Category Archives: English

Bremen (Germany) – Real Estate Companies Attacked

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Heads Out of the Sand! Real Estate Companies Attacked.

Two Real Estate Company Cars in Bremen Destroyed.

Bremen: 21.03 to 22.03

We should stay at home and avoid any contact with others. We should show solidarity, because if we don’t, the deadly virus will spread. We get lost in the news. We go into shock.

The pandemic is a reality and we all have a responsibility. Responsibility to contain the disease. But also responsibility for social development. We are not all “in the same boat” just because we can all be affected by the virus. The pandemic, or rather how we deal with it, exacerbates the already precarious living conditions. Many will get into debt, have no or much lower income and still have to pay the high rents. Real estate companies will continue to profit and the burdens of the crisis will be transferred to those who are marginalized anyway. At the same time, government measures to combat the virus are accelerating authoritarian developments; we can see three key points here:

– An intensification of the technological attack…
The switch to web-based homework, the relocation of cultural encounters such as concerts or parties to virtual spaces, online school lessons, the displacement of retail stores by online commerce, and the analysis of mobile phone date for biopolitical population control, to name just a few examples.

– Testing of counterinsurgency measures
Military action at home, the closing of borders, curfews, increased powers for the police, the complete disappearance of the liberal counter-public in the form of demonstrations and rallies, all these measures – regardless of their usefulness in containing the pandemic – are also important experiences for combating coming insurgencies.

– Aggravated precarization
It is becoming clear that the crisis of the virus is being replaced by a crisis of the economy. Beyond the redistribution of the taxpayers’ money to corporations and companies, it is difficult to predict the effects of the coming economic crisis. But if we look at the past crisis, it is clear that we have to expect the whole range of neoliberal reforms.

All in all, there are many reasons (offline) to act, analyse and observe. We were on the streets to find out whether it is still possible to move at night. And lo and behold, it is still possible.

Our first actions are two destroyed real estate company vehicles:

– a burnt-out Smart car from IMMO-BREMEN
– destroyed windows on a small Engel und Völkers car

Against resignation and isolation: Heads out of the sand!

Autonomous Groups

Note: According to the press, a hedge was set on fire by the burning Smart car, which in turn damaged the windows of an apartment building and led to the temporary evacuation of two people. There is nothing nice about that. We apologize! And we will be even more careful in the future! All nocturnal activists: Be careful in narrow streets!

(via Deutschland Indymedia, translated into English by Anarchists Worldwide)

Berlin (Germany) – Arson Attacks Against Bosch Security and Dr. House Solutions

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No Evictions, No Security Control! Bosch and Dr. House Solutions Vehicles Torched

There is no curfew yet, but while during the day people in parks and squares catch the first warm rays of sunshine, the streets are quiet and after dusk the streets seem to be empty. Life has withdrawn into the supposed private sphere, social contacts are largely interrupted, communication is shifting to digital. In public space, the opinion dictated from above now prevails. Open meetings, demonstrations – almost every exchange and resistance begins to become invisible, a dystopia.

After the state of emergency the economic crisis will follow, there will be winners and losers. We want to contribute to making the right people lose; investors, homeowners, profiteers of surveillance. Even in times of declared or premature curfews, we will continue to sabotage the gears of the capitalist system and break the silence.

On March 19th, we set fire to a vehicle of the security company Bosch on the Ostseestraße in Pankow, Berlin and the following night we set fire to a vehicle of Dr. House Solutions on the Tiroler Straße in the same district.

The Bosch company was also an exhibitor at this year’s European Police Congress, as well as the organizer of a digital congress in Berlin in February. In order to cope with crises, wars, states of emergency or even the everyday capitalist madness of the Smart Cities in the interests of the ruling classes, they need to constantly expand their security technology. Among other things, a Bosch vehicle was set on fire in December by the FAZ in Hamburg for this reason.

Dr. House Solutions belongs to the Padovic company network. Due to the eviction of Liebig34, which they are still striving for, the further destruction of the Rummelsburger Bucht and further speculative blackmailing of tenants, Padovic and all those who are like him are the targets of our attacks. Likewise, the Berlin Senate wants to continue the eviction of the Syndikat on April 17th, so those responsible must be told: this will be met with resistance. But like the last few nights, we will not wait for Day X, because between us and the system with its order, only the attack has a place.

(via Deutschland Indymedia, translated into English by Anarchists Worldwide)

Leipzig (Germany) – Arson Attack Against Prison Profiteers PKE

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22.03.2020: Last night we set fire to a PKE vehicle. The group produces security technology for prisons.

It is important that we do not forget those who are hit hardest by the current situation than we are. Besides the at risk groups, there are the people who are locked up in mass accommodation, crammed into camps at the borders or forgotten behind bars.

With the spread of the coronavirus, the isolation of prisoners is greatly increased and conditions in the prisons are getting worse and worse. Without health care or basic hygienic services, many of the prisoners have to face the possibility of death. They will be the last to receive adequate medical care.

So we send greetings to all those behind bars and those who managed to escape.
Thanks to all the insurgents who made the mass breakouts of the last few weeks possible.

We are pleased to see that others continue to attack during these times. Like those who attacked companies building the new prison in Zwickau.

(via Deutschland Indymedia, translated into English by Anarchists Worldwide)

Report from Greece on the Corona-Virus Dystopian Reality

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Initially, in late February and early March, when the first cases of infected people were reported –ironically, most of them were pilgrims returning from Israel and Jerusalem bringing not only Holy Grace back home– the only measures taken were the cancellation of carnival events and the closures of schools, universities, theatres and cinemas in some affected regions where most cases were detected. As more were to follow, all educational institutions closed down for 14 days on March 11th, then followed cafes, bars, malls, restaurants, gyms, museums, archaeological sites, excluding supermarkets, pharmacies and food outlets for delivery and take-aways only. News reports became more and more terrifying starting with the number of deaths in the country and nearby countries and the government slogan “We remain indoors” began overwhelming the public sphere. A cell broadcast message was sent to all smartphones on 11, March by a government agency supposedly to inform people on the virus but causing more anxiety and confusion and another one followed a week later stressing again the necessity to “remain indoors”. Actually, a lot of people ignored the government call for self-restrictions on movement and outdoor gathering and went out to beaches and open air places. The next days all organized beaches and tourist resorts closed, air traffic with Italy and Spain was banned and some days later the borders with Albania and North Macedonia closed.

Public transport has been restricted, passengers to Greece will be detained at home for 14 days and since Wednesday (18/3) all retail shops except few categories have been closed down. Panic reactions in supermarkets with hordes of people amassing huge quantities of commodities (+42% compared a month before, if fast-moving consumer goods are taken into account) led to restrictions on number of customers in a given supermarket and the imposition of a minimum distance between customers.

With a devastated public health system after subsequent Memoranda and cuts, the government knows only too well why they should be panicked when thousands of people will become ill with the virus. The announcement of urgent hiring of 2000 doctors and nurses with a two-year work contract is next to nothing compared to the low number of Intensive Care Units functioning (557 instead of 3500), with 80 of them being idle due to lack of personnel and 25% of them being permanently closed. The overworked hospital personnel had been cut during the previous years, job vacancies are 45000 and public health expenses range between a meager 4.7 to 5.2 % of the GDP – beware the -30% decrease of GDP, compared to 2009 results, when discussing those ridiculously small percentages.

The prime minister’s wife’s initiative to call people to “thank” doctors and nurses for their efforts against the virus by clapping their hands in their balconies at a fixed time in the evening some days ago had unfortunately some success and, for the time being at least, it shows the extent of the resignation of the population in the face of the state terrorist slogan of “remain indoors”, which prevents public demands for a rise in social reproduction state expenses.

It is important to note that it is a conservative, right-wing neoliberal government that applies state interventionist measures, praises public hospitals and the national medical system in general, bans national parades (both military and school ones), closes churches and turns the “Invisible Hand” of the market wherever they want.

Although the Greek state has been under Enhanced Surveillance for ten years now, the institutions and the Eurogroup decided on Monday (16/3) to scrap its obligation for a primary surplus of 3.5% of GDP this year. Also, the government has promised liquidity shots (2 bn) to affected businesses and announced suspension of amortization payments as well as payments of tax and insurance liabilities, requisition of private hospital beds etc. Central planning at its best!

As days pass, the restrictive measures in movement become heavier and the propaganda of fear is gaining ground. Even political groups of the anti-authoritarian milieu limit their activities, cancel their events or even approve of the quarantine in the name of public health protection and “(self)-responsibility”.

The isolation or self-isolation imposed at the moment is not very promising as the necessary precondition for any successful struggle is cooperation through physical encounter. At the same time, an attitude of internalized self-discipline and fear (if not even outcry of “irresponsible behaviour’’ on the part of those still gathering in public spaces and social centers) can be very convenient indeed for the state and its repressive mechanisms, as the outcome of a recent antifascist demo in the town of Rethymno showed: 100 people were surrounded by cops, beaten up and taken to court. One wonders what will happen if workers start organizing around demands such as full wages, less work hours or stop altogether, bigger unemployment benefits, paid medical expenses…

The “wages of exception“ in a state of exception

Even though many (small-scale and large-scale) capitalists have profited from the implementation of the extreme austerity policies of the last 10 years, by means of labour market deregulation, both direct and indirect wage decreases, tax redemptions etc, their greed seems bottomless. Currently, they try to take advantage of the declared “state of emergency’ (or situation of “war economy” as the prime minister called it during one recent TV address): the Greek state capitalizes on the COVID-19 pandemic to further implement new emergency laws that will lead in the enhanced precariousness of labour and waged-labour cost decrease, in line with the persistent neoliberal doctrines. From the capitalist point of view the timing is crucial, as the financial consequences of the COVD-19 crisis are yet to be seen. In terms of the Greek regime of accumulation, it must be kept in mind that the tourist sector and all tourist-related services, such as cafes, restaurants, catering, construction/renovation, retail, logistics etc., are among the most important ones in terms of their GDP share.

What follows is a short list of measures that have been announced over the last week. It is important to note that these measures affect differently the various sectors of value production and circulation, so they should be used with caution when it comes to generalize about i.e. direct and indirect wage decreases or the legal status of those currently unemployed. On the other hand, this list is indicative of the capitalist strategy to a) pass on the lion’s share of the financial cost to the working class and b) further designate a labour market that will allow larger profit margins, when “normal” conditions of value production and realization are re-established.

In the public sector:

Workers in schools, universities etc. have not been working since March the 11th, following the government’s decision to lock down all educational facilities, ranging from state nursery schools to universities. Sport facilities, gyms and museums were also affected by this ban. Despite the fact that those workers are not currently working they still get paid accordingly (for the moment at least).

The most affected public sector workers by the COVID-19 outbreak are, obviously, ,nurses, doctors and all others working in hospitals, who have to work under extremely intensive and dangerous conditions. Following a massive downsizing of public healthcare system due to both a 25% personnel decrease and slashed state funding, the understaffed and under-equipped hospitals will soon be unable to handle emergencies related to COVID-19 or other causes. For the moment, in most hospitals no COVID-19 tests are conducted to the hospital personnel, while the tests are used for seriously infected patients or the elderly. In some cases, due to lack of specialized personnel, unpaid MSc or PhD students have to analyze the results, leading in crucial delays. On top of that, the understaffed personnel is forced to remain in service despite showing signs of the virus infection and having access to very limited resources of personal protective masks and/or gloves. As mentioned above, there are only 557 active intensive care beds nationwide (224 in Athens, alone). The same is true for the hospitals on islands where the infrastructure and personnel is not sufficient to accommodate the needs of both locals and immigrants (see below). To deal with the current emergency situation the government has decided to immediately hire 2,000 doctors and nursing stuff, a number which simply sounds like a complete joke when compared to the 26,000 personnel decrease, between 2010-2018, even more so because that number corresponds to the new job positions that had already been announced since early June, some months before the COVID-19 was first reported in China… One should always keep in mind that by the first implementation of Memoranda in 2010 the hospitals were already understaffed, as a result of state policies to continuously keep healthcare funding below EU average. In that sense the post-2010 devalorisation politics have decisively deteriorated and already devastated sector.

The “We remain indoors” propaganda has been proven successful in decreasing hospital workload too, as it is not only the streets and public spaces that are evacuated by the citizens, but also the emergency clinics of hospitals. It must be noted that out-patient clinics have effectively been shut down (excl. drug prescriptions) thus limiting the access to state healthcare by default. It is through this artificial and violent constriction of social medical needs that the state healthcare system is still functional.

In the private sector:

In all, after the gradual locking down of numerous sectors ca. 1,000.000 workers are estimated to be (either temporarily or not) without work. Those workers are not entitled to get paid by their employers according to their contract-defined wage, on the grounds of the “state of exception” that was officially declared by the government: faced with slashed turnovers by early March, numerous employers’ associations have immediately resorted to lay-offs, obligatory leaves without pay and/or fierce lobbying in favour of massive lockdowns.

More specifically:

By March 12/3 all private gyms were locked down, while the following day the measure was extended to include all restaurants (excl. take-aways and those providing delivery services) and bars. This measure had major impacts on (youth) employment, as most of the food and beverage sector numerous workers are young proletarians, who often work under precarious and intensified terms (unregistered or under-declared contracts, irregular week schedules etc.). By Wednesday 18/3, the measure was re-extended to almost the whole retail sector, with the obvious exclusion of sectors such as pharmacies, supermarkets, groceries, bakeries, banks, gas stations, take-aways and… funeral services. The workers employed in sectors related to medical equipment and/or products are now under a “zero hour contract”, as the shops remain closed, but the services can be provided by appointment only. Hostels and hotels are to follow by this week.

All those workers who have been directly affected by the official state “lock down” measures, as well as those who got fired during the COVID-19 initial outbreak (since the beginning of March ca. 40,000 according to some reports, most of them in the tourist industry) or still work in very low profit businesses are entitled to receive a 800-euro “state benefit”, for the period from 15th of March till the end of April (that is 535 euros per month, well below the current minimum nominal wage of 650 euros). All beneficiaries are also qualified for a 40% rent discount, in case they have no property of their own and rent an apartment, though no details were given who is going to cover that 40% discount.

According to the state officials, the “locked-down” workers are not unemployed, but rather had “their work contracts suspended”, an alarming neologism that makes one wonder about what the actual legal consequences are, i.e. when capitalist “normality” is re-established will current contracts still remain valid? It’s no wonder that the “zero redundancy clause” legislated by the state for all companies that want to make use of state financial support, only ensures the nominal number of job positions, but not the type of work contract or, even more so, the corresponding wage related to those positions. For instance, it is yet unclear when workers with “suspended contracts” will receive the “Easter wage” (an extra wage amounting to 50% of the nominal wage that employers are forced by law to provide before the Easter vacations).

Apart from enjoying various credit, loan, tax, rent or other administrative facilitations (in the form of suspension of various payments for instance), the capitalists are also freed from the obligation to cover the social security liabilities of their “suspended” employees for as long as the ban is effective: the corresponding cost will also be funded by the state budget.

From the above, it must already be clear enough: what’s unfolding before our eyes is another crude attempt to socialize the capitalist losses, by channeling primary balance surplus money (that is money from working class’ direct and indirect wage decreases and income and purchases taxation etc.) straight to the capitalists’ pockets. The state money distribution is telling: out of the total package of 9.8bn euros (incl. 1.8 bn from the European Investment Fund and 6bn of guarantees to stimulate working capital corporate loans), the money directly channeled to the affected workers amount to only 0.45 bn or… 4.5%. Another important aspect of the current financial and social crisis is related to those already unemployed (1,076.134 by January 2020) and to unregistered workers. No special provisions for all those have been announced, apart from a 2-month extension of all unemployment benefits ending the first quarter of 2020 (ca. 200,000)

As all schools have been closed and grandparents, an integral and important part of the local familistic welfare regime, who have traditionally been providing childcare should not come in contact with children, new special leaves for parents with children under 15 years old were legislated. But only one parent can apply for such a leave and its cost (nominal wage and social security levies) is shared both by the employers (by 2/3) and the state (1/3): another straightforward way to socialize the capitalist costs. Workers who make use of this “special leave” have to simultaneously make use of their normal (paid) leave: for every 3 days of the special leave the worker applies, (s)he has to apply for 1 day of normal leave as well. That means if (s)he is not entitled to get “normal” leaves (this is the case for newly employed workers), then (s)he is not entitled to this special leave either. In any case, many were the cases of parents getting laid off only because they tried to get this special leave. Others were blackmailed to make use of their normal leaves or even to obligatorily get “a few days off” without pay.

But it is not just those who (temporarily or not) lost their jobs and wages who are directly affected by the new measures. Those still working may also find themselves in deep shit, as is the case for supermarket, supply chain/logistics/couriers/delivery and call-center workers, who all work under flexible schedules, unpaid overtimes, extremely intensified conditions and, as if the above are not already enough, without sufficient –if any– personal protective equipment. The latter was true for the whole period before the state bans and for all sectors nationwide: in most cases no guidelines were provided by the management on how to avoid getting infected while at work, or those guidelines were rather dated and/or inadequate. It’s not surprising that in many cases workers had to buy protective equipment themselves, a rather difficult task considering the huge public demand for gloves, masks and antiseptics (in many pharmacies long queues were observed and the protective equipment was sold out within hours if not minutes).

The government capitalized on people’s massive rush to supermarkets to buy protective equipment and other necessary products or food and decided to extend all supermarkets work schedule from 9am-9pm to 7am-10pm (Mondays–Saturdays), while supermarkets will obligatorily remain open on Sundays too (from 9am to 5pm). Regarding the latter, it’s worth noting that a number of workers on retail sector have been fighting against the legislation of Sunday-work since 2010 and it was only recently, according to the 2019 “development law”, that supermarkets were allowed to open up to 32 Sundays per year.

As a response to the above, a bunch of grassroots initiatives, among both supermarket and call-centers workers, are currently trying to expose the current working conditions of extreme intensification and/or the lack of protective measures. However, the working class general response to the overall state-led measures (535-euro state benefits instead of full wages, “suspended work contracts” etc.) has so far been disappointing, both in magnitude and content.

Regarding the administrative level:

According to the current state of affairs, the capitalists have no obligation to declare the daily working schedule of their employees to the waged-labour registration e-platform, by which they are (in theory at least) monitored by the Body of Labour Inspectors. This basically means that they can legally avoid declaring a worker, thus avoiding paying work-stamps, but it also means they can modify as they wish the type of contracts, work schedules, shifts and days-off to better suit their production needs. For instance, many cases of obligatory conversions of full-time to part-time contracts were reported. The capitalists can, moreover, avoid declaring overtimes, thus increasing their profits and workers’ exhaustion. While we all know that trying to bypass state labour legislature was commonplace among capitalists, it is worthwhile noting that it is the state itself that now allows such (previously) illegal practices. It’s not by accident, therefore, that one of the representatives of capital said «The job market works much better like that, when it’s more flexible».

It is through this condition of embedded flexibility that shift-work and remote-work –rather limited practices until now– have been introduced to a much larger scale in the local labour market, while the ban on almost all retail shops, has paved the way for the online (e-shop) services proliferation, as is the case for the related logistics sector.

The current situation among immigrants in detention centres

The situation among detained immigrants on the Greek islands can be described as rather chaotic. The 16th of March there was a fire in the migrant detention camp of Moria, in Lesvos, which led to the tragic death of a 6-year old child. The fire quickly got out of control due to the strong winds in the area, but also due to the fact that fire-fighting vehicles could not approach the site, as a result of the extremely overcrowded informal migrant settlements surrounding the facilities: while the infrastructure is said to have a capacity of 2,800 persons, the immigrants living there must be ca. 20,000-22,000! In total, more than 42,000 immigrants, including children, are trapped in Lesvos, Samos, Chios, Leros and Kos. In the beginning of February (that is, before the emergence of COVID-19) there was much talk about disease outbreak in the camps. The United Nations Refugee Agency has made an urgent call for the evacuation of Moria, as there is a threat of a pandemic outbreak that could affect the rest of the island: “Humans with severe breathing problems live inside tents which are wet because of moisture and the winter rains. There is no hot water at all and the detainees must wait for three hours in a cold environment to receive food. All of them are undernourished, with bleeding gums.” This is just a fraction of what is actually happening in Moria, according to the UN doctors that work there.

Dealing with such a bleak situation, the Greek government came to realize that a) you reap what you sow and b) you can’t rob Peter to pay Paul: after having waged an electoral campaign based on far-right, anti-immigrant rhetoric, it now finds itself obliged to simultaneously satisfy its electoral clientele on the islands, which demands “decongesting the islands from all immigrants” and “controlling immigrant presence” (i.e. it is no wonder that one of the very first measures that the new government had announced was the annulment of the asylum seekers’ social security number, which was granting them access to health services), and obey the current EU policy that dictates the creation of massive immigrant detention centers / ‘buffer zones’ at its borders, that is on the very same islands.

However, the government’s first attempt to move several immigrants from the detention centers to similar centers located in the mainland was met with huge local opposition there, mostly based on sheer xenophobic reflexes. The plan-b, then, was to construct more, larger enclosed detention centers on the islands and place in them those 42,000 people who have already been trapped there and all those that would attempt to cross the borders in the future. But this plan was also met with, even harsher actually, local reactions, mostly from the right but also from the left, as local interests (partly related to the touristic industry) would be affected. In February, locals fought fiercely against the government’s aim to turn those islands into permanent immigrant prisons by mere force (several riot police squads had been called out, only to make things worse as their presence unified local opposition against them). In the end the government was forced to back down.

After the end of the fight of the locals with the riot police squads and the military closure of the Greek-Turkish borders in early March, right-wing citizen initiatives have successfully managed to turn the local dissatisfaction with healthcare state provisions and state requisition of land for the new prisons into anti-immigrant and anti-NGO propaganda.

It is in this complicated and claustrophobic context, that the pandemic broke out and the immigrants were initially left to their own devices. Shortly afterwards, however, the government implemented harsh measures of mere biopolitical control, under the pretext of COVID-19 spread, despite the fact that all people infected so far are Greeks. In the detention centers in particular the only reported case of COVID-19 infections is that of a police officer in Amygdaleza, Attiki.

The strict legislature against detained immigrants include curfews, new fencing enclosures (around informal settlements) and solitary confinement areas for those that get infected, restricted transport permits to urban centers (in order to buy additional means of subsistence), ban on all indoors activities/meetings etc. However, what was not announced was the most effective preventive measure of all, that is the immediate shut down of all detention centers. More than ever, all of them now look like prisons! Despite that, the so-called Moria Corona Awareness Team, a group staffed by volunteers who have applied for asylum status, expressed its satisfaction for the (repressive) measures taken by the Greek authorities: “These restrictions are useful and necessary for refugees in order to be protected from coronavirus” and “for that we thank the Greeks who imposed the measures, and in a very peaceful way”!

In Kos island the mayor announced his intention to hire private security personnel so as to limit immigrants’ presence in a number of public spaces, thus resulting in even greater congregation within the detention centers, but also precluding similar measures to the nation-wide population.

As a matter of fact, the whole country starts looking like a prison: the Deputy Minister of Civil Protection and Crisis Management has recently announced the first martial law measure: the prohibition of all public gatherings of more than 10 people by 19/3, while offenders will be fined with 1,000 euros! This was soon followed by the lock down of all parks, public squares, hills and other recreational areas but also by the prohibition of all travels towards the islands for non-locals.

The continuous, on a daily basis actually, extension of such draconian and authoritative measures, which soon extend to ban all “unnecessary movement”, not only shows the state’s determination for greater control over social life, but it also reveals that it is the state itself that aims to further fuel the current pandemic of panic among citizens. For instance, according to the more recent measures, only 1 person per 15m2 is now allowed in supermarkets (compared to the 1 per 10m2 before), thus inciting even longer queues, let alone that such a strict rule is not applied in workplaces and prisons/detention centers… Day by day, measure after measure, people seem to get used to this abnormal and irrational “necessity”, according to which even the rip out of ordinary wooden benches from streets and squares seems reasonable. The government propaganda of “irresponsible citizens who disobey quarantine” has proven to be, partially at least, successful in that in certain cases locals in rural areas and small towns have greeted visitors from urban centers with suspicion, if not hostility.

The current situation in prisons

There has been an horizontal ban on both granted leaves (i.e. days-off prison for those prisoners who have completed at least 1/5 of their sentence) and the so-called “free visits” (i.e. open meetings of detainees with their relatives in prison facilities without strict time limits). The short meetings (only 10 to 15-minute long) that initially were allowed behind glass windows are banned, too. On top of that, food, clothes and other (such as books) packages from relatives were prohibited. Barriers in lawyer visits have also been reported. On top of that, the Ministry of Public Order has recommended the use of isolated areas in every prison, each being capable of accommodating 10-20 COVID-19 infected (or potentially infected) inmates. However, the prison managers have already stated their inability to implement such a measure, due to prison overcrowding.

Female detainees have publicized a text, which was communicated through lawyers to the Ministry stating that they are both cooperative and strictly compliant with some of the above measures and that, from their part, “there is a great deal of responsibility”. They demanded that the political leadership show responsibility, too, and accept their proposals, among which are releasing all inmates convicted with less than 5 years of imprisonment, as well as releasing all incarnated mothers with underage children and those who are vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. Similar demands were also made by the Prisoners’ Rights Initiative, mostly focusing on the need to secure safe life-conditions within prisons and decrease overpopulation both in prisons and police detention centers, by means of on-parole releases and other similar policies.

Protests

The last big demonstration in the country took place on the island of Lesvos on March 14. It was an anti-fascist/pro-immigration demo which was supported by the local Hospital Doctors’ Union and was accused of “irresponsibility” by the government supporters all over the country.

The only call for strike this week was issued by the Union of Archaeologists who demanded to stop working, a demand that was met by the Ministry of Culture.

A collective hunger-strike, of more than 1,200 immigrants detained in Korinthos detention camp has been initiated by March 20, protesting against the harsh living conditions, also demanding to be freed. Whether this protest was mostly related to the UN anti-racism day (21/3) or extends further than that, remains unclear at the moment.

After dark, there are more cops in the streets than ordinary people. If there’s going to be a curfew this weekend or next week, it will be very difficult for comrades who are still active to get together or put their banners, stickers etc over the city of Athens.

Assembly of Workers-Unemployed from Syntagma Square

TPTG

March 22, 2020

From Anarchist worldwide

Spain – Hunger Strike and Revolt in Prisons

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As many of you already know, in the C.P. de Brians I, a hunger strike began a few days ago due to the restrictive conditions that had been applied by the coronavirus, canceling visits with family members in all state prisons, while officials enter and leave the compound without any protection.

In Brians, as of today, more than 100 prisoners were supporting the hunger strike.

Today at noon, while the prisoners entered the dining room and collected the cutlery but not the food tray, a group of jailers appeared and asked about their attitude. Some have replied that they were conducting a hunger strike, explaining the reasons, and the jailers’ reaction has been to take away their identity documents and at least 3 of them who refused to eat have been transferred to isolation, intimidating the rest, so that those who came behind have preferred to desist from the hunger strike.

We remember that anarchist prisoner Amadeu Casellas has been imprisoned for almost two years and awaiting trial in the C.P. de Brians I.

In the Wad Ras prison in Barcelona, a first case of coronavirus has been known of a woman who had a few days to go free and has been released, but the other women who were with her are nervous because they have asked for tests, but they have not done anything to them. Yesterday a group of people gathered at the front door demanding freedom for the prisoners. Prisoners were interested in the protest and from the inside they wanted to know what could be done.

In Murcia II today they have not allowed visiters to enter to communicate. A jailer has gone out with a security member to communicate that from today at noon, it will no longer be possible to communicate through the glass.

Prisoners from Fontcalent prison (Alicante) have protested this Sunday with a bonfire in the courtyard, in the absence of information and protection measures against the coronavirus.

In this same prison, 12 other jailers have been sent to their quarantined homes, accounting for 164 prisoners and fifty-one isolated jailers awaiting the official number of positives. The union requested the immediate suspension of communications through glass, in all prisons, and that for new prison entries, 14 days of quarantine be decreed.

We call for the continued vigilance of expressing solidarity with prisoners and for the withdrawal of sanctioning files.

Group of Support for Amadeu

From: https://es-contrainfo.espiv.net/2020/03/18/estado-espanol-informaciones-sobre-la-situacion-en-las-carceles-a-raiz-del-coronavirus/

More Information on the Revolt at Fontcalent prison (Alicante)On Sunday morning, a large group of prisoners in module 2 of Alicante’s Foncalent prison demanded they be provided with protective material to prevent infection with coronavirus. Prisoners from an overcrowded module then came out into the courtyard, barricading themselves, burning objects and shouting Freedom, Freedom!

The prisoners refused to leave a courtyard area and attacked guards.

Prisoners later agreed to return to their cells, but later began to knock heavily on cell bars before burning toilet paper to throw it out the windows.

original text

Dayton (Ohio) – Cops utilize tear gas against students

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After they knew tat they had less than 24 hours to remove themselves from campus for the epidemic, more then 1000 people gathered outside of student housing. Then they started to blocking streets, jumping on several cars, and chanting trowing bottles and other stuff.

After that cops started to launch pepper balls for pacificate the situation. It tooks from 11 AM to 2.30 PM.

Cops says that at least one person was injured by trown bottles.

Not to much, but not bad..

Chile – An anarchist perspective on the coronavirus pandemic

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On a particularly chaotic Friday afternoon, Piñera inaugurated the nationwide chain reaction to the pandemic. Since the beginning of March, fear of the virus has slowly entered the conversation: between the agitated return to classes that seeks to be a replica (like an earthquake) of the October Revolt, the massive feminist demonstrations, the radicalization of the reactionary sectors and the imminence of the plebiscite, it is taking on more and more importance.

The international situation is no less complex. Last year saw the beginning of a new worldwide wave of revolts against capitalist normality, and the much manipulated “institutionality” seems to be collapsing from all sides, leaving room not only for insurgent creativity but also (and never so easily differentiated) for populism and fascism of all kinds.

The economy has been losing speed for some time, but the trade war between two declining powers, the manufactured rise in the price of oil, and the paralysis caused by the coronavirus, built the perfect storm to leave the stock market and its tangle of speculative fictions in free fall.

It is in this context that the disease arrives in our territory, with the state of exception still fresh in our memories. It starts in the upper classes, and we almost rejoice before remembering that they will not be the only ones to suffer its consequences. The government, always late, announces its measures. Clearly they are not enough, and their only objective is to ensure the free movement of capital. Some (the ones who see conspiracies at every corner) whisper that it is a strategy to cancel the plebiscite, that is apparently so dangerous. But we are clear that the intelligent fascist votes to approve, and that the government’s incompetence requires no more justification than its own class interests.

However, we have also seen how the situation has developed in other countries with a more advanced stage of infection. Simulations of insurrection, urban warfare and absolute states of emergency have been deployed on the streets of China, Italy and other parts of the world, with varying degrees of success. The Chinese state, famous for its repressive capacity, concentrated all its efforts on the containment of ground zero but, juggling to keep its economy afloat, left its regional governments free both to resume production and to sustain the quarantine. Beyond this it has been by far the country whose quarantine has been most efficient and effective (we won’t mention the United States, whose public policy is reduced to covering its ears and shouting loudly).

The Italian case is notable, more than anything else, for its resistance to quarantine measures and “social distancing”, a nefarious euphemism that refers to self-isolation, forced precarization disguised as “tele-working”, hoarding of essential goods, and the denial of any form of community. When the prisoners (who have always been overcrowded and immuno-compromised) were banned from receiving visits, the biggest prison revolt of this century began: 27 prisons were taken over, many people were killed, police and prison officers were kidnapped and hundreds of prisoners escaped.

In Chilean territory, the situation is uncertain. Pharmacies and supermarkets that were recently looted will soon be out of stock due to widespread panic. Public transport, a permanent battleground since the beginning of the revolt, will soon be avoided like the plague. The government has already banned gatherings of more than 500 people, but by now anyone who is listening to the government is listening. The military, who we assume have refused to leave again to keep what little legitimacy they have left and to be able to preserve their privileges in a new constitution, will not have so much shame if they can disguise their actions as public health. Real public health, on the other hand, weighs less than a packet of cabritas (translation note: a popular popcorn snack). And we have no idea what will happen with the plebiscite.

If elsewhere the pandemic was a trial of insurrection, here the insurrection seems to have been a trial of pandemic and economic crisis. Let’s keep the flame of revolt alive, and organize to survive.

We will now outline some measures that we consider worthy of generalization, more of an inspiration than a programme:

  • Looting and organized redistribution of basic goods
  • The use of student occupations as collection centres, shelters for homeless people and, of course, street fighters.
  • The boycott of any form of distance work or study, so that the quarantine becomes a general strike.
  • The immediate release of all prisoners as a central demand.
  • Mass evasion in private clinics, free medical care for all.
  • Rent strike, taking over empty houses.
  • The hood is the best mask!

Evade the isolation of capital!

Deny immunity as a police device!

The crisis is an opportunity, raise your fist and attack!

(via Contra Info, translated into English by Anarchists Worldwide)

Ask a Different Question: Reclaiming autonomy of action during the virus

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Anonymous submission to North Shore
The situation changes quickly. Along with everyone else, I follow it avidly and share updates, watch our lives change from day to day, get bogged down in uncertainty. It can feel like there is only a single crisis whose facts are objective, allowing only one single path, one that involves separation, enclosure, obedience, control. The state and its appendages become the only ones legitimate to act, and the mainstream media narrative with the mass fear it produces swamps our ability for independent action.
Some anarchists though have pointed out that there are two crises playing out in parallel — one is a pandemic that is spreading rapdily and causing serious harm and even death for thousands. The other is crisis management strategy imposed by the the state. The state claims to be acting in the interest of everyone’s health — it wants us to see its response as objective and inevitable.
But its crisis management is also a way of determining what conditions will be like when the crisis resolves, letting it pick winners and losers along predictable lines. Recognizing the inequality baked into these supposedly neutral measures means acknowledging that certain people being asked to pay a much higher cost than others for what the powerful are claiming as a collective good. I want to recover some autonomy and freedom of action in this moment, and to do this, we need to break free of the narrative we are given. 
When we let the state control the narrative, the questions that are asked about this moment, we also let them control the answers. If we want a different outcome than the powerful are preparing, we need to be able to ask a different question.
We mistrust the mainstream narrative on so many things, and are usually mindful of the powerful’s ability to shape the narrative to make the actions they want to take seem inevitable. Here in Canada, the exaggeration and lies about the impacts of #shutdowncanada rail blockades was a deliberate play to lay the groundwork for a violent return to normal. We can understand the benefits of an infection-control protocol while being critical of the ways the state is using this moment for its own ends. Even if we assess the situation ourselves and accept certain reccomendations the state is also pushing, we don’t have to adopt the state’s project as our own. There is a big difference between following orders and thinking independently to reach similar conclusions.
 
When we are actually carrying out own project, it becomes easier to make an independent assessment of the situation, parsing the torrent of information and reccomendations for ourselves and asking what is actually suitable for our goals and priorities. For instance, giving up our ability to have demonstrations while we still need to go work retail jobs seems like a bad call for any liberatory project. Or recognizing the need for a rent strike while also fear mongering about any way of talking to our neighbours.
Giving up on struggle while still accomodating the economy is very far from addressing our own goals, but it flows from the state’s goal of managing the crisis to limit economic harm and prevent challenges to its legitimacy. It’s not that the state set out to quash dissent, that is probably just a byproduct. But if we have a different starting point — build autonomy rather than protect the economy — we will likely strike different balances about what is appropriate.
  For me, a starting point is that my project as an anarchist is to create the conditions for free and meaningful lives, not just ones that are as long as possible. I want to listen to smart advice without ceding my agency, and I want to respect the autonomy of others — rather than a moral code to enforce, our virus measures should be based on agreements and boundaries, like any other consent practice. We communicate about the measures we choose, we come to agreements, and where agreements aren’t possible, we set boundaries that are self-enforceable and don’t rely on coercion. We look at the ways access to medical care, class, race, gender, geography, and of course health affect the impact of both the virus and the state’s response and try to see that as a basis for solidarity.
A big part of the state’s narrative is unity — the idea that we need to come together as a society around a singular good that is for everyone. People like feeling like they’re part of a big group effort and like having the sense of contributing through their own small actions — the same kinds of phenomenons that make rebellious social movements possible also enable these moments of mass obedience. We can begin rejecting it by reminding ourselves that the interests of the rich and powerful are fundamentally at odds with our own. Even in a situation where they could get sicken or die too (unlike the opioid crisis or the AIDS epidemic before it), their response to the crisis is unlikely to meet our needs and may even intensify exploitation.
The presumed subject of most of the measures like self-isolation and social distancing is middle-class — they imagine a person whose job can easily be worked from home or who has access to paid vacation or sick days (or, in the worst case, savings), a person with a spacious home, a personal vehicle, without very many close, intimate relationships, with money to spend on childcare and leisure activities. Everyone is asked to accept a level of discomfort, but that increases the further away our lives are from looking like that unstated ideal and compounds the unequal risk of the worst consequences of the virus. One response to this inequality has been to call on the state to do forms of redistribution, by expanding employment insurance benefits, or by providing loans or payment deferrals. Many of these measure boil down to producing new forms of debt for people who are in need, which recalls the outcome of the 2008 financial crash, where everyone shared in absorbing the losses of the rich while the poor were left out to dry.
I have no interest in becoming an advocate for what the state should do and I certainly don’t think this is a tipping point for the adoption of more socialistic measures. The central issue to me is whether or not we want the state to have the abiltiy to shut everything down, regardless of what we think of the justifications it invokes for doing so. 
The #shutdowncanada blockades were considered unacceptable, though they were barely a fraction as disruptive as the measures the state pulled out just a week later, making clear that it’s not the level of disruption that was unacceptable, but rather who is a legitimate actor. Similarly, the government of Ontario repeated constantly the unacceptable burden striking teachers were placing on families with their handful of days of action, just before closing schools for three weeks — again, the problem is that they were workers and not a government or boss. The closure of borders to people but not goods intensifies the nationalist project already underway across the world, and the economic nature of these seemingly moral measures will become more plain once the virus peaks and the calls shift towards ‘go shopping, for the economy’.
The state is producing legitimacy for its actions by situating them as simply following expert reccomendations, and many leftists echo this logic by calling for experts to be put directly in control of the response to the virus. Both of these are advocating for technocracy, rule by experts. We have seen this in parts of Europe, where economic experts are appointed to head governments to implement ‘neutral’ and ‘objective’ austerity measures. Calls to surrender our own agency and to have faith in experts are already common on the left, especially in the climate change movement, and extending that to the virus crisis is a small leap.
It’s not that I don’t want to hear from experts or don’t want there to be individuals with deep knowledge in specific fields — it’s that I think the way problems are framed already anticipate their solution. The response to the virus in China gives us a vision of what technocracy and authoritarianism are capable of. The virus slows to a stop, and the checkpoints, lockdowns, facial recognition technology, and mobilized labour can be turned to other ends. If you don’t want this answer, you’d better ask a different question.
So much of social life had already been captured by screens and this crisis is accelerating it — how do we fight alienation in this moment? How do we address the mass panic being pushed by the media, and the anxiety and isolation that comes with it?
How do we take back agency? Mutual aid and autonomous health projects are one idea, but are there ways we can go on the offensive? Can we undermine the ability of the powerful to decide whose lives are worth preserving? Can we go beyond support to challenge property relations? Like maybe building towards looting and expropriations, or extorting bosses rather than begging not to be fired for being sick?
How are we preparing to avoid curfews or travel restrictions, even cross closed borders, should we consider it appropriate to do so? This will certainly involve setting our own standards for safety and necessity, not just accepting the state’s guidelines.
 
How do we push forward other anarchist engagements? Specifically, our hostility to prison in all its forms seems very relevant here. How do we centre and target prison in this moment? How about borders? And should the police get involved to enforce various state measures, how do we delegitimate them and limit their power?
 
How do we target the way power is concentrating and restructuring itself around us? What interests are poised to “win” at the virus and how do we undermine them (think investment opportunities, but also new laws and increased powers). What infrastructure of control is being put in place? Who are the profiteers and how can we hurt them? How do we prepare for what comes next and plan for the window of possibility that might exist in between the worst of the virus and a return to economic normalcy?
 Developing our own read on the situation, along with our own goals and practices, is not a small job. It will take the exchange of texts, experiments in action, and communication about the results. It will take broadening our sense of inside-outside to include enough people to be able to organize. It will involve still acting in the public space and refusing to retreat to online space.  Combined with measures to deal with the virus, the intense fear and pressure to conform coming from many who would normally be our allies makes even finding space to discuss the crises on different terms a challenge. But if we actually want to challenge the ability of the powerful to shape the response to the virus for their own interests, we need to start by taking back the ability to ask our own questions. Conditions are different everywhere, but all states are watching each other and following each others’ lead, and we would do well to look to anarchists in other places dealing with conditions that may soon become our own. So I’ll leave you with this quote from anarchists in France, where a mandatory lockdown has been in place all week, enforced with dramatic police violence:
 “And so yes, let’s avoid too much collectivity in our activities and unnecessary meetings, we will maintain a safe distance, but fuck the confinement measures, we’ll evade your police patroles as much as we can, it’s out of the question that we support repression or restrictions of our rights! To all the poor, marginal, and rebellious, show solidarity and engage in mutual aid to maintain activities necessary for survival, avoid the arrests and fines and continue expressing ourselves politically.”
 From “Against Mass Confinement” (“Contre le confinement généralisé“). Published in French on Indymedia Nantes

London – Prison Makes Us Sick

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In this moment of not knowing what’s coming next, the failure of this system is more and more clear: a world wired for ever-growing speed, circulation, and productivity, suddenly has to stop. In this moment when power gets more power, fed by the general panic of an unknown and new situation, there’s a pressing need to listen out and to fight for those who are most affected, those who already know what it is to be trapped, isolated and repressed.

We will be publishing information, hoping to amplify unheard voices, and to break the silence that risks making an intolerable situation even worse. Now, more than ever, those caged by the state face precarious conditions, with low hygienic standards, very poor healthcare and overcrowded cells. While the ‘managers’ of the crisis carefully calculate how this or that measure can protect the political and economic order, the basic steps we need to take to slow down the contagion are clear: keep distance between each other, maintain good hygiene and avoid crowded places. Inside, this will be difficult or impossible for many. We are not going to ‘take this on the chin’! Prison makes us sick!

Take a minute to share this poster, as an easy and first step to practicing solidarity. Email us with any questions. We won’t share any details without consent.

https://325.nostate.net/2020/03/22/london-abc-prison-makes-us-sick-uk/