HUNGER STRIKE OF NIKOS MAZIOTIS, MEMBER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE, AS PART OF THE CURRENT STRUGGLE AND MOBILIZATION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS
HUNGER STRIKE OF NIKOS MAZIOTIS, MEMBER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE, AS PART OF THE CURRENT STRUGGLE AND MOBILIZATION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS
In the past 15 years and especially since the war on “terrorism” was waged, the capitalist system throughout the world has become increasingly totalitarian in order to impose the dictatorship of the markets, the interests of the supra-national financial elite, which has emerged from the globalization of this system after the end of the cold war. In this context, repression, the reinforcement of the penal and legal arsenal of states in this new globalized environment against the political enemies of the new order and especially against the threat of armed revolutionary action, is of great significance and is applied for the reproduction of the system, especially in recent years since the outbreak of the global financial crisis.
The greek state, which is fully integrated into supranational capital, has on the one hand adopted the neoliberal reforms dictated by the European Union and on the other hand has upgraded its legal and penal arsenal to the demands of the international “war on terrorism”. And so in 2001 the state passed the counter-terrorist law A, article 187 of the penal code (criminal organization), in 2004 it passed the counter-terrorist law B, article 187A (terrorist organization), in 2009, soon after the uprising of December 2008 it passed a law criminalizing covering one’s face in demonstrations (anti-hoodie law) and in 2010 it modified article 187A rendering it even more repressive. In 2012, by order of the state prosecutor it established the use of violent means in retrieving DNA samples from suspects and finally, during the summer of 2014, as a logical sequence to its repressive policy, it passed a law establishing high security prisons (type C) for political prisoners.
This gradual upgrade of the state’s repressive attack in these past years has intensified in conjunction to the neoliberal reforms imposed by greek governments. However, this attack peaked after the outbreak of the global financial crisis, after the uprising of December 2008 and the country’s subjection to the authority of the IMF, the EU, and the European Central Bank by signing the first Memorandum in 2010.
In these conditions, where the state has lost the social consensus it enjoyed prior to the crisis, due to brutal policies unleashed in the past 6 years, repression and “counter-terrorist” legislations comprise the foundations and prerequisites for perpetuating this system.
Because, the de-legitimization of the regime in the eyes of the social majority due to the greatest social robbery ever perpetrated against it, where hunger, poverty and degradation plague the people, with thousands of deaths from suicides, from diseases, from the lack of basic necessities, with thousands of homeless people and those who eat from garbage or depend on soup kitchens to survive, because all of this create the right conditions for the prospect of revolution and of overthrowing the regime responsible for the crisis and all the suffering that has resulted from it.
The takeover of power and of the management of the capitalist crisis by Syriza after the elections of the 25th of January 2015, doesn’t essentially change anything. Despite the pre-election promises for the abolition of memorandum agreements and the trimming of the debt, the policy that the Syriza government is committed to following is no different to that of its predecessors. This is obvious from the fact that they requested the extension of the existing rescue program, regardless of their communicative spin to rename the memorandum or the Troika (IMF, European Union and European Central Bank) into “institutions”. The fact is that the Syriza government has accepted both the memorandum and the debt and will sign a new memorandum – rescue program following the extension of the existing one, with all that this entails.
As a member of the Revolutionary struggle and as a political prisoner in type C prisons, I believe that only the way of subversion and of popular, social armed revolution present a way out of the crisis and can reverse memorandums, loan agreements and erase the debt. As a member of the Revolutionary struggle and as a political prisoner in type C prisons, in the context of the current struggle of political prisoners against special “counter-terrorism” legislations, special courts and special prisons, I participate in the hunger strike since the 2nd of March. We demand:
1) The abolition of «counter-terrorism» law Α΄ of 2001, of the article 187 (criminal organization).
2) Abolition of «counter-terrorism» law Β΄ of 2004, of the article 187Α (terrorist organization).
3) Abolition of the anti-hoodie law.
4) Abolition of the legislation for type C΄ prisons.
5) The release of Savas Xiros, condemned as a member of the revolutionary organization November 17th, for health reasons.
Nikos Maziotis, member of Revolutionary Struggle
Type C prison, Domokos