From Pittsburgh Independent Media Center
A banner in solidarity with greek anarchists and in memory of 15 year old alexandros grigoropoulos, who was recently killed by police in athens greece, was spotted hanging from a building on liberty ave. this morning. the banner hung for approximately 4 hours from the roof which is located between ella and taylor sts.
the banner reads:
in memory of
a. grigoropoulos
humanity’s struggle
against authority
continues
No, I don’t mean that kind of open mutiny, as is occurring in Greece, but the State running out of tear gas. Road salt, or anything else, yes, but never weapons, lethal or otherwise. Occasionally, they will cry like spoiled debutantes and pretend their gear is falling apart, but funding is first priority, survival for bureaucracies, even the ones entrusted with dispensing legal violence. The physical militarization of US police forces, (as opposed to the granting of law enforcement powers and duties to other government agencies, businesses and citizens) the kind that’s easy to see, with carbines in every radio car, mechanized infantry patrols, and this little drug war machine, helped keep defense contractors in the red, between the end of the Cold War and the 9/11 attacks.
The US Congress passed the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Officials Act, in 1981 which allowed for the sharing of information, facilities and equipment and training by active-duty military personnel in 1981. The policies of the “liberal” Clinton administration facilitated a massive increase in paramilitary raids and the issue of absurd amounts of military hardware to civilian police departments:
Greece
The Greek police look almost naked and empty-handed compared to the toys that police in the US are issued. I literally own more riot gear than the average, individual, paid terrorist in Greece, from what I’ve seen. Contrast that with the kinds of equipment deployed for even the smallest demo in the US. A stark contrast to the Ninja turtle suits, APCs, grenade launchers and tons of other shit that this jealous little boy wishes he had. Even a minor traffic stop quickly turns into an unpermitted FOP convention with traffic jams for the rest of us.
USA
It’s also been the better part of 40 years since shit has actually gotten out of hand, in any kind of big way, so it’s not easy to predict how contemporary, widespread civil unrest would be dealt with. Would you see the National Guard machine-gunning apartment buildings ala Newark, ’67 or state bombings not unlike they did to MOVE? We know that the less lethals are reserved for white folks, as it stands, but there’s no way of knowing if they’d go to live ordinance for anyone who can’t pass for white, as they have clearly done in the past. The violence directed towards Katrina victims by State and mercenary forces in New Orleans, not to mention the media , may be a preview of the kinds of treatment that will accompany the acceleration of the crumbling empire.
Race is obviously a factor in the US equation and the Alexis’ assassin was a member of an organized neo-fascist group called the Golden Dawn. There is obviously no kind of reasonable evidence to begin to quantify how many US police are members of neo-fascist groups, but given the level of institutional racism in the US, from the 3/5 compromise to racial profiling, there is really no reason to bother with such wannabees or their little clubs, except to protect them from the rest of us. The heavy reliance on informants and illegal combatants plainclothes infiltrators further blurs the line between official and unoffical hate groups. The situation with the Love Park 4 is a good example of this kind of symbiotic relationship. This is to say nothing of the role of liberals who confuse “free speech” with hate speech.
There have been some grumblings regarding the deployment of regular US troops for domestic purposes, but this is nothing new. Despite the alleged protections of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, the rarest of birds, a one sentence law enacted by southern democrats after the US civil war, Federal troops have been used to break dozens of strikes, before Big Labor was successfully recuperated. The State must not trust the local cops at the end of the day, and maybe their loyalties will lie with the people in the end. In more recent years, super-secret Delta Force commandos were on the ground at the 1984 summer olympics in California, the 1993 State murders of religious kooks and their children at Waco and the 1999 WTO demonstrations in Seattle.
Aside from the cop-toy shortage in Greece it also seems bizarre that the terrorist who murdered Alexis would be charged with any miscounduct, a rare occurrence in the US. Of my two cop relatives who have murdered civilians, neither of them did any time for killing, but one of them was briefly detained and released without charges for allegedly stealing from the victim. The police didn’t make this system and they are a relatively new development. If the US ran out tear gas, I imagine law enforcement types might begin to protect and serve the people. The local medical examiner, who by all accounts is something of a megalomaniac, has spent a good deal of time in federal court over machine politics as usual, and the only thing that makes him any different than the rest of the region’s bottom-feeders, was his suggestion that State violence was unjustified in several incidents.
It was also strange to read that this was the first teenager murdered by the state in Greece since 1985, but apparently there are consequences for such behaviors. Here, it happens so often that no one seems to notice and the media loves to blame a victim, and brandishing a firearm (or old-timey cell phone) at members of a specialized warrior class with a license to kill is a high risk behaviors, and the outcome of these incidents is not very surprising.
This another example of the multi-tiered US justice system, where the privileged classes (the wealthy, the famous, politicians, informants, security forces) are exempt from the both the spirit and letter of the law. A clear, simple example of this is the removal of civilians and media to make room for off-duty police to intimidate witnesses and jurors in cases where civilians defend themselves from State violence.
Another tier is for those who appear repentant (and/or attractive) enough to be willing to retain an attorney, with punishments well below the level stated by the law. At the bottom is everyone else, (the poor, the mentally ill, the illiterate) who are subject to the brunt of the law. The “impeach Bush” wingnuts refuse to acknowledge this as sure as the right-wing constitution worshippers who too act surprised, when ‘the rule of law’ is ignored by privileged groups and indviduals.
I must admit to being ignorant to the nature of the Greek legal system, as well as other objective realities (I have personal comrades on the ground there, as of 12/14) but the notion of a constitutionally mandated “no-go” zone such as is the case with Greek universities seems like a parallel universe to someone as ignorant and provincial as me, who has never left North America. The only “no-go” zones that have existed in the US, that I can recall firsthand in my lifetime were created with firearms, during the upsurge in entry-level capitalism in the early 90’s.
Maybe the sheer numbers of personal firearms in the US, as opposed to Olde Europe, provides the justification for the supression of dissenters? Obviously media complicity is a factor, as is institutional racism, and the US epidemic of Stockholm syndrome, which results in a lack of sympathy for freedom lovers and fighter, but I’m sure I must be missing something. I guess that’s why the urban guerilla-type groups in Europe fared so much better than their US counterparts. Who knows, maybe the police will get tired and quit? Part of the job is creating the appearance of being superhuman and that’s not easy to keep up. We don’t often get to see these types of things out, normally the unions sell it out pretty quick, and I’ve read something to that effect. This appears to be more youth than labor oriented so maybe ther is no central command to accept concessions.
A reportback from this event, with photos, can be seen at infoshop.org
Protest to Express Solidarity with Greek Uprising
by Anarchists in Pittsburgh Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008 at 10:58 PM
yinzersolidarity@gmail.com
This Saturday, December 13 11:30am In front of the Pittsburgh Police Zone 2 Headquarters: Because the role of the police as agents of state control and repression is universal, and our resistance must be just as global. Bring: Signs, banners, flags, noisemakers, and other symbols and expressions of resistance and support for our Greek comrades.
On December 6, Greek police shot and killed 15-year-old anarchist Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Exarchia, an anarchist area in Athens. This act came days after police killed a Pakistani immigrant and attacked textile workers protesting for unpaid wages. These specific acts of state violence are within the context of the right-wing government’s program of privatization, deregulation, repression against social movements, and escalating attacks on pensions, labor rights, education, immigrants, and anarchists.
The murder has sparked a general uprising by tens of thousands of anarchists, students, immigrants, and workers who, for almost a week, have been occupying schools and universities, confronting police, and attacking government symbols of authority and corporate power. While diverse tendencies are engaging in these decentralized actions, they point towards a number of reformist and revolutionary views worthy of support: a desire to remove the current right-wing government from power; dissatisfaction with capitalism and corporate globalization; the desire for autonomy and freedom from coercive hierarchies; and rejection of the state repression being directed against immigrants, anarchists, and other groups.
The cost of holding the streets has been heavy, with dozens of protesters injured and hundreds arrested. It is the largest outbreak of social discontent since the fall of Greece’s military dictatorship and may yet topple the current government.
In these decisive days of heroic resistance within Greece it is the responsibility of anarchists, students, and workers around the world to show our support. This is critical in light of the media coverage that seems only to show WHAT people are doing while distorting or ignoring the reasons WHY.
Greece is an inspiration to all of us who believe in human solidarity, who desire to live free and to shake off government and corporate control of our lives, workplaces, and communities.
Hundreds of solidarity actions are occurring around the world. Protesters blockaded the Greek Embassy in London, and the Berlin and Paris embassies have been occupied. Within the United States solidarity protests are happening in San Francisco, New York City, Olympia, and elsewhere. In Pittsburgh we are organizing a public, visible gathering at the Zone 2 Police Headquarters. The role of the police as an agent of state control and repression is universal, and it is a fitting location to connect our resistance locally to that occurring globally.
We encourage people not just to attend, but to continue manifesting their solidarity in other direct, creative, and relevant ways throughout the city.
This solidarity gathering is organized by individuals affiliated with various radical projects and initiatives in Pittsburgh. Due to the time sensitive nature of the event, we are unable to seek endorsement by specific groups. Instead, we are simply calling for the local radical community to put aside any personal or organizational gripes to come together in a unified gathering in support of the uprising in Greece.
Organizers can be contacted at: yinzersolidarity@gmail.com
**Resources on the Greek Struggle**
Rioting Explodes Across Greece: http://libcom.org/news/rioting-explodes-across-greece-08122008
Communiqué from those occupying the Athens Polytechnic University: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=936215
Police Shooting at protesters as clashes rage: http://libcom.org/news/shots-ring-out-athens-riots-continue-09122008
Blog about Greece Riots: http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/
Updates on infoshop news (1)and the Occupied London blog
On the night of December 6, 2008, our comrade, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, was murdered by terrorists employed by the Greek State. Such violence, a byproduct of the State’s defense of class society, is nothing new, but a defining aspect of governments, escalated by the recent flickering of the capitalist picture show. What makes Alexandros different than the thousands who lose their lives every day to fuel the global corpse/cash machine is not his age, as market forces (their words, not ours) do not respect identity, but his clarity of vision which allowed him to see the beast for what it is, and his decision to act on his own behalf, with his comrades, and directly engage the same forces which beat, shoot, starve, kill, maim, and poison all of us to increase profits and control. This system and its ancestors have been fueled with our blood long before oil, but it still needs more. Now, his loved ones are raising the price. They are raising the price for the same reason that the bosses do. Because they can.
As his family and comrades prepare for his funeral, sparks from fires in the streets of Greece are spreading and igniting in the area of western Asia called “Europe”. Anarchists in Germany (1) and England (1) (2) are rising, and the rest of Europe will likely follow suit. Words of solidarity often precede acts of resistance. The spark has crossed the Atlantic and landed in NYC and others are taking notice.
A general strike has been called for tomorrow, so give yourself the day off and put your money away. If you have to go to work or school, I’m sure you’ll think of something. We don’t need any martyrs or prisoners, so be intelligent. Think of where you live and what you can get likely get away with.
The terrorists who murdered our comrade are the same the world over. They will defend the illusions of the markets and democracy with the same fervor that they would defend their families or homes. Capitalism routinely involves the shooting of young people, whether by the State or other young people engaged in competeive markets. May the bosses of Greece, the land of the agora and what is often referred to as democracy, fear for the failure of their projects, with the bosses across the globe, at a time when popular faith in market fundamentalism has been weakened. Let resistance follow the example set by comrades in Greece, the birthplace of the alleged western civilization and the example of comrades in Chicago. Self-managed revolt and re-appropriation are more likely to be the path to freedom, and not messianic politicans or recuperated institutions. We can’t afford to buy back our lives, so start stealing.
The Yinsurrectionary Times 