Posted on by enough14 and Athens Indymedia— via thefreeonline
Call for international campaign for freedom of Giannis Michailidis.
Originally published by Athens Indymedia.
Immediate freedom for Giannis Michailidis, a political prisoner in the prisons of Greece, on hunger strike for near 50 days
Since May 23, Giannis Michailidis has been on a hunger strike in Malandrinos prison. -“After 5 more months of pre-trial detention, I start a hunger strike for my release.”-
Giannis is a political prisoner, like the dozens of political prisoners in Greece, from the youth who rose up against the Troika that imposed the worst adjustment plans against the workers and the people.
Giannis fought for the Syrian refugees when they arrived on the Greek shores so that the borders were opened, the concentration camps ended and they were given all rights.
Moreover, from behind the bars where the Greek bourgeoisie and its state keep him imprisoned, he fought for the victory of the Syrian revolution.
Giannis is a political prisoner. They have sentenced him to long years in prison, fabricating all kinds of causes and maneuvers, making false trials to keep him in “pretrial detention” and taking advantage of this or that legal aspect to deny him parole over and over again.
They even revoke his right to study and to take exams, even though he has already been in prison for more than 8 years and has served 3/5 of his 20-year sentence and 2/5 of his sentence for escaping.
They have been merciless to Giannis to the point that after 48 days of hunger strike, having lost 21% of his weight and with his health in serious danger, they deny him the possibility of the medical attention he needs.
We reproduce the letter that Giannis has written from prison starting his hunger strike denouncing the attack of the Greek bourgeoisie and his state.
A great solidarity from all over Greece has stood up for the freedom of Giannis.
Other political prisoners have also started a hunger strike and marches and other activities are taking place. This solidarity has crossed the Greek borders reaching other countries such as Spain and Germany.
From the International Network for the Freedom of Political Prisoners we join this fight for the freedom of Giannis and we call for it to be taken into the hands of all labor, human rights, militant student organizations, etc. of the planet.
Giannis Michailidis is a political prisoner of the working class, a hostage in the hands of the exploiters and the fight for his liberation is imperative, even more so in his current state of health.
As echoes in all the streets of Greece: The passion for freedom is stronger than all the cells!
Let’s take to the streets in solidarity with Giannis! Let’s march to the embassies of Greece!
Free Giannis Michailidis and all political prisoners in Greece!
International Network for the Freedom of world political prisoners
11/07/22 Picket at Greek embassy in London
From Athens Indymedia
…for G.Michailidis and the struggle of the migrants in Elaionas
the text given out:
FREEDOM TO HUNGER STRIKER GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS
SOLIDARITY TO MIGRANTS IN GREECE
Giannis Michailidis is an anarchist prisoner on hunger strike since 23/5. He has served 8.5 years in prison and, while he fulfils all formal conditions for his release, he is kept in preventive detention.
The Greek judges backed by the Greek state refuse to release him on the pretext that he does not meet the substantive conditions of release.
This additional detention is being used at will to punish him for remaining unrepentant and maintaining a militant stance within the prison walls.
This is not the first time Michailidis faces the vengeance of the Greek state.
His heavy prosecution began in 2011 when an arrest warrant was issued against him for involvement in the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, for which he was later acquitted.
He chose the path of illegality and was arrested in 2013 in Velvento Kozani, after expropriating a bank together with 3 other anarchists, where he was tortured by the police.
He was forced to escape in 2019 from prison due to a fabricated prosecution for participation in the uprising against the violent abduction of the then hunger striker Dinos Yatzoglou from Korydallos prison.
This prosecution was brought against all political prisoners in order to restrict their rights and prolong their time in prison.
Michailidis’ hunger strike is taking place at a time when the Greek state applies a ‘zero tolerance’ doctrine against all opponents and ‘others’.
This is especially true for migrants who are actively killed or left to die at the Greek borders and mainland. On July 8, a refugee woman was found dead from starvation, as she was hiding to avoid being pushed back to Turkey.
On July 7, Greece was convicted for violations concerning the right to life and the prohibition of torture for the shipwreck at Farmakonisi which cost the life of 11 people. Amidst violent pushbacks at the borders and daily racist policing in the cities, residents at Eleonas camp in Athens are mounting an important fight.
On June 15th, following a fire at the camp that left a 15-year old in critical condition, the Greek authorities decided to disperse residents to remote camps, dismantling their communities, disrupting children’s education and denying them the right to the city.
Migrants refused the future determined for them. Since 15/6 they have been blocking their transportation, organising demonstrations, opening the doors of the camp to migrants with no papers, and building their collective resistance through daily residents’ assemblies and meetings with the local radical movement.
They are refusing to be devalued and invisibilised. They demand their right to housing, health, education and papers for all.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF HUNGER STRIKER GIANNIS MICHAILIDIS
IMMEDIATE FULFILLMENT OF ELEONAS CAMP’S RESIDENTS’ DEMANDS
UNTIL THE ABOLITION OF PRISONS, BORDERS, AND STATES
Paint attack and breaking of windows at courthouse
Jul 12 -22 Via Dark Nights
…in solidarity with anarchist comrade Giannis Michailidis
On Monday night 11/7 we attacked the Patras courthouse, painting the facade and breaking its windows, in solidarity with the anarchist comrade Giannis Michailidis who is on hunger strike since 23/5, waging a struggle against state vengeance with his own body as a weapon…………
A letter from the special cell of Lamia Hospital – Giannis Michailidis
Jul 12 2022
Since the anthropocentricity of the majority of our society attributes the above mental attributes exclusively to humans, I will probably be accused of anthropomorphism (you will tell me of all you have been accused of, did that bother you?).
However, I do not attribute characteristics to scorpions that are not inferred from their behavior, such as rational thought. It is encouraging that newer neuroscientific research suggests that the architecture of neural circuits associated with the function of consciousness in humans and other mammals is even detectable in insect brains.
How does this relate to the current situation? A few hundred million years after the appearance of scorpions, a being walked the earth that constructed permanent enclosure structures for other living beings, including its own kind: cages and guardians.
Many intelligent animals in captivity stop eating and are driven to death (e.g. of the dolphins that are captured, few survive). Countless people in captivity, (since so long ago that the beginnings have been erased) have gone on hunger strikes in prisons to gain their freedom or dignity.
This is the equivalent of self-centering by beings with enough intelligence to try to provide a way out of the impasse.
That is why nowadays, the hunger strike is internationally recognized as a historically powerful means of struggle, especially for prisoners.
In Greek circumstances (where even the junta of the colonels backed down on hunger strikes) modern judges and prosecutors are governed by a different perspective.
The majority are driven by ultra-conservative views and, having caused untold pain to tens of thousands of prisoners who have been deprived of their long-term freedom, they work for a torture industry entrenched behind obvious lies such as correctionalism.
Like slaughterhouse workers, or like fighter pilots bombing the enemy’s cities, they have killed any trace of empathy in themselves and can eat their lunch by convincing themselves that they are doing something useful.
That is why they see the hunger strike as a means of challenging their omnipotence and show zero tolerance.
How else to interpret, what judges and prosecutors write, up to the 46th day of my hunger strike, when the prosecutor’s proposal of the court of appeal for my release was issued?
I was preceded by two councils where I was tried for what the judges believe I will do and I was held on remand as a “risk of committing further offences”.
In the second even theirs they didn’t ask me a single question, not even about the facts and just issued a predetermined decision after 40 days (30 of which already on hunger strike).
Without even a rationale, it took them 40 days to write “in accordance with the prosecutor’s proposal, to avoid unnecessary repetition”. I was treated with defiant indifference.
In the face of this squalor, I started a hunger strike. And in the announcement of its opening, I listed both the arbitrary acts against me and numerous examples where the judges have opened wide the doors when it comes to children of the system (cops – murderers, prison guards – torturers, fascists, big capitalists).
Meanwhile, in the midst of my strike, Alexandros’ killer, one of Zack’s killers who did as much jail time as I do hunger strike time, and rapist Filippidis have been released early on the improbable grounds that the potential victims are not at risk because he is now known for his actions and will avoid him.
And I who completed 3/5 of my sentence 7 months ago “have not yet been corrected as not enough time has passed” according to the prosecutorial reasoning!
Unrepentant murderers are enjoying what I have been fighting to earn for 50 days risking my life, what I have been entitled to for 7 months, freedom.
Seemingly unrelated, and yet relevant, is the murder of the chimpanzee that escaped from Jean-Jacques Leshwar’s wild animal prison. I wonder if Greek ‘justice’ will deal with a serial killer and torturer of wildlife? Too much money…
Anyway at this moment, my own stinger has already pierced my body and is spreading poison destroying its vital organs, probably irreversibly.
However, it will inevitably pierce, even if only temporarily, the murderous order that sustains this system of generalized enslavement and exploitation of nature (human and otherwise)…
THE ONLY DEFEATED STRUGGLE IS THE ONE NEVER GIVEN FREEDOM OR DEATH
11/7/2022, Giannis Michailidis
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Spasm of solidarity with G. Michailidis
Via Dark Nights Attack on luxury apartments HESTIA and the company Grivas/Integrated IT Solutions On Sunday night 25/6, we attacked the luxury apartments HESTIA and the company Grivas/Integrated IT Solutions by breaking their windows on Alexandra Avenue. Since 23/05 the anarchist political prisoner G. Michailidis is on hunger strike from 23.23.2005. His request is his…………….
continues here at Anarchist News: Spasm of solidarity with G. Michailidis
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