During an anarchist march in Greece in solidarity with immigrants, cops threw stones at protesters and fascists, openly cooperating with the cops, att

Image scaled down

This the second English briefing and focuses on the incident with the fascist and the molotov cocktail. It was publshed on UK Indymedia and www.indymedia.org:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/434085.html

http://www.indymedia.org/en/2009/07/926507.shtml

The first English briefing is also available:

http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1055129

Please help to translate/publicize!

SECOND ENGLISH BRIEFING:

On 7 July 2009 at 20.00 o'clock a huge anti-racist march organized by anarchists was held in Athens downtown, the capital city of Greece, with about 4,000-5,000 protesters, both men and women, demanding the end of state repression against immigrants, while streets and bank ATMs were set on fire.

Here we will concentrate on the cooperation between Greek cops and fascists, and on the incident of fascists setting themselves on fire while trying to injure anarchists by throwing molotovs towards them. More information about the march in general can be found at: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/434041.html

It is a well-known and well-documented fact that Greek fascists are supported by the Greek state and the Greek cops. Fascists and cops cooperate together in the streets when they fight with anarchist blocks, and stone throwing by cops and fascists against protesters is an everyday phenomenon in Greece, together with ample amounts of tear gas fired by the cops and knife-wielding fascists injuring comrades in the streets whenever they manage to spot them alone and vulnerable. It is also well-known that Greek cops are quick to fire at anyone for no particular reason, even killing 15-year olds (as in the Alexandros Grigoropoulos or 'Gregory' case that sparked the December 2008 revolt, but that's only one out of many cases of cold shot murders by cops).

The majority of Greek fascists are organized in the Golden Dawn (Chrysi Avgi, which in Greek rhymes with Chrysa Avga, meaning Golden Eggs) political party (electoral power about 23,000 votes, but most of them are protest votes, as their influence in Greek society is really minimal, and their only support comes from the Greek state and the cops). It is not a real political party, even though it participates in elections, but rather a front organization by fascists and neonazis, most of them being cops in the Greek police, whose objective is to attack immigrants, the poor, anarchists, and leftists (except KKE, the biggest 'communist' party with a stalinofascist ideology and about 428,000 votes, and its youth wing, KNE, which see no problem in cooperating with the cops beating anarchists and other leftists without mercy). The Greek fascists are so desperate to increase their numbers in their disorganized and comical marches that they commonly pay petty money to drug addicts to handle Greek flags in their marches, while intoxicated. Yet, Greek fascists, because of their deep connections with the Greek state apparatus and the Greek police, can be dangerous when they confront comrades alone or in very small groups, as they carry knifes or sometimes guns (usually their police gun, as most of them are cops or bodyguards for politicians). Golden Dawn is not the only fascist party, there are others, like the more powerful LAOS (meaning People) which is openly theocratic and smaller ones composed of right-wingers, mainly army officers, nostalgic of the Greek Regime of the Colonels of 1967-73 (a CIA-controlled dictatorial junta who captured the state in a coup'd'etat, with the governing dictator at the time, Papadopoulos, being a CIA operative himself).

During the 7 July march, Greek fascists in full and open cooperation with the cops fiercely attacked the anarchists who were simply demanding equality for immigrants. This time the fascists tried to use the traditional people's weapon, the molotov cocktail, against the people themselves. Photos taken by comrades during the march, at great personal danger (as cops are known to severely beat and arrest anyone having cameras, even journalists from Greece or abroad) clearly show fascists inside the cop formations wielding lit molotov cocktails, ready to launch them against defenceless comrades who fight for a just world. It becomes apparent that their intention was to injure, or even kill, anarchists, and those who regularly watch news about class war in Greece should remember that fascists attempted (unsuccesfully) to throw a hand explosive grenade against the Greek Conscientious Objectors Association during one of their meetings (in Greece there is forced conscription for all males), clearly showing that they intended to kill numerous people.

On 7 July they again tried to injure or kill anarchists, this time with molotovs, but thanks to their stupidity we had no victims: the molotov-wielding fascists accidentaly set themselves on fire when they tried to throw the molotov cocktails against the anarchists! A fascist tried to be a 'hero' and had proceeded too far in front of the main fascist/cop formations, so he got a molotov on himself by his friends. The cops with their fire extinguishers saved him from the stupidity of his peers. Those comical scum, who have no idea how to handle the simplest of street weapons, the molotov firebomb, are unable to fight us with our weapons. Molotovs are and will remain the people's weapon in defence of their freedom against fascist bastards.

Before the incident described above, the fascists were seen running towards a warehouse with a yellow door after the cops called them there. Comrades saw the cops giving molotov cocktails and sprays to the fascists. Neighbours who were shocked to witness the cooperation between far-right neonazi scum and cops in their streets recorded them with their video-cameras. On the videos you can see the fascists in helmets and wielding hand weapons and globs (intended to severely beat and life-threatenly injure captured comrades), running together with the cops during street fights with the anarchists. What better proof can one provide of the cooperation between cops and neonazis in Greece?

If the cops capture a comrade with a molotov, they put him or her in prison for many years, yet they do nothing when a fascist handles a molotov, which clearly shows that the cops do not do what the law says but what promotes the interests of the ruling capitalist class and their government. Their only objective is to suppress dissent and assist the capitalists in exploiting the poor. A cop is simply a capitalist's dog, ready to bite anyone who dreams of a better world. It also worths mentioning that the fascists wielded molotovs without having their heads covered and without using gloves for their hands.

The anarchists have never used molotov cocktails against defenceless people, except cops that are protected by their special uniform (it can be set on fire without injuring their wearer). The fascists, however, see no problem in attempting to use molotovs against defenceless anarchists who have no special uniform to protect themselves. There have never been fascist victims after clashes with anarchists, not because the anarchists cannot do real harm to them, but because the anarchists take care to only use well-targeted violence for propaganda and symbolical reasons, targeting the property of capitalists and not human lives. The fascists, however, feel no value for human life, and this is why we call them scum. They do want to kill.

Some new information about the march itself:

It worths mentioning that during the march and the attack by the fascists and the cops, immigrant neighbours living in the streets where the clashes took place opened their doors to welcome comrades who needed help.

Three cops severely beat a girl without mercy on a car. The march had also attracted comrades new to street fighting who didn't manage to keep calm when the cops started spraying them with tear gas and began to run away. This is wrong. No one should run during a march as it is very dangerous for everyone. Comrades should leave organized in formations, and this is what experienced comrades do. We hope the new comrades will learn quickly the correct tactics. At the head (front) of the march there were some younger comrades not fully experienced in street fighting, and the more experienced comrades who were behind didn't manage to reach the front in time when the cops attacked the march.

This march had assembled a lot of people, but it fell victim to a strategic mistake: the comrades approached the Saint Pandeleimonas district (where fascists attack immigrants) from a narrow road, too narrow to allow the anarchist formations to effectively protect themselves from the cops, so the cops (who had orders to never allow anarchists enter that district) fiercely attacked our comrades. Next time the anarchists are not going to do the same mistake.

7 July was the day of the anarchist march. On 9 July the leftists will organize their own marches, but the great majority of anarchists, and most antiauthoritarians, don't like participating in leftist marches, because they see the leftists as reluctant to truly engage in street clashes with cops and fascists. It is interesting to note that the leftist parties have actually lost voters in elections, whereas the anarchist movement in Greece seems to be the one that most successfuly absorbes the disenfranchised youth, the repressed immigrants, and everyone who understands that a human society cannot be built on racism, xenophobia, capitalism, nationalism, and state terror. The anarchist movement in Athens, Greece has traditionaly as a base the downtown Exarchia district, which is mostly under the control of the anarchists and cops rarely risk to enter except in large numbers.

The Greek media, in support of the policies of the government, did not publicise the march at all. Supposedly 'progressive' leftist websites did not say anything about the march either, highlighting the divide between anarchists and leftists in Greece.

Greek comrades were informing immigrants who knew Greek, and they in turn informed the other immigrants who did not know Greek.

Even though there was street fighting and struggle against the cops and the fascists, this march was not really a clash march according to the standards of the anarchist movement in Greece; rather, it was a counter-information march intended to inform the people of the repression against the immigrants and attract attention to the issue. Clash marches in Greece are much more violent, regularly employing lots of molotov cocktails. Because this was decided to not be a clash march, the comrades who participated were not equiped with the right tools for successful clashes. Yet, the resistance to the attacks by the fascists and the cops was remarkable.

About the sister march in Thessaloniki (the above was about the Athens march): More than 1,500 comrades gathered at the Kalamaria district of Thessaloniki, the second-biggest city of Greece in the northern part of the country. The comrades marched towards the city's sea beach. At the head (front) of the march there were the anarchists carrying flags and chains, and behind them there were leftist blocks who participated. Behind all of them there were the cops. A Citibank security camera was destroyed. Out of the 1,500 comrades, more than 1,000 were anarchists. Spray was used to draw graffiti and ATMs and cameras were destroyed. Lots of new comrades participated in the Thessaloniki march, people who previously were not taking part in marches, clearly showing that the anarchist movement in Greece is gaining popular support. A shouty right-wing hotel owner attempted to drive away some anarchists who were painting his hotel's walls with graffiti, but more comrades came in support and forced him inside while they sprayed all of his hotel's walls with graffiti. At some point a cop formation was forced to leave in panic after it confronted the determined blocks of anarchists. Another bank ATM was set on fire with two molotov cocktails. The banners read: "Solidarity to the immigrants, no national identity, war to the bosses" and were signed as "anarchikoi/es" meaning "anarchist men and women". Another banner read "Attack the concentration camps" referring to the plans of the government to detain immigrants en masse. Lots of flyers were distributed. The march proceeded from Kamara district to Egnatia Street, Agias Sofias Street, Tsimiski, Venizelou Street, and then again towards Egnatia and Kamara.

Before the December 2008 revolt, most marches in Greece that participated in fierce street fighting against cops and fascists had fewer people, many times only about 500. Now, after the December revolt, many more people go to the marches and fight against the oppresors, and marches now easily assemble from 3,000 to 5,000 people who are ready to fight for their freedom. The way the Greek state handles the class war, with more brutal repression, we shall expect many more people to join our comrades in the streets and learn how to fight fascism. This also means that marches will adopt new tactics and develop formations more suitable for large determined groups rather than the tactics that were used in the past by small bands of individual comrades. The coming years will be very interesting in Greece from a class war and march tactics perspective, and comrades from other places of the planet should keep an eye for new developments in Greece.

NO GODS! NO MASTERS!