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Wanneer: 04/12/2014 - 00:17

Athens: Second announcement from the occupied Polytechnic School after Exarchia riots, 2/12/2014.

On the 2nd of December 2014, a demonstration took place in solidarity with anarchist comrade Nikos Romanos, prisoner on hunger strike since the 10th of November, demanding the granting of educational furloughs. Today’s march saw participation of thousands of people, some of whom later headed for the occupied Polytechnic School.

For us, the occupied ground of the Athens Polytechnic School is not a value in itself. On the contrary, it is yet another piece on the mosaic of dignity and resistance against all those who want to turn society into a graveyard. It is a piece on the mosaic of resistance against the modern-day totalitarianism that spreads its power over our lives; from the anarchists who have gone on a hunger strike, the mobilizations against maximum security prisons, and the hunger strikers from Syria, to all those who are fighting for dignity and freedom across the world.

We call on everyone in struggle to take any necessary initiative towards the vindication of hunger striker Nikos Romanos: from faculty occupations, to production blockades; from breaches of the media omerta, to attacks against the guardians of order.

Let’s rise to the challenge of our time in the face of state repression, contrary to rationales that want us to remain passive spectators and voters. Uncompromising solidarity with Nikos Romanos, who is on hunger strike since 10/11, and hunger strikers in solidarity Yannis Michailidis (since 17/11), Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos (since 1/12) and Dimitris Politis (since 1/12).

IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ALL ARRESTEES FROM TONIGHT’S CLASHES

THE OCCUPATION STAYS UNTIL VICTORY IN THE STRUGGLE OF NIKOS ROMANOS

Assembly of the occupied Polytechnic School
Athens, 2/12/14

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Call Out for International Solidarity to N.Romanos
by Void Network

In 2/12/2014 about 10.000 people marched in Athens in one of the most massive demonstrations of the last couple of years in solidarity to anarchist Nikos Romanos, who is kept imprisoned by the Greek state. Demos took place in almost all major cities of Greece at the same time.

Nikos Romanos was only 15 years old when his name first became known to the Greek public. Romanos was close friend with Alexandros Grigoropoulos, the unarmed pupil who was shot dead by a policeman in the Athens neighborhood of Exarheia. Romanos watched his friend die in front of his eyes after being shot through the heart. The shooting proved to be the spark that lit a tinderbox of rage and triggered rioting in the capital and other Greek cities against police violence. The shooting proved to be the spark that lit a tinderbox of rage and triggered rioting in the capital and other Greek cities against police violence.

Several years later Nikos Romanos was arrested together with a group of young men for a double armed robbery in the city of Kozani. The police and other state organs have tried to link the armed robbery to the anarchist group “Revolutionary Organization of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire,” but Romanos claims that while he is an anarchist and anti-establishment he is not a member of this group. Romanos was subsequently convicted of participation in the robberies although the court accepted his claim of not being a member of the armed guerrilla group. As such he was convicted on charges of armed robbery as opposed to terrorism. Since the 10th of November, Romanos has been on hunger strike demanding the right to be allowed to attend university.

Last spring while in prison, Romanos studied for and took the pan-Hellenic high school exams earning high enough marks to gain a place at a top Athens polytechnic university in business management.
At the time, the Justice Ministry had praised him and other inmates for their academic success and was to award Romanos a prize of 500 euros. However Romanos refused to attend a ceremony to accept the prize from the Justice Minister, saying that doing so would violate his principles. Regardless, at the time the Justice Minister Charalambos Athansiou stated that, “the state does not make distinctions on the issue of studies. He is praiseworthy for following the advice of his teachers and working hard to gain a place at an institution of higher education.” However despite this praise, the door subsequently was shut on Romanos’ putative academic career when the relevant prison council denied his application for prison leave to attend classes. According to the law, a special magistrate must rule in favor of the prison leave. However in Romanos case he ruled that, given his criminal record, he posed a flight risk. Following the denial of his prison leave Romanos launched his hunger strike, releasing a long statement reaffirming his anarchist principles and explaining his motivation.

Void Network invites all friends and comrades in Athens to participate at the occupation of Polytechnic school in solidarity to the hunger striker Nikos Romanos. The struggle of the anarchist Nikos Romanos for freedom and dignity is being shown the real face of the establishment, offering to all of us the opportunity to understand that democracy doesn’t exists, to see that behind its democratic façade the establishment is based in various forms of the same authoritarian and oppressive state, ruled by the economic and political powers that govern this world, protecting for centuries the monetary system, serving the accumulation of wealth, effecting widespread social control, reproducing exploitation and expanding entrenched inequalities.

We invite our international friends and comrades throughout the world to organise, mobilise and intensify their struggle against the totalitarianism of the state and market, against all established authorities, against all these politicians, judges and businessmen that prey on and destroy our lives.

We Will Fight Back! We Will Never Surrender!
Death to the Tyrants!
Viva la Liberta!