On Saturday morning, January 25th, in the district of Keratsini in Piraeus (port of Athens), a large assault militia of neo-Nazis desecrated the entire place where Pavlos Fyssas was murdered by Golden Dawn member in September 2013. Shorty after that, nearly 80 Golden Dawn members attacked the Resalto self-organized space. The neo-Nazis were repelled by some 15 comrades, who were inside the Resalto. According to first estimates, the fascists showed up at the neighbourhood in threes, and attacked the outside of the Resalto with stones, bricks and paints under the supervision of police officers. All this lasted a few minutes. The nationalist thugs went away as soon as a cop from DIAS motorcycle team was heard saying to them “you’re done here”… Then the police helped the fascists flee the scene of the attack from Lambraki street. During the fascist attack on the Resalto, windows of the house next door were smashed, and even bricks were thrown into a kid’s bedroom. Some of the fascists were recognized; their force came from the areas of Piraeus, Perama, Nikaia and Athens. The great majority of them were young men, and some had helmets with them. All comrades are in good health, while several fascists were probably hit in the head with various objects. The incident lasted for ten minutes at most, in the presence of DIAS cops who offered protection to the Golden Dawn neo-Nazis the whole time. In the meantime, groups of anarchist comrades and other antifascists from Piraeus and Athens were informed of what happened, and arrived in Keratsini enraged and prepared to chase away the neo-Nazis, but the thugs had already vanished from the area. A half hour after the fascists left, more of DIAS motorcycle units as well as MAT anti-riot squadrons were deployed to the district. The Resalto collective called for a local spontaneous demonstration at Laou square, in response to the attack. The demo, with more than 400 protesters, began after 2pm and moved through the streets of Keratsini, also passing from the place where antifascist Pavlos Fyssas was stabbed to death.
Below is a text (featured in the following video) about the fascist provocations in Keratsini:
Four months after the murder of Pavlos Fyssas in Amfiali by an assault battalion of the Golden Dawn party, approximately 100 bullying fascists made their appearance once again in Keratsini, at the neighbourhoods of Amfiali and Tabouria. Walking down the Tsaldari street, the fascists desecrated the place where Pavlos Fyssas was stabbed to death—a murder which they themselves committed—erasing painted slogans, poems and dedications of dozens of people in his remembrance, and destroying the banner of the ‘Ploumpidis’ local association of school teachers. This was a clear ‘assumption of responsibility’ for the murder on their part, an assassination they had not confessed publicly before, having their ripper Roupakias ‘disavowed’.
In their wake, they torn down several other banners of the teachers local association, they smeared antifascist graffiti and sprayed walls with vomiting fascist-nationalist slogans, and when they reached the Laou square (‘People’s square’) in Tabouria they moved aggressively toward the Resalto self-organized space of solidarity and rupture (situated 100m from that square). Apparently, in their attempt to reemerge in districts of Piraeus over the past few weeks and rerun their offices in Nikaia, they were deeply annoyed by the forceful resistance they encountered from people in struggle (hence they launched their provocations already since the previous week, by painting a slogan on the wall of the Pasamontaña self-managed social space in Koridallos, showing up their faces again in the areas of Nikaia and Koridallos during one of their usual pathetic parades).
Nearly half of the fascists went up Ermou street and attacked the hangout, simultaneously causing damages to homes, cars and motorbikes of dwellers, while the rest of them had blocked the Konstantinoupoleos road, preventing vehicles from passing, and thus securing their assault group. The 15 comrades, both women and men who were inside the Resalto at the time, defended themselves and the project, and after a five minute clash they managed to repel the fascists. They demonstrated that collective comradely fight, without classifications of one’s ‘capacity’ or sex, is able to cope with the Nazi assault battalions when the forces of repression do not actively lend them a hand. Needless to say that the many DIAS police motorcycles, that escorted the fascists after their attack until their withdrawal from Keratsini, made no detention whatsoever, despite the fact that the first police forces arrived at the spot while the assault-clash was underway, and even though many fascists (those who were at the forefront) retreated with paint on their clothes. It is important to note that the principal fact which confirms the antisocial, thuggish and murderous nature of fascists was the destruction of glass windows and facade of the house next door with stones, although the owner was yelling that this is a home and there’s a small child inside. Most of the dozens of stones that were thrown on this residence fell into the kid’s room, so if the small girl had not been quickly moved by her parents, she would have been seriously or fatally injured.
An antifascist concentration was immediately called in Laou square, and more than 400 antifascists held a spontaneous demonstration in Tabouria and Amfiali (taking to the streets where the fascists had made their appearance earlier), wiping out also the fascist slogans from the walls. Many people from the area participated in the march, which was also supported by people in solidarity and struggle from the surrounding districts of Piraeus and various neighbourhoods of Athens.
The fascists are the loyal dogs of the State and Capital—no matter if they continue to play the ‘antisystemic’—who fell into disfavor with their bosses (which is likely a temporary phase) due to standalone tendencies and a series of uncontrollable moves-choices of their own, such as the murder attempt on trade unionists of PAME [Stalinist syndicalist organ] in Perama and the murder of Pavlos Fyssas in Keratsini. We’ll say it once again: in the hoods of refugee population, of resistance, dignity and solidarity, the fascists, their assault battalions and their supporters are not just undesirable but enemies. Fascist murderers, there’s no place for you in our hoods. And we will confirm this every moment, in every way.
Saturday 25.1.2014
Resalto self-organized space of solidarity and rupture
Keratsini autonomous antifascist assembly
Keratsini-Drapetsona square assembly
Below is footage from a neighbour (the neo-Nazis are shouting “blood-honour-golden dawn” and “anarchists, sons of a whore”), footage from inside the Resalto, and moments of the spontaneous demonstration in Keratsini:
Video link: dai.ly/x1abj6v. More photos, showing demonstrators from the anarchist/antiauthoritarian milieu but also from the left-wing spectrum, alongside several neighbours: Social-Revolution
UPCOMING ACTION:
Antifascist march in Keratsini — Friday, January 31st, 2014, at 6pm
Gathering in Nikis square, on Tsaldari street, Amfiali