On Sunday, November 27, support for the resistance of the autonomous neighborhood
of Prosfygika in Athens, Greece was expressed at the Greek embassy in Prague.Banners posted on the fence of the embassy proclaim "Hands off Prosphygics", butalso slogans such as "ACAB" or "Stop police brutality", which express disapprovalof the police force's crackdown on local residents. ---- According to theirstatement, which you can read in full HERE, on November 22, armed police raidedthe neighborhood, after which 79 people were arrested for the use of grossviolence. Residents were physically attacked in their homes during theintervention, regardless of gender, health status, age or the presence of theirown children. Police brutality did not abate even after the arrest. Solidarityprotests were organized in front of the court where the arrests were being tried,and the police did not hesitate to attack them again. The Greek state wants tocriminalize the entire neighborhood and get an excuse to clear it out so that itcan make room for development plans.The community social project Prosfygika is a squatted complex of several housesand operates on the principles of horizontality, participation, trust, solidarityand a common perspective. It offers a home to all without distinction. To all whoare willing and able to function and self-organize in this way. Now around 400people live there, a large number of them are refugees, migrants from differentparts of the world. At present, when Greece functions as a bridge to the fortressof Europe, Prosphygika offers these people the possibility of a dignified life,in which (not only) the Greek state is failing. In addition to housing, theneighborhood infrastructure includes, for example, a kindergarten, bakery andlanguage courses. The anti-authoritarian assembly Sy.Ka.Pro, based in Prosfygica,is involved in the fight for justice even outside its district. It is stronglylinked to the Kurdish community and the Autonomous Administration of North andEast Syria (Rojava), with which it shares a vision of democratic confederalism.The Prosfygika neighborhood has a very interesting history. Its origin dates backto 1922, when it was built for refugees from Asia Minor as part of a largepopulation exchange after the Greco-Turkish wars (prosphygica even means"refugees" in Czech). It is an exceptional urban development in the Bauhausstyle, conceived and designed for community housing of the working class. Thehouses do not have concrete barriers between them - originally there were sharedgardens. You can find bullet holes in the walls of some houses. These belong tothe period when, during the Nazi occupation, left-wing (or directly communist)oriented residents participating in the fight against the Nazis lived in theneighborhood. In 1944, a civil war took place in Greece, which was followed by adictatorship that lasted until 1970. During that time, the neighborhood wasrather inhospitable and unkempt, with a high crime rate associated with drugsales. Many apartments were unoccupied. Some were squatted. In the 1990s, thecity came up with a plan to demolish the neighborhood. It tried to buy theapartments, but 54 owners refused. On the occasion of the 2004 Olympic Games, thecity tried to fulfill its gentrification program and buy back the apartmentsagain, but this time also unsuccessfully. In 2010, the squatters decided thatthey wanted to organize themselves and created the political assembly Sy.Ka.Pro.Together they put a stop to the drug trade there and began to live communallyagainst capitalism. They set themselves the goal of squatting the entireneighborhood and creating (the aforementioned) living structures. In 2015, theyinvited the association of Kurds and Kurds from Rojava to share housing andideals with them. Sy.Ka.Pro is not politically clearly defined, the currentpolitical basis is anti-authoritarian values (there are anarchists,Marxist-Leninists, nihilists, Turkish communists, etc.). Now the congregationmanages 80 apartments. Among other things, the current residents are trying tohave greenery between the houses instead of cars. With the help of lawyers andarchitects, they managed to convince the city to declare the building a nationalmonument.The members of the community are now free again, although various trials arebeing conducted against them. According to her statement, Prosphygika does notfeel like a victim. The Greek authorities were exposed to the relentlessdetermination of the residents to fight for the existence of the entireneighborhood, for a dignified life and against oppression. Repression cannotbreak the spirit of resistance. On the contrary, the community now feelsstrengthened by the palpable cohesion of all who courageously support the idealsof equality... because if we want to live in a world that will last more than afew decades, we must allow other worlds to exist. Prosphygics is the hope - aworld with functional political self-government at the center of the capitaliststate.We should add that the police attack on the residents of Prosfygika took place ata time when Turkey announced an even tougher offensive against northern andeastern Syria and bombarded local residents with chemical munitions. Erdogan'stotalitarian regime labels the Kurds as terrorists and uses the war against themas a media cover for its economic failure. It is up to everyone to see theconnection, but the fact is that Greece depends on Turkish cooperation in thetrafficking of refugees. In most cases, Greece does not offer legal asylum torefugees, not even political ones, and sends them back across its borders - backto Turkey, where they usually face detention... at best.We will either win or we will win!Fuck police brutality!https://www.afed.cz/text/7817/solidarita-s-prosfygikou_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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