Support economically and politically the 4 persecuted comrades, who are under trial at 6 February 2023. The 4 anarchists are being persecuted, under “anti-terrorist” law, for participating in an allegedelly “terrorist” organization named “comrades”. No one alone against the state! International revolutionary solidarity!
https://www.firefund.net/solidarity4comrades
The first solidarity banner for the 4 comrades, Exarcheia 10th March 2020. Banner, “In a world that human relationships are being criminalized, we are all comrades”
Chronicle of the prosecution
On March 8th and 9th 2020, after a state security operation three male and one female comrade are arrested. Τhe authorities’ sole piece of evidence was two cops having ‘visually’ identified the first arrested person on a video of the attack against the Mitsotakis* Foundation. The other three were arrested due to their friendly and comrade relationships. They now find themselves charged with an enormous case file which includes 55 attacks.
Based on the anti-terrorist Act 187A, they are charged with setting up and participating in an alleged terrorist organization under the name of “comrades” . The authorities are prosecuting the comrades based on attacks, actions and public addresses uploaded on counter-information platforms which had been signed using the term “comrades”. In this way, the police are attempting to bring any political action signed by “comrades” together under the umbrella of a collective terrorist organization.
A few words on the construct of the organization “comrades”, from the statement of the prosecuted female comrade in May 2020: /… / Behold then, the State, in its attempt to sell the ideological construct of “war against terrorism” fabricating organizations. They claim the terrorist organization they created by the name “comrades” to be a group that has acted since 2016 up to the present carrying out attacks in Athens. This reasoning goes beyond normality or reality in a way that can only be called ridiculous. In fact, the name of this infamous organization is but a sign-off used by the broader spectrum of anarchist/ antiauthoritarian groups for many years now. It was used, it is still being used and it will continue to be used. Anyone who searches can find hundreds of texts bearing the said signature all over Greece, most probably even abroad. This new stratagem, the use, that is, of a broader signature and its conversion into the name of a terrorist organization, is unprecedented and its only aim can be to “lump” together a wide, diverse and multi-faceted range of action on the part of the broader antiauthoritarian movement, as well as to terrorize all who belong there. It´s now the turn of the “solidary”, the “anarchists”, the “communists” to be called terrorist organizations and there’s no end to the lumping /…/
* The ultra-right Greek Prime Minister.
Solidarity action to the 4 comrades (Athens)
After being held for a week at the Athens Police Headquarters, the comrades are set free but on the following harsh restraining orders:
– Present themselves at a police station 3 times a month,
– Ban on communication or socializing between them,
– Ban on participation in any political gathering or protest march,
– Ban on entering the area of Exarcheia,
– Ban on leaving the country,
– Confiscation of their whole property,
while the comrade G.I. is additionally forced to move back to his hometown.
These restraining orders bear very specific consequences on the lives of the four accused, since they aim at the disruption of their social life and political action, as well as their absolute economic exhaustion. What’s more, the displacement of one of them from the city where he lived for years fully cuts him off from his maintenance relationships and his work, making it obvious that the State will target in every way possible those who fight against it.
At a later stage, in November 2020, the following restraining orders were added for comrade G.I.:
– Ban on leaving his hometown,
– Ban on entering any region within Attica (Athens),
– Ban on using any two-wheeled vehicle as a driver or co-driver.
Comrade G.I. has been stranded in this peculiar hostage state for almost three years now. The judicial authorities, despite his repeated pleas for a lift of the restraining orders, make a point of exhibiting their control over all aspects of his life by dismissing them. Without question, the exemption status shows a historical continuity when it comes to political prisoners, the prosecuted and the fighters. In this particular case, the State apparatus, exhausting all possible means at their disposal, has created a stranglehold of political and maintenance isolation for the comrade. Political in that he is banished from his field of action, the metropolis, and maintenance isolation in that he is excluded from choices that concern his everyday subsistence.
The said comrades, from the outset of this ridiculous fabrication, have denied all accusations and publicly declared that they are being prosecuted solely on the grounds of their political identity and their comrade relationships. And that through the usual ways in which the State prosecutes anarchists, with police still trying but failing to find any sufficient supporting evidence (DNA, fingerprints, calls, messages) that would connect the four accused to any attack.
In November 2021 the Public Prosecutor proposes the full acquittal of the four comrades and the lift on all the restraining orders. According to her proposal, there is not enough evidence to bring the four accused comrades to trial.
Two and a half years after the arrest of the comrades, after repeated rejections of the pleas for lifting the restraining orders against the displaced comrade G.I., as well as the rejection of the above-mentioned acquittal proposal of the Public Prosecutor by the First-instance judicial council, the trial for the case of “comrades” has been set to begin on February 6th at the 5th Court of Appeal for Felonies.
Huge solidarity banner to the 4 comrades (Prosfygika squat, Athens)
The trial and the indictment
The number of attacks for which the comrades are brought to trial has now fallen from 55 to 3, while the charge for setting up and forming part of a terrorist organization has been turned into simple participation in a terrorist organization. This reveals how fruitless the attempts of the State have been to set up a case file against those who fight, based on the sole evidence of their political identity and their comrade relationships.
The four comrades are being dragged to a political trial because they found their place among the oppressed of this world and fought against State and Capital, against the systematic impoverishment of the working-class billions, against fascism and patriarchy, against the destruction of nature and the annihilation of non-human lives.
They are brought to trial under the 187A (Antiterrorist) Law, described as members of an alleged terrorist organization under the name “comrades”, a term widely known to be frequently used by the broader antiauthoritarian movement around the world. The deliberate designation of the terms “comrades” and “anarchists” as a terrorist organization in this specific case file thus creates an inexhaustible suspect pool, with the aim of terrorizing and targeting anyone who rebels against any form of power. The hunt for the “internal enemy “ goes on interminably and the case of the four comrades can act as a springboard for politically eliminating more and more comrades.
Comment of one of the prosecuted comrades on the political significance of the “antiterrorist” prosecutions for the international anti-state/ anti-capitalist movement: /… / /…/
One has only to resist, to build relationships based on comradeship, to show solidarity in action, to find oneself displaced or locked up in the dungeons of the state.
They want to spread fear but they will only reap the whirlwind, until the fear changes side.
We ourselves can bring our comrades back.
Solidarity is nothing but dispelling the fear of repression, refusing to abandon anyone in the hands of the State.
Solidarity poster with the 4 comrades