what follows is not journalism but the opinion of a single anarchist in athens greece.

there are probably mistakes here because although i am putting this together based on RELIABLE information, i am kind of ignorant and lazy in general so i am sure i have made embarrassing mistakes. however, i am experiencing shock and wanted to inform comrades outside of greece about what happened.

something extraordinary and horrible unfolded this morning. a group of 150 maoists, called A.R.A.S., gathered from all over greece to ambush and VERY BADLY beat 20 or 30 young anarchists at the athens polytechnic university, on the 52nd anniversary of the polytechnic uprising against military dictatorship.

this was no „normal“ political violence between factions… this violence was so extreme that it could without hysteria or hyperbole be called murderous. kids were chased inside buildings, trapped in rooms, and in those rooms beaten relentlessly until concussed. sixteen were hospitalized; one kid needed 30+ stitches on his head. a young woman was knocked out and they continued bludgeoning her unconscious body.

people were trying to climb out the windows to escape and ARAS members were waiting outside for them. the members of ARAS formed a linked-arm cordon around the area to prevent anyone getting away or outsiders from interfering.

what follows is some context to better understand this startling and stomach-turning incident of extreme „social cannibalism,“ the ripple effects of which are only beginning now as i sit writing.

THE UPRISING

brief history. in 1973 there was a popular uprising against greece’s military dictatorship– the junta– at athens polytechnic university in the neighborhood of exarcheia. this uprising, which included a mix of anarchists, communists, and various students and workers tired of life under the brutal CIA-backed dictatorship, was crushed when the greek army rammed the university gates with a tank and opened fire on those within.

the junta maintained its grip on power into 1974 but in popular opinion, this uprising and the massacre with which it was repressed marked „the beginning of the end“ for the junta. every year on 17 november, the anniversary of the massacre, there is commemoration all across greece, with a focus of course being the polytekneio campus in exarcheia. even mainstream politicians know to at least pay lip service to the anniversary.

also, on the days approaching this date, polytekneio is the setting for many events, panels, discussions, meetings, etcetera. on the 17th itself there are marches, and in athens a gigantic march goes to the u.s. embassy.

because of the collective trauma of the state repression of the uprising, after the junta fell, greek police were forbidden to enter university campuses. this was the case until 2019, when the newly elected right-wing „new democracy“ government repealed university asylum. much could be written about the seriousness of this change for the greek anarchist movement, but it’s not overstatement to say it transformed the political landscape– and not only in exarcheia, where there had been anarchist squats for decades (with workshops, collective kitchens, refugee resources, pirate radio stations, you name it) inside polytekneio.

there has been escalating repression on greek campuses the last several years, escalating in the sense that it began bad and continued to get worse and worse. the current right-wing academic-administrative cabal has gone so far as to lock the campus gates, install security boths with guards, adding floodlights, cameras etc. all across greece most university squats have been evicted. however, around the anniversary of the uprising every november, one way or another, anarchists find access to the campus of polytekneio in exarcheia and however temporarily resquat a building or two, in which they hold workshops, presentations, teach-ins, meetings, and commemorations of the dead.

THE ANNIVERSARY

there have often been tensions around this anniversary. in 1985, for example, police shot to death the anarchist michalis kaltezas outside polytekneio. 1995 and 2006 were also notable for large-scale clashes between anarchists and police with injuries. and of course during times of elevated political action the anniversary observations are also elevated.

during the uprising itself there was stalinist skulduggery to outmaneuver and ‚capture‘ the uprising, which can be read about in part here: https://medium.com/@mot1613/two-perspectives-on-the-polytechnic-uprisin…

to a lesser degree there remains in recent years a tension about to whom the 17 November anniversary „belongs.“ there are two sides to the argument. on one hand, there are those who hew to the historical record, which was that the uprising, like any general uprising, was a mix of people, some more political, some less… some students, some trade unionists or just general workers, some revolutionary communists, some anarchists. on the other hand, there is the state-communist revision of history, which is that it was a purely communist endeavor. this tension has manifested in various ways, most as minor as loud communist chanting to drown out anarchist events — in the annals of „communists vs anarchists“ in greece, polytechneio has not figured prominently, in part because there is a general respect for the anniversary itself on all sides.

since the state has begun acting more repressively towards political action on university campuses, the communists (who, importantly, believe in the validity and necessity of the state) have obligingly made themselves scarce… the last few years they were barely a presence at polytechneio, in comparison to the past. this year, however, they were present in gigantic numbers.

THE ATTACK

this morning, the 15th, a group of 30 young anarchists & anti-authoritarians, many from the university anarchist club, were setting up their tables and papers for the planned three-day schedule of events at the polytechnic. for whatever reason, the gate close to Gini, the building anarchists often squat, was left locked… the only gates open were on the other side of campus, where some thousand or so communist youth had gathered. still, two gates open might seem better than none.

a group of 150 or so ARAS members, who had gathered from all over greece for this purpose, came early in the morning to the campus under the direction of their much older leader. they were coordinated, wearing armor under their matching jackets, helmets, and carrying clubs. as one of them began filming, the ARAS guys formed a tight linked-arm cordon around the 30 or so anarchists, kettling them, and began loudly (falsely) accusing the anarchists of having knives, molotovs, etc, to make sure the other gathered leftists around the campus could hear, and shouting „you will not squat.“

this is already bizarre behavior, uncharacteristic behavior, and to say the least inappropriate. then, the leader of ARAS shouted „helmets,“ and the ARAS troops donned their protective helmets and mounted their attack on the unprepared and unarmed anarchist students.

at different times over the years here, anarchists and communists have clashed in the streets or at parties. i am on the anarchist side but i don’t like the „sports team“ mindset some have about such things. every time it is a disgrace that it happens, but even according to those who’ve witnessed some of the worst, it has never been as vicious, one-sided and prolonged as happened this morning. sometimes the „clash“ is a shoving match– during a demonstration turned riot, some anarchists are fleeing a charging line of police and the communists link arms to block their way. then the communists stand back and let the police do beatings on the anarchists. this has not happened recently but used to be more common.

there have been more serious clashes– where there are some bruises, some bonks on the head. in those more serious cases both sides come to confrontations knowing what they are getting into. for example, during a large-scale insurrection the anarchists wanted to storm parliament, and the communists wanted to prevent this, so there was a big fight around parliament. again, i do not make light of such shameful chapters (and we know whose shame it is), but i want to place this morning’s violence in context. this morning was not a „rumble“ between opponents, but a one-sided matter of unprecedented intensity, seriousness and duration, including in more than one case continuing to beat people already unconscious. this was a frenzy of violence that really could have killed someone.

the many many hundreds of other leftists present did nothing. speaking for myself i don’t feel extremely judgmental because probably most of them had no fucking idea what was happening, because what was happening was so crazy. adding to the confusion, and for reasons that one can only guess at, the ARAS battalions were all wearing identical patches on their helmets and jackets that said „STUDENT ASSOCIATION.“ probably most of the leftist groups are scared of ARAS — and anyway there was a cordon of ARAS guys preventing anyone from approaching the area of campus where this was happening.

the attack went on for a long time. in the end, when ARAS had exhausted themselves clubbing the bodies of anarchist students, no ambulance could reach the site… because recall, the university dean had padlocked the gate by the „anarchist area“ of the campus. so, the beaten and bloodied anarchists had to be carried a great distance, all through the paths of the campus, one after another, in a sort of disgusting parade past all the gaping miscellaneous leftists and the chanting, laughing ranks of aras. there were broken limbs and fingers, concussions, one guy is missing his short-term memory… it was, as i’ve said many times now, a hellish quantity of violence.

A.R.A.S.

ARAS are an interesting case. they are a small part of a the dizzyingly complex ecosystem of the greek left, not notable for any ideological specifics– they are generic maoists– but notable for how readily they resort to violence. in the course of their existence they have mostly been known for fighting other communist groups, including those they supposedly were in alliances with. maybe you have seen some entertaining videos of a big crowd wearing motorcycle helmets, clonking each other with wooden axehandles that have red flags attached, in the middle of a protest. if communists asked my opinion i would say i prefer that communists beat bosses or capitalists or cops instead of each other, but in the end if they choose to beat each other i guess that is their business.

even at a.r.a.s meetings, they beat each other to settle disputes, which i think is kind of cute. back when i was an apolitical hooligan i would go out with my friends on a weekend looking for a fight, and if we didn’t find one, we would end up fighting each other. so, again, their so-called thuggishness is not something i wring my hands about. but there is a very large difference between a fist fight and what happened this morning. thematically, ARAS is a small, cult-like fight club ruled by a daddy figure, and they use violence to compete for his affection. is this healthy? no. but i don’t judge the lifestyles of others. i have considered ARAS an example of the „street-gang“ political form, which whether communist, anarchist, etc. is a form i don’t object to out of any principle. it is a flawed form, of course, but we live in an imperfect world. so my problem with ARAS is not their organizational form.

it is darkly funny that ARAS is part of the political party MERA25, a boring lefty umbrella group that gets a microscopic sliver of the greek vote… an umbrella held in the manicured, highly educated, soft-as-silk hand of former greek finance minister yanis varoufakis. i don’t like varoufakis but he’s a smart guy and says smart things about palestine, for example. he quickly put out a statement disavowing the violence at polytekneio– also a smart response. will that be the extent of the mera25 response? is mera25 comfortable being responsible for the actions of their members? it remains to be seen how other leftist groups will react.

so many questions. will ARAS reappear at polytekneio? will they try to participate in the march on the 17th? many anarchists want blood for blood. because i am writing this and get to inject my own opinion, i will say that a sectarian vendetta against another anticapitalist group is not something i personally feel enthusiasm for. if i saw the daddy figure, i would have something to say to him, but his tribe of lost boys make me feel mostly pity and contempt. but in holding this moderate opinion i think i am in a distinct minority among my comrades. there is tremendous anger and the anger is fully justified.

WHY THE FUCK WOULD THEY DO THIS?

setting aside the ethical, political and human aspects of this morning’s gross violence, it seems very inadvisable to assault members of a much larger movement that is largely free of the disease of pacifism. we know who all these guys are, individually. there simply are not that many of them! the entire ARAS group nationwide is only a few hundred, and there are many tens of thousands of anarchists.

so why would ARAS do this? now we enter the realm of speculation. ARAS has been clashing with anarchists for years, mostly in universities. a generous soul might consider these to be turf wars over limited resources. sometimes anarchists clash with other anarchists over squats as well, which i also deplore when it happens. but mostly, ARAS has been clashing with KNE, the mighty youth wing of KKE, the relatively mighty greek communist party. KKE is the hoary 20th-century stalinist dinosaur that still dominates greek communism and, unlike other communist groups, holds seats in parliament.

smarter minds than mine have proposed that this extraordinary violence was a kind of attempted coup. it was prearranged, certainly, with almost the whole membership roster coming from all over greece to show up together pre-dawn, and the attack itself was planned and coordinated with precision. but when one considers matters such as ARAS refusing an earlier request to help take down campus security cameras, the selectively locked gates and the odd absence of state intervention, one wonders whether this heinous act was a performance arranged to prove to the university deans that, unlike KNE, ARAS has what it takes to purge the anarchists from the campus, and that the aim of this despicable attack was to seek institutional favor.

i cannot begin to explain the mindset of those who take campus elections seriously, because it is totally alien to me, but many on the left and right do take campus elections and politics very seriously. now, do they take it THIS seriously, seriously enough to inflict an unheard-of degree of „great bodily harm“ unprovoked, 5 to 1? with anyone else, i’d scoff, but with ARAS this is unfortunately plausible. since violence is their preferred tool and they lack numbers or popular support, this obscene „demonstration“ could have been designed to elevate them among their left competitors in the eyes of the powerful.

so… who exactly knew about this ahead of time? that would be a fascinating question to know the answer. anyway, people who know far more than i do will doubtless have much more to say about this soon. and there will be repercussions soon, which i cannot forsee. and now you know maybe a little about it too.

this stunt would be disgraceful at any time and place. but at this particular time and place, it was also an unspeakable insult to the memories of the brave fighters of athens polytechnic.