Greece: protests continue as country shattered by Nazi murderous impunity

Yesterday evening there were more large demos in Athens in protest against Nazi murderous impunity. 

Again police acted to protect the Nazi offices, although it seems that there were no overt clashes, unlike the previous night. 

Doctors have denounced police's ultra-violence. Communication:

19/09/13 Denouncement of the G.H. Tzanio five-member committee of the Union of Hospital Doctors of Athens and Piraeus.

As doctors of the Tzanio general hospital, we express our strong concern, as yesterday night 18/09/13, after the protests against the murder of the young Pavlos Fyssas by a member of Golden Dawn, 31 protesters were brought to the surgical department, all with blows on the head. The injured people reported blows by batons, helmets, shields and kicks from ”Delta” and ”Dias” teams (motorcycle police), whereas there were reports of rocks being thrown from the side of the police towards the protesters, aiming for the head, from members of Golden Dawn. One of the people who got injured, after being operated, is hospitalized at the ophthalmological department of the hospital, with a ruptured bulb from a stun canister. He reported being aimed directly on the head and is in danger of suffering a permanent loss of vision in one eye. We urge for a halt of the policy of intensification of the state and parastate repression in order not to mourn any more victims.

G.H. Tzanio five-member committee of the Union of Hospital Doctors of Athens and Piraeus.

There are solidarity demonstrations called for tomorrow in a number of European cities. At the very least in London and Bilbao. 

See also: photo-gallery and videos at FTGS.

Belgium, Catalonia: anti-capitalist sabotages

This month there have been several anti-capitalist sabotages in Western Europe:

Belgium:

(Dated to September 12th)

A large telecommunications station in Koningslo, near Brussels, was destroyed by fire arson. Flames reached 50 m. high and firefighters needed many hours to stop the fire. Regional communications of Base and Movistar were interrupted, the damage is set to affect the communications for months. 

A police car was set on fire before the Mortsel station. Apparently it is a revenge for the killing by beating of a youth two years ago in those dungeons. It is already the second such attack.

At Dinant, a forestal truck was set on fire. Again this is the second such attack with an apparently ecologist background, as permission to exploit forests has been expanded in Belgium recently. 

In Louvain, a bank office was also arsoned.

Source: Contra Info.

Catalonia:

In September 16th, locks of the offices of energy company Endesa were sealed in protest against the construction of very high voltage line.

Source: Contra Info.

Greece: murderer of Killah P only arrested because of individual police "hero"

While Nazis were attacking Killah P and other antifascists in Piraeus police agents of the DIAS (motorbike) police were standing by and doing nothing. Only one policewoman, all on her own, intervened when the murderer, pulled a knife, while her colleagues rejected to act on the pretext that "the culprits were too many".

From I Can't Relax In Greece!:

According to witnesses, but also information from within the police, policemen from DIAS group were already in the area even  before the 45-year-old succeeded the murderous strike against 34-year-old Pavlos, after the tension had started to build up.

But the “friends” of the alleged culprit  were too many and the policemen avoided intevening.

The moment the 45-year-old pulled his knife, a policewoman from DIAS group started running towards him shouting “Hey, not the knife!” However she did not manage to prevent what was about to follow.

The policewoman was allegedly shouting towards her colleagues asking for their help with the latter abstaining using the excuse that “the culprits are too many”.

On her own, the policewoman threw the culprit on the ground, immobilised him by placing her gun on his back and then handcuffed him.

This is how the 45-year-old was arrested.

According our information, the policewoman is in a very bad psychological state.

Greece: huge demos and police-Nazi repression after murder of singer Killah P

Pavlos Fissas Killah P

Large demos and clashes shattered Greece in the aftermath of the murder, with full police collaboration, of hip-hop musician Pavlos Fissas "Killah P".

Chronological account by From the Greek Streets (2nd link):

19:00 (GMT+2) Thousands in the Antifascist demo in Panagi Tsaldari street near to the point of assassination.The direction is Golden Dawns’s offices in Nikaia. Right-wing politician P. Kammenos and corporate media journalists  who attempted to approach the demo were attacked and ousted by the demonstrators.

19:13 (GMT+2) Thousands have flooded the streets of Keratsini. The demo moves towards the town hall of Keratsini. Police attacked front of the police department and demonstrators attacked to the police department in Grigori Lambraki street.

19:22 (GTM+2) The demonstration has been attacked by police with tear gas and stun grenades.

19:40 (GTM+2) A large anarchist/antifascist block of 3000-4000 people is heading towards Golden Dawn’s offices in Nikaia. Pawn offices are being smashed. People are chanting  ‘the blood is running, it seeks revenge’.

19:45 (GTM+2) The antifascist/anarchist block is now clashing with the police. The people hold on.

19:58 (GTM+2) Widespread clashes with the police in Keratsini. Teargas and barricades in Grigoriou Lambraki street and Panagi Tsaldari Avenue.

20:20 (GTM+2) Small groups of ‘people’ next to riot police squads in Panagi Tsaldari in Athens are throwing stones against demonstrators.

20:36 (GMT+2) Clashes on various points in Keratsini. The air is full of chemicals so a lot of rubbish bins are on fire. Thousands of people walk around after the disperse. On small streets police officers detain people who suspect as demonstrators.

20:46 (GMT=2) Clashes close to the Kerasini police station, tear gases and Molotov cocktails the last 30 minutes.

20:53 (GMT+2) On the corner of Grigoriou Lambraki and Tsaldari at least 10 demonstrators have been stabilized on the street by the police and are being detained. Police still attacks and disperse groups of demonstrators wherever they find them.  In other areas stones are thrown to the police.

20:59 (GMT+2) On Grigoriou Lambraki avenue clash still goes on.

21:06 (GMT+2) People, possibly demonstrators, have been trapped on a block of flats on Tsaldari and Lambraki corner. Police requested attorney permission to raid the building, while the trapped ones have called lawyers to reach them. On the same corner police attacked and detained without reason demonstrators earlier.

21:22 (GMT+2) Police has detained more than 30 people so far in Athens. Four demonstrators injured.

21:30 (GMT+2) 2 police water cannons in Keratsini.

21:47 (GMT+2) 30 people detained in Thessaloniki.

22:04 (GMT+2) Police continue to detain people in Athens, so far the number has increased to 65.

22:32 (GMT+2) About 20 people who found refuge in a cafeteria in Panagi Tsaldari have been detained by police. More people still remain on the roof of a nearby building.

01:17 (GMT+2) Demonstrator at risk of losing his eye from tear gas that was shot directly at him by cops. He is operated at the Tzaneio hospital.

02:26 (GMT+2) Riot Police attacks without any reason to the solidarity gathering in front of the police headquarters (GADA) in Athens.

At 2:25 (GMT+2) police attacks to the hundrends of people who have been gathered in front of the Athens police HQs. Over 100 detains and over 50 arrests so far from the march in Keratsini.

Video of Nazis throwing stones side by side with riot police (source: FTGS):

The Guardian reports that the government will use this murder to impose emergency legislation.  The emphasis of the article is that it will move to ban Golden Dawn but the details are less clear, especially considering that police forces are almost 100% penetrated by this Nazi organization.

I Can't Relax In Greece! echoes the cry of a senior consultant at the Nikaia hospital, where Fissas was declared dead: they have been training on the bodies of immigrants for three years!

Mr. Papanikolau attacked the mass media for promoting the Nazis, in his own words: inviting the fascists to lifestyle TV shows as if they were catwalk models. 

Protests are expected to continue today.

Zero tolerance to fascism! 


Update: Antifascist protester loses eye. As mentioned above a demonstrator was hit by a gas canister in the eye, according to FTGS:

Police was shooting directly to the people’s heads the tear gas canisters with the special tear gas weapon, among the dozens antifa demonstration who were injured yesterday was one who was hit with tear gas canister in the eye. The doctors of Tzaneio operated him for 2.5 hours but they could not save his  eye.

Update: Nazi acts canceled in panic for popular anger. Again from FTGS:

Golden Dawn leader Michaloliakos announced a few hours after the assassination of Pavlos Fyssas that next day he will give a speech in Nikaia (the local branch where the murdered Roupakias is member of)  he invited all the Nazis to join him for the event. At the same time that the vice leader Pappas and the press officer of GD Kassidiaris claimed that the murder has nothing to do with Golden Dawn. However in early hours of the morning after the big antifa demonstrations that took place all over the country and attacked GD local branches everywhere, the event was cancelled, and vanished from their webpages. Meanwhile antifa and the trade Unions of Peireus and Keratsini (the latter are affiliated with the Communist Party and its union PAME) announced a counter gathering close to the scheduled Nazi event that they will “cut the hand of the fascists”.

Greece: Nazis murder musician with full police complicity

Nazi terrorists murdered antifascist hip-hop musician Pavlos Fyssas (aka Killah P) in Piraeus. One of the criminals is Georgios Roupakias, 45, already arrested, but it was a well organized murder with many culprits, including the cops, who allowed it. 

According to the victim's father:

Pavlos’ friends made a remark against Golden Dawn inside a cafe where they were watching a football match. Somebody from a nearby table overheard them and made a phonecall to Golden Dawn members. Golden Dawn squads arrived almost simultaneously with DIAS motorbike police. Pavlos tried to help his friends evade the scene, but he was ambushed by another Golden Dawn squad and surrounded. Then another Golden Dawn associate drove with his car opposite in an one-way street, stopped and stabbed him to death, while the DIAS policemen did not intervene. One girl asked them to help but they didn’t. They only approached afterwards to arrest the man with the main suspect.

As reaction demonstrations have been called through the country for this evening. In some cities like Patras, morning protests of teachers (on strike) were joined by antifascists angry for the crime and its outrageous impunity. At least one Nazi see has been attacked.

Let's face it: Greece is already a Nazi state and Golden Dawn rules with the Samaras government being nothing but a transitional puppet, which does not want nor can oppose the Nazi terror, equally targeting immigrants, Roma, reds or the last honest judges. Police is completely in Nazi hands and that means that they control the state altogether. Democracy is not anymore for real at any meaningful sense but the situation is almost identical to Italy at the ascent of Mussolini: it popular self-defense is not urgently organized and exerted, the Nazis will soon march to Athens and take out the last pretense of freedom. 

This surely does not only apply to Greece but to much of Europe, as the fascists are growing everywhere in arrogance and boldness, usually with complicity of the bourgeois governments, police forces and secret services, as well as the upper bourgeois class, which sees in them the last line of defense of their privileges in societies that are quickly collapsing.

Source and more details: From the Greek Streets (link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5).

Basque Country: police forcibly enters worker-occupied industry

Police forces entered this morning with force in the factory of INCOESA in Bedia (Biscay) in order to allow the capitalist to retrieve the produce, raw materials and machinery. 

The workers had occupied the factory in order to prevent delocalization to Castile (Soria and Extremadura). 

Police not only employed violence but also charged seven workers for resistance.

The company is dedicated to the production of electrical transformers.

Real democracy means democratic control of the economy

This instance, like many others, highlights the importance of the democratic social control of the economy, not allowing the capitalists (if these exist at all) to dump the workers who have produced all the wealth at whim. 

It also highlights the importance of nation-peoples to effectively be able to decide independently of higher instances, be them old-school imperialist states like Spain or more complex modern entities like the EU. 

Real democracy means popular control of the economy and exerting that control at local and national levels. Nothing of this could happen under true democratic control by the people, because they would not allow such abuses (or do you think that Bedia would suicide by allowing such abuse to happen if these matters were subject to local democratic control?)

Sources: Naiz Info[es], BGD[eu].

Turkey: 6th night of clashes

At least the cities of Antakya and Istanbul have witnessed protests and (once again) brutal police repression. 

→ Euronews (video & transcript).

Poland: massive protests going on for days

This photo was taken on Saturday in Warsaw, when the protests were already in their fourth day:

Surprisingly I had got no word of these massive demonstrations, affecting a major European country before today and I swear I have been watching the news in several channels, what says very little in favor of our so-called "free media" (corporate and state, extremely authoritarian and antidemocratic, and usually also boring, media).

The trigger has been the labor law reform, together with the already rampaging unemployment and underemployment. Another issue is the retirement age, moved to the age of 67. 

The protesters demand the resignation of PM Donald Tusk. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Greece: large anti-fascist demo

"Thousands" according to The Guardian took to the streets in Athens to protest the brutal attack by Nazis against KKE activists earlier this week.

There are growing fears that the Nazi party, with full support of the weak bourgeois government and the European (EU) and Imperial (NATO) authorities, are trying to stir up a civil war type of conflict, conflict in which they have the upper hand because they have already taken effective control of the police and are influential in the Army's officialdom (not among the soldiers however, who are recruits). 

Much as in Italy in the 1920s, the only way out of this situation is active popular self-defense, because the government is not willing nor probably able anymore to control the Nazis, which are going out of control and may well stage a coup of some sort unless the Working Class is ready to fight them.

An electoral exit to the Greek impasse may well be out of reach because, even if there are elections and the Radical Left wins, how are they going to keep control of a state apparatus so deeply penetrated by Nazi terrorists? There is urgent need, and not just in Greece but also elsewhere in Europe, to get ready to fight against fascism by all means necessary. 

Source: I can't relax in Greece.

Turkey: protests and repression continue for third night

Obviously the Turkish socio-political conflict is far from solved. Repression is once again not any solution and only feeds more and more anger. 

Large protests took place in Ankara, Antalya and Antakya (Antioch) in anger for the latest mortal victim of Islamo-Fascist repression, Ahmet Atakan, hit by a gas canister. They were once again brutally repressed by a government that does not know how to get out of their own trap of ultra-violence and dogmatic totalitarianism.

There are local elections in 6 months and state ones in a year. At least that's the schedule. But meanwhile the regime continues with the most brutal repression it can fathom. 

Source: WG[es].

Greece: Nazi thugs attack communists in Athens

Is Big Capital orchestrating a descent into "civil war" or fascist terror in Southern Europe? The answer is probably yes. This kind of terrorist attacks are becoming more and more common, not just in Greece but also in Spain, France, etc. 

From From the Greek Streets:

Golden Dawn thugs attack KKE members in the neighbourhood of Perama; 8 seriously injured

On the night of September 12th, a group of approximately 30 Golden Dawn thugs approached members of the KKE (the stalinist-communist party) in the neighbourhood of Perama [Piraeus, Athens]. Perama hosts the ship construction zone and has been a traditional KKE stronghold. Eight KKE members were seriously injured and hospitalised. So far, no GD members have been arrested. The KKE is calling for a gathering tonight at Perama’s Iroon square, at 6 pm.

It's time to act against fascism. No pasarán!



PS- Other cases of Nazi terror related news in Europe just in today's morning feed:

• Germany: police dismantled a Nazi terrorist cell in Freiburg (Baden-Würtenberg) who were preparing a bomb to attack left-wing and antifascist comrades in some gathering → SA[es].
• Nazi graffiti against the see of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) in Eixample (Barcelona) → SA[es].
• Elect representatives ask the Spanish government why does it tolerate Nazi corpuscles like AN, with a large terrorist curriculum and zero representativity. Days ago it was also asked about their continued apology of Franco's fascist regime. → SA[es].
• Police intimidates those who concentrated in Madrid in solidarity with the victims (largely elect representatives) of the Nazi attack in the Diada → SA[es].

Update: Or also (evening feed) this scary propaganda act at Termopylae by Golden Dawn, which is way too close to our worst memories of Hitler → I can't relax in Greece.

More than 1.6 million people in the Catalan human chain

The Via Catalana cap a la Independencia (Catalan Way towards Independence), human chain from the Pyrenees to the Ebro river (and beyond) to demand, once again, the sovereignty of Catalonia, was a total success. 

According to the Catalan Government (Generalitat), the demonstration gathered no less than 1.6 million people, figures that are perfectly comparable to the last year's Diada, in which the figures danced around 1.5 or 2 million. The Catalan demand for independence remains undauntedly strong. 

However this year's format was much more challenging: imitating the initiative of the Baltic Countries decades ago, they organized a human chain from the port of Pertús in the Pyrenees to the border with the Valencian Country by the South. In fact this last border was finally overcome after the Supreme Court accepted in the last minute that the extension of a kilometer to Vinarós was fully legal.

Soon after that historical Baltic chain, spanning Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, these states became independent. Will that be the case of Catalonia? Nobody really knows at this stage but it is clear that it is what the Catalan People wants and denying such a massive demand is outright imperialist and antidemocratic. 

Fascist attack in Madrid

The negative point in such a day of democratic celebration was the attack suffered by the act in the delegation of the Generalitat in Madrid by a group of some 15 neonazis who injured several assistants, including elect representatives, and threw pepper gas inside the hall. 

So far the attackers, who acted with their faces uncovered (except one), are at large.

Sources[es]: Naiz Info (→ photo gallery), La Vanguardia (→ fascist attack video), El Periódico.


Update: Six arrested so far for the fascist aggression in Madrid, the most notorious one is Íñigo Pérez de Herrasti Urquijo, born in 1957, and who already was in prison for terrorism: arrested in 2000 with weapons and explosives and an organized cell that planned to attack relatives of Basque political prisoners when they had to travel to Madrid for visits. Sentenced to 14 years, he's already at large, while Basque prisoners are forced to do their sentence in full or even more.

The other five arrested are quite younger, born between 1978 and 1989 (i.e. people who have no first person experience of living under fascism). Their names are: Javier Marcos Aroca, Pedro Chaparro Velacoracho, Victor Diego Villalba, Santiago Cabezuela García and Paula Mijares.

Source: Sare Antifaxista[es].

Turkey: renewed protests and repression after young man killed in Antakya

A man aged 22 was murdered on Monday by police forces in Antakya (Antioch, near Syria) upon being hit by a gas canister thrown by police forces in the context of yet another anti-Islamist demonstration, incidentally in memory of another victim of police brutality in the same town earlier in the year. 

As reaction, yesterday there were new demonstrations in central Istanbul, which were repressed by police forces by means of water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets among others. People who were not taking part in the demo were also attacked.

There were also demonstration on Monday in the bicontinental metropolis, demanding punishment for those responsible of the injuries against a minor who has been in coma since he was hit by a gas canister months ago. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].


Update: photos and video of the clashes now also at WG. 

Catalan Countries: Spain forbids independentist human chain in Valencia, German think tank ponders Catalan independence

Tomorrow is the Diada, the national day of Catalonia, which last year was marked by some two million people marching (or rather just standing because there was no room) through the streets of Barcelona in demand of independence.

This year instead the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) plan to do a human chain through 400 kilometers of roads. 

However when this initiative was extended to the Valencian Country, the Spanish proconsuls have moved to ban them altogether, in yet another indication of the lack of real democracy in the only remaining Southern European kingdom.

The subdelegation of the Spanish Government in Castelló forbade the extension of the human chain to Vinarós, a mere kilometer south of the Catalan border on grounds of "fundamental rights", such as "road security" (for real!) This extension of the chain was going to include famous artists like Lluis Llach and Carles Santos, and also relatives of Guillem Aguilló, murdered by a fascist death squad 20 years ago in Castelló. 

Another ban was imposed to the concentration of solidarity with the Diada in Guardamar del Segura, in Alacant province, also in the Valencian Country. In this case the Spanish neofascist authorities alleged technical reasons: the request was forwarded too late (or whatever, you know).

Germans pondering Catalan independence

A bourgeois German think tank that gives advice to Angela Merkel, the Science and Politics Foundation (SWP), thinks that Catalan independence makes good sense. 

The report, signed by Kai-Olaf Lang, thinks plausible that Catalonia declares independence if Spain does not make major concessions. The report emphasizes that the movement for independence is a civil society one, independent from parties. 

He warns that the EU must be ready for such a scenario and, considering the issues regarding EU membership for a newly independent state, he believes that the initial formula could be one in which, while Catalonia is not part of EU (yet), EU laws still apply inside their territory. Of course he's thinking about the legal protection of some 600 German companies present in Catalonia. 

The most interesting point is that the traditional European stand of defending Spanish territorial integrity no matter what has been dropped. Realism is winning the day. 

Source: Gara[es].

Sápmi: roadblocks against Swedish mining plans

Roadblocks and other protests are going in the part of Sápmi (Lapland) under Swedish control, against the project by Beowulf Mining and the Swedish state to develop new mines in Sami land. At least six people have already been arrested.

They make a call for help because the police are employing themselves in full force with the goal of allowing the miner corporation to begin mining in five days.

They are also standing as human shields in the security perimeter so no explosives can be used (legally at least).

Reference in Swedish language: http://kolonierna.wordpress.com/

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

I don't know you but I can't help thinking in the movies of Pippi Langstrup and the two pathetic cops Kling and Klang. I just hope that reality for once gets close to fiction.

Basque prisoner in hunger strike against deportation to Spain, where he may face torture

Basque prisoner Ibai Sueskun (pictured) is in hunger strike since September 1st against his forced deportation to Spain, where he fears he could be arbitrarily arrested and tortured, even after having completed his 10-year sentence for membership in ETA. 

Sueskun is natural of Larraga (Navarre) but resident in Donibane (Northern Basque Country, under French administration) and is now at the Prison of Tarascon.

Source: Ateak Ireki[es].

Thousands march in Romania against cyanide poisoning plans by Canadian mining company

All the last week there have been protests in the European country against the intention of Gabriel Resources, a multinational mining company with see in Canada, to exploit a gold mine in, Rosia Montana, Transylvania by means of cyanide.

The toxic corporation plans to contaminate with nothing less than 12,000 tons of cyanide per year. Naturally Romanians are outraged. 

Only this Sunday some 8000 people marched in Buchares, while 6000 did the same in Cluj against cyanide poisoning and capitalist corruption. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

England: thousands confront tiny Nazi march, police protected the Nazis as usual

Thousands of antifascists gathered in the East End London to confront a particularly outrageous Nazi march organized by the EDL and which, in spite of buses bringing fascists from all the country, only gathered a few hundred. 

The march was a total provocation not just for being organized in a largely immigrant district but because it originally attempted to march to Altab Ali Park, named in honor of a Bengali-English worker murdered in 1978 in cold blood by a Nazi just for being different. The attack sparked such outrage that the Nazis were completely expelled from the neighborhood forever. 

Some 3000 police agents were deployed to protect the Nazi march from popular hostility. Police interference with popular anger caused incidents resulting in many arrests (Sare Antifaxista[es] claims 150 arrested). 

Sources: London 24, Anti-Fascist Network.

Turkey: more repression against students in Ankara

The police forces of Islamist ruler Erdogan brutally charged with loads of tear gas and other violence against students protesting the deforestation of their campus to build a highway. 

The also Islamist mayor of Ankara, Melih Gökçek, recently announced that the works for the highway to be built right through the Technical University of the Middle East would begin this week. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Oil spill threatens Corsica

A 40 km long oil spill threatens the island of Corsica and in particular the Natural Reserve of Scandola, World Heritage (UNESCO). The source of the spill is unknown but probably originate in some oiler ship which decided to clean up its tanks, illegally, at the sea. 

It is estimated that only 10-20% of the sheen are hydrocarbons, what may somewhat limit the impact. Whatever the case if the NE winds continue the spill will hit Corsica in few days. 

Sources: News 24, Gara[es].