Anarchists Ready for Battle, New Democracy Moves to End College Asylum

From The National Herald

ATHENS – With anarchists in the neighborhood of Exarchia they dominate reportedly guarded abandoned buildings they have taken over, the new New Democracy government is forging ahead fast with plans to end asylum on college campuses and confront the groups.

New Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has vowed to restore law-and-order to the Greek capital, filing a bill to remove asylum from college campuses that had been used by criminal groups and anarchists as a base to launch attacks on a number of targets before retreating to safety.

The asylum bill is part of a bigger package aimed to crack down on lawlessness, expected to go to Parliament on August, 8, its passage a foregone conclusion as New Democracy has 158 of 300 votes in the body.

Mitsotakis has long pledged to abolish the law, which was introduced following the fall of Greece’s junta and was restored by SYRIZA as Tsipras sought to re-establish Leftist credentials after surrendering to the country’s creditors to get a third bailout for the country in 2015, this one for 86 billion euros ($95.87 billion.)

Mitsotakis said he wants universities to operate as colleges without fear of intimidation from the anarchists as well as drug dealers and other criminals who have sanctuary on the grounds, the police unable to enter.

That would end under the New Democracy bill that would let college officials and students call police to report criminal behavior, part of Mitsotakis’ intent to show that – unlike SYRIZA which he said condoned and implicitly encouraged lawlessness – that his party won’t tolerate it.

Part of that plan is to also go into the areas where the anarchists have nearly taken over and boldly attack riot police regularly, throwing Molotov Cocktails and other objects at them, making the neighborhoods zone where authorities are fearful to enter without violent clashes.

While many academics and college officials want asylum they also want their grounds to be protected but haven’t offered any ideas or compromises. Critics, including students, have also protested and the notorious anarchist group Rouvikonas warned it would get tougher.

The union of university professors, POSDEP, regards university asylum as “a historic and highly charged institution that has been corrupted,” the union’s leader Yiannis Nimatoudis told Kathimerini.

“We should focus our discussion on asylum that safeguards teaching and research, not on asylum for illegal acts, as is the case today,” he added.

The rector of the University of Crete, Odysseas Zoras, stressed that “asylum no longer protects freedom of speech, but obstructs it,” showing the dilemma of the colleges whose teaching is baed on free speech and critical thought butting into the reality of the anarchists power.

Student unions and the youth arms of several political parties have spoken out against the proposed changes, describing the university asylum law as “a democratic conquest” that should be protected but offered no ideas how to keep the grounds safe.

Self-styled anarchists have occupied rooms at colleges and are accused of intimidating professors and students and Mitsotakis has tied together that problem with the groups having a long run of dominance in Exarchia. He said while they enjoyed near impunity under SYRIZA that they won’t under New Democracy, setting the stage for battle against them.

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That report (presumably from some capitalist press outlet) does contain the warning that "the notorious anarchist group Rouvikonas warned it would get tougher" and Mitsotakis would do well to listen to that. It sounds like he will have to attempt to assault well-prepared positions where his goons will be expected, which is messy even with a 3-1 numerical advantage the pigs might not even get. This sort of thing is why Trump's ICE raids ended in such a humiliating defeat, netting only 35 people instead of the 2100 people on a target list plus a similar number of expected "collateral arrests." Most urban raids were cancelled because they knew we knew they were coming and had prepared for them.

If US anarchists can handle Trump, surely the much stronger Greek anarchists can handle this two-bit Mitsotakis thug.

what can they do proactively to avoid a worst case scenario of expulsion/dispersion?

already a so called Shimson has portrayed a bleak scenario of decadence in Exarchia

????? How is that remotely like the ICE raids? Your comments usually seem to make sense but this is straight wingnut

I would suggest first and foremost that all buildings and fixed positions people plan to defend lay in provisions for a siege. During the 37 day siege of the Embassy of Venezuala (Embassy Protection Colllective defending, right wing exiles and cops beseiging), we had to fight pitched batttles in front to draw off the opposition so food could be delivered to the back. It was a defensible position that even defeated the first police raid, but food was a real problem.

Second, get some "eyes on" intel. If possible, send undercovers of our own into the government agencies that would order raids (just have folks with "clean" backgrounds apply for jobs) or even the police department, and get realtime notice of what's happening. If this can't be done, electronic activists can spy on enemy logistics. Things like who is ordering what kind of riot control weapons, and when and where they are to be delivered. Also identify strategic positions that the enemy can't afford to have occupied or blockaded while they are trying to raid a campus. Include countervalue targets (right-wing politicians and businessmen's homes etc) in this opposition research.

Then, use that intel to equip and train to deal with the tactics the riot squad their area favors. I would imagine Greek anarchists to be rather good at this, but a refresher always helps. Warn the oppposition that politicians and businessmen will be held personally responsible for any attacks, perhaps delivering the warnings by candlelight vigil and vegan bake sale outside their homes. Velvet glove now, iron fist later. In separate, plausibly unrelated actions remind everyone just how tough Greek anarchists can be. Think "300" negotiating with the King of Persia.

When it goes down, give up nothing without a fight but prioritize defense of people over space. Make the Enemy fight to sieze buildings that turn out to be empty, as has been done in prior squat defense campaigns in Europe. Make them exercise, make them run in the sun, get them tired and hot. Push them, harass them, wear them out by day and by night. Hit them as hard as they hit you and never surrender!

Villa Amalias was attacked twice by cops and fascists, and successfully defended. But evetually it was evicted on the third attempt, because the place was left mostly deserted. Exact same happened with Delta in Saloniki.

And who's complicit in the desertion/abadonment of the katalypsi? The anarcho-leftists, or libcoms. They take over and secure squats for themselves, then leave them exposed to police raiding the place like a hot knife through butter. They do all this with this carefree expression of content with their own subservience to mass society, because they ate fucking yuppies in the first place.

Want a worthy insurrecto advice from an experienced insurrecto? Stop with that over-externalization of the Right and the Police as your sole enemies within some Western-flick type of dichotomy. The enemy is also in your midst and has a friendly, sometimes even sexy face.

Also there's something that has been negleted as strategy ever since 2010... If they attack your neighborhood, then why aren't you attacking *theirs*?

Because you are a victim, forever doomer to the enemy's aggression?

You are anarchist, for fuck sake. Which means you can be the aggressor's aggressor if you want, damit. Only sheep submit to these submissive relations.

"ate" = "are"

But funny typo filled with symbolism indeed.

Everyone had their own reasons for being there. I was there because I oppose all US coups in Latin American and elsewhere, and because the moment Juan Guaido kissed up to Donald Trump he forfeited all authority to lead any rebellion, coup, or opposition movement anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

Code Pink and Popular Resistance defended the Embassy of Venezuala from US backed coup plotters led by Juan Guaido, who was defeated in Venezuala in three coup attempts and one election. He was and IS supported by the US and by Donald Trump, but opposed by enough people in Venezuala no matter what the problems with the Maduro regime that he still lost.
Trump is our enemy, and the US in Central and South America has long been Public Enemy #1. I myself was drawn into politics by Ronald Reagan's was in El Salvador and by his attempts in 1981-83 to bring back the draft. No way in HELL was I going to allow supporters of yet another U$ coup in Latin America to operate unopposed on my turf!

Part of US support for Juan Guaido's coup plotting was withdrawing diplomatic recognition to Maduro and extending it to Guaido instead. Guaido like Trump has connections to fascist parties, so I suppose this is no surprise. When this happened, Guaido supporters immediately siezed several consulates including the one here in DC as well as the military attache's office. The real prize was the embassy, which once taken would serve both to legitimize the upcoming April coup attempt and as an organizing base for the same.

It didn't go quite like Guaido planned. His April 30 coup attempt crashed and burned in the streets of Caracas, and he was totally unprepared for Maduro's diplomats to hand over the keys of the embassy to Code Pink! While Code Pink seems to be an extremely unusual choice for someone to defend a building, they had powerful allies, ranging from Kevin Zeese's Popular Resistance to area anti-Fascist activists.

Many were drawn into the fight by what quite frankly were entangling alliances. Yes, that is how WWI started, and it was how the 37 day Siege of the Embassy of Venezuala turned so hot as well. Things started off rather mild, and a few public events were held inside though always there was the looming threat of an eviction in defiance of the international laws supposedly governing how governments treat things like each other's embassies.

The came the April 30 coup attempt and things totally blew up. Battles were fought on a near daily basis as coup supporters sometimes tried and failed to storm the building, and as supporters of the Code Pink/Popular Resistance "Embassy Defense Collective" fought to get food and batteries inside. Uber-rich Georgetown yuppies were hammered with the incredible noise and light barrage used by the coup supporters in failed efforts to harass out the embassy defenders. Sound and lights proved simply to not be an effective substitute for artillery.

The fight lasted a total of 37 days and the pigs were defeated the first time they tried to raid the embassy. Since they were violating their own "laws" defenders simply held out until the Partnership for Civil Justice was able to force an end to that first attempt. Trump being Trump, the SS and MPD launched a second raid days later. Still, holding out 37 days against a true and literal siege (like that of a castle in the 1200's) with the enemy seeking to block food deliveries, cutting off the power, and even sabotaging the water pipes is a damned good performance for Code Pink.

Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin and her colleagues very conspicuously protected the storefronts of Nike, McDonald's, and the Gap in Seattle on N30 against the hordes of vandals bent on mindless destruction. it's no wonder the pro-Maduro folks would want Code Pink to continue their fine tradition of protecting buildings and their most vulnerable windows from all sorts of miscreants.

That they did, and in later years Medea and the others have come a long way. I was once directly asked to protect Code Pink members from Zionist thugs at an AIPAC protest that got nasty, and Code Pink didn't seem to object to the eggs that got broken in the process of cooking up the biggest omlet to be rammed down Georgetown's throat since 1812.

Back on subject: If Code Pink can hold out for 37 days against hundreds of rich Venezualan exiles (some of who we caught shopping at very expensive stores) backed by Secret Service and MPD, Greek Anarchists (much tougher than Code Pink or even a US black bloc) should be able to make raids on contested zones in Greece take at least that long.

code pink & benjamin also went to iran's holocaust denial conference

Hey Luke. Would you consider writing about your experience as an anarchist in the siege of the Venezuelan embassy? I would like to know how you made the decisiont to participate in that, because I know it was a lot of authoritarian Marxists who were also involved. That's not a critique, either. I feel like that must have been an interesting situation, and I'd love to hear how you navigated that.

So there were state marxists there too, as there were in everything from J20 to those marches against the war in El Salvador back in 1982. For me this was an extension of literally decades of working with whoever I had to to oppose murderous, greed-driven US intervention south of the Rio Grande. I tend to focus on issues, campaigns, and battles rather than on ideology and I try to focus on results on the ground. Ideology is simple: if you believe (as I do) that you have the right to defy the government, you either believe everyone else does too (and are an anarchist or should be one) or you do NOT believe everyone else does too, and are a hypocrite. As a Queer Indigenous person facing what Reagan was pushing in the 1980's, I really had no choice in this matter.

My own role at the Embassy was one of outside support and media work.
The media coverage I posted below gives the blow-by blow of how it went.
For an overview, I posted this HD video overview of the entire siege:
https://archive.org/details/SiegeOfEmbassyOfVenezuala52019

That was based on video footage I shot for the Indymedia reports below supplemented by footage others got:

April 29:
https://dcindymedia.org/node/2277
"Embassy Protection Collective HOLDING Embassy of Venezuala against Trump-backed forces of Juan Guaido"

April 30:
https://dcindymedia.org/node/2278
Embassy of Venezuala holds out against siege by Guaido supporters as coup fails

May 4:
https://dcindymedia.org/node/2286
"Big rallies for control of Embassy of Venezuala end in continuing standoff"

May 4 night: No report filed, but we deployed in a drenching thunderstorm to get food into the embassy.
*We did not put video or a report out as we didn't want to let the coup plotters know how we got the food in,
but the story can now be told. My team was a diversion, making a fake attempt to push or slip through the siege
lines to deliver food. This drew the coup supporters to the front and side, while the food went in the back,

May 8 night:
https://dcindymedia.org/node/2288
Coup supporters beat and choke activist attempting food delivery to beseiged Embassy of Venezuala, power cut off
*A LOT of food got in, but it was messy. Right-wingers had a press conference the next day claiming WE were the violent
ones, and police assaulted protesters the following Saturday.

May 11:
https://dcindymedia.org/node/2296
"Police assault activist at Venezualan Embassy rally after power and water cutoffs"
This one I was not there in person

May 13
https://dcindymedia.org/node/2299
"Defenders of Venezualan Embassy DEFEAT police raid w help from attorneys"
First police raid defeated. Again, I was not present, no advance warning and I live over an hour away.

May 16
https://dcindymedia.org/node/2302
"Police raid Embassy of Venezuala for second time, arrest remaining Embassy Defenders"
I was at Chelsea Manning's grand jury support rally in the immediate aftermath of this, it occurred as I was heading towards DC
en route to that nasty VA courthouse fracas. Since I too resisted a grand jury (they dropped mine after I burned the subpeona in front), any other grand jury resister's support got absolute top priority! I was able to drop by the Embassy for some video at the
5PM protest the same day as the raid, but things were still quite tense and I could not stay long.

May 18
https://dcindymedia.org/node/2306
Embassy Protectors speak 100 feet from Venezualan Embassy, march to White House
The core embassy defenders returned as close as their court-ordered stayways would let them for speeches saying we "literally made
it possible for them to go on" by being there outside all those days, then we all marched to the White House

May 24
https://dcindymedia.org/node/2312
Anti-coup activists hold light projection on walls of Venezualan Embassy after false ambassador Vecchio moves in
We went back there when Guaido's False Ambassador Vecchio moved in, did a projection on the walls. Thunderstorms again, and a hairy
retreat on my bike in drenching rains when pigs made a move I read as a kettle attempt. No arrests resulted though.

EVERY NATION should have a massive orgy in all government departments and parliaments filmed anc broadcast globally to welcome in the new world disorder!

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