Statement on 5th Trial of Revolutionary Struggle for Attempted Helicopter Escape and Expropriations

https://www.amwenglish.com/articles/statement-on-5th-trial-of-revolutionary-struggle-for-attempted-helicopter-escape-and-expropriations/

 

Published September 30, 2020

The start of the appellate court of the 5th trial of the Revolutionary Struggle is scheduled for Wednesday, September 30. The case of the attempted escape by helicopter from the Korydallos prison that was organized by Pola Roupa in February 2016 and two expropriations of banks, at the Sotiria hospital and the National Bank in Malesina, are being re-tried. At first instance, the comrade was sentenced to 120 years in prison, by merger 65 and Nikos Maziotis to 37, by merger 24, for moral instigation.

The attempted escape of Nikos Maziotis and other detainees, organized in February 2016 by Pola Roupa, is a top action of resistance and solidarity, with rich moral content and high values. It is not only the selfless pursuit of an action that could cost the very life of the comrade who emits powerful symbolism and messages, but also the very way she organized it. Taking the necessary measures to save lives, the means of management when the plan was derailed, the orientation itself are what determine the value of the Revolutionary Struggle and at the same time illuminate the operational gaps between the revolutionaries and their regime persecutors. It reveals the inaccessible borders that separate the armed action of the volunteer fighters with the salaried agents of the state power.

The political choice of the comrade consistently follows the inaccessible path of the revolutionary perspective, the sometimes lonely and sometimes triumphant, but always necessary perspective that with the final victory, sooner or later, oppressed humanity will taste. It characterizes with clarity and revolutionary ethos the very path of the comrade and her organization, of the Revolutionary Struggle. This action was the great companion of a historical journey that did not end in the straits of Daphne, did not disappear in the unequal battle of Monastiraki and was not buried in January 2017. The Revolutionary Struggle was not buried as a political entity, as individuals and as a living prospect in so many episodes of deactivation from state repression and its long arms, both before and after the escape attempt.

The release of Nikos Maziotis was a bet not only comradely, not only valuable. It was also a purely political strategic goal for the annulment of the state repression and the renewal of the revolutionary action of the EA itself. After all, an armed organization would not be truly revolutionary if its unarrested members did not take care of the prisoners. And especially, the Revolutionary Struggle as we know it, as history has recorded it, could not be indifferent to its hostages. At the same time, it was a message to the regime: the war is not over. An action like this cannot be interpreted in isolation from its historical context. In February 2016, the multiple defeats on the battlefields of social and class struggles had sown defeatism and had delivered into despair large sections of society and its struggling sections. It was the time of assimilation, resignation, criminal conspiracy of some with the then government formation. This era leaves strong imprints on today.

The comrade’s action was aimed, among other things, at challenging the regime’s omnipotence, where after the predominance of the memorandum policies, the long-term commitment to the “support” mechanisms and the collapse of the popular resistance, it began to trace the destabilization of the two years 2010-12. This action was an act of war against the bourgeoisie and the state, a response to the assimilation and delusions of the regime that, with the contribution of the Syriza government, believed that it would “act without an opponent.” If the action had been completed, things would have turned out very differently for all aspects of class competition. But history is not written with “if.”

In addition, the composure and the binding observance of the moral rules of the comrade at the moment of the failure of such an ambitious plan that did not remain in the words, are a monument of revolutionary, but also of human integrity. The details of the cancellation of the plan and the role of the ruffian pilot who risked his own life by actually selling services to a beastly system whose only position is that of the consumable, have been written in detail by the comrade herself. She had every opportunity to send the ruffian to rest. She did not do it. And her intention to release people who had no ideological, political and value sympathy as it turned out with Revolutionary Struggle constitutes another aspect of selflessness of the will. As for the specifics, we have nothing to say. What was written was written. The story has been spoken, which is much harsher, much more relentless.

Regarding the expropriations of the banks, actions taken in the context of self-financing of life in illegality and consequently preparatory actions for the chartering of the helicopter and the organization of the escape attempt, the Revolutionary Struggle has long ago pointed out that “there was never an organization.” The expropriation of stores of the predatory mechanism was necessary to raise funds and feed the struggle, a practice that follows a long historical tradition of the revolutionary movements. In the actions against the banks, people were never endangered, people were never instrumentalized for the success of the cause. The purposes and means of Revolutionary Struggle have always been identical.

In view of the appellate court of the 5th trial and having in front of us another appellate court for the case in which Pola Roupa has been sentenced to life imprisonment at first instance, we propose active solidarity. Economics, politics, ethics. The state did not write off the Revolutionary Struggle, nor did it stop targeting our comrades. This was demonstrated in the midst of quarantine with their sudden abduction / transfer and transfer to prisons outside Athens, at a time when demanding struggles were taking place inside prisons to take action against the spread of Covid-19, with comrades playing the leading role. In view of this, solidarity must speak.

We now believe that a great deal of ground has been gained. The opportunistic aspirations and attempts to isolate the comrades with the “prize” of “cinematic hegemony” failed. A current of support has already developed throughout Greece with the participation of several hundred in events, book presentations of the brochure of comrades “for overcoming the state and capital for a federated social organization,” contribution to the circulation of publications, nationwide financial aid etc. This current of solidarity has been in its infancy for the last few months; it will not be long before the time is called for it to spread socially, to act, to claim. The time is approaching when we will be called to push, to mobilize, to organize, and later to be released from prison. In this just struggle, we will not just fight for the liberation of our comrades. We will also fight for the value redefinition of the anarchist movement that does not forget its prisoners, does not forget who stood up paying the price of their political choices, does not forget who mortgaged their own lives for the Social Revolution.

Strength to the members of the Revolutionary Struggle Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis

Honor forever to Lambros Fountas

We call for solidarity on Wednesday September 30, 2020 at 9:00 in the courts of Korydallos prison

Assembly of Solidarity for the Revolutionary Struggle

Contact: syneleusiea@riseup.net

From: https://mpalothia.net/schetika-me-to-efeteio-tis-5is-dikis-toy-epanastatikoy-agona/