International Bulletin of NAR, October 2024
A protest was held on Saturday, September 28 at the small village of Agios Theodoros, 50km from Athens. Outside the village is the largest refinery of the country, MOTOR OIL, which has become a crucial part of the genocidal war machine against the Palestinian and Lebanese people. Throughout the period of the massacre of Palestinians, the Greek shipowners are taking advantage to continue the pursuit of profit, risking also the lives of those working on their ships. 30% (25 out of 83 ships) of the ships attacked so far in the Red Sea are of Greek ownership and interests. At the top of this dirty involvement on the side of Israel is MOTOR OIL (of the well-known Vardinogiannis shipping family) in whose refineries the tankers “OVERSEAS SUN COAST” and “OVERSEAS SANTORINI” are still coming and going on a regular basis, transporting military fuel to the Israeli Army.
Even before 12:00 noon, when the rally was scheduled, crowds of demonstrators began to flock to the square, many carrying Palestinian flags. What stood out at first were the dozens of members of the Palestinian community, many women and children who had come by bus from Athens, like many of the demonstrators. Then the square was filled with hundreds of young men and women, workers and students with Palestinian and red flags and with the slogans “Freedom in Palestine”, “No fuel for genocide, no cooperation with Israel”
Unions participated in the gathering called at the initiative of PENEΝ (Panhellenic Union of Shipping Workers) and the Initiative of Solidarity to the Palestinian People of Unions and Collectives. The first speaker at the rally was Antonis Dalakogeorgos, president of PENEN who denounced the supply of fuel to genocidal Israel by the Vardinogiannis family. He was greeted by Mihiar Ektami from the Union of Palestinian Workers who said that “they want to erase Palestine, but Palestine is everywhere, as it is in this square, with all of you.” At the end of the gathering, demonstrators moved to the Motor Oil facilities to denounce the collaboration with the murderous state of Israel. The protesters were faced with barriers by the police, who were mobilized so as not to disturb the profits of the Vardinogiannis family!
Athens Polytechnic School:
“Researcher’s Day” with police and 11 arrests of researchers!
“Researcher’s Day” was organized by the Athens Polytechnic School, but the program included repression, the invasion of dozens of the Police and violent arrests of 11 researchers! Among them a member of the Union of University Researchers and member of NAR/Communist Liberation Youth, who was sued by the Rector of the Polytechnic School himself!
The violent arrests took place after the orgy of repression with the invasion of police forces in the Polytechnic area as the intervention of the Panhellenic Union in Research and Higher Education, broke the showcase of the celebration of “business research” and highlighted the status of exploitation experienced by thousands of young men and women researchers. The protest brought to the fore that “the celebration” is for those who destroy the Public University and Research for the benefit of capital’s profitability among those in the war industry . It is no coincidence that the sponsor of the evening was MOTOR OIL, which does business with Israel’s murderous war machine with the blessing of the Greek government!
The long hand of the government and business interests is the Rector of the Polytechnic School, who did not hesitate to make the supposed “celebration” a fortress surrounded by police forces which filled the entire historic site of the Polytechnic with policemen. The rector demonstrated that he has completely lost the role of university teacher and has chosen the role of dealer of business interests, recalling the days of the junta when every different voice was criminalized. In fact, in order to justify the fiasco he caused, he proceeded with lawsuits against those arrested, that is, the researchers of the institutions, which are the backbone of the new scientific knowledge!
https://fb.watch/uVdIkwzF4X/
These arrests are a clear attempt to target political and trade union action, seeking to hand over the Public University to the business groups “clean” of any militant resistance, in order to promote the most profound reactionary, capitalist restructurings. After the grand student movement of the previous year against the privatization of Higher Education, they want to prevent a new outbreak of student movement struggles, so they resort to repression and authoritarianism.
These arrests make it clear that the “democracy” of modern capitalism does not fit the rights and freedoms of the youth and the people. That is why those who struggle against the brutality of bourgeois politics, those who fight against labor exploitation, poverty, the privatization of public social goods, capitalist wars, are targeted, face violence, repression and arrests , That’s why they target young communist men and women, fighters of the student and labor unions. Through collective struggles we give our own answer!
Migrant worker dead from police brutality
Mohammad Kamran Asiq, an immigrant of Pakistani origin, was found dead in a police station of Athens city center on the morning of Saturday 21/9. As his family’s lawyer stated, the 37-year-old man had been missing since September 13 without his relatives being able to contact him on the two mobile phones he had. According to the photos presented, he had multiple injuries and injuries all over his body. From September 13 to September 21, when an ambulance received him dead from the Police station, Mohamed was transferred to five police stations to end up dead in the last one. The attempt to cover up the case is provocative. According to Police’ oral explanations to the lawyer of Mohamed’s family, the dead immigrant was not found in the detention center, but in the temporary detention room of the police department, that is, in the only area not covered by security cameras. At the same time, the police, according to what has been written in the Incident Report, claims that Mohamed was homeless and did not speak Greek at all and that he suffered from beatings by fellow prisoners before going to the specific police station on September 18. But Mohamed had been in Greece since 2004, with identity papers, he worked as a deliveryman and had received a residence permit in 2017. He also spoke Greek fluently.
An ex officio investigation has been launched into the incident by the prosecutor’s authorities and a preliminary examination is being carried out by Police station where Mohamed was found dead. It is unthinkable that the investigation remain in the hands of the ones responsible for his death! The Police stations where Mohamed was held are known for their men’s co-operation with neo-Nazi Golden Downs death squads. Another migrant, Ebouka from Nigeria was murdered on 8/2/2019 at the same Police station.
Mohamed was a worker, poor and immigrant, like all those who are constantly targeted by state mechanisms, a “sacrifice” on the altar of shielding the Greek state for the sake of capital and EU-fortress. From Mohammed and Ebouka, to the 650 dead refugees of Pylos shipwreck, all of them are a consequence of the same process of armoring the state. The murderers of the Greek Police are not only not punished, but even rewarded for their crimes, as happened with the 600 euros “bonus” granted by the government in 2022 with broad parliamentary support (even by the Communist Party), a few days after the murder of a 16 years old Roma boy, Kostas Fragoulis, for stealing 20 euros!
Anger and strong reactions have been caused by the revelation of Mohamed’s death. In the afternoon of the same day a protest rally was held, which was attacked by the Police forces. A gathering was also held the next day in Victoria Square of Athens followed by a march towards the Police station where Mohamed was murdered. With slogans such as “No to the cover-up of the murder – The system of poverty and violence is guilty”, “Immigrants are not to blame for unemployment, the government and capital are to blame”, “No peace without justice”, the demonstrators arrived at the Police Station. There the anger broke out for a while with the slogan “Murderers, Murderers” echoing in the area and outside the torture chamber where Mohammad Kamran Asiq breathed his last. “We live together, we work together, locals and immigrants, we beat Nazis!”, was heard en masse.
