Posts Tagged ‘Revolutionary Struggle’
Montreal: Arson attack at a luxury car dealership in solidarity with imprisoned members of CCF & Revolutionary Struggle (Canada)
Tuesday, March 15th, 2016
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
A car dealership near Côtes-des-Neiges was attacked using incendiary devices causing damage to luxury vehicles in the honor of the courageous imprisoned comrades of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire and of Revolutionary Struggle.
Solidarity means attack.
Long live anarchy.
A thousand years to the Black International
Tags: Arson, Black International of Anarchists of Praxis, Canada, Car Burning, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Côtes-des-Neiges, International Solidarity, Montreal, Revolutionary Struggle
Posted in Direct Action
Open letter of Pola Roupa about the attempt to break Nikos Maziotis out of Koridallos prison (Greece)
Monday, March 14th, 2016
via contrainfo:
Below is the first part of the comrade’s long letter; originally published in Greek on Athens IMC (March 8th 2016).
Under other circumstances, this text would be written by Revolutionary Struggle. However, the outcome of the attempt to break out the comrade Nikos Maziotis of Koridallos prison obliges me to speak personally.
On February 21st [2016], I attempted to break out Revolutionary Struggle member Nikos Maziotis by helicopter. The operation was planned so that other political prisoners could join us, who wished to make their way to freedom. Details of the plan, how I managed to evade the security measures and board the helicopter armed, have no special significance and I will not refer to them; despite the fact that there has been a lot of misinformation. Just for the sake of clarity, I will only mention that the plan was not based on any previous helicopter prison escape, it is not associated with any findings of plans not yet implemented, and I do not have any relation to another fugitive person despite media portrayals to the contrary. Also, this attempt was not preceded by any escape plan that “was wrecked”, as reported by some media.
A quarter of the journey after our takeoff from Thermisia in Argolida, I took out my gun and I asked the pilot to change course. Of course, he did not understand who I am, but he realised it was an attempted prison break. He panicked. He attacked me pulling out a gun – a fact he “omitted”. Also because they will likely try to refute the fact he was armed, I remind everyone that there are publicly available reports about the discovery of two mags in the helicopter. One was mine, but the second wasn’t mine. The second mag was from his own gun, which he dropped from his hands during our scuffle during flight. And as for me, of course I had a second mag. Would I go to such an operation with only one mag?
He lost control of the helicopter and shouted in panic “we will get killed”. The description that was presented of a helicopter substantially unmanageable is true. But these images did not result from my actions, but his. The helicopter was losing altitude and swirled in the air. We flew a few meters over electricity wires. I screamed to him to pull up the helicopter, to do what I tell him so no one will get hurt.
Within no time at all, we were on the ground. Those who speak of a dispassionate reaction of the pilot, apparently judging from the result, don’t know what they are talking about.
Instead of doing what I told him to do, he preferred to risk crashing with me in a collision of the helicopter, which didn’t happen by chance. It goes without saying that upon entering the helicopter and trying to gain control of it, to direct it to the prisons, I had made my decision. If he refused to do what I told him, I would naturally react. Those who claim I was responsible for the uncontrolled descent of the helicopter, from 5,000 feet to the ground, what did they expect? That I would have said “if you don’t want to come to the prisons, never mind”? I fired my gun and we engaged – both armed – in a scuffle during flight.
He preferred to risk crashing with me on the mountain than to obey. When we finally landed on the ground with speed, even though I knew the operation was lost, I had every opportunity to execute him. I consciously decided not to do so. Although I knew that with this decision I was endangering my life or freedom, I did not execute him even though I had the chance. He himself knows this very well. The only factor that held me back was my political conscience. And I took this decision, risking my own life and possibility to get away.
Regarding the prison escape operation itself, it’s obvious that all possible safety measures were taken in order to safeguard the undertaking against the armed guards patrolling the prison perimeter, and I even carried a bulletproof vest for the pilot as well. In this case, the purpose was to make the prison break happen in a way that would ensure the lowest possible risk for the helicopter, the comrades and, of course, the pilot. I acted with the same thought when we landed on the ground; despite the fact that the operation failed because of the pilot; despite the fact that he was armed. I essentially put his life over my own life and safety. But I am to reconsider this specific choice.
Organising to break out Nikos Maziotis was a political decision, as much as it was a political decision to liberate other political prisoners as well. It was not a personal choice. If I wanted to only liberate my comrade Nikos Maziotis, I wouldn’t have chartered a large helicopter – a fact that made the operation’s organising more complex. The aim of the operation was the liberation of other political prisoners as well; those who actually wanted, together with us, to make their way to freedom.
This action, therefore, despite its personal dimensions that are known, was not a personal choice but a political one. It was a step in the path to Revolution. The same goes for every action I have carried out and for every action I will make in the future. These are links in a chain of revolutionary planning aimed to create more favourable political and social conditions, for broadening and strengthening revolutionary struggle. Below I will refer to the political basis of this choice; but first I have to talk about facts, and the way I have operated until now in regard to some of these facts.
As I previously mentioned, every action I carry out concerns an act related to political planning. In the same context, I expropriated a branch of Piraeus Bank on the premises of Sotiria Hospital in Athens last June [2015]. With this money, in addition to my survival in “clandestinity”, I secured the organising of my action and financing of the operation for the liberation of Nikos Maziotis and other political prisoners from Koridallos women’s prisons. The reason I refer to this expropriation (I couldn’t care less about the penal consequences of this admittance) is because, at this time, I consider it absolutely necessary to disclose how I operate in regard to the safety of civilians, who in certain circumstances happen to be present in revolutionary actions I am involved in, and my perspective about this issue on the occasion – always mutatis mutandis – of the prison escape attempt.
In the case of the expropriation of Piraeus Bank branch, what I mentioned to the bank clerks when we walked into the bank was that they should not press the alarm button, because this would endanger their own safety, since I wasn’t willing to leave the bank without the money. I did not threaten them, nor would they ever be in danger because of me. They would only be in danger because of the police, if cops arrived at the spot and we subsequently had an armed clash. And the police would only arrive if any clerks pressed the bank alarm. This was a development which they themselves wanted to avoid. Because people who happen to be present in every such action are not afraid of those trying to expropriate, but instead the police intervening. Besides, it’s really stupid for anyone to attempt to defend money belonging to bankers. And for the record, when a female clerk told me “we ourselves are also poor people,” I suggested to her that we step over to a “blind” spot, where cameras can’t see us, to let her have 5,000 euros, which she did not accept, apparently out of fear. If she had accepted the money, she can be sure I would not speak publicly about it. And one detail: what I was holding was a medical apron to conceal my gun while waiting outside the bank; it was not a towel(!), as mentioned several times.
In every period of time, in the struggle for Revolution – as is also the case in all wars – at times the revolutionaries are obliged to seek the assistance of civilians in their fight. The historical examples are too many – an attempt to document them would fill an entire book, and this isn’t the time to expand on the matter – both in Greece and in armed movements and organisations in other countries. In such cases, however, we essentially ask them to take sides in a war. Once someone refuses to assist, their stance is not just about the particular practice, but an overall hostile stance against the struggle. They endanger or cancel undertakings, they put the lives of fighters in danger, they throw obstacles in the way of a revolutionary process. They take a position against a social and class war.
Neither at Piraeus Bank branch nor during the attempted helicopter escape did I make my identity known. Therefore, no one involved in these cases knew that those were political actions. But after the failed escape attempt, and given that – as I already mentioned – I had the opportunity to kill the pilot but I didn’t, risking my own life, I have to make the following public: from now on, whenever I need the assistance of civilians again, and if I deem it necessary, I will make my identity known from the outset. Since my mission in any case concerns the promotion of the struggle for overthrowing the criminal establishment, let everyone know that any possible refusal of cooperating and effort of obstructing the action will be treated accordingly.
I am, of course, aware of the personal details of the pilot, but I did not threaten his family. I would never threaten families and children.
This is my balance sheet after the escape attempt, one I must make public.
THE PRISON ESCAPE OPERATION WAS A REVOLUTIONARY CHOICE
[…]
I ATTEMPTED THE PRISON ESCAPE FOR SOCIAL REVOLUTION
ALL MY LIFE I STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL REVOLUTION
I WILL CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL REVOLUTION
Pola Roupa
member of Revolutionary Struggle
Tags: Greece, Korydallos Prison, Letter, Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa, Revolutionary Struggle
Posted in Prison Struggle
Athens: Prison sentences in the 2nd trial against Revolutionary Struggle (Greece)
Thursday, March 3rd, 2016
UPDATE: Post-sentencing statement of Nikos Maziotis.
On March 3rd 2016, the Koridallos prison court sentenced all co-accused in the second trial against Revolutionary Struggle with regard to the attack with a car bomb containing 75kg of explosives against the Bank of Greece’s Supervision Directorate in central Athens on April 10th 2014; the shootout in Monastiraki on July 16th 2014 (when comrade Nikos Maziotis was injured and recaptured by police); and expropriations of bank branches.
Revolutionary Struggle member Nikos Maziotis was sentenced to life in prison plus 129 years and a fine of 20,000 euros.
Revolutionary Struggle (fugitive) member Pola Roupa was sentenced to 11 years in prison on misdemeanor charges (if arrested, she will stand trial on felony charges, too).
Antonis Stamboulos was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Giorgos Petrakakos was sentenced to 36 years in prison plus a fine of 9,000 euros.
-via contrainfo.
Tags: Antonis Stamboulos, Athens, Giorgos Petrakakos, Greece, Korydallos Prison, Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa, Revolutionary Struggle, Trial
Posted in Prison Struggle
Dark Nights #44 : ‘Turn up the Heat’ & ‘Communique by CCF – Urban Guerilla Cell′ – Feb 2016 (ACN)
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2016
1. Turn up the Heat.
2. Communique by CCF – Urban Guerilla Cell.
3. ‘Forever Guilty’ – Text by Panagiotis Argirou on the trial for the 250 attacks of the CCF / FAI-IRF.
4. ‘Against the Slander of Civil Anarchism’ by Sureños Incivilizados (Chile)
5. Civitavecchia, Italy: FAI/FRI take responsibility for an explosive attack on the city court.
6. Athens, Greece: FAI take responsibility for two incendiary attacks.
7. Athens, Greece: FAI take responsibility for an explosion at Tax Office.
8. Direct Action Chronology.
9. Police allege helicopter escape attempt by revolutionary comrades held hostage in Korydallos Prison, implicate comrade in clandestinity Pola Roupa of Revolutionary Struggle (Greece)
http://325.nostate.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dark-nights-44.pdf
Tags: Chile, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Dark Nights, Greece, Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), International Revolutionary Front, Italy, Panagiotis Argirou, PDF, Pola Roupa, Revolutionary Struggle, Sabotage, Sureños Incivilizados, Zine
Posted in Library
Police allege helicopter escape attempt by revolutionary comrades held hostage in Korydallos Prison, implicate comrade in clandestinity Pola Roupa of Revolutionary Struggle (Greece)
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2016
Over the last days an anti-terrorist media spectacle is unfolding in Greece. Police released a statement about an incident of attempted helicopter hijack on 21 February; a woman using a fake ID card and apparently with the description of Pola Roupa, clandestine member of R.O. – Revolutionary Struggle attempted to hijack a helicopter departing from Thebes with a pistol. The woman had booked a flight to pick up 5 people at a pre-arranged route, but caused the pilot at gunpoint to change direction towards Attica. At one point, the pilot fought back, being an ex-policeman, who claimed to have recognised Roupa through media photographs. He tried to take the pistol, leading to a struggle which ended in the helicopter being brought down with two bullet holes in the windshield and one in the instrument panel. The woman then escaped and so far has not been captured. Police recovered a pistol mag, headphones and a wig which were sent for forensic analysis. The police believe that this was an attempt to spring imprisoned member of Revolutionary Struggle, Nikos Maziotis, from Korydallos Prison, and they also speak as well of anarchist comrade Antonis Stamboulos, bank robber Giorgos Petrakakos and “at least 2 to 3 members” of R.O. – Conspiracy of Cells of Fire who are suspected of participating. The police now attempt to reconstruct the “synchronisation” of the imprisoned comrades and locate the woman who made the defeated hijacking operation.
Maziotis is held in the isolation dungeon which is the basement of the Woman’s Section of Korydallos, where members of R.O. – November 17 and R.O. – Conspiracy of Cells of Fire are also held. Searches by the security forces took place in all parts of the isolation basement yesterday night revealing absolutely nothing.
Tags: 17 November, Antonis Stamboulos, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire : Imprisoned Members Cell, Giorgos Petrakakos, Greece, Korydallos Prison, Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa, Revolutionary Struggle
Posted in Prison Struggle
Updates from the new trial of Revolutionary Struggle (Greece)
Saturday, October 24th, 2015
“Those who live on 300 or 400 euros a month are not terrorised by Revolutionary Struggle, but by you and your regime.”
In a climate of tension, a new trial for Nikos Maziotis unfolded in the specially designed court in the female prison wing of Korydallos. He is now being accused for acts allegedly committed during the period that he was wanted by police. His co-defendants are his fugitive companion, Pola Roupa, the anarchist A. Stamboulou who is denying the charges, and the recently arrested G. Petrakakos.
The defendants are charged with, among other things, the offenses of membership and participation in a terrorist organization of which the leader is claimed to be Maziotis, an accusation of exploding a car bomb at the Bank of Greece on Amerikis Street in April 2014, for which Maziotis has taken political responsibility, and also for supply and possession of explosives, explosions, and two robberies. Moreover, Nikos Maziotis is accused of attempted homicide in the shoot-out with policemen in Monastiraki in the summer of 2014 when he was arrested.
The manifesto and the banks
The request of the lawyers of Nikos Maziotis for the prosecution to produce representatives of the banks which he reportedly robbed, made the presence of the defense strongly felt. The accused took the floor and said the banks were, “predatory organizations, there was no robbery, expropriation is the reality of the event.”
And when asked by the court to speak in his defense, the accused read a text-manifesto with harsh words against the political system and the judges. “Those who live on 300 or 400 euros a month are not terrorised by Revolutionary Struggle, but by you and your regime,” he said addressing the judges. Nikos Maziotis declared himself an “anarchist prisoner of war”. He described the trial as political, claiming it was a title of honor for him to be armed.
The other defendant A. Stamboulou claimed himself an “anarchist prisoner of war” and denied the charges, claiming that they have no relation to reality as there has, “not been found any evidence against him.” And he called his trial “political” and attributed his persecution to the “rage of repressive mechanisms.”
G. Petrakakos, in turn, denied the charges and reserved the right not to speak in his own defense.
‘Evening’ trial
The tone went up further when the presiding judge announced that the court sessions would start at noon and will last until the evening as there is a risk of the expiration of 18 months [of pretrial detention time] for the accused Stamboulou. The legal advocates responded by invoking the “special status” of the trial, accusing the court that it gives priority to the principle of expediency, not of legality.
“Make a trial by yourself, your shame stands revealed!”, cried the packed audience.
“Arrange when we will come not from Pangrati but from the provinces,” complained witnesses.
“We will reach out to the Chief of Appeals, it is humanly impossible to meet,” said the lawyers.
Finally, after these reactions, the President interrupted the schedule for the morning of October 19, clarifying however that the other meetings will be held. . . in the afternoon and then proceeded to call out the the names of witnesses, amid loud protests.
(via The Barbarian Times)
Tags: Antonis Stamboulos, Athens, Greece, Korydallos Prison, Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa, Revolutionary Struggle, Trial
Posted in Prison Struggle
Text of Revolutionary Struggle prisoner Kostas Gournas about the hunger strike undertaken by Evi Statiri (Greece)
Monday, September 28th, 2015
It is a longstanding as well as an infamous tactic of the State — particularly of the police-judicial mechanism — to use fabricated charges against relatives so as to hold them hostage and put pressure on fighters and political prisoners. It was done in 2002 [against Angeliki Sotiropoulou, wife of 17N prisoner Dimitris Koufontinas], it was done in 2010 [against Marie Beraha, wife of Revolutionary Struggle prisoner Kostas Gournas], and it was done again in March 2015 [against Evi Statiri, wife of CCF prisoner Gerasimos Tsakalos, but also against Athena Tsakalou, mother of the Tsakalos brothers]. This is because the repressive policy applied against imprisoned members of armed organisations is an ongoing process of political extermination by any means.
After its capitulation on February 20th, the SYRIZA-led government was faced with the first class confrontation — that is, the hunger strike of political prisoners during Spring — and was compelled to vote favorably — among others – on an amendment that theoretically opened the way for the relatives of CCF members to be released. Today, after being refused her liberation six times by judicial councils, Evi Statiri, companion of an imprisoned member of the organisation, is still in prison. Her case is the clearest proof, not only of the acceptance of a state of emergency surrounding the memorandum by the government of the Left, but also of the strict application of a state of exception for political prisoners.
For those in society who had the clarity and determination to approach the ‘no’ vote in the referendum in a class manner and to oppose every memorandum, though without being able to take the next step forward, the question of an alternative way other than the one of delegation or relinquishment, which all the bourgeois parliamentary forces are charting, is more pressing than ever. And this is no other way than struggle and solidarity. Evi’s way…
SOLIDARITY WITH EVI STATIRI
on hunger strike since September 14th 2015
Kostas Gournas
September 15th 2015
-
via contrainfo
Tags: Athens, Evi Statiri, Greece, Hunger Strike, Korydallos Prison, Kostas Gournas, Letter, Revolutionary Struggle, SY.RIZ.A.
Posted in Prison Struggle
EN/FR/IT/DE – ‘Concerning the New Memorandum and the Elections of 20 September’ by Nikos Maziois of R.O.- Revolutionary Struggle (Greece)
Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
The 3rd Memorandum signed by the SYRIZA government marks the complete political bankruptcy of the left regime and the chimerical aspirations for a more “humane” capitalism. After taking office last January, this marks the collapse of the attempted Syriza management of the defeat of the popular social movements from the period 2010-2012. For those who had no illusions, this whole period until the adoption of the 3rd Memorandum represents simply a waiting period for the predicted backtracking, where the campaign promises to repeal or renegotiate the Memorandum and partial cancelling of the debt along with a parallel policy for the relief of the poor was first followed by the agreement of February 20 which extended the second memorandum, and then came (despite the disapproval of 62% of the voters in the referendum of July 5 rejecting the proposals of lenders) the third memorandum which is much worse than the measures rejected in the referendum.
Within a few months, Syriza crossed over its “red lines” in complete retreat and acceptance of the creditors’ demands, towards the acceptance of a Memorandum far more brutal than that which was voted by the previous Samaras government.
“First time left” [note: πρώτε φορά αριστερά- a popular Syriza slogan claiming that they were for the first time a left government in Greece’s history, as if they were somehow different from PASOK] and the total humiliation of the will of the social majority to get rid of Memorandum policies that make them serfs of the markets is unprecedented. (more…)
Tags: Athens, Greece, Korydallos Prison, Nikos Maziotis, Revolutionary Struggle, SY.RIZ.A.
Posted in Autonomy
Statement by Nikos Maziotis to the appeals court at the first trial of the Revolutionary Struggle on July 7 – Concerning the bankruptcy of the country (Greece)
Monday, July 13th, 2015
As is well known, the repressive attack by the state against Revolutionary Struggle in 2010, as an historical fact, was a counterpart to the signing of the first memorandum by the Papandreou government and bringing the country under the authority of the IMF, the ECB, and the EU. As was said at the time by a government official, our arrests prevented “a large terrorist attack that would have ended the economy,” a statement proving the dangerousness of the action of Revolutionary Struggle at a critical juncture for the regime.
The first trial against the organization was in the period of the application of the first memorandum, developments that included controlled bankruptcy proceedings and imposed a social policy of genocide and euthanasia towards segments of the population that caused thousands of deaths so far, and poverty, hunger and misery. When the first trial started in October 2011, we had stated that the trial was conducted in a period awaiting formal bankruptcy of the country, which did not happen then, because there was unveiled a controlled bankruptcy regime in order to save the lenders, the then holders of Greek bonds and to defend the Eurozone from the risk of transmission of the Greek crisis.
It is an irony of history that ultimately the bankruptcy of Greece is associated with the days of the leftist Syriza government almost four years later, which announced a referendum on the question YES or NO to the proposals of lenders for the new memorandum that they will sign. Along with the bankruptcy of the country comes the bankruptcy of the left social-democratic illusions that promised state interventions in favor of the workers and the poor of the EU inside a globalized neoliberal environment. (more…)
Tags: Athens, Greece, Korydallos Prison, Letter, Nikos Maziotis, Revolutionary Struggle, SY.RIZ.A.
Posted in Autonomy
Kielce: Banner drop in solidarity with anarchists in Greece (Poland)
Monday, July 6th, 2015
Inter Arma received:
Solidarity with greek anarchist fighters
Solidarity with black praxis
Referendum in Greece doesn’t really matter. Revolutionary Struggle is keep going besides that referendum is state and capital tool of oppression. Honor to Conspiracy Cells of Fire Nuclei, Revolutionary Struggle, Combative Anarchy / FAI-IRF, International Revolutionary Front, Prison Cells, Federation Informal Anarchista and to all Solidarity Acts.
Say you want an insurrection.
Kielce 06/07/2015
Tags: Banner drop, Black International of Anarchists of Praxis, Combative Anarchy - FAI/IRF, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire : Imprisoned Members Cell, Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), International Revolutionary Front, International Solidarity, Kielce, Poland, Revolutionary Struggle, Solidarity Action
Posted in Prison Struggle
