The following article was first published in German on the 10th of December here and translated by a comrade. Thank you a lot, dear friend.
Merely a few days ago (prior to the 6th of December) I discussed Nikos Romanos’ hungerstrike with my friends and comrades in our regularly frequented bar in Thessaloniki. There was no mention of any ankle bracelet or such, however, we mainly talked about the possibility of participating in university lectures via a streamed video link. Most of us stood (and continue to stand) in solidarity with the anarchist Nikos Romanos, who was sentenced to 16 years behind prison bars because of a bank robbery. Nikos Romanos was good friends with Alexis Grigoropoulos, the 16-year old who was murdered by a police officer in 2008. Nikos was present when Alexis got shot, and he was also clearly recognizable in photos at Alexis’ funeral, where he is pictured carrying Alexis’ coffin.
On the 10th of November of this year, Nikos Romanos proclaimed that he would start a hunger strike in order to increase pressure on his demand to be granted educational leave from prison. Following the rejection of his demands last week, on the 2nd of December, riots ensued in Athens in addition to other solidarity actions all over Greece. Nikos announced that he would continue “until victory or death”.
Thus we discussed Nikos’ attitude as well as the reactions of the Schweinesystem (pig-system), each of us adding our grand theories to the debate, and – while drinking our Raki with much enjoyment – we wondered about the consequences if Romanos were to die. A rather strange and slightly distasteful situation during which we weighed the positive and negative outcomes of the death of a man who, despite being a militant anarchist, somehow managed to garner the support of certain parts of the ol’ bourgeoisie. Even though I am definitely closer to Nikos than to the bourgeoisie of this society, I still hold certain reservations about some of his opinions, which nonetheless do not hinder me from expressing my solidarity with him. I value his writing as well as his thoughts regarding a critical stance towards the prison system, and I support his call for a ‘free’ access to education for prisoners. From the onset, however, I remained sceptical when it came to this particular hungerstrike. I held onto the firm opinion that the Greek state, just like any other Western state, would not let itself be coerced by a hungerstriker. I strongly believed that this Greek state in particular would rather prefer facing repeated daily riots in the streets than surrender to a militant anarchist. In this close group of friends and comrades, I even went as far as accusing Romanos of opportunism, due to my slight suspicion that, even though Romanos spread a zest for life, he might be desiring martyrdom. And I generally find martyrdom highly problematic.
Well, I was proven wrong in all of my assumptions.
After I went to a solidarity vigil for Nikos yesterday, I met up with a friend of mine in our above mentioned bar and Romanos was obviously our dominant topic of conversation. The possibility of Nikos wearing an ankle bracelet in order to attend university lectures was seriously considered for the first time earlier that day. However, we still didn’t have much faith in that possibility and we weren’t even sure whether Romanos would accept such a compromise.
Today, on the 31st day of his hungerstrike and the first day of his thirst-strike, today on the 10th of December, the Greek state yielded and capitulated to a militant anarchist. Moreover, today Nikos convinced me that he did not fall for any suicidal-heroic martyrdom so that he wouldn’t be willing to accept a small compromise with this state, which he hates so deeply, and thus save his own life. If he would have died, that would have hardly advanced our cause. Quite the opposite, it would have reconfirmed my sullen and reactionary assumption that the state is impregnable as well as invincible. After a short new eruption of finite street riots and battles, it would have probably been the death blow for the romanticized Greek movement.
And yet, if one takes a closer look at the circumstances surrounding the political decision to grant Nikos the ankle bracelet (following a successful term of distance learning), some unpleasant questions arise, which nevertheless have to be asked. The first and possibly most obvious is the question of whether this concession by Samara’s government actually signifies a victory for the radical Left. I do not doubt that Romanos, with all his determination and honesty, is indeed emerging as a winner from this battle; and individually for him this victory meant a lifesaving success. But who, with the exception of Nikos himself, actually benefits from it? And how exactly did this sudden change in policy by the government as well as the attitude of certain right-wing political parties come about?
Nikos Romanos had made it quite clear in one of his first few statements, that the bourgeois political parties, the humanitarian NGOs, and commiserating politicians should stick their solidarity with him elsewhere. He trusted the solidarity from the streets (rightfully so, if one considers the solidarity marches numbering in the tens of thousands during the last few weeks) in addition to the solidarity issued by his comrades in prisons.
Be that as it may, it seems that these bourgeois political parties saved his life in the end. To be more precise, the populist leftist coalition surrounding Alexis Tsipras and his SYRIZA party. After the lack of any agreement regarding the request for a ankle bracelet in parliament yesterday, Tsipras asked the President of this Republic to put away all the political strife between the parties and save Nikos’ life by taking a stand for human life, in a phone conversation this very morning. Shortly thereafter, Karolos Papoulias called the prime minister Samaras and expressed his demand for a humanitarian solution as well as an agreement in parliament. Samaras’ minister of justice already drafted a new proposition, which was eventually passed today at noon, alongside the jubilation of the members of parliament. But what exactly changed since yesterday, and how come that yesterday’s quarrelling parliament suddenly passes prison leave for Romanos in unison? I am only able to speculate, but one thing was buried underneath all the celebrations of the solidarity movement, which counted this victory as a won battle of the radical Left against the Schweinesystem (pig-system): two days ago Samaras announced that the presidential elections, which were originally planned for 2015, would take place earlier, that is to say that a new president of the republic should be voted in prior to the 29th of December. In Greece the president is elected by the parliament, the same parliament which hasn’t reached any agreement for the last couple of years. Meeting the necessary majority vote during the (probably multiple) rounds of voting might be possible, but rather doubtful. In the case that the members of parliament are not able to elect a new president, this would lead to the next round of the Greeks’ favourite game: parliamentary elections! If it comes to this, some businessmen in Greece as well as economic policy-makers of the EU will shit themselves, while at the same time the populist new Left’s wet dream might become reality. For in the case of new parliamentary elections SYRIZA is expecting a good probability of winning them. Involuntarily, Romanos might be playing a role in all this. Because if SYRIZA claims the victory in the “battle for justice” of this charismatic anarchist for itself, many votes and support from the radical base might be secured. And although some assume that its engagement for a (not convicted, but designated as such by many) lefty terrorist might cause more damage to the party than gain votes, the image of a sympathetic young man who slid into the fantastic world of revolutionary actions due to the death of his friend and is actually trying to save the world from the corrupt exploiters and puppets of this system is currently prevailing in society. This image faces wide approval and a lot of understanding.
I think it remains to be seen, whether the judiciary actually grants the application for the ankle bracelet and how the general state of affairs will develop in this constantly radicalising country. We should be happy that Nikos lives. Above all we should also be grateful to the broad solidarity in the streets, which sustained him for so long. And we should be vigilant in regards to who is profiting from Nikos’ won battle. I also hope that Nikos Romanos remains as vigilant and incorruptible as he has been until now.
I will, without a doubt, drink my Raki in honour of Nikos today, with a bitter aftertaste in my mouth as this struggle is far from over.
gewitterland 