Tag Archives: Nikos Romanos

Interview with anarchist prisoner Nikos Romanos (Greece)

Tell us a little bit about what has happened concerning the academic leave of absence you have demanded within the new judicial framework after your hunger strike in November-December 2014.

It goes like this: I completed 1/3 of the course as required by the new regulation and I made the request for educational leave. From that point on began the theater of the absurd. The prison board decided that the new regulation cannot be put into effect, it requires a joint ministerial decision and so it sent the request to the special appellate magistrate E. Nikopoulos, in line with the previous law. Nikopoulos issued a negative response because there is no ministerial decision and one cannot get into the merits of the application as the new judicial framework annuls and takes the place of the prior one. Based on the negative opinion of Nikopoulos, the Board rejected the leave request in its turn as the decision of the trial judge is binding.

In light of this fait accompli, SYRIZA -which during the hunger strike concentrated on electioneering and brutal political exploitation on the backs of the people who made up the polymorphic solidarity movement- plays the role of Pontius Pilate, just like its predecessors. But of course this should come as no surprise since we are talking about politicians- that is to say, total bastards, political swindlers, opportunists, hypocrites and professional chameleons, who for a small time wore the costume of the humanist to serve certain political purposes. Of course there are more important reasons for that development, but I’ll keep this explanation for a later question. Concerning the progress of my case, theoretically speaking, there should be a ministerial decree to implement the new regulation, but I don’t think there is much possibility for that to happen.

Do you think that behind the “delays” on the electronic monitoring wristband, there are political considerations or vindictive behavior directed against you?

I believe that in this instance there is not even a really existing electronic monitoring wristband, because regardless of the claims of the Department of Justice, we who are in prison know that there is not a single prisoner in any prison in Greece who has been released in this way. Every day many prisoners come and ask me about this issue and they all wonder why there is no one who has received an answer from the judicial councils to which they have made their applications. Because the inmates communicate with each other in prisons and keep updated on issues that concern them, I can say with confidence that there is no prisoner who has set foot outside of any prison in this way. Because this type of news would certainly create a scandal in such a well-known case, the seemingly faceless monster bureaucracy provides a solution to this problem.

Bureaucracy, however, is not something impersonal, rather this is the alibi of persons in positions of authority to pass off their responsibilities to something that supposedly surpasses them- to an invisible ally hidden behind legislative committees, technical consultants, stacks of papers, complex interpretations and false hopes. What I am saying, namely that there is no electronic monitoring bracelet currently available, and the Ministry of Justice is mocking prisoners to avoid a scandal is simply a fact that leaves no room for doubt and cannot be contradicted by anyone or any fact, since there is no prisoner who has been released or taken sabbatical leave in this way. Although unnecessary, I will bring up an example from Korydallos prison, of which I have had a personal view. There were some prisoners who are studying in various technical universities and, given the new judicial framework, wanted to ask for educational leave as now is the time for exams. Those who passed by the judicial council (and in order to avoid responsibility everyone on the council can hide behind a magistrate) were told really ridiculous lies- that the council could not get in touch with the secretariats of their schools and so asked them to come back in September. This fact means that the Prison Board has taken specific instructions from the Ministry of Justice in order to conceal the matter and to not allow to the surface the real causes of all of these maneuvers.

How do you judge the attitude of the new SYRIZA government?

To take things from the beginning, Syriza was a hostile arrangement long before it became government. Their role was to absorb social tensions, to gain political capital from participation in intermediate social struggles by presenting themselves as their institutional hand, to operate anti-insurrectionally in transferring the field of confrontation from the streets to bourgeois democratic politics. In a few words, they embodied in the best possible way the important political role of reformism. Moreover Tsipras himself before becoming prime minister had declared that without Syriza there would have been much more unrest and riots in Greece during the years of anti-government demonstrations. This shows that the implementation of a leftist political agenda in the opposition was, among other things, a political strategy selected to ensure social peace and to rebuild the damaged social contract upon new bases.

Democracy hides many aces up its sleeve to maintain social cohesion, and one of the weapons in its arsenal is the rapid alternation of roles on the political stage, reshuffling the deck, and also the assimilation of radical propositions that can turn against it. Turning to today, after the rise of Syriza to power, there are structural changes in rhetoric and huge internal contradictions. Of course, despite all of its contradictions, the reality that it imposes is one that still keeps in force the C-type prisons which continue to exist, since outside Domokos remain special police vehicles and isolation wards are still holding comrades, and since migrants continue to be marked with numbers before being sent to concentration camps. Furthermore, the invasion of occupied spaces, torturing hunger striking comrades, being responsible for vindictively keeping hostage relatives and partners of the CCF– like in Salamina where it launches the first place of exile in era of democracy- in signing trade partnerships with the murderers of the Palestinians, and which shortly will implement all the neoliberal policies that they were opposed to as the opposition; in short, Syriza fully retains all those geopolitical, economic and military commitments of a state that belongs to the capitalist periphery, while at the same time to throw dust in the eyes of leftist voters it actively supports some moth-eaten bureaucratic officials who maintain a leftist rhetoric, and yet when the hour comes for the political mutation of Syriza, they will be thrown out.

Seeing things from our point of view, the fact that we are anarchists means that even if Syriza was really a leftist government with radical politics it would still find us opposing it without any intention to sign a truce with these well-schooled magicians of illusion and organized oppression, and in opposition to the neo-communist gangrene that infects some anarchist circles, we long ago cut the umbilical cord of anarchy with the left. But it is important to be precise in our characterizations in order to analyze the reality that we have facing us.

Therefore, Syriza is a social democratic government, with pseudo-radical rhetoric that exploits a left political profile to gain control and influence over movements and subversive projects which potentially could turn against them. And let’s not forget that historically the political representation of capitalism with socialist forms has implemented the harshest economic and repressive policies in taking advantage of the endless and culpable sleep of the social majority. The most infuriating to our own circles is that there are several clowns who play at being anarchists, and who have the audacity to invite members of Syriza into “social centers” [untranslatable pun here: could also read ‘centers for the society of syriza’] and discuss with them profoundly ideological issues promoting a perception that whitewashes Syriza- which as we speak is the administrator of the state. A sad and similar thought-process as those who want to educate the fascists of Golden Dawn- as if the issue with the fascists or the managers of the state machine is to discuss our disagreements and not to fight them wherever we find them. All this would be a nice literary conversation for those who believe in democracy and its ideals, sleeping on pink clouds and dreaming of post-capitalist societies- except for the fact that anarchists have war with democracy and its exponents. In consequence of where we find ourselves, all who operate in whitewashing Syriza have no excuse.

Moreover, it has been only a short while since Stavros Theodorakis gave a tribute to some “protagonists” for the legality certificates which they have given to the state. For this threadbare opposition government and the crypto-Syriza, pseudo-ideological anarchists, as well as other hangers-on, the solution is simple: a stout tree and a strong rope. We stand by all those who remain friends of anarchist revolt and still insist on throwing Molotov cocktails at cops in Exarchia, who go on demonstrations to vandalize representations of sovereignty, who arm their minds with subversive plans and their hands with fire to burn the structures of the new order. To all who organize their deeds through informal anarchist direct action networks, where destructive intentions are joined horizontally and informally in a chaotic front that goes on the offensive by targeting persons and infrastructure that administer and defend this sick world that surrounds us.

What in your opinion is the place of violence in the anarchist movement?

Once again in recent times we have reached a turning point of the modern historical process. A bankrupt Greek capitalism has to cater, even if inconsistently, to the European Union and the global economy. And the reality is that it will continue to do so regardless of its political managers. The borders of Greece and Italy as the first host countries of migration from war zones are drenched in blood from the bodies of migrants. Transnational rivalries of powerful states increase and conflicts of geopolitical interests trigger outbreaks of unrest in many parts of the world. For anarchists, instability and worsening systemic violence across the diffuse spectrum of exploitative social relations is a challenge to organize effectively to become a powerful destabilizing factor of normality. An anarchist counter attack against the world of authority, of economists, of politicians, of cops, fascists, journalists, scientists, officers, managers and executives of multinationals, judicial officials, directors of prisons, bankers and their associates, the vigilantes and their willing servants of power. Faced with all these bastards who are the heart of the capitalist machine that beats to the rhythm of the social majority (who either out of indifference, fear, or complicity, contribute to protecting the heart of the beast), anarchy responds with the language of absolute violence, fire, explosions, armed rebellion, in this key assumption we begin formulating our strategies, deciding to rebel and join in the battle for total liberation. A revolt in the present time will be all-in, it will release within the revolutionary community real human relationships and will know to organize its attacks. This will be the vehicle to travel uncharted paths of freedom, enabling us to exist and live without receiving and giving instructions, without obeying, without crawling, but in a genuine way creating a new reality in the capitalist metropolises- the season of fear for the rulers and their minions, the dawn of our era, now and forever, until the end. Thus the position of organized revolutionary violence within the anarchist movement is the Alpha and Omega, it is the driving force for the qualitative evolution of an internal enemy that will cause nightmares for authority and bosses.

Do you consider that prison is a field of struggle for a political prisoner?

First we have to knock down the myths that hover over such places, such as the collective fantasy that wants the social identity of the prisoner to be a potentially revolutionary subject. Social identities- migrants, prisoners, workers, students- are societal subgroups that are dependent and feed in their own way the functioning of the capitalist world. In my view, free humanity appears where societal identities and their properties collapse, at the point where the individual decision for freedom creates a new unique and separate identity: the insurrectionary and iconoclast who attacks by any means necessary the enemies of freedom. For an anarchist who has decided to actively participate in the adventure of anarchist revolt, prison or even death are possible consequences of the choices made in the real world and not in a virtual reality where verbosity and fantasy are common. The prison is a temporary way-station for those hit by repression. It’s where our internal metal is tested in practice, the final point of major decisions and major internal changes. It’s a rotten social structure within which reigns brutality and subjugation, it’s the dark realm of power, the place of betrayal, the place where freedom is not only captured but for many humiliated and dragged bleeding between drugs, discipline and dirty corridors, where people learn to hate themselves. Thousands of analyses exist concerning prison and its inhabitants, so I’ll just repeat what Jean Marc Rouillan, an urban guerrilla of Action Direct, has said: the most appropriate people to talk about prison are those who spend a small portion of their life inside.

For the truth is that the more you spend your life in here, the more difficult it becomes to describe the function and structure of this really miserable community. In summary therefore, prison means slow death, social cannibalism, resignation to weakness, psychosomatic destruction, hard drugs, psychiatric pills, human waste piled in state landfills, discipline, hierarchy, religious fanaticism, tribal groupings and pervasive racism, nationalistic notions of every shade, confined waiting, self-destruction, deadlocks, murderous feelings, covert coercion, general immobility, and fixation. It is no exaggeration to say that the society of prisoners is the bastard child of capitalist society, a well-oiled killing machine made of ice wherein lies the entire surplus ugliness of the modern world. This does not mean that within the prison there are not minorities of people who have oriented their lives towards dignity, and with whom we can develop friendly relations or even comradeship. Returning to the original part of the question, I think that in this test there should never be forgotten responsibility towards the final goal and dedication to the common cause. Never regretting, never with bowed head, forever dangerous to this civilization of voluntary slavery and submission. For this reason anarchist struggles in prison can surely find a way to create chances to become a danger for the enemy. With texts and analyses, with small and large refusals, with hunger strikes, the thread of anarchic revolt continues to be woven so long as the flame of destruction burns in our hearts. With this understanding prison becomes a field of struggle for the promotion of subversive struggle and anarchy.

http://thebarbariantimes.espivblogs.net

Text by Nikos Romanos about the hunger strike of political prisoners (Greece)

Inter Arma received and translated:

On March 2, Anarchists/political prisoners began a hunger strike with demands aiming at the suppressive context of the counter-terrorist crusade that goes on smoothly, despite the left governance of the traders of hope. The anarchist comrades involved in the Network of Fighting Prisoners (NFP) and comrades MaziotisKoufodinas and Gournas have put in a general framework that depicts the development of repression in recent years. That’s why each one of their demands separately deconstructs the emergency regime and its basic expression which is none other than repression.

After SY.RIZ.A was elected, many comrades -including me- believed that there was a need for provocations from anarchist perspectives in order to force SYRIZA to reveal its real face. The face of capitalism, the face of the managers of modern power, the face of the servants of Capital. Besides, to this masquerade with guests from all historical periods, viewers are forced to discover that beneath all the masks hides the face of power, which can neither be improved nor reformed, only destroyed, with continuous struggle by all means. And let all those anarchists that were dragged to the polls to cast a vote in SY.RIZ.A hear this.

But it became obvious that SY.RIZ.A made a rapid shift from being the institutional arm of any social struggles and from digestible rhetoric of the pre-election period to the government realism, as we all know it.

Because the internationalized storm of repression that sweeps everything in its path, is implicitly connected to the structural crisis of capitalism and its restructuring at all levels of social life. The royal-matte of domination to its subordinates goes on. After having bought their conscience by giving them membership cards for the capitalist paradise through bank loans, it is now trying to ensure their faith in that democracy has no dead ends. Of course, the road to hell is always paved with the best intentions. And it’s neither the first nor the last time the Left has some essential contribution to the strategic directions of world domination.

So, the last act of repressive puzzle took place with the arrest of comrade Angelikiand the pogroms of the counter-terrorism agency against relatives and friends of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire. Those who have spent a period of their lives behind the walls, can easily grasp the magnitude of emotional blackmail, of watching your loved ones who stand beside you in captivity’s everyday monotonous repetitions, behind prison bars.

A real nightmare instigated by the counter-terrorism agency and judges. And if the personal cost is to be lifted by them, the political costs would be addressed to their political superiors. And in order to pretend they have honor, let them have their fists raised when the time comes. So, the hunger strike of the imprisoned members of CCF and its victorious outcome will result in blocking the vindictive persecution of relatives of the rebels. In the same way, the victory of the comrades of NFP and of Maziotis, Koufodinas, Gournas will put a major obstacle before the attack of domination against its political opponents. So, in this context, the importance of the struggle of rebel prisoners and the solidarity movement is great. The opportunity to open cracks in the walls not only in prisons but within authority itself (and its image) is ahead of us. We understand the circumstances, we coordinate our actions, we join our views with passion against all authority, of any origin and rhetoric. Because anyone who loves freedom and hates injustice will always look for ways to destroy prison.

NO TRUCE WITH THE CIVILIZATION OF EXPLOITATION

VICTORY TO THE STRUGGLE OF THE HUNGER STRIKERS

IMMEDIATE SATISFACTION OF ALL DEMANDS

Nikos Romanos

E wing of Korydallos prison, 15/3/2015.

http://325.nostate.net/?p=15276

Brief von Nikos Romanos

Translated by Act for freedom now!

I am writing this text to critically evaluate the struggle we carried out, as it is an important legacy that needs to be analysed so that we can use it as a strategy compass for the hard days ahead.

The State, aware of the political defeat it suffered, is counter-attacking on other fronts of the struggle, so the continuation of a coordination based on specific agreements is necessary. Not only as a defensive battle position but as a conscious possibility of re-entering the chessboard with assertion as some comrades have rightly said.

During the hunger strike the State weighed up what the political cost of my possible extermination would be; the more the multi-form solidarity movement strengthened, the more the State changed its rhetoric. In brief we can say that the chameleons of government policies changed colour four times. From provocative indifference to superiority, then to a show of power, followed by panic. But let me be more specific.

“Provocative indifference”

The Ministry of Justice secured the intransigence of judicial authority through political orders right from the start of the hunger strike. This was obvious from the moment that the Special Appellate interrogator Nikopoulos took up the case. Up until then he had claimed to have no jurisdiction. This was confirmed when the Ministry of Justice made an announcement just before my claim was examined in another judicial council, in which the reason for my not getting the furlough was explained, passing on the responsibility to Nikopoulos’s negative decision.

This was something I realized and had communicated to the comrades beyond the walls in my intervention at the event in the Polytechnic, as well as in the text that I wrote during the hunger strike. That’s why my choice of making a claim to all the judicial councils had the precise aim of revealing the government’s political strategy, causing simultaneous hotbeds of increasing intensity, which is what happened as I shall explain better.

The phase of chronic indifference ends with my admission to hospital and the mainstream media’s focus on my case.

“Superiority”

The State mechanism had already planned its strategy for this phase and began the process of materialising it communicationally. Given, as I said, that it had secured the intransigence of judicial authority, it would then present an amendment which would seemingly solve the problem in the eyes of “public opinion”. The case would be followed through the distorting lens of the mainstream media, while it basically it was toughening its correctional policy even more by demonstrating the dogma of zero tolerance to all resistance.

On my back they attempted a restructuring of the correctional policy of the fascist legislation for the C’type prisons. This would now concern all prisoners, as no prison council would ever give an educational furlough because tele-conferencing would solve the problem, relieving them of their permanent fear of responsibility.

With this changing inter-State strategy the authorities want to demonstrate to their subjects that the struggle always makes things worse and that only they, like small gods, can help common mortals. This is how the State monopoly of violence is secured and State omnipotence is validated. This is why the State intensifies repression after every guerrilla act, this is why the MAT (riot cops) beat people indiscriminately at protests, this is why the military councillors of the capitalist super-powers write in their manuals that in order to attack the morale of any resistance you must target the non-combatants. Because the aim is to internalize fear and turn everyone against those who are factually disputing the existent. This is exactly why all “provocative chatter”, theories that put the blame for repression on the urban guerrillas and the condemning of direct action give political support to power, consciously or unconsciously aligning with it.

Therefore, with this successful recipe in mind, governmental executives and known major-journalists vomited mud on me on a daily basis.

Athanasiou (ex-Minister of Justice) himself, before my claim was even examined in other judicial councils and forgetting the standard that executive authority does not intervene in judicial matters, said: “Even if god himself were to come down, Romanos would not get his furlough”. Soon we will live the days of the second coming, and despite being an anarchist I have begun to pray that the State be destroyed by divine intervention, maybe god has finally chosen the side of revolution. Judgement day is coming, Mr. Athanasiou, repent.

This and many others were targeted political interventions pointing to their superiority, wanting to make me believe that I had already lost. Suddenly a filthy riff-raff of politicians, columnists and commentators all had an opinion. With words that dripped blood they stressed that an unrepentant criminal cannot blackmail the State. They would really like to see me kiss the cross of repentance with which they sanctify their crimes, it would be a trophy for them to see an anarchist begging for mercy. A victory for them to write down in gold letters in the book of the history of subjugation those who did not bow their heads to their power. A victory I would never give them.

Demonstration of strength

The more the 6th of December approached along with whatever this means to each one, the hunger strike and the dynamics that developed around it emerged as a major political question for the regime.

The State, continuing the strategy I mentioned above, announced the voting of the amendment on December 9th and was ideologically and repressively prepared for the attack it was receiving. Meantime, through the mass media and prosecutor Evaggelia Marsioni the question of my force-feeding was rendered public. This happened so that in the eventuality of my dying they could give penal responsibility to the doctors, whom they had threatened to sentence to life imprisonment.

A characteristic example is the embalmed Tragas, who wondered why the doctors had not yet tied me to the bed in order to perform the force-feeding and could not understand why no one was bothering with the problems of other prisoners. Of course the sensitivity of this specific journalist was extremely selective since a few months earlier he had dedicated hours on end crying about the unfair treatment of slime-ball Lavrendiadis (banker accused of embezzlement), something obvious since Lavrendiadis had plenty of what Tragas was interested in, money.

Even the prime-minister of this cursed country, in a conflict he had with Tsipras in parliament for their own party reasons concerning my case, informed the whole of Greece that I have been sentenced to “15 years for a robbery with a Kalashnikov” in the style of a war correspondent under the influence of psychotropic-pharmaceuticals.

In the meantime major publishers and business lobbies prepared for war through their salaried pen-pushers. Some of the statements that came out just before the 6th of December are indicative.
“If the State retreats it will appear that it is giving privileged treatment because it was blackmailed”
“The hunger strike has become the reason for the most violent protests of the last 2-5 years while the State is called to save face against its defiers”

“No law-abiding class can give a furlough to someone indicted and convicted who does not respect the laws”
“Zero tolerance and undercover police on every block”
“Three days of suspense for Athens with 20.000 police officers on the streets”

And when the day came and prolonged enraged clashes broke out with the thousands of cops, all these people wondered about the failed operational plan of the police. What they cannot understand is that memory is a well-honed knife. Memory, present and future are connected with an invisible thread of pain and hope. Pain for those who were left behind and now appear only as ghosts that haunt their sleep. Hope for those who stubbornly seek the traces in the snow in the frantic course for a slave-less life. That is where the revolutionary perspective is born, in the constant insurrection that knows where it comes from, where it is and where it is heading. That is where all of us who believe in the force of the free human meet. And in the passing of time, in the turning of the circles we might be few or many but never alone.

“Panic”

The panic of the State mechanism made its appearance when they realized that the zero tolerance plan had failed and that contrarily revolutionary solidarity continued to grow, igniting a strong social polarization and forcing wider social forces to take a position for or against.

Their last spasmodic move was the negative decision of the Supreme Court the day the amendment was due to be voted in Parliament in order to blackmail me into accepting defeat, something that they did not succeed in doing since I started a thirst strike as well, as I had decided, in the final days.

Independently of this however the political world had realized that if the State murdered me with its attitude an insurrection would break out and it would be especially destructive for their political plans. It would have given the coup de grace to the economy that was expecting profits from the consumerist high of Christmas, it would have damaged the image of the country abroad because of the murderous attitude towards the hunger strike as well as the desperate attempt to present Greece as a country safe for tourists and investors, and at the same time stigmatize the political career of government officials.

This is why the same journalists, who a few days earlier had given a recital defending the dogma of zero tolerance, now call the government to find solutions wearing the suit of humanitarianism which is always well pressed and ready in the closet of democracy for such urgent situations. They stressed through the newspapers and TV channels that the hunger strike had created a time-bomb for the political scene.

In this logic Athanasiou publicly pleaded with me to end the hunger strike and the opposition’s representatives proceeded to make declarations about the value of human life. Not because all these people were interested in my life but because they feared for political stability at a crucial time for them. Moreover it is not by chance that the amendment was voted in by all parties in order to reverse their defeat by presenting it as a victory of democracy that saved a human life. The State has always had the tendency to present its retreats as charity, the decision of the Supreme Court with which Kostas Sakkas was released after his hunger strike wrote that “he has been released for humanitarian reasons” and not because he had been in pre-trial detention for 2.5 years, also inside prison everything that has been conquered with struggles in past times are presented as “benefits”.

But besides the permanent hypocrisy of democracy there were some enemies who were honest, who said it as it was. I am speaking about ex-parliamentary representative Adonis Georgiadis who voted against the amendment and made an announcement explaining why he did it, saying that he refused to vote in the amendment because the State cannot be blackmailed and continues “if the State really wants to change this law, it should do so at a politically neutral time and not under negotiations and blackmail by a criminal convicted of bank robbery… That is to say the State, which to be called such must share its authority with no one, feared the reactions of the organized Brigades of Anti-authoritarians and Terrorists.” The second reason as he says is a flash ordinance which was formed and voted for one person. And he continues, “However I must publicly recognize that he is honest. He never bought the story the Media served us up. In all of his texts he defends his ideas and boldly states that he wants to win his freedom from the Bad State, so he can be in the streets of struggle again and do the same. As for Studies and Universities, just a few days ago he publicly claimed that universities do not interest him because they are also means of State repression.” And his text ends saying that “The Romans who gave the global standard on how States are organized, showed the way for the case of Romanos: DURA LEX SED LEX (a tough law but a law)”.

These opinions are not the individual opinions of Adonis Georgiadis, on the contrary they were the collective opinions of government executives as expressed during the hunger strike and prove that their initial target was to continue an extermination strategy which failed for the reasons I have explained above.

“Grasping the new facts”

In this short description I have tried to describe the most important facts and ways with which the State mechanism acted. The result of this political blackmail we carried out was that educational furloughs were granted to all prisoners whom the prison council had rejected, with electronic surveillance (ankle tag) after they have successfully passed 1/3 of the semester classes (two classes in my case) widening the use of the “tag” which had only been used for economic crimes and thefts for all prisoners independently of the crime, including law 187A (‘anti-terrorist law’) while the opinion of the investigator for those in pre-trial detainment has been abolished.

Because many critiques have come to light by comrades and “comrades” concerning the matter of the “tag”, I will explain my frame of thought.

Taking into consideration that all the legal routes had closed, the only solution was for the government to change its initial amendment. The opinion of the interrogator had to change and the furlough had to be conceded. This happened with the parameter of the tag because it simply could not happen in any other way. That is to say, how could they abolish the jurisdiction of the interrogator as they did and cancel the negative decision of the prison council as they did.

Undoubtedly the “tag” could in the future operate in order to put under digital captivity those under bail conditions, those who are released with conditions etc. No dispute about that, but in this case its application is defensive. And to put the matter differently, this would mean that with the escape of the 11 from Trikala prisons following which the first announcements about high security prisons were made, the prisoners with their choice legitimized C’type prisons, that comrade Maziotis who violated his bail conditions after the 18 month pre-trial detention period ended, legitimized the indefinite detainment of political prisoners. All this might sound like a Syriza (leftist political party) conference, the problem however is that they are also the opinions of specific comrades who accuse me of “legitimizing” the tag.

However, things are simple, life within the system is death transformed into a thousand faces. Every expression of this world is hostile ground where exploitation and subjugation dominate. All those who want to be called enemies of oppression must carefully study and analyse the moves of the opponent, process the internal clashes within the gulfs of authority, see the facts in their substantial dimension and through the lens of ideological formations, provoke social atomization in order to exploit the social objections in favour of this case, unleashing the anarchist war to the politically weakened enemy ground.

In the world we are living in there are no innocents let alone expressers of “clean-cut” viewpoints. These are usually dipped in the filth of inactivity and glance at real life from the summits of the glass towers of ideology, which will be blown up sooner or later along with their bosses.

All of us contribute more or less to feeding the social machine through our participation in the consumerist cycle, waged labour and much more. The sole and deep structural difference are those who choose to become sand as well as oil in its cog-wheels, setting fire to the social space-time of monotonous repetition and liberating messages, hopes, concepts and destructive intentions against the world of power. Hence our date for this chaotic point of no return.

“A step forward without illusions”

One of the main targets of the hunger strike was to create a struggle front at a time when so much is at stake for the system as well as those fighting against it.

A struggle front that was formed with words and acts, overcame fear, frigidity, fragmentation. With the persistence and rage of everyone it managed to bring back and light up anarchist direct action, warming the frozen nights and the hearts of many captive comrades, creating live hotbeds of the spread of subversive actions through dozens of occupations. It raised the existence of anarchist political prisoners inside Greek prisons to a central political level, clashed in the streets without inhibitions, connected the dots on the map of international revolutionary solidarity, spreading the rays of destruction in many countries around the world. Closing my eyes in the bed of the hospital my mind travelled behind flaming barricades and fortified roof tops, the dark alleys of a conspiratorial meeting, through occupied buildings where our banners and flags hung, to every spot where anarchy remained alive in the minds, hearts and hands of those comrades, all that filled me with strength and made me know that it was all worth it.

We keep all these positive signs of struggle as a legacy and look ahead. The point is for this struggle front to set aims, plan strategies, cause an aponeurosis to the dominant ideological propaganda and risk by striking neuralgic points of the regime.

Already as we speak the State has inaugurated the cement graves in which they will bury the political prisoners alive, a grand opening carried out with sudden transfers and raids of the EKAM (special forces). While government officials and Media speak of triumph through a new anti-terrorist campaign of the State mechanism to prevent an escape attempt of the prisoner members of the CCF from Koridallos prisons and by unleashing a witch-hunt against comrades through warrants and photographs.

So the question now is whether we will take a step forward without illusions, bare our teeth to the claws of repression that will inevitably attack us as a “reward” for our effectiveness, play it all or nothing now that the stability of the system has been threatened. This is the wager that must be made, not with harmless blabbering but through acts inside and outside the walls.

I believe a dynamic anti-election campaign using as a spearhead the C’type prisons and solidarity to political prisoners could create ruptures in the regime which is a topic in the foreign Media because different powerful geo-political interests are clashing for the model of managing bankrupted Greek capitalism which, unless something unexpected happens, will be a source of political instability and social intensities in the wider territory of Europe.

Now everyone should take their responsibilities and act consciously. The time is now and the place is here. Once more I would like to send out my love to those who stood by my side, fought, risked, dared.

You all have a special part in my heart.

FOR A POWERFUL STRUGGLE FRONT INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE PRISONS
BECAUSE WHOEVER FORGETS THEIR HOSTAGES FORGETS THE STRUGGLE ITSELF
SOLIDARITY TO ALL HOSTAGE AND WANTED COMRADES
STRENGTH TO ALL OF US!
LONG LIVE ANARCHY!

Nikos Romanos
Koridallos Prisons

January 2015

Quelle: http://325.nostate.net/?p=14732

Athen: Nikos Romanos hat seinen Hungerstreik beendet

Nikos Romanos, anarchistischer Gefangener in Griechenland war vom 10. November bis 10. Dezember im Hungerstreik. Im gerichtlichen Verfahren wurde sein Gesuch verweigert, im Rahmen von Bildungsurlaub Lehrveranstaltungen der Universität zu besuchen. Als Antwort darauf fanden vielfältige Solidaritätsaktionen innerhalb und außerhalb der Gefängnisse der griechischen Demokratie und auch international statt.

Vor allem war es die Dringlichkeit der Situation, die zu Straßenkämpfen führte und die Rebellion über das vom griechischen Staat kontrollierte Territorium beflügelte. Gleichzeitig tauschten GenossInnen bereitwillig Ideen und Sehnsüchte im Verlauf des Monats aus und verschiedenste Aktionsformen erblickten aufgrund des Hungerstreiks in Haft das Licht der Welt.: Transparentaktionen, direkte Aktionen, wie beispielsweise zahlreiche Brandstiftungen und Angriffe mit selbstgemachten Explosivstoffen (hauptsächlich gegen Bankautomaten), Angriffe auf die Polizei, Straßenkämpfe und massive Auseinandersetzungen mit Ordnungskräften, Errichten von Blockaden, Sabotageakte (unter Anwendung von Klebstoff, Farben usw), tätliche Angriffe gegen Repräsentanten der Macht, spontane Proteste gegen öffentliche Auftritte von PolitikerInnen, symbolische Besetzung von Radio- und Fernsehsendern, eine Besetzungswelle von staatlichen bzw. in Verbindung zu ihm stehenden Gebäuden oder Gegeninformationsversammlungen. Die Kreativität und Konfliktualität verschiedener anarchistischer Einzelpersonen und Gruppen sind vermutlich nicht stark und entschieden genug, um den Kampf in gleicher Intensität auf Alltagsebene weiterzuführen. Es gibt aber immer die Chance, dass neue Projekte aus den letzten Begegnungen der GefährtInnen in besetzten Gebäuden, Aktionen auf der Straße, usw. hervorgehen. Jedoch, nur wenn Menschen, die in Solidarität zu Nikos Romanos stehen, insbesondere AnarchistInnen, bereit sind über die Besonderheiten, die sich in den letzten Tagen seines Streiks ereignet haben, zu reflektieren und sich darauf vorbereiten, eine dringend benötigte Solidarität angesichts eines neuen Hochsicherheitsgefängnisses in Domokos, so wie die allgemeine Verschlechterung der Gefängnisbedingungen zu praktizieren.

Nachdem er seinen ersten Antrag wiederholt auf rachsüchtige Weise abgelehnt sah, wurde er erpresst, die elektronische Fußfessel letztendlich doch als Möglichkeit zu akzeptieren, um Bildungsfreigang zu bekommen, als “einen letzten Ausweg”, der umso dringender wurde, da sein Gesundheitszustand sich rapide verschlechterte. Tatsächlich stoppte er seinen Hungerstreik erst, nachdem das Parlament fast einstimmig (laut offiziellen Berichten mit Ausnahme zweier Abgeordneter der führenden Regierungspartei, während Abgeordnete der Neonazipartei bei der Abstimmung offenbar quasi-präsent waren) zugunsten der Novelle abstimmte, die der Justizminister eingebracht hatte. Diese Novelle bezieht sich auf Gefangene – Strafgefangene (gerichtlich verurteilt) und Verklagte (die auf ihren Prozess warten) – die das Recht haben an einer Institution für höhere Bildung, falls es in der selben Region der staatlichen Einrichtung, in der sie eingekerkert sind eine gibt, ein Studium aufzunehmen aber de facto keinen Bildungsfreigang bewilligt bekommen haben, um ihre Kurse regulär besuchen zu können. Es definiert, dass jeder und jede dieser Gefangenen in einem Semester eines akademischen Jahres 1/3 Kurse und Praktikumsaktivitäten erfolgreich belegt haben müssen, indem sie sie durch Fernkurse abschließen. Nur dann wird der Anspruch auf Bildungsfreigangstage, an denen sie die elektronische Fußfessel tragen müssen, um an den Kursen physisch teilzunehmen, gewährt. Der Justizminister nahm die Verordnung zur elektronischen Fußfessel erst im letzten Moment mit auf und stellte dabei sicher, dass die entsprechenden Disziplinarkammern (Gefängnisräte) den Antrag eines/einer Gefangenen auf Bildungsfreigang immer noch ablehnen können, sofern sie eine “besondere Rechtfertigung” für ihre Negativentscheidung geltend machen (selbst nachdem der oder die Gefangene die benötigten Fernkurse innerhalb der Gefängnismauern abgeschlossen hat und wie wir annehmen selbst wenn er oder sie die Überwachung mittels Fußfessel außerhalb der Mauern akzeptiert). Diese Gesetzesnovelle gilt für alle Fälle verurteilter und auf ihren Prozess wartender Gefangener, die vom Studentenfreigang ausgeschlossen sind (also nicht nur in Nikos Romanos Fall). Fast alle politischen Parteien hatten bei dieser Gelegenheit durch die Förderung weiterer repressiver Maßnahmen gegen Gefangene einen Wahlvorteil und verpassten gleichzeitig nicht ihre Chance mit ihrem humanitären und demokratischen Profil zu protzen.

Nikos beendete seinen Streik nach 31 Tagen, ringt aber immer noch nach ein paar Atemzügen der Freiheit. Aufgrund des Ergebnisses und da wir wissen, dass seine Forderung nicht erfüllt wurde, fordern wir, was ihm von vornherein hätte gewährt werden müssen: Bildungsfreigang vom Gefängnis.

Im Gegensatz zum weitverbreiteten Gefühl des “Sieges”, empfinden wir, dass, abgesehen des wertvollen Lebens unseres Genossen und der Erkenntnis, dass wir auf jede Erpressung durch die staatlichen Lakaien reagieren sollten, indem wir alle Formen des Kampfes gegen die Knastgesellschaft intensivieren, und zwar nicht irgendwann in ferner Zukunft sondern jetzt, nichts gewonnen wurde.

Wir stehen fest an der Seite der kämpfenden Gefangenen und gegen die Erzwingung des Gebrauchs von Telekonferenzen und elektronischer Fußfesseln als noch einer weiterer Methode zur Isolation der von Staat/Kapital Verurteilten. Die Solidarität mit Gefangenen muss jetzt mehr als jemals zuvor und mit allen nötigen Mitteln in die Offensive gehen.

Quelle: http://de.contrainfo.espiv.net/2014/12/18/athen-nikos-romanos-hat-seinen-hungerstreik-beendet/

Athens: Statement from Anarchist Nikos Romanos

Following 31 days of a tough and tenacious struggle, I end my hunger strike, having scored an important victory. The amendment voted in Parliament with me its single recipient, had important differences to the initial proclamation of the Minister of Justice, eventually meeting my demands – even if this involves me “wearing an electronic bracelet”.

The only thing certain is that this victory was an outcome of the political pressure applied for it by the people in struggle and Combative Anarchy are indisputably the great moral, political and practical victors. The multiform revolutionary struggle and us, as political prisoners, resurface from this struggle stronger than before.

I raise my fist, sending the warmest regards and my unlimited love to all those comrades who stood by my side.

BY ALL MEANS!
SOLIDARITY TO POLITICAL PRISONERS
LONG LIVE ANARCHY

PS: A detailed text will follow in the days to come.
PS2: I would like to also thank the hospital doctors who refused to bow to the pressure by the attorney regarding my forced feeding, and who supported me to the possible extent.

Nikos Romanos

11/12/14

Quelle: http://325.nostate.net/?p=13536

Kämpfe in Solidarität mit den hungerstreikenden Gefangenen in GR

Seit bald einem Monat sind in Griechenland anarchistische Gefangene im Hungerstreik. In den vergangenen Tagen und Wochen gab es zahlreiche Aktionen der Solidarität (sowohl in Griechenland wie auch ausserhalb). So wurde das Polytechnikum in Athen besetzt, die Versammlung der Besetzenden hat dazu bereits zwei Statements veröffentlicht. In Kavala wurde ein grosses Transparent gehängt, in Exarchia kam es zu Strassenkämpfen mit der Polizei (Videos unten). Nikos Maziotis’ Erklärung der Solidarität wurde in der Zwischenzeit auch auf Deutsch übersetzt.

Greek prisons: Words from Nikos Maziotis in solidarity with hunger striker Nikos Romanos

Anarchist Nikos Romanos is one of us. He is one of those who, like us, rebelled against Power, against law and order that wants people to be slaves, subservient and submissive; he is one of those who learned first-hand what “law and order” really means, when he witnessed the murder of his friend Alexandros Grigoropoulos by the dogs of the State, Korkoneas and Saraliotis.

Comrade Romanos is not one of those who seize the homes and assets of the people, as the bank that he expropriated does, action for which he has been sentenced. He is not the one who made the laws that the straight-laced politicians enact, the fathers of the nation who rob and murder the people and the workers to make the rich even richer. He didn’t steal the salary or the pension from any poor breadwinner, as the multinationals, bankers and powerful businesspeople, as well as their servants, the governments and parliamentarians, are permitted by law to do. He is not the one who made the laws that deprive the mouths of the poor of a food bite, the laws that murder thousands of people driving them to suicide, the laws that force people to eat out of garbage and sleep on the streets. Comrade Romanos is one of those who confront the blows with dignity, all the blows inflicted by the subservients of the State and the rich – slaves who are paid seven hundred euros each month to do their miserable job.

Since Monday, November 10th, 2014, the comrade has begun a hunger strike claiming the right to make use of educational furloughs. Nikos Romanos – just like Iraklis Kostaris, who is on hunger strike for the same reason – is one among the dozens of political prisoners and imprisoned fighters who are currently held in Greek prisons, at a time when the policy of social genocide, imposed by the Capital and the State on the occasion of the economic crisis, is linked with the hardening of repression in general but also especially against captive combatants, many of whom are self-admitted members of armed revolutionary organizations, or are being accused of armed struggle. The legislation for type C prisons with special conditions of detention, primarily aimed against political prisoners and imprisoned fighters, falls within this context. Each imprisoned comrade is one of us, so if we consider that the struggle for Freedom connects all of us, the struggle for Social Liberation from the yoke of the Capital and the State, then the claim of one is also the claim of all of us.

Nikos Maziotis, member of the Revolutionary Struggle
Diavata prison

Source: http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2014/11/19/greek-prisons-words-from-nikos-maziotis-in-solidarity-with-hunger-striker-nikos-romanos/