Un-commodification

Groovy Greek anarchists revive a wonderful tradition from Ye Olde England: stealing from the rich, and giving to the poor.

Supermarket target of Robin Hood raid
ekathimerini.com
July 1, 2008

Stylish anarchists claimed responsibility yesterday for raiding a supermarket in the Athens neighborhood of Nea Smyrni and then distributing the stolen goods to shoppers at a fruit and vegetable market in the fourth such incident during the last month. A group of some 20 people, all wearing hoods or helmets, entered the Marinopoulos supermarket on Evdoxou Street, loaded up trolleys with food and simply walked out of the store unchallenged. Police said they were notified some time after the incident as the shop manager was concerned about the possible repercussions if he called for help immediately. Soon after the raid, an announcement appeared on a website claiming that an anarchist group promoting “the free distribution of goods” was behind the fourth raid of its kind in Athens since May 31.

See also : Lucio Urtubia | Today’s Poll : Do you like champagne? | Late mail | Robin Hood & His Merry Wo/men Are Alive & Well & The Sheriffs Are Hunting For Them in Hamburg

Speaking of Merry Olde England…

Matthew Butcher: Model for A Monument ‘The Anarcho-Syndicalist Town Hall’- July 5 to July 20
Building Design
July 1, 2008

‘Model for a Monument (The Anarcho-Syndicalist Town Hall)’ is an architectural installation and scale model of an anarchist’s discussion space, commissioned by Camden Council and sited in Russell Square.

Originally planned for the site of a once thriving communist cinema and propaganda distribution centre, 84 Grays Inn Road. The structure has a 5.5 metre high lattice structure supporting a rotating roof that spins on a single axis.

Taking as its starting point, several key political texts by anarchist thinkers Pierre Monatte and Errico Malatesta; ‘Model for a Monument’ seeks to explore the fundamentals of political symbolism and how they have influenced design in architecture throughout its history.

‘Model for A Monument (The Anarcho-Syndicalist Town Hall)’ is part of the London Festival of Architecture 2008.

Matthew Butcher: Model for A Monument ‘The Anarcho-Syndicalist Town Hall’
July 5 to July 20
Russell Square
South East Corner (near Montague Place)
London
WC1

“Key to this exploration and central to the actual installation is the Anarcho-Syndicalist flag that decorates the lattice of the revolving roof. The inclusion of this flag points to the activities of the Anarcho-Syndicalists who operated out of the now abandoned squat that used to over look the square. It further references a lineage that begins with Kazimir Malevich and his extremist political thought and runs through the Avant Garde ideas of architects including Bernard Tschumi and Rem Koolhaas.”

“The Square (evicted): 21-22 Russell Square, London, WC1. As the 2006 New Year started, a new occupation began. The former School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (SSEES) which had been vacated some months previous, was occupied by students and non-students, aiming to create free accommodation, denied by speculative property prices and in refusal of the debt trap exacerbated by the creeping privatisation of education. We seized what has been denied, and we don’t seek to re-create private property, but rather, to realise a new radical, public space for all.”

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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2 Responses to Un-commodification

  1. Ultimate Hater says:

    The story from Greece is mind blowingly awesome.

  2. @ndy says:

    Makes for a change from reading about stealing from the poor to give to the rich anyways…

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