Statement by the imprisoned member of Anarchist Action, Thanos Chatziaggelou, on taking political responsibility, and the political substance of the trial of the organisation.

This trial is a political trial, a trial of subjects who are in the crosshairs of institutionalised terrorism, not only for their actions but for their political constitution and for taking the right side in the class war. No matter how great the attempt to decontextualize the content and selfless motives of the acts in the upcoming trial by talking about common crime, in reality the State is itself sealing the political character of the trial with its special laws, our exemption and surveillance status, security measures, interpretation of anti-terrorist provisions and a possible heavy sentence dictated by the anti-terrorist echelons.

And yet, instead of seeing people cowering in fear of prison and pervasive terrorism, you see each of us standing proud of the choices and values that define our lives. And that in defiance of the times and your monopoly of monopoly the greatest danger lurks, that this trial will override the evidentiary process and turn into a trial of intent.

In the face of a system that does not even have the courage to assume its political responsibilities, proudly and without a second thought I take political responsibility for my commitment to Anarchist Action, because my word of honour and commitment to the Revolutionary Cause left me no room to abandon the political substance and history of the form I participated in at your hands.

In an era of political apathy towards revolutionary action and the relativisation of tasks and demands in the face of one’s personal expectations and pleasures, the assertion of political responsibility is itself an aggressive move. My individual political constitution, my priorities, my loyalty and dedication to the tasks of the revolution do not allow me to treat my life lightly. I have assumed the political responsibility to be coherent first and foremost with myself and my comrades, alongside whom my commitment to Anarchy was, is and will forever remain a binding oath of complicity. To defend Anarchist Action against a slanderous narrative that would attempt to cut off actions from motives and historical context, for the requirements of the institutionalized and legally enforced violence of the State and its lackeys.

Taking political responsibility is a deeply conscious choice. It is a single narrative where thousands of mouths speak the same language, opening the path of intolerance. The path where the memory of fire and lead crushes political defeat and decadence. And that path widens as long as there are people who carry history on their backs to guard it, to honour it and rescue it from corruption and infamy. Today I stand firm in my convictions of anarchist struggle and revolutionary selflessness because it is my duty to tread this path. For only conflict opens paths.

The trial of Anarchist Action is taking place in a condition of a burying of the revolutionary direction and analysis within the ranks of the resistance initiatives. Touching on a period where the absence of the essential concept of a movement with commonly held positions, values and strategy is tending to become permanent, the condemnation of revolutionary violence and militant initiatives is targeting the entire subversive space working for destabilisation and revolution generally.

It is a historical responsibility to reinvent the radical necessity to overthrow the State and the mechanisms of power and subjugation, appropriating the revolution on the lips of Anarchy. An Anarchy that consciously insists on clashing, on not going off the rails, on fighting relentlessly in the present without postponing the struggle for the distant future. Without retreat or truce.

For me, the trial of Anarchist Action aspires to be not the spectacular end of a conflictual journey but the beginning of a long effort to record and defend precisely this individual and collective necessity. Through a refractory journey with tyranny, to meet and come to friction and interaction between old and new experiences of struggle and resistance in order to approach the revolutionary necessities of the dark period we live in anew.

The defence witnesses for Anarchist Action will not come forward to claim legal and criminal alleviation for anyone. With the historical background that characterizes each one individually, they present to defend the interventions of Anarchist Action as part of the radical mosaic of anarchist resistance and practical theory.

They are present to smash the political apathy of the revolutionary composition, breathing new life into a set of irreconcilable propositions such as,

– taking political responsibility

– the necessity of the guerrilla formation in the anarchist struggle

– the defence of the dead of the social war and the memory of fire against the uniformed assault battalions

– revolutionary violence as an integral part of radical movements

– street justice as the political opposite of bourgeois justice

– the historicity of social anti-violence in Greece

– the class determination of the proletarian conflict

– the social legitimation and territorialisation of the theory of aggression through practice

– the lasting necessity of the armed struggle and finally

– the internationalist unity of the revolutionary resistance movements

With a single characteristic of faith and consistency in the struggle, the Anarchist Action Defence Front comes to deepen anew the rift between two worlds that are on a constant trajectory of conflict. It comes to judge and not to be judged. To defend the historical necessity of revolutionary action, to recruit more hearts to the rise of anarchist guerrilla warfare, to inspire, motivate and arm the fighting minorities of the future, to sharpen the confrontation and polarisation by declaring new hostilities.

Having confronted all my limits (political, psychological, physical and emotional) to the point of staring death in the face a few months ago, I stand before you today with my head held high and without any sense of guilt or remorse to ask you a question: In the face of the injustice, the collective decadence, the massive social and moral degradation of the times we live in, in the face of the normalization of death, do you shed any tears? Does your heart tighten, does your heart ache? I will tell you, no. In the society of dead spectators, then, do not blame those hearts that by choice will still beat. Out of shame alone you should remain silent.

With my only feeling being that of pride, for Anarchist Action will forever be a nerve centre in my life, my heart will remain committed with uninterrupted dedication to the same cause.

Revolution first and always

Thanos Chatziaggelou, captured member of the Anarchist Action Organization

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via: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1625085/

Translated by Act for freedom now!

Actforfree note : Solidarity with the 3 anarchist comrades Thanos Chatziaggelou, Gewrgia Voulgaris and Panos Kalaitzis  who are on trial in Larrissa court in Greece:  start court trial days 2/5, 7/5  and 17th of May 2023.