THAT WHICH GIVES MEANING TO LIFE GIVES MEANING TO DEATH (english translation)

     Within a few minutes I was in the hospital "Evangelismos". I was immediately subjected to examinations and operations. I had a hematoma on my head and countless stitches on the upper part of my body. I remained intubated and completely unconscious for the next three days. Enough time for the "anti-"terror scumbags to come to the hospital demanding a blood sample. On the Monday, I regained consciousness and was transferred to the ICU where I was confined for the next three days. The conditions there were decent with medical staff eager to assist in my recovery. However the room was surrounded by police forces who entered the ICU room during the 5-minute visits from my family.

    After two days I was transferred - for no apparent reason - to an isolation ward guarded by several static and as many mobile cops in the hallways and on the floors. The door to my room was constantly open leaving zero privacy even during medical examinations. Under the "watchful" gaze of every single cop I had to eat, be examined, and have my body cleaned. Following instructions, the majority of medical and nursing staff maintained a distant attitude, showing zero empathy even in the most basic things, for example when they carried out an examination with the presence of a male police officer.

    The insistence of the 22nd investigator of the Athens District Court on conducting the interrogation procedure despite my physical and mental weakness also contributed to the vindictive atmosphere. After asking for a certificate of my sufficient 'functionality', which she read at her discretion, she finally gave me the sham extension of 30 hours. She thus confirmed the fact that her priority was my predetermined pre-trial detention and prosecution under 187A.

     On Friday 15.11, and just one day after the second operation I underwent, I was transferred to the women's prison in Korydallos. My daily life, under these circumstances, was difficult. Under deplorable sanitary conditions and with unhealed wounds on my body and head, the repressive mechanism was playing with my health. I was without the necessary medical care and without access to the necessary medication, a condition that all prisoners face as they are perceived as second-class citizens with no right to medical care, with superficial to non-existent medical examinations by prison doctors, with prohibition of necessary medical procedures, with discontinuation of medication taken before incarceration, with long waits for months for emergency examinations in outpatient hospitals.                             

THE GEOMETRY OF THE ANTI-TERROR UNIT

     While I am still unconscious, only a few hours after the explosion, the judicial apparatus follows the instructions of the anti-terror squad and constructs an indictment of an abomination. The processing of (small amounts of) explosive materials and devices with only comrade Kyriakos and myself present and aware, was baptized an organization. The apartment, to which we had only had access to for a few days, was christened a yafka (illegal bunker). The legitimate objects found in the apartment where I lived with comrade Kyriakos and which were presented on the daily news were dubbed suspicious. With these facts, the anti-terror police prosecuted me on the charge of "terrorism". At this point, however, I will not focus on the legal aspect, nor will I speak in the context of innocence and guilt. I refuse to accept an indictment based on 187A, especially when it instrumentalizes the death of my comrade in the most vulgar fashion. And I intend to deconstruct whichever repressive scenario they construct. But I will defend until the end my choice to be in this apartment, I will defend the necessity of struggle by means not limited to the framework of civil law, I will defend my comrade's choices, his memory and our relationship.

     By carving concentric circles, the anti-terror police weave their own repressive web. It places me and my comrade Kyriakos at the centre and, with shaky geometry, it adds friends, comrades and strangers. In the first cycle it places the arrest of the anarchist comrade Dimitra, who presented herself voluntarily in a Hollywood-style operation at the Athens airport where - in contrast to the femicide of Kyriaki Griva - the police car in the role of a taxi picks her up and takes her to the GADA (Athens central police station). The only “clue” was that she had given the keys to the apartment in Arkadia Street to me and Kyriakos under the pretext of hosting our acquaintances from abroad, without her knowledge of the  true purpose of the flat's use. It is worth noting that on the day of the explosion she was abroad, where she had been living for the last few years. She too is being prosecuted under 187A. In the second circle they place the comrade Dimitris, who also presented himself voluntarily at GADA, because he had handed over the pair of keys of the apartment in Arcadia Street to the flat's owner, something which had been requested of him by Dimitra. With the only involvement being the delivery of the keys, without having known anything more and having been at work at the time of the explosion, he also faces the aforementioned charges. Twenty days later the"anti-"terrorists secure the next cycle, with the arrest of the anarchist comrade N. Romanos. In his case, the repressive mechanism unleashed its vindictiveness by using as proof a faint fingerprint on a transportable object - a bag - found in the apartment in Arcadia. Two days later A.K becomes part of the last cycle  when he is arrested due to the ridiculous "clue" of the fingerprint on the same bag. Apparently within 20 days the "efficiency" of the ELAS (greek police) laboratories managed to implicate two people with whom I have no connection, by unearthing a fingerprint, while the tons of xylene in the Tempi massacre have not been found for two years now. The last two arrested also face the same flimsy charge.

THE MEDIA SKETCHES

   The "anti-"terror unit line was followed not only by the investigator but also by the ever-loyal media. From the very first moment, they targeted and vilified, engaging in one of their familiar witch-hunts. The speedometers of the snitches counted countless hours, reproducing and enriching the ill-conceived scenario of the anti-terror unit, indulging in the familiar profiling of 'guilty'. With legal acrobatics they connected cases without evidence, left hints, and commented on our class origin, character and psyche via tele-cops and tele-psychologist. They are the same snitches who talked about necessary sacrifices in the Tempi murder where many lost their lives, who unleash racist torrents at the first opportunity, cover up rapists, pimps and killer cops over the years and who bow down to shipowners, industrialists and politicians.

THE ENGRAVING OF THE JUDICIAL MECHANISM

     The 'anti-'terror unit showed the way, the media paved it and now the judicial mechanism is called upon to cement it. So the investigator is trying to interpret my intentions based on assumptions . With legal alchemy, she is prosecuting me under terror law §187A which automatically makes any "illegal" act I committed weightier in the eyes of the law . By making that choice, the investigator not only raises the price list of the sentences but in fact recognizes the explosion as an organized deliberate act, something that, given the circumstances - an explosion in an apartment of a residential block of flats - could not correspond to reality. Anarchist ideas and values - in contrast to those of the state and the system of power - have demonstrated over the years a revolutionary ethic and opposition to the logic of collateral damage. The anarchists' attacks are targeted, prioritizing the safety of unrelated people. So it could never be my, or my partner's purpose to cause an explosion inside the apartment and cause so many people suffering, no matter how much the state apparatus tries to tar us with the label of "public danger". Besides the repressive and political instrumentalization of the explosion, the government has had the audacity to shed crocodile tears over the damage to the building in order to entrust the repair of the damage to TERNA, a well-known state partner with direct contracts with the government, which is also involved in the scandal of the hollow dams in Volos. So with all these methods the investigator is making one message clear: any anarchist act that exceeds the laws will be prosecuted with §187A, and anyone who refuses to submit to the law and order imposed by the system will be exterminated as an example.

     Five people, four of whom have nothing to do with what happened on 31.10 in the Arcadia apartment, are expected to respond to assumptions and fabricated scenarios. The borrowing and return of a pair of keys for hospitality purposes, and the faint fingerprints on a bag not only constitute, for the interrogator, sufficient “evidence” for prosecution, but are capable of attributing to all the accused the same degree of involvement in the indictment.

THE GEOMETRIC RULE OF ANY PROSECUTION, §187A

    Our case, however, is not some sort of exception. There are countless cases where militants are prosecuted under the "anti-terrorism" legislation. Prosecutions that force the world of struggle to confront a judicial system that is willing to act on a political level, by upgrading the charges using the terror law, the vagueness of which allows the judiciary to interpret it as it sees fit. Designed to control and intimidate its political opponents, to preventatively repress, to eliminate internal enemies and any manifestation of social and political counter-violence, 'anti-terrorist' legislation is the main weapon of the state's repressive policy. Placing at its center the armed manifestations of struggle and practices that challenge the laws, the Terror Law imposes a special regime both in terms of the judicial aspect and in terms of imprisonment. Increased sentencing, abolition of mixed juries, special compositions of judges, special chambers and a legal exception regime are some of its features. However, this attack is not limited to those who consciously choose to expand their activities by armed means, and does not hesitate to target - often with the same intensity - those close to them, seeking their social and political isolation. But the question is one: who will call whom a terrorist? Who will judge whom? How can a judicial system that exists to serve and protect the interests of the rulers, the violence they unleash on a daily basis, the exploitation and oppression they impose, be in a position to judge the people of the struggle? The subjects who practice systematic terrorism are none other than the bosses and their political representatives, none other than those whom the legislative complex has been bailing out over time by persecuting those who challenge their domination by promoting a society of equality and solidarity. It blames militants for endangering international organizations when it is the international organizations themselves that send whole societies to genocides, it imputes to militants the endangerment of public institutions when these institutions have been responsible for the predatory bleeding of the social base for centuries; it imputes to militants the endangerment of populations when it is the states themselves that sink populations into misery, wars and death. So how can a legislation that launders those who have, over time, been tainting their hands with blood, put on trial those whose actions seek to make fear switch sides?

THE SPACE AROUND THE PROSECUTION MECHANISM

    It thus becomes clear that the essence of our persecution is not legal but political and can only be read within the specific context. A context in which the West, which in recent years has been trying tooth and nail to wash its hands of centuries of colonialism by selling inclusiveness and entitlement, is now openly imposing its global strategy and it’s ideological hegemony. Even in a climate of instability where the initiatives, ‘self-reliance’ and the demonstration of - rather hollow - power of the planetary ruler spread insecurity among its former European partners, the Western imperialist bloc is trying - in vain - to prove its cultural ‘superiority’ and ‘progressiveness’ and to dominate points of geopolitical interest. The EU is irreversibly stripping itself of its humanitarian mask by recreating the landscape of the global chessboard. It is playing a catalytic role in global developments, reinforcing Israel's attack against Palestine financially and militarily, supporting Ukraine militarily and guarding its borders from millions of people whom its own policies have pushed to emigrate.

   Greece is obviously no exception. By turning the country into a huge NATO military base, the Greek state is actively allied with Israel (an alliance that is also based on economic interests). In a climate of instability only a few years after the memorandum, the state apparatus chooses to focus on military expenses and on strengthening its repressive apparatus and its borders, thus further burdening the social base. The government, with privatization, with inflation and impoverishment, with attacks on trade unionism, collective agreements, the ESY (Greek National Healthcare Service) and the education system, continues social democracy's carrot and stick strategy by moving to a neoliberal extreme right that combines - rather sloppily - assimilated right-wing ideology with the doctrine of Law and Order.

    It tries to adapt to the necessities of modern, progressive neoliberalism which can only offer - after the bubble of class ascendancy, yuppiesm and "golden boys" - the illusion of the incorporation of identities where all good people fit into capitalism - like a well-planned Benetton advertisement. Long-excluded identities are finally getting a 'voice', as long as that voice does not challenge the system that excluded them in the first place. And because rightism has short legs - and a small pool of voters - the law and its executive organs are called upon to do the 'dirty' work; targeting another pool. Criminal and penal codes are tightened, special repressive units are created, existing police forces are reinforced, water and land borders are equipped, patrols are intensified. For every 'problem' there is a new law, for every law there is a cop - perhaps trained, of course, for cases of domestic violence. The state is not only being armed, it is ready for battle.

    A battle against “criminality” which, as they proclaim, threatens society as a whole. In every corner of the city there is a “crime” taking place by armed gangs of juveniles, adults, immigrants, natives, poor people, poor barons, ultras, organized and non organized groups. So the state who considers itself as our self-appointed regulator of life obsessively proposes stricter sentences and more policing. A policing which in the end is somehow always involved in all the “crimes” it suppresses. So at a time when the state apparatus has nothing to offer but repressive and punitive fury it turns the doctrine of “Law and Order” into a central governmental line.

    Based on such a line, the internal enemy is found in any social group that disturbs the atmosphere of “security”. Immigrants, drug addicts, “miserable”, struggling social groups. And of course the anarchist movement could not be absent from this list. A movement that over time proudly generates from within its ranks fighters who act sharply and decisively against the state and power. It is these initiatives that challenge domination, that create dynamic conditions, that propose solutions here and now, that deconstruct the state monopoly on violence. Through the diversity of means of struggle, the anarchist movement has proven its place in the course of history. A place where the logic of postponing do not fit, where the limits of bourgeois legitimacy seem insignificant considering all the years of state and capitalist violence, where the heavy veil of responsibility falls first and foremost on us. Where the vision of a world of equality and solidarity begins in the present, where compromise is not an option, where attacking the brutality of the system is a “voluntary decision of deep empathy” and the passage to revolutionary anti-violence a logical consequence and a necessary tool. To this internal enemy the message is clear: whoever is not assimilated is eliminated.

THE COMRADE, THE BOND AND THE BUILDER

Non omnis Moriar

(I will not die in one piece, a part of me will remain alive)

  The comrade Kyriakos Xymitiris was a determined 'internal enemy'. A man crystal clear and rebellious. A comrade who combined theory with practice, who poured himself into the struggle and lived his life to the fullest, facing his historical responsibility. Understanding his political identity in all its breadth, he did not compromise with logics of procrastination and inertia, he did not rest, he fought in difficult times, he dreamed and took up a fighting position. In a route full of crossroads, comrade Kyriakos always chose the right path. Sometimes smooth, sometimes rough, sometimes visible and sometimes invisible. Through his path of struggle and his non-negotiable participation in the entire width of the anarchist movement, the comrade is a consciously multi-dimensional anarchist militant who manages to combine all the forms and manifestations of the struggle that the special mosaic of anarchy encompasses. By surpassing himself, he adapted his own life to the measures and needs of resistance, choosing a way of life synonymous with struggle. With sensitivity, empathy, self-criticism, militancy and determination he served the anarchist struggle. By participating in open processes, occupations, guard shifts, union struggles, feminist and antifascist patrols, actions and fights, he wanted to contribute to the sharpness of anarchy. By persistently seeking ways to confront everyday state-capitalist violence, he wanted to explore the armed options of struggle, shifting the conflict to the core of domination and demystifying the violence of the oppressors. With his eyes always fixed on the Revolutionary Cause, he poured himself into the battle using all means available.

     Murdered by the world of power he fought so hard to change, let his subversive memory be an invitation to struggle. Let his memory arm the minds and hands of fighters. Let us commemorate our dead far away from the logic of condescension and defeatism, by continuing and intensifying our struggles, with tenderness and honour.

    Let 31.10 be remembered as a day of struggle, a day of responsibility, a moment of resistance. Because in the struggle there is no space for compromises; there is no space for barriers and egos. There is no room for laws, conventions and limits. Because the struggle needs determination and vision. It needs faith and commitment, it needs true and giving relationships. Because the struggle needs people who are humble and ready. People who are essentially rebellious and consistent. 

People like Kyriakos, that wonderful human

who filled the sky with his star

alongside so many comrades

who with their light - even behind bars

manage to illuminate our darkest nights

We are right, we will win

KYRIAKOS XYMITIRIS IMMORTAL

STATE AND CAPITAL ARE THE ONLY TERRORISTS

STRENGTH AND SOLIDARITY TO ALL THE IMPRISONED COMRADES

SOLIDARITY IS THE WEAPON OF THE PEOPLE

Marianna M.