Dark Nights #45

April’s Dream

By Eat, Indonesia, 2016

Without a Trace of Remorse; Letter by imprisoned comrade Aggeliki Spyropoulou

Aggeliki Spyropoulou is an anarchist comrade imprisoned in Korydallos Prison, Athens, Greece, for attempting to break out the imprisoned comrades of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire. The trial is ongoing, here is her statement:

This experience is the starter of the development on both a political and a personal level. Imprisonment is an almost inevitable experience for anyone who has decided to join the armed struggle. But the question, as in every experience, is whether and how to take advantage of it.

The birth of the prison has always been built upon cultivation and perpetuation of validation of submission of those who do not conform to the predefined standards of society. However, there are some people whose desire for freedom burns their hearts in a way that does not allow them to accept the role imposed on them as part of the prison automation, even for a single moment during their imprisonment. When it comes to these people, prison fails miserably in its purpose, and despite the walls and bars that stand around them capturing their bodies, they themselves remain rebellious and actually free.

Neither souls nor spirits fit in cages.

Let’s start at the very beginning. First of all, as anarchists that have declared war on all aspects of the modern civilized world, we know well that in order to become dangerous, it is necessary to use all kinds of means. Armed propaganda was, is and will remain an integral part of the diverse anarchist struggle. Theory is undoubtedly a very useful tool yet it validates its original meaning only when reflected in the respective action. It is essential to establish a clear dividing line between the enemy and us, since liberation from the system requires its practical rejection. Resistance cannot stop where the penal code begins.

Unfortunately self-assurance and ideologized fear, widespread in the largest part of the broader anarchist community, is the foundation of modern political theory.

This ceaseless chatter and the harmless so-called revolutionary rhetoric that espouses communist spearheads leads gradually to alternativism and reformism and it just manages to produce and reproduce a couch potato criticism which, on the one hand, constantly diverges away from anarchist ideas and values, and on the other one, it is clearly and completely unable to contribute to the fertilizing of a ground that would promote the evolution of each one individually and collectively. It is really oxymoron and yet tragic that while repression is at its peak point nowadays, at the same time, we observe a pacification of the official anarchist community.

Certainly the current situation can’t be an excuse for anyone, since we, as individuals who come from the ranks of this community, are facing a dilemma. Either we remain still, preserving the status quo, or we choose to overpass it. As long as people who come in touch with anarchy do not assume that by their actions, not to actively and decisively

define how they want to achieve their goals but to be left to an undoubtedly convenient slumber, they will always be silent subjects who know deep inside them the extent of them not acting and consequently their thinking will be assimilated by the thinking of those who have more “experience” or recognition. This kind of thinking cannot apparently be subversive if it aims at maintaining the existing informal hierarchy we all know that is stagnated within the “community”.

Furthermore, one thing especially striking is the persistence of most “anarchists” to find a “revolutionary subject”. It is often society that is considered a “revolutionary subject”.

In other words, a mass of people unable to wake up from their peaceful sleep of fixed certainties provided by a regularity of habit, routine and self-assurance.

Personally, I refuse to allow the compromises and the immobility of the masses to prevent my moving towards action. Besides, the structure of modern society by institutions, roles and values which dictate every kind of human relationship and regulate how to think and what to feel by raising mediocrity to the highest virtue, is itself poisoning every moment of every single day of my existence. Everyday life is filled with mechanical movements continuously repeated in a boring background, waiting at some point is permanently interrupted by death and then, all that is left is the endless void of the unfulfilled. This is how reality is structured and it is formed by itself so rigidly that makes it completely unbearable for me.

In this decision to actively and directly threaten the status quo of this reality, the release of imprisoned comrades is also included. The decision to escape strengthens the everlasting choice of not raising a white flag, as the physical limitation imposed by the prison is not capable to reduce the intensity of the passion for freedom burning in the heart of every rebel, nor is it able to block the desire to continue attacking authority and its mechanisms as well as the servile mass whose submissiveness and inaction creates a quiet environment of uniformity, lawfulness and political correctness that wiped out every individuality and eliminates the slightest possibility of liberation from the chains that have been imposed on us.

What could therefore be a deeper, more effective and more sincere move of solidarity with these comrades, who refused justice of authority without remorse by choosing to reclaim their freedom in order to continue fighting against authority, than to share the guilt involved in conspiring with them by helping to end their captivity?

Every choice has certainly it’s cost, especially when this choice is deeply hurting the prestige of the state, as it puts under serious doubt its seemingly unbeatable strength. This time the state demonstrating all its vengeful fury, went a step further by prosecuting, arresting and imprisoning relatives of the Conspiracy comrades Christos and Gerasimos Tsakalos and George Polydoros (Athena Tsakalou, Evi Statiri, Christos Polydoros), with the grotesque charges of belonging and participating in the organization. This is a desperate, yet extremely challenging way trying to demoralize those within whose faces the state recognizes its enemy; the unrepentant anarchists of action who — against all odds and no matter how many years are being added to their penalties — will not stop attacking the essence of democracy. Along with this greater repression, domination aims at dissemination of fear in order to make it clear that any kind of relationship with those who refuse to surrender their weapons is punished hard, therefore aims at the greatest possible isolation of political prisoners.

But, no matter how deep they believe that such practices would be likely to make us denounce our anarchist values or direct action, they are simply fooling themselves. Once again all they are going to get is our absolute contempt and our most powerful rage.

Finally, regarding the parody that will be set up in the courtroom of Korydallos prison, I have no desire to pose as the system’s victim because at first I am honored that I participated in the escape attempt of CCF comrades and apart from that, something like that would at least mean a psychological subjugation of me before law and order. The review of my penal code is coldly irrelevant to me. If I turned back the time a thousand times, I would make the same life choices over and over again because I feel alive only by breathing free.

Aggeliki Spyropoulou Women’s prison of Korydallos 14/02/2016

Athens, Greece

Greece: CCF Escape Case — Continuation of the kangaroo show trial against CCF

On March 31^st, the court convened for the trial against members of the C.C.F. accused to have planned an escape from prison in 2015. Due to an ongoing lawyers’ strike, the defense attorneys asked for the trial to temporarily discontinue. The lawyers even proceeded to the submission of relevant documents from the Bar Association certifying the strike and the lawyers’ need to take part in it.

The District Attorney Koutras also suggested to temporarily discontinue the trial on account of the aforementioned strike and the lawyers’ abstention.... Justice A. Yfanti, announced that the entire board minus one judge, rejected the lawyers’ request and decided to continue the trial proceedings.

Moreover, they gave an ultimatum to the defense lawyers, saying that ”If you do not exercise your duties, you will be removed”. All of the defense attorneys referred to this as an unprecedented act of arbitrariness, since Yfantis not only violates the decisions made by her own union (the Bar) through a devaluation of its decisions, but essentially deprives the accused from the right to legal representation.

C. Tsakalos, member of the C.C.F., stated that this illustrates how the judges selected for political trials, in reality follow the orders of specific political circles in exchange for the advancement of their career and proof of their adherence is the blind submission to these circles which are controlled by former Justice Minister C. Athanasiou. He went on to say that in this specific trial there is an order for a fast-track process mainly serving political interests. He concluded by saying that the interventions made by C. Athanasiou to the special interrogator of appeals E. Nicolopoulos regarding the pre-trial detention of his family members was a retaliation for the continuing revolutionary actions of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.

Next, the defense lawyers stated that these manipulations that aim to have them removed are to essentially continue the trial without the legal representatives of the accused. They stated that it reminds one of a different time in history and violates legal boundaries. They highlighted that it is unprecedented for a court judge to remove defense lawyers just because of their right to strike within the context of the mobilizations enacted by the Bar Association in Greece....

Following the meeting held by the judicial board, the presiding judge Yfanti blatantly announced the decision to continue the trial, remove the current attorneys and provide the defendants’ with new lawyers selected by her, in complete disregard for the stance of the D.A. and the request submitted by the defense attorneys.

Among protests that followed, the attending members of the C.C.F. along with Aggeliki Spyropoulou submitted an appeal to replace the judge and stated it is now clear more than ever that this judge follows orders and serves specific political aims, evident in the way she managed the trial. The presiding judge looked awkward and blamed V. Alexandris, president of the Bar Association ... Among recriminations the court was adjourned for the 12^th of April to examine the request for replacing the judge. The fascist stance of the presiding judge whose ambition to be promoted from an appeals judge to president of appeals, illustrates that this trial has finished before it even began. The first step was the lawyers’ removal and their replacement with lawyers chosen by the judge.

After the case of Justice Klapa who convicted Nicos Maziotis to a life sentence and 120 years, covert but also well-known political circles led by C. Athanasiou manipulate the political trials of revolutionary organizations with the aim to annihilate all political opponents.

The challenge faced by the fighting people in solidarity is whether to allow the fascist monologue of judges to become dominant or to actively subvert it...

SOLIDARITY WITH POLITICAL PRISONERS — AGAINST THE JUDICIAL COUP ** Anarchists in solidarity

Evi Statiri and Athena Tsakalou cannot be at their own trial

Regarding the trial for the escape plan from Korydallos prison against the members of the C.C.F. something truly incomprehensible is unfolding... Two of the defendants, Athena Tsakalou and Evi Statiri cannot be present at court during the trial because of certain restrictions as part of their conditional release from pre-trial detention. These restrictions are in the form of house arrest for Athena Tsakalou who lives on Salamina island, while Evi Statiri is not allowed to cross the 1km radius from her residence. and even had to go on hunger strike in order to ensure her own release on bail.

A year after a new prison bill came into force, a bill the Syriza government embraced as a ”progressive” step that ”values prisoners’ rights”, in reality nothing has actually changed.

Comrade Panagiotis Aspiotis refuses to be ghosted out of Korydallos

On 31 March, officers of Korydallos prisons, entered the cell where the anarchists A. Stamboulos, T. Theofilou and P. Aspiotis are being held, in order to force P. Aspiotis to the prison in Nafplio. As Aspiotis resisted, making clear that he will not obey this vindictive transfer, in order to have visits with his family and specifically with his 3 month old daughter, the screws left after an altercation. On 4 April, the supervisor district attorney of Korydallos Prisons, Mrs Victoria E. Marsioni, imposed a 5 day penalty of solitary confinement on P. Aspiotis with the accusations of ‘defiance’ and ‘threats against the officers of the institution’. The penalty will be served at the Nafplio prison.

Panagiotis remains up to now in Korydallos prisons while he is hell-bent declaring that he will not accept his transfer.

The comrade is accused of helping the imprisoned members of the CCF try to escape last year.

‘The perpetual move towards freedom...’ by Christos Tsakalos of the CCF / FAI-FRI

“It’s like playing a game with marked cards.. You know that the odds are against you, but you keep playing... What for... in order to continue the game... And to find others in the future to win the game... This is our heritage... ”

On February 15 the trial for the escape plan of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire began. A total of 28 people are being tried, including our relatives and other people who have no connection to the case.

As Conspiracy of Cells of Fire we have taken on the responsibility for the plan and its practical/technical preparation (weapons, explosives, rockets, stolen vehicles) found in the hideouts of the organization.

But the answer to what led us to the decision to escape, the judges and cops won’t find it neither in the weapons nor in the explosives or the decrypted messages found.

Anyone can find the answer as long as he listens to the rattling of the chains worn on him, chains baptized as freedom. A “freedom” which exchanged our life for cables, devices and screens... a “freedom” wearing the mask of a happy slave... But there is nothing real behind the mask...

Life is being strangled by the blackmail of the financial tyranny, the underpaid sweat of labor dungeons, the batons, tear gas and bullets of repression...

Meanwhile, the skies are raining death with bombs that turn entire countries into mass graves, small children washed up dead on the shores of the Aegean and thousands of people deserted in concentration camps...

At the same time, the lie is turned to truth from the journalist’s propaganda, technology controls our moments and emotions, the spectacle flashily dresses our loneliness, and the Western man becomes victimizer and victim of his amnesia, as he forgot what it means to live free. This is the answer to not only why someone should escape from prison, but also to become a fugitive from the legal life of an obedient being...

These thoughts are the abettor of our getaway. If we could, we would dig the walls even with our own nails to escape and to dig up the arms for the cause of freedom and revolution. And no matter how many of those attempts fail, or how many heads break onto the prison bars, at the end the bars will bend.

Because the stocks cannot be counted neither with weapons nor with explosives but with the belief that this world must be demolished, to let freedom blossom.

Both the judges and cops know us to be stubborn... That’s why they chose to take our relatives as hostages. To blackmail us emotionally and wrest our silence. But there will never be a cease fire between us and power...

The judicial authorities in 10,000 pages of files, try to make their lie a more convincing lie and call 20 witnesses (half of them executives of the anti-terrorist service) to confirm this. They accuse my mother, Evi (wife of my brother) and Christos (brother of the comrade C. Polydoros) as members of “the terrorist organization CCF”.

Their conviction has already been ordered from the palaces of power. This is a sample of the arrogance of a power that believes it’s playing without an opponent.

This trial is a poll of the struggle... In short, we must violently interrupt the onslaught of an iron repression, which, since it can not make us kneel, aims at our people.

But the challenge is not only to subvert the judicial coup that blackmails us through the persecution of our relatives, but also to transfer the fear to the homes of the enemy. Where they think they are invulnerable. And if the tracks of repression marching are already reverberating... it’s time for our own weapons to be heard.

“One day we will have to gamble for everything”, against all our yesterdays of postponement, without hesitation to stand abreast our executioners... it’s us or them...

Absence deletes people... but there are those who are missing in exile or confined in one kilometer of “Freedom” and are present in our hearts... People just like Athena, Evi and finally Christos, because today to remain human is by itself an act of courage...

Our day will come...

Christos Tsakalos – Member of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire / F.A.I.

Message from CCF / Metropolitan Violence Cell to Las Lecheros Library, Chile

The following piece is a greeting from Conspiracy of Cells of Fire-Metropolitan Violence Cell to an event of the anti-authoritarian library “Las Lecheros” where a video projection of the Phoenix Project[1] and an exposition for the book “Our day will come”[2] has been made.

With all eyes set towards the other side of the world, we are sending these few lines to express the kinship that we feel towards our brothers and sisters who are being present during this event. We address our most heartfelt greetings towards the comrades that took the responsibility to organize this event and to present the Phoenix Project along with the anarchists of action, as it was the crossroad where comrades from all parts of the world were met, with a common desire, to breathe new life into an informal organization of anarchist action internationally.

The wick of Phoenix Project was fired from the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire/Sole-Baleno Cell, who blew up the car of the director of Korydallos Prison in Greece, officializing basically the comeback of CCF to the frontlines of the anarchist aggression. Subsequently, comrades from the whole world reciprocated to this call for an informal coordination of attacks. We saw the fires of the anarchist insurrection to heat up in Indonesia, Russia, Chile, and Germany and then back again in Greece. The fumes of these fires reached the prison where the members of Conspiracy of Cells of Fire are imprisoned, who with a joint letter greeted this action of Sole-Baleno Cell.

This letter delivered the message that Conspiracy of Cells of Fire does never give up, but lives through every subversive attack against the existing system. This proved to be an excuse for further persecutions to the already imprisoned members of the CCF about the incitement of actions regarding the Phoenix Project, something that proves that those in power feel daunted by the anarchists who don’t obey even in captivity.

Through this video you will meet the imprisoned members of Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, as it is their voices that you are going to hear, achieving even like this, a form of escape.

Furthermore, through the book “Our day will come” the story of our plan to escape from prison is unfolded, which after all never happened. Through this story, it seems that the ceaseless agonies for freedom and for anarchist action can never be suppressed and captivated. That’s why the The Phoenix project is a vital part of the Black International of the authority is relentless with those who demand on their own, with their own rules, the wild freedom of the unlawfulness. And this was proved by the arrests of family members of the CCF which were reviled in the media and imprisoned. It took two hunger strikes to set them free with terms that constitute exile, as they can’t even visit their loved ones inside the prison. This time now they’re in trial in which they cannot even attend.

For us it’s a fact that the authentic anarchist relationship is beyond the legal-illegal separations and in that way it will always find ways to bring comrades together.

That’s why we feel that we are among you and we also feel dominated by the same complicity in the conspiracy of the unstoppable insurrection world-wide. A complicity that here in the Greek territory we share with more and more comrades, which by pressing on the basic imperatives of Black December now they meet through Insurrectional connection between theory and action.

And so, the Black December passes on the torch to a lively anarchist process, a platform of coordination that promotes the autonomy and the diversity of anarchist action and which expects to overcome the national borders and to meet with other anarchist collegialities and individualities everywhere. We participate in this action because we love challenges.

From Greece to Chile...

Conspiracy of Cells of Fire – Metropolitan Violence Cell

CCF — FAI/IRF: The Free Besieged

Claim of responsibility for the attempt to break out of Korydallos Prison with Nikos Maziotis aided by Pola Roupa in February of this year. Nothing can stop the passion for freedom...

Prison is a milestone in the revolutionaries’ path towards freedom. It’s an intermediary stop, but not the end. The authority often chooses the subtraction from mathematics. Like when they subtract lives with bombings in the warzones of their energy-generating and geopolitical interests, like when they subtract refugees from the cityscapes, entombing them in isolated concentration camps, like they subtract the smallest crumbs of the underpaid wage slavery, beating more brutally with whips, bodies that have gotten used to rickets, like when they want to subtract everyone who defies them, by locking them up inside prisons.

In this way, every revolutionary anarchist is facing the biggest contradiction. They are fighting for freedom and yet they’re flirting with the captivity of the prison, they love life so much and yet death from the guards of authority wants to ambush them. In these years that we are in prison, our steps have gotten used to be calculated inside the barbed wires, our eyes have learnt by heart every centimetre of these few cubic meters of the forecourt, but our minds have never been captured by the iron fences.

How can you let yourself capitulate, when you are facing on one side the provocative wealth of those in power and on the other side tearful eyes of a child at a concentration camp, on one side the mafia of the politicians, judges and journalists who are counting people like louses of the earth and on the other side men and women who are committing suicide because of the standoffs of the economic crisis, looking in garbage to find food, sleeping in the streets, on one side armies of happy slaves being dazzled from the storefronts and the screens of a fake life and on the other side the bad bevy of loneliness and silence being your only companion. We don’t intend to capitulate with the tyranny of authority, neither get used to living like slaves.

We know that freedom isn’t something that can be given away... neither can it be bestowed... Our freedom blossoms from the blood and the sacrifices of our struggle. Even if once again, our desirable rendezvous with freedom has been postponed because of the dastardliness of one pilot — former policeman — and the helicopter that never reached its destination, that doesn’t mean that we will give up... We are fully aware that the recovery of our freedom will be only achieved through revolutionary violence, which will attack against the monopoly of the sadistic violence of the power.

A freedom that in our opinion is the SAME with the continuation of urban guerilla, in order to escalate the anarchist struggle. A freedom that will walk on top of the debris of this aged world and its monuments... prisons, courts, parliaments, police departments, concentration camps, labs of the technological totalitarianism...

With certitude and determination of those who will risk everything for liberation, putting again the conundrum at the table... “Freedom or Death...”

A decision we are fighting ‘till the end...

Never repentant

Never defeated

The struggle continues...

Comradely greetings to the anarchist member of Revolutionary Struggle Pola Roupa

The members of Conspiracy of Cells of Fire – FAI/IRF

Giorgos Polydoros Olga Economidou Gerasimos Tsakalos Christos Tsakalos

* The Free Besieged is an unfinished collection of poems composed by Dionysios Solomos that was inspired by the third siege of Missolonghi (1825–1826), where the Greek rebels held out for almost a year before they attempted a mass breakout, which however resulted in a disaster, with the larger part of the Greeks slain.

Open letter of Pola Roupa about the attempt to break Nikos Maziotis and members of CCF out of Korydallos prison

Under other circumstances, this text would be written by Revolutionary Struggle. However, the outcome of the attempt to break out the comrade Nikos Maziotis of Korydallos prison obliges me to speak personally.

On February 21^st 2016, I attempted to break out Revolutionary Struggle member Nikos Maziotis by helicopter. The operation was planned so that other political prisoners could join us, who wished to make their way to freedom. Details of the plan, how I managed to evade the security measures and board the helicopter armed, have no special significance and I will not refer to them; despite the fact that there has been a lot of misinformation. Just for the sake of clarity, I will only mention that the plan was not based on any previous helicopter prison escape, it is not associated with any findings of plans not yet implemented, and I do not have any relation to another fugitive person despite media portrayals to the contrary. Also, this attempt was not preceded by any escape plan that “was wrecked”, as reported by some media.

A quarter of the journey after our takeoff from Thermisia in Argolida, I took out my gun and I asked the pilot to change course. Of course, he did not understand who I am, but he realised it was an attempted prison break. He panicked. He attacked me pulling out a gun – a fact he “omitted”. Also because they will likely try to refute the fact he was armed, I remind everyone that there are publicly available reports about the discovery of two mags in the helicopter. One was mine, but the second wasn’t mine. The second mag was from his own gun, which he dropped from his hands during our scuffle during flight. And as for me, of course I had a second mag. Would I go to such an operation with only one mag?

He lost control of the helicopter and shouted in panic “we will get killed”. The description that was presented of a helicopter substantially unmanageable is true. But these images did not result from my actions, but his. The helicopter was losing altitude and swirled in the air. We flew a few meters over electricity wires. I screamed to him to pull up the helicopter, to do what I tell him so no one will get hurt.

Within no time at all, we were on the ground. Those who speak of a dispassionate reaction of the pilot, apparently judging from the result, don’t know what they are talking about.

Instead of doing what I told him to do, he preferred to risk crashing with me in a collision of the helicopter, which didn’t happen by chance. It goes without saying that upon entering the helicopter and trying to gain control of it, to direct it to the prisons, I had made my decision. If he refused to do what I told him, I would naturally react.

Those who claim I was responsible for the uncontrolled descent of the helicopter, from 5,000 feet to the ground, what did they expect? That I would have said “if you don’t want to come to the prisons, never mind”? I fired my gun and we engaged – both armed – in a scuffle during flight.

He preferred to risk crashing with me on the mountain than to obey. When we finally landed on the ground with speed, even though I knew the operation was lost, I had every opportunity to execute him. I consciously decided not to do so. Although I knew that with this decision I was endangering my life or freedom, I did not execute him even though I had the chance. He himself knows this very well. The only factor that held me back was my political conscience. And I took this decision, risking my own life and possibility to get away.

Regarding the prison escape operation itself, it’s obvious that all possible safety measures were taken in order to safeguard the undertaking against the armed guards patrolling the prison perimeter, and I even carried a bulletproof vest for the pilot as well. In this case, the purpose was

to make the prison break happen in a way that would ensure the lowest possible risk for the helicopter, the comrades and, of course, the pilot. I acted with the same thought when we landed on the ground; despite the fact that

the operation failed because of the pilot; despite the fact that he was armed. I essentially put his life over my own life and safety. But I am to reconsider this specific choice.

Organising to break out Nikos Maziotis was a political decision, as much as it was a political decision to liberate other political prisoners as well. It was not a personal choice. If I wanted to only liberate my comrade Nikos Maziotis, I wouldn’t have chartered a large helicopter – a fact that made the operation’s organising more complex. The aim of the operation was the liberation of other political prisoners as well; those who actually wanted, together with us, to make their way to freedom.

This action, therefore, despite its personal dimensions that are known, was not a personal choice but a political one. It was a step in the path to Revolution. The same goes for every action I have carried out and for every action I will make in the future. These are links in a chain of revolutionary planning aimed to create more favourable political and social conditions, for broadening and strengthening revolutionary struggle. Below I will refer to the political basis of this choice; but first I have to talk about facts, and the way I have operated until now in regard to some of these facts.

As I previously mentioned, every action I carry out concerns an act related to political planning. In the same context, I expropriated a branch of Piraeus Bank on the premises of Sotiria Hospital in Athens last June [2015]. With this money, in addition to my survival in “clandestinity”, I secured the organising of my action and financing of the operation for the liberation of Nikos Maziotis and other political prisoners from Korydallos women’s prisons. The reason I refer to this expropriation (I couldn’t care less about the penal consequences of this admittance) is because, at this time, I consider it absolutely necessary to disclose how I operate in regard to the safety of civilians, who in certain circumstances happen to be present in revolutionary actions I am involved in, and my perspective about this issue on the occasion – always mutatis mutandis – of the prison escape attempt.

In the case of the expropriation of Piraeus Bank branch, what I mentioned to the bank clerks when we walked into the bank was that they should not press the alarm button, because this would endanger their own safety, since I wasn’t willing to leave the bank without the money. I did not threaten them, nor would they ever be in danger because of me. They would only be in danger because of the police, if cops arrived at the spot and we subsequently had an armed clash. And the police would only arrive if any clerks pressed the bank alarm.

This was a development which they themselves wanted to avoid. Because people who happen to be present in every such action are not afraid of those trying to expropriate, but instead the police intervening. Besides, it’s really stupid for anyone to attempt to defend money belonging to bankers. And for the record, when a female clerk told me “we ourselves are also poor people,” I suggested to her that we step over to a “blind” spot, where cameras can’t see us, to let her have 5,000 euros, which she did not accept, apparently out of fear. If she had accepted the money, she can be sure I would not speak publicly about it. And one detail: what I was holding was a medical apron to conceal my gun while waiting outside the bank; it was not a towel(!), as mentioned several times.

In every period of time, in the struggle for Revolution – as is also the case in all wars – at times the revolutionaries are obliged to seek the assistance of civilians in their fight. The historical examples are too many – an attempt to document them would fill an entire book, and this isn’t the time to expand on the matter – both in Greece and in armed movements and organisations in other countries. In such cases, however, we essentially ask them to take sides in a war. Once someone refuses to assist, their stance is not just about the particular practice, but an overall hostile stance against the struggle. They endanger or cancel undertakings, they put the lives of fighters in danger, they throw obstacles in the way of a revolutionary process. They take a position against a social and class war.

Neither at Piraeus Bank branch nor during the attempted helicopter escape did I make my identity known. Therefore, no one involved in these cases knew that those

were political actions. But after the failed escape attempt, and given that – as I already mentioned – I had the opportunity to kill the pilot but I didn’t, risking my own life, I have to make the following public: from now on, whenever I need the assistance of civilians again, and if I deem it necessary, I will make my identity known from the outset.

Since my mission in any case concerns the promotion of the struggle for overthrowing the criminal establishment, let everyone know that any possible refusal of cooperating and effort of obstructing the action will be treated accordingly.

I am, of course, aware of the personal details of the pilot, but I did not threaten his family. I would never threaten families and children.

This is my balance sheet after the escape attempt, one I must make public.

THE PRISON ESCAPE OPERATION WAS A REVOLUTIONARY CHOICE

[…]

I ATTEMPTED THE PRISON ESCAPE FOR SOCIAL REVOLUTION ALL MY LIFE I STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL REVOLUTION

I WILL CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL REVOLUTION

Pola Roupa

Member of Revolutionary Struggle

Intervention of Christos Tsakalos, member of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, at an event in the self managed hangout in Karditsa

Phone call intervention from Korydallos prison isolation basement by imprisoned member of CCF, Christos Tsakalos, during an event to promote the launch of the pamphlet “The Source of Victimization” by Alfredo Cospito. Cospito is jailed in Italy for the FAI armed attack against CEO Roberto Adinolfi of Ansaldo Nucleare.

Good evening comrades, I will begin with a phrase I had read somewhere and says “it is at the difficult time of repression, where we prove the level of our consciousness.”

Alfredo Cospito’s pamphlet “The Source of Victimization” is not only interesting from a historical perspective, as it describes the situation and degradation of the anarchist movement, after the carnage of Piazza Fontana. It has a special interest because, unfortunately, it is largely reflecting the mentality of victimization that is widespread in the Greek anarchist milieu.

But let’s consider things from the beginning... Speaking of the urban guerrilla in the years after the junta, the focal point was the murder of Christos Kassimis, member of E.L.A. (Epanastatikos Laikos Agonas – Revolutionary People’s Struggle) in 1977, in a gunfight with cops at the facilities of the German company A.E.G. in Renti area, during the placement of incendiary bombs. After comes the arrest of Giannis Seriffis, who

talks about being framed up by the prosecuting authorities due to his ideas. From 1977 and for many years the vast majority of those arrested either for “terrorist” activity, or conflicts in demonstrations, followed the line of advocacy of the “frame-up”.

In simple words, “I have nothing to do with it, I’m persecuted for my ideas, I was passing by...”

This victimistic defense line, usually faced the grace of the judges and most of the arrested were soon released.

In 1995, amongst the — more or less — 500 detainees of the occupied Polytechnic school, only 100–120 declared themselves anarchists, while most of the others in their statements said they were trapped or they went to lay a wreath of flowers...

In 1998 the anarchist Nikos Maziotis gets arrested for putting a bomb at the Ministry of Development and claims responsibility. His attitude activates a militant solidarity, expressed — apart from public interventions (posters, gatherings, etc.)- with a series of almost daily arson attacks (especially on luxury cars). Within a few months there are more than 100 arsons. This creates a tingling sensation in the hitherto official vanguards of solidarity (leftist networks and solidarity committees composed for individual personalities); solidarity seems to be out of the (so-far) known pattern of the triptych of “usual suspect — frame up- innocent”.

The reason is simple. In previous times, the victimized attitude of those prosecuted gave ground to the advocacy line of “persecution of ideas”, “repression of rights”, “targeting of the usual suspects”, etc. This promoted much more the logic of denouncing the “authoritarian state”, instead of conflict and the attack against it. In the following years, most of those arrested returned to the line of advocacy of the frame up...

In 2002, we had the arrests concerning the 17N (November 17). The snitching, the telltale testimonies

and cooperation with the cops by the majority of those arrested are a

black page in the history of revolutionary violence. The only one who salvages the memory and the action of the organization is Dimitris Koufodinas, who takes on the political responsibility. The same goes also for Christos Tsigaridas following the arrests for E.L.A. – (Revolutionary People’s Struggle).

Victimization though, is a plague widespread to many aspects of the milieu. If I remember well, in 2005 there was an outburst of fascist gang attacks that season against comrades, hangouts and squats...

Of course, these provocations have not been unanswered and apart from public actions (anti-fascist marches) several attacks were organized, sending fascists to the hospital. Yet in the realm of public discourse in most of the posters, in many texts, the

victimized display of the half truth was projected. I clearly remember the poster of a well known collective that was on the streets where there was a list of all the fascist attacks and no reference to aggressive acts from our part. Generally, the prevailing aesthetics of public discourse was that “the fascists kill”... but there was nothing said for the dynamic responses they had received...

All this was part of the mentality of building a victimized profile reminiscent of Christian logic, dictating that the weak have the moral advantage for the activation of social sympathy.

At the same time, however, we have some cases of arrests during the act (bank robbery, attempted arson of Palaio Faliro Municipal Police vehicles) that those arrested claimed responsibility for. In 2010 we have the responsibility claim of three members of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire and three members of the Revolutionary Struggle. A claim that is not restricted to any particular action, e.g someone caught in the act, but an overall claim and support of armed organizations.

At first, the political responsibility claim had the support of the majority of the milieu, since it was a clear indication of continuing the struggle despite the penal consequences and the years pending for our comrades.

Very soon, however, there was a numbness within the movement, by a part of it which started clearly showing its preference for the persecuted ones who followed the frame-up line.

Soon, the slogans concerning prosecutions due to political beliefs etc, dominated again. Similarly, some others characterised the choice to claim political responsibility as a martyr’s attitude...

At the court-trials that followed, of both the CCF and the E.A [Revolutionary Struggle]. there was a dividing line between those who claimed the responsibility and those who followed a different line of advocacy.

Here it is important that I explain what ‘political responsibility’ signifies.

Claiming political responsibility is not a heroic act, but instead an act of consistency with all that one supports when having made the choice of the anarchist urban guerrilla. It is inconsistent while preaching through your actions and words “a war until the end’, then at the moment of arrest to present oneself as victimized.

The claim of responsibility is a double message.

A message to the state, that prisons do not subdue the revolutionaries and a signal to the comrades that the struggle goes on whatever the cost. The claim of responsibility is a signal to young anarchists to support themselves too. The anarchist urban guerrilla, includes however a reminder that the road to revolution is rough, so

if we choose it, we must lift the weight. It is the moral advantage we have against their laws and prosecutions, it‘s the choice not to betray our values and ourselves in return for a favorable sentence.

This doesn’t mean that the state does not set people up. The victimistic mentality though of several anarchists who present themselves as a permanent victim of a frame-up, sweeps away the real frame-ups too. Here I recall the case of someone getting arrested by secret police in Thessaloniki while in ambush close to a private security vehicle, carrying a bag with the incendiary device ready and he stated that he was prosecuted for his anarchist ideas and had nothing to do with the arson attempt.

In short, the expansion of the use of the “frame-up”, spreads out the germ of questioning the honesty in all cases of anarchists. It’s like the fairy tale with the liar shepherd.

Everyone now questions the sincerity of an anarchist getting arrested and saying he has nothing to do with the case, as subconsciously everyone thinks that “many anarchists pretend being irrelevant”.

So in cases of a real frame-up, the reflexes of the milieu are rusty enough, as there is a lack of credibility.

One could now ask “so, claiming of responsibility is the only diginified attitude?”

No, it is not the only one, but it’s certainly the most clearly aggressive attitude towards the state.

Besides, the claim of responsibility is neither a contract nor a lifelong medal we carry. Every one of us is judged every day, and depending on our attitude we honor or delete the choice to fight that we once made.

I do not believe in the... “anarcho-meter”, but I think that we must defend some things...

First of all, in anarchist armed organizations there are some codes of values, some principles and also some agreements. One of them is the attitude of the comrades of the organization in case of arrest.

Of course, theory often differs from practice. When everything goes well in an organization, everyone is at the forefront... But you can see who someone is, by watching how one honors his/her choices when in difficulty and not at ease...

So when a group has talked and agreed on the issue of claiming responsibility, if someone backs off after the arrest, at that moment the agreement, the principles, the ideas, the organization and oneself are betrayed...

However I wouldn’t consider it as a problem, if someone didn’t lift the weight and chose to remain silent without taking responsibility, but making it clear that he/she doesn’t want support from the anarchist milieu. But I think it’s dishonest if on one hand one pretends being a super fighter, covered behind vague anarchist verbiage, while on the other hand they complain that there‘s been victimization through a frame-up.

In fact, by claiming responsibility you can unite theory with practice. You can reverse the terms of a captive defeat and transform them into another open battlefield...

Because after all, when at war with the state, there is no middle ground...

Either you are an enemy of authority or someone compromised... because the matter is not if you get arrested, but if you surrender internally (...).

DIRECT ACTION CHRONOLOGY

A brief incomplete list of rebellion, large and small, without preferences...

6 April, Pyhäjoki, Finland: Anti-nuclear activists managed to blockade the entire traffic to the Fennovoima-Rosatom nuclear power plant construction site for a couple of hours.

3 April, Newcastle, UK: Anarchist slogans and symbols spray-painted in a rich area full of multi-million pound houses. The paint-attacks on homes and vehicles apparently cost only a few hundred quid to repair, but many good citizens got upset and asked the police to investigate and catch the naughty vandals, leading to more publicity for anti-social attacks against wealthy bastards. The slogans read “Burn the rich” , “Class War”.

2 April, Dover, UK: Hundreds of anti-fascists countered a racist demo by neo-nazis. Over a dozen anti-fascists were arrested during the blockade of the route of the neo-nazi march, with a small number of fascists also arrested.

31 March, France: A day of mobilisation against the new Work Act labour reforms took place.

Everywhere in France colleges were blockaded, schools were on strike and several demonstrations occurred which ended in conflict against the cops, like in Toulouse, Marseille, Rennes, Nantes and Paris. In Nantes, the demonstration gathered more than 30,000 people, and all along the procession, banks were attacked with hammers and extinguishers, the City Hall was builders of the airport on the ZAD of Notre-Dame-Des-Landes) was repainted, just like the Socalist Party office. The luxury hotel Le Radisson, located within the walls of the former criminal court, is one of the symbols of Nantes-style gentrification: the prison, which is based behind, was entirely

cleared out to leave clean space for the rich. For this occasion it was repainted with lots of extinguishers, a little wink to Georges Courtois, who took the court hostage during his trial in 1985 with Abdelkarim Khalki and Patrick Thiolet. Barricades were also erected in several places, streets de-paved and all day tear-gas grenades rained down.

Several shots of LBD 40 (flashball) were fired by cops.

30 March, Brussels, Belgium: At the foot of the Saint-Gilles prison wall, two cars were set on fire: a large car of an MEP and one luxury car of an OTAN employee. Solidarity arson to imprisoned anarchist comrades Monica and Francisco. The comrades, originally from Chile, were given 12 year sentences in Spain this month in a case that held little evidence against them other than the fact they were anarchists. The

comrades denied responsibility for an improvised explosive-incendiary device in an infamous fascist church beloved by the Guardia Civil and the reactionary powers of Catholicism, the

Basilica of the Pillar, in Zaragoza.

29 March, Athens, Greece: A diplomatic vehicle is torched by ‘Indomitable Marxists’ in solidarity to comrades recently smashed up, a Vinci agency (the condemned to long prison sentences as part of Revolutionary Struggle.

29 March, Rennes, France: In protest over the Work Act, over 100 students invaded the motorway and blocked a bypass with a burning barricade for 45 minutes. The metro was blocked for over two hours after the alarm was pulled and chairs had been thrown onto a line near the university. A train ended up colliding with the chairs as it seems that the driver failed to respond to the alarm. Passengers were stuck on another train in a tunnel but were evacuated.

Unfortunately, 4 teenagers were arrested and admitted to the offence. They are currently on bail but face heavy sentences.

29 March, Finland: Two vehicles of the private security company Securitas are burned by anarchists in revenge for providing protection to the nuclear company of Fennovoima, which embarks on a new construction project. The arson is also dedicated to imprisoned comrades Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar.

25 March, Paris, France: A student demo in Paris resulted in a police station getting it’s windows smashed and the words “Death to cops” sprayed on the building, while the police were

forced to retreat inside. This was a reprisal for the police violence on the demo the previous day, particularly after a video showing the cops brutally punching young black protestor while he was

being arrested went viral. The police station was forced to close for the rest of the day, and another police station was also attacked. Some 150 sixth form students forced their way into and

looted two Franprix supermarkets, before taking the loot to migrants and homeless people.

24 March, Lisbon, Portugal: Solidarity demo at the Spanish consulate in solidarity with Monica and Francisco.

24 March, Athens, Greece: Incendiary attack against Pangrati police station in combative memory of slain anarchist comrade Lambros Foundas, member of Revolutionary Struggle, who was shot and killed by Greek police in 2010, 11 March, during a revolutionary action of the group. An unmarked State Security vehicle was also set on fire during the operation. Nothing is over, everything continues...

24 March, France: Thousands of sixth form and university students and others took to the streets across France, with demos ascending into disorder in Nantes, Paris and Rouen. In Paris, the entrances of colleges and universities were blockaded. Cars were burnt and cops were injured. The demo was infiltrated by large numbers of undercover officers, who got their arses kicked. In Rennes, an unofficial demo drew several thousand people and turned into a battle with the police. According to the mainstream media, the police seized bins containing rocks, metal bars and helmets. A bourgeois clothes boutique was looted, resulting in a loss of 100s of Euros. Other stores were attacked and graffittied, and a cop car was damaged. Fights with cops flared up in Nantes, where students used barricades to block a tramline. Riots also broke out on an unstewarded demo in Gisors, Normandy, with a supermarket and a homeware chain store looted and various other properties vandalised. In Rouen, Le Havre and Caen, protestors, including dockers, blocked the streets with burning tyres or other barricades, causing disruption to traffic. The windows of one of the CGT’s Paris offices were smashed in after the

union’s stewards reportedly beat, gassed, and handed people over to the police on the demo earlier in the day.

22 March, Bässlergut, Switzerland: 50 masked people blockaded the entrance of Bässlergut detention centre and sabotaged the electronic gates. The blockaders were able to communicate with the detainees and respond to their shouts of “Freedom, Freedom!” and”The manager’s an asshole!”.

23 March, Santiago, Chile: Highway burning barricades in memory of Javier Recabarren, 11 year old comrade hit by a city bus and killed a year ago. The solidarity arson is also dedicated to imprisoned comrades of the ‘Security Case’, bank robbing revolutionaries Freddy, Marcelo and Juan.

22 March, Paris & Rennes, France: University of Tolbiac gets trashed by rioters against the Work Act who were frustrated during an attempt to hold a general assembly for the movement in the streets. In Rennes, students disrupted traffic for more than an hour by occupying the train tracks, causing the electrical supply to the line to be cut. After being pushed off by the cops, hundreds went and blockaded a road with burning barricades instead.

20 March, Hamburg, Germany: Two churches desecrated with fire extinguishers filled with paint in solidarity action to Monica and Francisco. “No God, No State, No Patriarchy”.

16 March, Cardiff, Wales, UK: Activist demo against DPRTE arms fair. Two comrades managed to occupy the roof with a banner and were arrested at the end of the day.

12 March, Santiago, Chile: Noise bomb against the highway management company Vespucio Sur by FAI-IRF. Here is an extract from the claim: “We do not consider the struggle against civilization to be distinct or external to the struggle against all forms of authority. We identified the highway management companies as being important arteries that gives life to the network of domination, facilitating the advancement of civilization and enriching themselves via the imposition of an urbanism that is servile to the interests of power. Both the present and past history show us that the germ that leads to authority has also developed in communities that existed prior to civilization and has also manifested itself in groups that have remained outside or against civilization. That is why our struggle is essentially ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN. This is why we feel it is important to distance ourselves from the self-proclaimed ‘eco-extremist tendency’ that has defended the indiscriminate attack that is contrary to the idea of being ‘against all authority’ and denounces international solidarity with imprisoned companeros who are related in word and deed to insurrectionary anarchy. Such ideas are neither an ‘evolution’ or ‘more radical’ but are in fact quite the opposite. We have no interest in engaging in virtual polemics with them, we prefer dialogue with our companeros via action.”</em>

15 March, Athens, Greece: Incendiary attack against a vehicle and ATM of Hellenic Post in solidarity with Monica and Francisco and the prisoners of CCF. Also for the combative memory of slain member of Revolutionary Struggle, Lambros Foundas. The action is claimed by Incendiary Disobedience Cell.

15 March, Hambach Forest: Clashes and resistance at the tree protest site as police invaded the site but failed to evict it completely. All main paths in the forest were cleared, fixed and broadened, all barricades and tripods destroyed. Four unoccupied platforms were evicted. Coal company RWE aims to destroy a large woodland area.

Urgent support needed for this increasingly under-attack campaign which has taken many assaults from security teams and arbitrary and violent arrests with difficult conditions of imprisonment.

13 March, Valence, France: Anarchist anti-religion slogans spray-painted on two churches to the disgust of do-gooders and the brain-dead.

11 March, Asturias, Spain: Train lines near Villabona are sabotaged in solidarity with Monica and Francisco, and spraypaint slogans are left.

9 March, Bordeaux, France: Dozens of people opted for immediate and direct action following a student assembly against the Work Act, and trashed a University building. According to

the mainstream media, all the computers were destroyed, the doors had been kicked in and the walls graffitied. The instruments in the music hall were also destroyed. Money and files had been taken, damage in total estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of Euros. This action was part of a wave of demos that took place across the country that day.

Destroy!

9 March, Porte Alegre, Brazil: Santander Bank set on fire with incendiary device in solidarity to Monica and Francisco and the imprisoned members of the CCF. Here’s an extract from the claim: “There are many reasons and motives to attack Santander Bank. For example, besides being representatives of the Spanish state (who have kidnapped our companeros), in this territory they were the administrators of Augustus Pinochet’s money following the military dictatorship in Chile. In the end, these facts are only details that enhance our anger... Any banking institution that tries to hide their genocidal intentions with ‘cultural projects’ or other pseudo-humanist terms are representatives of a system that only inspires our disgust. Branches of Santander Bank have been attacked twice in recent days in Santiago, Chile and in Buenos Aires. The two attacks were carried out in solidarity with Monica and Francisco. This silent, instinctive coordination of solidarity not only causes a great inconvenience to normal life at different points in the world, but also strengthens our ties, making it clear there are no borders and that we do not need leaders or vertical structures to attack several bars in the same cage.”

8 March, Athens, Greece: Solidarity demo outside the Spanish Embassy with spraypaint, flyers and slogans in solidarity with Monica and Francisco.

8 March, Montreuil-sous-Bois, France: Prison architect’s office set on fire in solidarity to Monica and Francisco.

7 March, Buenos Aeries, Argentina: ATMs sabotaged in solidarity with Monica and Francisco.

6 March, Avon Gorge, Bristol, UK: Sabotage of coal train line in environmentalist action. News of the attack is suppressed in the media by those seeking to mitigate the continuation of the attacks after the largely ineffective police operation taking place in Bristol area against anarchists in the past years. Cops in Bristol several years ago announced the rollout of a ‘Five Year Plan’ in words reminiscent of the Stasi, meaning a bigger budget to deal

with rowdy demos, more money for lengthy surveillance and family harassment, and, as everyone is finding out from the widely known public inquiry into UK secret policing taking place, presumably more undercover cops who rape and abuse.

Here’s an extract from the claim: “Severing the lines that feed the machine is not impossible. When people take up civil uprising in the UK, if people are able to shove their obligations to one side to open up an avenue, they mainly have the ability and possibility to be able to grasp their will for something new.... The line in question runs through the Avon Gorge from Royal Portbury Dock over from Avonmouth, it’s freight only (no passengers), 70% of the UK’s imported coal for power generation comes through these docks. This line is a bottle-neck to the country’s dispersal. Most of it from USA where they blow apart mountains to get it out and Russia from the Shor and Teleut ancestral lands laid waste in

Siberia, also places like Indonesia which drive back the forests for sprawling mines and plantations. That’s to keep factories running and city lights on, when we’ve got a feeling for escaping the work prisons and regaining the stars.

Other loads carried on the line include construction aggregate and new built vehicles on their way to the show room. More

high-speed trainlines are coming to the UK, more roads, more ancient woodland and wildlife wiped out in the frenzy of progress.”

4 March, Marseille, France: Incendiary attack against a GDF Suez car in solidarity with Calais refugees. GDF Suez are involved in the construction of immigration detention centres.

3 March, Athens, Greece: The State Legal Council offices are smashed and paintbombs thrown at the facade, flyers in solidarity with the imprisoned comrades sentenced for the case of Revolutionary Struggle are left at the scene.

2 March, Athens, Greece: The French Institute is attacked with a Molotov to send a message of solidarity to the persecuted refugees in Calais and also to rebels on the streets fighting the hypocritical state of emergency in France.

NETWORK OF COUNTER-INFO & TRANSLATION

[1] http://325.nostate.net/?p=15892

[2] http://325.nostate.net/?p=17520