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Dec 6, 17

Police Raids and Solidarity Actions across Germany as Greece Remembers Alexis

From Crimethinc and Enough is Enough

Police raided more than 20 apartments, collectives, and projects around Germany in the early hours of December 5 in a new wave of repression following their unsuccessful attempts to brutally suppress demonstrations against the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg. The “Soko Schwarzer Block,“ the special police commission called “black bloc“ that was formed after the G20, officially announced that the searches pertained to an incident during the G20 at Rondenbarg trailer park—in which the police trapped and attacked a crowd, injuring many people. Solidarity actions and demonstrations responding to the raids took place immediately in Hannover, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Hamburg, Flensburg, Göttingen, and Berlin.

A demonstration immediately responding to the raids in Göttingen.

Fabio, a person who spent four months in prison, became a symbol of the scandalous lies that the authorities have been spreading about the police attack at Rondenbarg. During the attack, police kicked 14 people down a fence, screaming “That’s your breakfast, antifa swine!” All of them sustained serious injuries, including broken bones. Since the police video was published by a TV station, we can all compare the different versions. History is made by those in power and what we witness right now is the fabrication of truth. The truth that the police and the judges are trying to promote is not compatible with the experiences that thousands of people share of being charged without provocation, brutally beaten up, water-cannoned, and pepper-sprayed during the summit.

The official charge is “Landfriedensbruch,“ breach of the public peace. But even according to the police spokesperson, the searches were not carried out to find evidence to use against people participating the demonstration. The searches were officially made to find out more about the structure of the protests and the organizers of the riots. In other words, the explicit goal of the police is to suppress dissent via violence and ongoing intimidation.

The intention of the police is to frame the people they attacked as rioters. But they also raided the apartments of union members. Consequently, even mainstream journalists called the searches a PR bluff. The act that the arrestees are accused of is nothing more than being part of a demonstration from which stones and firework were thrown. The police have admitted that they did not expect to identify anyone who had thrown anything.

To identify the priorities of the German state, which cracks down as violently as possible on popular protest movements while creating the conditions for fascists to organize and even violate the law, we should bear in mind a statistic that was publicized shortly before these raids: some 500 fascists currently have open warrants for their arrest that have not been carried out, and the number is increasing every year.

Furthermore, police have announced their intention to open cases against 3000 people before the end of the year in retaliation for participation in the G20 protests. So this is just the beginning.

The police video from their attack on demonstrators at Rondenbarg.

The corporate media portrayed Fabio’s courageous statement at his trial as naïve, but surprisingly, even mainstream outlets admitted that we have to question democracy itself as it is obviously not able to solve the problems of growing financial inequality and resource scarcity.

We should encrypt our computers, tidy up our rooms, and share our experiences with each other about the police looking at our photos, our mail, and our underwear. We can talk about how we are anxious and different ways to support each other. We should organize solidarity actions. But above all, we should use this opportunity to speak about our experiences and visions of a world without police.

A solidarity demonstration in Flensburg.

Additional Resources

United We Stand: Solidarity campaign against G20 repression

Further details about the raids

Our full report on the G20 protests in Hamburg; a German version of this text is available here

Photographs from the raids and solidarity actions in Göttingen

Police press statement on the raids

Voices of people affected by the raids

#BlackD17 Live Blog: Protests to Commemorate Alexis Grigoropoulos and Against the NoG20 Raids

You will find background information about the state murder of Alexis and protests around the murder in the past years; here.

You can read the call for today’s day of action against state terrorism; here.

There is also a call for a Black December, which you can read; here.

View videos and social media here on Enough is Enough.

In Greece there will be actions and demonstrations during the day. The main demonstration in Athens will start at at Propylaia at 06:00pm (18:00) local time (05:00pm CET). The first offical demo in Athens will start at 12:00pm local time (11:00am CET).

Yesterday, german cops raided more than 20 apartments in 8 German states. The raids were related to the NoG20 protests in Hamburg earlier this year. Last night there were spontaneous protests in several German cities. Tonight there will be demonstrations in Berlin and Freiburg.

Read the call to resist repression after the police raids in Germany (translated by the comrades of Insurrection News); here.

11:20am: For people who understand Greek, Radio Fragmata will broadcast the whole day at http://live24.gr/radio/generic.jsp?sid=2926. From 06:00pm local time (05:00pm CET) there will be live reports from the demo to commemorate Alexis.

11:30am: First clashes broke out in Propylea, Athens (images below, Images by Twitter account @th1an1):

12:23pm: Clashes are continuing around Propylea. Students demo about to start (Images below).

12:39pm: Livestream from the students demo to commemorate Alexis in Athens, Greece at: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1DXGyErRyrNGM

01:42pm: An image from around 01:00pm, near the university in Athens. Image by Twitter account @ChristofakisN

01:48pm: Video of the clashes during the students demo in Athens to commemorate Alexis a little bit earlier.

03:09pm: Comrades from Berlin were prepared for yesterdays wave of repression by German cops. Before yesterdays raids they already agreed that they would take the streets one day after “Day X”. We will report live from tonight’s demo in Berlin. The demo starts at 07:00pm (19:00) at Kottbusser Tor (Image below).

03:20pm: We take a break to eat something and will be back at 05:00pm for our live reports from demonstrations to commemorate Alexis and the demos against the wave of repression against NoG20 activists in Berlin and Freiburg (Germany). In between you can read this letter from Nikos Romanos from 2015: “Requiem for a Journey of No Return”

05:20pm: We are back to continue our live coverage.

05:32pm: More and more people arriving at the opening gathering for the demonstration to commemorate Alexis in Athens, Greece.

05:42pm: Around 1000 people now at opening gathering of demonstration to commemorate Alexis. But more people still arriving.

05:49pm: Thessaloniki: Demo to commemorate Alexis started marching.

06:00pm Athens: Demo to commemorate Alexis started marching.

06:16pm Thessaloniki: Images (by @chris_avramidis) from the demo to commemorate Alexis.

06:18pm Athens: Images (below, by @th1an1 ) from the demo to commemorate Alexis.

NoG20: German police requests German media to voluntarily hand over all the material (also unpublished material) from the NoG20 protests. Ralf Martin Meyer, police president of Hamburg also said the cops might confiscate the material if the law let’s them. The cops have send the requests to NDR, ZDF, N24, RTL, Sat.1 and N-tv. N-tv belongs to RTL and according to NDR, RTL have send the cops the material.

06:30pm Berlin: Before the demo against repression against NoG20 activists there is a Demo against deportations of refugees right now.

06:47pm Berlin: Cops are checking id’s and bags at Kotti in Berlin. Watch out and take care!

07:00pm Alexis: Clashes between police and protesters in Thessaloniki now (Image below by @CostasKantouris)

07:23pm Berlin: Demo against repression of NoG20 activists about to start. Banner says: “Fire and flames for the judicial authorities. Images (below) by @lamda14

07:41pm Athens: Clashes in Exarchia now.

07:54pm Athens: Clashes in Exarchia district are intense. Images by @th1an1

07:55pm Berlin: Plain clothes cops around the demo against repression against NoG20 activists.

08:09pm Berlin: Demo against repression of NoG20 activists ended now. One detention (for climbing!). On Saturday there will be another demo against the repression of NoG20 activists in Berlin; Saturday, December 9, 02:00pm (14:00), Platz der Luftbrücke, Berlin. On saturday there will also be a NoG20 repression demo in Göttingen (image below). The demo in Göttingen will start at 04:00pm (16:00) at the Platz der Synagoge.

Greece: At least 25 protesters arrested, several banks and stores damaged, cars torched during demonstrations in Greek many cities today  to honor the memory of Alexandros Grigoropoulos.

10:30pm: Solidarity from Antifa Wuppertal (Germany) to Greece & beyond. For a Black December!

10:59pm Athens: Clashes in Exarchia are ongoing. Impossible to breathe near plateia, but people fight the cops in side streets.

00:00am We end our live coverage now. Thanks for reading and take a look below.

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Crimethink is everything that evades control: the daydream in the classroom, the renegade breaking ranks, the spray-painted walls that continue to speak even under martial law. It is the persistent sense that things could be otherwise, that there is nothing natural or inevitable about the prevailing social order. In a world optimized for administration, everything that cannot be classified or displayed on a screen is crimethink. It is the spirit of rebellion without which freedom is literally unthinkable.

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