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.

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).

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.

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.

Greece: residential squat forcibly evicted by police in Thessaloniki

Police raided and forcibly evicted the Orfanotrofio squat in Thessaloniki, which had been the home of many people for many years. Seven people were arrested for just being there. 

Hundreds marched in a solidarity demonstration soon after the sad news spread.

Sources: From the Greek Streets, Contra Info.

Greece: direct action against repressive governor

A group of people self described as "Solidarians" attacked on Saturday the luxury resort of the Governor of Epirus in retaliation for the eviction of squats, damaging elements of the property and the cars of his posh guests. 

In their own words:

Yesterday night, 30/8, we visited uninvited the private resort that the family of Epirus regional governor, Alekos Kachrimanis, maintains at the city of Ioannina. There occurred a feast for the celebration of his name day. We couldn’t have missed the chance to be there to wish happy name day to him warmly! The specific guy, along with other local rulers and the administrator of the Chatzikosta general hospital, Fotis Vavvas, had participated last April at a conference on the topic of finding a definite solution for putting an end to the months-long occupation of premises at the former Chatzikosta hospital. We hold the aforementioned gentleman co-responsible for the eviction of Antiviosi squat, and we remind him that buildings like this one are spaces that have already been reclaimed, and constitute cores of social resistance and struggle. Really, that’s the reason why they are being targeted by the repression of state power and all of its sidekicks.

For all these reasons, we got ourselves at the yard of the resort yesterday, where the banquet was underway, with a purpose to cause disruption and put an end to it, and as an act of solidarity with Antiviosi squat. We painted “Antiviosi squat will stay” at the wall of the yard, while we shouted slogans such as: “10, 100, 1000 squats against a world of organized sepsis”, and “Antiviosi squat will stay; the flame we lit cannot be put out by anyone.” Also, we smashed the windows and mirrors of two super luxury cars that belonged to guests of the regional governor.

IDEAS CAN NEITHER BE EVICTED, NOR SILENCED SOLIDARITY WITH THE SQUATS
 
solidarians

Source: Contra Info.

Greece: police raids two social centers in Athens University

From Form the Greek Streets:

Police raids the historical Athens polytecnic campus in exarcheia, five detained

This morning the police raided the historical Athens polytechnic campus. The two self-organized spaces inside the campus got raided and five people were detained (among them 3 immigrants from whom 1 will be deported).  The rest of the detained were released few hours later.

Source in Greek
https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1486866

Original entry includes a police video of the raids.

Greece: bus fare killing triggers protests

On August 13th a bus fare evader, Thanassis Kanaoutis, 19, was violently attacked by the inspector, who, with help of the driver, threw him out of the moving bus killing him.

As the young man's body laid on the ground and people protested angrily, the inspector went on threating other passengers and even demanded a woman arrested by police. 

On the 16th the funeral for Kanaoutis became a protest and the crowd marched to Athen's center erecting fire barricades (→ video).

Police then intervened, arresting ten. Police took over the rebellious neighborhood establishing a de-facto state of emergency. 

However on the 17th the protests resurfaced defying police threats. The subsequent popular assembly demanded the right to protest at the location of the murder and free access to public transport, which is after all public, right?

Daily gatherings at the location of the fascist murder have continued since then.

Source: Contra Info.

Greece: 10,000 workers to be fired; riot at immigrant concentration camp

Two different news from Greece, not as unrelated as they may seem: they are both serious symptoms of a failed capitalist state.

Samaras will fire 10,000 state workers

The 9,820 public servants mentioned by Eleftherotypia include teachers, cleaners, police agents (surely not the Nazis!), social assistants, airport workers, health personnel and archaeologists. Eleftheros Tipos makes the figure reach 10,092.

The pact with Satan, I mean: the Troika (EC, ECB, IMF), signed by Samaras implies 25,000 public workers to be fired only this year, 60,000 for 2015. The total of redundancies will then amount to 150,000 workers.

Naturally workers did not remain quiet: several thousands gathered before the Ministry of Finance and marched to Parliament.

They denounced that these measures imply closure of hospitals and other services because they cannot be attended with so few workers as they will remain. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es] (incl. video).

Riot in Amygdaleza concentration camp

Upon knowing that the detention term for illegal immigrants has been extended to 18 months, the prisoners at Amygdaleza (Athens) rioted at lunch time. 

According to police reports they attacked the guards with rocks and set fire to mattresses. The uprising was only suffocated after midnight. 10 police agents were injured but police has not reported the number of injured immigrants. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Greece: police close social centers and free radio in Patras, 16 arrested

From Contra Info:

On August 5th, 2013, at about 6.30am, uniformed and plainclothes cops raided and evicted three squatted spaces in Patras, namely Parartima squat on the corner of Corinthou and Aratou streets, Maragopouleio squat on Gounari street, and the Self-managed Hangout inside the Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Patras. All three squatted spaces were evicted and sealed off by police.

The repressive forces, aided by municipal authorities, confiscated various materials from the squats (including the equipment of the Patras free radio station Radio-Katalipsi 93.7FM), and even sealed up the entrance of Parartima squat with bricks.

A total of 16 comrades were detained: 5 squatters who resisted the raid from the rooftop of Maragopouleio squat, as well as 11 solidarians who tried to approach the squat while the eviction was underway. Soon thereafter, the 11 solidarians were released, but the 5 squatters from Maragopouleio are facing charges and were kept in custody at the police headquarters on Ermou street, where comrades held a solidarity gathering earlier in the morning. Also, at midday, a counter-information gathering took place at Olgas square.

Later the 5 arrestees appeared before public prosecutor and were all released, scheduled to appear in court on August 6th.

Greece: shooting down the immigrants

On July 27, it was known by means of a survivor that three Pakistani immigrants were murdered by Greek border police agents, who shot them down when they tried to cross the border from Turkey. Four others were injured. The media remains silent. 

From Samaa (via I Can't Relax In Greece):

Three Pakistani migrants were killed and four others wounded as they came under fire from Greek border guards.

According to reports, the Pakistani nationals were illegally trying to sneak into Greece from Turkey when they were spotted by border security forces, who opened fire. As a result, three Pakistanis were killed and four others were injured.

Family of Zafar, a resident of Mandi Bahauddin, who was among the dead, called upon Pakistani authorities to bring back the body of his son.

The aggrieved family says that it was informed about the attack by another Pakistani, who too was trying to enter Greece.

Greece: police flattens many Roma camps

From From the Greek Streets:

Riot police on tour across the Peloponnese flatten to the ground Roma camps in at least four prefectures

Riot police squads that arrived from Athens have been conducting operations against the Roma population across the Peloponnese for the past few days. On Monday, the riot police flattened Roma camps in the Corinth prefecture, before moving to Messinia (and its capital, Kalamata) on Tuesday and then operating further in the prefectures of Argolida and Arkadia on Wednesday.

Astonishingly, the official police report on the operations talks of the “tackling” and the “prevention” of crime as the reasons why the Roma houses came under attack – an open and direct racist  attack against them. On Tuesday alone, 623 Roma were detained of which 84 were arrested, while 14 homes in total were flattened. The numbers for the other days remain unknown.

Greece: immigrant dies after being neglected in concentration camp

The unbearable shame of concentration camps for immigrants in Europe has become even worse with a death caused by criminal neglect. 

From From the Greek Streets:

Migrant from Afghanistan dies in Athens hospital after long-term neglect in the hands of the police

Mohammad Hassan, a migrant from Afghanistan, had been detained in the concentration camp of Corinth since September 2012. Despite the fact that he repeatedly complained about the pain he was suffering, his pleas were completely ignored and he received no medical help. Only on July 2, Mohammad was finally transferred to the Sismanogleio hospital in Athens. He died at the hospital on July 27. 

The doctors had diagnosed him with a respiratory infection, which would point at pneumonia or another similar infection.

Greece: police raid in Patras in support of the Nazis - trotures reported while under arrest

From From the Greek Streets:

Patras: anti-fascists clash with the fascists of Golden Dawn; police detain 25 anti-fascists in retaliation

On the evening of July 24, local Golden Dawn members had called for and attempted to hold a gathering at the square outside stadium of Panahaiki (a local football team). Just prior to the gathering, approximately 50 anti-fascists were pushed back by the riot police guarding the square on behalf of the Golden Dawn nazis.

Later on, at approximately 11pm, car with GD members drove past Olgas square, a popular anarchist/anti-fascist hang-out. It was swiftly attacked by the anti-fascists and members of the police’s DELTA squad attacked them in retaliation. 

Approximately 25 anti-fascists were detained by the police and some were subsequently tortured at the police HQ. At least two anti-fascists who had been seriously injured had request to see a doctor rejected for hours.

At approximately 02:40, all 25 anti-fascists were finally released.

Greece: farcical minister visit to hospital results in riot

From From the Greek Streets:

Riot Police storm Attiko Hospital to protect the minister of health from angry doctors and patients

On 19 July 2013 the new minister of health Adonios Georgiades (an extreme-Rigth MP) went to the Attiko hospital for an inspection accompanied by TV cameras. However, ministry officials passed by earlier to make sure that no patients are not to be seen in camp beds in the hospital corridors. Patients had to squeeze into rooms (8 patients in 4 bed rooms) temporarily until the minister and the TV cameras leave, so everything would look good ιν the TV. When the minister arrived doctors and patients proteσted for the ridiculous scenario and the budget cuts in health care, so riot police stormed the hospital faciltiies to protect the minister and keep the protesters away from the cameras.

Fascist Greece: demonstrations forbidden during Schauble's visit

The authoritarian Greek government has banned all demonstrations in Athens while the German Finances Minister, Wolfang Schauble, is visiting (today between 9 am and 8 pm). 

The main opposition party, the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), denounced the measure as "fascist". 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Greece: Nazi cowards attack children while police watches

The degenerate state of Greece under the bourgeois puppet government can hardly be better illustrated by this cowardly attack and the passive attitude of police towards the Nazis. 

Some 80-100 Nazis armed with crowbars attacked a social center in Ilioupoli, an Athenian suburb, at the moment (7:30 evening) when dozens of children attended their English language classes and only two adults (one of them an aged teacher) were in.

There is video evidence of two police officers on motorbikes watching the attack and smiling.

Fortunately nobody was seriously injured (minor injuries are indeed reported) but the whole place was trashed. This is the third time the social center has been attacked

The Assembly of Synergeion decided to denounce the attack before the tribunals, using the testimony of neighbors, a legal strategy that will probably leave the attackers at large because the Nazis are known to intimidate even judges.

Source: I can't relax in Greece.

Greece: Kostas Sakkas allowed freedom on bail

It is still illegal and immoral. The bourgeois court ordered that in order for the Anarchist prisoner in hunger strike to be freed € 30,000 must be paid as bail. 

He's also banned from traveling abroad, leaving the prefecture of Attica, residing in the home he has declared as such residence, presenting himself at police station every Monday and prohibition of communicating with other people accused of membership in the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire case. 

Fundraising is being organized.

Heraklion city hall was occupied by Anarchists yesterday in solidarity with Sakkas:

Sources: Contra Info, From the Greek Streets (also here).