More urban guerrilla attacks in Greece
taxikipali
libcom.org
October 30, 2009
Two more urban guerrilla attacks occurred in Athens and Salonica respectively within 24 hours of the armed attack against a police station in Athens [see : Police station attack tests Greek government, John Hadoulis/AFP, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 28, 2009]. A time-bomb hit the house of a leading conservative politician in Athens and another explosive mechanism hit the Spanish consulate in Salonica. At the same time confusion reigns over the communique with which a new armed group appears to be claiming responsibility for Tuesday’s attack.
Within only 24 hours of the Tuesday armed attack against the police station of Agia Paraskevi in Athens which has left 6 police officers seriously wounded (two remain in intensive care), two more attacks, with explosives this time, have come to add up tension to the already heated social and political climate in greece.
On the early hours of Friday 30 of October, a time-bomb hit the entrance of the house of a leading conservative politician, Ms Marietta Giannakou, causing material damage but no human injuries, as a phone-call by the urban guerrillas to the press had warned of the explosion. Ms Giannakou is the leading MEP of the now in opposition New Democracy right-wing party, and was the Minister of Education during the massive movement against educational reforms in 2006-2007. The attack against Ms Giannakou’s house has been claimed through a long communique by the Nuclei of Fire Conspiracy who amongst other things used the opportunity to communicate their views against anarchist participation in educational protest marches, professing once again their self-proclaimed nihilist platform.
Earlier this week the Minister of Public Order, Mr Chrisochoidis, has gone public urging the 6 persons wanted in relation to the Nuclei of Fire bomb campaign to surrender, arguing that the State will show leniency due to [their yoof].
The same night in Salonica, the Spanish Consulate was hit by an explosive mechanism. A communique by a first appearing group has claimed the attack was in solidarity to Amadeu Casellas, a long-term anarchist prisoner in Spain. [According to one source, “the attack in Thessaloniki has been claimed by the “international chamber for the diffusion of revolutionary violence”…”.] Last week more explosive mechanisms in Salonica had hit several MP offices, including the office of the Deputy Minister of Public Order, Mr Vougias, as well as the house of the extreme-right minded Archbishop of Salonica.
The new attacks come to add to the climate of escalating tension in the country, to which considerable confusion was added by a communique published on Friday in the daily press, claiming responsibility for the Tuesday attack against the police station of Agia Paraskevi. The communique which employs long quotes from the Communist Party leader during the Civil War, Nikos Zachariadis, as well as from the Communist International, is signed by the acronyms OPLA, the name of the Communist Party “Groups for the Protection of People’s Struggle’, [Organization for the Protection of the People’s Struggle (Greek: Οργάνωση Προστασίας Λαϊκού Αγώνα, abbreviated ΟΠΛΑ – OPLA)] an elite corps of combat units and intelligence teams during the Civil War, notorious for assassinations of both monarchofascists and political opponents within the communist movement. Besides changing the acronym to now mean “Groups of Popular Proletarian Self-Defense”, the communique consists largely of paraphrases of the original text announcing the forming of OPLA in the 1940s, urging “the organisation of structures of mass popular self-defense” against state and parastate repression. The Communist Party of Greece has responded angrily, denouncing the communique as a provocation and a mockery of history and the armed struggle of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE). The authenticity of the communique remains highly disputed and controversial.
I was stopped by a soldier, said he, “You are a swine”
He beat me with his baton and he kicked me in the groin
I bowed and I scraped, sure me manners were polite
But all the time I’m thinking of me little Armalite…
Sure a brave RUC man came up into our street
Six hundred British soldiers were gathered round his feet
“Come out, ye cowardly Fenians”, said he, “Come out and fight”
But he cried, “I’m only joking”, when he heard the Armalite
See also : Racism and fascist violence in Northern Ireland PLUS (June 18, 2009) | The Mother of a Thousand Dead Still Not Quite Dead… Yet (March 12, 2008)
