Greece: Updates from the new trial of Revolutionary Struggle

“Those who live on 300 or 400 euros a month are not terrorised by Revolutionary Struggle, but by you and your regime.”

In a climate of tension, a new trial for Nikos Maziotis unfolded in the specially designed court in the female prison wing of Korydallos. He is now being accused for acts allegedly committed during the period that he was wanted by police. His co-defendants are his fugitive companion, Pola Roupa, the anarchist A. Stamboulou who is denying the charges, and the recently arrested G. Petrakakos.

The defendants are charged with, among other things, the offenses of membership and participation in a terrorist organization of which the leader is claimed to be Maziotis, an accusation of exploding a car bomb at the Bank of Greece on Amerikis Street in April 2014, for which Maziotis has taken political responsibility, and also for supply and possession of explosives, explosions, and two robberies. Moreover, Nikos Maziotis is accused of attempted homicide in the shoot-out with policemen in Monastiraki in the summer of 2014 when he was arrested.

The manifesto and the banks

The request of the lawyers of Nikos Maziotis for the prosecution to produce representatives of the banks which he reportedly robbed, made the presence of the defense strongly felt. The accused took the floor and said the banks were, “predatory organizations, there was no robbery, expropriation is the reality of the event.”

And when asked by the court to speak in his defense, the accused read a text-manifesto with harsh words against the political system and the judges. “Those who live on 300 or 400 euros a month are not terrorised by Revolutionary Struggle, but by you and your regime,” he said addressing the judges. Nikos Maziotis declared himself an “anarchist prisoner of war”. He described the trial as political, claiming it was a title of honor for him to be armed.

The other defendent A. Stamboulou claimed himself an “anarchist prisoner of war” and denied the charges, claiming that they have no relation to reality as there has, “not been found any evidence against him.” And he called his trial “political” and attributed his persecution to the “rage of repressive mechanisms.”

G. Petrakakos, in turn, denied the charges and reserved the right not to speak in his own defense.

‘Evening’ trial

The tone went up further when the presiding judge announced that the court sessions would start at noon and will last until the evening as there is a risk of the expiration of 18 months [of pretrial detention time] for the accused Stamboulou. The legal advocates responded by invoking the “special status” of the trial, accusing the court that it gives priority to the principle of expediency, not of legality.

“Make a trial by yourself, your shame stands revealed!”, cried the packed audience.

“Arrange when we will come not from Pangrati but from the provinces,” complained witnesses.

“We will reach out to the Chief of Appeals, it is humanly impossible to meet,” said the lawyers.

Finally, after these reactions, the President interrupted the schedule for the morning of October 19, clarifying however that the other meetings will be held. . . in the afternoon and then proceeded to call out the the names of witnesses, amid loud protests.

(via The Barbarian Times)

Greece: New text by imprisoned Revolutionary Struggle member Nikos Maziotis

Concerning the New Memorandum and the Elections of 20 September

The 3rd Memorandum signed by the SYRIZA government marks the complete political bankruptcy of the left regime and the chimerical aspirations for a more “humane” capitalism. After taking office last January, this marks the collapse of the attempted Syriza management of the defeat of the popular social movements from the period 2010-2012. For those who had no illusions, this whole period until the adoption of the 3rd Memorandum represents simply a waiting period for the predicted backtracking, where the campaign promises to repeal or renegotiate the Memorandum and partial cancelling of the debt along with a parallel policy for the relief of the poor was first followed by the agreement of February 20 which extended the second memorandum, and then came (despite the disapproval of 62% of the voters in the referendum of July 5 rejecting the proposals of lenders) the third memorandum which is much worse than the measures rejected in the referendum.

Within a few months, Syriza crossed over its “red lines” in complete retreat and acceptance of the creditors’ demands, towards the acceptance of a Memorandum far more brutal than that which was voted by the previous Samaras government.

“First time left” [note: πρώτε φορά αριστερά- a popular Syriza slogan claiming that they were for the first time a left government in Greece’s history, as if they were somehow different from PASOK] and the total humiliation of the will of the social majority to get rid of Memorandum policies that make them serfs of the markets is unprecedented.

“First time left” and there was a quicker and more resounding denial and betrayal of expectations than all prior governments in political memory.

“First time left” and the Troika, now called “the institutions”, became officially quadripartite, since besides the EU, the ECB and the IMF who are the real masters of the country, now we also have the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) from which the SYRIZA government requested new loan agreements and signed the third memorandum.

“First time left” and the robbery against the people and the poor continues to further reduce wages and pensions, to increase the retirement age, for more savage taxation, and further accepting the privatization of public property. The left regime appropriately continues the politics of societal genocide launched in 2010 by the Papandreou government [the left of PASOK] with the first memorandum and which continued with the Samaras government signing the second memorandum.

The names of Tsipras, Varoufakis, Dragasaki, Skourletis, Pappas, Voutsis, Lafazanis, are added to the list of criminal policians such as Papandreou and Venizelos, Papaconstantinou, Loverdos, Chrisochoïdis, Samara, Mitsotakis, Vroutsi, Georgiadis and others who acted as puppets for the international economic elite.

With the passage of the third memorandum, SYRIZA signed in reality their political bankruptcy and condemnation, because in order to pass the new agreement with the lenders, support was based more on the votes of the opposition pro-European parties ND, Potami, PASOK, which led to the Syriza split which forced them to early elections on 20 September. These developments demonstrate the disgrace of bourgeois parliamentarism and that the political system is more destabilized than ever.

The social majority, the hungry, the poor, the destitute, the unemployed, the homeless, workers and youth have nothing to hope for from these elections as well. As I said before referring to the previous elections of January 2015, the solution is not given by elections, but by the people in arms.

No one has anything to hope from the criminals of political parties, the useful idiots and puppets of the international economic elites and the European Union, the implementers of the memorandum policies. No one has anything to hope from the new “anti-memorandum saviors” that emerged from the breakup of SYRIZA, Popular Unity, the former Left Platform of SYRIZA, supporters of adopting a national currency who present themselves as consistently anti-memorandum.

Popular Unity (LAE) is itself insolvent and unreliable, just as insolvent and unreliable as was Syriza well before taking power- when it appeared with anti-memorandum rhetoric and an unrealistic social-democratic and Keynesian program. These developments of the new “left Memorandum” have justified our prediction as Revolutionary Struggle concerning the transformation of SYRIZA into a neoliberal party, which we made long before they came into power. With almost all the political parties discredited, with PASOK and ANEL not far from inexistence as parties, with SYRIZA bankrupt within seven months and becoming a purely neoliberal party, with ND shrinking because of the second memorandum, with LAE not persuading anyone by adopting the old unworkable social-democrat program of SYRIZA, with a large part of society turning its back on the political system by abstaining from electoral illusions, and without any chance of a majority government, the country is in a status of permanent political instability, which those who want a revolutionary overthrow should exploit.

The bankruptcy of SYRIZA dispelled illusions about solving social problems due to the crisis within the existing system, because saving the system requires the enslavement and destruction of large sections of the population.

The country is a powder keg and needs only a spark or a detonator to blow up capital and the state.

The fact that the 3rd left Memorandum passed amid general social apathy, with only a few people coming to the streets on 15 and 22 July for clashes, is the result of the deadlock of the major social and popular movements of the period of the First Memorandum from 2010-2012 , a deadlock due to the lack of perspective and proposals for the revolutionary overthrow of capital and the state and the lack of an organized political-military force that will attempt to undertake the overthrow, that is to say, a revolutionary movement. But this situation should not disappoint us.

Revolutionaries have never acted by waiting for the masses to rise up spontaneously or get mobilized; rather they made their way by first giving the example of antagonistic action and taking advantage of turmoil at the base of society. There have never been more favorable objective conditions for action, for struggles, for revolution, because of the devaluation and instability of the regime; and there were never worse subjective conditions, apathy, deadlock, and resignation, due to a lack of perspective and hope.

Our duty is to act in order to change the unfavorable conditions, to inspire hope and strength to revolt and overthrow. This action consists in destabilizing and undermining an already unstable system, the sabotage of the ruling policies for the implementation of memoranda and rescue programs, the sabotage of the policy that aims for investments of multinational capital in the country by privatizations and sell-offs of public property, the sabotage of the ongoing social theft and societal genocide.

The adoption of dynamic forms of action, guerrilla war and armed struggle, is a necessary choice for the sabotage of the ruling policies. Bombings or armed action on a massive scale, against offices, facilities, structures or entities of government and of local and international capital could destabilize even more the regime to deter investment and halt the selling off of public property, in making the country unsafe for investors.

Our struggles, besides the adoption of the guerrilla and armed struggle, connect with other forms of action- such as the violent protests of this July 15, with squats or relief actions of the socially weak and vulnerable, these may have social and popular acceptance and so be footholds on the path to revolutionary overthrow. But the overthrow of the capitalist state can only be guaranteed by the recourse to arms, the armed seizure of enemy strongholds, parliament, ministries, banks, the Bank of Greece and the disarming of the police stations.

At a time when all illusions dissolve, armed social revolution is the only way forward, the only way to save ourselves from societal genocide imposed by the international economic elites and the state…

To avoid counting other dead from suicides, diseases, shortages of basic goods.

To prevent children fainting from hunger and malnutrition.
To abolish social classes and the state.
To socialize collective wealth.
To live with dignity and to take our life in our hands.

Let us not delude ourselves that all this can be done without having goals or proposals, or by being unable to popularize our proposals and confined to a sterile insurrectionism or having alternative illusions concerning peripheral self-managed “islands of freedom” and ventures that will surround the state and make the market economy disappear.

Let us not delude ourselves that all this can be done without risking our lives for freedom …For as history has shown, the tree of liberty grows only with blood.

NO ELECTORAL ILLUSIONS
ARMED SOCIAL REVOLUTION

N. Maziotis,

Member of Revolutionary Struggle,

Korydallos Prison

(via The Barbarian Times)

Text from imprisoned Revolutionary Struggle member Nikos Maziotis about the crisis in Greece

The SYRIZA-led government is collapsing. The Greek default and exit from the Eurozone, as choice of the lenders, is a process that started in 2010 and currently marks the beginning of the end of the SYRIZA government. The implementation of the memoranda from 2010 was one phase in the process of orderly default that the supranational economic elite had chosen, in order to ensure the sustainability of the Euro and to cut off one member that due to the debt crisis is considered gangrened and has to be expelled. Essentially, Greece’s default has always been regarded by the supranational economic elite as a prerequisite for its salvation, without even breaking the country’s obligations to the lenders, something that was ensured by the inclusion of the country into the power of the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission. Since 2009, Greece was already a bankrupt country and this was something known by both the then government of Georgios Papandreou and the European Union. The supranational economic elite, from 2010 onwards, followed an orderly default tactic so as to safeguard the lenders, the then holders of Greek bonds, the French, German, British and American banks.

The first aim of the memorandum was that it prohibited unilateral suspension of debt payments on the part of the debtor. On that basis, all of the Greek state-owned assets were frozen to ensure the repayment of the debt.

Additionally the debt passed from Greek to Anglo-Saxon law, prohibiting its conversion from Euro into any undervalued national currency. The Greek state gave up national sovereignty over its assets, all of which were transferred to the jurisdiction of the lenders. By granting the prior loan of 110 billion euros and replacing the old debt with a new one, the second objective of the memorandum was the repayment of the then holders of Greek bonds and the transfer of debt to the international organizations, the IMF, the ECB, and the European Union member states. With this process of extension of Greece’s default, the holders of Greek bonds, who investment-wise had junk bonds on their hands, were able to get rid of them with the least possible losses.

This process continued with the PSI in the debt restructuring that took place in March 2012, where the big winners were the foreign banks, and the big losers were Greek banks, Greek social security funds and small bondholders.

Parallel to this, the supranational economic and political elite turned the country into ruins, and using the dilemma “austerity or bankruptcy and disaster” for five years launched a policy of societal genocide and euthanasia for sections of the population, leading to thousands of deaths and poverty, hunger and immiseration.

The ultimate objective of the lenders is to create a two-track European Union, with powerful and big-surplus countries on the one side, and weak, indebted countries on the other.

As we mentioned as imprisoned members of Revolutionary Struggle, in December 2010, in our text Let’s Make In Greece the Beginning for a Global Social Revolution: “Our exit from the EMU [Economic and Monetary Union] is now considered a given to ensure the viability of the Euro. However, as the debt crisis is deepening, and one European country after another will collapse financially in the near future, it is difficult not only for the EMU to survive but for the European Union as well. The most optimistic scenario for the future of the Union is to create a formation where powerful and big-surplus countries will lead and bankrupt countries of the European periphery will be transformed into protectorates, as they will cede entirely their economic and political sovereignty to the political and economic directorates of Europe. This condition is being promoted in the European Union by establishing an orderly default mechanism.”

Almost five years later, this process takes shape with Greece’s default within the European Union and its exit from the EMU. Through the process of orderly default, Greece was slated to become the first country to inaugurate the two-speed European Union. All Greek governments, from 2010 until today, faithfully served these aspirations of the supranational elite.

The SYRIZA government is collapsing in a much shorter time than its predecessors, the Samaras and Papandreou governments. Despite the fact that within 5 months they renounced the plan for which they were elected, that they accepted the repayment of debt, and signed the extension of the existing memorandum No. 2, despite stepping over many of their red lines in the negotiations with the aim of signing a new memorandum agreement with the creditors – an agreement they admitted themselves was much harsher than the measures proposed by [ex-finance minister] Hardouvelis – the lenders decided on Greek default and exit from the EMU, with the debt obligations of course to remain intact. In five months in power, SYRIZA proved how impracticable was their program, how inapplicable were their Keynesian reforms pursued in a globalized neoliberal environment within the framework of the European Union, how contradictory it was to accept the debt repayment while seeking to increase the basic salary, to agree to privatizations and want the state to be represented in the privatized enterprises, to request financing from the lenders while not wanting to apply the terms of the loan agreement that they themselves agreed to extend on February 20, 2015, to engage in hard negotiations while stepping over red lines by agreeing to memorandum measures and indirectly, with the new taxes and VAT increase, to a further reduction of people’s income, layoffs and unemployment increase; to think they blackmail the lenders by threatening not to pay the loan installments while on February 20 they’ve agreed to sign that there cannot be a unilateral breach of debt payments and that the Greek state-owned assets are frozen and can be sold off unless they pay.

It is certain that all the while the lenders thought the SYRIZA-led government to be an unreliable partner and administrator of the Greek crisis. The July 5 referendum decided upon by the government, to accept or reject the proposals of the lenders, is nothing else but the communications management of its political shipwreck, accompanied by conspiracy theories and suspicions of a political coup and “new Iouliana” [in reference to July 1965 events] aiming at its overthrow.

But, in reality, the SYRIZA government collapses under the weight of its own contradictions and its own deadlock. The referendum has no material basis because 5 days before the vote, on June 30, the austerity program expires and the country is already in default status, so there’s no such thing as a new negotiation or a proposal for an agreement with the lenders. Furthermore, the outcome of the referendum whatever it is will have no influence on the country’s bankruptcy and exit from the EMU, both of which are unavoidable, nor will it avert the eventual collapse of the government.

In the case of “Yes” in the referendum on the proposal of the lenders, the collapse of the government will be much more immediate, given that they formally drafted it in favor of the “No”.

If indeed the majority who participate choose “No”, it is possible for the government to gain a bit of time, but it is completely incapable and unprepared to deal with the consequences of bankruptcy and exit from the EMU, so sooner or later its fall is given.

Regardless of the outcome though, the referendum is misleading because what really is at stake, namely the Euro or Drachma dilemma, does not provide any solution to the problems of the people.

As we have said as Revolutionary Struggle, Greece’s exit from the EMU and the adoption of the Drachma in the European Union framework leaves the problem of debt untouched, and does not invalidate the memorandum-related commitments. Since a term of the memorandum prohibits the conversion of the debt from Euro into any undervalued national currency, not only the adoption of the Drachma would not reduce the debt, but it would increase it.

Also, the adoption of the undervalued Drachma would lead to further devaluation in the purchasing power of workers, and thus deterioration of living standards, which will further increase poverty and immiseration. Therefore, the question of currency alone does not solve the problem. Those who think that the exit from the EMU inside the European Union is a radical solution are grievously mistaken. Currently Greece’s exit from the Eurozone is being sought by the lenders themselves to downgrade a country to a protectorate within the framework of the European Union so it can be sold more easily to repay its debts.

Only action from below, only the action of a Revolutionary Movement that will overthrow the capital and the state, will erase the debt, will pull the country out of the European Union itself, NATO and the market economy, would give a radical solution while proposing the reorganization of society on the basis of Libertarian Communism, based on a confederation of communities, workers’ councils and popular assemblies. Right now, the political bankruptcy of SYRIZA, the country’s bankruptcy and exit from the EMU – the consequences of which are unknown even to the lenders themselves – open up a range of opportunities for revolutionary forces, so that we advance the prospect of overturn.

Abstention from the referendum.

No to the Euro or Drachma dilemma.

The only solution is social revolution and the people in arms.

Nikos Maziotis
Korydallos prison

June 28, 2015

(via contra info)

Revolutionary Struggle case: Nikos Maziotis & Kostas Gournas transferred to Korydallos prison ahead of 2nd instance trial

On May 21st 2015, the Solidarity Assembly for political prisoners & imprisoned and prosecuted fighters reported that the anarchist prisoners Nikos Maziotis and Kostas Gournas were transferred from Domokos prison to the dungeon in Koridallos women’s prison ahead of the second-instance trial on the Revolutionary Struggle’s first-period action (2003-2010).

Gournas and Maziotis are currently separated from other prisoners convicted as members of armed revolutionary organisations, who are also being held in the basement of Koridallos women’s prison (i.e. four CCF anarchists, and the convicted 17N member Iraklis Kostaris).

The appeal trial in the Revolutionary Struggle case (first-period action) will begin on Friday, May 22nd 2015, at 9am. The Solidarity Assembly for political prisoners & imprisoned and prosecuted fighters call everyone to express their solidarity with the comrades on trial and attend court proceedings at Koridallos prison.

The comrades who were sentenced in the first-instance court ruling are the prisoners Kostas Gournas and Nikos Maziotis, as well as the fugitive Pola Roupa, who have assumed political responsibility for their participation in the organisation, but also the conditionally released Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christoforos Kortesis, who have denied their involvement.

A few notes on the Revolutionary Struggle case:

The anarchist urban guerrilla group Revolutionary Struggle (Epanastatikos Agonas) has carried out direct actions in Athens since 2003, targeting structures and organs of the State and the Capital, defending armed and class struggle, and aiming towards social revolution. Their revolutionary action includes a rocket propelled grenade attack, car bomb explosions, bombings and gunshots, among others, against the Finance and Labour ministries, the United States Embassy, the Athens Stock Exchange, anti-riot cops, police stations, court buildings, multinational corporations, banks, as well as a politician implicated in high-profile scandals.

In March 2010, anarchist Lambros Foundas was killed in a shootout with cops. A month later, Pola Roupa, Nikos Maziotis and Kostas Gournas (in pretrial incarceration at the time) claimed political responsibility for their participation in the Revolutionary Struggle and explained that Lambros Foundas was also a member of the same organisation.

In no way does the claim of political responsibility mean that these anarchists accept criminal charges such as ‘terrorist association,’ and so forth. Below are short excerpts from a letter of the three members on their reasons for undertaking responsibility after they were caught by police:

“By claiming political responsibility, we wanted to defend the armed struggle, and to highlight its timelessness and importance within the broader struggle for the overthrow and social revolution. (…)Also, by undertaking political responsibility we wanted to restore the memory and honour of our comrade Lambros Foundas, who was a member of the Revolutionary Struggle and was killed in an armed battle with cops in March 2010 during an attempted expropriation of a car —a preparatory act of a wider action plan of our organisation.”

The first trial on the Revolutionary Struggle’s first-period action (2003-2010) started in October 2011and reached its end in April 2013. Out of 8 defendants, only three were self-admitted members of the Revolutionary Struggle: Pola Roupa, Nikos Maziotis (both of whom became fugitives in the middle of the proceeding) and Kostas Gournas. The three members received sentences of up to 50 years imprisonment.

Two other accused comrades, Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christoforos Kortesis, were sentenced to (a little over) 7 years, even though they have denied their participation in the organisation. They were then taken to prison alongside Kostas Gournas. In July 2013, Kortesis and Stathopoulos were granted conditional release and walked out of Koridallos prison under restrictive conditions.

In July 2014, Nikos Maziotis – who had gone underground along with Pola Roupa two years earlier – was seriously injured after a shootout with cops in the area of Monastiraki, central Athens, and taken captive. A few days later, he was transferred to a prison in northern Greece. The comrade was the first prisoner to be moved, on December 30th 2014, to the (then) newly-inaugurated ‘type C’ maximum security prison in Domokos.

Nikos Maziotis faces another trial, accused of the bomb attack against the Supervision Directorate of the Bank of Greece at Amerikis Street in Athens, in April 2014, the shootout in Monastiraki, and bank robberies. As a member of the Revolutionary Struggle, Nikos Maziotis assumed political responsibility for the bombing at the Bank of Greece, which marks the second period in the ongoing action of the organisation.

Already in 2009, the anarchist urban guerrilla group Revolutionary Struggle was designated a ‘foreign terrorist organisation’ by the U.S. Department of State, in the aftermath of a rocket propelled grenade attack against the U.S. Embassy in Athens in January 2007. Recently, in April 2015, the State Department issued ‘terrorist designation’ against anarchist prisoner Nikos Maziotis, member of the Revolutionary Struggle.

Beginning May 22nd 2015, the appeal trial on the Revolutionary Struggle case (first-period action) will be held in the special court of Koridallos women’s prison. In Athens, trial sessions in cases regarding so-called ‘terrorist’ organisations take place at courtrooms inside the prison. Each time that visitors and lawyers enter the specific courtrooms, their identity cards are kept upon entry, with all that this entails.

Solidarity with the urban guerrillas Kostas Gournas and Nikos Maziotis, members of the Revolutionary Struggle, and the comrades Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christoforos Kortesis, who stand trial in the same case.

Solidarity with the wanted comrade Pola Roupa, member of the Revolutionary Struggle.

(via rote hilfe schweiz)

Greece: 2nd appeals trial of Revolutionary Struggle to begin on May 22nd

Note: The following info comes from a solidarity poster from Greece that has been translated into English by the comrades at act for freedom now! website.

The first trial of the organization Revolutionary Struggle lasted from  October 5th 2011 to April 3rd 2013 and was a political trial, a stand to defend armed struggle as well as the actions of the organization from 2003 to 2010, it was a political stand to defend the social revolution and condemn capital and the state.

The court sentenced the three members of the Revolutionary Struggle Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa and Kostas Gournas to 50 years (merged) in prison, while comrades Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christophoros Kortesis got 7 years each. Just like in the first trial, in the appeals trial starting on May 22nd the Revolutionary Struggle will not be tried as a “terrorist” organization. The indictment of the Revolutionary Struggle and the  comrades on trial for the same case, against capital and state, will be heard again, promoting with their discourse the struggle for Subversion and Revolution.

Solidarity to the members of the Revolutionary Struggle Nikos Maziotis  and Kostas Gournas and to comrades Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christophoros Kortesis who are tried in the same case. Solidarity to Pola Roupa, member of the Revolutionary Struggle who is wanted and with a bounty on her.

We call everyone to come on Friday 22nd at 9am to Koridallos Prisons, to express our solidarity to the comrades on trial.

Assembly for Solidarity for the political prisoners, imprisoned and persecuted fighters.