The Free

Anarchist Giannis Michailidis, recaptured fugitive, on the upcoming trial on May 31

Originally published by Athens Indymedia. Translated by Act For Freedom Now!

Greece: Anarchist prisoner Giannis ..”16 months after our arrests on 29/01/2020, after all the media propaganda that followed and our isolation in different prisons, we are being put on trial on 31/5 at Loukareos Court”..

”Αs an anarchist I oppose this procedure as I refuse to be judged by the chosen caste of judicial authority. But we are facing an extended indictment that composes a narrative which distorts the events and has as its main aim the extension of our imprisonment.

Briefly, we have been charged with ‘criminal organization’ as well as possession and transportation of heavy weaponry (the comrades also face this charge, whereas from the first moment I stated to the investigators that the weapons found in closed bags in the back seat where I was sitting, were my own), forgery, use of forged documents, force against officials and judiciaries, and disobedience.

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“Instead, We Became Millions” Inside Colombia’s Ongoing General Strike

by Crimethinc shared with thanks

Despite brutal state repression, Colombia’s general strike has continued strong now for 23 days.

The revolt has largely been leaderless and solidarity has expanded to include an impressively wide array of Colombian society: Indigenous and Afro-Colombian movements, queer and trans people, workers, students, people whose precarious employment has been lost to the pandemic.

As in many other recent uprisings around the world, this one has been driven first and foremost by youth who know that their only hope to have any future at all is to fight for it. Millions are united in their rejection of unlivable conditions and horrific police violence.

This is a 21st-century strike. In a country where the majority worked precarious jobs in an informal economy, now devastated by the pandemic and government restrictions, this strike is less about not going to work than about actively shutting everything down. Blockades have managed to halt commerce in many cities, but they serve a double role: these points are also where people gather and experiment with new ways of living together and caring for one another, outside of dictates of capitalism and the state.

Murals, dances, barricades, nurses, steaming pots of food, shields, and conversation between neighbors are all equally important to this uprising. Knowledge and skills have been shared between movements with decades of experience and young rebels on the front line. People combine courageous expressions of joy and care with an iron determination to fight.

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