Solidarity Demo in Chicago, US

On May 13, the Greek consulate in Chicago was shut down by a solidarity picket, with banners and chants expressing solidarity to social struggles in Greece and to anarchist prisoners.

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To friends and comrades in Greece,
On Thursday, May 13 a dozen of us held a demonstration against the Greek
Consulate in Chicago. We want to remind you that even in the most
difficult times, you have the active solidarity of uncounted others around
the world. A vast subversive project is still taking shape everywhere,
however slowly, and your struggle is one node among many.

Repression may be raging against you there, and our numbers here might be
small, but the important thing to remember is that you’ve found your
resonance. This resonance spreads around the world, laying foundations
for real connections and the deepening of struggles.

Our goal is to make material the interconnections, to spread a concrete
practice of support and solidarity. We are inspired by your example in
this, so our banner read: “Athens to Chicago – Fire to all prisons,
freedom for all prisoners.” Our words and chants dedicated this
demonstration in particular to the anarchist prisoners in Greece (the 6,
Christos and Alfredo, Yiannis, among many others), and those killed in the
struggle (Lambros and Katerina among many others).

We want freedom as soon as possible for these imprisoned comrades and for
the anarchist prisoners here, but one day soon too, we will share across
wide oceans the acute pleasure of shaking to bits every prison and every
confinement. We also, of course, made reference to the recent riots,
tragedy, and repression, and extend our greetings to everyone in struggle
against austerity measures imposed by State-Capital.

To the Greek state,
It is possible that by your vicious repression, your manipulations, and
the desperate EU bailout you may yet briefly extend your existence. But
the game will be over, sooner or later – we will lay low your whole world
and eradicate exchange and domination in all their forms.

-Anarchists in Chicago

Also: Various groups of comrades came together for the demo. A member of
the Industrial Workers of the World read the following statement:

The International Solidarity Commission (ISC) of the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW) supports the workers in struggle in Greece and their
strike actions in opposition to the threat of “austerity measures” by the
Greek government, who claim those measures are needed to stop the country
from bankruptcy. We are encouraged to see workers across Greece take a
stand against the government’s gamble with their livelihoods and
exploitation of their labour. They have taken to the streets, and stopped
working in a visible and powerful refusal to pay for the mess of the banks
and financial speculators.

Rather then acquiesce to the official lie of a nation united in necessary
sacrifice for the common good, they have exposed that the working class
are not the cause of the crisis. We will not suffer for it. As the slogan
goes, in Greece and elsewhere, we won’t pay for their crisis! As one of
the first countries threatening such wide-sweeping cuts, and in turn
verging on bankruptcy in this crisis, the protests of workers in Greece
are for us all.

As governments across the world respond to the current recession, a fruit
of the unfettered gambling by capitalists with the wealth of the earth and
the labour of workers everywhere, by further cutting into the subsistence
and rights of the working class, we are glad to express our solidarity
with the workers of Greece.

We are grateful to them for refusing to comply with the lie of “austerity”
measures, which amount to the demand of a sacrifice by the poor for the
benefit of the rich and for continuing to take a brave stand in the face
of police repression.

In the hope that their struggle, which is also a struggle for workers
everywhere, may continue and succeed, the IWW aim to lend our support, by
action in solidarity, where it is within our grasp to do so, in our firm
knowledge that ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’.

In Solidarity,
The ISC of the IWW