There have been at least 5 solidarity marches this Thursday, December 18: one in Oaxaca (the courage! read a short report here), one in Skopje (see a short video here), one in Berlin (update anyone?), one in Amsterdam (largely successful, it seems: about 200 people, wound through the city center, went through the Greek Tourist Office & the Police HQ (!)), & another one in Seoul.
[click for the video; dedicated to those who are still debating whether masked infiltrators "actually exist" - you're soulless, spineless, & crawling on all fours in your own filth; plus you're doing the people of this country a disservice]
Dear Alexis,
Dear Comrades of Synaspismos,
Dear friends,
On behalf of New Cyprus Party, we want to express our deep sadness for the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos...
For more than a week, the Greek Youth especially, but not only the youth, but also a huge number of Greeks are on the streets to demand to get their future back. As YKP, we would like to send our warm solidarity message to all of you who fight for the future, who fight for another Greece, another Europe with all the Cypriot languages, yaşasın dayanışma, ζήτω η αλληλεγγύη, long live solidarity.
We have received the SYN Youth message, which says that; “These neoliberal attacks do not occur only in Greece. Across Europe young people are attacked by them. The EU policies promote precarity in labour and living conditions, advance the model of “Fortress – Europe” against migrants, and back up war in the name of “anti-terrorist crusades”. Young people across Europe must fight together against the policies that terminate our rights. We must fight together to take back our lives!”, so, we put our words and our hearts next to yours; may be not physically but all our feelings and dreams are with you...
We would like to inform you that, our Youth organization, YKP Youth and other youth organizations will organize a common demonstration, which was inspired by you, to condemn the police state policy of Turkey in the northern part of Cyprus (because the army and the police are directly under the control of Turkey) and show our solidarity to the Greek demonstrators, on 20th December in front of the Turkish Embassy in the northern part of Nicosia...
Once more, we send our solidarity message to all SYN members but especially to the brave young fighters who fight for all of us, for another Europe, against neoliberal policy, for more democracy, we are with you...
Comradely regards,
Murat Kanatlı
General Secretary of the Committee of YKP
On behalf of YKP and YKP Youth member
17 December 2008, Nicosia
These days are also ours... (Albanian Immigrants Infoshop)
[find the translation here]
Hundreds of soldiers from 42 army camps state: WE REFUSE TO BECOME A FORCE OF TERROR & REPRESSION AGAINST THE MOBILIZATIONS; WE SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE OF SCHOOL/UNIVERSITY STUDENTS & THE WORKERS.
[find the translation here]
Hundreds of soldiers from 42 army camps state: WE REFUSE TO BECOME A FORCE OF TERROR & REPRESSION AGAINST THE MOBILIZATIONS; WE SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE OF SCHOOL/UNIVERSITY STUDENTS & THE WORKERS.
We are soldiers from all over greece [it's necessary to not remark here that conscription is still active in greece & affects all males greeks; most or maybe even all of the people signing this are bound to be people who are serving their compulsory military service at the moment - not army recruits]. Soldiers who, in Hania, were ordered to stand against university students, workers & fighters of the antimilitary movement carrying our guns & a short while ago. [Soldiers] who are carrying the weight of reforms & of the "readiness" of the greek army. [Soldiers who] live every day through the ideological bullying of militarism, nationalism, unpaid exploitation & of submission to "[our] superiors".
In the army camps [we're serving at], we hear of another "isolated incident": the death, [caused] by a policeman's gun, of a 15-year-old called Alexis. We hear [of] it in slogans carrying over the camp's outer walls like a distant thunder. Weren't the deaths of three colleagues of ours in August also called isolated incidents? Wasn't the death of each one of the 42 soldiers who died in the last 3.5 years also called an isolated incident?
We hear that Athens, Thessaloniki & an ever-increasing number of cities in greece become fields of social unrest, fields where the outrage of thousands of youths, workers & unemployed is played out.
Dressed with army uniforms & "working attire", guarding the camp or running errands, [being] servants of the "superiors", we still find ourselves there [in those same fields]. We lived, as university students, workers & desperately unemployed, the[ir] "claypots", "accidental backfirings", "[bullet] deflections"; the desperation of precarity, of exploitation, of lay-offs & of prosecutions.
We hear whispers & insinuations from the army officials, we heard the government's threat, made public, about the imposition of an "alarm state." We know very well what this means. We live it through intensification [of work], increased [army] duties, extreme conditions with one finger on the trigger.
Yesterday we've been ordered to be careful & "keep our eyes open". We're asking: WHOM DID YOU ORDER US TO BE CAREFUL OF?
Today, we've been ordered to be ready & alert. We're asking? TOWARDS WHOM SHOULD WE BE ALERT?
You ordered us to be ready to impose a state of ALERT:
• Distribution of loaded guns in certain units in Attiki [where Athens is] even accompanied by the order to be used against civilians if they're threatened. (e.g. an army unit in Menidi, close to the attacks against the police station of Zephiri.)
• Distribution of bayonets to soldiers in Evros [along the turkish border]
• Instilling fear to protesters by moving platoon to peripheral army camps.
• Moving police vehicles to army camps in Nayplio-Tripoli-Korinthos for safekeeping.
• The "dopping" by the Major I. Konstantaros in the Thiva bootcamp concering the identification of soldiers with the storeowners whose property is being damaged.
• Distribution of plastic bullets in the Korinthos bootcamp & the order to shoot againts our fellow citizens if they move in "threateningly" (with respect to whom???)
• Positioning a special unit at the "Unknown Soldier" [statue] right across from the demonstrators on Saturday, December 13, as well as [positioning] the soldiers of the Nayplio bootcamp against the pan-workers demo.
• Threatening [the citizens] with Special Operations Units from Germany & Italy - in the role of an Occupation Army - thus revealing E.U.'s real, anti-workers/authoritarian face.
Police shoots targeting the present & future of social revolts. That's why they're preparing the army tot assume the duties of a police force & the society to accept the return to the army of the Reformers' Totalitarianism. They're preparing us to stand against our friends, out acquaintances & our brothers & sisters. They're preparing us to stand against our former & future colleagues at work & in school.
This sequence of measures shows that the leadership of the army-the police & the consent of Hinofotis (former member of the professional army, currently vice minster of the Interior, responsible for interior "unrest"), of the General HQ of the Army, of the entire government, of the E.U. directives, of the store-owners-as-infuriated-citizens & of the far-right-wing groups aim at utilizing the Armed Forces as an Occupation Army - aren't you calling us "peace corps" when you send us abroad to do the exact same things? - in the cities where we grew up, in the neighborhoods & the roads where we walked.
The political & military leadership forgets that we're part of that same youth. THhey forget that we're flesh from the flesh of a youth which is confronted with the desert of the real inside & outside army camps. Of a youth that's outraged, not subserviant; & most importantly, FEARLESS.
WE'RE UNIFORMED CIVILIANS.
We won't accept becoming complimentary tools of fear which some attempt to instill over society as a scarecrow.
We won't accept becoming a force of repression & terror.
We won't stand against people whom we share that same fears, needs & desires/[the same] common future, perils & hopes with.
WE REFUSE TO TAKE TO THE STREETS ON BEHALF OF ANY STATE OF ALERT AGAINST OUR BROTHERS & SISTERS.
As a youth in uniform, we express our solidarity with the people who're fighting & we scream that we won't become pawns of the police-state & of state repression. We'll never stand against our own people. We won't allow the imposition of a situation in the army corps that will be bringing to mind "days of 1967" [when the greek army had his last coup d'etat].
A letter to our kids (indy.gr, 'fathers & mothers who want to be 15 yers old again', Friday)
In the army camps [we're serving at], we hear of another "isolated incident": the death, [caused] by a policeman's gun, of a 15-year-old called Alexis. We hear [of] it in slogans carrying over the camp's outer walls like a distant thunder. Weren't the deaths of three colleagues of ours in August also called isolated incidents? Wasn't the death of each one of the 42 soldiers who died in the last 3.5 years also called an isolated incident?
We hear that Athens, Thessaloniki & an ever-increasing number of cities in greece become fields of social unrest, fields where the outrage of thousands of youths, workers & unemployed is played out.
Dressed with army uniforms & "working attire", guarding the camp or running errands, [being] servants of the "superiors", we still find ourselves there [in those same fields]. We lived, as university students, workers & desperately unemployed, the[ir] "claypots", "accidental backfirings", "[bullet] deflections"; the desperation of precarity, of exploitation, of lay-offs & of prosecutions.
We hear whispers & insinuations from the army officials, we heard the government's threat, made public, about the imposition of an "alarm state." We know very well what this means. We live it through intensification [of work], increased [army] duties, extreme conditions with one finger on the trigger.
Yesterday we've been ordered to be careful & "keep our eyes open". We're asking: WHOM DID YOU ORDER US TO BE CAREFUL OF?
Today, we've been ordered to be ready & alert. We're asking? TOWARDS WHOM SHOULD WE BE ALERT?
You ordered us to be ready to impose a state of ALERT:
• Distribution of loaded guns in certain units in Attiki [where Athens is] even accompanied by the order to be used against civilians if they're threatened. (e.g. an army unit in Menidi, close to the attacks against the police station of Zephiri.)
• Distribution of bayonets to soldiers in Evros [along the turkish border]
• Instilling fear to protesters by moving platoon to peripheral army camps.
• Moving police vehicles to army camps in Nayplio-Tripoli-Korinthos for safekeeping.
• The "dopping" by the Major I. Konstantaros in the Thiva bootcamp concering the identification of soldiers with the storeowners whose property is being damaged.
• Distribution of plastic bullets in the Korinthos bootcamp & the order to shoot againts our fellow citizens if they move in "threateningly" (with respect to whom???)
• Positioning a special unit at the "Unknown Soldier" [statue] right across from the demonstrators on Saturday, December 13, as well as [positioning] the soldiers of the Nayplio bootcamp against the pan-workers demo.
• Threatening [the citizens] with Special Operations Units from Germany & Italy - in the role of an Occupation Army - thus revealing E.U.'s real, anti-workers/authoritarian face.
Police shoots targeting the present & future of social revolts. That's why they're preparing the army tot assume the duties of a police force & the society to accept the return to the army of the Reformers' Totalitarianism. They're preparing us to stand against our friends, out acquaintances & our brothers & sisters. They're preparing us to stand against our former & future colleagues at work & in school.
This sequence of measures shows that the leadership of the army-the police & the consent of Hinofotis (former member of the professional army, currently vice minster of the Interior, responsible for interior "unrest"), of the General HQ of the Army, of the entire government, of the E.U. directives, of the store-owners-as-infuriated-citizens & of the far-right-wing groups aim at utilizing the Armed Forces as an Occupation Army - aren't you calling us "peace corps" when you send us abroad to do the exact same things? - in the cities where we grew up, in the neighborhoods & the roads where we walked.
The political & military leadership forgets that we're part of that same youth. THhey forget that we're flesh from the flesh of a youth which is confronted with the desert of the real inside & outside army camps. Of a youth that's outraged, not subserviant; & most importantly, FEARLESS.
WE'RE UNIFORMED CIVILIANS.
We won't accept becoming complimentary tools of fear which some attempt to instill over society as a scarecrow.
We won't accept becoming a force of repression & terror.
We won't stand against people whom we share that same fears, needs & desires/[the same] common future, perils & hopes with.
WE REFUSE TO TAKE TO THE STREETS ON BEHALF OF ANY STATE OF ALERT AGAINST OUR BROTHERS & SISTERS.
As a youth in uniform, we express our solidarity with the people who're fighting & we scream that we won't become pawns of the police-state & of state repression. We'll never stand against our own people. We won't allow the imposition of a situation in the army corps that will be bringing to mind "days of 1967" [when the greek army had his last coup d'etat].
A letter to our kids (indy.gr, 'fathers & mothers who want to be 15 yers old again', Friday)
Together!!!!! For the present which burns & is being burned!!!
We owe this to you!!! We owe this to us!!
This letter could have been serious. Or sweet. Or patronizing... The truth is that this letter does not know what it wants to be. It's being written... It started in order to say "thank you."
A big THANK YOU to all of you. Who are keeping us alive. Who didn't let us, don't let us "forget" what we have been, what we want you to be. We grew up, it's true. & we got fatter. A bit,. OK, a lot... We started involuntarily forgetting. But we didn't die. We owe this to you. THANK YOU for this chasm that you forged into our present. It ties the past of our dreams with the future of your dreams.
We'd also like to say a lot. But, we realized this [by now], we must shut up & listen to you for once (this letter has the tendency to address you in first plural, it's probably dreaming)... We want to listen to you. We want to listen closely & to learn. To learn again [how] to dream. To make you proud of us for once. To build an army of dreamers together with you...
Look what you've done... you've made us talk incoherently... like 15-year-olds: To build together with you an army of dreamers which will be multiplying dreams. Because dreams multiply once you believe in them like you [did]. & they can kill a dreamer, but they can neither kill nor incarcerate a dream. Because the dream has already taken flight. & it's well-known to everyone that dreams don't roam the skies for nothing, no, the dreams have a very clear destination: to lodge in somebody's heart. & there have always existed, exist & will exist those who embrace them, make them their own & multiply them. You're the living proof of that. Thank you. For embracing Alexis's dreams. Your own dreams. You allowed us dreaming again. Dreaming that the dream of a better, different world has not been lost. We need you. We're afraid of saying it-the world will turn on its head... we're the ones who have to be strong. But we're not...-, but we need you. Not [as in 'I need] my own kid['] but WE [need] YOU-this letter is crazy, it insists on [using the] plural.
We've believed in that other world, that better world. We're still craving it. It remains that we invent it. Without you, we [just] can't. With you, on the streets, we've learned to win against our fear. Our silence. Out numb comfort. Help us...
P.S.1: We're not an all-encompassing generic subject [-] "parents". We're specific men & women who're being shaken to the core by your momentum.
P.S.2: Don't badmouth our bald spots & our fat. A line must be drawn: We'll get angry... Better badmouth our fear. & teach us how to win against it. By doing so, you'll also learn something. &, all together, we'l build a new world. WE BELIEVE YOU!!!!
P.S. 3: We nearly forgot the biggest THANK YOU: for the flames sparked by your outrage which light the city's streets up with forgotten words & dreams. You're presenting us with the gift of the brightest New Year's Eve. THANK YOU!!!
We owe this to you!!! We owe this to us!!
This letter could have been serious. Or sweet. Or patronizing... The truth is that this letter does not know what it wants to be. It's being written... It started in order to say "thank you."
A big THANK YOU to all of you. Who are keeping us alive. Who didn't let us, don't let us "forget" what we have been, what we want you to be. We grew up, it's true. & we got fatter. A bit,. OK, a lot... We started involuntarily forgetting. But we didn't die. We owe this to you. THANK YOU for this chasm that you forged into our present. It ties the past of our dreams with the future of your dreams.
We'd also like to say a lot. But, we realized this [by now], we must shut up & listen to you for once (this letter has the tendency to address you in first plural, it's probably dreaming)... We want to listen to you. We want to listen closely & to learn. To learn again [how] to dream. To make you proud of us for once. To build an army of dreamers together with you...
Look what you've done... you've made us talk incoherently... like 15-year-olds: To build together with you an army of dreamers which will be multiplying dreams. Because dreams multiply once you believe in them like you [did]. & they can kill a dreamer, but they can neither kill nor incarcerate a dream. Because the dream has already taken flight. & it's well-known to everyone that dreams don't roam the skies for nothing, no, the dreams have a very clear destination: to lodge in somebody's heart. & there have always existed, exist & will exist those who embrace them, make them their own & multiply them. You're the living proof of that. Thank you. For embracing Alexis's dreams. Your own dreams. You allowed us dreaming again. Dreaming that the dream of a better, different world has not been lost. We need you. We're afraid of saying it-the world will turn on its head... we're the ones who have to be strong. But we're not...-, but we need you. Not [as in 'I need] my own kid['] but WE [need] YOU-this letter is crazy, it insists on [using the] plural.
We've believed in that other world, that better world. We're still craving it. It remains that we invent it. Without you, we [just] can't. With you, on the streets, we've learned to win against our fear. Our silence. Out numb comfort. Help us...
P.S.1: We're not an all-encompassing generic subject [-] "parents". We're specific men & women who're being shaken to the core by your momentum.
P.S.2: Don't badmouth our bald spots & our fat. A line must be drawn: We'll get angry... Better badmouth our fear. & teach us how to win against it. By doing so, you'll also learn something. &, all together, we'l build a new world. WE BELIEVE YOU!!!!
P.S. 3: We nearly forgot the biggest THANK YOU: for the flames sparked by your outrage which light the city's streets up with forgotten words & dreams. You're presenting us with the gift of the brightest New Year's Eve. THANK YOU!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment