Austerity & Fascism In Greece – The Real 1% Doctrine

[Magda Hassan]

Prosecution overreach Greek-style: anarchists get life for property damage; neo-nazi got 13 months: spot the difference

Posted on April 11, 2013 by admin

Last week a Greek court handed down life sentences to leading members of the insurrectionist Revolutionary Struggle. This contrasts dramatically with the 13 month sentence that was given to the Golden Dawn leader some years back for plotting to cause explosions and related offences. We also report on an attack by neo-nazis and police on an anarchist centre in Patras three days ago: the 200 strong anarchists, however, succeeded in defeating the onslaught, despite tear gas used against them. More below….
A. Anarchists sentenced to decades in prison
Note the persons in the above photo are as follows… Konstantinos Gournas (top-L), Nikolaos Maziotis (top-C), Panagiota Roupa (top-R), Christoforos Kortesis (bottom-L), Sarantos Nikitopoulos (bottom-C) and Vangelis Stathopoulos(bottom-R).
Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility for a string of bombings and shootings, targeting the police and others between 2003 and 2010 (no one was killed). The group first appeared in 2003 to claim responsibility for several bomb attacks in Athens, including against the Athens Stock Exchange, planting a massive bomb that failed to explode outside Citibank offices, and the 2007 U.S. embassy strike which caused no injuries. Last week guilty verdicts were determined as follows:
- Conviction of Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christoforos Kortesis for alleged participation in the organization.
- Conviction of Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa and Kostas Gournas for simple synergy' with the actions of Revolutionary Struggle (without a shred of evidence concerning their involvement in specific actions).
- Acquittal of Marie Beraha, Sarantos Nikitopoulos and Kostas Katsenos of all charges (on benefit of doubt).
- Acquittal of Nikos Maziotis, Pola Roupa and Kostas Gournas of the charge of directing a terrorist organization'.
(Note… The verdict was issued in absentia for the organization's self-professed leader, Nikos Maziotis, and his partner Panagiota Roupa, who have been on the run since last June when they were released from prison after completing the maximum permitted period of 18 months in pretrial custody.)
Nikos Maziotis was sentenced to 86 years but commuted to 50 years. Pola Roupa and Kostas Gournas were both sentenced to 87 years; each commuted to 50 years and 6 months. For all three., the maximum prison term is 25 years (which are typically served either as a full sentence or by day wages in prisons, or after the completion of 3/5 of the prison term, when a prisoner can be granted conditional release under specific conditions). Vaggelis Stathopoulos and Christoforos Kortesis were sentenced to 8 and 7 years' imprisonment, respectively. The sentence against Vaggelis Stathopoulos was commuted to 7 years and 6 months.
Meanwhile, a reminder that Nikos Michaloliakos, the head of Golden Dawn, was imprisoned in 1978 for his part in plotting a series of bombings in Athens (he was found in possession of guns and explosives). Michaloliakos was sentenced to 13 months. Conclusion…?
B. Attack on anarchist centre by neo-nazis
On the night of Monday, April 8th a group of comrades who were at the Ipsila Alonia square [in Patras] came under attack by fascists who frequent the Psitalonia grill-house (owned by the Golden Dawn member Sipsas). The attack was sparked by a t-shirt with an anti-fascist symbol wore by one of the comrades. The fascists attacked our comrades with stones, bottles and chairs from the inside of the grill-house. The comrades resisted and then moved toward the Maragopouleio occupation, where they pushed them back, despite being fewer in numbers. The neo-nazis moved toward the occupation, where they were pushed back for a second time, effectively.
The intervention of the cops was instant, supportive and salvational for the para-statists, who were causing damage to parked cars for that reason. In the next few hours, and in perfect coordination between them, the cops attacked the gathered comrades with tear gas shots in a straight line and stun grenades onto the heads of those at the centre's entrance, while at the same time offering cover to the neo-nazis who were hurling stones and flash-grenades into the courtyard of the occupation, from a side street.
For two hours Maragopouleio was under siege by the hounds of the riot police, in an attempt to cut off the space from two impromptu demonstrations trying to approach it. The sheer number and the determination of the 200+ comrades averted new attacks until the moment when first the fascists and then the cops retreated.
Last night's attack by the MAT [riot police] and Golden Dawn at the Maragopouleio occupation is nothing other than the continuation of the repressive moves by the state against squats and self-organised spaces, against the world of struggle that keeps resisting the state's anti-social plans with zeal, against the attempted imposition of impoverishment and social cannibalism. Despite continuous declarations of its supposedly anti-systemic nature, the neo-nazi organisation in question once again proved through its cooperation with the forces of repression what it really is: the faithful hounds of the regime, ready to support its work in any way possible.
Despite the desperate attempts by the sovereignty-controlled mass media to present the events as some clash between the "extremes", the mass and multiform presence of a multitude of people in struggle outside the occupation space proved that social and class memory is still alive, arming an entire world with determination, ready to defend with all its power the structures and the projects of our struggle, the world of resistance and freedom.
Yet another time, after their similar attempt on October 2012, the fascists of the Golden Dawn retreated disorderly, with the polite accompaniment of the Greek police.
FASCISTS BACK OFF, ONWARD COMRADES. THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL EMANCIPATION WILL TRAMPLE OVER THEM!
Patra, April 9, 2013
See also http://intothefire.org/refugees-hunger-s...n-centres/
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