Athens, May 17th: Strengthening reciprocal solidarity

On Thursday, May 17th, members of the translation counter-information network Contra Info, continuing an effort to strengthen international and reciprocal solidarity, raised banners on five different locations in the area of Exarchia, downtown Athens.

At the main entrance of the Polytechnic School (Polytechnio), on Stournari Street, we placed a banner in solidarity with comrade David Lamarte, taxi worker in Montevideo, who was arrested by the law enforcement authorities of the Uruguayan State on May 9th. On May 17th a protest rally was called in support of David in Montevideo, so we sent a signal of solidarity from Greece on the same day. David Lamarte is an anarchist comrade with active participation in resistance movements for 15 years now, from the older Anarcho-Punk Resistance during adolescence years up to his involvement in the combative union of taxi drivers and telephonists (SUATT), as well as various other anarchist collectives. He is currently threatened with imprisonment of 3 months to 3 years, depending on the appetites of the judicial authorities, whose decision is pending. The comrade is incarcerated and accused for clashes with scabs taxi drivers, and also for breaking a taximeter, during the May Day strike events.


In the closed gate of the Polytechnic, on the central Patission Street, we hung a banner written in Portuguese and Greek, in solidarity with favelas and squats in Brazil that are mercilessly attacked by the capitalist sharks and the scum of the Brazilian judiciary and police. The slums of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and so many more areas of the Brazilian territory are being bulldozed on a daily basis, as the construction of monstrosities for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games and in general the Capital’s plans for ‘gentrification’ are being advanced. Thousands of families have been displaced and thousands more people will be displaced and be left homeless for the sake of the notorious ‘development’ and major sporting events. On the same day that the Olympic flame was handed over from Athens’ Kallimarmaro stadium to the UK for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, we said FUCK THE WORLD CUPS AND THE GAMES.

In Exarchia square we placed a banner in solidarity with anarchists and insurgents in Barcelona that have experienced the fierce onslaught of the State’s dogs since the general strike of March 29th, with raids in houses and arrests of activists, as well as vindictive pretrial incarcerations of protesters, with the militarization of the city of Barcelona and the wider Catalonia, along with the fostering of a terror-frenzy climate by the shitty TV channels and the regime’s newspapers, amidst an unprecedented criminalization of social struggles and subversive actions. We raise our fist and greet the comrades who do not kneel, chanting ‘Long live the Rose of Fire!’ (after the city’s nickname).

Also, in Exarchia square we put an English banner in solidarity with anarchist comrades in Turkey, where the cops and the judges seek to terrorize and hinder the momentum of comrades who have come forward and fight against the barbarity of the State and the Capital. The repression which began on May 14th—including mass arrests, political prosecutions and raids in anarchists’ homes and social hangouts—is the rulers’ response to the insurrectionary scenes that were lived in the streets of Istanbul on May Day. At the same time that Nazis and patriots in Greece are looking for ‘military incidents’ with Turkey, we say FUCK THE STATE, THE ARMY AND THE LAW, in Greece, Turkey and everywhere.

Outside the old faculty of Chemistry (Chimio) on Solonos Street—a few meters from the Law School (Nomiki), which has developed into one of the theaters of operations by institutionalized fascism—we hung a banner written in French, in order to appeal to French speaking immigrants. The banner reads: ‘A BULLET FOR EVERY NAZI, A MOLOTOV FOR EVERY BOSS; AND FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS, OUR SOLIDARITY.’ We were left with some paint, so we made sure to write a few slogans in Spanish and French against the prison society, in solidarity with prisoners across the world.

For the diffusion of arsonist international solidarity!
Fire to the States and their borders!

 

http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2012/05/18/athens-may-17th-strengthening-reciprocal-solidarity/