Greek police kick immigrant arse!

Stoopid immigrants!

Police in Athens and Patras, working in close collaboration with Greek fascists, have spent the past 24 hours / week / month / year / decade or so kicking immigrant arse. The most recent actions were cleverly anticipated by a European party person: on June 29, in an address to a conference of the European People’s Party (PPE), “Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis termed illegal immigration … a pressing problem, with Greece being weighed down by it more than the rest European nations”. Helping to shift the burden on to someone-or-something else, today police used bulldozers to clear away some of the human trash polluting the pretty streets of Patras:

Police bulldoze migrant camp in Greek port

PATRAS, Greece (AFP) — Bulldozers escorted by riot police have levelled a camp at the Greek port of Patras where hundreds of migrants had lived in growing tension with city residents, an AFP photographer has said.

Around 100 police took part in the early morning operation in the camp occupied by mainly Afghan migrants that left standing only the migrants’ makeshift mosque and a tent used by volunteer doctors.

The camp was mostly empty as many migrants had apparently been forewarned, but police took away around 100 people including some 30 minors who were boarded on buses and taken to a local hotel according to officials.

A large number of clandestine immigrants mostly aged between 15 and 25 lived at the makeshift camp near the port for months at a time without proper water or hygiene facilities, hoping to sneak onto ferries bound for Italy.

Many were injured in the process or in alleged attacks by police, sparking protests from migrants and left-wing groups.

Clashes also broke out between rival groups of Afghan and Somali migrants, leading to growing tension with Patras residents who have long called on the local authorities and the government to act.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and several non-governmental organisations described the situation as an “emergency” and called on Greece to improve its procedures for claiming asylum and upgrade immigrant reception centres.

See also : Greek police flatten migrant camp, Malcolm Brabant, BBC, July 12, 2009.

Greek police have also been hard @ work in the capital, attempting to cleanse some parts of the city of anarchists and also immigrants. Several days ago, a joint attack was launched on the 19-year-old anarchist squat Villa Amalias. The attack (which failed) was preceded by a joint meeting of (Deputy?) Public Order Minister Christos Markogiannakis and members of a local “residents’ committee” of the Ayios (Aghios) Panteleimonas neighbourhood. The committee is apparently a front group for neo-fascists belonging to the Chrysi Avyi (Χρυσή Αυγή) / Golden Dawn organisation.

You may remember Golden Dawn from such police murders as that of Alexandros (Alexis / Andreas) Grigoropoulos by Epaminondas Korkoneas in December 2008.

For more infos, see : clandestinenglish (featuring parts of clandestina.org in english, as well as other content, related to migration and struggle) | After the Greek Riots (nee Occupied London) blog. (And a revolutionary wave of the balaclava in the direction of taxikipali.)

Bonus!

Greek govt tougher on migrants after EU vote los[s]
Reuters
June 12, 2009

The conservative Greek government, stung by far-right gains in the European Parliament election, said on Thursday it would get tougher on illegal migration.

“The big issue that Greece and other EU countries face is the uncontrolled entry of illegal immigrants at Europe’s borders, mainly through people smugglers,” Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said after a cabinet meeting on migration.

Greece will build more camps for number of illegal immigrants and will keep them there for up to 12 months, instead of three currently, deputy Public Order Minister Christos Markogiannakis said, detailing the new measures.

People smugglers will face felony instead of misdemeanour charges, which should discourage them, he added.

The ruling conservatives suffered a stinging defeat in the European elections, their first in nine years. The far-right LAOS party took 7 percent of the vote, its best result ever…

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2024 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
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6 Responses to Greek police kick immigrant arse!

  1. @ndy says:
      [From Aufheben #2 (1993), by way of Wildcat #60.]

      Introduction

      The text seeks to give an overview of the relationship between capitalist restructuring and immigration in Germany. Whilst we are well aware that the Fascists pose a real threat to German immigrants, the idea that they threaten to take state power in Germany (the ‘4th Reich’) is a product of the media and some anti-fascists. Despise this the ‘fascism/anti-fascism trap’ appears to be working; with the state focusing on right-wing violence in an attempt to make the public forget about the social and political crisis. Thus the state tries to exploit the majority’s rejection of the extreme-right by imposing new laws (e.g. high sentences for ‘violent crimes’, ‘against right and left extremism’, increased surveillance etc…) which it then portrays as ‘democratic’.

      But the state has been unable to completely co-opt the anti-fascist movement. This was shown by the clashes between the left and the police at the government sponsored ‘anti-racist’ demonstration in Berlin on November 8th 1992, where Kohl was heckled by large sections of the crowd. And the recent murders of five Turkish women in Sollingen were followed by two nights of rioting and looting as the community vented its anger on the police and capitalist property. Indeed Turkish youths have begun to organise themselves into gangs to protect their communities from the far-right, resulting in running battles between themselves and the fascists.

      Yet despite these actions the German state, with the help of the media, has managed to secure the general consensus that legal foreign workers are OK, whilst asylum seekers should be deported as rapidly as possible under the new ‘fast-track’ procedure.

    Rostock or: How the New Germany is being Governed

    Although the burning of ZASt [the central office for asylum claimants] in Rostock was made a symbol by the media and the Left, it is necessary to locate violence against asylum seekers in the general context of class struggle and capitalist restructuring currently occurring in Germany (and throughout Europe in general). This requires a detailed analysis which relates the riots in front of the asylum camps to housing shortages, rising unemployment, restructuring of the factories, state labour market policy, juvenile rebellion and so on. So far we have only partial answers to these questions, and there has been a tendency for anti-fascists to become fixated with re-runs of ’33. But it is clear that the state is seeking to manipulate the conflicts around the ‘asylum problem’ in order to try out a new form of politics within Germany, i.e. a strategy of tension. The riots in front of the asylum camps nearly all had a common pattern: a heating up of the situation by the state, letting go of fascist groupings, protection of the riots against interventions by anti-fascists. Thus the riots serve as a smoke screen in an effort to distract the German working class from the welfare cuts decided last summer, and act to legitimise the further militarisation of the repressive apparatus. The attacks on foreigners are to enable a stronger hierarchisation of the labour movement and a fragmentation of the class. To a degree the state’s policy is succeeding with a rise of racism within the class.

    Migration into metropolis

    The destruction of possibilities for self-reproduction by capitalist development or non-development, wars, starvation in the case of Africa, the changes in the East, etc., are sparking off migration movements on a worldwide scale. Millions of people are trying to reach regions where they are able to secure their survival (in a better way). Only a small percentage of these people have a chance of reaching Europe (due to large distances, and the high costs of travelling) and many of those who do arrive here are caught and turned back at the borders. However those who succeed in breaching ‘fortress Europe’ are subject to racist attacks both by the state apparatus and right-wing groups. At the moment, in all Western European countries intensified conflicts are taking place between natives from the lower layers of society (workers, welfare recipients, petit-bourgeois) and immigrants searching for self-reproduction possibilities; brawls between Greek and Albanian workers, attacks on Africans in Italy and France, arson against refugees’ homes and street riots in Germany. The fact that the ‘multicultural middle-classes’ show up less doesn’t mean they’re less racist: for them, refugees initially provide no competition in the housing and labour markets, their kids don’t have the problems of overcrowded school classes with a high percentage of foreigners, and asylum camps or ZASt are rarely if ever located in their neighbourhoods. In Germany, the demand for cheap labour has traditionally been met by immigrants. Until recently assimilated immigrants were able to secure wages approaching the levels of the worst paid Germans. Now German capitalists are trying to counteract this by a hierarchisation of immigration and a slowing down of the assimilation process. This is being accompanied by the implementation of seasonal contracts, and the use of casual workers from Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, CSFR, Bulgaria, Russia for much lower wages.

    An illegal workforce is much cheaper for the single entrepreneur, but these ‘illegal’ immigrants pay no taxes or social contributions. However the German social system can only be financed by the immigration of a young workforce, whose education didn’t cost the German state anything, and who are working here and filling up the coffers of the health insurers and pension funds, whilst receiving few, or no payments if they go back to their native countries. Thus the state has a financial interest in a legal regulation of migrant work. For this purpose, the Grundgesetz [provisional constitution of the BRD] article 16 which guarantees the individual the right to claim asylum and to stay in Germany until a court has decided upon the individual case is dysfunctional: after recruitment stoppage and the obligatory visa, it becomes the only way to legally come to Germany. It excludes the conditions of the free market and actually prevents the taking up of a job. But the concentration of immigrants in ‘asylum houses’ has served to make the refugees visible as a ‘problem’ whilst preventing contacts with other proletarians. Until now, this has worked quite well, preventing common struggles (e.g. for decent housing). But the bureaucratic process hinders people from starting a ‘normal’ job. At the moment less than 10% of those caught crossing the border illegally say they are claiming ‘asylum’; most of them want to ‘work’ here and would rather get deported and try again soon than be subject to displacement in the camps under bureaucratic control. The most rational solution for capital (to let the workforce in) would be an immigration law. But such a law would be a de facto recognition of the rights of immigrants, hence other measures are being debated in order to provide a stronger hierarchisation of the ‘foreign population’ in Germany. But the pogroms are needed, too, to create the necessary ‘pressure for action’ for a change of the Grundgesetz and other measures – and to show the immigrants that they are second class people who are merely tolerated whilst they are willing to do the jobs Germans won’t.

    Crisis of the political class – crisis against the workers

    The scenario of hostility against foreigners, supported by both the state and media, takes place in the context of the deepest political crisis in German history. Central to this crisis is the breakdown of the political machinery; the parties are failing in their role of recuperating the desires of the working class in order to sustain capital. Now the parties only represent themselves, and no one pretends otherwise. The system of the party-state doesn’t function anymore. Although the parties are co-operating in a great coalition of crisis-management, neither the SPD nor the ruling coalition have a political programme. Compared to this, the slogans of the right-wing parties seem simple and understandable: against the ‘Islamisation’ of Germany, against the ECU, the few available flats for Germans etc… Thus the traditional parties are losing votes, as a significant section of the electorate refuses to vote or casts its vote for right-wing and populist parties. This is particularly so in the former GDR, where the collapse of the civil rights movement has been followed by the emergence of a new scandal-ridden political class. With its nationalisation, the church, in GDR times an ‘oppositional force’, finds itself in a deep crisis. Accepting separate wage levels for East and West Germany, the unions have also gambled away previous successes. The financial crisis of the state is also sharpened by the high costs of re-unification (i.e. payments for unemployment in the East, the building-up of the infrastructure, subsidies to capitalists willing to invest). The high interest rates serve to keep the state budget financeable and to slow down the boom. But this crisis is not a specific ‘German problem’. In France and Italy, already the Gulf War had been used for a slow-down. The re-unification of Germany first resulted in a separate development. But after the summer of ’91, unrest also grew among the West German workforce, despite both the metal union IGM and the public sector unions calling off strikes. Since then, the ruling class has turned to a policy of high interest rates, a social pact, i.e. a great coalition (and in our context: the deliberate escalation of the ‘asylum problem’, resulting in the introduction of new asylum laws on July 1st 1992). Now, simultaneously there is a slow-down of the boom, with factories being restructured for lean production, resulting in record levels of unemployment, the social cuts are deepening, and higher taxes and interest rates are eroding the value of wages.

    As a result of a policy of high interest rates conducted through the European Monetary System, Germany is exporting its debts and unemployment into the other European countries – that is, into national economies already much deeper in crisis. The unrest in Greece and Italy shows that the bourgeoisie can’t escape class struggle through the export of capital, They merely alter the location of this struggle. On this level, too, the Maastricht treaties have shown where Europe is heading: towards economic unification whilst delaying it at a political level, thus the illusion of ‘social democratic’ control of the EC has been postponed indefinitely. The reunification of Germany was conducted in a similar fashion as there was no ‘political ‘ decision in a parliamentary sense, neatly illustrating the abdication of the political class. But, if an economic imperialism, ruled by anonymous bureaucrats and emergency governments, is capital’s vision of future government, it would necessitate a substantial sharpening of repression in advance. In this case a strategy of tension would seek to drive the multi-party apparatus into coalition whilst repressing the social opposition. Whether it gets this far depends on working class resistance. We must remember that the ruling class are not heading towards Europe voluntarily, but because they are unable to survive in a national form – our aim must be to help them to an all-European funeral instead!

  2. antifa dude says:

    pure xenophobia, irrational ethnic minority scapegoating for their financial problems

    cannot believe the government, the nationalists, capitalists, racists

    anarchy again in GREECE!

  3. @ndy says:

    Nazi Greek State: Night of Crystalls in Patras, Bullets in Athens, Torture in Simi.
    taxikipali
    libcom.org
    July 13, 2009

    The rapid nazification of the Greek state took off last weekend with the violent evacuation and torching of the large Afghan immigrant settlement in Patras, shooting of immigrants in Omoinoia square and institutionalised torture of Pakistanis in the island of Simi.

    The Greek State’s response to the December Uprising and the politicisation of immigrants across the country has solidified in a programme of nazification that includes open endorsement of neo-nazi vigilante combat groups, a series of the most repressive laws seen since the junta, and open attack against both the social antagonistic movement and immigrants across the country.

    On early Saturday 11/7 morning armed nazi scum riding a car drove by the heavily policed Omonoia square in down town Athens and opened fire on bystander immigrants near the offices of the Golden Dawn neo-nazi party. Three wounded immigrants were taken to hospital and are out of danger. Later the same night nazi scum set fire on Palio Efetio, the Old Appeal Court opposite their offices which is being squatted by immigrants and is being vilified by the bourgeois press.

    The same day, the Pakistani Community denounced yet another incident of institutionalised stripping and torture committed by the fascist greek police in the island of Simi. For 8 hours Wassim Sanjat, Mazhjar Ali and Mohamet Ali were tortured: cops tortured Wassim by “placing a gun on his head, beating him with a glob and iron stick on the soles of his feet (a torture loved by the junta called phallanga) and on his bottom and stripping him again and again. The other two persons were severely beaten. The Pakistani Community demands the immediate punishment of the torturers-policemen.

    In the early hours of Sunday 12/7 strong riot police forces surrounded the big Afghan immigrant settlement in Patras, cordoning off the area. The riot policemen then moved to evacuate the thousands of asylum seekers using maximum force, while bulldozers moved in to demolish their houses.During the evacuation operations, the settlement was ‘mysteriously’ set on fire, and torched to the ground. The settlement is believed to have been housing more than 2,000 Afghans and has been repeatedly targeted by fascists receiving the solidarity of a wide spectrum of progressive social forces in the city of Patras. The Red Cross has condemned the evacuation and torching of the settlement as ‘terrorist’. The Communist Party (KKE) has condemned the attack as barbaric and the Coalition of Radical Left as ‘beastial’ and ‘criminal’. The evacuated immigrants are held in concentration centers of zero hygienic facilities, host to continuing greek police torture and brutality.

    The nazification of the Greek state which is endorsing parastate groups to ‘clean and patrol’ areas comes in a climate of acute social antagonistic upheaval. Besides the continuing resistance locals of Grammaticos villages who rose against the construction of an open refuse dump in their area, erecting barricades and clashing with the police, last week saw a series of dynamic antifascist antiracist protest marches against State-nazi attacks against immigrants. At the same time, on the early hours of Saturday the house of the ex-Minister of Public Order (active during the December Uprising and Alexis Grigoropoulos assassination by the police) and ex-chief of the Greek Army, General Hinophotis, was bombed with a strong explosive device after prior warning call to the press. A few hours later earlier yet another armed attack against riot police forces occurred near the HQ of PASOK with no victims On the early morning Sunday, following the surge of State-fascist attacks the HQ camp of the riot police (MAT) in Athens came under attack by protesters which piled the riot policemen with stones leading to a half hour battle.

  4. adi says:

    their life is in danger in afghanistan or somalia. that’s why they left their homeland and came with a new hope to europe, to make their future. but what did europe give to them? there was hope that one day they will go to italy, or maybe somewhere else, but for europe there is nothing more important than punishment. it’s not hard work that the police did that day. it’s shameful for them that they cannot control around 500 people. this is not the solution to this problem. there are other options. this is a huge shame that at 12 july they do. about greece, i want to say that it’s the worst country for asylum seekers. and this country is a country of bigots and some uneducated, poor people. they don’t know anything about human rights, they’re just trying to hide their shame, and that’s all.

  5. albatros[s] says:

    ADI IF GREECE IS A COUNTRY OF POOR PEOPLE THEN WHY THE HELL YOU LEAVE [Y]OUR PARA[D]ISE COUNTRIES AND CRY FOR GREECE? BECAUSE IF GREECE IS POOR THEN SCREW YOU CAUSE YOUR COUNTRIES ARE A SHIT HOL[E] THATS WHY [YOU] LEAVE, YOU TAKE YOUR SHIT SCAM SMELL WHEREVER YOU GO, YOU CRY FROM THE SHIT AND [YOU] WANNA GET AWAY FROM YOUR FILTHY PLACES BUT YOU ARE THE ONE THAT BRING THE FILTH WITH YOURSELF. GREECE DOESNT OWN YOU ANYTHING OK? REMEMBER THAT IS OUR COUNTRY AND IF WE LIKE WE KEEP YOU AND IF WE DONT WE KICK YOU OUT OR EVEN KILL YOU THATS RIGHT WE CAN DO THAT TOO BECAUSE NOBODY INVITED YOU IN GREECE OR BROUGHT YOU HERE YOU COME AGAINST OUR WILL SO YOU ARE AN INVADER AND AS FOR INVADINING GREECE YOU SHOULD PAY THE PRICE AS AN OCCUPATOR BECAUSE IS THE SAME IF I COME TO [YOUR] HOUSE AND BREAK IN AND DEMAND CASH FROM YOU I WILL GO TO PRISON FOR ROBBERY. IS THE SAME WITH GREECE YOU COME HERE LOOT, TRASH, KILL AND YOU DEMAND HELP AND JOB LIKE WE FREAKING OWN YOU, SORRY GREECE IS OUR HOUSE, WE HAVE INV[E]STED FOR OUR HUGE HOME AND DONT GIVE ME THAT SHIT BECAUSE YOU MUSL[I]MS ARE THE WORST SCAMS KILLING CHRISTIANS AND IF I COME TO YOUR HOMELAND AND I DO THE SAME YOU WILL RETALIATE SO STOP THIS SHIT GO BACK HOME BEFORE IS TO[O] LATE[.]

  6. ayesha says:

    salam …
    all people want to live in europe due to their qualities so plz don,t do it with peoples they r human beings not behave them like animals n GOD make this world for every person not for a single nation okkk so anyone can live anywhere in this world no one have rights to do it with others …
    thanks

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