Tag Archives: Revolutionärer Kampf

Griechenland: Nikos Maziotis zu Wahlboykott und bewaffneten Kampf

“Das erste Mal links” – Das Land ist ein Pulverfass, ein Funke genügt, um Staat und Kapital hochzujagen

Athen – N. Maziotis, neue Übersetzung: “Das Land ist ein Pulverfass, es braucht nur einen Funken oder Zünder um Staat und Kapital hochzujagen.”

Bezüglich des neuen Memorandums und der Wahlen am 20. September

Das dritte Memorandum, das die SYRIZA Regierung abzeichnete, markiert den kompletten politischen Bankrott des linken Regimes und seines chimärischen Strebens nach einem “menschlicheren” Kapitalismus. Nach der Amtsübernahme letzten Januar markiert es außerdem den Kollaps des Versuchs der SYRIZA die Niederlage der sozialen Massenbewegungen der Periode 2010-2012 zu verwalten. Für diejenigen ohne Illusionen war die Zeit bis zur Annahme des 3. Memorandums einfach eine Phase des Wartens auf den vorhergesagten Rückzug von den Wahlversprechen, das Memorandum anzufechten, neu zu verhandeln und dem teilweisen Abschreiben der Schulden und der gleichzeitigen Politik der Armutsbekämpfung. Das Warten begann mit der Vereinbarung vom 20. Februar, welche das zweite Memorandum verlängerte und endete – trotz der Ablehnung der Forderungen der Gläubiger durch 62% der Wähler*innen am 5. Juli – mit dem dritten Memorandum, welches wesentlich härtere Maßnahmen vorsieht als das im Referendum abgelehnte. Innerhalb weniger Monate zog sich Syriza hinter seine “roten Linien” zurück, ergab sich komplett und akzeptierte die Forderungen der Gläubiger, diesmal viel brutaler als die von der Vorgängerregierung Samaras abgesegneten.

“Das erste Mal links” [Anm: πρώτε φορά αριστερά- ein populärer Syriza Slogan, der beansprucht sie wären die erste linke Regierung in der Geschichte Griechenlands, als ob sie irgendwie anders als PASOK wären] und die totale Demütigung des Willens der sozialen Mehrheit, die Politiken des Memorandums loszuwerden, welche sie zu Leibeigenen des Marktes macht, ist beispiellos.

“Das erste Mal links” und es gab schneller und lauter widerhallend Leugnung und Betrug der Erwartungen als durch alle vorherigen Regierungen, der sich das politische Gedächtnis entsinnen könnte. “Das erste Mal links” und die Troika, umgetauft in “Die Institutionen”, wurde das erste Mal vierteilig, denn neben der EU, der EZB und dem IWF, welche die wirklichen Herren des Landes sind, dürfen wir jetzt auch noch den europäischen Stabilitätsmechanismus (ESM) begrüßen, bei dem die Syriza-Regierung neue Schuldenabkommen beantragte und das 3. Memorandum unterschrieb. “Das erste Mal links” und der Raubzug gegen die Bevölkerung und insbesondere die Armen eskaliert mit weiteren Lohn- und Rentenkürzungen, mit der Erhöhung des Renteneintrittsalters, mit grausamen Steuererhöhungen und der Plünderung öffentlichen Eigentums durch weitere Privatisierungen. Das linke Regime führt passenderweise die Politik des sozialen Völkermords fort, den die Regierung Papandreou (und damit der “linke” Flügel des PASOK) eingeleitet hatte und die von der Samaras-Regierung mit der Unterzeichnung des 2. Memorandums fortgesetzt wurde. Die Namen von Tsipras, Varoufakis, Dragasaki, Skourletis, Pappas, Voutsis, Lafazanis können zur Liste der kriminellen Politiker wie Papandreou und Venizelos, Papaconstantinou, Loverdos, Chrisochoïdis, Samaras, Mitsotakis, Vroutsi, Georgiadis und anderen, die als Marionetten der internationalen wirtschaftlichen Elite agierten, dazu gefügt werden. Mit der Verabschiedung des 3. Memorandums hat Syriza allerdings in Wahrheit seinen eigenen politischen Bankrott und die politische Ächtung unterschrieben, denn um die neuen Vereinbarungen mit den Gläubigern durchzupeitschen, basierte die Unterstützung mehr auf den Stimmen der Opposition, der “pro-europäischen” Parteien ND, Potami und PASOK, welche zur Spaltung des Syriza führte und zu vorzeitigen Neuwahlen am 20. September zwangen. Diese Entwicklungen zeigen das Ausmaß der Blamage des bourgeoisen Parlamentarismus und das das System mehr destabilisiert ist als jemals zuvor. Der “Sozialen Mehrheit”, den Hungrigen, den Verarmten, den Notleidenden, den Arbeitslosen, den Obdachlosen, den Arbeiter*innen und Jugendlichen bleibt erst recht nichts zu erhoffen von diesen Wahlen. Wie ich bereits zu den vorherigen Wahlen des Januars 2015 ausgeführt hatte, kann die Lösung nicht durch Wahlen erfolgen, sondern nur durch die Bevölkerung in Waffen. Niemand hat etwas zu erhoffen von den Kriminellen der politischen Parteien, diesen nützlichen Idiot*innen und Marionetten der internationalen wirtschaftlichen Eliten und der Europäischen Union, den Umsetzer*innen der Politik der Memoranden, auch hat niemand irgend etwas zu erwarten von den “anti-Memorandum-Erretter*innen”, die sich aus dem Zerbrechen des Syriza entwickelt haben, der “Volkseinheit”, der ehemaligen “Linken Plattform” im Syriza-Bündnis, der Unterstützer*innen der Idee einer eigenen nationalen Währung, die sich ständig als anti-memorandum präsentieren. Die “Volkseinheit” (LAE) ist selbst insolvent und unglaubwürdig, genauso insolvent and unglaubwürdig wie Syriza war, bevor es an die Macht kam, als es mit anti-memorandum Rhetorik und einem unrealistischen sozial-demokratischen und keynesianischen Programm auftischte. Diese Entwicklungen eines neuen “linken Memorandums” bestätigen unsere Voraussagungen als “Revolutionärer Kampf” bezüglich der Transformation des Syriza zu einer neoliberalen Partei, was wir, lange bevor es an die Macht kam, voraussagten. Mit nunmehr allen politischen Parteien diskreditiert, mit PASOK und ANEL nicht weit weg von ihrer Inexistenz, mit Syriza, innerhalb von 7 Monaten bankrott und umgewandelt in eine schlicht neoliberale Partei und mit dem ND wegen dem 2. Memorandum schrumpfend, mit der LAE, die niemanden überzeugt mit ihrer Adoption des alten, gescheiterten sozialdemokratischen Programms des Syriza und mit einem großen Teil der Gesellschaft, der dem politischen System den Rücken kehrt und den Wahlen fern bleiben wird und mit nicht der geringsten Chance der Entstehung einer Mehrheitsregierung, befindet sich das Land in einem Zustand der permanenten politischen Instabilität, den jene, die den revolutionären Umsturz wollen, ausnutzen sollten. Der Bankrott von Syriza hat Illusionen über eine systemimmanente Lösung sozialer, aus der Krise entstandener Probleme vertrieben, denn die Rettung des Systems benötigt die Versklavung und die Vernichtung großer Teile der Bevölkerung. Das Land ist ein Pulverfass und braucht bloß einen Funken oder Zünder, um Staat und Kapital hochzujagen. Die Tatsache, daß das 3. Memorandum während einer allgemeinen sozialen Apathie beschlossen werden konnte, als nur wenige raus auf die Straßen kamen und sich an den Zusammenstößen des 15. und 22. Juli beteiligten, liegt in der Sackgasse begründet, in der die sozialen Massenbewegungen in der Periode des 1. Memorandums 2010-2012 steckten, der Sackgasse der Perspektivlosigkeit und eines fehlenden Plans zum revolutionären Umsturz von Staat und Kapital und dem Fehlen einer politisch-militärischen Kraft, die beabsichtigt den Umsturz durchzuführen, sozusagen eine revolutionäre Bewegung. Diese Situation sollte uns allerdings nicht entmutigen.

Revolutionäre haben nie darauf gewartet, daß sich die Massen spontan erheben oder weil sie dazu mobilisiert werden; normalerweise gehen sie ihren Weg indem sie zuerst das Beispiel antagonistischer Aktion geben und sie ihren Vorteil aus der Unruhe an der Basis der Gesellschaft ziehen. Es gab nie vorteilhaftere Bedingungen zur Aktion, für Kämpfe, für Revolution, weil das Regime sich entwertet hat und instabil ist; und es gab nie schlimmere subjektive Bedingungen, Apathie, Leben in der Sackgasse und Resignation, wegen dem Fehlen an Perspektive und Hoffnung. Unsere Aufgabe ist es zu handeln, um die unvorteilhaften Bedingungen zu ändern, zu Hoffnung und Stärke zu Revolte und Umsturz zu inspirieren. Die Aktion besteht darin ein längst instabiles System weiter zu unterminieren und zu destabilisieren, die Sabotage der herrschenden Politiken zur Durchfühung der Memoranda und Rettungsprogramme, die Sabotage der Politik, die darauf abzielt, Investitionen multinationalen Kapitals in das Land durch Privatisierungen und Ausverkauf des gesellschaftlichen Eigentums zu ermöglichen, die Sabotage des sich verschärfenden sozialen Diebstahls und des sozialen Genozids.

Die Adaption dynamischer Formen der Aktion, Guerillakrieg und bewaffneter Kampf ist die notwendige Wahl zur Sabotage der herrschenden Politiken. Bombardement oder bewaffnete Aktion eines massiven Maßstabs, gegen Büros, Einrichtungen, Strukturen oder Einheiten der Regierung und des lokalen und internationalen Kapitals könnte das Regime noch weiter destabilisieren, Investitonen abschrecken und den Ausverkauf stoppen, indem das Land unsicher für Investoren wird. Neben der Adaption von Guerilla und bewaffneten Kampf verbinden sich unsere Kämpfe mit anderen Formen der Aktion, wie z.b. den militanten Protesten am 15. Juli, den Besetzungen oder Entlastungsaktionen für die sozial Schwachen und Verletzlichen und sie könnten soziale und populäre Akzeptanz finden und so auf dem Pfad des revolutionären Umsturzes Fuß fassen. Allerdings kann der Umsturz des kapitalistischen Staates nur durch den Rückgriff auf die Waffen garantiert werden, durch bewaffnete Einnahme von Hochburgen des Feindes, Parlament, Ministerien, Banken, der griechischen Bank und die Entwaffnung von Polizeistationen. In einer Zeit, in der alle Illusionen zerplatzen, ist bewaffnete soziale Revolution der einzige Weg vorwärts, der einzige Weg uns selbst vor dem sozialen Genozid zu retten, der uns von den internationalen ökonomischen Eliten und dem Staat aufgezwungen wird…

Um zu verhindern, daß wir weitere Tote durch Selbstmord, heilbare Krankheiten und der Kürzung zu Lasten der Grundbedürfnisse zählen müssen. Um Kinder davor zu schützen durch Hunger und Unterernährung in Ohnmacht zu fallen.

Um soziale Klassen und den Staat abzuschaffen.

Um den gesellschaftlichen Reichtum zu sozialisieren.

Um in Würde zu leben und das Leben in unsere Hände zu nehmen. Lassen wir uns nicht darüber hinweg täuschen, daß all dies nicht ohne Ziele und Pläne geschafft werden kann oder wir nicht in der Lage sind sie populär zu machen und wir uns auf einen sterilen Insurrektionalismus beschränken oder wir alternative Illussionen hegen von peripheren selbstorganisierten “Inseln der Freiheit” und Unternehmen, die den Staat umzingeln und dafür sorgen, daß die Ökonomie des Marktes verschwindet.

Lassen wir uns auch nicht darüber täuschen, daß all dies stattfinden wird ohne unser Leben und unsere Freiheit zu riskieren …Wie die Geschichte zeigt, wächst der Baum der Freiheit nur getränkt von Blut.

KEINE WAHL ILLUSIONEN

BEWAFFNETE SOZIALE REVOLUTION

N. Maziotis, Mitglied des Revolutionären Kampf, Knast von Korydallos

‘Concerning the New Memorandum and the Elections of 20 September’ by Nikos Maziois of R.O.- Revolutionary Struggle (Greece)

The 3rd Memorandum signed by the SYRIZA government marks the complete political bankruptcy of the left regime and the chimerical aspirations for a more “humane” capitalism. After taking office last January, this marks the collapse of the attempted Syriza management of the defeat of the popular social movements from the period 2010-2012. For those who had no illusions, this whole period until the adoption of the 3rd Memorandum represents simply a waiting period for the predicted backtracking, where the campaign promises to repeal or renegotiate the Memorandum and partial cancelling of the debt along with a parallel policy for the relief of the poor was first followed by the agreement of February 20 which extended the second memorandum, and then came (despite the disapproval of 62% of the voters in the referendum of July 5 rejecting the proposals of lenders) the third memorandum which is much worse than the measures rejected in the referendum.

Within a few months, Syriza crossed over its “red lines” in complete retreat and acceptance of the creditors’ demands, towards the acceptance of a Memorandum far more brutal than that which was voted by the previous Samaras government.

“First time left” [note: πρώτε φορά αριστερά- a popular Syriza slogan claiming that they were for the first time a left government in Greece’s history, as if they were somehow different from PASOK] and the total humiliation of the will of the social majority to get rid of Memorandum policies that make them serfs of the markets is unprecedented.

“First time left” and there was a quicker and more resounding denial and betrayal of expectations than all prior governments in political memory.

“First time left” and the Troika, now called “the institutions”, became officially quadripartite, since besides the EU, the ECB and the IMF who are the real masters of the country, now we also have the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) from which the SYRIZA government requested new loan agreements and signed the third memorandum.

“First time left” and the robbery against the people and the poor continues to further reduce wages and pensions, to increase the retirement age, for more savage taxation, and further accepting the privatization of public property. The left regime appropriately continues the politics of societal genocide launched in 2010 by the Papandreou government [the left of PASOK] with the first memorandum and which continued with the Samaras government signing the second memorandum.

The names of Tsipras, Varoufakis, Dragasaki, Skourletis, Pappas, Voutsis, Lafazanis, are added to the list of criminal policians such as Papandreou and Venizelos, Papaconstantinou, Loverdos, Chrisochoïdis, Samara, Mitsotakis, Vroutsi, Georgiadis and others who acted as puppets for the international economic elite.

With the passage of the third memorandum, SYRIZA signed in reality their political bankruptcy and condemnation, because in order to pass the new agreement with the lenders, support was based more on the votes of the opposition pro-European parties ND, Potami, PASOK, which led to the Syriza split which forced them to early elections on 20 September. These developments demonstrate the disgrace of bourgeois parliamentarism and that the political system is more destabilized than ever.

The social majority, the hungry, the poor, the destitute, the unemployed, the homeless, workers and youth have nothing to hope for from these elections as well. As I said before referring to the previous elections of January 2015, the solution is not given by elections, but by the people in arms.

No one has anything to hope from the criminals of political parties, the useful idiots and puppets of the international economic elites and the European Union, the implementers of the memorandum policies. No one has anything to hope from the new “anti-memorandum saviors” that emerged from the breakup of SYRIZA, Popular Unity, the former Left Platform of SYRIZA, supporters of adopting a national currency who present themselves as consistently anti-memorandum.

Popular Unity (LAE) is itself insolvent and unreliable, just as insolvent and unreliable as was Syriza well before taking power- when it appeared with anti-memorandum rhetoric and an unrealistic social-democratic and Keynesian program. These developments of the new “left Memorandum” have justified our prediction as Revolutionary Struggle concerning the transformation of SYRIZA into a neoliberal party, which we made long before they came into power. With almost all the political parties discredited, with PASOK and ANEL not far from inexistence as parties, with SYRIZA bankrupt within seven months and becoming a purely neoliberal party, with ND shrinking because of the second memorandum, with LAE not persuading anyone by adopting the old unworkable social-democrat program of SYRIZA, with a large part of society turning its back on the political system by abstaining from electoral illusions, and without any chance of a majority government, the country is in a status of permanent political instability, which those who want a revolutionary overthrow should exploit.

The bankruptcy of SYRIZA dispelled illusions about solving social problems due to the crisis within the existing system, because saving the system requires the enslavement and destruction of large sections of the population.

The country is a powder keg and needs only a spark or a detonator to blow up capital and the state

The fact that the 3rd left Memorandum passed amid general social apathy, with only a few people coming to the streets on 15 and 22 July for clashes, is the result of the deadlock of the major social and popular movements of the period of the First Memorandum from 2010-2012, a deadlock due to the lack of perspective and proposals for the revolutionary overthrow of capital and the state and the lack of an organized political-military force that will attempt to undertake the overthrow, that is to say, a revolutionary movement. But this situation should not disappoint us.

Revolutionaries have never acted by waiting for the masses to rise up spontaneously or get mobilized; rather they made their way by first giving the example of antagonistic action and taking advantage of turmoil at the base of society. There have never been more favorable objective conditions for action, for struggles, for revolution, because of the devaluation and instability of the regime; and there were never were worse subjective conditions, apathy, deadlock, and resignation, due to a lack of perspective and hope.

Our duty is to act in order to change the unfavorable conditions, to inspire hope and strength to revolt and overthrow. This action consists in destabilizing and undermining an already unstable system, the sabotage of the ruling policies for the implementation of memoranda and rescue programs, the sabotage of the policy that aims for investments of multinational capital in the country by privatizations and sell-offs of public property, the sabotage of the ongoing social theft and societal genocide.

The adoption of dynamic forms of action, guerrilla war and armed struggle, is a necessary choice for the sabotage of the ruling policies. Bombings or armed action on a massive scale, against offices, facilities, structures or entities of government and of local and international capital could destabilize even more the regime to deter investment and halt the selling off of public property, in making the country unsafe for investors.

Our struggles, besides the adoption of the guerrilla and armed struggle, connect with other forms of action- such as the violent protests of this July 15, with squats or relief actions of the socially weak and vulnerable, these may have social and popular acceptance and so be footholds on the path to revolutionary overthrow. But the overthrow of the capitalist state can only be guaranteed by the recourse to arms, the armed seizure of enemy strongholds, parliament, ministries, banks, the Bank of Greece and the disarming of the police stations.

At a time when all illusions dissolve, armed social revolution is the only way forward, the only way to save ourselves from societal genocide imposed by the international economic elites and the state…

To avoid counting other deaths from suicides, diseases, shortages of basic goods.
To prevent children fainting from hunger and malnutrition.
To abolish social classes and the state.
To socialize collective wealth.
To live with dignity and to take our life in our hands.

Let us not delude ourselves that all this can be done without having goals or proposals, or by being unable to popularize our proposals and confined to a sterile insurrectionism or having alternative illusions concerning peripheral self-managed “islands of freedom” and ventures that will surround the state and make the market economy disappear.

Let us not delude ourselves that all this can be done without risking our lives for freedom …For as history has shown, the tree of liberty grows only with blood.

NO ELECTORAL ILLUSIONS
ARMED SOCIAL REVOLUTION

N. Maziotis,
Member of Revolutionary Struggle,
Korydallos Prison

Source: http://325.nostate.net/?p=17298

Statement by Nikos Maziotis to the appeals court at the first trial of the Revolutionary Struggle on July 7 – Concerning the bankruptcy of the country (Greece)

As is well known, the repressive attack by the state against Revolutionary Struggle in 2010, as an historical fact, was a counterpart to the signing of the first memorandum by the Papandreou government and bringing the country under the authority of the IMF, the ECB, and the EU. As was said at the time by a government official, our arrests prevented “a large terrorist attack that would have ended the economy,” a statement proving the dangerousness of the action of Revolutionary Struggle at a critical juncture for the regime.

The first trial against the organization was in the period of the application of the first memorandum, developments that included controlled bankruptcy proceedings and imposed a social policy of genocide and euthanasia towards segments of the population that caused thousands of deaths so far, and poverty, hunger and misery. When the first trial started in October 2011, we had stated that the trial was conducted in a period awaiting formal bankruptcy of the country, which did not happen then, because there was unveiled a controlled bankruptcy regime in order to save the lenders, the then holders of Greek bonds and to defend the Eurozone from the risk of transmission of the Greek crisis.

It is an irony of history that ultimately the bankruptcy of Greece is associated with the days of the leftist Syriza government almost four years later, which announced a referendum on the question YES or NO to the proposals of lenders for the new memorandum that they will sign. Along with the bankruptcy of the country comes the bankruptcy of the left social-democratic illusions that promised state interventions in favor of the workers and the poor of the EU inside a globalized neoliberal environment.

In our most recent attack on 10/04/2014 on the Annex to the ECB Supervision Department of the Bank of Greece (which housed the office of the permanent representative of the IMF in Greece), in our responsibility claim, we recognized almost a year in advance what the Syriza government would do. We diagnosed the impossibility of their program and their declarations, and we highlighted the hypocrisy of their representatives. Some of them then were speaking about non-recognition of debt, others a restructuring or debt haircut. Others supported the abolition of the Memorandum, and yet they all ended up leading to its renegotiation.

The majority of Syriza officials proclaim a steady course for Greece inside the EU and the euro area, while the left tendency support the country’s exit from the euro and the adoption of the drachma, but inside the EU. After assuming power, the Syriza followed a predictable course. In total contrast to pre-election declarations, they recognized the totality of the debt and its repayment, recognized memorandum agreements, recognized monitoring and evaluation of the Greek economy by the technical teams of the Troika -the multinational organizations of the IMF, the ECB, and EU– which have been renamed for communication purposes, no longer the Troika, but the institutions.

On February 20, 2015, the government of Syriza confirmed a total retreat with its signing of the bridging agreement for Memorandum No. 2 that the Samaras government had signed in November 2012. Alongside this they conducted negotiations for the agreement of a new memorandum with lenders. But their retractions, contradictions, and vacillations made the Syriza government seem in the eyes of the lenders unreliable for the management of the Greek crisis, which has resulted in economic suffocation and bankruptcy of the country. Lenders knew in advance that time was on their side and that they could force the Syriza government to accept their terms with the weapon of economic strangulation and the threat of bankruptcy.

They know that a Greek default and exit from the eurozone does not negate the country’s obligations to repay the debt, which all Greek governments have signed off on from 2010 onwards.

The government of Syriza came to grief because while they launched a referendum to accept or refuse the proposals of lenders after withdrawing from the negotiations, after the referendum announcement they returned begging for the resumption of negotiations by accepting the majority of the lenders’ proposals. The referendum was a public-relations exercise of the Syriza government to manage their own political bankruptcy, regardless of the outcome of the referendum.

The course taken by the Syriza government proves what we as Revolutionary Struggle claimed in our announcement for the Bank of Greece attack, that, “Syriza, after a long march of political retreats, contradictions and a reversal to ‘political realism’ , indicates the very impossibility of a stable social democratic model in our time, it tends more and more clearly to become a protest party of the neoliberal economic model but with a predetermined total retreat on all issues of crisis management. The acceptance of all the dominant structures, mechanisms and alliances, the acceptance of the EMU, the euro, the EU, the removal of positions for the abolition of the Memorandum and unilateral cancellation of the debt show that the development of a social-liberal party with a social democratic façade becomes –even before they take power, assuming they take power– that they are provided to ensure approval and support for the economic bloc of authority”.

A bit more than a year later, we of Revolutionary Struggle confirm the political bankruptcy of Syriza. The political bankruptcy of Syriza and the expected fall of the government sooner or later proves the impossibility of solving problems highlighted by the capitalist crisis through reforms within the economic market system and bourgeois parliamentarism. This shows what for years Revolutionary Struggle claimed, that “the only realistic solution to the crisis is social revolution”, the action of sections of society and the population for armed confrontation with the regime, for the overthrow of capital and the state in Greece. Social revolution is real rupture. The cause of the crisis is the very existence of capitalism and the market economy, the existence of class and social divisions, the perpetual cycle of capital investment for profit and reinvestment of these profits for even greater profit, a process whose seamless continuation is a sign of capitalist prosperity and whose stopping signals crisis.

As Revolutionary Struggle, in replying to the euro or drachma dilemma, we have argued that the adoption of the drachma in Greece within the framework of the EU and with intact memorandum agreements that prohibit debt default on the part of the debtor, or its conversion from euros to a national currency, not only will not reduce the debt but will rather increase it, and also reduce the purchasing power of salaries of employees, which would mean a deterioration of living standards and increasing poverty.

The issue of currency does not by itself solve any problems. It does not solve the problem of debt, poverty, misery, hunger, death from hardship, illnesses, suicides. No solution is found within the capitalist system. No solution is found in the proposals of parties, no solution results from elections for the bourgeois parliament or from the referendums of authority.

As Revolutionary Struggle, against the continuation of the current policy imposed by the multinational economic elites (i.e. the fascism of the markets), a policy whose exponents are most of the parties including the Syriza government, and unlike the proposal for full nationalization of economic functions and centralized control– a proposal that failed historically– we recommend as a revolutionary solution the collapse of capitalism, the market economy and the state.

It is a more realistic solution, an armed uprising of the people which refuses to pay the debt, which does not recognize loan agreements and memoranda, which does not recognize and accept the euro and structures such as the European Union that have no other purpose than to make them serfs of the markets.

It is a more realistic solution– for an armed uprising of the people that would expropriate the property of the capitalists, the movable and fixed property, the means of production whether from multinationals, banks, or local capitalists, from all those who have purchased state property, business utilities and whatever is left in the hands of the state.

It is a more realistic solution– for the socialized ownership of private and state capital, managed by councils of workers and popular assemblies. The same applies to all sectors of societal production, such as health and education, where the management will be exercised by workers and those who participate with them.

It is a more realistic solution– for the implementation of a social revolution of direct democracy that will immediately eliminate the state and bourgeois parliamentary political professionals responsible for the management of social affairs instead of the people and workers, and in its place will put a confederal system of workers councils and popular assemblies, in which everyone will participate, speak and take decisions together on all social matters affecting them in the workplace, schools, hospitals, universities, neighborhoods, villages or cities.

The choice of our time is not yes or no to the proposals of lenders, it is not between a hard or less hard memorandum, or for the euro or the drachma. The choice is capitalism or revolution.

Nikos Maziotis, member of Revolutionary Struggle
Korydallos prison

Source: http://325.nostate.net/?p=16723

Nikos Maziotis: Griechenland’s Zahlungsausfall und der Austritt aus der EU und dem EURO

Die SYRIZA Regierung bricht zusammen. Der griechische Zahlungsausfall und der Austrittsprozess aus der Eurozone, von den Kreditinstitutionen vorgesehen, begann schon 2010 und steht heute für den Anfang vom Ende der SYRIZA-Regierung. Die Umsetzung des Memorandum von 2010 steht für eine Phase im planmässigen griechischen Zahlungsausfall. Dieses Memorandum ist ein Beschluss der Überstaatlichen Wirtschaftselite zur Unterstützung und Sicherung des Euros und den Ausschluss eines Mitglieds was mittlerweile als Krebsgeschwür, der Krise und der Verschuldung, wahrgenommen wird. Der Zahlungsausfall wurde von der Überstaatlichen Wirtschaftselite stets als Voraussetzung für die Rettung des Landes gesehen. Man hat auch nie die Verpflichtungen gegenüber den Gläubigern vernachlässigt. Dies wurde durch den Miteinbezug des IWF, EZB und der Europäischen Kommission nochmals versichert. Seit 2009 war Griechenland ein bankrottes Land, dies wusste sowohl die damalige Regierung von Georgios Papandreou als auch die EU. Seit 2010 vertrat die Überstaatliche Wirtschaftselite eine Zahlungseinstellungstaktik. Dies zum Schutz der Gläubiger die damals im Besitz von Griechenlandbonds waren, namentlich: französische, deutsche, britische und amerikanische Banken.

Das erste Ziel des Memorandum war ein Verbot gegen eine einseitige Aufhebung der Kreditrückerstattung seitens der Schuldner. In Folge dessen konnten alle Güter des Griechischen Staates eingefroren werden, um die Kreditrückzahlungen zu garantieren.

Zusätzlich wird nun kein griechisches Recht mehr, sondern angelsächsisches Recht angewendet. Dieses verbietet die Umwandlung des Kredits vom Euro in eine andere unterbewertete Währung. Der griechische Staat verzichtet auf die Souveränität der eigenen Güter, die nun alle unter Verwaltung der Kreditoren stehen. Das zweite Ziel des Memorandum war die Rückerstattung der griechischen Bonds und des Schuldentransfers an internationalen Organisationen wie der IWF, EZB und Mitgliederstaaten der EU. Dies gelang durch einen weiteren Kredit von 110 Billionen Euro, welcher die alten Schulden mit neuen ersetzt hat. Durch diesen Prozess der Vergrösserung des griechischen Bankrotts, konnten die Besitzer der griechischen Bonds ihre Abfall-Aktien mit kleinstem Verlust loswerden.

Dieser Prozess wurde auch mit dem PSI (Private Sector Involvement) vorangetrieben, als im März 2012 die Schulden umstrukturiert wurden. Die grossen Gewinner waren die ausländischen Banken und die grossen Verlierer die griechischen Banken, die griechischen Fonds für die soziale Sicherheit und die Kleinanleger.

Gleichzeitig drängte die Überstaatliche Wirtschafts- und Politikelite das Land in den Ruin. Dafür benutzte sie das Dilemma „Austerität oder Bankrottdesaster“ und vertrat für fünf Jahre eine Politik zivilen Völkermords und Euthanasie gegenüber der breiten Gesellschaftsschicht. Das Ergebnis sind tausende Tote und Arme, Hunger und Verelendung.

Das Endziel der Kreditgeber ist die Schaffung einer zweispurigen EU. Mit mächtigen Länder mit einem grossen Überschuss und schwächere die sich bei den anderen verschulden.

Wie wir von „Revolutionärer Kampf“ schon im Dezember 2008 in unserem Papier „Griechenland als Ausgangslage für den revolutionären Kampf machen“ sagten: Unser Austritt aus der EU und dem Euro ist heute eine Tatsache, die der Stärkung des Euros dient. Mit dem Voranschreiten der Krise und dem finanziellen Zusammenbruch eines europäischen Landes nach dem anderen, wird es für die EU, dem Euro und der ganzen Europäischen Union immer schwieriger zu überleben. Ein optimistisches Zukunftsszenario für die Union wäre eine Aufteilung, in der die stärkeren Länder mit grossem Überschuss über die schwächeren Länder bestimmen können. Periphere und bankrotte Länder der EU wären dann Protektorate, weil sie ihre politische und wirtschaftliche Souveränität aufgeben würden und den politischen wirtschaftlichen Direktiven der EU folge leisten müssten. Dieses Verhältnis wird von der EU gefördert und festigt einen „Zahlungsausfall Mechanismus.“

Fünf Jahre später konkretisiert sich dieser Prozess innerhalb der EU: der griechische Zahlungsausfall und der Ausstieg aus der Währungsunion. Durch diesen regelrechten Default-Prozess weiht Griechenland nun die zweite Spur der EU ein. Alle griechischen Regierungen sind, seit dem Jahr 2010, diesen Ambitionen der Überstaatlichen Wirtschaftselite treu geblieben.

Die SYRIZA – Regierung geht noch schneller unter als ihre Vorgänger Samaras und Papandreou. Die Kreditinstitute haben sich für den Zahlungsausfall und den Ausstieg aus der Währungsunion entschieden. Selbstverständlich ohne irgendwas an den Rückzahlungsverpflichtungen zu ändern. Dies obwohl die SYRIZA schon nach den ersten fünf Monaten ihr Wahlprogramm verworfen hatte. Sie stimmte einer Rückzahlung zu und der Erweiterung des Memorandum Nr. 2. Sie überschritt in den Verhandlungen viele ihre sogenannten „Roten Linien“ und erhoffte sich dadurch ein neues Memorandum zu unterschreiben. Ein Memorandum, das SYRIZA selbst als rigider bezeichnet hat als das vom ehemaligen Finanzminister Hardouvelis. Die SYRIZA hat in fünf Monaten folgendes bewiesen: die Nichtumsetzbarkeit ihres Programms, wie unmöglich es ist ihre keynesianischen Reformen im heutigen globalisierten Neoliberalismus innerhalb der EU anzuwenden, wie widersprüchlich es war die Rückzahlungsverpflichtung zu akzeptieren und gleichzeitig den Mindestlohn erhöhen zu wollen, den Privatisierungen zustimmen und dennoch innerhalb der privatisierten Unternehmen als Staat vertreten zu sein. Man wollte weitere Kredite verlangen, obschon man sich weigerte die vertraglichen Bedingungen einzuhalten, nachdem diese explizit angenommen wurden als Gegenleistung für eine Rückzahlungsverlängerung bis zum 20 Februar 2015. Man verstrickte sich in heiklen Verhandlungen und überschritt die „Roten Linien“ als neue Massnahmen des Memorandums akzeptiert wurden. Es wurden neue Steuern erhoben, die Mehrwertsteuer stieg, das Einkommen und die Arbeitslosenversicherung sanken, dafür stieg die Arbeitslosigkeit. Dadurch erhoffte man sich die Kreditinstitute zu erpressen und drohte die Raten des Darlehens nicht zu bezahlen. Gleichzeitig hatte die SYRIZA am 20 Februar zugestimmt, das es keine einseitige Aufhebung der Rückzahlung gäbe, die griechischen Güter nicht eingefroren und verkauft bei einer Rückzahlung.

Offensichtlich hielten die Geldgeber die SYRIZA –Regierung für einen vertrauenswürdigen Partner und eine gute Administration der griechischen Krise. Der Vorschlag der Regierung eine Abstimmung am 5 Juli zu veranstalten, um auf die Vorschläge der Kreditoren einzugehen oder verwerfen, ist lediglich ein Nachrichtenmanagement des sinkenden Schiffs. Hinzu kommen Verschwörungstheorien, Putschverdachte und eine Wiederholung der Geschehnisse des vom Juli 1965, welche den Umsturz wollen.

In Wahrheit bricht die SYRIZA unter ihren Widersprüchen und Stillstand zusammen. Für die Abstimmung gibt es keine Grundlage. Fünf Tagen vor der Abstimmung, am 30 Juni, endet das Austeritätsprogramm. Das Land befindet sich schon im Zahlungsverzug. Somit gibt es weder Neuverhandlungen noch einen Einigungsvorschlag mit den Kreditinstitutionen. Übrigens, das Ergebnis wird keinen Einfluss auf den Staatsbankrott und den Euroaustritt haben. Beides ist nicht mehr aufzuhalten, genau wie der Untergang der Regierung.

Bei einem „JA“ für den Vorschlag der Kreditinstitute, wäre der Untergang unmittelbar, da die Regierung ein „NEIN“ empfiehlt. Gäbe es eine „NEIN“-Mehrheit, würde die Regierung ein wenig Zeit gewinnen. Sie ist dennoch völlig unvorbereitet und unfähig mit den Konsequenzen eines Staatsbankrotts und den Euroausstieg umzugehen. Sie wird irgendwann Untergehen.

Unabhängig vom Wahlergebnis bietet diese Abstimmung keine Lösung. Es geht um das Dilemma Drachme oder Euro, es bietet aber keine Lösung für die Probleme der Bevölkerung.

Wie wir vom „Revolutionären Kampf“ schon gesagt haben, tilgt der Euroausstieg und die Wiederaufnahme der Drachme innerhalb der EU keineswegs die Schulden oder die Verpflichtungen gegenüber dem Memorandum. Eine der Richtlinien des Memorandum verbietet die Umwandlung des Kredits vom Euro in eine andere unterbewertete Währung. Die Drachme würde die Schulden sogar vergrössern.

Die Anwendung der entwerteten Drachme würde zusätzlich die Kaufkraft der Arbeiter senken und somit den gesamten Lebensstandard. Was Armut und Verarmung steigern würde. Das Problem wird nicht einfach durch die Währungsfrage gelöst. Wer glaubt der Euroaustritt innerhalb der EU sei eine radikale Lösung macht einen grossen Fehler. Der Euroaustritt ist ein Wunsch der Kreditinstitute, um aus einem Land ein Protektorat innerhalb der EU zu machen. Somit vereinfacht es den Verkaufsprozess für die Schuldenrückerstattung.

Nur eine Mobilisierung von unten, der Umsturz von Staat und Kapital durch eine revolutionäre Bewegung wird die Schulden tilgen, das Land von der EU, der NATO und der Marktwirtschaft befreien und eine radikale Lösung darstellen. Sie würde einen neuen Gesellschaftsvorschlag einbringen. Eine Gesellschaft. die auf den libertären Kommunismus basiert, aufbauend auf eine Föderation einzelner Gemeinschaften, Arbeiterräte und Volksversammlungen. Die Bankrottpolitik der SYRIZA, der Staatsbankrott und der Euroaustieg, dessen Konsequenzen nicht mal die Geldgeber selbst kennen, schaffen für revolutionäre Kräfte eine Vielzahl von Möglichkeiten für die von uns vorgeschlagene Umsturzperspektive.

Stimmenthaltung beim Referendum

Nein zum Euro oder Drachme Dilemma

Die einzige Lösung ist die soziale Revolution und die Bewaffnung des Volkes

Nikos Maziotis

Koridallos Gefängnis

28 Juni 2015

Quelle aus dem Englischen: http://rotehilfech.noblogs.org/post/2015/07/03/nikos-maziotis-greeces-default-and-exit-from-the-emu/

Nikos Maziotis: Greece’s default and exit from the EMU

The SYRIZA-led government is collapsing. The Greek default and exit from the Eurozone, as choice of the lenders, is a process that started in 2010 and currently marks the beginning of the end of the SYRIZA government. The implementation of the memoranda from 2010 was one phase in the process of orderly default that the supranational economic elite had chosen, in order to ensure the sustainability of the Euro and to cut off one member that due to the debt crisis is considered gangrened and has to be expelled. Essentially, Greece’s default has always been regarded by the supranational economic elite as a prerequisite for its salvation, without even breaking the country’s obligations to the lenders, something that was ensured by the inclusion of the country into the power of the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission. Since 2009, Greece was already a bankrupt country and this was something known by both the then government of Georgios Papandreou and the European Union. The supranational economic elite, from 2010 onwards, followed an orderly default tactic so as to safeguard the lenders, the then holders of Greek bonds, the French, German, British and American banks.

The first aim of the memorandum was that it prohibited unilateral suspension of debt payments on the part of the debtor. On that basis, all of the Greek state-owned assets were frozen to ensure the repayment of the debt.

Additionally the debt passed from Greek to Anglo-Saxon law, prohibiting its conversion from Euro into any undervalued national currency. The Greek state gave up national sovereignty over its assets, all of which were transferred to the jurisdiction of the lenders. By granting the prior loan of 110 billion euros and replacing the old debt with a new one, the second objective of the memorandum was the repayment of the then holders of Greek bonds and the transfer of debt to the international organizations, the IMF, the ECB, and the European Union member states. With this process of extension of Greece’s default, the holders of Greek bonds, who investment-wise had junk bonds on their hands, were able to get rid of them with the least possible losses.

This process continued with the PSI in the debt restructuring that took place in March 2012, where the big winners were the foreign banks, and the big losers were Greek banks, Greek social security funds and small bondholders.

Parallel to this, the supranational economic and political elite turned the country into ruins, and using the dilemma “austerity or bankruptcy and disaster” for five years launched a policy of societal genocide and euthanasia for sections of the population, leading to thousands of deaths and poverty, hunger and immiseration.

The ultimate objective of the lenders is to create a two-track European Union, with powerful and big-surplus countries on the one side, and weak, indebted countries on the other.

As we mentioned as imprisoned members of Revolutionary Struggle, in December 2010, in our text Let’s Make In Greece the Beginning for a Global Social Revolution: “Our exit from the EMU [Economic and Monetary Union] is now considered a given to ensure the viability of the Euro. However, as the debt crisis is deepening, and one European country after another will collapse financially in the near future, it is difficult not only for the EMU to survive but for the European Union as well. The most optimistic scenario for the future of the Union is to create a formation where powerful and big-surplus countries will lead and bankrupt countries of the European periphery will be transformed into protectorates, as they will cede entirely their economic and political sovereignty to the political and economic directorates of Europe. This condition is being promoted in the European Union by establishing an orderly default mechanism.”

Almost five years later, this process takes shape with Greece’s default within the European Union and its exit from the EMU. Through the process of orderly default, Greece was slated to become the first country to inaugurate the two-speed European Union. All Greek governments, from 2010 until today, faithfully served these aspirations of the supranational elite.

The SYRIZA government is collapsing in a much shorter time than its predecessors, the Samaras and Papandreou governments. Despite the fact that within 5 months they renounced the plan for which they were elected, that they accepted the repayment of debt, and signed the extension of the existing memorandum No. 2, despite stepping over many of their red lines in the negotiations with the aim of signing a new memorandum agreement with the creditors – an agreement they admitted themselves was much harsher than the measures proposed by [ex-finance minister] Hardouvelis – the lenders decided on Greek default and exit from the EMU, with the debt obligations of course to remain intact. In five months in power, SYRIZA proved how impracticable was their program, how inapplicable were their Keynesian reforms pursued in a globalized neoliberal environment within the framework of the European Union, how contradictory it was to accept the debt repayment while seeking to increase the basic salary, to agree to privatizations and want the state to be represented in the privatized enterprises, to request financing from the lenders while not wanting to apply the terms of the loan agreement that they themselves agreed to extend on February 20, 2015, to engage in hard negotiations while stepping over red lines by agreeing to memorandum measures and indirectly, with the new taxes and VAT increase, to a further reduction of people’s income, layoffs and unemployment increase; to think they blackmail the lenders by threatening not to pay the loan installments while on February 20 they’ve agreed to sign that there cannot be a unilateral breach of debt payments and that the Greek state-owned assets are frozen and can be sold off unless they pay.

It is certain that all the while the lenders thought the SYRIZA-led government to be an unreliable partner and administrator of the Greek crisis. The July 5 referendum decided upon by the government, to accept or reject the proposals of the lenders, is nothing else but the communications management of its political shipwreck, accompanied by conspiracy theories and suspicions of a political coup and “new Iouliana” [in reference to July 1965 events] aiming at its overthrow.

But, in reality, the SYRIZA government collapses under the weight of its own contradictions and its own deadlock. The referendum has no material basis because 5 days before the vote, on June 30, the austerity program expires and the country is already in default status, so there’s no such thing as a new negotiation or a proposal for an agreement with the lenders. Furthermore, the outcome of the referendum whatever it is will have no influence on the country’s bankruptcy and exit from the EMU, both of which are unavoidable, nor will it avert the eventual collapse of the government.

In the case of “Yes” in the referendum on the proposal of the lenders, the collapse of the government will be much more immediate, given that they formally drafted it in favor of the “No”.

If indeed the majority who participate choose “No”, it is possible for the government to gain a bit of time, but it is completely incapable and unprepared to deal with the consequences of bankruptcy and exit from the EMU, so sooner or later its fall is given.

Regardless of the outcome though, the referendum is misleading because what really is at stake, namely the Euro or Drachma dilemma, does not provide any solution to the problems of the people.

As we have said as Revolutionary Struggle, Greece’s exit from the EMU and the adoption of the Drachma in the European Union framework leaves the problem of debt untouched, and does not invalidate the memorandum-related commitments. Since a term of the memorandum prohibits the conversion of the debt from Euro into any undervalued national currency, not only the adoption of the Drachma would not reduce the debt, but it would increase it.

Also, the adoption of the undervalued Drachma would lead to further devaluation in the purchasing power of workers, and thus deterioration of living standards, which will further increase poverty and immiseration. Therefore, the question of currency alone does not solve the problem. Those who think that the exit from the EMU inside the European Union is a radical solution are grievously mistaken. Currently Greece’s exit from the Eurozone is being sought by the lenders themselves to downgrade a country to a protectorate within the framework of the European Union so it can be sold more easily to repay its debts.

Only action from below, only the action of a Revolutionary Movement that will overthrow the capital and the state, will erase the debt, will pull the country out of the European Union itself, NATO and the market economy, would give a radical solution while proposing the reorganization of society on the basis of Libertarian Communism, based on a confederation of communities, workers’ councils and popular assemblies. Right now, the political bankruptcy of SYRIZA, the country’s bankruptcy and exit from the EMU – the consequences of which are unknown even to the lenders themselves – open up a range of opportunities for revolutionary forces, so that we advance the prospect of overturn.

Abstention from the referendum.

No to the Euro or Drachma dilemma.

The only solution is social revolution and the people in arms.

Nikos Maziotis
Koridallos prison

[June 28, 2015]

Quelle: http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2015/07/01/revolutionary-struggle-member-nikos-maziotis-text-ahead-of-referendum/

Update zum “Revolutionärer Kampf” Prozess (22.5.)

Der Berufungsprozess in Ahten vom Fall des “Revolutionären Kampf” begann heute, 22.5., wurde aber sofort bis zum 10. Juni verschoben, damit Nikos Maziotis mit seinem Anwalt kommunizieren kann. Nikos und Kostas Gournas wurden erst gestern (21.5.) von Domokos nach Korydallos in Athen verlegt.

——————-

The court of appeal of the trial in Athen of Revolutionary Struggle began today, 22.5.15, but was immediately stopped until the 10th of June, so that Nikos Maziotis can communicate with his lawyer.. Nikos and Kostas Gournas were transferred from Domokos to Korydallos prison in Athens just yesterday (21.5.).

Greek prisons – Revolutionary Struggle case: Nikos Maziotis and Kostas Gournas transferred to Koridallos prison ahead of second-instance trial

On May 21st 2015, the Solidarity Assembly for political prisoners & imprisoned and prosecuted fighters reported that the anarchist prisoners Nikos Maziotis and Kostas Gournas were transferred from Domokos prison to the dungeon in Koridallos women’s prison ahead of the second-instance trial on the Revolutionary Struggle’s first-period action (2003-2010).

Gournas and Maziotis are currently separated from other prisoners convicted as members of armed revolutionary organisations, who are also being held in the basement of Koridallos women’s prison (i.e. four CCF anarchists, and the convicted 17N member Iraklis Kostaris).

The appeal trial in the Revolutionary Struggle case (first-period action) will begin on Friday, May 22nd 2015, at 9am. The Solidarity Assembly for political prisoners & imprisoned and prosecuted fighters call everyone to express their solidarity with the comrades on trial and attend court proceedings at Koridallos prison.

The comrades who were sentenced in the first-instance court ruling are the prisoners Kostas Gournas and Nikos Maziotis, as well as the fugitive Pola Roupa, who have assumed political responsibility for their participation in the organisation, but also the conditionally released Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christoforos Kortesis, who have denied their involvement.

A few notes on the Revolutionary Struggle case:

The anarchist urban guerrilla group Revolutionary Struggle (Epanastatikos Agonas) has carried out direct actions in Athens since 2003, targeting structures and organs of the State and the Capital, defending armed and class struggle, and aiming towards social revolution. Their revolutionary action includes a rocket propelled grenade attack, car bomb explosions, bombings and gunshots, among others, against the Finance and Labour ministries, the United States Embassy, the Athens Stock Exchange, anti-riot cops, police stations, court buildings, multinational corporations, banks, as well as a politician implicated in high-profile scandals.

In March 2010, anarchist Lambros Foundas was killed in a shootout with cops. A month later, Pola Roupa, Nikos Maziotis and Kostas Gournas (in pretrial incarceration at the time) claimed political responsibility for their participation in the Revolutionary Struggle and explained that Lambros Foundas was also a member of the same organisation.

In no way does the claim of political responsibility mean that these anarchists accept criminal charges such as ‘terrorist association,’ and so forth. Below are short excerpts from a letter of the three members on their reasons for undertaking responsibility after they were caught by police:

“By claiming political responsibility, we wanted to defend the armed struggle, and to highlight its timelessness and importance within the broader struggle for the overthrow and social revolution. (…) Also, by undertaking political responsibility we wanted to restore the memory and honour of our comrade Lambros Foundas, who was a member of the Revolutionary Struggle and was killed in an armed battle with cops in March 2010 during an attempted expropriation of a car —a preparatory act of a wider action plan of our organisation.”

The first trial on the Revolutionary Struggle’s first-period action (2003-2010) started in October 2011 and reached its end in April 2013. Out of 8 defendants, only three were self-admitted members of the Revolutionary Struggle: Pola Roupa, Nikos Maziotis (both of whom became fugitives in the middle of the proceeding) and Kostas Gournas. The three members received sentences of up to 50 years imprisonment.

Two other accused comrades, Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christoforos Kortesis, were sentenced to (a little over) 7 years, even though they have denied their participation in the organisation. They were then taken to prison alongside Kostas Gournas. In July 2013, Kortesis and Stathopoulos were granted conditional release and walked out of Koridallos prison under restrictive conditions.

In July 2014, Nikos Maziotis – who had gone underground along with Pola Roupa two years earlier – was seriously injured after a shootout with cops in the area of Monastiraki, central Athens, and taken captive. A few days later, he was transferred to a prison in northern Greece. The comrade was the first prisoner to be moved, on December 30th 2014, to the (then) newly-inaugurated ‘type C’ maximum security prison in Domokos.

Nikos Maziotis faces another trial, accused of the bomb attack against the Supervision Directorate of the Bank of Greece at Amerikis Street in Athens, in April 2014, the shootout in Monastiraki, and bank robberies. As a member of the Revolutionary Struggle, Nikos Maziotis assumed political responsibility for the bombing at the Bank of Greece, which marks the second period in the ongoing action of the organisation.

Already in 2009, the anarchist urban guerrilla group Revolutionary Struggle was designated a ‘foreign terrorist organisation’ by the U.S. Department of State, in the aftermath of a rocket propelled grenade attack against the U.S. Embassy in Athens in January 2007. Recently, in April 2015, the State Department issued ‘terrorist designation’ against anarchist prisoner Nikos Maziotis, member of the Revolutionary Struggle.

Beginning May 22nd 2015, the appeal trial on the Revolutionary Struggle case (first-period action) will be held in the special court of Koridallos women’s prison. In Athens, trial sessions in cases regarding so-called ‘terrorist’ organisations take place at courtrooms inside the prison. Each time that visitors and lawyers enter the specific courtrooms, their identity cards are kept upon entry, with all that this entails.

Solidarity with the urban guerrillas Kostas Gournas and Nikos Maziotis, members of the Revolutionary Struggle, and the comrades Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christoforos Kortesis, who stand trial in the same case.

Solidarity with the wanted comrade Pola Roupa, member of the Revolutionary Struggle.

Quelle: http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2015/05/21/greek-prisons-revolutionary-struggle-case-nikos-maziotis-and-kostas-gournas-transferred-to-koridallos-prison-ahead-of-second-instance-trial/

Greece: Statement of Revolutionary Struggle member Nikos Maziotis about the U.S. State Department list of international “terrorists”

In 2009, the anarchist urban guerrilla group Revolutionary Struggle (Epanastatikos Agonas) was designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by the U.S. Department of State, in the aftermath of a rocket propelled grenade attack against the U.S. Embassy in Athens in January 2007.

On April 21, 2015, the State Department issued “terrorist designation” against one of the members of Revolutionary Struggle, anarchist prisoner Nikos Maziotis. The next day, the comrade issued the following statement in response:

“Whoever is not with us is against us”
– from a speech of U.S. President George W. Bush after September 11, 2001

“We are not with you, we are against you”
– from a statement of Nikos Maziotis to the special court in Koridallos prisons on June 11, 2012 regarding the Revolutionary Struggle attack on the U.S. Embassy

The State Department admittedly did me great honor by including me in the list of international “terrorists”. This is the second time that the planetary killers honor me as a Revolutionary Struggle member, since they had placed a one-million-dollar bounty on me along with other members of the organization after the Revolutionary Struggle attack against the U.S. Embassy in Athens in January 2007.

Obviously this move signifies the pressure exerted on the Greek government in response to the recent passing of the justice ministry’s bill, which includes a provision whereby prisoners with disabilities of over 80% like Savvas Xiros, from a point onwards, may be placed under house arrest on electronic monitoring for the remainder of their sentence, what the U.S. ambassador to Greece described as a hostile act.

This move is a sign of lack of confidence towards the Greek government, and sends a strong message; that the U.S. government – which does not recognize any court precedent in another State in case of an attack on U.S. targets – may arrest and prosecute any armed fighter and revolutionary who have attacked U.S. targets anywhere in the world, even if they have stood trial and have been incarcerated in the country where this attack was perpetrated. But the State Department has nothing to worry about. The SYRIZA-led government, despite deviations, will present themselves as consistent with the united front in the war on “terrorism”, just as they are being consistent with their debt repayment obligations to the creditors of the supranational elite. Besides, they stated that they “are doubly sensitive to issues of terrorism, since many attacks were carried out in the name of the Left.”

Regardless of how many years I have to spend in prison, regardless of the price I pay, I will always be filled with joy remembering how we as Revolutionary Struggle humiliated them that morning of January 2007, when we struck the facade of the U.S. Embassy with an anti-tank RPG, and I will always remember with satisfaction the words of the then U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who woke the then planetarch George W. Bush, saying: “Mister President, we are under attack in Athens.”

Nikos Maziotis, member of the Revolutionary Struggle
Domokos prison

Source: http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2015/04/23/nikos-maziotis-response-to-the-state-department/

Nikos Maziotis for the event of the RHI for the first of May

Text by Nikos Maziotis, member of Revolutionary Struggle for the event organized by the International Red Help for the first of May

The events of May 1886 that took place in Chicago are a turning point in the history of the revolutionary labor movement. It was not only the fight of the workers to reduce working hours to eight hours daily that featured in this fight and led to the global fight of the proletariat for an 8 hour work day, but it was also a response of the workers to the crackdown of bosses, and the murder of workers at the McCormick factory.

This response was “Workers in arms” which called for a reaction of the working class to the killings of the bosses. It was the armed reaction of the workers when police ordered the dissolution of the Hay Market Square protest that was called against the killings of the strikers at the McCormick factory. The armed tradition of the working class and revolutionary movement was at that time closely related to unionism and the struggle for an 8 hour work day, better working conditions, wage increases, social security. And all this was seen to some extent, as a stage on the way to the abolishment of the capitalist system. Such struggles, which were inspired by the events of May 1886 in Chicago erupted in many countries over the next years in France, in Italy, Spain, Russia, Mexico, Argentina and they were characterized by the use of armed violence on the part of workers.

Unfortunately a large part of the labor movement adopted an approach that considered armed practices as “provocation” and practices of? “individual terrorism” that harm the labor movement and were therefore condemnable. There is the view, for example, that the events of the Hay Market Square with the throwing of? a bomb and the armed scuffle against the police that followed were an intentional provocation to justify the murder of several of the assembled workers, but also the conviction and execution by hanging of the organizer of the Hay Market Square protest.

The events of May 1886 in Chicago became an annual anniversary in later years to remind the world working class of the beginning of the struggle for an 8 hour work day and the sacrifice of those who gave their blood for this fight. It eventually developed into a painless celebration for compromised and sold off reformist unions that distorted the meaning of the events in May 1886, because what was sought after was the empowerment of the capital and also to continue to have/ also keep/maintain? the privileges of the middleman in the sale of the worker’s labor to the capitalists. Especially after the Second World War unions played a crucial role in the class compromise between the working class and the capital holders in order to revive capitalism from the ruins the war left behind it and to jump start get the engine of accumulation. They also played a crucial role in the enforcement of the social democratic and Keynesian model of management that is characterized by state intervention and the welfare state. They also played a leading role in the defeat of the working class from the 1970s onwards, when they adopted a defensive approach to the attack of the capital in the form of liberal Reforms that were brought in to overcome the inflation crisis by means of obliterating and taking back all the gains of the working class that had been gained over the previous period.

Today capitalism in response to the crisis we are experiencing and which erupted in 2007 – 2008 has unleashed an unprecedented attack even on the people of developed countries of the capitalist center in the US, and the EU. This attack turns people back to living conditions of the 19th century and the boundaries between the so-called Third World and developed countries of the capitalist center become increasingly blurred. So today, the struggle for the overthrow of the capital and the state, the struggle for revolution have become more timely than ever. If we want to honor the struggles of the Chicago innovator workers in 1886, then we should continue and develop the struggle for the overthrow of both capital and state. Under the current conditions, away from the illusion of trade unionism and parliamentarism of bourgeois democracy, the struggle must be conducted outside institutions, trade unions, political parties and it must be founded on the social base, the poor, the workers, the youth, the semi-employed the unemployed, the immigrants, the metropolitan proletariat. The conditions have changed since the days of primitive industrial accumulation.

Capitalism today because of the global economic crisis does not need armies of unskilled workers as it did in the 19th century. Instead due to the inability of reproduction of the capital, because of the inability of capital accumulation the system throws more and more workers to the street, outside/out of the labor market because they are no longer necessary to them. Because of the crisis and the policies pursued in countries like Greece with agendas imposed by the IMF, the ECB, the European Commission there is a fierce class war stemming from the capital with financial means and methods, a class war that as Revolutionary Struggle has said consists of a social policy of genocide and liquidation of the surplus population in Greece that has caused thousands of deaths/ murders, suicides, deaths from poverty, illnesses, shortages of basic goods. The crisis and the capital’s incapacity to reproduce has unleashed -particularly in countries affected by the debt crisis like Greece- a massive social robbery for the redistribution of social wealth from the bottom to the top of the social hierarchy. Salaries and pensions are cut, millions of people have been laid off, businesses close due to debts, thousands of homes and businesses are seized by banks due debts and are auctioned. The transnational elite in order to cover their huge losses and depreciation of their capital proceeds have gone to violent robbery of peoples and the social base. This is what has been happening in Greece at least over the last five years. Today a struggle for an 8 hour work day, like the one of the workers of Chicago in 1886 makes no sense at a time when capitalism is in crisis and does not need armies of unskilled workers as it did in the 19th century and up to the mid-20th century.

The legacy of the struggle of Chicago workers is no longer the demand for an 8 hour day or improving our way of life, since the crisis has rendered capitalism unable to do but to fight to overthrow capitalism and the state without a mechanism of class domination. This is not a time for reform. Under the present conditions it is impossible to hope for any reformist policy. Overthrow and revolution is the only realistic solution to the crisis. A revolution cannot be limited to one country. In Greece, despite the favorable objective conditions for a revolutionary attempt, ie. the economic crisis, the political crisis and the depreciation of the parliamentary parties, what was lacking was the objective factor, ie. A revolutionary movement to take advantage of these favorable conditions.

As a result, on the one hand we have the rise of the parliamentary far-right, neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn that came was elected third party in 25th January elections, despite the persecution of the majority of its deputies accused of running a criminal organization after Pavlos Fissa’s assassination a year and half ago, and on the other hand the rise of the center-left party SYRIZA that won the elections and took over both the government and the management of the capitalist crisis substantially accepting the agreement of the euro group on the 23 February, the payment of the debt, the agreements made during the previous period and the Troika of the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission and their assessment of the Greek economy.

Due to the debt crisis, Greece is currently the weak link in the Eurozone and the EU. Although it accounts for 1.9% of EU GDP, potential action on the part of Greece that would lead to denial and total debt cancellation, to the withdrawal from the Eurozone and further to exit from the EU with a break from the market economy and capitalism would create serious tremors not only in the EU but also in building of a global economy, since due to globalization there is a complete interdependence of system functions. But Greece is a country in the periphery of the EU region and not part of the capitalist center.

A revolution in Greece, a regional EU country could be the beginning of the destruction of the EU structure, although there is the risk of extreme right euro-skeptics forces that are on the rise now and are pushing for the return to the status of the nation state, the restoration of national sovereignty and therefore the defunct rivalries between nation states.

Revolutionary Struggle believe that a revolution in Greece could be an example, the beginning of a social revolution. Marx was proven wrong in his prediction that coming revolutions of his time would break out in developed industrial countries. Instead revolutions broke out in underdeveloped countries like Russia and Spain. Today in these times of crisis of the system that is the most serious of all the foregoing, it is more imperative to hit the heart of the beast, the capitalist center. Revolutions should break out in countries of the capitalist center, in developed countries, the US and the EU, where the headquarters of the transnational elite are in the City of London, in Paris where the annex of the IMF in Europe is, in Brussels where the center of the EU and NATO are located, in Frankfurt that is the center of the ECB, in New York the capital of world capitalism and in Washington where the headquarters of the IMF are.

The legacy of the labor movement of the past, such as the workers of Chicago in 1886, is not to fight today to simply improve the conditions of our lives or to defend against the attack of the transnational elite that retracts all the conquests of the old labor movement such as the 8 hour day, social security, the welfare state with its whirlwind of neoliberalism. Its legacy is to attack. It consists of the proletarian counterattack and complete destruction of capitalism. Attack its very strongholds: the seats of the central banks and stock exchanges. Where decisions are made that affect the fortunes of billions of people around the globe. The seats of the World Bank, the IMF, the World Trade Organization. It is the proletarian counterattack in each country for the overthrow of the ruling classes, governments and states. And for this counterattack it is necessary to resort to arms and guerrilla warfare. In this counterattack it has become necessary to rethink the revolutionary movements in each country that will analyze the conditions and will select the action strategies and forms of struggle within a framework designed solely for social revolution both in individual countries and globally. Fight for a global social revolution. This is the legacy of the workers of Chicago in 1886.

HONOR TO THE DEAD WORKERS AT THE MC CORMICK FACTORY AND HAYMARKET SQUARE.

HONOR TO THE EXECUTED FIGHTERS AUGUST SPIES, ALBERT PARSONS, ADOLPH FISCHER, GEORGE ENGEL AND TO LOUIS LINGG WHO COMMITED SUICIDE A DAY BEFORE HIS SCHEDULED EXECUTION

HONOR TO THE THREE ANACHISTS STRUGGLERS WHO WHERE CONVICTED IN LIFETIME SENTENCES, SAMUEL FIELDEN, OSCAR NEEBE AND MICHAEL SCHWAB.

HONOR TO THE REVOLUTIONARIES AND STRUGGLES WORLWIDE

Nikos Maziotis, member of Revolutionary Struggle
Domokos prison

Zum Berufungsverfahren im Fall Revolutionärer Kampf

Von Kostas Gournas

Zweifellos gehört der Revolutionäre Kampf zu den wichtigsten Organisationen des bewaffneten Kampfes der letzten Jahrzehnte. Auf sein Konto geht ein kompakter Vorschlag für den Kampf gegen Staat und Kapital in der heutigen Epoche des zügellosen Angriffs der Märkte, er hat zur Analyse und zum Verständnis der global herrschenden kapitalistischen Krise beigetragen und bedeutende Aktionen des Widerstands ausgeführt, sowohl zu Zeiten der Illusion vom Aufschwung als auch während der Rezession der Memoranden.

Am 22.5.2015 wird vor dem fünfköpfigen Berufungsgericht im Sondergericht von Korydallos in zweiter Instanz über die erste Periode der Praxis des Revolutionären Kampfes (2003-2010) verhandelt werden. Unabhängig von der politischen Positionierung jedes einzelnen Angeklagten, seiner Widerstandsgeschichte oder der Strafe aus erster Instanz, die jedem einzelnen gesondert aufgebürdet wurde, ist der ideologische-repressive Angriff des Systems gegen die Organisation und der Versuch, ihren klar antiautoritären, antikapitalistischen und auf die Förderung der gesellschaftlichen Revolution auch durch den bewaffneten Kampf gerichteten politischen Charakter zu zerstören, das vorherrschende Anliegen auch des Berufungsverfahrens. Insbesondere zu einem Zeitpunkt, wo Genossen sich entschieden haben, die Organisation wieder aktiv werden zu lassen und diese – nach Erklärungen von einigen ihrer Mitglieder – weiterhin aktiv bleibt, nimmt die Aktualisierung dieses Angriffs für das System noch dringender die Gestalt der Auseinandersetzung nicht mit einem „historischen“ Gegner sondern mit einer realen Bedrohung an.

Unter diesen Bedingungen und als jemand, der die politische Verantwortung für meine Beteiligung an der ersten Aktionsperiode des Revolutionären Kampfes übernommen hat, werde ich die Werte und die Politik und Geschichte der Organisation für den Anteil verteidigen, der mir und meinen Entscheidungen entspricht. Wie bereits im Prozess in erster Instanz werde ich das Selbstverständliche für das Aufzeigen der kollektiven Vision dieser Zeit tun, als unverhandelbarer Teil meiner politischen Ethik und Würde, als Verpflichtung gegenüber dem Blut, das im März 2010 vergossen wurde.

Es ist klar, dass sich Situationen, die zu anderen Kampfbedingungen gehören, nicht wiederholen können. Im Prozess in erster Instanz wurde ein nicht wiederholbarer politischer Kampf geführt, der den Rahmen der Anklage überwand und einige positive juristische Ergebnisse schaffte. Und es wurde eine Strategie aufgezeigt, die darauf besteht, dass politische Kämpfe in Gerichtssälen auf vielen Ebenen von Bedeutung sein können, nicht nur für die, die sie führen, sondern auch für die Kämpfer von morgen. Der Berufungsprozess wird nicht dasselbe politische Gewicht haben, aber es wird trotzdem der gleiche Wert auf die Abwehr der politischen Beschuldigungen des Gegners gelegt werden, insbesondere gegen solche, die dem Dogma folgen, das konsequent an der Entpolitisierung des Kampfes arbeitet, indem es diesem ein „illegitimes“ Gesicht zu verleihen versucht.

Wir erleben historische Momente in Griechenland. In nur sechs Jahren hat die ökonomische Krise die größten Verwerfungen der letzten Jahrzehnte herbeigeführt. Die auf vielen Ebenen herrschende Krise hat das Leben von hunderttausenden jungen Menschen, Proletariern, Rentnern zerstört und die Zukunft der Kinder verpfändet. Die Verantwortlichen für diesen Zusammenbruch, die politische und wirtschaftliche Elite, die diesen Landstrich regiert und seinen gesellschaftlichen Reichtum plündert, bleibt von einer Justiz, die sich hundertprozentig mit ihren Interessen identifiziert unangetastet. Der Prestigeverlust des Zweiparteiensystems hat zum ersten Mal eine Linksregierung gebracht, die es unter hohen Erwartungen übernommen hat, diese Krise zu überwinden. Sie brauchte jedoch nur einen Monat um jedwede Hoffnung zu enttäuschen, indem sie den Kern der Memorandumspolitiken und des Notstandsregimes fortsetzte. Was zum wiederholten Male die historische Gesetzmäßigkeit bezeugt, das es keine Brüche und Umstürze ohne den Kampf derjenigen geben kann, die sich am Fuß der gesellschaftlichen Pyramide befinden. Dass nur das revolutionarisierte Volk einen tatsächlich befreienden Plan für seine Emanzipation von den Memoranden, den Abhängigkeiten, dem Staat und dem Kapitalismus in seinen Händen halten kann.

Ich rufe jeden Genossen und jedes Kollektiv, die Versammlungen und Gruppen für Solidarität in Griechenland und im Ausland, die die dialektische Beziehung zwischen der Solidarität mit der Person und seiner Geschichte und der Organisation Revolutionären Kampf begreifen, in jeder Weise, die für richtig gehalten wird, oder zu der man in der Lage ist, zum kommenden Prozess beizutragen.

Berufungsverfahren zur ersten Periode der Praxis des Revolutionären Kampfes
Freitag 22. Mai 2015, 9:00 Uhr
Sondergericht Korydallos