It is one year since the death of Larry, a Greek anarchist partisan whose loss continues to echo– the ripples of this tragedy are not stilled. I didn't know Larry, but many close to me did, in multiple political and social capacities and of course in his role as an impossibly generous movement lawyer, one who worked nonstop to protect comrades and vulnerable immigrants from the violence of the state. He also possessed the courage to risk his legal career and health fighting in the streets; in one incident the police broke his leg!
Larry's untimely passing prompted an outpouring of grief and remembrances– spoken, in text form and even musically:
To honor this great anarchist and beloved, much-missed comrade, I have translated to English a text he worked on shortly before his death, originally shared by Μολόχα, one of the assemblies with which he collaborated.
It is on the subject of (not) voting and its significance, especially timely for those exposed to the disgusting spectacle of genocidal political puppet theater taking place in the USA. I hope reading Larry's unequivocal rejection of electoralism and aggressive call for freedom can, in whatever minor way, allow a broader audience to gain some measure of the enormous inspiration Larry reliably provided those around him.
Presented with respectful solidarity to the departed and with love for those still living, whose suffering is renewed on this anniversary.
Death to the state! Death to capital! Eternal life in our hearts for those who fight against them alongside us!
Anti-election statement after the elections.
In the most recent elections, the historically highest-ever abstention rate, combined with invalid and blank votes, reached 47.37%. In our area, as an initiative of the self-managed space Υπόστεγο, we called for a conscious abstention from the elections, as did people from the anti-authoritarian movement in other regions. That is why we consider it important– even after the elections– to hear some thoughts from those who chose to distance themselves from the electoral process.
Of course, the ever-increasing rate of abstention from each election is viewed by the dominant public discourse as something negative, whereas we consider it something absolutely positive. At the same time, there's a lack of substantive analysis of the causes of this (positive) development; it's usually limited to vague statements like "citizens have lost their trust in the political system and we have to win them back." In this way, the mainstream media, politicians and other journalists consciously try to undermine the political choice of abstention or blank/ruined ballots as some vague "psychological state," and ultimately assert the existing political system as the "only solution."
This veil of protection they spread over the existing political system is not accidental: from the old theocratic regimes ruled by "divinely-appointed" monarchs to the modern bourgeois democratic regimes of the Western world that rule us in "the name of the people," a common and indisputable finding– the only solution– is that "the people must be governed."
Everyone agrees on this: kings, democratic politicians, fascists, priests, eminent scientists, all of them reaffirm to us every day that "the people cannot exist without a government." So the only question they ask is: who is best suited to rule? In other words, the electoral dilemma (from which we consciously refrained) in which rightists, leftists and fascists compete is about who will ultimately be our leader, who will dominate us, who will manipulate us, with the end goal being our economic exploitation by the ruling classes.
More and more people are distancing themselves from this electoral dilemma– but not by chance, not due to the vague "lack of trust" mentioned above. These days government, presented as the only solution, has been driven into total decline and lost all traces of legitimacy for a number of reasons: to name a few, the now clear government connections to organized crime (Greek mafia), the absolute government control of mainstream media, the repeated state murders (Tempi trainwreck, Pylos shipwreck), the constant humiliating scandals (Predatorgate wiretapping, SIEMENS bribery case, Novartis bribery case), the government-organized puppeteering of the judiciary and the embrace of establishment "solutions" by a large part of the left.
So, it is not coincidence that the contemptible ruling classes, in order to maintain their current power, abandon their liberal principles and recruit thousands of new police, adopt ultra-orthodox and fascist positions and practices, and hit both literally and via bureaucracy anywhere they can to silence opposing views (squat evictions, the eviction of the archaeologists' association from their building, directed funding to compliant media, anti-union legislation). In other words, they resort once more to organized state violence and try to strengthen the elements that establish the existence of the Greek State– the bureaucracy, the police, and religion– in order to impose their "democratic Government" on us by force.
For our part, we abstained from the elections because we do not need anyone to govern us. No one is qualified for such a thing, as we can determine what our lives are for ourselves. That is why we reject any "enlightened" political theory that proclaims, prophet-like, how our problems will be solved in some future. We choose self-organization. We reject the appeals of the politicians who ask us to be "a little more patient because… better days are coming soon," and we determine for ourselves, today, here and now, the ways we will act in our everyday lives to implement anti-authoritarian practices through positions like the following:
– Amidst the new Orthodox fundamentalism and patriarchy, we declare that we do not need (false) gods. We freely make decisions about our own bodies, advocating sexual freedom, naturism and atheism.
– We do not need organization by the state that now visibly tries to control every aspect of our lives and enumerate us, but instead we build small communities where the terms of organization are freely chosen in the context of solidarity and freedom for all. At the same time, we are looking for ways to solve the problems that arise in our communities, not with "laws" but through practical experience, mutual aid and the sharpening of our critical perception.
– Amidst our economic exploitation by the ruling classes, who have made precarity, unpaid overtime and workplace accidents the norm, we advocate for the abolition of wage slavery and work only as much as is necessary for our survival and that of our communities, without profit for anyone.
– In the face of now unspeakable ecological disaster, imposed by the voracious capitalist need for continuous economic growth regardless of the extinction of the forests and the seas (for example cementing the mountains to install thousands of wind turbines), we propose ecological movements. But not in vague terms, for general protection of the environment, but with a political basis: the creation of societies that will not carry out the endless, entirely meaningless but energy-consuming daily actions imposed on us today in order to survive industrial capitalism.
– To the bombs that are now falling again in Europe, we declare we do not need armies and borders, because we can live in peace without the governments that cause war. We show our solidarity with immigrants in practice every day and fight with them against all forms of racism and fascism, seeking also the abolition of all the causes of immigration: wars, colonial exploitation, environmental disasters.
We appreciate that in the face of powerful capitalist states, many consider any differentiation futile and therefore choose distance and silence in an attempt to preserve their personal dignity. We believe that to the contrary, especially today, even the smallest political act has value. For this reason we call for everyone, to the extent each can: transform symbolic acts– such as abstention– into actions.
For a life of freedom without gods and states.