By clandestina

Lampedusa is not the only death zone,
concentration camps are not a nightmare buried in the past

dates and numbers in the Greek Guantanamo calendar…

August 4, 2012

On August 4th, Greek institutional racism celebrated the anniversary of the 1936 military dictatorship by launching the “Xenios Zeus” operation, a spectacular celebration of mass arrests of sans-papiers in the center of Athens… The police operation was named “Xenios Zeus” (what a wicked sense of humor!), after the god who protected strangers in Ancient Greece. The reasons justifying the operation went back to some contested conception of Bronze Age history: “From the Dorian invasion, 4,000 years ago, the country has never accepted such a large scale invasion … migration might be a bigger problem than the economic crisis” (Nikos Dendias, Minister of Public Order, August 4, 2012).

7,000: The number of sans-papiers immigrants currently detained in concentration camps in Greece. To that should be added an unreported number of undocumented imprisonments of migrants in police stations throughout the country.

77,526: The number of immigrants captured by the Greek police since the beginning of the “Xenios Zeus” police operation, in the city of Athens only. The vast majority of them were “legal” immigrants, the number of …read more

From: Clandestine

By clandestina

A CHRONICLE OF HORROR… AND DIGNITY…

Riots, hunger strikes and death in the camps after the launching of “Xenios Zeus” operation

September 24, 2012
45 immigrants go on hunger strike at the Xanthi detention center when they learn that their detention will be prolonged for six more months. The hunger strike ended on September 28, when the authorities reassured the immigrants that they will not be kept any longer, a promise the authorities did not keep.

November 17, 2012
Hundreds of immigrants held in various detention centers go on hunger strike protesting the mistreatment of Navit Yasser, a detention center inmate who died after being denied medical care although he was in poor health.

November 18, 2012
A riot starts at the Corinth detention center, where 800 immigrants are kept prisoners. The riot was suppressed by riot police forces who have been stationed outside the detention center ever since. 10 immigrants were injured and 24 arrested.

November 23, 2012
A large riot starts at the Komotini detention center, where 500 immigrants are kept in the former Police Academy of Komotini. The detainees started by shouting slogans and smashing objects, then they started burning mattresses and attacking the police. The riot was suppressed by riot police forces.

December 4, 2012
A riot …read more

From: Clandestine

By clandestina

CONCENTRATION CAMPS: the return of totalitarianism

“No prince was ever at a loss for plausible reasons to cloak a breach of faith”
“Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them,
it is far safer to be feared than loved”
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“…dominion can be established, that is, men can be unified only in a unity against – against other men. Every association of men is necessarily a separation from other men”
Karl Schmitt, Political Theology, 1922

“The legitimation of violence against a demonized internal enemy
brings us close to the heart of fascism.”
Robert Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism, 2004

“A nation cannot develop and become strong without a sense of urgency and a sense of crisis.”
Long Yongtu, China’s chief WTO negotiator
Financial Times, 17 November 1999

“Capitalism itself works in cycles of crisis production and crisis management. For global capital these ‘crises’ are actually its cyclical opportunities for radical restructuring. Capital doesn’t just manage crises, it directs them. Capitalism itself is the root crisis that is destroying humanity and the planet.” (Clandestina network, Joseph Matthews, Iain Boal, George Caffentzis, Silvia Federici et al., Europe at the frontline of the great enclosure. An opportunity to get real in …read more