(en) A general outlook on the organizational effort(s) of the
Greek anarchist movement, This is a first report as of late July
2015... To be continued - hopefully-. (ca, gr, pt)
After a 35 year existence of a political/social movement (current), loosely referred to as
an anarchist /antiauthoritarian movement, which in many cases it included organizational
branches and individuals of the radical Marxist left, Marxist and anarchist autonomy,
pacifist libertarians, and after several attempts to create an anarchist organization to
link and unite all those independent collective entities and individuals (who couldn't
find themselves within a political collective) had failed, on December 2012 a more serious
call appeared to reattempt to form such an organization. The initial call dated Dec.19
2012 came from 4 influential and long standing collectives after a lengthy discussion
between them on how to address the need for further organization. Apparently this created
a wide interest by several other collectives from Athens and the rest of Greece which
became a complex process on how to develop commonly announced proposals towards
organization and of political positions on the most important issues that anarchists
frequently have positions on. The detailed content is yet unknown.
Outside the sphere of those collectives that participated in the effort for nearly two
years there was silence and anticipation that something serious was baking in the oven.
Some could smell and speculate but increasingly there was curiosity on what could possibly
take so long. Eventually the silence broke from a dissatisfied collective called ASMPA
(Anarchist Collective towards the Militant Proletarian Reconstitution) who apparently left
the effort after a fierce disagreement with the rest on whether a collective (Kathodon)
should and could be amongst the rest. This was a reminder and evidence that this effort
was ongoing and it was widely supported by nearly 20 collectives from all around Greece.
The disagreement appears to be related to an event dating back to February 2013 when
members of Kathodon had participated in an attack on a squatted building, and later
distributed within a close circle of collectives, a statement explaining and supporting
their action on what had happened. Shortly after this there was a second document
explaining why ASMPA could no longer tolerate the reactions of the rest covering up the
responsibilities of Kathodon and accuses those that tolerate them of acting as a partisan
protectionist mechanism. As negative as the statements describing the effort of political
organization as they were by ASMPA it became the only source and evidence that such effort
was still in effect and evolving as many were speculating it had been abandoned. All
evidence till then only hinted towards a single effort.
In early June 2015 a new statement (a pre-announcement of a tending process) came out,
with only one of the original collectives (Circle of Fire) signing it together with a few
other collectives, three from Athens, one from Salonica, and one from Patra. One of the
newest collectives (O72) appears to be an evolution of an older collective and one of the
initial callers. Another from Salonica appears to be a split of an older Anarchist
collective. The published information on all these detail appear to be hazy and possibly
of lesser importance.
This pre-announcement relates this effort to the original call and directly talks of the
natural evolution of this process to create a political organization. Meanwhile if one
goes back to the original call and of announcements made by individual collectives
(Antipnoia for example directly states that this effort is one for the creation of a
federation) one would expect that the evolution of this effort was clearly in developing
the foundation of a conference to create a political federation, not a political
organization. This June announcement by the six collectives did not clearly answer what
ever happened to the rest but it was obvious that there was a split, as collectives
appearing in the ASMPA announcements that were together in this same effort did not appear
to be together in this later update of the process.
To answer all those curious cats of what happened, in late July a new update came from the
remaining collectives appearing to acknowledge those forming the organization and wishing
them the best of luck and willingness to cooperate in the future but also pre-announcing a
call for the initiation of an open process of creating a federation. As they say the
pre-conference will take place in October 2015 and the process will be determined there in
taking a year's time to develop the final declaration of the foundation of the federation.
Their address was directed to anarchists, the exploited and oppressed. Will the
a-political individual entities get up from their couch to join an anarchist federation
due to the fact they are exploited in the workplace and/or oppressed in their community?
We shall refrain from commenting any more.
Whether this adds to the confusion and whether it further feeds the curiosity and
speculation is unknown. Neither of these announcements declare something specific, of a
date, a place, a contact, for the outsiders to act upon, but is just a "pre-announcement"
of an "announcement" to come. We are all looking forward for the two separate efforts to
take the real first step in organizing. It is logical that something that couldn't
materialize for 35 years, and repeatedly failed, wouldn't be easy and it definitely
couldn't make everyone happy. There seems to be a huge list of self proclaimed "anarchist
collectives" that have either refused to participate, were excluded (not directly but by
the way the calling was stated some couldn't see themselves within it), or departed the
effort, and maintain their autonomous paths or other forms of collective associations
(sort lived cooperations, loose platforms, etc).
One such association that has a significant history of participating in major political
events is the so called "West" (Dhytica) which includes some but not all the collectives
of the western suburbs of Athens, mainly Resalto, Sinialo, and Thersitis, and their
satellite projects. We cannot speculate whether the reasons are political or are of
different nature relating to the geography of the movement. Equally important to note is
that the thousands of individuals that have for years participated in the action rich a/a
movement, especially the massive youth current that sprung from the December 2008
insurrection (and riots), does not participate and is not included in the above mentioned
groups. That is they never realized the need to join or create strictly political
collectives. Some only participate in social collectives or syndicalist actions of the
general libertarian horizontal movement, and the rest refused to see themselves as parts
of a collective. They answer calls to general issue related assemblies in the Exarchia
district, they appear in protests and demonstrations, parties, concerts, etc.
It is a question and source of speculation of whether either or both efforts for
organization and federation will be able to attract the majority of individuals who
maintain the tendency to remain as "individuals" and whether this tendency is politically
motivated as "individualists" proclaim, or it is just luck of interest and motivation to
do anything more than noise during massive action on the street level. If we said "...to
be continued" it would be an under-statement, as there are many that believe that the
condition of this decaying movement and these organizational efforts came a little too
late, and the 35 year old movement is gone and over. If anything is there to evolve would
be something totally new and from scratch, as they proclaim. Or as insurrectionist
individualists commonly say "from the ashes of the existing the new will arise". Their
infatuation with ashes and burning approach a level of collective psychopathology relating
to pyromania.
The following three official announcements (in Greek) is what we officially know up to
this point about the call for a nationwide anarchist political organization:
oPanhellenic calling for the Prospect of Creating an Anarchist Political Organization by
the anarchist collectives of Kathodon, Kyklos tis Fotias (Circle of Fire), AKA (Anarchists
for Social Liberation), and Antipnoia, 19/12/2012
oUpdate on the procedures of the pre-conference dialog for the creation of an Anarchist
Political Organization, 10/06/2015
oTo the anarchist movement, the exploited and the oppressed, 25/07/2015
The two ASMPA documents (also in Greek) that portray some of the dynamics within the
"single" organizational effort, before the split took place we suppose: 1,2.
The text in Spanish, Portuguese.
Short link: http://verba-volant.info/en/?p=480.
29/07/2015, 16:10
http://verba-volant.info/en/a-general-outlook-on-the-organizational-efforts-of-the-greek-anarchist-movement/
