From March 2nd to April 4th 2015, the ten imprisoned members of the anarchist urban guerrilla group Conspiracy of Cells of Fire/FAI-FRI, Gerasimos Tsakalos, Christos Tsakalos, Olga Ekonomidou, Michalis Nikolopoulos, Giorgos Nikolopoulos, Haris Hadjimihelakis, Giorgos Polidoros, Panagiotis Argirou, Damiano Bolano and Theofilos Mavropoulos — along with anarchist captive Angeliki Spyropoulou — conducted an exhaustive hunger strike demanding the release of their relatives, Athena Tsakalou (mother of the Tsakalos brothers) and Evi Statiri (wife of Gerasimos Tsakalos), who were arrested six months ago and absurdly charged in connection with the CCF escape plan, which was foiled in January 2015.
On April 6th, Athena Tsakalou walked out of prison under extremely harsh and restrictive measures.
Half a year after her arrest, Evi Statiri is still being held in pretrial detention in Koridallos women’s prison, solely on the basis of being the life companion of CCF member Gerasimos Tsakalos.
On September 7th, it became known that a judicial council chaired by judge Chalevidou rejected Evi Statiri’s latest motion to be released. On the same day, Evi published an open letter announcing that she will commence a hunger strike on September 14th, demanding her immediate liberation from prison.
Below are excerpts from a letter titled “From the Country of The Forgotten; Against Oblivion” which was recently written by CCF member Olga Ekonomidou as a contribution to Tamara Sol Farías Vergara and Natalia “Tato” Collado, compañeras imprisoned in Chile, as well as a gesture of solidarity with captive Evi Statiri (the full text is being translated from Greek into Spanish):
« For the domination, the extension of Evi’s detention is of double significance. On the one hand, the endurances of urban guerrillas and the tolerances of solidarians are being put to the test, and on the other hand the broader tactic of criminalising family relations is thus being legitimised. It is the psychological game of Power that, among other things, invades the consciences as a battering ram. It aims at the minds of relatives so as to wear them down, dismay them, make them feel frustrated and eventually turn them against us, corrupting the relationship of trust we have with them because they find themselves paying the price of our own choices. And if in the path of every personal history some comrades, friends or close ones stayed by our side and others gave up on us, this is because one easily stands next to people when they succeed in doing something, but hardly in their difficult times. However, the domination has not won this game. They placed a bet on the weakening of emotional ties and their conversion, a bet they lost already. Because, even six months later, the persons who are close to us, either from inside the prison or from the restrictive, delimited areas where they find themselves due to judicial orders, continue to give us smiles of patience and trust while maintaining their own dignity.
So, the wager is ours to make, of every anarchist cell and individuality that promotes the continuous attack, the insurgency, to prove that there will be no truce with the enemy, neither now nor ever. Especially amid repressive operations, one does not back down, but instead reignites the outbreaks of attack so as to become truly dangerous; to remain a threat as an internal enemy of the heart of the system. Because everything that rolls downhill can only be stopped when a barrier is erected in front of it, otherwise it will continue to do so indefinitely by continuously increasing speed, sweeping away anything that’s inferior to the proportions. It is a live wager, without end but with duration, advance and tension, having only one direction… liberation, anarchy.
“I do not need, nor do I want your discipline. With regards to my experiences, I want to have them for myself. It is from them, and not from you, that I will draw my rules of conduct. I want to live my own life. Slaves and lackeys terrify me. I hate those who dominate, and those who let themselves be dominated sicken me. He who bends before the whip is worth no more than he who wields it. I love danger, and the unknown, the uncertain, seduces me. I’m filled with a desire for adventure, and I don’t give a damn for success. I hate your society of bureaucrats and administrators, millionaires and beggars. I don’t want to adapt to your hypocritical customs nor to your false courtesies. I want to live out my enthusiasms in the pure, fresh air of freedom. . . . I’m going to follow my own path, according to my passions, changing myself ceaselessly, and I don’t want to be the same tomorrow as I am today. I stroll along and I don’t let my wings be clipped by the scissors of any one person. . . . I hate every chain, every hindrance; I love to walk along, nude, letting my flesh be caressed by the rays of the voluptuous sun. And, oh, old man! I will care so very little when your society breaks into a thousand pieces and I can finally live my life.
— Who are you, little girl, fascinating like a mystery and savage-like instinct?
— I am Anarchy.”
(Émile Armand, French individualist anarchist)
Olga Ekonomidou
member of the C.C.F.-F.A.I.
Koridallos women’s prison