Position of Giannis Michailidis on the struggle for his release
Introduction
As I enjoy my freedom again, won through my second hunger and thirst strike, I reflect on the complex historical mosaic that not only shaped my personal choices but also wove the collective struggle against the state-capitalism complex. Far from being solitary acts of assertion, the hunger strikes were instead part of the social antagonism within the complex dynamics taking shape in Greece and the global landscape as the assault of the dominant powers deepens.
The backdrop in which these hunger strikes unfolded is characterised by profound global challenges, where the grip of capitalism has led to an alarming concentration of wealth and therefore power in the hands of a select few. Meanwhile, the vast majority of humanity lives in extreme poverty, crushed by the burden of industrial production and the relentless pursuit of profit by corporations. At the same time, the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources has brought the planet dangerously close to the brink of irreversible climate change and has caused an unprecedented mass extinction of species.
In this web of power, States, whether Western or Eastern, impose their power by claiming a monopoly of violence. They blatantly wipe out entire populations with state-of-the-art weapons of mass destruction or use more subtle tactics, such as weaponizing hunger by systematically dismantling vital infrastructure in conflict-ridden areas. The world is on the brink of collapse because of nuclear arsenals ready to wipe it out in an instant. Stripping away the harsh reality, the real agents of terror are revealed – the States. In these circumstances, as I reflect on the battle for my personal freedom, I recognise its connection with the wider struggle from which my prolonged imprisonment had temporarily distanced me.
disfigured by loggers, ravaged by energy companies, polluted by industrialists and colonized by accomplices of the Chilean state — the last few decades have been marked by unrelenting struggle.
Among the tedious publications that the French state releases every year to offer a semblance of democratic veneer is the annual report of the Commission Nationale de Contrôle des Techniques de Renseignement (CNCTR), the body created in 2015 to monitor the proper use of spying measures deployed by these agencies. The release of its 2022 Annual Report on June 15 may have passed somewhat unnoticed, but it’s still worth extracting a few bits of information. All the more so since the report details the official array of surveillance measures carried out on their own initiative, upstream and as a preventive measure, by all the intelligence agencies, leaving us to imagine how this expansion can then be translated into additional prolonged surveillance in a judicial rather than administrative framework (in the form of opening a preliminary investigation or inquiry, which the person who is targeted will not immediately be aware of).
