From Anti-Immigrant Summer to Zero Tolerance on Election Bait

Text in Greek available here.

On the occasion of the International Migrants Day

Just over a month and half ago Prime Minister Papandreou used the Global Forum on Immigration & Development proceedings in Athens to sketch government measures which would stand for a humanitarian turn compared to the policies and situation of the recent months .  He described as necessary

“[T]o stimulate the participation of immigrants in the political life of the country, through the possibility of Greek citizenship acquisition, particularly of course for the so-called ‘second generation’, in which we are suggesting the acquisition of citizenship by birth for the new person born in our territory.”

For people in Greece, though, the announcement of the Secretary for Home Affairs Theodora Tzakri two weeks later, which made clear that Greek citizenship would be granted only to children born to legal immigrants, came as no surprise.

The doctrine of “Zero tolerance to illegal migration” goes hand in hand with this government’s humanitarian turn… As for what this turn is all about, it aims at incorporating immigrants mostly from Albania, after two decades of overexploitation, and in exchange for votes. A phony exchange indeed.

Along with this, the dividing of immigrants into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘useful’ and ‘superfluous’, ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ becomes more intense, and the system of exploitation grows deeper roots .

As we wrote in our above linked text on the Global Forum on Immigration & Development:

“The aim of developmental policy is to control migration flows (through the FRONTEX patrols and detention centres) as well as to regulate them (through 5-year rotating work permits, the annulment of asylum rights), in order to keep a stable proportion of productive inhabitants within the increasingly ageing, unproductive populations of Europe. In other words, recycling the migrants will keep the indexes of development in check, development being the systematic and bloodthirsty pillage of lives and resources, time and space.

According to the “UN Population Division report on replacement migration”, if the Europeans want to keep their ratio of older people to active workers at the 1995 levels, the Union will need 135 million immigrants by 2025.

This demographic issue is only part of the story, and maybe not the most important. Neoliberalization inside Europe has meant a weakened, destabilized labor force. It’s not just that capital wants selected migrants because it needs more workers, it wants migrants because they are powerless, unorganized, low-paid workers for whom there will be no job security, no health care and no pensions.In other words, they are far cheaper and less troublesome workers”.

Illegal immigrants are necessary because through them the rights of the legal ones are suppressed (there is of course rotation of people in these roles). At the same time, illegal immigration helps governments maintain a useful xenophobic atmosphere to impose authoritarian policies. “Migration management” includes both authoritarian hysteria and humanitarian logistics. The two seemingly opposite positions are the two sides of the same coin of subjugation.

So let’s outline against this backdrop the government’s humanitarian turn after the elections of October 2009…

The Doctrine “Insulated Greece”

The new doctrine was introduced by Minister of Citizen Protection (= Public Order) M. Chrisochoïdis on Tuesday, December 15, at his meeting with the FRONTEX Executive Director J.Laitinen.   The construction of the Southeast Mediterranean FRONTEX Headquarters at the U.S. base of Aktion or at Piraeus has been a permanent request of the Greek government, which proudly stated that 75% of illegal entry arrests at the sea borders of EU for this year took place in the Aegean sea.

A few days earlier in the frame of FRONTEX operations (on Saturday, December 12) officers in Samos island, on no notice whatsoever and violently, carried out with utmost secrecy the transfer of over 85 Afghan refugees from the local detention center to the island’s airport at Pythagorio.  There the refugees were boarded on an airplane which departed for an unknown destination.

The slaughter in the Aegean Sea continues

In less than two months, 16 migrants have died in the icy waters of the Aegean. Most of them were children.

• On Tuesday, October 27, 8 immigrants, three adults and five children, drowned in the east part of the Aegean Sea.
• On Saturday, November 7, the lifeless bodies of six children from Palestine, aged 2 to 12 years, washed up on shore near Bodrum (Alikarnasos), Turkey.  The boat in which 19 Palestinians – half of them children – squeezed themselves on an effort to pass from the Turkish town of Turgutreis to Kos island overturned 500 meters from the shore.
• On Friday, December 11, a boat carrying undocumented migrants sank near the island of Leros. Fishermen found 25 migrants perched on a rocky island and two more lifeless bodies in the sea.

Police violence

Incidents of abuse and humiliation by the police amount to dozens, and most of them never reach the public attention. We report the following characteristic cases:

• In the afternoon of October 22, immediately after the visit of Secretary of State Vougias the detention center in Pagani of Mytilene, police officers responsible for guarding the center abused and beat prisoners, including a 17-year boy, who was evacuated to the Vostanio Hospital, where lesions were diagnosed on his head, back, waist and arms. According to the interpreter, the police promised 350 euros to the victim to buy his silence.
• On the 19th of November in the afternoon a 35-year old immigrant was beaten by two officers serving at the infamous Aghios Panteleimonas Police Station in Athens. Her two year old child witnessed the beating and the arrest, and along with her mother remained under custody at the Kypseli Police Station for four hours! The incident became known only because the woman is married to a famous Greek musician.
• On Friday, November 20 , immigrant detainee Mohammed bin Taher collapsed in the courts of Evelpidon street in Athens. His condition was such that he was taken to hospital by ambulance. As reported by the his fellow detainees (and he later confirmed) Mohammed bin Taher had been savagely beaten by police at the Omonoia Police Station.
• On the 9th of October Mohammed Kamran dies after the treatment he received by the policemen who had raided the house where he and fellow Pakistani workers resided in Nikaia, Athens.

Para-state violence

The para-state mechanism was launched last summer against immigrants and since then it has been working relentlessly despite the supposed change of policy.

• The most recent incident was the attack of last Tuesday, December 15, against the Social Haunt – Immigrants Haunt in Chania, Crete (hometown of the former Minister of Public Order Markoyannakis).  In the same city on December 8 there has been a savage criminal attack against two immigrants by unknown perpetrators. The near-killers attacked the immigrant workers in the back with crowbars, and left them with serious head and body injuries.  One of the 2 victims was among the 15 hunger strikers of last year , who shook the island of Crete with their proud struggle. The intensity of the attacks in Chania definitely is related to the dynamic struggles of immigrants in the city.
• In Athens, brutal attacks against Arab shops took place at the Neos Kosmos district on Monday, November 22, when 40 people holding crowbars and molotov cocktails attacked and injured the employees in two mini-markets, destroyed the merchandise and stole the money of the cashier.

Para-state organized violence encourages and feeds the diffuse social one.

• Thus, on November 8, four immigrants who had been working at olive fields in Messolongi, Western Greece, were attacked with crowbars and clubs and beaten savagely by circa 15 people. The immigrants were transferred to the emergency dept. of the Messolongi hospital. The immigrants had been asking their wages from the owner of the fields in which they had been working.  They were ambushed and beaten in an old warehouse, where they had an appointment with their employer to get their money.

Institutional violence

• In late November the trial of 25 immigrants (mainly Arabs and one Afghan) took place; they had been arrested during the events of December 2008 and had been detained ever since.  All this period they were considered missing.  All of them were sentenced to imprisonment from 7 months to 3 years.  It is characteristic for the fairness of the trial that only one interpreter had been assigned , who translated simultaneously for 24 defendants who were divided in three groups in the court’s room.  The Afghan who did not understand Arabic was seated on the last bench of the room…
• On Friday, December 11, in Thessaloniki, a report was issued by the Hellenic League for Human Rights, about the detention centers in Evros and Rodopi.  The survey took place from the 25th to the 29th of November 2009 and states:

In many cases there is inadequate lighting, ventilation and heating (…)  At virtually none of the premises visited have the possibility to go outdoors on some yard. Even in detention centers where there is an adequate yard, the large number of detainees on the one hand and the lack of personnel on the other allows usually only for some prisoners to have outdoor breaks for a minimum period and not on a daily basis (…)  Food in many cases is inadequate, the quantity and quality in general varies (..). The care taken for sanitation and hygiene conditions varies from inexistent to inadequate (…) The availability of medical and nursing staff is poor and at all cases occasional (…) The detainees were in total confusion regarding their rights, the time of their detention and ill-informed as to asylum procedures; interpreters were not available.

December 18, 2009

Clandestina Network

Group of Immigrants and Refugees, Thessaloniki

Fascist violence victim snatched from hospital by Greek police

Submitted by taxikipali on Sep 10 2009 at libcom.org

Seriously injured, an immigrant, victim of fascist violence was snatched by police from hospital, and held in parastate-controlled area of Agios Panteleimonas in a new parastate outrage.

The organic cooperation of the police with fascist groups dating back to the nazi occupation has been subject to recent dizzying upgrading to the degree that the ex-chief of EYP, the Greek MI5, and the man responsible for the abduction of dozens of Pakistanis to secret interrogation camps four years ago, was appointed a leading candidate of the fascist Orthodox Alarm (LAOS) party. According to the estimations of many analysts, the intensification and arming of the fascist parastate and its open endorsement by the police are part of a state plan to create an extra-administrative force of repression and terror in the face of the rising social antagonistic movement.

A victim of the continuous parastate operations of fascists and plainclothes policemen in the area of Agios Panteleimonas in Athens was snatched early this week from hospital by police forces violating doctors orders and basic rights to healthcare. The immigrant was attacked last Saturday by the usual 15-strong group of junta-nostalgic vigilantes, and had his chest pierced with an iron rod, receiving serious injuries throughout his body and head.

Instead of even ordering an investigation on the assassination attempt, the greek authorities moved to arrest an eye-witness of the incident and to abduct the unfortunate immigrant from hospital. Both are now held in the notorious police department of Agios Panteleimonas which a few years ago came under protester attack after systematic torture of underage Afghan boys in its basements. The police station is a free-way for neo-nazi scum , which according to human rights groups and lawyers who have pressed charges against the police authorities, are harboured there allowed to roam through files and intervene in procedures. Lawyers have claimed that the injured man is kept in medieval conditions of hygiene and is in risk for his life.

Anti-immigrant gathering in Aghios Panteleimonas, racist assaults against school students in Rethymno

Yesterday, September 23, an anti-immigrant gathering took place in the Aghios Panteleimonas square in Athen.  The usual riff raff of “indignated citizens” along with militant neo-nazis took pride collectively for kicking immigrants out of “their” squares.

source: tvxs article

In Rethymno, Crete, there have been some new incidents of racist violence and many threats against teenagers from Albania.  The students of the technical high school reported the incidents to the police on September 21.  No lawsuit has been lodged but it seems that the local community knows that a local pocket of  junta nostalgic youngsters is behind all this.

source: http://neolaiasynreth.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-post_22.html

Update on the continuing tension in Greece

source

Double fascist attack against squats in Salonica in midst of continuing tension

by  taxikipali at libcom.org

Fascists attack two Salonica squats while struggle against anti-immigration policies intensifies

During the past week both Radio Revolt, a pirate anarchist radio station housed in an abandoned train wagon within premises of the Aristotelian University of Salonica, and Europe’s largest squat, Fabrica Yfanet, came under fascist arson attack.
The train wagon of Radio Revolt, was attacked with three Molotov cocktails in the night of Tuesday 21/07 by parastate fascist elements publicly condoned by the Ministry of Public Order currently run by an ex-junta persecutor. Radio Revolt continued to broadcast with only 3 hours stoppage. On Saturday 25/07 Fabrica Yfanet’s main gate was attacked by a gas-canister device. The fire was extinguished by member soft hw squat as well as neighbours, while police forces that unusually arrived to the scene only minutes after the attack engaged squatters and neighbours in fascist verbal abuse clearly sympathising with the attack. Fabrica Yfanet is a centre of manifold political activities and receives widespread support amongst the city’s youth and progressives.

Meanwhile in Athens, on the early morning of Tuesday 28/7, a squad of Golden Dawn members marched from the offices of the neonazi party near Omonoia square down Menandrou street in military formation, attacked black men and women uninhibited by the strong police presence in the area. The nazi scum chanted “today niggers die” while returning to their Agios Panteleimonas lair.

Arson attacks against anarchist antiauthoritarian and libertarian squats have been a repeated pattern in the last year, and is considered to be part of the Greek state’s massive counterinsurgency efforts to quench the rising social movement against the more and more dictatorial rule of the government which has been manning its civil service with ever more junta-related individuals. Parastate elements’ anti-squat activity has repeatedly led to massive solidarity marches, rendering the strategy rather counterintuitive, proving once again the readiness of the Greek state to exercise brute force, and its inability to reason even to its own interest.

Characteristic of the new blind fascism of the Greek state is the unprecedented act of censorship exercised against a short animated film by the well known leftist director Costa-Gavras, who is a nail in the eye of the Greek PM for having filmed “Z”, the story of the assassination of left-wing MP Grigoris Lambrakis by parastate thugs under orders of the PM’s uncle in the mid 1960s. Gavras’ animation commissioned by the Ministry of Culture was meant to play at the new Acropolis museum, until the Ministry obliged to curtail scenes portraying Greek Orthodox priests vandalising the Parthenon after orders by the Church. Costa-Gavras has condemned the act as a return to the darkest days of the country. The Greek Orthodox Church remains the largest land-owner in the country and an integral part of the State mechanism, waging considerable control in many policies, particularly relating to education.

Despite the rising white-terror and the mid-summer vacations, the social antagonistic movement is stepping up its response to the state-fascist collaboration and racist bigotry.

Since Friday 24/07/09 a series of blockades of boats transferring immigrants to detention camps in the Greek province of Macedonia have erupted in battles between antiracist protesters and the police.

On Friday 24/07 at midnight protesters cancelled the transfer of 60 so-called illegal immigrants on the boat Theofilos from the port of Mytilini, Lesbos Island, to the mainland city of Kavala. The protesters occupied the main entrance of the ferry boat refusing to allow the police to load the arrested immigrants of Pakistani Afghan and Somalian descent. An unverified number of detained immigrants at the Panagi camp of Lasbos have started a hunger strike against the transfers, demanding their immediate release.

On Sunday 26/07 protesters of PAME, the umbrella union controlled by the Communist Party (KKE), and of the Chios Immigrant Solidarity Committee clashed with the police and fascist civilian auxiliaries at the port of Chios Island when they tried to blockade the entry of two busloads of detained immigrants on the aforementioned boat bound for Thessaloniki. After the police beat the protesters back with use of brutal force, a member of the KKE partaking in the blockade fell into to sea between the pier and the ferry, disallowing the departure of the boat for another hour. The involvement of the KKE in the protests marks an interesting if controversial shift in its long-standing policy of verbalism and practical apathy to the plight of immigrant workers. During the clashes many protesters were injured, while according to the Solidarity Committee, the criminal and dehumanising attitude of the Chios authorities towards immigrants reached its apex in the separation of a 15 year old boy from Somalia from his mother who remains detained in the island. The detained immigrants were transferred to the mainland chained and locked in the boat’s basement inside the buses, thus directly endangering their lives.

The authorities claim the reason for the transfers is the overpopulation of the islands’ camps. In Chios, the Mersinidi camp has a capacity of 120 while detaining 220, whereas the Panagi camp in Lesbos has a capacity of 250 persons while detaining 400. Protesters however argue that the transfers are a first step of “pushing” immigrants illegally though the minefields of Evros River towards Turkey. Claiming that the camps are dehumanising and that the transfers comprise punishing measures for people who have never been convicted for anything other than not having papers, the protesters demand that the detainees are held in hotels, after releasing all underage individuals.

In the diffuse-guerrilla front, a bomb device targeting the Chilean Consulate was dismantled last week by the police, while Tuesday night saw within 30 minutes a barrage of low intensity attacks on State targets, with some 7 local offices of anti-immigration parliamentary parties (New Democracy, PASOK, and LAOS) bombed with gas-canister devices across Athens. Responsibility for the attacks has been claimed by the Shining Paths of Solidarity in response to the “nazification” of the State and nazi-police collaboration. The offices of a LAOS MP were also attacked, causing no human injuries.

Fascists attack squat in Athens with Minister of Public Order supervision

One more article on the issue at Fascists attack Villa Amalia squat in Athens, Greece

Some weeks ago we had posted the following (translating a newspaper article):

[M]arkoyannakis said the police faces two major challenges: illegal immigration and the action of anarchists. He added that the police will leave aside the issue of anarchists for now to tackle the illegal immigrants issue first.  For the latter, concentration camps are ready and waiting (source).  His plans for cleansing down town Athens from immigrants will be concluded in one month or so from now.

see this post: Public Order Ministry’s agenda translates into everyday anti-immigrant terror…

Markoyannakis directing police and "indignant citizens" on the spot

source: libcom.org article.

Submitted by taxikipali on Jul 10 2009

Nazi scum organised by the police in vigilante groups in Agios Panteleimonas attacked one of the oldest anarchist squats, Villa Amalias, 20 minutes after meeting with the Minister of Public Order.

On Thursday 9/7 the second mass protest march in a week took to the streets of Athens against State sponsored racism and police collaboration with fascist groups in the area of Agios Panteleimonas. The march which was organised by the left and numbered 5,000 protesters took to the Parliament.

Before the march protesters attacked a group of fascist parastate elements who have been trying to expand the apartheid imposed in Agios Panteleimonas to the near by Attiki square. After the successful ambush against the nazis, the Minister of Public Order, Mr Markoyannakis, infamous for his involvement in the huge Seimens scandal and for his pro-nazi views, visited Attiki square and then Agios Panteleimonas to hold common meeting with the fascist vigilante committee, led by Mr Pipikios, an officer of the Army renowned for his junta nostalgia and love for armed blackshirt formations. 20 minutes after the meeting of the State and parastate scum, a group of nazis left Agios Panteleimonas and attacked Villa Amalias, the 19 year old anarchist squat, with molotov cocktails and projectiles. Fascists had managed to set fire to the squat last year leading to extended damage to the historic building. This time the fascist attack was successfully repelled with fascists running for their lives behind police lines which came to their help.

The new incident of police-nazi cooperation brings the counterinsurgency strategy of the State into new perspective. It is the first time since the junta that a Minister meets with fascist combat groups. The policy of open State support of such murderous elements was commonplace even before the junta, under the government of K. Karamanlis (uncle of today’s PM) who actively supported EKOF, a prastate group designed to break up protest marches and terrorise the left.

Mr Markoyannakis first entered public office as a public persecutor of the colonels’ junta.

The bourgeois media have imposed an information black-out on the incident.

When the Minister met the Fascists (and OK’d them to attack an anarchist squat, it seems)

from “AFTER THE GREEK RIOTS” – occupied London blog

Christos Markoyannakis (pictured, centre) is a vice-minister for the Greek government. Mr Markoyanakis is head of the Vice-Ministry of Public Order – and he certainly does not lack the experience to fill the position. He launched his pubic sector career being appointed in the position of attorney general during the dictatorship (1967-1974). Old habits die hard: In the picture below, Mr Markoyanakis is chatting to the so-called “residents’ initiative” of the Ayios Panteleimonas neighbourhood in Athens. The front group for the neo-fascists of the Golden Dawn (Chrysi Augi), have imposed an Apartheid-style rule in the neighbourhood: Locking up the local playground “because it was used by migrants’ children” they chase away migrants from the area. Mr Markoyanakis visited yesterday (9 July) to offer his support to the “residents’ initiative”. Apparently one of the questions he was asked during this meeting was “how come he hasn’t yet evicted the Villa Amalias squat”. Villa Amalias is one of Athens’ longest-standing squats. Only minutes after Markoyanakis visited, a group of fascists tried to attack Villa Amalias with molotov cocktails. They were pushed back by anarchists defending the occupation. Even being backed up by the cops (Riot police and the newly-introduced “Delta” motorcycle force) the fascists failed in their attack.

To sum up: A junta-appointed attorney general and present government minister meets with a “residents’” group widely known to be a fascist front. Minutes after the meeting, fascists attempt to attack the local anarchist squat, backed by police force. Sometimes, the line between fascism and democracy is much, much thinner than we’d ever think.

GREECE: IMMIGRANTS AND ANARCHISTS STRUGGLE AGAINST RACIST ATTACKS

This is a part of the Britain, RESISTANCE bulletin issue 114 July/August 2009 providing some context and links of the on-going anti-immigrant campaign with December’s revolt and the State’s “counter-revolt” since then.

clandestinenglish

GREECE: IMMIGRANTS AND ANARCHISTS STRUGGLE AGAINST RACIST ATTACKS

Throughout December, Greece was alive with working class dissent. Police stations burned,
luxury shops were ransacked, roads blockaded and the centre of Athens saw continuous
running battles with aggressive riot police (often in collaboration with neo-Nazi
paramilitary organisations).

An important factor that was to colour the December events was the sheer diversity of
those involved. Anger at the murder of 15-year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by police was
shared across Greek society. This and the continuing attacks by the state on workers’
conditions in response to the economic crisis served to fan the flames of wider political
dissent across the country.

But this time the streets were not only filled with the usual gang of hooded
insurrectionists. Factory workers, school students, university students, teachers, health
workers, the precariously employed of the so-called “seven hundred Euro generation”,
immigrants, agricultural labourers, the unemployed (and many more) all took to the streets
in outrage. Helena Smith of the Telegraph reported on the 14th December that, to her
horror, even “middle-class rioters are buying rocks”. It seemed that everyone was starting
to see the rotten state of the system.

Yet, the mainstream media inside Greece, and later the professor’s of Greek Universities,
would continue to tell two stories about the riots. The first, that it was just a mob of
hot-headed youth. This wasn’t political, these people were just bored and disillusioned.
All they needed was better jobs and better opportunities. The economy had failed them, we
know what’s best for them, oh the folly of youth etc. The second accusation betrayed a far
more vicious agenda and introduced a political scapegoat for the violence. That poor Greek
youths had been led astray by immigrants whose only aim was to loot and steal from native
Greeks.

In the media, distinctions were continuously made between the naïve and hot-blooded
actions of Greek youth and the criminal behaviour of immigrants and minorities. Such
accusations were also backed by a very real campaign of intimidation and violence against
immigrant communities by Fascist organisations.

In early May, for example, a rally called by fascist groups quickly turned violent.
Neo-nazis began randomly beating immigrants with iron bars with the police looking on.
Later, under the protection of the riot police, the neo-nazis attacked buildings where
immigrants find refuge with stones and flash and sound grenades.

Such anti-immigrant activity, however, was not limited to the streets. The European
elections saw the ascent of LAOS, the populist rightwing Popular Orthodox Alarm Party, to
4th position with 7% of the vote. This, combined with the governing party’s landslide
defeat, led the government to endorse the core of the extreme-right wing policies of LAOS.
The Minister of Public Order, Mr Makroyannakis, announced the launch of a mass pogrom of
immigrants in the centre of Athens. He pledged to “clean” immigrants from the city centre
and displace them in what he called “a ghetto” at the outskirts of Athens. The camp, which
will use the old NATO base of Aspropyrgos in the city’s heavily industrially polluted
rustbelt, is expected to hold more than 2,000 ‘illegal’ immigrants. The premises had been
proposed in the past as a temporary concentration camp for immigrants, addicts and
homeless people during the 2004 Olympic Games but the plan was abandoned after a huge
public outcry.

Immigrants and their allies are not taking these attacks lying down. Early March, after
all, saw protesters, in response to an attempted hand grenade attack on an immigrant
community, break into the offices of Neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn (Xrysi Avgi) and torch
them to the ground. On Friday 29 May immigrants and solidarity protesters also marched to
the Greek parliament despite a fascist counter-demo and media scaremongering. Tensions are
high, however, and attacks on immigrants are likely to escalate.

Early June saw anarchists in the area of Agios Panteleimonas move to unblock the entrance
of the local children’s playground which the fascists want to keep locked in an effort to
impose segregation between Greeks and immigrants, and “to preserve the blood purity of the
white race”. While unblocking the playground the anarchists were attacked by fascists who
were soon routed before the arrival of riot police forces.

During the clashes one policeman was injured and five protesters were arrested on criminal
charges. After the end of the clashes, a local Greek father, Mr Tasoulas, took his son to
play in the coveted playground. Soon they were surrounded by fascists who blocked the exit
of the playground and threatened to lynch the father calling him a traitor. After he
managed to hand the child to a sympathetic neighbour, the fascists beat the father in full
presence of the chief of the local police station.

open discussion on collective responses to Aghios Panteleimonas events in Athens

source: Athens indymedia

Saturday June 13 2009, 19:00
Polytechnic School, Athens,  Ginis Building

open discussion on collective responses to Aghios Panteleimonas events

Organization: anarchists, antiauthoritarians, people in solidarity

Open discussion on the racist and repressive pogroms at Aghios Panteleimonas and the center of Athens and perspectives of organizing collective actions and a central march.

Clashes and arrests around the Aghios Panteleimonas neighborhood in Athens…

riot police protecting hrysi avgi

sources: athens indymedia article; indy.gr article.

clandestinenglish

Yesterday afternoon anarchists and people in solidarity unlocked the playground at Aghios Panteleimonas, which had been sealed so that not to be used by the children of immigrant residents. The site was unlocked and people went inside to reclaim the playground in a neighborhood terrified by the interventions of fascists and extreme right residents. Texts were leafleted and discussions were held with the residents of the area.

[The Golden Dawn is primarily responsible for the mobilisation of extreme-right wing elements in the neighborhood of Aghios Panteleimonas, forming lightly armed “self-defense” groups purging immigrants from the area’s central square and attacking houses, burning down shops and community places of worship (mosques are illegal in Athens), smashing up public events, and targeting even the church of the parish, the largest in the country, which fell victim to fascist arson attack for providing support and supper for immigrants – see this post about it]

A group of fascists, chanting the Greek national hymn, along with their resident collaborators attacked the comrades verbally while the latter were leaving the place. The group of thugs attempted to approach the solidarity gathering but were repulsed, to find then refuge behind the riot police squad which suffocated the site with gases. A parent with his child remained in the area, resisted the right-wing thugs and refused to leave. The police arrested him ostensibly to ” protect him from the fascists” and led him to the Aghios Panteleimon police station .

The comrades left the place in an organized manner, taking it to the street for a solidarity march. About 150 meters from the Aghios Panteleimonas square in a narrow street leading to Patision Avenue a second riot police squad attacked the march. There were clashes with the riot squad and and the rest police forces which tried to encircle the lines of protestors. The latter entered then the ASOEE university building on Patision Aveue and the collisions ended.

Five protestors (apart from the parent) were arrested and were today to be brought to the Public Attorney- this will happen on Friday. Yesterday night people in solidarity were gathered outside the Police Headquarters in Athens were the arrestees were detained, and protested against the police provisionally refusing to allow them to see a lawyer.  The riot police assaulted those gathered in solidarity in front of the Athens courts today as well.

What follows is a view published in Uk indymedia.

Apartheid in the centre of Athens !!

It is unacceptable what is happening in St. Panteleimon play ground in the Centre of Athens. Not only is the most racist and xenophobic mood developed to the residents who often outraged by the degradation of their region, attack immigrants while they themselves are victims of neo-fascists organizations like Hrysi Avgi in fish cloudy water, but the fact that the official state acts against the law. The members of Hrysi Avgi with some local residents LOCKED a play ground for Children in the area , because the majority of the children there are immigrants !! During an attempt by anti racist organisations to reopen the Playground that was iligally locked, the police came to protect and help in fact the Neo NAZI organisation Hrysi Avgi..

Homepage: http://garizo.blogspot.com/2009/06/apartheid-in-centre-of-athens.html

Immigrants march again in Athens despite fascist counterdemo

This is a reproduction of a report by  taxikipali  at libcom.org.

clandestinenglish

 

On Friday 29 May immigrants and solidarity protesters marched to the greek parliament despite fascist counterdemo and media scaremongering.

Following the intensifying repression against immigrants, especially of muslim origin, across the country, and the greek police’s failure to apologise for the public and humiliating destruction of a copy of the Koran during sweeping operations against immigrants in the coveted area of Agios Panteleimonas last week, thousands of immigrants and solidarity protesters took the the streets of Athens in protest against racism, police repression and parastate white terror. The protest march went ahead with no violence apart from a token destruction of the fascist party’s (LAOS – Popular Orthodox Alarm) euroelection kiosk, despite a counterdemo organised by the Golden Dawn, the notorious neonazi organisation several members of which have been found guilty for attempted manslaughter against left-wing activists.

The fascist counterdemo, numbering less than one hundred parastate elements, was allowed to march in (a parody of) battle formation to the Parliament just before the immigrant march in order to lay a wreath to the unknown soldier monument in memory of the fall of Istanbul to the Ottomans in 1453. The Golden Dawn is primarily responsible for the mobilisation of extreme-right wing elements in the neighborhood of Agios Panteleimonas, forming lightly armed “self-defense” groups purging immigrants from the area’s central square and attacking houses, burning down shops and community places of worship (mosques are illegal in Athens), smashing up public events, and targeting even the church of the parish, the largest in the country, which fell victim to fascist arson attack for providing support and supper for immigrants.

The night before the protest march local anarchists symbolically reoccupied the square of Agos Panteleimonas and broke the chains put by the fascists in order to keep the local playing grounds closed to avert “immigrant children polluting the greek”. Nevertheless the area remains a fascist stronghold, enjoying the subtle backing of the majority of the bourgeois media which on the one hand present an endless spectacle of racist bigotry, and on the other hand cover up the involvement of the neonazis and their support by the police. It is characteristic that Kathimerini, the leading centre-right daily, in a recent long reportage of the situation only referred to the Golden Dawn once, to deny its involvement, although its members had attacked an editor of the newspaper covering the crisis only a few days before.

Protest marches against state repression and fascist terror were also held in Salonica, Patra, Volos, Heraklion and Chania in Crete.