In 2017, the Koukaki Squatting Community was created. Three abandoned houses were occupied at the streets of 45 Matrozou, 21 Panaitolio and 3 Arvali in the neighbourhood of Koukaki. A neighbourhood, close to the Filopappou Hill and the Acropolis, which was downgraded during the memorandum years [1] and then exploited by tourism and heavily gentrified.

In 2017, through collective effort the houses became habitable, flourishing as spaces for housing and political struggle. The doors of the squatted buildings were open to those who wished to counterattack state violence and injustice, to those needing shelter or the community’s solidarity structures, to those seeking a collective way of living, as well as to the people of the neighborhood. Besides assemblies and the events, the squats hosted a lending library, public showers and laundries, and a clothing exchange bazaar.

After about three years and having fought back several attacks by fascists and cops, and amongst a wave of evictions of self-organized spaces, the houses got evicted by the greek state.

In January 2020, the squatters of the Koukaki Community made the political decision to return to two of the buildings and re-enter them, accompanied by mass gatherings. When the state forces arrived, they violently attacked the solidarity gathering and started trying to invade the buildings in order to evict them.

A passionate and militant defense from inside the house hold them off for several hours. Till at one point the cops managed to enter the building of Matrozou, where they brutally arrested five people who they found inside.

On April 30, in front of the Appeal Court in Athens, Greece, a comrade will stand trial again for the militant defense of the houses – after having been sentenced to 77 months in the first instance.

The uncompromising and militant defense of the spaces that we fill with the love for life, community and the radicalization of social struggles sheds sparkles onto the imposed monotony and indifference of the concrete deserts. The determination we find in the three years period of the existence of Koukaki Squat Community and its try of reoccupation was and is inspiring.

In May 2018 comrades from the Koukaki squats participated in the Chaos- and Diskussion days in Rigaer Straße.

We agreed that taking a ground in the city and defending it with the neccessary means is important for every movement which resists against capitalist and state opression. The defense of Matrozou 45 is in line with our proposal for social self-defense.

Shortly after the Koukaki evictions in 2020, our street was a place of solidarity action to the evicted.

Freedom blossoms like a flower in spring, right where we act collectively and combative!

No comrade left alone in the hands of the state!

In solidarity with the accused now in front of the Appeal Court in Athens on April, 30th and every resisting space,

love and rage,
Rigaer94

[1] In 2010, 2012, and 2015, in response to debt crises, Greece was forced to sign memoranda with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (the Troika), that imposed austerity measures and structural adjustments as conditions to receive bailout packages. The Greek state carried out a series of economic attacks to fulfill the demands of the Troika, including reforms that increased precarious work, weakened unions and dismissal protections, cut pensions, the minimum wage, severance pay, and overtime pay. These were met with widespread resistance, including demonstrations, riots, and counterattacks against institutions responsible for the deepened social misery. Among those fighting back was the armed anarchist group Revolutionary Struggle. The following brochure is a compilation of their texts which were written between 2014 and 2016, and contains their analysis of the memorandum years, as well as communiques of actions that were a part of their contributions to this struggle.

https://actforfree.noblogs.org/files/2022/04/REVOLUTIONARY-STRUGLE-MAGAZINE-2017.pdf

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