ABC Hurricane uploaded the Filaki – Prison World DVD about 2007 prison riots uprising in Greece.

PDF: Prison World – Filaki zine

Documentary from Greece about the prison society, its role in social control and the ongoing rebellion against it…

The film focuses on the prison uprisings against the political repression and social war against the comrades in Greece as well as the hunger strikes against the Type-F prisons in Turkey which soon spread to engulf many of the prisons in Greece. These prisons are similar to the Type-C prisons in Greece, the FIES in Spain, the CSC in the UK and other punitive isolation torture regimes around the world.

During the afternoon R.Z. escapes again, for the last time. A detainee shouts to him, ‘How did you do it?’. R.Z answers: ‘From there at the top… you can’t find a way to escape from those walls, because there are other walls beyond… another prison. You must escape from the roof, and head towards the sun. They will never be able to build a wall between the sun and the earth’.

Our passion for freedom is stronger than all prisons!!!

–

Vimeo link- https://vimeo.com/108159482

This is a DVD rip. Contact abc-hurricane [at] riseup [dot] net if you would like an original DVD copy.

From

Here is the new address for comrade Nikos Maziotis:

Sending books to inmates is banned in Diavata prison, where Nikos Maziotis is currently incarcerated. So the comrade can only receive letters (at best some news reports too). It is obligatory to indicate a sender address, otherwise letters are not delivered.

To write to the comrade:

Nikos Maziotis
Geniko Katastima Kratisis Thessalonikis
57008 Diavata,
Thessaloniki,
Greece

Via

Here is the first Interview of Nikos Maziotis after his arrest. Published in the Greek newspaper “Efimerida ton Sintaktion”

1. You are a member of Revolutionary Struggle, an armed anarchist organization. Why did you choose armed struggle as a method of action?

Armed struggle is an integral part of the struggle for social revolution. It is an integral part of a revolutionary movement that seeks the overthrow of capital and the state. There is an inseparable connection between the movement and armed struggle to such an extent that a movement to be truly revolutionary needs to include armed struggle in its targets. Throughout history there has never been a victorious revolution that was not armed. Armed struggle or in other words, armed propaganda, is a very powerful tool for the fight and its political messages can be very powerful, as long as there is an overall political conception and analysis about where we act, what we want and what we aim for. In Revolutionary Struggle we believe that armed action aims at dissipating to the greatest possible social and folk classes the necessity of social revolution and of the overthrow of capital and the state. Today, especially in Greece but not only, during the fiercest attack of the imperialist capital, while the Troika and the Greek state implement a policy of social genocide, armed struggle is as necessary and timely as ever. In 2009, at the beginning of the crisis, when it still had the characteristics of a crisis of the financial system and before it became a debt crisis, we had expressed the view that a great opportunity for a revolutionary era had dawned for Greece, because the consequence of the crisis was the end of neoliberal consensus and the de-legitimization of the economic and political system in the eyes of the social majority. Under these these circumstances, targeted armed action against the regime may result in a cascade for a system with advanced interdependence in all areas and activities and acts as a proliferation risk of destabilization. Since the economic and political globalization has advanced significantly, and with it the conditions of interdependence have increased, our view has been reinforced that armed struggle is now more than ever, not only politically necessary and feasible, but also crucial for the incitement of systemic problems and conflicts that will effectively undermine the system, to its final fall. But this requires a revolutionary movement that will resort to arms.

2. When arrested in 2010 you assumed the political responsibility of your participation in Revolutionary Struggle. What does political responsibility mean?

As a fighter and as a member of an armed group I did what I see as self-evident. I defended the organization to which I belong, I defended the attacks committed by the organization, I defended Lambros Foundas a member of the organization who was killed in an armed clash with police preparing a hit answer to the regime in order to block the Greek government, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank from taking possession of the country and to end the current junta of capital and State, the new totalitarianism that the supranational economic and political elite want to impose on the entire planet taking advantage of the occasion of the global economic crisis. This stance we adopted was a matter of integrity for us. We were not looking to save ourselves. Taking political responsibility for us who chose to do this was a collective decision, and not an individual choice, and so after our arrests we managed to keep intact our collectivity and the imprisoned members of Revolutionary Struggle fought back, and we continued to talk about the necessity of modern proletarian counterattack and social revolution intervening with statements in major strikes and popular protests against the Memorandum of 2010-2011. We had the same attitude in the trial. Any other attitude than taking political responsibility would be a betrayal of our principles and our ideals and disrespectful to the dead, like LambrosFoundas.

3. How do you respond to those who claim that armed action causes repression? For example, after Christodoulos Xiros fled prison, the government expedited the bill for type C prisons, intended for members of armed revolutionary organizations.

It is stupid to believe that the struggle for freedom will not meet the response of the state and that it will not have serious repercussions. The struggled has as a compass the social revolution and the overthrow of capital and the state and it is obvious that it is not governed by the Criminal Code and the laws of the enemy and so it will necessarily adopt illegal forms of action, such as armed struggle, beyond the legal forms of action that it adopts. In the struggle for freedom and revolution, class and social war, there will be bloodshed, we will be deaths, there will be imprisonment, there will be special anti-terrorist laws and special prisons for members of armed organizations. Christos Kassimis, Christos Tsoutsouvis, Christopher Marino, Lambros Foundas paid with their lives the price of fighting guns in hand, in the struggle for overthrow and revolution. As in other historical eras, the guerrillas of ELAS and the Democratic Army in Greece and members of armed organizations in Europe and Latin America, such as the Tupamaros, the Red Brigade, the members of RAF, the Action Direct members or members of armed organizations in Turkey. The price they paid was deaths in armed clashes, deaths from hunger strikes in prison and years of convictions. As a member of the Revolutionary Struggle I always had in mind that the price of my choices would either be one long heavy sentence in prison, which I have already received, or death in a fight with the dogs of the state. I could have been killed at Monastiraki. It was something that I knew could happen. The costs and consequences of the struggle for the overthrow and revolution do not mean that we should give up. The only lost cause is one that was never fought for. It should however be borne in mind that the price of such an option has a second side: For example, the enemy has paid a heavy toll since many cops have been killed by armed rebel groups, paying for their choice to be the dogs of the bosses. The same goes for politicians, judges, and for businessmen. This is what I argued in trial defending the attack Revolutionary Struggle realized with Kalashnikovs against the three riot policemen in Eksarhia in January 2009, which was in retaliation for the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, and resulted in the heavy injury of Adamantios Mantzounis. Mantzounis paid the price of becoming a riot policeman and since then has not been in the police. Therefore in contrast to the claims that armed action exacerbates the suppression I answer that attacks by armed rebel groups against the forces of repression act as a deterrent to the intensity of police violence. On the contrary to popular belief the lack of armed action and thus the absence of the threat of retaliation frees more repressive action of the forces. Anyone who thinks that he is a fighter or an anarchist and believes that he must act within the limits of legality is best to join a legitimate parliamentary party, to join the system and to stop pretending to be a militant or revolutionary or anarchist. To provoke the state when fighting it is normal. One should be more worried about not inducing reaction since it indicates we are not on track if the enemy does not consider us dangerous.

4. In 2012, while still on trial for Revolutionary Struggle you and Paula Roupa violated their bail and chose to go underground. Why did you chose this?

To go underground was something we had decided since our release due to the passage of 18 months without a conclusive conviction. We knew we would be convicted to 25 years imprisonment, and we were not willing to accept this passively. At the time we chose to go underground the stage of the proceedings where indictment witnesses are examined in connection with the operations of the organization was over. During this period we gave many months-long battle defending the actions of the organization, one by one, staying there to turn our trial into a forum for the defense of Revolutionary Struggle, of armed action and social revolution. We were not content to take a stand politically at the end of the trial, at the stage where the defense of the accused allows a statement in the form of the “apology”, so we took a stance politically regarding all our actions from the start. We chose to go underground for the obvious reasons: To be free, to continue the armed struggle, to continue to fight for the necessity of social revolution, the necessity of armed proletarian and popular counter-attack against the regime of memoranda, Troika, the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, against the fiercest attack of imperialist capital. We chose to go underground in order to continue the struggle for the overthrow of capital and the state, for Libertarian Communism and Anarchy.
An important role in our choice to go underground was that we wanted to bring our child up without it seeing us behind bars. Within this framework was the reactivation of the Revolutionary Struggle with the attack on April 10, 2014 against the building of the Directorate for the Supervision of the Bank of Greece in Americis Street, which houses the resident representative of the IMF in Greece. As a member of Revolutionary Struggle I assume political responsibility for this action.

5. In Monastiraki, to avoid arrest you opened fire in a crowd of unsuspecting citizens. The result was the minor wounding of two tourists. What do you have to say about this?

First of all I am sorry that the two tourists were even slightly injured. The suffering of unrelated citizens in any way was something that we carefully avoid in the Revolutionary Struggle and this was made clear during the trial of the organization in which we were accused that the bombings risked human lives indiscriminately. After a long battle in court it was largely accepted that several of our claims such as the fact that most homicides accusations fell and only those involving the three riot policemen in Eksarhia in 2009, shot by the organization as a bloody retaliation for Grigoropoulos’ murder. In the case of Voulgarakis it was accepted that attempted execution of this scoundrel was canceled because there was a risk that someone might discover the bomb which was detonated at a time no danger was posed to transit citizens, not even to the police officer who was near TEEM. In the case of the attack on the Ministry of Economy in Sintagma Square where there were minor injuries to civilians, the court took into account that the police despite two warning calls had not isolated the space and ad therefore put lives at risk.Revealingly a woman who was injured received compensation from the government for this, while some policemen from the central police force were fined for blunders in this matter, since the police finally admitted that their wrong reactions put lives at risk. There are reports of the American Embassy in Greece that said members of Revolutionary Struggle risk much in their actions in order not to hurt civilians. History itself proves that we always take action and do care about the lives of citizens regardless of the target. In Monastiraki, as is stated in the police report, the injuries of the two tourists were from fragments and not direct shots by the bullets of the gun. The wounds of both these people were in the leg, which means that the shooting was low. This shows that I did not even aim at these people. How is it that now I am charged with attempted homicide of these people on the ground that I accepted the possibility of killing people? Here hypocrisy is surplus. In three cases of our actions the police put lives at risk. Once in Sintagma, at the Ministry of Finance, where their stupidity went as far as not roping off the space. Once at the Ministry of Employment where the special guard ordered a homeless citizen to carry the backpack with a bomb from the entrance to the Ministry a few steps further. The third event was at the Stock Exchange Market where the police did not advise some guards to leave neighboring buildings. But there is another case where police have killed the wrong man during a hunt of an outlaw and there was no consequence for the police. In February 2010 during an arrest operation of Marian Kola in Byron, 9 police bullets killed an innocent by passer, Nikola Todi. Nobody was charged with attempted murder. And the then Minister of Public Order Chryssochoidis declared that a human life was lost, but the important thing is that two criminals were arrested. Overflowing excess hypocrisy for the value of human life. The police primarily interested in the life of their masters and to protect their colleagues. The same goes for politicians, government officials and capitalists who are only interested in the lives of similar class, while they could not care less for life in general. They have the audacity to accuse me of attempted murder the same people who with the social policy of genocide that they are applying are responsible for mass deaths, 4000 suicides, deaths of people from shortages in hospitals, who are responsible for people searching the garbage to eat, responsible for millions unemployed, who are responsible for the impoverishment of an entire people.

6. You are accused of two armed bank robberies. Do you think that bank robberies are a revolutionary act?

Under certain conditions, the expropriation of predatory financial institutions can be considered as part of a policy of revolutionary activity. Such is the case of expropriation for financing the guerrilla war as has been the case throughout history. Historically all guerrilla organizations, the Tupamaros, the Red Brigades, RAF, Action Direct have resorted to bank robberies to finance their activities. Expropriation of banks have been done by Spanish anarchists and Bolsheviks, even in Greece rebels of the third division of the Democratic Army in the Peloponnese, who realized ​​expropriations of branches of the National Bank in Kalavrita and Amaliada in 1948 during the civil war. But when expropriation is an individual choice, even if it is a conscious act, then it is nothing but a profession that is not related to political and revolutionary action, since by itself it is not a social policy proposal. In this category fall many of the social prisoners who have been convicted for this reason. Whether in one case or the other, since these acts are not against ordinary citizens but against predatory financial institutions, which are armed with the legal right to rob people, taking homes and property from those who can not pay off, then there is nothing wrong with them. With the crisis we have banks, local and foreign, are responsible for the poverty and misery of the people. Responsible for the unemployment, with the social policy of genocide they apply. With the crisis it is increasingly the case that social wealth is redistributed from the social base to the vaults of banks. Lets not forget that multinational banks, some of which were holders of the majority of Greek debt also control the greater part of the global economy by controlling the bulk of industry and commerce. So I cannot find anything bad in the criminal expropriation of such criminal institutions in either case – either as part of revolutionary political action or as personal choice. Without wanting to go into detail regarding the categories against me regarding two robberies of predatory financial institutions, all I can say is that since I was underground I could not work as an employee. My survival depended necessarily on such expropriations.

7. Why did you want to leave in such a haste from the hospital “Evangelizmos”?

The conditions of hospitalization in Evangelizmos offend human dignity. I was 24 hours in a room with their hooded Counter-terrorism unit around my bed, the light was lit 24 hours for “safety reasons”. For “safety reasons”, of course, when it came to removing the catheter they attempted, with orders from above as the police chief said, to tie me to the bed by putting my left hand in handcuffs. I reacted by tearing out the drip with antibiotics and told the doctors that I would not accept any medication and would begin a hunger strike. In order to pee they had the bathroom door wide open again for “safety reasons”of course to be able to monitor every move. And I need to add a course that tests operated on me before my arm was operated on were made ​​with the hooded presence of EKAM, and just before the surgery when the anesthesia was kicking in I noticed that police were dressed with medical uniforms and would attend the operation on the grounds of safety reasons . Under these circumstances I preferred to rush the transfer to the prison hospital Korydalloy. Let me add that isolation was enforced in prison hospital too, applied in violation of the same prison code that supposedly they have an obligation to implement. For two days I was locked into a cell in isolation until the director of the prison and the board decided what status was kept under. Eventually, they decided that they I could go 4 hours a day out of the cell in a corridor that did not exceed 10 meters where I had access to a phone, but I was still in isolation since I could not come into contact with other prisoners, while I was forbidden to go into the prison court which every prisoner is entitled to.

8. Do you think that Revolutionary Struggle has a foothold in society?

I believe that if any armed revolutionary organization has such action that it targets the problems of the people and of society, and if its actions are against the oppressors and exploiters of the people, against those who rob, murder and make them miserable it is then logical that despite the media brainwashing showing members of armed organizations as antisocial and criminal monsters, a large part of society supports the actions of rebel organizations. Thus, because the action of Revolutionary Struggle has these characteristics, I believe that yes, it has a foothold in society. I think that many would be willing in the present circumstances to take up arms to get Kalashnikovs and terminate the executioners of the people. But for this you need a revolutionary movement to organize them. The fact that Revolutionary Struggle has a foothold is also evident and demonstrated by the fact that the State has put a price on our heads for 2 million euros. One for me and one for Paula Roupa my companion. If the state had universal consensus and had managed to convince all that our action is against the society and the workers then they would not have to resort to the dastardly measure of fatwa, iepaid reporting, but would rely on voluntary reporting due to the supposed sense of social responsibility. How vile and despicable it is to be a wistle-blower and even more so a paid one is evidenced by the fact that even the Germans before they departed in 1944 from Athens executed all interpreters and informants. Who is socially acceptable is demonstrated by the fact that I, Maziotis, as a member of the Revolutionary Struggle may roam the streets and live in society as I could when I was released in 2011. Everyone knew us. On the other hand Samaras, Venizelos, Papandreou, Ministers of Government, Members of Parliament who voted bills and all unpopular measures cannot walk the streets without armed escorts and bodyguards.

9. If you had the opportunity to send a message to Paula what would you say?

I would say that I am well and in high spirit, that she should remain free to raise our son, and that despite the losses, the struggle continues.

For the political and economic regime, not only in Greece but also internationally, the arrest of a revolutionary with the political calibre of Nikos Maziotis is a “significant success”, as stated by the United States. That’s because the comrade’s arrest is perceived by our enemies as a blow to the struggle for the establishment’s subversion, as a blow to the struggle for liberation from the yoke of capitalism and the State, as a blow to the struggle for social Revolution. The size of threat that Maziotis poses to the establishment is reflected in the high-pitched nauseating rejoicing on the part of the domestic and foreign political power. Because the comrade and the Revolutionary Struggle, the organization in which he belongs, are intrinsically linked to the systemic political destabilization, to the undermining of a rotten regime; linked to the consistent war against domination and contemporary barbarity; linked to the struggle for the overthrow of the State and capitalism, linked to the social Revolution itself. Comrade Nikos Maziotis was and continues to be committed to the Revolution. This is what he has fought for, this is what he still fights for; this is why they present him as No 1 danger to the establishment. Thus, the political gravity of this case should be the primary parameter in expressing solidarity with the comrade.

Currently, Maziotis is a prisoner of social and class war. It’s not fair that he is in prison. It would only be fair if he was free, fighting for social Revolution. It would only be fair if those who are responsible for the plight of the Greek people, those who voted for and implement the memoranda, were shackled instead of him and they stood people’s trials; the economic elite, the rich who suck the blood of proletarians, the political elite and their servants. It would be fair if Samaras, Venizelos, Papandreou, Papademos and their criminal organizations, the Troikans and the leaders of the European Union, were shackled in chains. The domestic and foreign bosses, for the economic interests of whom the land and the people who live in it are being ravaged. These are the real terrorists and robbers. These are the ruthless criminals and brutal murderers.

The cheering about the arrest was accompanied by the anticipated attacks of state propaganda, reproduced and largely created by the mouthpieces of Power, the mass media. Attacks that tried to stain the comrade’s revolutionary character and used the shootout in the area of Monastiraki as their banner, in which the comrade is portrayed as “unscrupulous gunslinger” who opens fire indiscriminately, while the cops “are striving to neutralize him” without the use of firearms. The cops supposedly fired a single bullet, and this was merely done to “neutralize” the comrade. How nauseating liars and hypocrites are they, both the state mechanisms and the kneelers who bow down to the regime in the news bulletins! “He was shooting amid the crowd.” Who chose the place for this battle? Who started the manhunt? Or, should Maziotis have dropped the weapon and surrender without a fight?

The cops consciously opted to conduct an armed clash in a crowded place. The comrade was obliged to defend himself. After they made one of the injured tourists, who stated he was shot by a cop, disappear from publicity as soon as possible, they declared again and again in the mainstream media that they fired only one bullet, while the comrade fired eight bullets. But upon mere suspicion that the man they were chasing may turn out to be Maziotis, they would open fire even with automatic machine guns not to let him get away. Because the stakes for them were of great political importance, and they didn’t care one bit if their operation was taking place among dozens of people, nor did it matter to them if some bystander would get killed. Besides, if that happened, they would blame the comrade for it. Who could ever refute them?

As for the ridiculous claims that they had supposedly tracked him down a few days ago, these were said in the context of state propaganda, not to admit that this was a purely random incident. And this is something that can also be seen in their contradictory reports. First, they claim that the comrade was recognized by a secret policewoman shortly before the shootout. Then, they claim that a former secret policeman had recognized him days before at a metro station. If it were true that they had tracked him down the previous days, they would have arrested us. A female snitch and a moment of bad luck gave way to the manhunt. But, again, they could not admit that the police chase started randomly. All of the propaganda about locating him beforehand was generated to publicly assert that the repressive mechanisms, and especially the “antiterrorist” force, are productive and effective. But this is too far from reality. In the whole previous period, we were continuously among them. We were moving everywhere. We were passing by them. We watched them, but they did not see us.

Since the arrest of my companion, I have become “No 1 most-wanted fugitive”; I and my child, about whom the regime’s men of straw in the mass media “inform” with excessive vulgarity, disclosing a lot of his personal data, and with a nauseating hypocrisy they simultaneously reward the prosecution mechanisms for their “sensitivity” not to release the child’s photograph to the public. From now on, the cops are going to sweep the country to find the child based on any clues that they might have. Other than that, my son is not wanted by authorities… And as one disgraceful police-minded journalist stated in the past, they were hoping to catch us through the child. Now, through the child, they wish to capture me.

They have my comrade heavily wounded in their hands. Their vindictiveness was something expected. To them it is not enough that they have Maziotis with an arm crushed by a bullet and in serious health condition; so, despite the fact that the necessity for close medical supervision and more surgeries was made public, they enforced his vindictive transfer to a prison known to not have doctors even for the most basic medical needs of prisoners. No doubt that, because of this transfer alone, his condition has deteriorated. I know firsthand what kind of prison transfers are imposed on armed combatants. When I was forced to be moved to another prison while I was pregnant, I ended up in hospital bleeding, and I was forced to stay bedridden to avoid having a miscarriage. It is obvious that they are afraid. They have the comrade in their hands with his arm crushed, and yet they are still afraid.

In what has to do with me: really, did they expect and still anticipate that I’m going to give myself up? I’m not going to do them this favor. Let them come and get me. In reality, my persecutors do not believe that I would do such a thing. That’s why they raided and searched the home of my family, interrogated my mother and sister looking for any clues, but in vain. Their statements in the media, that I find myself in a difficult position and it’s possible that I will hand myself in to authorities, are nothing more than an ultimate effort to inflict pressure. My persecutors know me. They got to know me on April 10th, 2010, when I was pregnant in their hands, and despite their ridiculous attempts to terrorize me, I didn’t even tell them my name; all they received from me was spitting. They are aware of my political stance during imprisonment, they know what political stance I maintained during the entire trial process. I was, I am and I will be a member of the Revolutionary Struggle. If they think they can bend me, they are grossly mistaken.

The arrest of our comrade was a blow. Our comrade Lambros Foundas shed his blood in the alleys of Dafni, and Nikos Maziotis in Monastiraki. The Revolutionary Struggle has given its blood for the cause of social Revolution. But our enemies will not have the last word.

There is still open ground for the Revolutionary Struggle. The social ground is ours, not theirs. For our enemies it is a hostile, wild ground which they can control only with violence. Every day the State and the Capital plunder, terrorize, murder, and exterminate in their attempt to save the establishment. In the name of “tearing out of the system all the rot” they hack to death millions of people that are considered superfluous for the reproduction of capitalism. At the same time, they bombard the society with stupid stories of “economic recovery” and “a way out of the country from the tunnel of crisis”; stories that make the poor, the hungry, the ragged in this country burst into laughter and indignation.

On the 16th of July a battle took place in Monastiraki. An unequal battle between a revolutionary and tens of armed dogs of the State. An unequal battle, just as the struggle for Revolution is unequal in this historical period. A struggle between few revolutionaries and an apparatus that is armed to the teeth and very large in numbers. It’s just that this struggle, the revolutionary struggle, is not a numerical question. It is a matter of soul. It is a matter of believing in revolutionary justness. A matter of believing in the Revolution. Of combating a murderous system, criminal by its very nature, reproduced through exploitation, oppression, and even the physical extermination of people. A system reproduced by violence. The violence of economic policy, the violence exercised by the economic and political elite to keep the rotten capitalist system alive, to ensure their interests, and to continue to dominate. Every single one of us experience the results of this violence over the last four years that the country has been in the throes of crisis, with millions of unemployed and casual workers, with poverty wages, with the transformation of work in slave trade, with the worst conditions of wage slavery ever experienced by people in this country. We have seen and continue to see the results of this murderous violence in people’s hunger, malnutrition of children, starvations, sicknesses, deaths, and the ever increasing suicides. We see these results in dumpsters where humans-mice, with their dignity crushed, are diving for a piece of bread. This “concealed” violence of the system, amid a systemic crisis, has now become a weapon of mass destruction.

It is absolutely fair to fight injustice; to combat a system that is imprisoning, beating, killing second-class people, whether these are resisters, strikers and demonstrators or wretched migrants, with the raw violence of repressive mechanisms so as to consolidate the order. A system that is establishing “maximum security” dungeons with the primary purpose of annihilating the armed combatants politically, morally, psychologically, even physically, of crushing the willingness to wage an armed revolutionary struggle. A system served by a justice which requires the legitimization of all kinds of state violence (e.g. the case on the wreck in Farmakonisi, where Coast Guard officers were responsible for drowning migrants, is filed), but also the racist violence against wretched workers (e.g. strawberry producers and their foremen were acquitted for the murderous assault on migrant farm workers in Manolada). Moreover, internationally, in the name of consolidating the New World Order through wars against “terrorism”, the slaughter of an entire people in Palestine is being legitimized.

Revolutionary struggle is a matter of believing in the need of combating oppressors; of returning to the real criminals, the real terrorists and murderers who make up the system, a percentage of the violence which is perpetrated by them. Because only with armed revolutionary action they will be able to understand that they won’t stay forever untouched.

Most of all, revolutionary struggle is a matter of deep and unyielding belief in revolutionary justness, the righteousness of abolishing every form of exploitation and repression, and destroying the State and capitalism. The fairness of a society of economic equality, without rich and poor, without masters and slaves. The fairness of a society of truly free people.

In the period that the Revolutionary Struggle has been active, since 2003 to date, it has waged a forceful armed struggle against all forms of violence of the establishment which were mentioned above. Ministries, courts, police forces, banks, the stock exchange building, the American embassy, the Bank of Greece were targeted by the organization. Acting consistently, the Revolutionary Struggle has given significant responses to state violence, the violence of the economic and political elite, the violence of the establishment’s justice, and has written significant pages in the revolutionary history of this land, but also at international level.

The Revolutionary Struggle acted and spoke with regards to the economic crisis in times when silence spread over the establishment’s fraud of “eternal stability of the system” and “flourishing Greek economy”. Later, with the onset of the crisis, the organization refuted all of the dominant voices that spoke of “fortified and unassailable Greek economy,” but also the swallow perceptions, impregnated with the regime’s propaganda, that were unable to grasp the magnitude of the coming storm.

The Revolutionary Struggle spoke and acted with regards to the Revolution and the revolutionary social organization in times when these issues were buried beneath the mold of fraudulent social welfare. It kept and continues to keep the flame of social Revolution, the flame of freedom, alive. It marked, determined, inspired many people, and shaped and continues to shape consciences.

For all of the aforementioned, it has posed, poses and will pose a serious political threat to the establishment. The Revolutionary Struggle has fought, fights and will fight for all of the aforementioned. For all that, I will continue to fight.

FREEDOM FOR COMRADE NIKOS MAZIOTIS
HONOUR FOREVER TO COMRADE LAMBROS FOUNDAS
LONG LIVE THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION

Pola Roupa
August 8th, 2014.

As you will know, on July 16 after a random check, Nikos Maziotis was arrested after a gunshot injury to his arm. From the very first moment, the bourgeois media attempted to present the comrade as a “social threat” and to devalue the political action of Revolutionary Struggle. In reality Nikos Maziotis defended his life and his freedom with gun in hand.

The media and the police tried to project a manufactured version of events where Nikos Maziotis was shooting indiscriminately endangering the lives of bystanders, which is far from reality. Immediately after, intense investigations and searches of comrades’ houses began and a manhunt was organized for Pola Roupa who escapes capture.

Nikos Maziotis’ health status is out of danger and around the middle of September he will know if further surgery on his arm is required. He is exhausted from the surgery and takes strong medication for the risk of infection.
After a brief hospitalization in Evangelismos hospital, he was transferred to the prison hospital in Korydallos (Athens) and then, purely vindictively, he was transferred to the Diavata prison in Thessaloniki, where there isn’t the necessary infrastructure to monitor his medical situation and communication is difficult.

Despite this, he still has very high morale and is in a good mood.
He does not recognize the police and judicial authorities and therefore did not apologize. All he said was that he is a revolutionary and that members of the Revolutionary Struggle do not apologize to the dogs of the state.
His presence and reasoning will be advocacy of armed revolutionary action and Revolutionary Struggle in particular. He will support that it was solely the continuation of the struggle that led him and Pola Roupa to flee and go underground.
Since the day of his arrest there have been several movements of solidarity, there has been counter-information in relation to the events and efforts continue.

Generally for August we will prioritize medical issues and attempt to bring him back to Korydallos.
In late August or early September, he will himself issue a political statement.
Note that for the next few months he will not be capable to write.

We will keep you informed of any developments.

In the evening of July 16th, 2014 comrades put up a solidarity banner at the gate of the Polytechnic School, on Patission Street, in response to the fact that Revolutionary Struggle member Nikos Maziotis was recaptured by police in central Athens.

Anarchist Nikos Maziotis, who was on the run for two years, was seriously wounded and arrested earlier today after a shootout with cops in Monastiraki. He was then transferred to the tightly-guarded Evangelismos hospital, where he remains hospitalized. According to his lawyer, the comrade’s life is out of danger.

From 22:30, dozens of anarchists gathered outside the hospital to demonstrate their solidarity with urban guerrilla fighter Nikos Maziotis. At about 23:30 the solidarity intervention was over, and an assembly was called for tomorrow, Thursday 17/7, at 19:30, in the Polytechnic School in Exarchia.

More updates as they come.

– the banner reads: The State and the Capital are the only terrorists – Solidarity with N. Maziotis

After some modifications to the draft bill on maximum security prisons, the recess section of the Greek Parliament is now prepared to vote on this new law on Monday, July 7th. Perhaps it will take another summer session for the final voting, but their plan is to pass the bill no matter what… A protest gathering, supported also by anarchists, against the passage of the ‘prison reform bill’ will take place on Monday 7/7, at 18:00 in Syntagma Square, Athens.

Prisoners throughout Greece have quit their mass hunger strike since the 1st of July, promising other forms of protest on the inside (we don’t have related info as of yet).

One can never know what the fucking minister of Justice, Charalambos Athanasiou, will submit at the last minute, but according to updates so far, main modifications are supposed to be as follows:

– initial incarceration period in Type C prison units for recalcitrant inmates: (from 4 years to) 2 years;

– initial incarceration period in Type C prison units for inmates convicted to over 12 years for terrorism (article 187A of the Greek penal code), and for inmates convicted to over 15 years for criminal organization (article 187 of the Greek penal code): (from 10 years to) 4 years.

It is said that prisoners remanded on terrorism charges (under article 187A), who are still awaiting trial (not yet convicted), will also be sent to Type C prison units.

It is still a fact that inmates locked up in Type C prison units won’t have the right to furlough (days of leave from the prison).

Even if “dangerous” inmates serve 4 full years in a Type C prison, the incarceration period can be extended by prison prosecutors to 2 more years (when these prisoners are not “well-behaved”, or suddenly have further “incriminating indications” presented against them, etc.); when the additional 2 years are over, their incarceration in a Type C prison can be prolonged again to another 2-year period, and so forth…

This is all we can transmit for the time being.

Solidarity with prisoners of the State/Capital. Destroy all prisons!

Draft bill on new Type-C maximum security prisons will be put to a vote within a week. The Greek parliament is in summer recess; the recess section (consisting of one third of the total number of MPs) is scheduled to vote the bill on Thursday the 3rd of July 2014.

Below are the hunger strikers (per prison) who continue to participate in the nationwide mobilization against the operation of a Greek Guantanamo in Domokos prison:

Koridallos (Athens): 1,480 prisoners

Patras: 550 prisoners

Grevena: 400 prisoners

Larissa: 330 prisoners

Domokos: 300 prisoners

Chania (Crete): 280 prisoners

Nigrita (Serres): 200 prisoners

Amfissa: 200 prisoners

Corfu: 120 prisoners

Trikala: 120 prisoners

Malandrino: 120 prisoners

Avlonas: 100 juvenile prisoners

Kos: 60

Corinth: 50

Nafplion: 50 prisoners

In Alikarnassos (Crete), all inmates abstain from prison food.

Also, on June 26th, another court session at Koridallos was interrupted, because all of the CCF imprisoned members on trial are currently on hunger strike against the fascist bill of the ministry of Justice.

Ten midden van verslechterende omstandigheden en harde maatregelen is de woede deze week overgekookt waarbij een gevangenisbewaarder en een gevangene werden vermoord in de gevagenis in Malandrino, Griekenland.

De spanningen lopen hoog op in het Griekse gevangenissysteem na de dood van een gevangenisbewaker en de gevangene die hem vermoordde.
Eerder deze week werd Llia Kareli, vermoordde een 42-jarige gevangene gevangenisbewaarder Yiorgos Tsiranis in de gevangenis in Malandrino. Kareli, die een lange gevangenisstraf uit zat, had een verzoek ingediend zijn stervende moeder te bezoeken. Dit werd hem ontzegd. Met een scherp voorwerp heeft hij Tsiranis neergestoken die ter plaatse overleed. Kareli werd overgeplaatst naar de Nigrita gevangenis en werd daar in een isoleercel gehouden ter observatie. In deze cel is het later dood teruggevonden. Er is een onderzoek onderweg naar de doodsoorzaak maar het rapport van de lijkschouwer laat zien dat Kareli hevige verwondingen had die overeen lijken te komen met marteling van voor zijn dood.

De omstandigheden in Griekse gevangenissen zijn de afgelopen jaren ernstig verslechterd. De groei in de populatie in gevangenissen en een gelijktijdige korting op de budgetten hebben het gevangenissysteem, net als een groot deel van de Griekse staat, op de rand van instorten gebracht. Waarbij de beveiligingsinstanties nu in hoge staat van alertheid zijn, zeker ook na een aantal incidenten als gevolg van de dood van Kareli.

De huidige toestand in de gevangenissen werd in februari nog aangetoond toen er foto’s en video’s naar buiten kwamen via de pers waarin verschrikkelijke omstandigheden in de Korydallos-gevangenis zichtbaar waren. Deze gevangenis in een voorstad van Athene heeft het enige ziekenhuis in het gevangenissysteem van Griekenland. De patiënten in dit ziekenhuis zijn in hongerstaking gegaan uit onvrede over de massale overbevolking en onbehandelde ziektes. Deze omstandigheden zijn vergelijkbaar in heel Griekenland waar cellen vaak overbevolkt zijn waardoor gevangenen bijvoorbeeld op de grond moeten slapen. Net als de rapporten aantonen dat cellen in politiebureaus worden gebruikt om voor langere perioden gevangenen vast te houden. Griekenland heeft één van de grootste overpopulatie in gevangenissen in de Europese Unie en werd hiervoor al meerdere malen bekritiseerd door mensenrechten organisaties.

De enige verandering in het gevangenissysteem is dat de Griekse staat een voorstel heeft gemaakt voor de bouw van een nieuwe maximum-beveiligde gevangenis in Domokos in centraal Griekenland. Het plan is om in deze high-tech gevangenis de meest problematische gevangenen onder te brengen. Dit werd opgebracht na de ontsnapping van C. Xiros tijdens nieuwjaar. Xiros zat al jaren gevangen en is ontsnapt tijdens een verlof. Hij was lid van de gewapende organisatie 17 November, een Marxistisch-Leninistische urbane guerrilla groep. Zijn verdwijning en zijn volgende oproep om de wapens op te nemen hebben de Griekse staat ongerust gemaakt na een recente stijging in het aantal aanvallen door gewapende groepen. Anarchist Kostas Sakkas, die jaren vast zat zonder aanklacht en over de maximale voorarrest tijd, verdween ook niet veel later terwijl hij op borgtocht vrij was. Naast de bouw van de maximum-beveiligde gevangenis, zouden ook verloven worden afgeschaft in het nieuwe voorstel. Het was juist het afwijzen van een dergelijk verlof dat Kareli ertoe dreef om zijn bewaker aan te vallen.

Met meer mensen op elkaar gepropt en onder steeds slechtere omstandigheden is de situatie in de Griekse gevangenissen gevaarlijk en onberekenbaar. Het enige antwoord van de staat is dat ze de omstandigheden nog verder verzwaren. De kans is groot dat dit echter verdere gevolgen zal hebben.

Zie ook:
Gevangenen kondigen actiesmobilisatie aan in Griekse gevangenissen op 24 maart: http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2014/03/25/prisoners-announcing-protest-m…
Foto’s en video’s van binnen in het gevangenenhospitaal in Korydallos:
http://www.enetenglish.gr/?i=news.en.article&id=1801
http://abcnijmegen.wordpress.com

is hosting a writing afternoon from 12 till 18 in daycafe De Klinker..we will focus on Spyros Stratoulis that day but there will be lists ready for yall with as much addresses of prisoners we can prodvide.

So pass by and write someone a nice card while discussing how to overthrow this system with your friends…that would be a great christmas gift right?

In solidarity with the wave hunger strikes in Greek prisons, we are going to write to the person who is the inspiration and reason for this.

Spyros Stratoulis was incarcerated at the age of 17 and has spent the past 22 years in prison. From there he has faught the prison system with numerous hunger strikes, solidarity documents, abstentions from food, prison riots etc.

Additionaly to his sentence he was held on remand from 2008 until 2010, for being involved in prison rebellion which was triggered when another anarchist prisoner was beaten up by jailers.

Although no remand or restrictive order was issued against him in relation with another case that Thessaloniki police has built on alleged criminal organization not only that Spyros was deprived of regular exit permits that he fought so hard to get, but he is also bound to remain hostage pending charges, with a high probability of having to serve the maximum prison sentence length, which is 25 years in Greece, awaiting trial in this particular case, while he would have otherwise been able to request his release on probation in September this year.

On Monday, November 11th, 2013 Spyros went on hunger strike, demanding  the charges to be dropped and claiming his innocence in order to be granted days of leave again.

As an indicator of solidarity with the struggle of Spyros, many of his fellow prisoners launched a hunger strike, and more than 100 greek prisoners are rejecting prison food