Arrests in Greece during the Rebellion (from 06/12/08 to 21/12/08)

Arrests: 246 – detained/ pretrial custody: 66 

ATHENS: 50 immigrants arrested in the first three days of the uprising sentenced to 18-month imprisonment in trials without interpreters and may be deportated, (every other day arrests are occuring, the picture is still blurry). Also on 7/12, 7 arrests were made for misdemeanors [one minor will be judged on 29/01 and 6 adults on the 26/06] on the 9/12 2 arrests were made and a regular trial date was set, on 11/12 5 people were imprisoned [ 3 Greek citizens and 2 immigrants] and 15/12 they imprisoned another 4 people (according to the blog for the ASOEE squat). On 18/12 they arrested 8 persons accused of crimes (according to word from comrades). 

THESSALONIKI: 21 Arrests (3 minors will go to court on 13 February 2009 – the others, mostly foreigners are convicted and none are in custody, but the number is most likely higher – according to the blog of the ASOEE Squat). 

KOZANI: 34 Arrests (the 3 in custody are: Ziampras, Papadimitriou, Mark – in Grevena prison – is seriously injured with a burn to the nose from teargas, and was transferred to hospital in Athens – according to lawyers, comrades and the blog of ASOEE Squat). 

Asylum Seekers in Greece – PRO ASYL October 2008 research

“The situation in Greece is out of control”

Research into the situation of asylum seekers in Greece

Carried out by Karl Kopp, PRO ASYL’s Director of European Affairs, from October 20^th to 28^th 2008.  The research focused on the situation of asylum seekers and individuals returned to the Greek capital on the basis of the Dublin II Regulation. Kopp spoke personally to many  refugees as well as representatives of civil society, the UNHCR and the Ministry for Health between October 20th and 28th 2008.

• Source: PRO ASYL home page
• Research Report PDF in English

When they mess with one of us, they mess with all of us

stencil on ΗΣΑΠ wagon: "ATTENTION! OIKOMET: during the day cleaning ΗΣΑΠ, during the night killing its employees"

On the 27th of December we occupied the headquarters of ISAP (Athens Piraeus Electric Railway) as a first response to the murderous attack against Konstantina Kuneva on the 23-12-2008. Sulphuric acid was thrown at her face as she was returning home from work.  Konstantina is in the intensive care ward of Evangelismos hospital suffering serious sight and respiratory system problems.

Who was Konstantina? Why was she attacked?

Stop the deathtrap! PRO ASYL petition to the EU Parliament

Year by year thousands die at Europe´s borders: Stop the deathtrap at the EU borders!

In search of a dignified life thousands of refugees and migrants die at the borders of Europe. These are people who are driven from their homelands by war, persecution, violence and miserable living conditions. In order to escape they squeeze into tiny boats, hide in lorries, sleep in very basic campsites or in front of high security border controls. Drowning, suffocation or dying of thirst are frequent occurrences. Many die of exhaustion.

Germany and other EU states react towards those seeking protection at its borders with armed resistance and deterrence. Humiliation and abuse, even extending to illegal rejection at the borders, have frequently been reported. The EU founded border security agency, FRONTEX, operates in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic with disregard for refugee and human rights. Refugee boats are pursued and driven away. Protection seekers are therefore forced to take more dangerous escape routes. This increases the risk of death en route. The Mediterranean and parts of the Atlantic are developing into zones exempt from human rights.

A Campaign by the PRO ASYL group, link to the appeal’s page

Read the rest of this press release below….

Konstantina Kuneva attacked with sulfuric acid…

Konstantina Kuneva is a Bulgarian migrant worker in Athens. She is also the secretary of the Union of Housekeepres and Cleaners of Attika. On the 23rd of December, she was attacked with sulfuric acid in front of her home by two – or according to other sources by four -  men. She was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition. She has burns on her face, head, hands and back and there is a possibility that she will lose her sight.

The events before the attack and the testimonies of her fellow unionists and workers show clearly this is an act of punishing her for her involvement in the union (Read here the first announcement of  the  Union after the event).  The Union is one of the most active workers’ unions within what euphemistically is called precarious labour: in other words, Konstantina is a migrant and a severely underpaid and unprotected worker in one of the most devalued sectors of labour; she decided to join a union in order to struggle against the inhuman conditions imposed to her and her fellow workers; her smart and clean bosses, possibly hiring mafia people or in any case with mafia methods, assaulted her. Behind the attack are them and their heavies, who have been threatening Konstantina and other women for their activity in the union. The everyday terror of bosses targets clearly and ruthlessly individuals and unions that resist the wage slavery.

This is the bank account for raising money to help Konstantina in her very difficult condition.

• Account Nr. 5012 019021 277 PIREOS BANK
• IBAN: GR 28 0172 0120 0050 1201 9021 277
• BIC: PIRBGRAA
• under the name of DECHEVA ELENA KUNEVA KOSTADINKA NIKOLOVA as account holder.
  

solidarity actions

The rebellion continues….

The rebellion continues:

in the streets, the squares, the occupation of the universities and above all in everyone’s consciousness.

It continues in the consciousness of the pupils, students, workers, immigrants and all the people who feel offended and oppressed .
The government presents the rebels as if they were thieves, outlaws and agitators, as teenagers who just want to have their little revolution.

The media have been trying to destroy this radical rebellion which was born in the days of December. The political parties got united for the preservation of their status quo. The rebellion has brought us all together in the streets using our only gun: mutual help. The passion for freedom never fades away.

Nothing has ended. Everything begins now. Against wealth and bosses, we say: to the streets to break the government’s suppression.

Solidarity to the rebels.
Immediate liberation of the rebels who were captured by the police.

http://anoixtisynelefsh.blogspot.com/

Our share of these days!

The murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos triggered an unprecedented revolt and unrest within Greek society; an overflow of anger that doesn’t seem to wane. In the frontline of this unrest one finds school pupils, whose passionate and spontaneous struggle has subverted all certainties of the past period. The power regime in Greece has been unable to understand their struggle along the lines of its usual methods for suppressing political action, let alone control it. Pupils have been making history – leaving to others the “duties” of writing this history in order to integrate it in existing ideologies. The streets, the initiative, the passion is theirs.

Prison and Deportation for holding a cell phone charger!

A wave of repression against immigrants during the riots in Greece

In the last few days, there has been an explosion of violence and racism against immigrants by the police and the courts. In Athens only, over 50 immigrants have been sent to trial in flagrante delicto, with ridiculously insignificant accusations. This is the general picture: Express trials, no legal representation, no interpreters and a pre-decided charge of 18 months in prison followed by deportation. Most immigrants were arrested on the streets and not inside shops. Some were found carrying looted wares, some weren’t. In one characteristic case, an immigrant was charged with robbery while he insisted that the single cellphone he was found carrying was actually his own! He was imprisoned and is awaiting deportation. In another incident, an immigrant was incarcerated for carrying a cellphone charging device! He was also sent to prison. He will be deported too.

They reap what they sew – in Greece as in everywhere! December’s Insurrection

Solidarity with the rebels. Immediate liberation of the arrested and detained rebels.

Read here about the arrests in Greece from Dec 6 to Dec 21.

After the police killing of 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos in cold blood, the underground stream of anger and indignation made its way to the surface. A disparate wave of – primarily but not exclusively – young people, who feel excluded, disappointed, oppressed, hopeless, broke into the streets. A generation of accumulated alienation, deprived of any means for expressing itself, deprived of any meaningful self-determination, at school, university, work.

The absolute scorn for human life and dignity on the side of the state’s power is not something new. The police has been training in “accidental killings” for many years now; its training targets had been migrants. And concentration camps are being constructed at every corner of Greece.

Factories close down one after the other, the high cost of living, unemployement and the privatization of education, the abolition of welfare state protection, the uncertainty for the future, this dreadful feeling that young people are growing in a world that is worse than the one their parents did, these have been the triggers of the insurrection.

The Greek state and its elites have been sowing hatred.

Now they reap it!

Read this announcement of the Albanian Migrants’ Steki for some initial thoughts about the migrants’ and refugees’ share of the revolt, and this Group of Migrants and Refugees announcement about the high price migrants and refugees pay from the Greek state’s prosecutory fury. The rebellion continues, a poster and a short announcement of the Open Assembly of Migrants and Refugees.

The Chania hunger strike’s outcomes….Friday the 5th of December events…

Late in the evening on Friday, the 5th of December, or the 25th day of the hunger strike, the Ministry Of Interior Affairs promised that the hunger strikers be granted residence permits on “exceptional grounds”.

This Friday was a long one….