"This is an interview with a foreigner who attended the Greek insurrection during moments of its peak printed in Fire To The Prisons 5. For more on the Greek uprising look for Two Hundred and 77 Street Fights: An American Insurgent in the Greek Insurrection when the same anonymous foreigner gets his shit together.
Before getting into any analysis, we want to know first and foremost, what did experiencing an insurrection as someone used to the stagnancy of “american” style unrest feel like?
The experience was amazing. Although, the struggle in Greece is far more active than in the States, I was constantly reminded by the Greek comrades that this was a special and unexpected moment for everyone. The uprising extended to spheres of life and sections of society that are not usually marked as “political,” and you could feel the most mundane aspects of existence becoming invigorated with a new energy. During my stay in Athens, a quiet walk down the street sparked extremely intense emotions, because it was impossible not to feel the insurrection changing every relationship between people and a world that was becoming their own.
Why did you feel the need to travel across the world to experience such moments?
As an insurrectionist, I feel the need to go where the insurrection is. Nah, but on the real, of course there were certain “selfish” riot fetishist motivations in my decision to go to Greece and I think that's a perfect motivation. I would be wary of anyone who expounded some sort of moral duty as justification for a decision like the one in question.
So, I was sitting in a fucking cubicle, constantly refreshing my browser to find new internet pictures of cops being immolated in Athens, all the while hoping my co-workers didn’t notice the crotch area of my jeans was becoming increasingly love-juice soaked with each mouse click. I could honestly see no reason why I would stay confined in my freezing office/cell when I could be building barricades in a far warmer climate. Now, looking back on my time there, it’s clear to me that if I would have never left for Greece, then I would have never had all the beautiful experiences I talked briefly about in the previous question. These wonderful moments provided all the reason, argumentum ad consequentiam, for my trip.
Although clearly many have been inspired around the world and in the States by the Greek unrest (Hence, the massive amount of resistance in solidarity with Greece’s insurrection internationally), some feel disempowered by the lacking circumstances that cater to insurrectionary moments in their everyday lives. How do you explain the popular support for the unrest helping to create insurrectionary moments like of those you experienced in Greece, more specifically, the general support for the intensive and ruthless violence conducted against the state and other forces and symbols of control?
The hatred for authority and the state that permeates most of modern Greek culture is one of the principle explanations for the popular support. In Greece, self-organized and autonomous action against the state and capital do occur without the supposedly helpful or more frequently harmful intervention from the left, unions, NGOs, or any supposed revolutionary organization. People, who don’t explicitly identify with any revolutionary credo, were responsible for many of the brilliant actions that happened in the past few weeks. Regular folks occupied town halls and called for the immediate eviction of any police from their towns and neighborhoods. High school students organized their own demonstrations that almost always ended in violent clashes with the police. In a Rom neighborhood, a burning car was rammed into a police station. During the first few days of the rioting, many of the immigrants living in Exarchia burned banks and destroyed property side by side with the anarchists. During my visit, a police officer was stripped and beaten in a quiet middle class neighborhood for simply handing out parking tickets.
Although these outstanding actions seem to be a response to a presently outstanding situation, it’s important to recognize that this same sentiment remains constant in more quotidian circumstances. Small acts of defiance are not the exception, but the rule in Greece. It’s rare to find anyone paying to ride the subway. Large segments of the population refuse to pay taxes. There have been waves of autonomous struggles against state sponsored poisoning of the environment. Even what we would deem minor issues are met with resistance. For example, it has been impossible for authorities to enforce a smoking ban on public trains despite a huge campaign. A Greek friend described to me an exhausting lecture given by a train conductor to passengers almost pleading with them not to smoke on board. My friend told me that literally seconds after the conductor turned his/her back, a group of elderly women lit up their cigarettes in unison. The Greeks are almost perpetually giving the middle finger to any kind of badge or uniform they encounter.
Secondly, the fact that modern Greek history can only be understood when taking into consideration a narrative of revolutionary struggle is of equal importance to explaining the popular support for the uprising. Unlike the States, the struggles against the brutal regimes of the past are still a part of the collective memory in Greece, and continue to influence the popular outlook. The guerrillas that fought the fascists in the 1940s and Polytechnic uprising of 1973 continue to shape the Greek consciousness. In the ‘90s, an extensive political poll concluded that a large portion of the Greek population believed that the armed struggle group November 17 was best suited to run the country. The Communist Party, that split almost in half during my visit due to their ridiculous party line that foreign provocateurs were responsible for the rioting, is Greece’s third largest political party. Without a doubt, the CP is everything terrible and anything but revolutionary, but I think the size of the party is a good indicator that left-wing politics –as shitty as they are- and the term “revolution” -for the CP is clearly an empty signifier- are still on the table in Greece.
The age restrictions somehow imposed on radical politics don’t apply to the same extent in Greece as they do in the States. It’s commonplace to see people as young as 14 or as old as 60 participating in the same violent demonstration. Also, many of the anarchists I met had grandparents that were communist guerrillas, parents who were part of the uprising in the ‘70s, or came from anarchist families.
Although Greece has been fetishized to the indulgence of anarchists in the first world who have very little to no relationship with an everyday life connection with resistance, we recognize that Greece is not a fairy tale land, it is a first world industrial nation state, and the unrest’s significance was created by individuals and communities responsible for taking the risk. What can we take from this to the States and places similar?
Without mincing any words, the anarchist milieu in Greece is far more advanced than ours in the States. So, I believe, the easiest example for American anarchists to follow from the Greeks requires us to work on ourselves. To become revolutionaries concerned with revolution. For example, interest and understanding of revolutionary theory and history aren’t reserved to specialized minority within the Greek anarchists. Literally, every anarchist I met during my stay was able to discuss revolutionary thought with depth and clarity. A quick glance at the communiques produced during the insurrection proves that the Greeks are miles ahead of us in terms of theory.
Although, simply picking up a book is a necessary measure we need to take more seriously, for the revolutionary, understanding cannot be reached in an abstract vacuum and therefore, this step is not by itself sufficient for strengthening our milieu. Action must be inseparable from theoretical reflection and only then can disengaged speculation be replaced by strategy. With this principle kept in mind, it becomes clear as to why the Greeks are able to develop and foster tactics that exceed our present ability. There is a clear subversive element existent in their actions that is antagonistic towards the social relationships anarchists aim to destroy. All the extraneous shit that hinders American anarchists isn’t even on the table in Greece. Instead of shallow bike activism, Greek anarchists dismantle the ticket machines and surveillance cameras in the metro. Collective looting of supermarkets is practiced rather than soup kitchens and dumpster diving. As opposed to working with or in a non-profit to help combat ICE raids on immigrants, they physically fight alongside immigrants that are attacked by police agencies. Directly confronting these manifestations of power constitute the Greek anarchists as a revolutionary force remarkably different from the alternative subculture we have here. I am absolutely certain that the wealth of these conflictual tactics combined into one of the principle forces that motored the insurrection. It may be premature for us to organize something like frequent mass looting but we can still find ways to directly combat the relations we oppose like capitalist distribution of goods. If we want to see anything in the States happen like what is going on in Greece, we need to begin developing tactics are specific to our our current situation but are nonetheless shaped by the same confrontational nature.
Also, within our milieu, it will serve us well to try and recreate the solidarity that ties together the anarchists in Greece. For the Greeks, revolutionary solidarity is not a concept reserved for email salutations but the lived foundation of every relationship between comrades. In response to a comrade imprisoned by the state, solidarity can only be expressed through an attack against our common class enemy. While in Greece, I heard stories of the wildest solidarity actions like, for example, comrades shutting down most of Thessaloniki during a trial of three anarchists. For that matter, it’s important to recognize that Alexi’s murder did not only spark the insurrection because he was a 15 years old but also because, despite what has been reported by the bourgeoisie media, he was an anarchist. American revolutionaries should follow suit and let the ruling class know that when they fuck with one of us we’ll tear their whole world apart. The escalation of the class conflict is the only way to respond to state repression and this is how the Greeks movement was able to overcome the death camps for the communist guerrillas and the tanks that crushed the students in the Polytechnic. Struggle should open up space for a more intensified struggle, and this logic has forced the Greek state into a corner where they have to suck it up and, to some extent, tolerate the amazing actions we read about on infoshop.
The attack component of revolutionary solidarity implies, what I believe to be the more profound truth, that we are accomplices united in a social war against structures of power. It’s common to see the Greek comrades hugging and kissing each other with an affection I’ve never seen here in America. Whether old friends or newly arrived internationals, I never saw the Greeks act with the suspicions and pretensions so prevalent here in the States. I think it’s no coincidence that the same selfless generosity that shocked George Orwell in revolutionary Spain surprised me in insurrectionary Greece.
Lastly, it is also necessary to discover methods to spread the subversive practices we develop throughout the social terrain, although this to me seems far more difficult and will require considerable amount of experimentation on our part. As I touched on in the previous answer, those who don’t explicitly consider themselves revolutionaries were equally, if not, likely more responsible for furthering the insurrection. The Greek people were already equipped with a host of actions they could employ against government without the help of anarchists or any other guidance. Americans are not apt to take action on their own behalf, especially without the approval of some sort of mediator. Revolutionaries in the States need to actively change these state of affairs.
One thing that was continually made apparent to me in Greece was that the general acceptance for these predisposed behaviors did not appear out of thin air nor did insurrection. Revolutionary conditions will not fall out of the sky on to our laps, we have to reach up and rip them from the sky or live a life of perpetual misery. Flesh and blood people, who love and hate, who eat, sleep and shit, can create social revolution because we are capable of far more than is obligated to us in this world suffocated by exploitation."
ORIGINAL SOURCE: Infoshop News
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