Greece : Letter from the Initiative of Anarchist Prisoners in Korydallos Prison
FireToThePrisons | 14.08.2013 12:51 | Policing | Terror War
“We know that everyone dies. But there are deaths which oppress because they choose their own way.” Katerina Gogou
With continual and extensive media coverage, the hunt for the escapees of Trikala prison continues for almost four months, by keeping the audience in suspense, as it has all the elements of an overproduction : “cinematic” escape, “ruthless” and “bloodthirsty” murders, “hard and decided” cops, scuffles, dead people and a manhunt over a huge area of the Greek territory.
The fourth power [media] is the most nodal for the functioning of democracy, because it mediates between other powers and citizens and it reminds us of the rules of the game once again : the democratic state spares no time, effort and resources when the doctrine of security should be established.
All this time, the anxious journalists from the places of operations, the reports with the imposing music, the emotionally charged descriptions of the escapees, the scenes with fully armed cops aim at one thing : creating a subversion of the social subconscious for the hunted escapees and acceptance of the state’s omnipotence. The media coverage of the events is as useful for the successful end of the state’s operations as the police guns are.
Even if any of the escapees who are still living moments of freedom will finally try to escape with one or another way, the impression should remain that this didn’t happen because of the state’s weaknesses but because of the invisible support network that they have, because of the support of LUCK or maybe because of their supernatural abilities.
THE MIND IS ALWAYS THE TARGET
The death penalty of democracy is something totally accepted, even if this seems strange towards the sensitive humanitarian reflexes of those who turn a blind eye. With one basic difference, it is decided, disposed, confirmed, not by any court but through the news reports, waiting just the way and the moment that its execution will be enabled.
The smile that accompanied the dithyrambic Dendia’s statements for the referral of the escapees of justice “if this could be possible” shows with no pretence, the logic and the morality of the power. A humiliating power that considers as a great victory and ultimate achievement, that hundreds- maybe thousands- of cops with the help of special groups of army and marine corps, with thousands of guns and technical means at their disposal (helicopters, dogs, thermal cameras) and in alternative shifts (so that they can rest) have succeeded -till the time that we are writing these lines- to squeeze four people.
The unlimited thirst for the acquisition of freedom and the determination for its conservation is the only motive that can make a person not to surrender, having against him such a connection of forces.
But the show doesn’t end with the execution of the escapees. The state should take revenge for the humiliation that it suffered. It should respectively follow the humiliation of the undisciplined and the example of those who still do not recognize the state’s omnipotence.
From Homer’s age and the desecration of the dead Hector by Achilles till the current internet age, the humiliation of the dead enemy is typical of the arrogance of the power.
The photos of the dead Marian Kola prove how pure were the times of brigand-like predominance when the severed heads of “the beautiful ones of the mountains” hung as an example in a village square. In the digital era the message is firstly transferred as it is everywhere in the world through the screen and -most important- without the blood and the stench that comes from direct contact with the dead body. The arena is now digital and the descended thumbs are respectively replacing the icons of the public comments. Clear business !
With Marian Kola’s death the court-police-penitentiary system felt that it replaces its lost honour. He has been targeted as the “brain”, the “leader” of the group, the most “ruthless” and “bloodthirsty”.
We didn’t meet Kola personally, as nobody of the escapees. Our aim isn’t to draw the profile of saints or to make some others heroes. Of course not to write obituaries, but on the occasion of these events to share some thoughts as the management of the situation from the state is concerned, not only on the level of communication, but also on the level of police-army. Besides we also have information that comes from the state media, but our interpretation for the facts diverges.
E.L.A.S. (the Greek police) had some unfinished businesses with Kola, after his escape from Thiva’s police station and had much more after the operation in Vyrona, in February 2010, where Kola and Bema were arrested. Then by multiple police gunfire, that is, fire with murderous intent, Nicolas Todi was killed, of course the cop who had killed him was never prosecuted, indeed he earned the characterization of “ruthless”. The day before in Marousi, Kola and another one comrade of his disarmed the crew of a police car and they escaped.
They tried to do the same thing in Distomo too, and apparently the scene would end bloodless, if the second police car hadn’t appeared. Both the events in Marousi and in Distomo, shows definitely cool-headed rather than bloodthirsty people. Everyone can understand that it is more dangerous to try to disarm an armed man than to kill him.
So, common sense leads us to the conclusion that the journalist’s descriptions for the escapees correspond only to the impression’s game and not to the reality.
Of course, the escapees are armed and of course they will use their guns in order to escape if they are squeezed, as they already did it so many times before in blockages and persecutions. But it isn’t the same to shoot armed men to assure your freedom as to execute “unscrupulously” generally.
Because there is another thing that stands for the above, and this is that the escapees didn’t shoot any citizen despite the fact that in many times they had came across someone.
The existing moral commands the submission to the police orders. The rebel moral commands the freedom, laughing ironically to the police orders.
The cops having this thing in their minds, they don’t hesitate to venture into populated areas (Vyronas) or in the national road (Isthmia), accepting the possibility of injuries or deaths accidentally passing people like N. Todi and K. Zogali.
As anarchists we don’t accept the meaning of victim’s offset or of side effects, these are characteristics of the authoritarian’s logic that has contempt for life. After the arrests in Vyrona the minister of public order
Chrysoxoidis had told this so bluntly, confirming it us : “one citizen was killed but two dangerous criminals were arrested”.
Media and much of the “public” opinion charge the deaths of two people in Vyrona and Isthmia to the escapees, on the grounds that they reacted when the police told them to surrender. This opinion ignores that the defence of freedom for some people isn’t negotiable. However, we could not point out that the main difference between the two events is that Todi had been executed as the cops mistook him with the one that they wanted to arrest, while Zogali’s death was an accident.
Eventually we will agree with the media view : the escapees are -or they were- ruthless. They didn’t have any hesitation to defend their so hard-won freedom. As one of Kola’s fellow prisoners, Marousko, who knew him personally, wrote : “Mario Kola was one of the prisoners -or hostages- of the state that you thought that was accused for his diploma, quiet and gentlemanly, his behaviour towards prisoners was full of respect, but he had a “vice” as everyone who had been found in the cement teeth of the state, he wanted his freedom at all costs. He would also risk his life at least, but not the life of the others.”
****
The militarisation of the state is raging rapidly. More and more often military style solutions are selected for various things that in fact or potentially, disrupt the fragile social balance.
In the last six months E.K.A.M were responsible for breaking the strike of subway workers, the raids in squatted anarchist places, the arrest of people at Skouries, the searching and the biting of prisoners.
The same heavily armed and specially trained unit was used for such disparate missions that in most of them, there was no possibility of an armed rumble. The only reason for using it, was for the spreading of the internalisation of fear and of the state’s oppressive power.
The operations against the escapees was a very good opportunity for the enforcement in practice of the dogma’s ramification in special operations. For the first time in Greece, there is coordination and action of special forces from different units in a wide temporal and geographical area. Police, army, marine corps are led from the same administrative center and they act together.
That doesn’t mean that the police isn’t enough for these businesses. It would be funny to think something like this, since the groups of the other forces are extremely limited and the two, so far, ambushes came from police units. Simply, the event is the motive to develop the modern dogma of the fist of democracy. How basic meanings of civil democracy escalate with their eye on future social conflicts.
So, the enemy forces are rallying, getting stronger, proceeding and trying to impose much more severe conditions. Faced with this reality, we have to make common our acts of resistance, to forearm at all levels –organisational, conscious, material/technical- to evolve and blossom our ways and forms of struggle. To break the artificial divisions that the world’s power produces by looking for the points that can connect us with the people that for their own reasons, revolt and dispute practically, the legitimate order.
Either individually or collectively, either they throw stones in the demos, or they turn their Kalashnikov against those who impose the generalized lack of freedom. And starting from common experiences to build the conscious background of relations of solidarity.
The solidarity with the outcasts of prison-society is not expressed only when there is no cost, as a support to the prisoners on condition that they remain passive, but when some activate, escape, stand up for, and defend their freedom armed.
Especially in the last case, where people are literally the target and the fourth power of the media defames them all day and night preparing their enforcement, complicity in state murders is not the bloodthirsty yell of the networking crowd and the convenient silences.
INITIATIVE OF ANARCHISTS PRISONERS FROM KORYDALLOS
With continual and extensive media coverage, the hunt for the escapees of Trikala prison continues for almost four months, by keeping the audience in suspense, as it has all the elements of an overproduction : “cinematic” escape, “ruthless” and “bloodthirsty” murders, “hard and decided” cops, scuffles, dead people and a manhunt over a huge area of the Greek territory.
The fourth power [media] is the most nodal for the functioning of democracy, because it mediates between other powers and citizens and it reminds us of the rules of the game once again : the democratic state spares no time, effort and resources when the doctrine of security should be established.
All this time, the anxious journalists from the places of operations, the reports with the imposing music, the emotionally charged descriptions of the escapees, the scenes with fully armed cops aim at one thing : creating a subversion of the social subconscious for the hunted escapees and acceptance of the state’s omnipotence. The media coverage of the events is as useful for the successful end of the state’s operations as the police guns are.
Even if any of the escapees who are still living moments of freedom will finally try to escape with one or another way, the impression should remain that this didn’t happen because of the state’s weaknesses but because of the invisible support network that they have, because of the support of LUCK or maybe because of their supernatural abilities.
THE MIND IS ALWAYS THE TARGET
The death penalty of democracy is something totally accepted, even if this seems strange towards the sensitive humanitarian reflexes of those who turn a blind eye. With one basic difference, it is decided, disposed, confirmed, not by any court but through the news reports, waiting just the way and the moment that its execution will be enabled.
The smile that accompanied the dithyrambic Dendia’s statements for the referral of the escapees of justice “if this could be possible” shows with no pretence, the logic and the morality of the power. A humiliating power that considers as a great victory and ultimate achievement, that hundreds- maybe thousands- of cops with the help of special groups of army and marine corps, with thousands of guns and technical means at their disposal (helicopters, dogs, thermal cameras) and in alternative shifts (so that they can rest) have succeeded -till the time that we are writing these lines- to squeeze four people.
The unlimited thirst for the acquisition of freedom and the determination for its conservation is the only motive that can make a person not to surrender, having against him such a connection of forces.
But the show doesn’t end with the execution of the escapees. The state should take revenge for the humiliation that it suffered. It should respectively follow the humiliation of the undisciplined and the example of those who still do not recognize the state’s omnipotence.
From Homer’s age and the desecration of the dead Hector by Achilles till the current internet age, the humiliation of the dead enemy is typical of the arrogance of the power.
The photos of the dead Marian Kola prove how pure were the times of brigand-like predominance when the severed heads of “the beautiful ones of the mountains” hung as an example in a village square. In the digital era the message is firstly transferred as it is everywhere in the world through the screen and -most important- without the blood and the stench that comes from direct contact with the dead body. The arena is now digital and the descended thumbs are respectively replacing the icons of the public comments. Clear business !
With Marian Kola’s death the court-police-penitentiary system felt that it replaces its lost honour. He has been targeted as the “brain”, the “leader” of the group, the most “ruthless” and “bloodthirsty”.
We didn’t meet Kola personally, as nobody of the escapees. Our aim isn’t to draw the profile of saints or to make some others heroes. Of course not to write obituaries, but on the occasion of these events to share some thoughts as the management of the situation from the state is concerned, not only on the level of communication, but also on the level of police-army. Besides we also have information that comes from the state media, but our interpretation for the facts diverges.
E.L.A.S. (the Greek police) had some unfinished businesses with Kola, after his escape from Thiva’s police station and had much more after the operation in Vyrona, in February 2010, where Kola and Bema were arrested. Then by multiple police gunfire, that is, fire with murderous intent, Nicolas Todi was killed, of course the cop who had killed him was never prosecuted, indeed he earned the characterization of “ruthless”. The day before in Marousi, Kola and another one comrade of his disarmed the crew of a police car and they escaped.
They tried to do the same thing in Distomo too, and apparently the scene would end bloodless, if the second police car hadn’t appeared. Both the events in Marousi and in Distomo, shows definitely cool-headed rather than bloodthirsty people. Everyone can understand that it is more dangerous to try to disarm an armed man than to kill him.
So, common sense leads us to the conclusion that the journalist’s descriptions for the escapees correspond only to the impression’s game and not to the reality.
Of course, the escapees are armed and of course they will use their guns in order to escape if they are squeezed, as they already did it so many times before in blockages and persecutions. But it isn’t the same to shoot armed men to assure your freedom as to execute “unscrupulously” generally.
Because there is another thing that stands for the above, and this is that the escapees didn’t shoot any citizen despite the fact that in many times they had came across someone.
The existing moral commands the submission to the police orders. The rebel moral commands the freedom, laughing ironically to the police orders.
The cops having this thing in their minds, they don’t hesitate to venture into populated areas (Vyronas) or in the national road (Isthmia), accepting the possibility of injuries or deaths accidentally passing people like N. Todi and K. Zogali.
As anarchists we don’t accept the meaning of victim’s offset or of side effects, these are characteristics of the authoritarian’s logic that has contempt for life. After the arrests in Vyrona the minister of public order
Chrysoxoidis had told this so bluntly, confirming it us : “one citizen was killed but two dangerous criminals were arrested”.
Media and much of the “public” opinion charge the deaths of two people in Vyrona and Isthmia to the escapees, on the grounds that they reacted when the police told them to surrender. This opinion ignores that the defence of freedom for some people isn’t negotiable. However, we could not point out that the main difference between the two events is that Todi had been executed as the cops mistook him with the one that they wanted to arrest, while Zogali’s death was an accident.
Eventually we will agree with the media view : the escapees are -or they were- ruthless. They didn’t have any hesitation to defend their so hard-won freedom. As one of Kola’s fellow prisoners, Marousko, who knew him personally, wrote : “Mario Kola was one of the prisoners -or hostages- of the state that you thought that was accused for his diploma, quiet and gentlemanly, his behaviour towards prisoners was full of respect, but he had a “vice” as everyone who had been found in the cement teeth of the state, he wanted his freedom at all costs. He would also risk his life at least, but not the life of the others.”
****
The militarisation of the state is raging rapidly. More and more often military style solutions are selected for various things that in fact or potentially, disrupt the fragile social balance.
In the last six months E.K.A.M were responsible for breaking the strike of subway workers, the raids in squatted anarchist places, the arrest of people at Skouries, the searching and the biting of prisoners.
The same heavily armed and specially trained unit was used for such disparate missions that in most of them, there was no possibility of an armed rumble. The only reason for using it, was for the spreading of the internalisation of fear and of the state’s oppressive power.
The operations against the escapees was a very good opportunity for the enforcement in practice of the dogma’s ramification in special operations. For the first time in Greece, there is coordination and action of special forces from different units in a wide temporal and geographical area. Police, army, marine corps are led from the same administrative center and they act together.
That doesn’t mean that the police isn’t enough for these businesses. It would be funny to think something like this, since the groups of the other forces are extremely limited and the two, so far, ambushes came from police units. Simply, the event is the motive to develop the modern dogma of the fist of democracy. How basic meanings of civil democracy escalate with their eye on future social conflicts.
So, the enemy forces are rallying, getting stronger, proceeding and trying to impose much more severe conditions. Faced with this reality, we have to make common our acts of resistance, to forearm at all levels –organisational, conscious, material/technical- to evolve and blossom our ways and forms of struggle. To break the artificial divisions that the world’s power produces by looking for the points that can connect us with the people that for their own reasons, revolt and dispute practically, the legitimate order.
Either individually or collectively, either they throw stones in the demos, or they turn their Kalashnikov against those who impose the generalized lack of freedom. And starting from common experiences to build the conscious background of relations of solidarity.
The solidarity with the outcasts of prison-society is not expressed only when there is no cost, as a support to the prisoners on condition that they remain passive, but when some activate, escape, stand up for, and defend their freedom armed.
Especially in the last case, where people are literally the target and the fourth power of the media defames them all day and night preparing their enforcement, complicity in state murders is not the bloodthirsty yell of the networking crowd and the convenient silences.
INITIATIVE OF ANARCHISTS PRISONERS FROM KORYDALLOS
FireToThePrisons
Comments
Display the following comment