Republished from Act For Freedom Now! published May 4, 2020
Worldwide calling for solidarity to R.O-Revolutionary Struggle
May 2020
Whenever the oppressed masses attempted the inversion of an injustice social, economical, political system, the resource to the arms and revolutionary violence has been the cornerstone of each revolutionary undertaking. It is a fact that no revolutionary process can’t reject violence as a form of struggling against the oppressors. Anarchists throughout the ages never divided the forms of struggling. For that reason Anarchism as a revolutionary movement has an unbroken and fundamental relationship with armed struggle because armed struggle springs from the roots of the lower social status and proletariat, acts for its interests, emerges as a pattern of construction with a revolutionary prospect. A revolutionary movement which respects itself, cannot exist without having a parallel path and an organic connection with the armed struggle. So we stand in solidarity with the comrades, men and women, who choose to fight also with armed struggle as urban guerillas having the analysis and strategy with main aim the creation of a society of economical equality and political freedom. We respect and support their choice especially when our comrades are still fighting for the cause of Social Revolution even in the most difficult circumstances.Two of those comrades are Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis , members of the Revolutionary Organization “Revolutionary Struggle”.
The comrades are imprisoned with life sentence and 27 years for Pola and 83 years (after breaking the life sentence in the 4th trial against “Revolutionary Struggle”) but they unremorsefully continue their fight in the court rooms and prisons of the Greek regime. The Revolutionary Organization “Revolutionary Struggle” was constituted in 2003 when the social and political environment in Greece was characterized by the absence of social and class resistances toward the neoliberal reforms. With the diffuse consent of the biggest part of the society, the system seemed steadfast. At this first period of action (2003 – 2007), “Revolutionary Struggle” had two main peaks of action against the imported neoliberal reforms on the political and social sphere and the “War on Terror” that had been declared by the USA and the rest of the political and economical elite of the West. Through the analyses, the strategy and the symbolically definitive high-impact blows, “Revolutionary Struggle” was directed to reveal the double nature of globalisation – political and martial- and disputed the state’s omnipotence.
Also the organization was there to question the generalized social and class defeat, proposing the possibility and the necessity of revolutionary prospect in society. In this first period there were hits as: bombing at Athens’ courthouse, at Labor Ministry and Finance Ministry, Wasp 58 rocket attack on United States Embassy etc. After the financial crisis that started in USA at 2008 (Lehman Brothers) and spread out to the rest of the world, it was clear that this historical moment would be one of the most devastating long lasting crisis of capitalism which was inevitable to avoid and that it would lead the system to a dead end. “Revolutionary Struggle” had forecasted and mentioned into their analysis, all of the above. They were already saying that the most brutal neoliberal offensive was on its way and would be launched in the name of “confronting the crisis and financial problems.”. The beginning of crisis signaled the change of the strategy of the organization and brought adaptation to the new conditions. In 2009, Revolutionary Struggle began a campaign of attacks at the peak of the outbreak of the world capitalistic crisis. The attacks aimed structures and institutions that were responsible for the crisis and its policies. It was important to subvert and sabotage the effort of rescuing the banks, creating an environment of destabilization and agitation that would undermine the systemic normality and point out that this financial crisis would be altered in a crisis of debt and in a structural crisis of the system. Ostensive actions in this period were the bombings at Citibank and Eurobank subsidiaries in Athens, and of course the massive car bomb that caused serious dama ge to the building of the Stock Exchange of Athens and had a major political impact. In March 10, 2010 Labros Foundas died in Dafni after a battle with the police while expropriating a vehicle for the organization’s plans. After exactly one month at April 10 2010 the organization accepts the first repressive blow. The murderers in uniform of Greek “democracy” capture 6 anarchists as members of “Revolutionary Struggle”. Amongst them Nikos Maziotis and Pola Roupa who after the arrest took political responsibility for the group’s actions in a 16 page letter (“A political letter to Society”). They also mention that Lambros Foundas was also a member of “Revolutionary Struggle”, that he fell in the battle for freedom and revolution and that they are proud of him and will always honour him.
At this point many comrades around the world showed their solidarity by taking action. Some of those acts of immediate solidarity was: March 16th 2010, Brussels, Belgium: Windows of Dexia bank broken. “Our thoughts go to anarchist Lambros Foundas, murdered by Greek police. Solidarity with the permanent revolt shaking Greece.”, March 24th, Volano, Italy, 2010: ATM set on fire in memory of Lambros, April 27th, Lublin, Poland, 2010: Central bank near police station covered in paint-bombs and slogans left in solidarity with the “Revolutionary Struggle”, CCF and anarchist prisoners in Chile, September 27th, Athens, Greece, 2010: Anarchist occupation of the Foreign Press Association of Greece with leaflets, slogans and banners, for the purpose of counter-information about the “Revolutionary Struggle” case, etc. For one and a half years, Nikos Maziotis and Pola Roupa were hostages of the Greek state. In 2012 they were released on “probation” after the end of the 18th months custody (due to the expiration of the pretrial detention period that they could be legally held in custody). After a while they broke the restraining orders and became “outlaws”. Nikos Maziotis and Pola Roupa chose the continuation of action of “Revolutionary Struggle”, cancelling the repressive blow against the organization and passing to “clandestinity”. From the release up to “illegality” there was an interval of dense political activity with the daily presence of them in theanarchist/antiauthoritarian space in actions of the a/a movement, in the assemblies but also in the streets.
In 10 April 2014, “Revolutionary Struggle” launched a bombing attack against the Bank of Greece in Athens (overseas branch of European Central Bank), where the office of permanent representative of IMF in Greece, Wes Mcgrew, was housed. The attack against the Bank of Greece was the strongest blow against the economic and political system, in a period where big parts of population had already been lulled into resignation and fear had prevailed. The proclamation of this bombing attack was signed as “Revolutionary Struggle – Commando Labros Foundas”. A prosecutor stated during the trial of this bombing attack, that if the building had collapsed, the damage to the Greek State would have been enormous. In July 2014, Nikos Maziotis got arrested in Monastiraki square wounded from an unequal battle with cops. The comrade from the first moment of his arrest declared himself a rebel and a unrepentant member of “Revolutionary Struggle”. It was obvious that the arrest and captivity of Maziotis would not mean the end of “Revolutionary Struggle”. From “clandestinity” , Pola Roupa continued struggling and in 2016 she hijacked a helicopter in an attempt to liberate Nikos Maziotis and other political prisoners. The attempt was not crowned with success unfortunately. In January 2017, Roupa was arrested in her house by strong police forces in front of her five and a half years old son, Victora-Labro. All the time that our comrades have spent in prisons all over Greece but also in the courts and trials of “Revolutionary Struggle” their attitude is recorded as an important deposit in the history of revolutionary movements, not only in Greece but also internationally. They have defended tenaciously the choice of armed struggle by their organization, its fair fight and the cause of Social Revolution. At this moment, in the middle of this situation of emergency that states have forced on populations for constraining the expansion of Covid-19, which was impossible for the Public Health Systems around the world to handle, our imprisoned comrades all over the world need us even more. In the case of Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis, they were held in Koridallos Prison, Athens. After the first uprisings about raising the awareness relatively to Covid -19 and the measures that should be taken to ensure the safety of the prisoners, in which the comrades intensely participated, they got transported to other prisons over the country.
Roupa was transported in Women’s Prison in Thebes and Maziotis was sent to Men’s Prison in Domokos. Obviously that’s a desperate action of the state to repress the struggle of the prisoners and to breakdown the spirit and energy of our comrades. Even so, they stand reliable, intense opponents against the most violent and totalitarian economic and political system in history. We consider it necessary to support politically, morally and materially, comrades who have defended their choices to fight for the revolutionary prospect and the capital and state subversion and destruction. Especially now that the transportation of our comrades to other prisons in Greece increases their needs in prison and in the middle of this emergency situation it is not possible for us to raise enough financial support from our self-organized events. We are calling on you to join in our effort of supporting mostly financially our comrades, members of R.O- “Revolutionary Struggle” and unremorseful fighters of freedom, Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis.
PS 1. We inform comrades around the world that in February 2020, the brochure titled “ON THE SURPASSING OF STATE AND CAPITAL – FOR A CONFEDERAL, STATELESS, CLASSLESS ORGANIZATION” by the members of “Revolutionary Struggle”, Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis, has been published. It is distributed by the “Assembly of Solidarity to R.O-Revolutionary Struggle” and those who want to support this political text can contact us. We also started the translation of the brochure in English.
PS 2. The pdf it’s a book of Revolutionary Struggle in english: “Revolutionary Struggle – A collection of letters, texts and communiqués from an armed group in Greece and their accused……”
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EVERLASTING HONOR TO COMRADE LABROS FOUNDAS FREEDOM TO THE MEMBERS OF REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE,POLA ROUPA AND NIKOS MAZIOTIS FIGHT FOR THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION AND THE ANARCHY
Assembly of Solidarity to R.O-“Revolutionary Struggle”
About londonabc
London Anarchist Black Cross, is a collective set up with the aim of supporting prisoners: political prisoners, people in detention centers or just people fucked over by the capitalist system.
