Declaration by the Athens Anti-Authoritarian Movement circulated in yesterday's (9 Jan 2009) protest march

[An unofficial translation ]

TO ALL! TO ALL! TO ALL! TO ALL!

The volleys that were fired and that wounded the riot policeman did not deal a blow to the establishment nor to 'democracy' as all the parliamentary forces and journalism's golden boys would like us to believe. The volleys were fired against the multifaceted December movement, against the December uprising, and even against the popular force of the rebellion for which the ones who fired them supposedly give a damn.

Every armed action is not necessarily political. And just by their symbolism both the ones that took place at the University campus and Exarchia were definitely not political.

During periods of popular rebellion all of us lower each political or ideological identification. We know that no one can supplant the movement, to consider that they can make it wear their own 'hat' and define it according to their own pursuits.

This uprising has demanded freedom and dignity. This movement - beautiful, beautiful and lawless - could offer the oppressed the ability to storm the center of political life. The school and university students, the unemployed, the immigrants, the prisoners, the workers have retaken the public arena, asserting their life anew.

The movement is not ebbing. It is not taking a single step back. The movement does not apologize for actions that are alien to it. Its prospects and impetus lie before us: the school and university occupations, the direct democracy assemblies, the mobilizations for those imprisoned culminating in the massive pan-Helladic demonstration in Larisa on the 17th of January. The movement's demands are timely as ever: Disarm the police! Dissolve the riot police! Release those arrested! Abolish the terror-laws and bring down the murderers' regime!

8 January 2009

ATHENS ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN MOVEMENT