlin) from May 24-27,many people headed into Berlin to put theory into practise and to join forces on the streets with those already preparing for the Action Days. An info-point was set up at the Kopi, radical left projects provided ie (people's kitchen) for the week as well as hosting theoretical and practical workshops.But, most importantly, hundreds of people from Berlin and from elsewhere went on the offensive and instigated 6 charged days of diverse and often militant action. In a city which has one of the harshest anti-squatting policies in Europe - the Berlin Line -where squats can be evicted immediately and brutally, people showed they were undaunted and defiant.

The focus of these action days in many ways remains the defence of certain threatened physical structures. However, as the diversity of actions that took place demonstrates, what was being fought for is not confined to or by the walls of such buildings. By expanding the definition of what we understand by 'free space' we are able to broaden our attack beyond these physical spaces to an attack against social control as a cornerstone of capitalist logic ie from autonomous space to liberated space.

Highlights of the week taken from the info-ticker:

*(4 cars burnt and disabled (bent-nail devices used to puncture tires) left on the surrounding streets to deter cops and the fire brigade from getting there in order to put the fires out.

*Construction crane burnt

.A truck and four more cars burn.

*Squatting of building on Michael-Kirch Platz.

8 cars burnt as a response to eviction of Michael-Kirch Platz and in solidarity with those arrested.

*Anti-Gentrification Rally at Bethanien.

*Parts of Rigaer 84 squatted and opened to public.

*Luxury apartment attacked with paint bombs and stones.

*Bike Tour of Media Spree buildings, the company responsible formuch redevelopment in Berlin

*.A Mercedes, a rental car and 2 cars from atelecommunications/security company burnt out.

*Windows of bank Sparkasse smashed.

*8 luxury cars, 2 bins and billboards burnt or destroyed.

*Offices of estate agent Oliver Rohr who works for Rigaer94/Liebig14 landlord Beulker attacked with graffiti, paint bombs and glue in the locks.

*O2 advertising screen at Warschauer Strasse attacked with paintbombs

*.McDonalds in Kreutzberg- trashed.

*2 unfinished lofthouses have their windows smashed- one attack takes place in broad daylight.

*Cop car windows smashed by Mauer Park.

*18 windows of SAP, a software company connected to arms trade,smashed.

*Windows of Verdi Hotel by Kopi smashed.

*Cops attacked with stones and bottles outside Kopi.Banner drop in support of Rigaer94 from the roof of the cathedral Berliner Dom.

*Barricades built in Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Wedding.

There was also a pirate radio (originally set up for the April Daysof Action in Defence of Free Spaces) and a web-based real time info-ticker which provided up-to-the-minute information on everything from demos, actions, arrests, police locations and detailed descriptions of undercover cops and their vehicles.

The constant prowling of undercover cop cars and a rumoured 250 civil police (as well the politically motivated crime unit) deployed in Kreuzberg did not deter people from taking action, and nor did brutal attacks on crowds of demonstrators or the imposition of Platzverweiseâ or banning orders from particular areas anyone who looked 'autonomous' – the use of these was ruled illegal by a judge later in the week. Despite beatings and arrests,the cops were finally unable to contain, control and crush the spirit, energy and daring of the week-long revolt.

After years of simply responding to dates set by institutions,governments and trade fairs etc, those acting to resist the repression of free space which extends to the totality of what we conceive as freedom we are left with a revived feeling of strength and energy. Discussions and analyses have been sparked; creative,autonomous participation has been inspired and face to face affinities built on. Above all, what has emerged from and what underpins these elements is the offensive action that people have taken which has let loose the reins of our imaginations and our resistance.

We hope it does not stop here, and that the quality and diversity of attacks, as well as a deepening understanding of what it means to liberate space in lives held hard in the velvet claw of capitalism, continues everywhere.

Put Berlin in Chaos

Put Everywhere in Chaos! ..

One note of sadness and anger from last week is the state-murder of an 18 year old boy in custody on May 29. Not known to be connected to the autonomous scene, he was arrested with two friends after attacking traffic lights and a car and was found hanged in his cell at 1.20am, only 3 hours after the time of his arrest. It is unlikely that it was suicide as the cops have stated - because of the design of the cells in Temple of nick and the short amount of time that would have been available to him while being driven to the police station and processed.

For more information on the free spaces campaign in Berlin, go to

http://wba.blogsport.de

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-VANCOUVER:

HISTORY OF THE FRANCIS STREET SQUAT:

The following item was taken from the "blogs" section of the Linchpin site. It is, of course, of historical rather than current events interest, but still rather interesting.

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Film on Vancouver squatting (1990) now online
The Beat of Frances Street: Squatting in East Vancouver (1990)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RZ1qSwo3kmE(in 5 parts)
or: download at http://www.mininova.org/tor/1415557

The first half of the film contains footage of everyday life in the houses and presents responses to the question "why do you squat?" by fourteen residents. The second half of the film focuses on internal arguments over the use of barricades against imminent police assault and documentation of the assault itself (including commercial news footage) and community response.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Street_Squats