Beneath the concrete, something is burning. Statement regarding the occupation of a building and creation of Rasprava Squat in Athens.
Following the end of the event “Revolutionary memory and perspective of the struggle” in Mesologgiou street, a crowd of comrades descended to Kolettis and Themistokleous streets to defend the liberation of the building.
The following is the self-introductory communique of the occupation:
The silence of the metropolis weighs like a stone on our shoulders. The streets are filled with worn-out stares, bodies crawling out of habit, out of fear, out of submission. The world moves along predetermined paths, without a second thought, tempering its dreams. Everything is programmed to work exactly as they want: work, consumption, obedience. Yet, always, beneath the surface, something is boiling.
History is not written by the obedient. A few choose to bear the burden of disobedience. To crack the concrete of normality. To confront the invisible hand of power that chokes every aspect of our lives. Refusing to submit is not a mere stance. It is a call to question, to overturn, to take back everything that belongs to us.
We are comrades, anarchists who derive from different political and ideological backgrounds, but we have found ourselves in the very same fires of struggle. It is there, where our common struggles and collective experiences united us, that we recognized the vital need for the creation of a space for meeting, political maturation1, exchange of views and organizational empowerment.
At a time when isolation is imposed and communities of struggle are being dismantled by repression, the formation of such spaces is not only necessary – it is crucial.
The repressive blows of recent years have not come by accident. The authorities are attempting to eliminate any focus of resistance, to crush any form of self-organisation and to extinguish the flame of contestation.
Great achievements have been lost, the movement has been put on the defensive, the recession is now on the horizon. But we know that history is written by those who do not fall back, by those who are not afraid to confront reality.
To remain on the defensive is to accept defeat. And that is not going to happen.
The time is now to turn words into action, to move from defense to attack.
So let’s make it clear that the enemy will not get rid of us so easily.
We must define our own field of struggle, reclaim our space and time.
To liberate territories from domination, to create a vibrant centre of resistance, a radical cell for mobilisation2 both in theory and action.
We perceive the occupation as an integral part of the movement and the movement as an organic element of the occupation.
The existence of territories of struggle is not just a practical question, but a deeply political one.
Squats are not just places to hang out, they are not just places of hospitality.
They are strongholds of resistance, laboratories of radical practices, cracks in the normality they try to impose on us.
And this is a non-negotiable reality.
Every neighbourhood, every street, every square is not a neutral ground. It is a vibrant map of oppositions, conflicts and claims. Cities are built on the basis of discipline, policing and the sterilization of public space. Squares are filled with surveillance cameras, walls are painted grey, buildings become inaccessible bastions for those who cannot afford to pay the price of existence in a world where everything has a tag price.
Dominance is implementing a strategic plan of universal control of the metropolises, crushing any source of resistance.
Armed with black propaganda and ideological warfare, it attempts to shape consciousness, while the deliberate degradation of neighbourhoods through the spread of organised crime and the violent expulsion of the local population is paving the way for its complete absorption by capital.
State repression acts as an armed guard for investors, real estates agencies are devouring land, houses become commodities, rents soar, public spaces become sterile fields of surveillance and consumer uniformity.
The plague of gentrification and flashiness is devouring cities, acting as a mechanism of subjugation and social control.
Exarchia, a neighbourhood that has a vibrant history of struggles, is in the crosshairs of the state and capitalist onslaught.
The state, on the one hand, unleashes waves of repression: squats are evacuated, the police presence is reinforced, the public spaces are militarised. On the other hand, capital is plundering collective memory by absorbing symbols of resistance and turning them into a tourist commodity. Our subcultures are forged and adapted to “alternative” commercial projects, while the neighbourhood is altered to serve the entertainment and lifestyle industry.
We will not let them turn the site of our struggles into just another ornamental attraction. We are launching the squat in the historic neighborhood of Exarchia for all of these reasons.
Cause its streets are not for sale.
Cause memories are not commercialized.
Cause living resistance is not a tourist attraction, but a battlefield.
Squats can surely be isles of resistance in the archipelago of struggle. They are also barricades. They are spaces where domination loses control, where the state is no longer the absolute regulator of life. They are workshops of struggle, meeting points, centres of self-organisation and action.
Insurrectionary and revolutionary culture does not happen by itself.
It is cultivated.
It evolves in the basements, in the squares, in the haunts, in the eyes that do not bow, in the bodies that do not accept to obey the enemy.
Squatting is not an isolated event.
It has the potential to drift in the practice of negation, to constantly remind us that we are not numbers in the state registers, we are not cogs in the wheels of production, we are not pawns in the chess game of power.
We are here to take what is ours, to create the cracks from which new possibilities arise.
The circumstances therefore leave us untouched when it comes to our anarchist consciousness and action. We do not want to align ourselves with the terror that arises from the ‘repressively harsh times’. Against reformist rhetoric, the manifestation of which are choices of political conformism in the field of action, we are determined for a long lasting and total radical rupture.
Our concern is not the repression that has and will continue to exist against us, but the constant stake with ourselves over the avoidance of political strategies that would threaten a movement to pass into oblivion through an increasingly incomplete militant presence both in terms of events and structures.
We understand that as a movement, the absence of a militant culture weakens us, makes us vulnerable and helpless in the face of the onslaught of power.
Inaction is synonymous with defeat.
We therefore, through this initiative, attempt to build a solid base that will promote a revolutionary/insurrectionary perspective, will intensify the threat against the oppressive mechanisms of the present and will cultivate the insurgent consciousnesses of tomorrow.
For insurrection is not a theoretical schema. It is practice, it is fermentation3, it is constant conflict.
WHY do we CHOOSE and PROMOTE REVOLUTIONARY and INSURRECTIONARY (DIRECT ACTION) as a culture?
i. Cause it is the only means of direct confrontation with the enemy right here, right now. It is the practice that creates “ground zero points”, by breaking the chains of normality, enabling individuals to determine their own destiny.
ii. Cause, at its core, Anarchy is a constant struggle for freedom. It is not a slogan, it is not a theory, it is a conflict, it is a praxis.
iii. Cause camaraderie relationships are not an abstract concept, but living and non-negotiable relationships between militants. They are forged in the fire of battle, side by side in every crisis, every defeat, every difficult moment. It is there that we rediscover our lost collective-self.
iv. Cause it pushes individuals to go beyond their limits, to break the chains of fear, to question the impossible.
v. Cause the aggressiveness of direct action is not random violence, but a strategic decision.
An expansion of revolutionary action, the generalisation of violent confrontation with the forces of power, is necessary for the deconstruction of the state and capitalist structure and the destruction of social relations of oppression.
It is the duty of every militant human being to enrich on a daily basis the tools that, both on a practical and theoretical level, will bring him or her to the fulfilment of their ideals. It requires boldness, risk, imagination, organization, faith and consistency. Intension is not sufficient enough, decision is required. For these reasons, therefore, the opening of this occupation is for us a contribution in this direction.
TOWARDS ANARCHY
Together we can do everything, we can throw away the vision of the end that seems very close.
We can live as proud human beings and free human beings
We can tear down the wall and see a whole life of joy waiting for us!
Rasprava Squat
Koletti and Themistocleous str.
1(πολιτικής ζύμωσης in the original text, it litterally means political fermentation), the theoretical debate within a political, social, etc. space that prepares the change of a situation.
2(εστία ζύμωσης, in the original text, it litterally means epicentre (focal point) of fermentation)
3(Ζύμωση in the orginal text), the theoretical debate within a political, social, etc. space that prepares the change of a situation, in the same context of footnote no.1.
[Received by e-mail and published on https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2025/04/07/beneath-the-concrete-something-is-burning-statement-regarding-the-occupation-of-a-building-and-creation-of-rasprava-squat-in-athens/]
