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ANARCHY IS STRUGGLE FOR LIFE, FREEDOM AND DIGNITY The general strike on May 5 against the harshest
financial anti-social measures imposed the last decades became the moment for
the expression of a combative social and class dispute of the entire bankrupt
political-economic system. That day, we witnessed the manifestation of the
accumulated popular rage and resentment, which is more and more threatening
to explode, shattering not only this country but even the whole Especially in As anarchists, workers, jobless and youth, continuing
our mobilizations and our long-lasting struggles, we chose to participate in
the demonstration of 5th May through our own
political blocs, contributing from our part to the broader social and
class struggle. Nobody knows how much more the thousands of people
could have achieved that day in the streets of Athens if a tragedy hadn’t
taken place; a horrible event that was disruptive and catastrophic for the
struggle, and an unexpected present for the state, its forces of repression
and its propaganda mechanism who used it in order to slander the struggle and
intensify their repressive attack in the streets, re-establishing their
forces and the consent around them. It was the murder of three bank employees caused by
the arson of Marfin bank in The state is definitely the first responsible for
this event, as well as for a series of everyday crimes. With the attack the
state is launching against society, it is more and more creating the
conditions of a kind of cannibalistic war of all against all; conditions in
which eventually anything can happen, even the inconceivable. Of course, also, the tragic outcome of the arson in
Marfin bank, where the three victims and other people were trapped, has
largely to do with the fact that the owner of the Bank forced his employees
to work in a day of general strike inside a building which had its doors
locked and had not any necessary precautions, such as fire safety measures
and emergency exits. Yet, given that Vgenopoulos (the bank owner) is a
capitalist, member of a class which, by definition, consists of cruel
exploiters and murderers, his indisputable culpability cannot be an excuse
for those whose actions led three working people to death. Nor the claim that these people were working the day
of the strike can be an excuse for their loss, since this was not an issue to
be solved by anyone self-appointed, but an issue of the employees themselves,
or their co-workers and of any probable strikers’ committees; and, in any
case, the response to situations of unintentional or intentional
strike-breaking couldn’t ever be what happened on the 5th of May. Of course the masses of demonstrators, anarchists
and anti-authoritarians among them, who became a human flood in the streets
of That outrageous event made the crowds of
demonstrators freeze and emptied the streets of struggle at the most crucial
moment for the social resistance. The wounded regime gained time to recover
and re-organise its forces as much as it could. At the same time the lackeys
of the regime, the media, literally acted as tomb-raiders, exploiting the
deaths to promote the state’s ideological and repressive campaign against the
people who struggle, and especially against the anarchists whom they attempt
to charge with situations completely irrelevant to them. Anarchists have absolutely nothing to do with what
happened in Marfin bank, and could never have done such an action, ignoring
human lives. It is also true that anarchist comrades and other protesters,
although they were being threatened and physically assaulted, tried as much
as they could to hinder inconsiderate attacks and to put out fires wherever
lives were in danger. No matter how much some would wish, we will not
shoulder any collective responsibility for situations completely strange to
us, which undermine and corrode our struggle and that would annul us as
anarchists; nor will we be silent, hiding our complete opposition to such
situations. Our political responsibility lies in the fact that, despite our
clear conflict with those situations, we were not able to deal with them and
politically isolate them as effectively as it should have been done; and in
the fact that we have to create the terms to do so from now on. For this
reason all of us are called to have a clear position, given that the tragedy
in Marfin is a crucial moment and a crossroad for our struggle. Moreover, it is our responsibility to act in
solidarity and collectively in order to repel the slanderous attack by the
state and its lackeys, and to continue fighting in political terms, in terms
of a movement, within the community, together with its resisting parts. As anarchists we have a lasting, multiform
solidarity activity within the social-class struggles, always on the side of
workers, youth, migrants and refugees, and other oppressed and resisting
people; and in no way will we stop doing so. We will not tolerate the denigration of our
struggle, which is a struggle for life, freedom and dignity against death,
enslavement and humiliation both of the individual and of society; a struggle
against inequality, hierarchy and injustice, against any form of exploitation
and oppression. We don’t
forget the three dead workers EVERYONE TO THE
STREETS! No peace with
the bosses – Wage slavery is terrorism The struggle continues… We express
our solidarity with the people who were beaten and arrested by the police on
5th May and we stand by the side of Zaimi 11 squat in Exarchia which was
evacuated after a police raid during which eleven comrades were arrested. Anarchist
collective Circle of Fire |
