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Anarchism as movement

     

     "Don't think we are just a few"                                           Dafnomili 2013

Due to the full scale of protest and street riots which erupted after the news of Alexandros' death had spred like wild fire on Dec. 6th, 2008, it became evident that the spirit of Anarchism had gripped a large portion of the youth. Also it was no longer confined to being just students. Rather it had found by 2008 already a much wider base in Greek society. 

Anarchism

       

       Anarchist declaration

Embracing the Anarchist philosophy means a willingness to "fight the state". Especially students go through this phase of perceiving the state as being a mere tool of Capitalism and therefore leading only to suppression. Often the youth goes through that phase of radicalization as different political ideas are being tried out. In all of this, it should be forgotten growing up in the world means a socialization with different factors affecting why one group of youth tends towards the Extreme Right while others identify themselves most readily with the Radical Left, or even as they would declare themselves to be 'Anarchist' of a certain kind. For there are many subgroups which alter the nuances in self understanding as to what it means to call oneself to be an 'Anarchist', or even Revolutionary.

After 2008 and the events connected with the death of Alexandrous, it became clear this might be quite different from previous periods of time when Anarchism as political credo was embraced. For the sudden wide spread movement to include non students and those even under fifteen years of age, underlines one prime fact: the youth in Athens and Greece feels to have no future in a country which has not made good use of its resources, and this despite of having become in 1981 a member of the European Union and in 2001 joined the Euro-zone to share with other member states a common currency.

When it comes to align the term of Anarchism with an underlining tendency to shape the mind by identifying with the most pertinent matter, then it is about staying 'innocent' or else a wish not to lose integrity. Most telling is a poem which ends with the statement 'but I shall not be an accomplice of this murder!' It reflects that the youth has turned their 'back side to the future' - an image which recalls a picture Walter Benjamin kept on his desk. It was the picture called 'Angelos Novus' by Paul Klee and in which there is depicted an angel being blown away from the surface of the earth and rather than looking ahead, looks back. The poem was published on the web on 6th of December 2011 to remember what happened on that same date three years ago (1):

 

I'm turning my backside to the future

the future you are shaping as you may

since history to you it's belonging

then if you do insist sweep it away

 

The promises completely filled my ears up

I've seen the play again don't drive me nuts

the ship of the dreams I have is sailing to

worlds you can't come you don't have the guts

 

In this present alone I'll be staying try saving

what I can save from your spree

I'll suffer all the legal consequences

accomplice to this murder I won't be

 

I'm turning my backside to the future

the trick is rigged and fitted to your measure

so cross me out from your long filthy records

I won't involve in your deeds and your leisure

 

I'm turning my backside to the future

the future you are shaping as you may

since history to you it's belonging

what are you waiting for? Sweep it away

 

In this present alone I'll be staying

try saving what I can save from your spree

I'll suffer all the legal consequences

accomplice to this murder I won't be

The poem expresses clearly that for the youth almost everything they had valued disappeared or has even been carelessly squandered by a society caring only about money and advancing oneself at the cost of all others. Gaining opportunities to shine somewhere mattered more than even friendships. In the eyes of the youth it seems as if this society is ready to sacrifice everything of value just for the sake of some fake social status. The latter is linked to having success, even if the means to gain it is anything but legal or considerate of others.

But to return to the overall tendency of how Anarchists perceive things, if the state is but a repressive tool, then the very incarnation thereof is the police they confront in the streets of Athens.

Police as incarnation of state violence

Two months before Alexandros died on 6th of December 2008, the police station in Exarchia was set on fire. Hence it should not have come completely as a surprise that once the news of Alexandros' death on 6th of December spread like wild fire throughout Athens and Greece, that many took to the street and undertook such actions as if the entire city was ready to explode.

     

      Youth confronting the police

The confrontation with the police is not new but it escalated after the events of 2008 even further. More and more joined the street protests which usually followed the countless demonstrations against the austerity measures. Until July 2011 all these protests were superseded by the assembly on Syntagma Square. It seemed as if more and more people wanted to bloster the public forum. That lasted, however, only until again two days of general strike and demonstrations culminated into violent clashes with the police. The clearest evidence thereof are the entrance walls to the metro, for the marble pieces broken out were used as projectiles thrown at the police. 

Hatred of the police

The hatred of the police has to be explained for they are the first to be confronted by a youth which has been transformed by the overall movement into anarchists or at the very least into sympathisers of this street protest. The latter became after 2008 the adopted political line of protest by the youth against the state. 

                

                 "The whole of Athens hates the police" (written in German)

                 ACAB = All Cops Are Bastards          Dafnomili January 2014

The reason for so much hatred needs to be examined still further. It marks a shift away from previously existing political models. For this youth was no longer willing to just follow the lead of the older generations. Still, once political analysis is replaced by simply hate, they are equally at risk to further the emergence of a language of hatred. The latter the French philosopher Jean Pierre Faye had analysed already as key element of Totalitarian Languages. That language of hatred became ever more evident with the emergence of the Extreme Right as exemplified by the surge the neo Fascist group linked to 'Chrysi Avgi' or Golden Dawn.

The negative development towards hate may well reflect the old wisdom of Dostoevsky who examined why it is far easier to unite people by hate rather than by love and empathy for the other? It may even reflect the loss of the dimension of love altogether, or more precisely what Freud would have called the tearing apart of the libido which would uphold the individual in feeling to be still connected to humanity. Once torn, self isolation tends to become such a threat to existence that as if drowning this fear generates more negative strength than what can be imagined. At the same time, Jean Pierre Faye would explain hatred as outcome of having manipulated the self to the point of self-hatred but while this is happening, all are just waiting to unload their hatred upon a suitable subject. In the 20th century it was the Jew, while in the 21st century all indications has it that it is going to be the migrant. Since this plays a role as well in how tensions unload, this aspect needs still further consideration.

The conspiracy theory

Whenever Anarchists undertake actions, plan something, they need to be aware that the state and related forces shall want to keep a tap on them. One writing on the wall says it all: "fuck the undercover police." It shows awareness of danger lurking everywhere. Such an expression can entail as much paranoia as it does express what real risks they take to be uncovered and even be betrayed. The latter aspect suggests that archists have to operate likewise under cover, in analogy to resistance fighters.

Clandestine like operations are undertaken if the state is perceived as being completely hostile no matter what one tries to do. By necessity it leads to the convinction that it is impossible to operate in the open. Once that principle grips the wide range of anarchists of different colours and socialization practices, not everyone shall be granted a free access to their groups and communities. How these controls are enacted upon, differs from day to day and in relation to whether danger looms or not. Definitely these controls form a part of shared knowledge as to who can be trusted, relied upon and has proven him- or herself in countless cases as to where that particular individual stands.

Here then might lie a weakness in their strength. As any true anarchist knows from history, no formal organization is accepted. Practically it would mean to be completely on your own. One has to act all alone. But this seems not to be the case of the anarchist movement in Athens and Greece after 2008. They hold assemblies and discuss very much how to avoid acting alone and therefore risk to be chased as outsiders to society by the police.

Proclamations of political ideas on the walls

          

 

           "Free the prisoners" - a political demand             Ermou Street 2014

Hence graffiti and all the 'writings on the wall' point in turn to heightened tensions in the city. This is especially the case when confrontations with the police stand before. Since they can happen almost daily, this mix of expected with the unexpected can be a highly explosive one.

By taking the law into their own hands, they are equally at risk to be treated outside the law. All this happens often in confrontation with such police brutality that it feeds further the belief the police will always act outside 'social norms' and beyond any professional code of ethics when hitting out at them. Many anarchists have experienced that the police is ready not just to do a normal arrest if warranted, but while doing so end up kicking and beating the ones they managed to take hostage.

Revier of the anarchists: Exarchia

   

 

    "Street fighter" Exarchia Square                                          Jan. 22, 2014

Exarchia is reknown to be a difficult territory for the police. Here rule the anarchists or some other kind of spirit difficult to grasp at times determines the atmosphere. Things can be lovely one moment while in the next everything seems ready to boil over. There is never any certainty how long the 'uneasy peace' shall last in the narrow streets. Things differ according to times of the day, while during the night a lot of young people are still afoot when others try to sleep but usually in vain due to all the noise. There is always a great intermingling of students attending the famous Polytechnic, lost bodies without home or job, local residents, shop keepers and those civil servants who work at the Ministry of Culture. The latter is located just behind the National Museum which houses a vast collection of archaeological pieces from periods of Ancient Greece and the Roman times. 

                

In other words, Exarchia has all the flavours of a kind of outlaw kind of territory but it matches unconsciously as well an overall trend within Greek society. The latter aspect concerns not just the mix of people, professions, ages and dispositions, but as well what has all the making of 'chaos' as state of affairs. The latter is a seeming disorder with always some underlying pattern emerging to ensure in the final end things work out so that some kind order does seem to exist. Certain things function like the various kinds of restaurants and food joints with a huge variety and always waiters quick on their feet and alert in their minds to remember precisely the orders given. 

Chaos may not even be the precise description. Rather the apparent absence of law seems to support the idea that a life in freedom is possible, or at least as one outside observer would attest there is still much space to breathe in such a culture when compared to others like the one prevailing in America where business is the only dominant culture and no real enjoyment of life seems possible. Hence the outcome of this ability to live, and that means to transform the given into an opportunity to talk and share a cigarette with the neighbor underlines this notion of being free to live and therefore not to be bothered at the moment as to what will happen tomorrow. 'We shall see' is the usual answer when asked how things will develop next.

There is a negative side to this kind of anarchy or life in freedom. For once rules are made up as one goes along, then governance by privileges becomes exemptions become a need. It entails the risks that commitments to a legal and formal process end up being highly arbitrary. What is kept reflects what is subject to deeming to be possible under given circumstances. Consequently the binding power of the social contract is so weak that decisions once made to pass a law can be simply discarded very soon thereafter. It was what Stefan Zweig in his description of Byzantine Greece called the readiness to abandon treaties since in normal times they seem not to be needed but in a crisis it is then too late for the other side shall not take serious the cry for help. That dilemma Greeks have to face especially in a period of deep economic crisis since the huge state deficit still needs explanations so that those willing to help can gain in trust they are not being abandoned once the situation has been resolved.

A comical paradox is constantly re-created as a result. For while no one tolerates anyone standing in the way, still an ontological mind set seems to make everyone want to stop suddenly even it means to stand in the middle of road and therefore obstructing the traffic or the path for others. This sudden still stand comes out of a seeming lack of anticipation or a failure to implement when planning the streets some logistics which reflects a wise use of scarce space. It seems as if a mentality of collective individuality is played through all the time. There does not seem to prevail an insight into what would constitute moving about in consideration of the others. This might as well explain why 'Greeks' find it so difficult to work together, and therefore the outcome is but a resignation since the hope to find a common solution accepted by all has been abandoned a long time ago. 

Behind that was a kind of definance in a post colonial society which wanted to say you do not need to immigrate to America to experience freedom.

Is a dialogue between youth and police possible?

It is difficult to reason with the anarchists and a rebellious youth about the need to take up a dialogue with the police as had been done in the case of Kids' Guernica in Gent. Mutual empathy would help to understand the plight of a society not able to match desire for freedom with the need of some collective binding power, so that rules are not merely upheld, but respected by everyone. For always any collectivity will face such trivial problems as waste removal but also more serious ones such as conflicts between two parties threatening to go completely out of control. Conflict resolution requires the art of mediation. Otherwise the threatening violence will spin completely out of control and engulf both sides along with the rest of society in a merciless dispute. Syria has become since 2011 a prime example of that. It shows that mediation is an integral part of any peace negotiation and process.

Unfortunately hate language dominates when anarchists express their attitudes towards the police and the state. It means they come away from any encounter ending in violent skirmishes ever more bitter. Likewise the police will harden its attitude towards those demonstrators which create for them not only more trouble, but pose an immediate threat. For the anarchists the conflict can turn even more bitter when they wish to demonstrate against the Neo Fascists doing their parade, for while they can display their nationalist and Fascist beliefs, the police gives chase to the anarchists. No wonder then that among the anarchists the belief is very strong that many of the police are really not only on the side of Chrysi Avgi, but themselves members of this political organisation. Thus these confrontations can escalate at any given moment since each side will merely see the other through their own prejudiced view. Nothing shall be undertaken on either side to counter the hate language and the tendency to have just the image of the other be confirmed. Instead both sides hold onto their respective convictions which are most difficult to challenge, if ever refutable at all by a process of mediation and dialogue.

What makes it worse is that the police itself is not free of corruption. Within their own ranks the lower positioned police officers suffer themselves the consequences of an unjust distribution of privileges. For a policeman without 'political' connection can be forced to do his or her services in areas like Exarchia. Likewise in the military which is still compulsory in Greece, those with connections do their military duty in Athens and not in some far outpost along the Turkish border or on some remote island. It means for those staying in Athens that they can go home on the weekend, while the underprivileged are forced to do their duty in far outposts and often under very harsh conditions. This will leave the lower rank and file always with some kind of grudge, and more often they take that out on demonstrators they dislike because they are exactly the critical mirror of that part of the youth which does not allow itself to be pushed around and which takes freedom seriously.

Since the police as an institution serves the purpose of justice prevailing in society, it says a lot if the contradiction prevails and they themselves experience unjust treatment themselves. Once the police is marked by that contradiction, a confusion in the minds sets in especially amongst the young police officers. When they confront a protesting youth which is of their same age, they will want to suppress even more so that alternative in life to what they have decided to do. In Exarchia they make that experience almost on a daily basis. For most of the anarchists realize that the low rank and file is composed of those recruits who were desparate for a job and some stable income, even if they do not get paid a lot e.g. 800 Euros a month. Naturally the Anarchists distinguish as well between ordinary policemen and the riot police. For they have experienced that the latter are altogether different, much rougher and tougher, and therefore more likely to abuse their special powers as if locked into a special mind set due to the special training they have received.

As said many kinds of confrontations between protesters and police turn out to be critical mirrors as to what is happening in the street as if representative of two different forces in society carrying out the fight for others. These confrontations do have a highly symbolic nature as to who controls the streets. Often it is a stand off and a weighing in of certain key arguments behind which stand strategies and notions of how to keep control over a situation best handled when not provoking still further going violence. After all there is the damage to be considered, the damage which can be inflicted at any given moment upon society in the form of smashed windows or else traffic jams with shops in the centre of Athens losing out on business. In short, there are many other factors in need to be taken into consideration before the police decides to confront the Anarchist movement head on.

For the police those who call themselves Anarchists appear to be privileged in many ways. For one, privilege can mean they can allow themselves things a police officer would never be able to do either while on duty or privately. This is because civic duty limits the use of violent force. If the police is unable to control this aspect, then civic strife shall result in looting and worse in people even killing another just for the sake of some money. Quite the opposite concept of violence is held by some of the Anarchist movement who legitimize violence when fighting an oppressive state with the police being the prime representatives thereof. That equation of the Anarchists does not take into consideration what 'violence' entails altogether and why society has to be able to resolve both internal and external conflicts peacefully. It goes without saying that it is always better to talk with the other side rather than let this escalate into uncontrollable violence. 

Elias Canetti named power as being the astonishing feat that someone can be ordered to stand guard in front of that police station and this for hours without moving far away from that specific spot. Something 'invisible' force makes that person submit to such an order, and this without anyone else standing nearby to control what he does or not. How is that possible? Such self control can lead to self hatred and therefore shall be unloaded at a given moment when this force is directed not against those who issued the command, but those who demonstrate in the streets to show that they are not obeying such a command.

About the term 'command' interestingly enough Adorno said in 'minima moralia', if society commands to love (rather than hate) the other, the only way to break that command is to love the other. It takes some philosophical sophistication to resolve that paradox and therefore the question really is if the Anarchists are able to break that chain of command holding power over many people and still allow people to live together peacefully?  

How to counter hatred

Unloading a gun is like unloading hate. It is a mistake on the side of that police officer to think by doing that he could get rid of that hate. Naturally it may also be an act to counter the fear to be overwhelmed by the sheer innocence of the opponent. This would question the entire engagement i.e. for having joined the police force in the first place. Thus while it may amount to an act of taking revenge for all the fear the anarchists have managed to instill in the police force, proper police conduct would have to be to resolve confrontations like these by taking things beyond the primitive level determined by a sheer wish to take revenge. 

Political philosophy behind the Anarchist movement

           

            "Anarchism = Freedom"      University of Athens building 2013

 

Tactical aptitude or endorsement of violence as strategic method

In the case of the Athenian anarchists who have been carrying out various forms of revolts since 2008, care needs to be taken what is said about them. For they are quite varied within themselves and differ greatly especially with regards to the question of violence. It is not merely a matter of belief in violence or not, but as well whether or not justification of violence against objects but not against people can be upheld.

                    

                       Commotion in Skoufa Street after smashing of cars

Moreover attitudes differ with regards to various forms of punishments if damage is inflicted upon the movement. It can include going on a rampage by just moving once through Skoufa Street in Kolonaki considered to be the area of the rich and of the privileged. In such a case taking revenge would simply mean to take 'stones' to smash especially those expensive cars which are parked left and right. The breaking of glass Sartre interpreted that as a sign of a wish to break into the present. A youth which feels not to have any chance in such a society would revolt against this exclusion, and this often out of panic once it has realized the past and the future conspire against them and they have literally no chance of survival within that specific society.

   

    Destroyed house after having been set aflame                                  2012

Altogether they distinguish between various symbolic actions meant to mark the times and street protest against forms of violence directed against others, in particular migrants. Typical is again the distinction violence against objects but not people. The former can entail everything from smashing windows of banks, supermarkets and of expensive cars to setting even entire buildings on fire. Often this takes on the form of a symbolic street protest leaving in its wake overturned rubbish cany and burning tires in the middle of the street. Over time, they are being challenged since it seems this kind of protest has been repeated too often and no longer convinces anyone. The overall movement adapts and generates another agenda created by anonymous writers on the wall. Like the graffiti being often without a single artist fixing his or her signature to such a work, collective expressions are preferred to distinguish themselves from a world limited by private ownership.

In search of common space

                    

 

                     Private parking space

It seems as if the Anarchist movement along with others seek a way out of the fake duality of private-public space. It may well amoung to search for some common space which is open to all, and which has found expression in various forms of occupations. The best example thereof are houses with squatters or in Athens the use of the Embros Theatre. David Harvey talks likewise about this new phenomenon since public spaces are very often not at all open to the general public, but severely limited and restricted in their use. He cites the state pushing out of Syntagma Square the assemblies which were held there until July 2011.

                 

                  Public square

How then to relate the search for common space - it does remind of the 'House of Commons' as lower house of the British Parliament as the place where a deliberation on how common resources are to be used for what purpose - with the question how to bring about a just society. The latter ought to be based on equality, brotherhood and freedom as vague reminder of the French Revolution, but how then to curtail those who wish to resort to violence to bring about change since they believe nothing else will suffice.

For instance, there are those who have undergone theoretical studies of the system and expressed their desire for alternative ways of living and working together. Their basic idea is to create 'commons', that is spaces for deliberations and which exist outside the state. They formalize themselves in open assemblies at local and district level. By adopting these forms they try to take care of different functions and common needs ranging from health services to creating libraries and stages for performances.

The problem is that use of violence begets immediately hierarchy insofar as it provokes responses by the police, and if necessary as well by the military. In Greece threats of military coups made often enough the rounds as rumor and as a real threat. At the same time semi violent conflicts as the case when demonstrators battle with the police, have their own spill over effects.

There was the loss of Syntagma Square as common ground to hold the overall assembly of all. It ended July 2011 when demonstrations turned violent and in due course the police swept through the tent village to beat everyone in their way and then to drive all out.

Interestingly enough, the media is the first to point out any protest movement will require sooner or later a kind of leadership which knows how to articulate the demands of the movement, but which will require as well a hierarchy of priorities when setting the agenda for possible negotiations. Even if they are shared to a large extent, still the forms used to organize things are based on hierarchical structures. It is an unresolved problem which can frustrate anyone, hence the readiness to demonstrate such an outburst of anger by just going down the street and to smash anything which stands in the way as a symbol for the detested system. As said already, these are mainly luxury cars and banks, but not only.

In opposition to hierarchical principles

        

 

         "No slaves, no female bosses"                               Lycabettou 2014

George Orwell wrote about Anarchism in 'my Catalonia'. His writing showed how the Anarchists were fighting up front against Franco's army, and often with bare hands, while the Communists ran around in cities with unused guns slung over their shoulders. Ever since then, Anarchism can be portrayed as the opposition to any hierarchical structured party organization. That form of revolt against any hierarchical form is a trade mark of anarchism. It means both a huge trust in the human being and a thirst for freedom by not wishing to be determined by especially formal rules.

Yet a distinction has to be made with that traditional anarchism linked to such figures as Bakunin and others in Germany like Gustav Landauer. They confronted threats coming from both the Extreme Left and Right which applied various forms of suppression and oppression to either maintain power or else to gain means by which it was possible to level up to historical compromises, the Hitler-Stalin pact most exemplatory for that kind of negative coalition. 

In the case of the Athenian anarchists who have been carrying out various forms of revolts since 2008, care needs to be taken what is said about them. For they are quite varied within themselves and differ greatly especially with regards to the question of violence. This is not merely a matter of belief in violence or not but also whether violence against objects i.e. cars is justifiable while against people not. Moreover attitudes differ with regards to various forms of punishments if damage is inflicted upon the movement. It can include going on a rampage by just moving once through Skoufa Street in Kolonaki considered to be the area of the rich and of the privileged, and taking revenge by simply smashing especially expensive cars standing left and right. Sartre interpreted that as a sign of wishing to break into the present from which they have felt to be excluded because the future and the past would permanently conspire against them and therefore exclude them from having any chance of survival within that specific society.

Altogether they distinguish between symbolic actions meant to mark the times and can be linked to various forms of violence. Typical is again the distinction violence against objects but not people. The former can entail everything from smashing windows of banks, supermarkets and of expensive cars to setting even entire buildings on fire. Often this takes on the form of a symbolic street protest leaving in its wake overturned rubbish cany and burning tires in the middle of the street. Over time, they are being challenged since it seems this kind of protest has been repeated too often and no longer convinces anyone. The overall movement adapts and generates another agenda created by anonymous writers on the wall. Like the graffiti being often without a single artist fixing his or her signature to such a work, collective expressions are preferred to distinguish themselves from a world limited by private ownership.

The question is how do they relate to those who wish to bring about a just society based on equality and freedom and want to do so without resorting to violence? For instance, there are those who have undergone theoretical studies of the system and expressed their desire for alternative ways of living and working together. Their basic idea is to create 'commons', that is spaces for deliberations and which exist outside the state. They formalize themselves in open assemblies at local and district level. By adopting these forms they try to take care of different functions and common needs ranging from health services to creating libraries and stages for performances.

The problem is that use of violence begets immediately hierarchy insofar as it provokes responses by the police, and if necessary as well by the military. In Greece threats of military coups made often enough the rounds as rumor and as a real threat. At the same time semi violent conflicts as the case when demonstrators battle with the police, have their own spill over effects. There was the loss of Syntagma Square as common ground to hold the overall assembly of all. It ended July 2011 when demonstrations turned violent and in due course the police swept through the tent village to beat everyone in their way and then to drive all out.

Interestingly enough, the media is the first to point out any protest movement will require sooner or later a kind of leadership which knows how to articulate the demands of the movement, but which will require as well a hierarchy of priorities when setting the agenda for possible negotiations. Even if they are shared to a large extent, still the forms used to organize things are based on hierarchical structures. It is an unresolved problem which can frustrate anyone, hence the readiness to demonstrate such an outburst of anger by just going down the street and to smash anything which stands in the way as a symbol for the detested system. As said already, these are mainly luxury cars and banks, but not only.

Issues

Taking issue with something is not merely taking a stand but to confront reality by design of actions aiming to name reality as perceived when relating to historical mnesis. It means literally taking the time and effort, even if necessary the pain, to become truthful in all accounts. Poets would write desperate for air, the fishes in the streets swarm out to find a gaping hole in a cloudy sky. Not broken melodies should accompany the red kites in the sky. Rather the rhythm of running feet over broken glass has this impression of being fenced in. To break out is not easy. It all depends on how the issues are not merely named but approached for not everything can be resolved all at once. Here is where the difficulty of a structured approach arises for the very issues in need to be faced and tackled result from how society has been structured, and therefore people are inclined not to be sympathetic towards the migrants or the outsiders, but in response to deep seated fears the crisis spills onto the surface unresolved traumas of the past and therefore fearful projections prompted by wrong images distort the possibility of the human approach to every issue. It is a moral revolt because they find the society as it has become clearly revolting. The danger is to try to replace political analysis with moral accusations as if values can be easily prescribed to the others or else they are denied as being worthy of any further and deeper consideration. That false alternative traps them inside their own circles and thus they become selective in what they perceive as being relevant to their 'theory' or thoughts about how to respond to the challenges of the 21st century. A string of broken dreams may well line the streets as invisible witnesses and the challenge which comes their way may well be just one woman asking them why they repeat themselves in their protest for rubbish cans have been overturned before and by now too many times to be still a new form of protest. That then makes the agenda both a challenge and more difficult since the visual level as to where the senses speak to the surroundings has often to explain the loss of the aesthetical component, while the intellect knows too well they may be forever outsiders to this kind of society with no chance of a 'grace' which would allow for an re-integration. They may not want to but then they underestimate the power of this need and wish to belong to humanity in the widest sense while confined to what is given, they can only practice the critique of all things and demonstrate their disagreement on a daily basis.

The migrant issue - anti racism

      

         "You are the refugees of Europe - Solidarity with Migrants" Dec. 2012

By taking a resolute stand in solidarity with migrants, it pits the entire movement against the racism and xenophobie for which the Extreme Right is known for. It reminds of what Horkheimer and Adorno warned already in 1944 when they published their book 'The Dialectic of Enlightenment'. Close to the end of Second World War, they warned "even when Fascism has been defeated, there shall still be around the xenophobic forces and hence in need to be dealt with." This equates equally to a saying by Adorno a Fascist does not allow to reason with him, hence there seems no use in trying to talk with him, and therefore he must feel the limits as to what he may do or not. Adorno went on to say, this cannot be done by an individual, but the limits must be set by the institution. 

When they organized a demonstration "against State / Police Racist Pogroms" to protest on 11.01.2014 against migrants being held in what they call "modern concentration camps," following statement was issued:

Likewise a lot of solidarity with migrants is being practices especially in areas like Exarchia where Anarchism takes on the form of a social self-understanding, and therefore being a community to all regardless of race, religion, gender. Most interesting is to read on a banner hung up at Exarchia Square on January 22, 2014, that they emphasize as well the fact that they are 'locals' and belong therefore to the area.

 

 Slogan in two languages to emphasize 'common struggles of locals and immigrants'                                                    Exarchia Square 22.1.2014

Anti Fascism

     

      "Always antifa (anti Fascism) + anti social"

Whether or not the growing role of Anarchism as protest movement has contributed or not towards a new polarization in Greek society, cannot be ruled out but the increase in Neo Fascism is as well due to other developments. namely as a counter move to only Anarchists controlling what goes, what not in their quarters, the Fascist movement around Chrysi Avgi have in turn started to use similar methods of intimitation to drive out those things they do not like, but this time it is not musicians but migrants.

A straight forward outcry is an expression of emotions of the highest quality, especially if taken as an expression within the 'slave language'. The latter means a curse means praise and vice versa a praise a curse. That slave language exists within any hierarchical structure and even if merely a projected one with Anarchists relating to the police out of a complicated hate-fear-no nonsense relationship. Definitely it is going to be a fight. They are ready all the time.

In this fight many more expressions on the walls depict still further issues or rather contentions the Anarchists pick up, such as Fascists being Homophobic.

   

    "Fascist bastards, here come the Gay people"           Lycabettou Jan. 2014

Visible and invisible borders

"National borders, borders visible or invisible that extend to the center of cities. Borders that define the geography of an everyday war against migrants."

- call for a demonstration on 11.01.14 at Amerikis square 12.00

Once Exarchia became identified as the hot bed, the police drew a line to mark an 'invisible border' and started to stand guard on a 24 hour basis, to ensure no sudden attack by the Anarchists down Skoufa past Hippocratous Street could take place. It is a strange and contradictory sight with fully armored policemen standing at certain street corners as if to draw an invisible border not to be crossed while next to them the youth sits in cafes and enjoys their drinks to music they like.

The reason for making a stand at that location is the near-by headquarters of the PASOK Party on Hippocratous street. Police control was tight until Jorgios Papandreou had to step down late 2011 and only a shrunk PASOK party managed to enter Greek Parliament with Venizelous joining the coalition government under PM Samaras. That ruling coalition has lasted by now since June 2012. Given the diminished importance of PASOK, less tension can be felt as being directed still towards that party. At the height of the street protest it was quite different.

To map the streets and areas of Athens in terms of who controls what and where do run the borders, would make an interesting political topology study. Right now it is a mere approximation. Like all battle grounds in any city, things look different at night compared to day time.

Drug related happenings

There are other groups which have expressed their increasing disfaction and frustration when seeing that the main square - Platia - has been occupied by drug takers. The neighbours and the shop owners around the square formed a citizen group. Today that square is relatively clean with even apparatus for children to play on having been made available. It means that the local citizens can make a difference but they need as well help in the long run from the city itself.

But when that is reduced to an exercise of cultural policy by having some music being played at that square, and if the anarchists do not like that type of music and therefore scare away the musicians who have been paid by the city to perform, then it reminds again of a film by Angelopoulos who showed in his film 'the Theatre Players' how the secret police and the resistance both preferred to dance to another kind of music. As long it is only a fight as to who determined what music is being played and to which tune one prefers to dance, it is a symbolic fight but can have immediate ramifications if things turn in a split second ugly.

The youth in transition

It seems as if this rebellious, equally contradictory nature within the Greek spirit has been passed on to the next generations. Their socialization takes place under the strict observance of the elderlies that above all already existing family ties are strengthened. No matter what happens, this is of utmost importance but in being so strong and immanent, it means the youth has hardly the space to find its own identity. In turn, it explains some obvious contradictions within the Anarchist movement for rather then acting alone, they direct themselves more towards a community with the aim to replace the family they left. That replacement becomes evident when they call each other 'comrades' with all the ramifications it has since a matter of contradiction in terms of what Anarchism has stood for in the past. 

As shown by the weakness of the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States where decisions made on one weekend were no longer binding the next weekend since a new group of people had joined the collective assembly, the decision making body of sorts, this rebellious youth has yet to recognize the importance of not merely formal, but binding rules, if something like a viable community is to be sustained. They gain that insight by hard made learning experiences such as making sure the park stays clean and the commune like structure free of such conflicts which could burst everything apart. Likewise they risk to be over demanded since their minds are not ready to meet all at once the different demands while still in search of a way to survive in society. Many end up depending for their livelihoods upon their parents till they are thirty or even older with the high rate of youth unemployment not exactly an encouraging sign to go out and seek a job for themselves.

However, their real weakness is their own intelligence. It leads them to believe that they perceive clearly what this society is all about and by concluding that everything is corrupt, they find no place for themselves within that society. Hence they exclude themselves from making any difference at all and, therefore, do not even try at times hard enough to find work within the system. 

Some of the reasons for Anarchism as political idea having gripped so many of the youth can be explained in the form of just mentioning a few points:


A forebearer for that kind of life style was re-imported from the United States to where a large portion of the Greek diaspora went. The film 'A Big Fat Greek Wedding' showed to what extent a new collective image had replaced what Zorbas, the Greek had portrayed to outsiders willing to invest in their love for Greece. It was more cunning, even if packed with the kind of humour which anyone growing up in Greek families can exasperate anyone. It is not only the over feeding while the father still dominates but only with the permission of the wife who manages to educate the sons to become nothing but the men who continue to hurt the women. It was only Marie Iliou's film about 'The Journey' about those who undertook the risk to go to the United States for a better life which showed the other side, namely what big prize everyone pays once certain values and linkages to localities the grandparents still loved and cherished, was given up.

In search of doubt as political alternative

Manes Sperber once wrote about a drop of a tear in the ocean amounts to what doubt in such a hard core ideology like Communism can amount to, namely hardly anything. It does not manage to make a dent in such an ideology which has become more than a belief or conviction.

For the modern Greek youth growing up in a period of time when Greece enjoyed for the first time some wide spread affluency, an odd contridiction to this life style was demonstrated over and again by the KKE party. Whenever they spoke in Parliament or at political rallies, it seemed as if only the Soviet Union counted and therefore it was still of importance to have even a portrait of Stalin still on the wall of the office. At the same time, they were confronted by KKE press declarations and propagated speeches especially at universities that the youth was being led astray by modern Capitalism and therefore would ignore what pain the Soviet Union went through during the Great War. In the end, the modern youth found it impossible to talk with KKE members.

Forgotten in this dismay of the youth with holders of such a dogmatic truth was what hard fought battles the Communists had behind them or why Greece was thrown into turmoils by the Western powers led by Churchill who sensed the danger if Greece would go East rather than stay in the Western fold once Second World War had ended. For there existed still the largest Communist party not only in Europe but which was armed to the teeth. More so parts of Greece had been liberated from German occupation and there the Communists had introduced some of the most progressive laws, including giving equal Rights to Men and Women.

Any youth seeks to find a political foothold when confronted by a wild sea of opinions about the past and present with the road into the future still in need to be mapped out. There can be found many heroic personalities who stayed true to the cause but did not buckle to demands to give up their own opinions. Most of them were punished more severely by long years of imprisonment while excluded from the Communist Party itself which had come to arrange itself with the established system in a most clever way. This was made most explicit in their lifestyles and luxurious homes even though they would adhere still to the old class struggle and the need for workers to unite. Interestingly enough the KKE as a party lost many seats in the Greek Parliament around the same time when the two main parties, Nea Democratia and PASOK, were crumbling likewise due to the crisis having led to a fragmentation of politics. 

Still values are not merely conveyed by political parties, but through poetry and music into the collective mind. Someone who had adhered to this party but in poetic terms had been Ritsos. As his poems show, he had suffered much of his time behind bars but when his poetry referred to such pain, he anticipated the time when soldiers killed in battle had not died but lay waiting in their graves to ring the bells of freedom. Such was the freedom that it resounded in the songs the mothers sang when the young men went off to war and what the young girls now women sang when the men returned as wounded soldiers in more than one sense. For they were still not free from heroics needs. The latter is linked to going over and again into all kinds of real and virtual battles. It is something which is continued in the Anarchist sense when they write 'as comrades we go arm in arm into battle against the police' for then that familiar tone resounds in the newly formed slogans. Altogether it repeats the enchantment of being a man when you stand your man!

    

             Frightening image                                 Exarchia  January 2014

Yet in a real sense of the period which followed the 2008 events, the fear not to stand your man means more often battling against the shadows cast against the walls. For they can frighten easily innocent souls into submission to fear. No wonder if these shadows were replaced more and more by graffiti as if the experience of the cave painters was to be repeated once again. As a way to tame fear, it meant the outside world was a hostile environment and only collectively they could take a stand against what they were forced to face, like it or not.

An ill conceived way out of traditional politics

Crucial is that equal opportunities for the youth were no longer a given. That leaves only 'politics' as the only possible way out. Yet in the political tradition and definition of politics dominating till now in Greece, only good connections seem to count along with a willingness to play along with all the corrupt practices.

In other words, work was only given under certain conditions i.e. if kick-back practices were accepted. Hence it was expected to pay back a portion of the received money to the one who did one this favour. Work was also distributed in a very condenscending manner. The youth was expected to show gratitude if given such an opportunity.

Especially the elite understands very well on how to work the system or rather to make sure that working for them was perceived as a special privilege. The elite expects from the younger generation that it suffices to get this opportunity since already a reward and therefore it would not warrant any form of payment at all.

In other words, there was never a word said about payment for the real work done while those who had successfully established their name in society took all the honours once the work had been done. It was like stealing in all openess so that everyone could see what was going on. Thus this critical youth saw no chances for some decent work since the entire society and the system is blostered was close to zero in terms of credibility. Literally speaking, the youth took not only to the streets but spelled out what they thought by 'writing and painting on the wall' so that everyone would see what was going on.

Anarchism as free spirit and part of the political tradition

Anarchism has always been one of the inherent components of the political traditions to be found in Greece. Hence this pertains not only to the younger generations. There are those of the older generations who had been active in the resistance but had not joined the Communist movement. They claim to be equally of that same spirit which heeds no authority and desires above all freedom.

Spyros Mercouris would say for him the street was the real school. It was in the streets that he learned everything needed to know about politics and life. Out of such an attitude, there follows a dislike of any formal regulation. In practice, it leads to ignoring or not keeping formal rules. By staying informal, it does not rule out honour manifested in keeping one's word. Rather a much greater emphasis is given to oral speech than what can be manifested in any written text. Such literacy has its own advantages. It allows one to stay flexible since not bound by formal rules. The latter would the case whenever a collectivity of individuals becomes a formal organizations. This would only lead to endless discussions which tie down everyone while not doing anything.

That strong dislike for what impedes the creative process of the individual explains partially why the anarchist idea of freedom resonates with so many of both the older and younger generations. Interestingly enough with it goes the recognition that not everything can be achieved alone. Thus anarchists in Greece do relate to the others, form assemblies and create community networks.

Hence much is a kind of in-between compromise preferred. The poetess Katerina Anghelaki Rooke would exclaim she does not want to stay alone but also not join a formal group. How then to keep fluid the movement of the group process while adhering to the principle of Anarchism, that is indeed an art in need to be reinvented by every new generation.

Anarchism means as well to stand up for oneself even if the odds are against one. Yet this anarchist sense of freedom can mislead insofar as formal obligations and more so treaties between states are just as important and therefore in need to be observed. Repeatedly Greek history has shown not adhering to these principles can in time of crisis spell the very opposite for then help from others may be needed but due to the mistrust as to whether or not commitments are going to be kept, this help will be given at best reluctantly and therefore lead more often to further mistrust and misunderstandings. That has led in turn to the conclusion it is only possible to rely upon oneself - an impossibility in a world existing on the basis of multiple multilateral relationships and various forms of interdependencies.

Instead of opening up, the mind takes on such an ontological nature, that it leads to political tautologies as already formulated by Fichte. This German philosopher declared the "I to be I", equals the state and therefore absolute. This strange phenomenon can be observed in the Greek context. For in this unique culture almost everyone seems to have no hestitation at all to call him- or herself to be 'Greek'. For any outsider this jump from individual to collective level happens so fast as if it is still one and the same person even though any generalization leads to gross distortions of any true personal identity. Where this leaves the anarchistic sense of freedom is at best a puzzle which the younger generation resolving by declaring not to be Greek while speaking the Greek language. Here then an important distinction from previous generations is making itself felt when it comes to taking on a unique identity based on an own self-understanding of oneself in relationship to the world.

As long as the political tradition followed by the older generations dominates, it may explain why 'nomos' or the meaning of law is feared so much. The same goes for anything written down. If there is a conflict much more preferred is a verbal exchange of opinion rather than receive a written letter to express an opinion. Such is the fear as if akin to believing once written down, nothing can be changed i.e. negotiated. There is after all the tradition of Homer's Odyssey, a prime figure and example for someone who succeeds repeatedly to talk himself out of all kinds of trouble. Thus feared is always what sets an absolute tone and therefore cannot be altered. Like the son who fears an unflinching father as far as his opinions are concerned, freedom is sought by fleeing into the informal and anarchist sense of freedom.

Of interest is that while the draconic nature of law may be evaded but merely temporarily, the political and moral crisis is commonly believed and explained by no one willing to abide to the rule of law.

 

 Text and photos by Hatto Fischer

Athens January 2014

 

Footnotes:

1. Knowledge of Today (2011) "Remember the 6th of December - Alex". 6th of December 2011: http://www.knowledgeoftoday.org/2011/12/remember-remember-6th-of-december-rip.html

 

References

Dimitris Christopoulos, (2014) "Very Unhappy to Say That to Some Point It's True: Fascist Intrusion Within Greek Police"  in: Conference Reader 'Crisis Scapes: Athens and Beyond'. Athens: Crisis-Scape.Net, p. 47 - 50

 

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