Exarchia - It has begun

caveman1917

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For a couple of months the new Greek government had been planning to take Exarcheia, an anarchist neighbourhood in Athens, amassing police forces and has begun the occupation today.

From Union Communiste Libertaire Bruxelles in French (I don't know of any good English language sources yet, so I just used google translate):
UCL said:
Alert! What we've been giving you for a month and a half just started this morning, shortly before Dawn:

EXARCHEIA UNDER POLICE OCCUPATION

The Famous Rebel and solidarity district of Athens is completely surrounded by huge police forces: many crs buses (Mat), jeeps of the anti-Terrorism Police (Opke), outfielders (Dias), members of the secret police ( Asfalitès), as well as a helicopter and several drones.

Unique place in Europe for its high concentration of squats and other self-managed spaces, but also for its resistance against repression and solidarity with the precarious and migrants, exarcheia has been in the collimator of the right government since its election on July 7th .... The New Prime Minister mitsotakis had made it a personal matter, especially since he had been mocked in early August for not having achieved his goal of "cleaning exarcheia in a month" as he had announced in great pumps.

This morning, 4 squats have been evacuated: Spirou Trikoupi 17, transito, Rosa de fon and gare. The offensive is for now the northwest part of the neighborhood, with the remarkable exception of the squat nottara 26, known to be best kept and very important symbolic for the neighborhood as the first historic squat of the "refugee crisis" in the center City of Athens.

We are currently counting about a hundred arrest, as well as brutal attacks against people trying to film. Only mass media in the service of power has the permission to cover the event.

In Total, there are 23 squats in exarcheia plus 26 others around the neighborhood, which is a total of 49 focused on a small area. 49 squats to which you need to add other types of self-managed places, some of them for rent (free social space,, free store skoros, etc ) as well as dozens of special housing including groups of activist groups. ES, often close to the terraces to allow access above the streets.

Of the squats that are located precisely inside exarcheia, 12 are accommodation squats for refugees. ES and migrant. ES and the other 11 are squats of political groups anarchists and Bohemian (even though most refugee squats. Es are also of course very political, starting with the nottara 26 and spirou trikoupi 17 with direct meetings and a lot of links with the rest of the social movement).

In the squats of spirou trikoupi 17 and transito (which the jacks of power are now murer), more than a dozen children have been ripped away from a peaceful and happy existence to be suddenly sent to camps. These sinister camps are unsanitary and overcrowded, the migrant. They're not fed up. ES and suffer from temperature variations, suffer humiliation and sometimes torture, and mitsotakis also requires that they all be well closed and, in the future, completely cut off from the rest of the territory.

The face of Europe keeps getting hard like what is also happening on the other continents. This ever more authoritarian evolution of capitalism leads to questions about what the current era announces: the offensive against the pockets of utopia combined with the confinement of the emissaries reminds of the dark hours of history.

The whole world becomes a fascists and Greece is, once again, one of the laboratories.

But nothing is over. September is coming soon. The seasonal jobs are ending. The social movement is gathering and organizing again. Places like the nottara 26 and the k * VOX ARE UNDER HIGH Surveillance. Responses are getting ready, as well as several major mobilizing events. Autumn will be hot in Athens.

Resistance!

Yannis Youlountas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBpQ262_n7U

PS: we count on your press releases, actions towards places representing the Greek state abroad, photos, videos and everything you feel like. Think about sending them to us. Solidarity is our weapon. Our struggles have no borders.
 
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I found this:
Guardian said:
Athens police poised to evict refugees from squatted housing projects

A self-governing community in central Athens which has helped house refugees is threatened by a government crackdown

{...}

Although it's not a threat, it's the execution, the threat was already made 2 months ago.
 
Ok, short version is that squatters (with laudable intent and service to refugees) are being kicked out of the places they have no actual right to be in anyway? Dealers and gang have been active there due to police being cool with the squatters since the '80's, and the cops have kind of lost their patience? Is that the scenario?
 
Ok, short version is that squatters (with laudable intent and service to refugees) are being kicked out of the places they have no actual right to be in anyway? Dealers and gang have been active there due to police being cool with the squatters since the '80's, and the cops have kind of lost their patience? Is that the scenario?

You're forgetting that they're terrorists too. They bring drugs, they bring crime, they are terrorists.
 
"[The letter from residents of the area] also claims that drugs are openly sold, even outside primary schools.

“The children of Exarcheia cannot play in their neighborhood. They are imprisoned in their houses, behind bars and railings that resemble high security prisons,” the letter notes.

The residents say that the state is “scandalously indifferent” to their plight, an attitude that is tantamount to “tolerating lawlessness.”

link

There endless accounts of the terrible conditions in the area. A cleanup was long overdue and will be welcomed by the ordinary people of Exarcheia.
 
You're forgetting that they're terrorists too. They bring drugs, they bring crime, they are terrorists.

The real question is, are they rapists? Are there good people on both sides?

Seriously, when you squat, you might get the boot. That's how it works. Who owns the buildings they occupy? Or do the squats assert more property rights than the actual owners?
 
Seriously, when you squat, you might get the boot. That's how it works.

Thank you Captain Obvious.

Or do the squats assert more property rights than the actual owners?

No idea. I suppose we'll see what, if any, reaction there will be. The first night hasn't even passed yet, it's a bit early to tell who's asserting what - the government initiated things just this morning by asserting control over Exarchia, although I'm not expecting that assertion to be disputed, or at least not successfully, since - if my information is correct - there's a special 2000-strong police contingent mobilized for the operation.
 
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I know that. But should Exarcheia be left in a mess because some refugees squat there?

I have no idea what mess you're talking about, from what I hear it's a nice neighbourhood. Although probably, as everywhere, there are also people who won't stop complaining about "law and order" because the illegals are bringing drugs and crime and stuff.
 
I have no idea what mess you're talking about, from what I hear it's a nice neighbourhood.

Then you're hearing wrong. It isn't. "Edgy"? Certainly. Interesting during the day? Sure. Be there at night? Nah.

"Exarcheia is widely known as the capital’s anarchy-base, and this is not down to urban legend. Indeed, when things get politically or socio-politically intense, there’s likely to be tear gas, Molotov cocktails or window-breaking episodes in the area."
 
Then you're hearing wrong. It isn't. "Edgy"? Certainly. Interesting during the day? Sure. Be there at night? Nah.

My hearing is just fine.

"Exarcheia is widely known as the capital’s anarchy-base, and this is not down to urban legend. Indeed, when things get politically or socio-politically intense, there’s likely to be tear gas, Molotov cocktails or window-breaking episodes in the area."

Yes exactly, a nice neighbourhood.
 
What's the source of what you're hearing?

People who live in Exarchia and people who visit there. Then, of course, the Guardian article posted upthread also includes interviews with residents.

Ah, OK. Trolling.

:rolleyes: If you don't like nice neighbourhoods, there are already plenty of bland petit-bourgeois districts around to choose from.
 
People who live in Exarchia and people who visit there. Then, of course, the Guardian article posted upthread also includes interviews with residents.

:rolleyes: If you don't like nice neighbourhoods, there are already plenty of bland petit-bourgeois districts around to choose from.

In Athens? Not really.

I spent one night in Exarcheia about 9 years ago. Needing to be in the city early for a hospital appointment I booked a random cheap hotel on the internet. Bad move. As I arrived at the hotel some dudes asked "Hey, what you want mister? Girl, boy, drugs?" That was during daytime. I was aiming to go out for a meal at night but just wrote off that idea.

Nice neighbourhood? Stop talking out of your arse, eh? There are neighbourhoods in Athens you might not enjoy visiting that are better than Exarcheia .
 

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