GREECE: Letter by imprisoned comrade Ilias Nikolaou
translator girl | 06.06.2009 16:41 | Repression | World
It is six months now that I am in the punitive dungeons of democracy.
An imprisonment planned and based on my perigee and my ideas. Its creators, the uniformed dogs of democracy.
The days are passing, in the mute and depressing walls, thoughts come and go, images pass quickly and others stay for a while in my mind, there are howver some images, memories and emotions that do not go off, are not forgotten, they are well-rooted in my consciousness' heart.
They cannot be touched, they cannot be changed, they cannot be broken.
They are memories of anger and rage, and images of fire and deafening noises, they are emotions of love and Είναι στιγμές λύσσας και οργής, είναι εικόνες φωτιάς και εκκωφαντικών θορύβων, είναι συναισθήματα αγάπης και comradeship, moments and actions of a lifelong struggle which has one and only aim to keep the flag of uncompromising digniting flying high.
As I have already written in my first letter 'I belong to the camp of those who have dignity as their compass', for me everything begins from there and it is there again that everything ends.
The trials, the difficulties, the imprisonments are signs of a healthy life. A life that does not bow its head, that does not compromise, and seeks and aims that which for some seems like impossible. The impossible is not something imaginary, but that for which we have not tried yet, that we have not acted yet.
The enemies are many, all the ruling mechanisms, their supporters, their citizens, their voters, their guards, their defenders.
These disintegrated and helpless masses that feel thankful every time repression is heightened, who feel secure and applaud when their rulers are shielded. They call life the miserly survival. A survival in installments, a dignity lost under direct and indirect orders.
From its other side their notorious democracy is equipped, shielded and kills, imprisons and prosecutes whatever is against it.
The issue for us is not whether they are many, whether they are organised, whether they have the means and the way to hit us, the issue is to subject ourselves to the struggle. A struggle not of a peaceful idea, a beautiful world or some utopia, but a struggle for dignity, for liberty, and for the destruction of authority.
Our existence is earned, demanded, it is neither bought nor sold on the shelves of supermarkets or to the credit cards of the banks, it does not bow its head and does not agree with any flag of any nation, it fights against its enemies. We put clearly and act on our principles and our practices in a daily and difficult struggle.
Whatever tricks the rulers try about terrorists, hood-wearers and agents, we answer that we never condoned to slavery and silence.
With dignity as our guide, we walk the road to freedom.
With comradeship , Ilias Nikolaou 6/6/09 Amphissa, Greece
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1041097
translator girl