from thefreeonline on 8/3/24 by Athens Indymedia. via anarchistnews.org – Home Translated by Act for freedom now!
In Exarcheia – for decades now, but with particular intensity in recent years – a war is being waged on the part of the state.
Athens, Greece: For smashing Polyamorous flower shop – by Anarchists
A neighbourhood inhabited for many years largely by proletarians, immigrants, women activists, students and youth, a neighbourhood that has always been the “centre” of all kinds of radical movements, has long been part of a coordinated and centrally planned operation of aggressive and violent mutation.
The Greek state has invested a lot in achieving a double goal: on the one hand, in handing over to capital – big and small – an important piece of the metropolitan centre for profitable investments mainly in the field of real estate, tourism and the entertainment industry that always connects this kind of “development”,
And, on the other hand, the all-out attack on the world and the structures of the movement that for decades have arisen, rooted in the neighbourhood of Exarcheia, with the aim of closing its historical accounts with the internal enemy in the heart of the city.
The state planning includes securing the necessary infrastructure (such as the Metro), the regeneration of key but also historically and politically charged points in the neighbourhood (e.g. the Polytechnic, the Museum, the Square, up to the former Strefi hill), as well as the deployment of powerful repressive forces of all species to ensure the discipline and security of this violent plan’s unfolding.
It is this planning that is creating an absolutely fertile ground for the onslaught of investments of all kinds and sizes – and the skyrocketing property values they bring – which are increasingly changing not only the image and character of the neighbourhood, but also the constitution and class structure of the world that inhabits and moves in it.
UK – London – Gentrified Hackney street
The war that State and Capital have unleashed in Exarcheia is a war with clear class characteristics. The poor are displaced, unable to meet the cost of living, and the rich – foreign and local – are taking their place.
From this violent restructuring, some – otherwise modern, liberal, alternative – businessmen have decided, even if they make an uninformed choice, to also benefit alongside the great profitability of the big investors.
The multi-faceted struggle that is already being waged by many people in Exarcheia, against the police occupation, the redevelopment, the Metro, the hotels, has in its sights – to the extent that it belongs to them – all these businesses that are aimed at the neighbourhood’s. new wealthy visitors and residents.
Continue reading “Smashing the Gentrified Flower Shop”
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