They happened to be a fine crop…
In the morning of March the 11th 2018, we lost unexpectedly our anarchist comrade and founding member of our political group, Christos Politis. His death is overwhelming, but it won’t paralyze us, it won’t bend us. Our ranks will grow and we will collectively walk the uphill that Christos has left behind…
Christos passed away unfairly. Like thousands of other people in this galley we all live in. Here, where the ambulances take more than an hour to arrive. Here, where our lives, the lives of the poor and the workers, the unemployed and the damned, the true militants and the brave like Christos, are constantly targeted and under probation.
Christos was as well, like all of us, a true born of his generation, of this dump where we grew up and live, of its contrasts, its contradictions, its constant pressure, of bad timing… No one and nothing will spill the Honor and Memory of our Comrade. We will make sure of it, as we are certain will do the hundreds, the literally thousands of comrades, men and women, who met him and walked alongside the last 25 years, at least at some part of the path, in his long, incessant and multiform political action.
Our Comrade joined the streets of Struggle at a very early age, in the mid 90’s and since then, and until two days ago when his big heart stopped beating, he never ceased – not for a moment – struggling dynamically, with determination and courage, from every front, constantly and with consequence. In the demonstrations after the assassination of Christoforos Marinos in 1996, in the barricades outside the exam centers in ’98, in the antiwar demonstrations in ’99. In the demonstrations against the EU leaders summit in Thessaloniki in 2003, in the student’s struggle in 2006-07, in the insurrection of December 2008, in the solidarity to political and struggling prisoners, in the international-antifascist action, in the solidarity to squats, in solidarity structures, in the collective kitchens for refugees and immigrants, in the struggles against state repression, mafias and social cannibalism, in Exarchia and everywhere. Incessantly all these years he lived and fought with a smile on his face, with integrity and dignity. Human, a modest and committed Fighter. Through the collective political procedures of the anarchist-antiauthoritarian scene and the wider antagonistic movement, he lived and fought at the frontlines, Christos of the Struggle and Fight; Christos of counterattack, of collective and self-defense; Christos of organization and commitment; Christos of assemblies and initiatives; Christos of counter-information and postings; Christos of publications and presentations; Christos of political suggestions and analysis; Christos in every Struggle front of those decades. 8 years ago, in the winter of 2010 – right after the country was already in memorandum winter – our Comrade felt on his skin the state repression, the police-justice fury, the relentlessness οf media parrots and mainstream headhunters. From the closed prison of Grevena, more than 400 km away from Athens, he wrote:
[…] Because we fought everywhere, with our small or bigger forces, where nothing seemed certain and when the social entropy was giving a new meaning to our life and strength to our struggles. […] The made-up and guided persecutions, based on the scenarios and obsessions of the anti-terrorist department, look like cluster bombs. They target somewhere only to strike a long range around it, to destroy a wider area. This persecution doesn’t concern me exclusively. This persecution aims at scaring everyone. In order to be careful who we talk to. With whom we do postering. With whom we print publications. With whom we walk side by side in the demos. With whom we exchange opinions during events. And certainly, where we go to. To fill us in our everyday life with doubt and fear. The servants of Troika offer us generously the eternal “alibi” of obedience, of temporary security and fake safety of submission. Because, who will doubt, without being laughed at completely, that if we were content with nothing, if we were anarchists only until high school, if we were “relieved” after the signing of the memorandum, if he hated immigrants, if we were frustrated with the black block, if we were afraid of “terrorists”, nor I nor many others who resist would have experienced the repression consequences.
But the struggle won’t retreat. The regime and its various officials won’t be able to feel happiness or relief. We resist side by side with the anarchist prisoners, the prisoners in struggle. Until their liberation. We contribute constantly to bringing together – theoretically and organizationally – our class and developing the necessary strategic plan in order to achieve victory.
Let’s stand still. And let’s take the next step. For the social/class counter-attack. Aiming at storming heaven.
PS: As one good friend once said to me: «Patience. Strength. Faith to the Cause. We are right. The end.” Those words will be my guide in those truly difficult moments.
Christos, this will be our guide as well…Farewell Comrade and Friend. We shall never forget you.
The Struggle goes on. The way you knew and wanted it to be.
Class Counter attack (Anarchist and Communist Group)
Athens, March 13th 2018