anarchic movement

Libertarian Greece
by Andrea Papi

Five days in Athens invited by Greek anarchists for a conference. And then a series of initiatives and contacts. Here's a guide from a collaborator.

At the invitation of fellow Greek comrades, I attended a conference held in the classroom of a law school of the University of Athens, on Locations, social struggles and the libertarian project today, organized by the magazine Eutopia and the “Group Libertarian Communists ". I had been requested a report for a conference, entitled A company in the society, held Saturday, Oct. 23. A conference near the convention was held the next day, considered important theoretical point of reference useful to understand how to move, which was attended by a total of about two hundred people and followed by a debate.
The companions and the Greek companies are very interested in theoretical reflections that develop in Italy, published by our newspapers and our magazines. They follow us for decades with real interest and use to compare and to deepen our understanding of reality with which they must relate. So much so that they called me to report on a topic that I discussed in my previous articles and in my latest book (Towards a new humanism anarchist, ed. Zero for Conduct), who they had read and find interesting.
For me it was very tempting opportunity to get in direct contact with the Greek reality, which in recent years for every anarchist is a point of reference for the struggle that was able to arouse. Of course, the five days during which I was a guest in Athens were too few to get an idea of a minimum depth of the real situation, much less for me to express an opinion. But I could live equally intense feelings and make me a fairly realistic and sensible idea.
Accustomed for decades to the very different Italian situation, I was immediately surprised to see that there are so many anarchists. Not many in the sense of huge masses of course, but also many. In addition, the interest in issues and practices of anarchism is really alive, not only among those who call themselves anarchists. Different situations occupied and self-managed, a growing number of publications and a strong desire to debate and discuss. The first observation that can not fail is age. All very young, in large part by the age of 25. The other who are slightly over forty are the senior citizens. They explained that the reason that youthfulness of widespread among anarchists is that anarchism in Greece began to emerge and take hold after the fall of the junta, in '73, and spread widely from about a dozen years.
The idea that I have got is a movement that is diverse and extensive and, like all things, a minimum spread, is complex and diverse in-house. It is unified in rejecting the attacks of the central government, from police to the general law enforcement. From this point of view it has developed a great spirit of solidarity and an effective network of support for those who are affected by repression. However, it is rightly in the plural and multiple in conceiving the way to go.
There is an area quite widespread, from what I understood, very young, mainly concentrated on the clash with the power, by engaging in my opinion a great strategic naivety, although reasons in this sense there are many. Just look at how the police is always around, always in full battle array, regardless of whether or not there is a hazard to public policy. In particular, in the district of Exarchia, now known as the Athens neighborhood of anarchists, where the presence of armed police force is constant and frankly it is very provocative to the permanent aggression occurs. For the fleeting idea that I am made more impression impact than anything else, in many respects this anarchist / libertarian very similar area of the 'autonomy' of our house.

Andrea Papi

Under the shade of a tree.

There is also another area however, also varied and I can not say how large, but certainly not small, which is part of the set of peers and classmates who invited me, you're asking seriously problem that we could synthesize the classic construens pars. That is, although it does not feel a stranger to conflict when, in Greece in particular, the power in many ways forced the dissent, does not feel quite exhausted and does not see it in its task and its will. The other boys and girls facing the problem of what to do and what kind of companies are building more and more, especially after the fighting very hard two years ago, unleashed spontaneously following the assassination by a policeman of the young anarchist 15 years Grigoropoulos Alexandros, which involved a substantial proportion of the population, exacerbated by government economic measures that gradually deplete.
The general impression I had is that in Greece at this stage there is great turmoil, there is reflection, there is a desire to do, there is a desire not to submit yourself, there is always more willing to change, in a radical sense, and even libertarian. Some comrades have confirmed that they are beginning to discuss what economic situations to set up, by fair cooperation / solidarity and self-managed deployments, all in the name of a secular and libertarian spirit healthily, uncoupled from religious structures of Mercy International . In short, there should, really want to rebuild the society outside of the outdated policy politician who exercises the power domain, the search for effective forms of self-managed and consistent, able to ensure that the forms of social freedom spread and consolidate.

Holes to plant shrubs.

Generalized distrust

Fortunately, the population is no stranger to this debate and this desire. In this regard I was fortunate and pleased to assist people directly to a job that turned a former military area in a park, this self-determination and this decision contrary to the decisions of the government of the commune. On Sunday morning, before going to the conference held in the afternoon, we went with friends in the neighborhood of Agios Dimitrios Athens to plant shrubs in Asyrmatos, ex-military zone, because the popular assembly had decided themselves to turn it into a park for themselves and their children, in contrast with the decisions of the institutions, which for now I am feeling compelled to do nothing, while newspapers accuse this situation of anarchic interference.

Puppet Theatre.

A real festival, with large participation of men, women, children and old people who gave the idea, according to local tradition, helping to ensure their consent as they were sitting together in the "advice" under the shade of a tree. To entertain the children, out in force, the families had rented a theater company well known in the Greek tradition, which proposed a puppet show by way of shadow puppetry. A comrade responsible for agrarian architecture set out the various points where the plants were placed with its expertise and supervised the conduct of the work. Observing and participating in all this, I came very pleasant and nice, I thought to myself: "Behold! This is a coherent and sympathetic towards the e-society in society, "created and set up spontaneously by the people. "
We can only hope that this spontaneity entry into libertarian movement does not end in a few sporadic bursts, and then perhaps be recovered and set aside in its potential for revolutionary transformation. The general lack of confidence in the instruments of party politics is increasingly widespread. You just need to find ways to keep alive the protest and express no confidence in this imaginary creative element, able to set up and give voice to new situations of self-managed decision-making and a network of solidarity and economic alternative.