Women on the rooftop

These women, have they made din enough, I wonder, with their tambourines? bewept Adonis enough upon their terraces? I was listening to the speeches last assembly day, and Demostratus, whom heaven confound! was saying we must all go over to Sicily-and lo! his wife was dancing round repeating: "Alas! alas! Adonis, woe is me for Adonis!" Demostratus was saying we must levy hoplites at Zacynthus-and there was his wife, more than half drunk, screaming on the house-roof: "Weep, weep for Adonis!"-while that infamous Mad Ox was bellowing away on his side.-Do you not blush, you women, for your wild and uproarious doings?

(Aristophanes, "Lysistrata", ~311 BC, v. 376-385, anonymous translator)

***

Encore un de ces dévergondages des femmes, à grand renfort de tambourins, kyrielles de litanies et ululements hystériques, sur les toits ? J’entendais ça un jour que j’étais à l’assemblée. Pendant que Démostrate parlait en faveur de l’expédition de Sicile, sa femme scandait du talon: “Las, hélas, Adonis!”; pendant que Démostrate parlait de lever l’infanterie à Zante, sa femme, éméchée, criait du haut de sont toit: "Deuil ! Deuil sur Adonis !" Et lui de se démener, ce fichu maudit salaud de Colérostrate ! Les voilà bien les dêbordements don’t elles sont capables.

(Trad. Victor-Henry Debidour)

***

Also ist alles wieder aufgeflackert, die Ausschweifungen der Frauen, ihr Getrommel, das unaufhörliche “Sabazios”-Schreien und die Adonisfeste auf den Dächern, die ich einst hörte, als ich in der Volksversammlung war: Da sagte Demostratos – zum Henker mit ihm! – wir sollten nach Sizilien segeln, und da tanzt diese Frau und ruft "O weh, Adonis!" Dann sagte Demostratos, wir sollten Schwerbewaffnete in Zakynthos anwerben, und die Frau auf dem Dach, schon ziemlich betrunken, ruft "Klagt um Adonis !" Er aber bestand auf dem Vorschlag, der gottverdammte, hirnverbrannte Buzyger! Solche Zügellosigkeiten kommen von ihnen.

(Übers. Niklas Holzberg)

***

Sabazios is the nomadic horseman and sky father god of the Thracians and Phrygians. Sometimes he is identified with Dionysos, in honour of which in ancient Athens particularly the women and the slaves celebrated ritual orgiastic parties. Because the women of Athens, as it is reported here, in the course of a similarly orgiastic party held their ecstatic lamentation for the death of Adonis (originally a West Semitic, Syro-Phoenician deity, the annually-renewed, ever-youthful vegetation god) during the mentioned Assembly (consisting only of the male citizens), the decision taken there was considered ill-omened. The Sicilian expedition (315-313 BC) effectively ended up in a disastrous defeat. (With the commentary of Holzberg)

See also Plutarch, Life of Nikias, ch. 12/13:

"Not a few were troubled because the days on which the fleet set sail happened to be the time when the women celebrated the death of Adonis; there being everywhere then exposed to view images of dead men, carried about with mourning and lamentation, and women beating their breasts. So that such as laid any stress on these matters were extremely troubled, and feared lest that all this warlike preparation, so splendid and so glorious, should suddenly, in a little time, be blasted in its very prime of magnificence, and come to nothing."

(Nikias was an Athenian general opposed to the Sicilian expedition, but finally he was chosen as one of its leaders. - Moses I. Finley (Democracy Ancient and Modern, 2nd ed. 1985) has several good developments about this event of Greek history (p.ex. 38ff). About the political rituals of lamentation in Antiquity, see Nicole Loraux, Les mères en deuil, Paris 1990, with a short mention of "Lysistrata" (24f). The comedy is more largely analysed in N. Loraux, Les enfants d'Athéna. Idées athéniennes sur la citoyenneté et la division des sexes, Paris 1981, 157-196. But neither of the three books is focusing precisely on this episode).

Photo: Pietro Masturzo, Tehran Rooftop Protest: Women shouting "Allahu Akbar"(God is great), 24th June 2009 (Winner of the World Press Photo Award 2009)

The Greek Crisis: News from these days (4)

Did EU leaders exacerbate the Greek problem ? (from Financial Advice)

As the issue regarding the Greek economy, and in particular the Greek budget deficit, continues to grab the headlines around the world there are growing concerns that EU leaders may well have exacerbated the situation due to their vague promises of assistance. At the time it appeared that the EU was in a position to offer significant financial assistance to the Greek authorities but over the last few days this apparent across the board support has begun to waver.

The first cracks in the promise of assistance came when the German authorities went "off the party line", suggesting that financial assistance for the Greek economy may not be forthcoming in the short term. This would appear to be at odds with the overall EU understanding of the situation although surprisingly EU leaders have also failed to back up their initial promises with cold hard cash.

This weekend we saw the Greek Prime Minister complaining about the vague promises from the EU and the time in which it has taken to clarify the situation. It will be interesting to see whether a formal rescue plan is published in the next few days because this problem is not going to go away and needs to be addressed before it begins to impact upon other economies in the Eurozone. (See a more complete analysis from Reuters and a report from the Financial Times )

US bonds slide on Greece deficit (from Gulf News)

US corporate bond issuance fell 76.9 per cent to the least in six weeks as credit markets were roiled by uncertainty stemming from Greece's budget deficit. Borrowers sold $7.78 billion (Dh28.5 billion) of debt last week, down from $33.6 billion the previous period when companies tapped the market to fund mergers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

"Anytime you have uncertainty in the marketplace, in this case driven by Greece, you have investors as well as institutions step to the sidelines," said James Barnes, portfolio manager at Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based National Penn Investors Trust Co.Barnes, who helps oversee about $1 billion of fixed-income assets. "I think a lot of institutions took care of their funding in 2009, so we're expecting to have a drop off in issuance."

The European Union summit accord stopped short of offering concrete measures to help Greece handle a debt load that exceeds its annual economic output. "It is certainly possible that those problems will widen and ultimately lead to a slowdown or even a reversal of the US economic recovery," Martin Fridson, chief executive officer of money-management firm Fridson Investment Advisors in New York, wrote in an email.

New Zealand dollar falls amid uncertainty over Greece bailout plan (see Business Wire / Scoop)

Wall Street to blame for Europe's mess (see Economic Times / India Times)

Euro Area Headed for Break-Up, SocGen’s Edwards Says (from Alexis Ydias, Bloomberg)

Southern European countries are trapped in an overvalued currency and suffocated by low competitiveness, a situation that will lead to the break-up of the euro bloc, according to Société Generale SA’s top-ranked strategist Albert Edwards.

The problem for countries including Portugal, Spain and Greece "is that years of inappropriately low interest rates resulted in overheating and rapid inflation," London-based Edwards wrote in a report on Friday. Even if governments "could slash their fiscal deficits, the lack of competitiveness within the euro zone needs years of relative (and probably given the outlook elsewhere, absolute) deflation. Any help given to Greece merely delays the inevitable break-up of the euro zone."

Farmers maintaining blockades at the Greek-Bulgarian border (from Novinite, Bulgaria)

As protesting farmers scaled back highway blockades inside the country in opposition to the government's austerity measures, the majority of those protesting at the Greek-Bulgarian border refused to comply with their colleagues decision and vowed to maintain their tractor blockade under their demands are met, disrupting the transport of goods to and from Bulgaria. On February 14 the Greek farmers terminated briefly the blockade at all four border check points on the Bulgaria-Greece border.

Saturday News Update (from Indymedia Germany)

* Attack with gas-flasks early in the mourning against the Hellenic Food Control Authority of Development Ministry and Greek Governmental Radio of Irakleio, Creta. The fire was put down by fire department.

* Antifascistic gathering and concert at Ampelokipi district in Athens, close to the spot where before two weeks "autonomous nationalists" have beaten up antifascist citizens. The call was from antirascistic & antifascistic local teams, out-parliamentary communists and members of the arabic assembly.

* The autonomous and antiauthoritarian assemblies of pupils in Athens and Thessaloniki keep on their weekly meetings.

First Announcement of Athens Pupils' Antiauthoritarian Movement, 23rd January 2010:

"From the freedom for education to Education of freedom. We are pupils from several regions of Attica who face the hard daytime of school life. We experienced December 2008 when our consciences got awaken and revealed the need for creation of a pupils' assembly which will function:

1. With anti-hierarchical structures. 2. Under direct-democratic and not representative-democratic ways. 3. With libertarian and social character.

and aims:

1. The enlargement of open pupils' assemblies. 2. The abolishment of any coercions (examinations, grades, absences, crime sheet, praying, visits to churches, parades etc) 3. The abolishment of the segregation and the competitiveness which are produced by school (good-bad pupil, christian-different religion beliefs, Greek-foreigner) 4. The creation of a school which will promote the free expression and creativity. 5. The expansion of Asylum-law also in schools beside Universities. 6. The free access to all levels of education, without examination barriers.

Friday News update (from Libcom & Indymedia Germany)

*Today despite sustained bourgeois media efforts to hide the failure of the talks in Brussels and Germany's veto on any direct economic help towards the greek state, the PM vented his anger against EU power-holders who "have transformed greece into a guinea-pig". Despite continuing pleas for "national unity", today middle-education teachers followed their primary-education colleagues in calling a strike for the 24th of February. More worrying for the capitalists, customs officers have announced a 3-day long strike for next week which will see a complete freeze on all exports and imports. At the same time a 4-day strike for next week has been announced by employees of the Ministry of Economics, and of the Central Chemistry Lab of the State, the State's Accounting Service, the State Loans Office, the National Statistic Service and the State Legal Council. The strike is expected to paralise all state-economic functions. (from Libcom)

* Since last night, Thursday 11th February 2010, is squatted the artistic sector of Fine Arts University in Rethymno, district of Evligia. Because the place is not improved enough by the University authorities it was decided to squat it in purpose to make it an area for artistic actions in any possible form. The squatters make an open call to all political teams and to people who have artistic interests to participate in the daily assembly so they can shape together their ways of action. (from Indymedia)

Translation from the squatters' blog:

EVLIGIAS' ARTISTIC STATION SQUAT

Article 1 The Artistic Stations which belong to the Higher School of Fine Arts are Organic education Annexes of it, which aim is to provide artistic work and to outspread of the University's activities in the educational and cultural sector by organising seminars, exhibitions, lectures, projections and other cultural events. Based on the article above and because none of any artistic event takes place in the certain building so it can have a cultural opening to the society of Rethymno and because there are appropriate conditions that wait to be given the opportunity to them so they can be expressed out we decided to take advantage of an essentially unused space and give life to it.

Article 2

Ability to stay in the Artistic Stations which belong to the Higher School of Fine Arts have: b. Students of the Higher School of Fine Arts in Athens so they can exercise or prepare their final diplomat work. d. Greek Artists of Visual Arts, for art work performance. e. Students or members of educational staff in respective Arts Schools of Greece, in teams or even individuals, to perform artistic work. h. Personalities the field of Visual Arts or the site of the Spirit and Arts in general, Greeks or foreigners who will possibly offer teaching. If the Article 2 extends the opportunity to stay for students of Fine Arts Schools and other relevant schools also to artists, Greeks or foreigners, by placing artistic work or teach, we believe that we have the right to participate in this space, without waiting for the rector's approval, so inside the space can be expressed the interests of many people who feel the lack of such a place in Rethymno for activities related with music, dance, sculpturing, graphic designs and what else will come up later.

Article 3

7. The percentage of persons who are not students, scholarships or members of the Fine Art University, can rise up to 25% of the total positions' number, for each Artistic Station, after there not enough students, scholarships or members of the School who use the station. This article provides the use of the station also from people who do not have any artistic status and as we see not a lot of people use the station and so there is no reason to excuse that the space keeps empty and we decide that we want to stay inside there to form a community that will create, participate in common decisions and fall in love. On this basis above and our conviction that we must interfer strongly to fight for what we believe that accounts for us, like the free speech and the use of public spaces, without getting under political expediencies' umbrellas, we seek for the creation of a libertarian space where we can house our creations and concerns without the commercialization of them which will proposal a different way of life far away from the established social norms that are imposed by others for us.

* Three vindictive redundancies of syndicalist workers from METKA factory in Volos town during the afternoon. Alexis Pavlidis was candidate in the leftish ballot for the elections of the factory labor association that took place last September. Kostas Vogiatzis & Vassilis Kalatzas were "exposed" because of supporting the leftish ballot. The agents from Volos' Labor Center did not find Mr. Oikonomou, the executive director of the factory, who just disappeared. The factory's labor association decided for a 2hours stoppage of work on Tuesday, so a General Assembly of the workers can take place. Today a press conference about the situation took place in the Workers' Center of the town. Initiative for Workers & Unemployed Solidarity called also for a gathering in front of the factory's entrence at 21:00, so the workers who changed timetables on this time were also informed about the situation, calling for blockading the redundancies with a strike.

* Αdoui Αboudou Wassiou, from Togo of Africa, is kept in the detention centers of Achaian police headquarters since last Sunday and he is in danger of deportation back to the tyrannic status quo of his country. Adoui, who speaks french, was arrested while walking alone and has a passport but he is accused for keeping a fake visa card. He was brought in a trial with the accusation of possession of fake document and despite that the judge sentenced him innocent, they still keep him imprisoned in purpose to deport him. If Adoui will be deported his life will come to a question because of the difficult political situation in Togo. According to last day's information, he will be transfered to Athens before next Thursday and then deported to Togo. Meanwhile, more than 150 arrests of political and economical prisoners have took place in Patras (port from where migrants try to pass to Italy) during the last days. Because of lack in detention centers Achaian police headquarters, the majority of the arrested persons have been transfered to Agrinio and Pyrgos local detention centers and most of them come from Sudan and Somalia. Yesterday (10th Feb) an agency from Movement of Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy visited the Director (head pig) of Patras' Security, with whom they discussed about the event and took also permition to discuss, under cop presence, with the prisoners so it could be possible to have a picture about their needs and may offer help. Among the prisoners there are lots of citizens from Albania, Afghanistan, Palestine and possibly Algeria. Further info: mosxosg@hotmail.com *

*Around 400 people demonstrated today in solidarity with Fabrica Yfanet Squat in Thessaloniki after the last days' fascistic attack.

Fotos from the demo: https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1131947

Thursday News Update (from Libcom)

*The national union of teachers has announced its participation in the strike of the 24th of February, making the latter look like it is approaching the volume of a general strike. Also kiosks and corner shops have warned of rolling 24h strikes that would create great daily problems for consumers, demanding a reversal on extra tax imposed on tobacco as part of the austerity measures. At the same time, only hours after the bail-out, the greek government has been embarrassed by a long banner unfolded in front of the parliament by senior left-wing figures. The banner wrote: "No to the Stability Pact, European Workers Unite in Solidarity and Subversion"; the group was led by the highly influential ex-President of the Coalition of Radical Left, Mr Alavanos, who called Greece "the shit-hole of the Stability Pact".

Solidarity action for Alfredo Bonanno & Christos Stratigopoulos in London on Wednesday (see Indymedia Athens)

Foto: See "News Update Thursday"(above)

The Revolution will be televised

The Revolution will not be televised

Gesellschaft des Spektakels - Greek Crisis (3)

With a little help from "Kein Name - Indymedia Germany"

See his/her Updates on the Greek Crisis:

11th February

9th & 10th February

8th February

6th & 7th February

5th February

The Art of Brown-Nosing oder Die Kunst des Arschkriechens

Das Frankfurter Autonome Zentralblatt (FAZ) bringt heute auf Seite 33 zur Unterhaltung wieder mal ein lustiges Stück der in zwangloser Folge erscheinenden Serie "Trotzki fragt – wer war’s?".

Im Wortlaut klingt das schöne Preisrätsel so:

Er braucht keine Hilfsmittel, er hat alles im Kopf. Wenn es ihm in Gesellschaft zu fad wird, fängt er an zu zaubern. Mühelos vermag er das Christentum, Paulus, die Gonzaga, das Problem des Schattens in den Gärten der Renaissance, die Fugger, Gutenberg und Gruner + Jahr in einem Satz unterzubringen.

Na, ihr Lieben, dreimal dürft ihr raten, welche Wollmilchsau da weltweit zur Fahndung ausgeschrieben wird ...

Der unersetzliche Willi Winkler, meint ihr ?

Nicht übel geraten, aber der war's in diesem Fall nicht. (Und übrigens gebraucht auch ein Willi Winkler gelegentlich mal Hilfsmittel).

Der unvermeidliche Dietmar Dath ?

Damit kommen wir der Sache schon näher. Aber unter uns gesagt: Selbst Turbo-Dietmar hat nicht alles in der Birne, sondern mit Sicherheit auch noch was auf der Festplatte.

Nein, machen wir’s kurz, der gesuchte und geschilderte Universal-Poet, der keine Hilfsmittel braucht, der alles im Kopf hat, dazu noch zaubern und zweitausend Jahre in einem Satz unterbringen kann, ist kein Geringerer als ein gewisser Hubert "Lurchi" Burda.

Wie, was - ihr kennt den Lurchi nicht ?

Aber hallo !

Höchste Zeit, daß ihr mal kurz hier reinklickt oder euch notfalls die FAZ vornehmt.

Unser Universal-Lurchi hat übrigens noch mehr auf dem Kasten:

Seine Tischreden sind berühmt. Er ist – das rechnet er seinem böhmischen Erbe zu – ein geborener Geschichtenerzähler. Wenn ihm bei seinen rhetorischen Eskapaden keiner mehr folgen kann, beginnt er zu singen. Tatsächlich hat er einen enormen Fundus von Volks- und Kunstliedern, Schlagern und Songs auf Lager. Ich habe mit eigenen Ohren gehört, wie er der verblüfften Gattin eines Industriemanagers ohne jede Scheu ein gutes Dutzend italienischer Partisanenlieder in Originalsprache vorgetragen hat.

Gleich ein ganzes Dutzend, mon Dieu ? Da wurde dann aber "O sole mio" sowie das "Badener Lied" mit Sicherheit mitgezählt.

Das lyrische Ich, das hier mit klingendem Jubel zum heiligen Sonnengesange aufsteigt, gehört übrigens dem poeta doctus Michael Krüger, im Nebenberuf Geschäftsführer des Münchner Hanser-Verlags. Oder nicht mehr so ganz hundertprozentig Geschäftsführer, sondern inzwischen wohl vor allem Fundraiser.

Ganz in allen Einzelheiten kenne ich das Geschäftsgebaren der Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KG natürlich nicht, ich hab' jedenfalls noch keine Due Diligence durchgeführt, aber kürzlich hat Spezi Krüger jedenfalls in seinem Musentempel die Knabenschwindelpoesien seiner Hoheit Scheichs Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum des Großen, derzeit Premierminister von Dubai (also inzwischen nicht mehr ganz so groß, sondern jetzt ein bißchen zusammengestaucht), in deutscher Übersetzung gedruckt und zum Potte gebracht. Ein Büchlein, das hierzulande noch auf den eigentlichen literarischen Durchbruch warten muß. Aber das geht ja fast aller mehr oder weniger großen Lyrik so …

Auch Freund Hanfeld, jener FAZ-Medienredakteur, der den denkwürdigen "Song for Lurchi" gestern ins Blatt heben durfte, hat sicher ein paar Haikus in der Schublade, bei deren Druckkosten-Bezuschussung unser Medien-Lurchi nun nicht mehr knausern kann.

Und Freundchen Schmuddelpeter, der das Meisterstück vorgestern (die Hellerhof-Kameraden, muß man wissen, sind angesichts der derzeitig laufenden Welt-, Staats- und Literaturaffären etwas ins Schwitzen geraten) als zuständiger FAZ-Herausgeber in Auftrag gab, hofft wohl auf ein Gnadenbrot von der Hubert-Lurchi-Medienakademie, da sich sein Farting Chair demnächst zweifellos als Schleudersitz erweisen wird. Er behauptet ja schon seit Jahren kackfrech (um nur die erste seiner bekanntgewordenen Hochstapeleien zu nennen), er habe irgendwann mal über den amerikanischen Dekonstruktivismus promoviert und schmückt sich seither mit diesem unter dubiosesten Umständen erworbenen Doktortitel. Das wird nicht mehr lange gut gehen, und das weiß der Zappel-Philipp auch. Und falls die Sache für unseren speziellen Freund dann doppelt in die Hose geht, weil Lurchi ja vielleicht doch lieber anders disponieren will, kann er statt seinem bisherigen Credo, daß nur wichtig sei, was hinten rauskommt, wenigstens eine Altersweisheit des Küchenvaters Augustinus meditieren, die in sehr freier Übersetzung lautet:

"Better to have brown nosed and lost, than to have never brown nosed at all."

***

Foto: Nachtaktiver mexikanischer Schwanzlurch, in künstlerisch-poetischer Nachempfindung / Shillenbrand

Quellen: Abgesehen davon, daß es zur "Kunst der Arschkriecherei" einen Essay des Soziologen Alphons Silbermann gibt (1997; nicht gelesen), kam meine Inspiration von den Websiten Chazper (Augustinus-Zitat) und Brooke's Insights, bei Heinrich Heines "Song for Georg Herwegh" hab' ich mich auch bedient (das ganze Gedicht steht hier), und der Ausdruck "Knabenschwindelpoesien" geht zurück auf Feridun Zaimoglu (siehe seine 1999 in der "ZEIT" erschienene, immer noch vollends gültige Abrechnung mit der sogenannten "Popliteratur", die ja in Wirklichkeit nur reaktionärer, von Reaktionären fabrizierter & gehypter Scheißdreck ist).

Härteste Türpolitik im Verve Club oder Heute früh an der place de la Madeleine

From AgoraVox - le média citoyen:

Une fusillade à Paris fait deux blessés graves

Les faits se sont déroulés vers 5h35 du matin. Un homme aurait tiré à plusieurs reprises sur deux hommes, en blessant grièvement un au ventre. Les victimes sortaient de la discothèque Plaza située à proximité de la place de la Madeleine. La police judiciaire de Paris est chargée de l’enquête.

Le Plaza Madeleine est une discothèque de 650m2 située entre les places de la Concorde et de l’Opéra, au 8 boulevard de la Madeleine. L’agresseur, un homme âgé d’une vingtaine d’années vêtu d’une doudoune et d’une casquette, aurait tiré plusieurs fois sur ses victimes, deux hommes de 27 et 28 ans, qu’il aurait atteintes, l’une à la cuisse gauche et l’autre au ventre. Après les avoir attendus dans une voiture, l’auteur des coups de feu s’est enfui à pieds.

Le pronostic vital est réservé pour l’un des deux hommes blessés. Le Samu les a pris en charge et, selon les communiqués, le magistrat du Parquet de Paris de permanence s’est rendu sur les lieux.

Ce matin, le boulevard de la Madeleine était bloqué de la place jusqu’à l’Olympia, situé à quelques centaines de mètres, 28 boulevard des Capucines.

Aurore, 23 ans, qui habite au dessus des lieux du drame, raconte à "20minutes" avoir "entendu 5 coups de feu et des cris". Elle précise qu’ " il y avait beaucoup de gens en bas" et qu’" il y a souvent beaucoup de bruit devant la boîte", ainsi que de fréquentes "bagarres, rue de Sèze". Ce que confirme au journal "Parisien" un employé d’un café voisin, en rapportant qu’" il s’est déjà produit un incident de ce genre dans cette boîte".

Une jeune femme avait été blessée en août 2007 devant le Plaza Madeleine suite à un échange de coups de feu entre les forces de l’ordre et des malfaiteurs cagoulés s’apprêtant à accomplir un cambriolage avec des kalachnikovs. Une jeune femme étrangère à l’affaire avait été grièvement blessée d’une balle dans le dos.

Photo: Doudoune - Daunenjacke: L'Authentic est le must have ultra glam de la doudoune avec son col protecteur et sa capuche vintage. Le Top de la doudoune pour un hiver au chaud. On adore ! (from fashion addict )

Milton Nascimento: Ponta de Areia

CD-Version from Esperanza Spalding "Esperanza" (2008)


Lyrics by Milton Nascimento & Fernando Brant

Ponta de areia ponto final
Da Bahia-Minas estrada natural
Que ligava Minas ao porto do mar
Caminho de ferro mandaram arrancar
Velho maquinista com seu boné
Lembra do povo alegre que vinha cortejar
Maria fumaça não canta mais
Para moças flores janelas e quintais
Na praça vazia um grito um oi
Casas esquecidas viúvas nos portais

New Orleans: Carnival Music in the French Quarter

Les trois monothéismes (1)

"L’émotion saisit le monde, beaucoup de monde, aux événements où l’origine est en question.

Les crises comme celles du Moyen-Orient émeuvent bien plus que d’autres (plus que l’Afrique ou le Perou…), leur impact est planétaire.

Est-ce à cause du pétrole ?

Il semble n’être que le carburant d’une machinerie cosmique, terrestre et céleste, portée par trois monotheismes – juif, chrétien et islamique – qui s’"accrochent", se gênent, s’atteignent, se croisent sous le signe du divin et de la mémoire, de l’identité et de sa perte.

Quelques points brûlants: Palestine, Jérusalem, guerre du Golfe, intégrismes, immigration, xénophobie – haine de l’autre et haine de soi mêlées. Toujours épreuve de l’origine – qui de "là-bas" se répercute ici, puis réagit là-bas…

Tension errante, voyage d’une déchirure.

L’émigration mêle partout en Occident des collectifs chrétiens, juifs et musulmans – laïcs aussi: ceux-ci regardent avec stupeur ces affrontements d’un autre âge qui pourtant les touchent de près, les angoissent. D’autant qu’ici on "intègre"; et c’est justement quand ça s’intègre que des "histoires" surgissent, car alors le différent s’approche du même et l’inquiète.

Voyez ce fameux "voile": tant qu’il restait aux souks, dans ses quartiers, rien à rédire ou si peu; c’est quand il est entré en classe que cela a fait des frissons.

Il y a aussi l'effet inverse où le même devient différent. Qui peut trahir son origine impunément ? L'écrivain Rushdie en est le cas limite: quand il revient en tant qu'autre sur son origine, et qu'il chatouille de sa plume, c'est l'explosion. Lui qui écrit à Londres irrite l'Iran et s'enterre pour rester vivant... en Occident.

Quand la guerre d'Irak éclate, être pour ou contre s'est vécu ici, avec passion. Toujours, crises-passions des origines invoquées, rejouées ... "

***

Bei Ereignissen, in denen der Ursprung oder die Herkunft zum Problem wird, kommen sehr starke Gefühle ins Spiel – und zwar bei sehr vielen Leuten.

Krisen wie diejenige in Nahost berühren uns viel mehr als andere (in Afrika oder Peru…), ihre Auswirkungen sind global.

Ist das Erdöl die Ursache ?

Anscheinend geht es hier nur um den Brennstoff einer kosmischen – irdischen und himmlischen – Maschinerie, die getragen wird von drei Monotheismen, Judentum, Christentum und Islam, die sich gegenseitig umklammern, einander auf die Nerven gehen, berühren, sich kreuzen im Zeichen des Göttlichen und des Gedächtnisses, der Identität und des Identitätsverlustes.

Einige Brennpunkte: Palästina, Jerusalem, Golfkrieg, Integrismen, Immigration, Xenophobie – Haß auf den Anderen und Selbsthaß sind hier stets vermischt. Immer stehen dabei Ursprung oder Herkunft auf dem Spiel, werden einer Kraft- oder Belastungsprobe unterzogen – und was "da drüben" geschieht, hat ein Echo hier bei uns, und zieht dann wieder "da drüben" Reaktionen nach sich …

Eine erratische, umherirrende Spannung, eine Zerrissenheit, die sich selbst auf Wanderschaft begibt …

Durch die Emigration vermischen sich überall im Westen christliche, jüdische und muslimische Kollektive – und auch weltliche Kollektive [von Konfessions- und Religionslosen oder Leuten, für die Religion kaum noch zählt]: diese weltlichen Kollektive sehen mit Verwunderung solche Zusammenstöße, die aus einer anderen Zeit zu kommen scheinen, und sie dennoch aufs Engste berühren, ja ängstigen. Um dies umso mehr, als hier bei uns "integriert" wird; denn gerade dort, wo Integration vollzogen wird, kommen erst recht "Geschichten" hoch, weil sich hier die Differenz der Identität annähert und Identität durch Differenz irritiert wird.

Man denke nur an den famosen "Schleier": solange er nur auf orientalischen Märkten, in den arabischen Vierteln gesichtet wurde, war er kaum ein Thema; erst als er dann in den Schulklassen auftauchte, löste das ein Schaudern aus.

Es gibt auch den gegenteiligen Effekt, wo das Identische plötzlich zur Differenz wird, Differenz erzeugt. Wer kann seine Herkunft ungestraft verraten ? Der Schriftsteller Salman Rushdie stellt hier einen Grenzfall dar: sobald er als anderer auf seine Herkunft zurückkommt und sie mit seiner Feder empfindlich trifft, kommt es zur Explosion. Er, der in London schreibt, verstört den Iran und läßt sich begraben, um am Leben zu bleiben … im Westen. Als der Irak-Krieg eskaliert, wird das Dafürsein oder Dagegensein hier leidenschaftlich ausgelebt. Also auch hier wieder das alte Lied, auch hier wieder Krisen, Leidenschaften, in denen Herkunft beschworen und Ursprünge noch einmal durchgespielt, nachgespielt, reinszeniert werden …

Daniel Sibony, Les trois monothéismes. Juifs, Chrétiens, Musulmans entre leurs sources et leurs destins, Éditions du Seuil, Paris 1992, page 7

http://www.danielsibony.com/

Die Kirchen, die wir bespielen

Der links- bzw. rechtspopolistische Sitzenbleiberinnen-Skandal im Bundestag weitet sich aus. Zur Erinnerung: Am 27. Januar, dem internationalen Holocaust-Gedenktag, waren die drei weiblichen LINKEN-Abgeordneten Christine Buchholz, Sahra Wagenknecht und Sevim Dağdelen beim Auftritt des israelischen Staatspräsidenten Schimon Peres im Bundestag – wohl so ähnlich wie einst Ignatz Bubis nach Martin Walsers vielgescholtener Paulskirchen-Rede – demonstrativ sitzengeblieben. Oder auch nicht so furchtbar demonstrativ, sondern vielmehr eher diskret bzw. nach dem Motto der hedonistisch-feministisch-linksradikalen Bohème, "Reiten – lesen – Freundinnen treffen", qui sait, ich war nicht dabei, jedenfalls geriet der Fall offenbar erst dann in die außerparlamentarische Öffentlichkeit, als er vom Umfeld der LinksgenossInnen Klaus Lederer und Halina Wawzyniak, eine wahrhaft couragierte Pfeife muß das gewesen sein, an die große Medien-Glocke gehängt wurde. Whistleblowing ist eben total angesagt in der Linken, seit der dubiose Dr. Bartsch hier in Sachen Lafontaine mannhaft voranging.

Natürlich hat der Fall nicht nur mit dem Antisemitismus-Israel-Nahost-Komplex zu tun, denn Lederer und Wawzyniak gehören zum ostdeutschen Reformer-Flügel der Linkspartei, sie wollen also mit den drei westdeutschen Radikal-Grazien wohl auch ein ganz anderes Hühnchen zupfen. Friendly fire das gibt's im Krieg und in der Politik öfters als man denkt. Es kam daher - wie so oft, wenn es irgendwo spannend wird - auch sofort zum Gegenteil, es gab Beifall von der falschen Seite: Der NPD-Gansel findet Sahra & friends ab sofort ganz toll. Und last but not least hat sich jetzt auch noch die Protestantische Kirche in Deutschland (PKD) zu Wort gemeldet. Drei flotte Ruhrpott-Talare, eine Fachfrau und zwei Fachmänner für die gnadenlos service-orientierte Postmoderne, haben nämlich zur Feder gegriffen und der Abgeordneten Dağdelen in einem flammenden Offenen Brief die Leviten gelesen. Warum eigentlich nur ihr, aber nicht den beiden anderen ? Wurde Frau Dağdelen etwa mal im Kirchenasyl der Dortmunder St. Petri-Kirche vor den Erben der Firma Eichmann & Söhne versteckt ? Das geht aus dem Schreiben leider nicht hervor.

Wir dokumentieren das nette Stück der drei PfarrerInnen, so wie es auf der Website der Bush & Broder-Brothers und bei Indymedia Germany (hier heftigst debattiert) gepostet wurde. Es ist ein denkwürdiges Beispiel für schicken protestantischen Schund und neudeutschen Antifa-Irrsinn:

„Sehr geehrte Frau Dağdelen,

Respekt ist das, was einen überkommt, wenn man zurückblickt, lat. respectare. Am Jahrestag der Befreiung von Auschwitz saßen Sie im Deutschen Bundestag. Sie saßen da, als Schimon Peres zurückgeblickt hat und seinen Großvater vor sich sah, wie er ihn, den Elfjährigen, in einen Zug setzt, der ihn nach Israel bringt, bevor ihn Deutsche umbringen konnten. Sie saßen da, als er, der Überlebende, das Kaddisch sprach für sechs Millionen, die ermordet wurden, und saßen da, als er, der Präsident des Staates Israel, sagte “Nie wieder.” Sie saßen da und blieben sitzen, als sich der Bundestag erhob.

Sie sitzen aber nicht, das ist uns klar, für eine Nazi-Partei im Parlament, sondern stehen für DIE LINKE. In Ihrer Fraktion werden Sie als “Sprecherin Migrations- und Integrationspolitik” geführt. Zu wem sprechen Sie, wenn Sie sitzen bleiben? Sind auch die Anhänger der Hisbollah darunter, mit denen Sie auf Demos gehen und den “Tod! Tod Israel!” verlangen?

Antisemitismus ist die Leidenschaft, die den Tod der Juden wünscht. Nur dass Sitzenbleiben nicht sehr leidenschaftlich wirkt, eher kalkuliert. Als rechnete es sich für Sie. Blieben Sie sitzen im Bundestag, weil Sie den Sitz im Bundestag behalten wollen? Könnte sein, dass Sie gar keine Antisemitin sind, sondern eine Politikerin, ganz leidenschaftslos.

Nur dass gerade dies uns fassungslos macht. “Meine verehrten Anwesenden”, hatte Schimon Peres im Bundestag gesagt, “die Shoa wirft schwierige Fragen zur tiefsten Seele des Menschen auf. Wie böse kann der Mensch sein?” Seit Hannah Arendt dämmert uns, wie banal das Böse sein kann, sie hat die Banalität des Bösen als “Unwillen” beschrieben: “Da ist keine Tiefe, es ist nicht dämonisch. Es ist einfach der Unwille, sich je vorzustellen, was eigentlich mit dem anderen ist.” Einfach der Unwille, “an der Stelle jedes andern zu denken”. An der Stelle eines 11jährigen, den der Großvater zum Zug bringt. An der Stelle des 86jährigen, der Ihnen sagt: “Ich danke Ihnen.”

Einfach der Unwille mitzufühlen. Der einfache Wille, nichts wissen zu wollen. Früher liefen sie mit, heute bleiben Sie sitzen, es widert uns an. Die Kirchen, die wir bespielen, sind Kirchen der Kulturen, es sind offene Häuser, und manche Gespräche werden darin so offen geführt, dass es weh tun kann. Auch Sie sind hier zu Gast gewesen. Sie werden es nicht mehr sein, Sie sind uns nicht erwünscht. Sie haben denen, die überlebt haben, den Respekt verweigert, unseren haben Sie restlos verloren.

Pfr. Barbara von Bremen - St. Petri-Kirche Dortmund
Pfr. Thomas Schöps - Bleckkirche Gelsenkirchen
Pfr. Thomas Wessel - Christuskirche Bochum“

***

Inzwischen liegt ein Offener Antwortbrief der Bundestagsabgeordneten Sevim Dağdelen vor, den wir ebenfalls dokumentieren:

"Sehr geehrte Pfarrerin von Bremen, sehr geehrter Pfarrer Schöps, sehr geehrter Pfarrer Wessel,

Sie wissen, dass es nicht stimmt. Dass ich niemals den Opfern des Holocaust meinen Respekt verweigern würde und dies auch nicht getan habe im Bundestag. Dass ich mich selbstverständlich erhoben habe zu Ehren der Opfer, die dem deutschen Rassenwahn zum Opfer gefallen sind, als der Bundestag am 27. Januar im Beisein von Shimon Peres der Opfer des Nationalsozialismus gedachte. Mich des Antisemitismus zu bezichtigten, ist infam. Mir Bösartigkeit und Gefühllosigkeit zu unterstellen, nicht minder. Sie beschuldigen mich der Ignoranz ohne auch nur mit mir ein Gespräch zu suchen. Sie reden von Kultur und predigen Hass. Das hätte ich nicht erwartet. Erst recht nicht von Ihnen.

Ja, ich habe Shimon Peres nach seiner Rede stehende Ovationen verweigert. Ich habe nicht stehend applaudiert, als er von Atomraketen sprach, die der Iran angeblich besitze und die die Welt bedrohen. Ich habe nicht geklatscht, als er den Kriegstreibern Nahrung gab, die dabei sind, den nächsten Feldzug gegen den Iran zu planen, der den Mittleren Osten in die nächste Katastrophe steuern wird. Ich habe keine Zustimmung geäußert zu einer Fortsetzung der Vorgehensweise, die wir aus dem Irak kennen, wo gleichfalls mithilfe von Bedrohungsszenarien ein furchtbarer Krieg vom Zaun gebrochen wurde.

Wenn Sie mir dafür die Tür der Kirche weisen, dann soll es so sein. Vertreter der Kirche, die wider besseren Wissens diffamieren, sind nicht meine Ansprechpartner. Ob Sie jedoch die vielen Christinnen und Christen repräsentieren, denen Wahrhaftigkeit etwas bedeutet und die sich gegen Krieg und für Dialog und Verständigung einsetzen, wage ich zu bezweifeln.

Sie sagen, es widert Sie an, dass ich sitzengeblieben bin. Was mich anwidert, sind hasserfüllte Stellungnahmen der Selbstgerechtigkeit, die nichts, aber auch gar nichts mit dem zu tun haben, was ich mir von der Kirche erhoffe und von ihr erwarte. Ich bin sicher, damit stehe ich nicht allein. Ich erlaube mir den Brief den zuständigen Superintendenten der evangelischen Kirche zukommen zu lassen und ihn wie Sie dies mit Ihrem Brief getan haben, unmittelbar zu veröffentlichen.

Sevim Dağdelen, 05.02.2010"

Siehe auch die Erklärungen von Christine Buchholz und Sahra Wagenknecht

Abbildung: Mittelalterliche symbolische Darstellung von Synagoge (rechts) und Ecclesia (links) / Gefunden auf gelsenkirchen.de (mehr über dieses Bildmotiv hier)

The Greek crisis: News from today (2)

Global financial markets in turmoil - Fears of 'Lehman-style' tsunami (by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and Jonathan Sibun, Telegraph, UK)

The Greek debt crisis has spread to Spain and Portugal in a dangerous escalation as global markets test whether Europe is willing to shore up monetary union with muscle rather than mere words. Analyst Julian Callow from Barclays Capital said the EU may to need to invoke emergency treaty powers under Article 122 to halt the contagion, issuing an EU guarantee for Greek debt. “If not contained, this could result in a `Lehman-style’ tsunami spreading across much of the EU.”

Credit default swaps (CDS) measuring bankruptcy risk on Portuguese debt surged 28 basis points on Thursday to a record 222 on reports that Jose Socrates was about to resign as prime minister after failing to secure enough votes in parliament to carry out austerity measures. Parliament minister Jorge Lacao said the political dispute has raised fears that the country is no longer governable. “What is at stake is the credibility of the Portuguese state,” he said.

Portugal has been in political crisis since the Maoist-Trotskyist Bloco won 10pc of the vote last year. This is rapidly turning into a market crisis as well as investors digest a revised budget deficit of 9.3pc of GDP for 2009, much higher than thought. A €500m debt auction failed on Wednesday. The yield spread on 10-year Portuguese bonds has risen to 155 basis points over German bunds. Daniel Gross from the Centre for European Policy Studies said Portgual and Greece need to cut consumption by 10pc to clean house, but such draconian measures risk street protests. “This is what is making the markets so nervous,” he said.

In Spain, default insurance surged 16 basis points after Nobel economist Paul Krugman said that “the biggest trouble spot isn’t Greece, it’s Spain”. He blamed EMU’s one-size-fits-all monetary system, which has left the country with no defence against an adverse shock. The Madrid’s IBEX index fell 6pc. Finance minister Elena Salgado said Professor Krugman did not “understand” the eurozone, but reserved her full wrath for the EU economics commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, who helped trigger the panic flight from Iberian debt by blurting out that Spain and Portugal were in much the same mess as Greece. Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the European Central Bank, gave no hint yesterday that Frankfurt will bend to help these countries, either through loans or a more subtle form of bail-out through looser monetary policy or lax rules on collateral. The ultra-hawkish ECB has instead let the M3 money supply contract over recent months.

Fears of a sovereign debt crisis among Europe's economically weaker nations and disappointing jobless and service sector data in the US hit stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic. The pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar since mid-October, the euro hit an eight month low against the greenback and the FTSE closed down 2.2pc at 5138.31.

Bulgaria-Greece Border Closed for Traffic, Farmers’ Protests Escalate (from Novinite, Bulgaria)

All border crossing points, except Zlatograd, between Bulgaria and Greece are closed Thursday, the Bulgarian border police reports. Kulata-Promahon, Ilinden-Eksohi and Capitan Petko Voyvoda-Ormenion are closed for all traffic. The road at Zlatograd is not accessible for tractor-trailers. The blockade is in its 18th day and Bulgaria's Main Directorate “Border Police” informs they have been appraised by the Greek authorities that the protesting Greek farmers are not going to let any traffic through Kulata in the next 3 – 4 days.

The negotiations which took place on February 2 between the Greek Minister of Agriculture and the National Coordination Committee of the farmers failed to produce a solution to the situation in which much of Greece – including the Bulgarian border – is blockaded by the farmers who demand higher agricultural prices. This conclusion has been included in the report of the Crisis Headquarters of the Bulgarian government with respect to the condition of the Greek border blockade on February 3, 2010. The report reveals that the Greek Ministry met only two secondary demands of the protesters, and the farmers have made clear their intention to continue and escalate their protests until the government gives in.

Strikes greet austerity measures in Greece (by taxikipali, libcom.org)

Less than 24h after the announcement of the hardest austerity measures in the history of the greek republic, strikes have erupted in the public sector. Tax-collectors and customs officers have been the first public sector branches to spontaneously react to the government's austerity measures. The two public sector branches have gone on a 48h preemptive strike, halting all tax-office transactions and controls as well as freezing import-export activities. At the same time, the employees of the Ministry of Economics, responsible for imposing the austerity measures, have also gone on a 48h strike, blocking all entrances to the Ministry in Athens.

The spontaneous mobilisations come in a general climate of anger when the call of the Greek Prime Minister for national unity and self-sacrifice has already become the laughing stock in the massively popular morning satirical programs of bourgeois radio stations - amongst the general ridicule of the government televised drama, mock adds in the name of the Industrialist Club declaring that "its time for the poor to pay, the rich have payed enough" are being broadcasted. At the same time the first signs of internal critique towards the government's austerity measures have surfaced. A PASOK sub-group has attacked the measures as "the toughest, most relentless neoliberalist policy since 1974", and the Minister of National Economy Ms Katseli has taken distance from the PM's policy by declaring that it is meaningful only if the main target of the measures are the rich, "social justice is most vital" she added in a sign of cabinet discordia. The Communist Party (KKE) has called workers to "wage a war of counterattack" against the measures, while the Coalition of Radical Left has made the unprecedented move to ask the KKE to forge a front against the measures.

The main opposition party of the Conservatives, kicked out of government last October, has pledged to support the government. Signaling the extreme-right turn of the party, one of its main MPs even called for the release of the fascist editor arrested two weeks ago during a neonazi attack on an anti-racist demo. At the same time, the workers of the occupied Kanakis Factory in Volos have called for a protest march against the measures for Tuesday.

Finally it must be noted that the trial of Alexandros Grigoropoulos murderers has been postponed for March when the procedure will begin again from scratch.

Fishermens’s strike legalized (from indymedia germany)

The high court in Salonica has declared today the Egyptian fishermen's strike in Nea Michanonia legal. In active solidarity with the fishermen stand students and other independent organisations, who support them in many ways but also give them a step to express their positions inside the Universities' society. (For more news, see clandestinenglish)

“Conspiracy Cells of the Fire” case: Youngster imprisoned (from indymedia germany)

The youngster who was arrested on 1st Feb. accused as member of "Conspiracy Cells of the Fire" got under prejail custody, after there were found fingerprints of him in the so-called terrorists' hideout in Chalandri district. The fingerprints were found on movable objects, a plastic bag and a political flyer. With this action the greek authorities send a direct message to each citizen: don't spread around political ideas and never carry plastic bags.

Athens: Call for blocking a nazi demonstration on Saturday (from indymedia germany)

After the fascistic party of Greece and the orthodox church, also Nea Dimokratia (sth like the Christiandemocrats) support the new nazi fruit called "autonomous nationalists". Among them, members of other neonazistic teams, army generals and police officers. But fascists, neo-nazis, ultra-conservative christians and their like have gone a step too far, it seems, by calling for a demonstration at the Propylea building of the university of Athens this coming Saturday (6.2). University spaces have been a no-go zone for fascists in the country – what with the academic asylum preventing the police from coming close to them and offering any of their usual protection. However, in response to the government’s new migration bill (in theory offering the opportunity to many migrants to claim greek nationality for the first time), the far-right has seen some mobilisation of rare intensity. Last Saturday (30.1), 1-2,000 marched behind the banner of the neo-fascist group Golden Dawn. They are hoping, it seems, to reproduce this chilling image outside the Propylea building, traditionally a starting point for the marches of the anarchists and the left. The provocation could not go unanswered and an anti-fascist demo has already been called for by anarchists outside Propylea at 11am on Saturday (four hours before the fascist gathering). No authority is our friend, no repressed is our enemy. On Saturday, February 6 the fascists are calling for a gathering at Propylea, to spit out their racist and nationalistic poison. Not only do they oppose an already racist law (that concerning citizenship) but they also demand the physical extermination of the migrants. Academic asylum does not belong to the fascists, nor the police. The asylum belongs to the people in struggle, to the world of liberty.

War against the state and the bosses. Solidarity to all migrants.

Saturday, February 6:

Anti-fascist gathering, 11am, Propylea.

- Anarchists, anti-authoritarians, anti-fascists.

***

Greek Anarchists Are Not Alone: New Yorkers hold solidarity benefit for Resalto arrestees (from occupiedlondon)

A year has passed since police murdered Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the streets of Exarcheia. All of us who were in the streets of Greece during the riots gave ourselves a promise: we will not go back to normality. The memories of the revolt are still alive. We will never forget, never forgive.

… and the struggle goes on.

The new Greek socialist government made their intensions clear from the very first time they were elected. They wouldn’t let a new insurrection take place at any cost, and the anarchists were their main target. Just a day before the one year anniversary of Alexandros’ murder, the self-organized center Resalto was raided and 22 people were arrested and had to pay for bails of up to 50,000 euros in total. Despite the state’s oppression, which collaborated with the neo-Nazis; and despite the medias’ propaganda, which tried to hide the mass demonstrations that took place in Greece against state’s oppression and police brutality; and all their effort to depoliticize the struggle in Greece by representing the anarchists as vandals and Resalto itself as a bar and not as a political space; the demonstrations kept going. We occupied public buildings and solidarity actions took place all over the world. In response, the state took some of us and put us in prisons. And the Resalto arrestees faced ridiculously high bails that till this day need to be paid back. The Greek anarchists are not alone.

Solidarity is our weapon.

Live with

the bigger princes

Born in a cent

Just Dave

The last internationale

Night walker

Sidious

Final outlaw

On Thursday, 4th of February, 9.00 p.m
in the ‘Pyramid” 101 Avenue A New York City.

***

Photo by BGNES via Novinite: Truck drivers at Kulata cross border point between Bulgaria and Greece had to wait for 72 hours over the Greek farmers blockade.

Cornelius Castoriadis on revolution

When we talk about revolution we have to get rid off all the images we have in our mind about barricades, occupation of the 'Winter Palaces', civil wars, killings, urban guerrilla etc. But we can talk later if using violence is a necessary event or a necessary bad thing or just an accident during revolutions.

***

Revolution is the expressed and clarified change of a society's institutions, as many of them are dependant by expressed institutionalization, with the collective action of this society or the majority of it. Expressed and clarified change, because institutional changes are always happening.

***

It becomes obvious that the meaning of the word revolution is tightly connected with the 'spearhead' ('projet' in french, 'Entwurf' in german) of autonomy.

Cornelius Castoriadis (1922 - 1997)

(from Indymedia Germany)

*****

Projeter= (vorwärts) schleudern oder werfen, herausschleudern

Projet = Plan, Entwurf, Projekt

Projet de loi = Gesetzesentwurf

Projet de contrat = Vertragsentwurf

Projet de pleins pouvoirs= Ermächtigungsgesetzentwurf

Homme à projets= Projektemacher

(from "Das Große Wörterbuch Französisch-Deutsch Deutsch-Französisch", von Dr. Ernst Erwin Lange-Kowal unter Mitarbeit von Louis Beaucaire, Langenscheidt, Berlin - München 1963, Seite 466)

*****

Photo: Cornelius Castoriadis with dancer-choreographer Clara Gibson (from Wikipedia)

Anarchie ist machbar

The Greek crisis: News from today

Greece under EU protectorate ? (from freeinternetpress)

Debt-ridden Greece has come under increased pressure to implement tough austerity measures after the European Union announced plans to closely monitor the country's efforts to cut its enormous budget deficit. The new wave of belt-tightening could spark more protests by workers. Pressure on Greece to get its public finances into shape increased Wednesday as the European Union announced unusually strict measures against the country. The European Commission, the E.U.'s executive body, is to put Greece under closer monitoring than any euro-zone country has ever been subjected to and also criticized Athens for faulty reporting of statistics. Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, European Economy Commissioner Joaquin Almunia welcomed Greece's new plan to reduce its enormous budget deficit. On Tuesday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced a package of austerity measures that includes a freeze on salaries in the public sector, a possible increase in the retirement age and a hike in fuel prices. Almunia said that the Commission was endorsing the program, which he described as "ambitious" but "achievable." "We know that the implementation of the program will not be easy," he told reporters. "It's extremely challenging, but absolutely necessary and urgent." However, the E.U. wants Greece to do even more and is urging it to adopt a "comprehensive structural reform package" that would include cuts in pension spending and reform of the health-care system. The Commission also wants Greece to increase the competitiveness of its economy by making its labor market more flexible, among other demands.

Greek President Papoulias wins second term (from Focus Information Agency)

Greek President Karolos Papoulias has been re-elected for a second term, as both main parties backed him for the sake of political stability, the BBC reports. The 80-year-old won 266 votes in the 300-seat parliament, with support from both ruling socialists and opposition conservatives. Failure to reach agreement would have forced a parliamentary election. Mr Papoulias urged his country to unite to overcome the debt crisis putting it under huge international pressure. "A fair, strong and efficient state can overcome the current situation and open better avenues for Greece," he said. The president's role in Greece is largely ceremonial, with limited powers.


Third week of Farmers’ protests - Incidents at the Greek-Bulgarian Border (from Indymedia)

Despite the European Commission threatens for using european court's laws against them, the farmers under none syndicalistic leadership still keep strong their blockades on highways, side-roads and toll station borders, so the running products of the capitalistic system cannot be transfered from a place to another. Today they also blocked Macedonia Airport in Thessaloniki. As they state, during this year's fights, they do not solidarise under the colour of a political flag, but only the colour of the ground connects them. As further as they decide on their own about their fight, as stronger becomes the blackmail against them from mass media and strong elitarian economical circles. (For more news, see Novinite)


Resistance against EU highway project at Peranthi's Hill (from Indymedia)

People keep their fights against the government's plans to build up a highway close to Peranthi's Hill which will destroy the National Nature Park of Amvrakikos Bay. This fight against the european development's plans, comes next to other fights against green or gray development's plans which want to destroy nature, such as Acheloos river and Naxos island.

First day of Mylanos kidnapping trial (from Indymedia and Ekathimerini)

It was the first day of the trial about the kidnapping of Thessaloniki industrialist Giorgos Mylonas. The industrialist stated that he recognizes Polys Georgiadis as responsible, because of his voice and body type. Some police-men tried to block students of journalism from entering the court, action that is against the greek constitution. The wife of Mylonas stated that she doesn't recognize Polys Georgiadis or Vaggelis Chrysochoidis as the persons who took the money or used to keep in phone communication with her during the kidnapping. There are altogether 11 people accused of implication in Mylonas' kidnapping in June 2008. The defendants charged with the abduction of the 50-year-old entrepreneur include Vassilis Palaeokostas, the legendary social bandit who has been on the run since he escaped from Korydallos Prison in February. Mylonas was held for 15 days by his kidnappers, who freed him after receiving an 11-million-euro ransom from his family.

Factory occupation in Volos (from Indymedia)

Workers of KANAKIS factory in Volos town occupied the building. The owner company of the factory said it's bankrupt and the workers are unpaid since seven or even ten months now. The workers enforce pressure to PAME (official syndicate of parliament communist party) for radical actions. Today, the workers' assembly decided for a demonstration on 9th February against the bankruptcies, redundancies and poverty that comes from the European Stability Programm, which is designed by the greek "socialistic" government and the bloodthirsty crows of Brussels. Outparliamentary political organisations get in contact with the workers, so they can kick away all the official and legal syndicalistic leaders, who betray any workers' fights.


Jailhouse revolt at Diavata (from Indymedia)

A serious rise up took place at Diavata jailhouse today. The imprisoners revolted, after the authorities' decision to expell a kurdish prisoner with greek passport to a russian jailhouse. The trial of him is planned for 24th February, he has the right for political asylum in Greece but despite all these facts the authorities decided to transfer him today to Korydallos jailhouse in order to be expelled to Russia. The other prisoners rised up before the transfer and a prosecutor gave orders to special police forces to enter the prison and attack. Fifteen prisoners after the police attack got injured, some of them seriously, and the jail authorities deny their hospitalisation. Unrest also in Trikala and Amfissa jailhouses in solidarity with the Kurd and the prisoners of Diavata.


Solidarity with Alfredo & Christos - Anarchists took the street in Berlin (from Indymedia)

German anarchists paid a short visit to the Greek consulate in Berlin, located at the Wittenberg square. With a banner reading in both Greek and German „The passion for freedom is stronger than any prison – Freedom to Alfredo Bonanno and Christos Stratigopoulos“ they raised attention on the situation of the two comrades imprisoned in Greece and and delivered to the Greek consul a statement which reads as follows: "We wish to denounce the abusive and illegal detention of Alfredo Maria Bonanno in unacceptable conditions in the prison of Koridallos (Athens). The vindictive politics of the State is aimed at the physical and psychological annihilation of the 73-year old comrade who is facing serious health problems. Alfredo Bonanno is an anarchist, who has been involved in the movement for decades, militant in the resistance against the dictatorship of the Greek colonels (1967-1974), and writer and editor of many works. We demand the immediate liberation of Alfredo Maria Bonanno. Solidarity initiative to Alfredo M. Bonanno". (For more news, see 325.nostate.net )

The new adress of the two prisoners is:

DIKASTIKES FILAKES KORYDALLOS
T.K. 18110
ATHENS
GREECE

***

Photo: Tractors block the border crossing Kulata-Promahon, at the Greek-Bulgarian border, for the 3rd week in a row, resulting in kilometers-long lines of trucks and cars. Photo by BGNES via Novinite

Lysistrata ou La maîtresse du nœud

Le commissaire: Ah oui ? C'est avec des écheveaux de laine et des fuseaux que vous comptez dénouer des embarras inextricables ? Pauvres écervelées !

Lysistrata: Oui-da ! Et c'est vous, si vous aviez un peu de cervelle, qui appliqueriez à toute la politique les recettes que nous avions pour nos affaires de laine ! (571 ff.)

(Trad. Victor-Henry Debidour)

***

Ratsherr: Nach der Wolle-, Knäuel- und Spindelmethode glaubt ihr mit schwierigen Angelegenheiten fertig zu werden ? Ihr habt wirklich keinen Verstand !

Lysistrate: Hättet ihr nur etwas Verstand, würdet ihr mit allen Staatsgeschäften umgehen wie wir mit der Wolle. (571 ff.)

(Übers. Niklas Holzberg)

La Liberté guidant le peuple (1)

From Bien dégagé derrière les oreilles !

Letter by Vassilis Palaeokostas

From libcom:

Vassilis Palaeokostas, Greece's legendary fugitive social bandit and helicopter jailbreaker, offers a penetrating critique of power and servitude from the deep underground.

On Sunday 31/1/10 Eleftherotypia, the liberal left greek daily, published the first ever letter to come from the hand of Vassilis Palaeokostas, greece's legendary social bandit whose double jailbreak from Koridalos prison with a helicopter has made him a symbol of freedom. The letter comes on the eve of the trial of the Milonas case, relating to the abduction of north greece's richest industrialist and head of the industrial board two years ago. Two anarchists/ revolutionaries, Polykarpos (Polys) Georgiadis, and Vagelis Chrisochoidis are sitting on trial accused as accomplishes of the fugitive Palaeokostas ("providing refuge"). It must be noted that V. Palaeokostas is accused of bank robberies during which no one has ever been harmed, including cops. He and his brother Nikos (also a legendary social bandit) are reputed for helping the poor in the destitute rural areas of mountainous greece. They form a living continuation of the social banditry that flourished during the Ottoman Empire and the first 100 years of the greek state and are subjects of solidarity by the anarchist movement. The translation of the letter is based on the one provided by rioter.info, with some linguistic corrections:

"On the occasion of the upcoming trial on the kidnapping of the industrialist G. Mylonas, that begins on Tuesday February 2, I would like to clarify certain issues. Through different periods of my life I have been a first line fugitive, nearly 12 years in total an escapee (I hope there’s more of that coming) and 8 years a prisoner. During all those years that I have lived hunted by the official state, there has not been even one snitch [Denunziant] to deliver me to the hands of my prosecutors. Even though, during my first escape in August 1991, there was a large reward for that, from the - generous to snitches - Greek state. On the contrary, I met people with truth, honor in their words, and dignity. People that opened their door for me, provided cover and help, often without even minding the risk they took for themselves. People that helped me in hard times for me (as in a prison escape) endangering their own lives, people that prove that in this country there aren’t only resigned, submissive fellows, but also many (so many I am surprised) people that honor the traditions of honor and solidarity to the hunted. Proud people that despise snitching, servitude and the constable [use of word for the police current under the junta]. I publicly express my gratitude to all those remarkable persons for their valuable help and for giving me the joy of having met them. Two of them are Vaggelis Chrisohoides and Polys Georgiades, each one of them stood by me in his own way, at the time I needed them, without expecting personal gains, but only acted upon their conscience. Declaring my solidarity to these two young men, who the state strangles everyday knowing their only "crime" was their solidarity to the hunted, I would expect to see for once the magnitude the Republic of Greece takes prides in. Because its pettiness I consider myself more than competent to describe: it’s an Abyss. I will say nothing more. I only address those that care to retain some garment of justice and dignity. And everyone should do what his sense of honor and his conscience tells him to do.

On 4/14/09, afternoon around 20:00 while driving on the central coastal road of Alepohori, suddenly three cars blocked my way and another two stuck on the back of my own car. Among them was a black Audi A4, a Peugot Rally and an Opel Athens Taxi. Each one of them with three persons (15 in total), all in plain clothes. All of them got instantaneously out, pointing at me, the drivers with H&K MP5 sub-machine guns with double cartridge, nad the other with Glock and H&K U.S.P semi-automatic handguns. I instantly understood these armed mercenaries of the Greek state where on a prowl for blood. This same moment on my right, through an invisible from the main road, alley, comes another car with the driver standing aghast and stopping on the crossroad with the main road. Without second though I turned the wheels right and let it rip. Slightly hitting the other car (given the alley could barely take my jeap), I got right in the alley without knowing where it gets to. From my initial speeding to getting 20-30 meters in the alley, bullets where dancing on my car’s cabin. Those guys opened fire with their machine guns and handguns aiming right at me (the only thing undamaged was my car’s tires). From my considerable experience in intense conditions, I am more than certain that they shot more than 150 bullets in 15 seconds (the whole scene didn’t last any longer). Most probably, some of them also found the unwary civilian’s car, while he was inside it. These unscrupulous, blind shooters of the Greek Police where determined to carry out fully the order they had take from their natural and political leaders. Trace and kill. In this case, they can blame their bad luck, since luck is female and cares for the daring [transl. see latin: "Fortuna favet fortibus" - "Das Glück ist mit den Mutigen"].

The reason I refer to this incident is to show the contemptible way the Mass Media report such cases. The car I was riding and left 100 meters from the scene, because the alley was a dead-end, was full of bullets. This fact was not reported and the car never appeared anywhere, it magically disappeared. Just like the other car (hit and possibly riddled with bullet holes), together with its misfortunate owner, the only witness that actually took part in the scene, without his will of course, watching the whole thing from start to end.

So, instead of inquiring all these important facts to show what exactly happened in that scene, the daring and ingenious reporters of the Greek Mass Media gathered inside the room I was living in, and in exclusive reporting were waving around my unwashed underpants, informing by means of flaming howls the uncomfortable, ignorant, petrified tv-viewer. This fact clearly reveals the "journalist community’s" will to silence and cover-up, which essentially consents to the criminal activity of police desperados and those who give them orders, in full cooperation with them. "We will allow you to enter the house for an exclusive report, but you ‘ll keep your mouth shut about everything else". Such was the filthy deal between the two sides. The media would get their money, since underpants are worth more in their stockmarket of values than the life of their owner. As long as he is "notorious". And finally, who cares about how the police acts? If the police and its leadership holds that a man must be killed just because he is wanted, why should we disagree? They brag: whenever we need information, the police’s head officer obliges. While, the hunted man has no phone. And even if he has one, it will be turned off or without a signal. This is the way our daring and independant journalists think. My congratulations, the future belongs to you. May I suggest the two organizations, police and media, could even integrate in one, for functional reasons. It’s both innovative and carries many advantages. Then, it won’t be for nothing that you elected a police correspondent as president of ESIEA (journalists-editors union). If only these ingenious reporters, showed the same eagerness they manifested towards my underpants, for performing a diligent control [on the state i.e. the supposed role of the media according to the constitution], denouncing to the Greek citizens that:

* 13.000 humans are in a state of captivity (under the pretext of illegality), subjected along with their families to total exploitation by the official state. Who after passing the symplegades [deadly clashing rocks in the Argonauts myth] of a corrupt police and an even worst justice system, end up with heavy penalties in medieval conditions, by which this rotten system strives to control and then annihilate whatever dares to make a mockery of it.

* The armed guardians of the Greek state kill in cold-blood citizens (preferably the young) in the middle of the street, in front of the citizen’s own eyes. Humiliating and torturing to death people in the police stations. Setting up wilfully indictments sending “guilty” humans in jail for years. Setting a whole network of criminal activities not controlled by anyone.

* If they really cared to exercise some control over the modern Pirates of the political system, that helped by the gimmickery of the election system and the blessings of the Mass Media take over the Parliament, turning it into the headquarters of full domination on their voters citizens. Into a nest of intertwining interests, dealing transactions, bribes. Into a “terrorist hideout” where the loots from pillaging are divided around. A loot every citizen dares to question, becoming an obstacle in their plans will feel upon him the brutal democratic violence of a blood-thirsty repressive organization. He will feel the revengefulness, the revanchism, and the deep hatred the Greek state has for all those that rejected the status of an obidient citizen that understand his personal liberty as a necessity to do what he’s told to, but remain human with free will and claim an opinion on what’s going on around them with their own actions.

* If they revealed the great responsibility of this criminal organization for the establishment of a police state in Greece, through which they exercise an unbearable psychological violence to the citizen with hundreds of road blocks with cops armed-to-the-teeth with “survivor”-style weaponry, and the same menacing, numb look they had back in the junta days. The thousands of policemen one faces wherever he turns the eye (not to count the undercover ones). The dozens of head-hunters that prowl the mountains acting on their own taste, reminding of the begining of the 20th century, though with a modern name.

* If they denounce these and innumerable other things that de facto cancel the "social state" and "justice state" notions, as their role supposes, then today’s regime, they eagerly guard and name democracy, would be incomparably more humain, qualitative, and certainly more just.

You ‘d now say I am not the most adequate person to give recommendations, even less for matters of the regime. That’s correct. In the place democracy was born, they can do whatever they want with her [i.e. democracy], even burry her if they so wish. It’s a good thing to die in the place you where born. But, they shouldn’t feel angry when the kids throw stones to her. They see her old and rotten, it’s stones she’s gonna get. Primitive as they might be, these insticts are unmistakable. Because the kids are more honest and upstanding than the grown-ups. Nobody would want to grow up just to find a dead body in the closet that his parents have been hiding so as to exploit her pension. They desire something more than a body in formol, and be sure they ‘re gonna get it, no matter how many dreads you put in their street.

On what concerns me, it is my absolute belief and surely of thousands others conscious people, that the damage caused to the social body by one shiny tv-presenter in a single news bulletin (preferably the 8 o’ clock one), cannot be equaled by me even if they give me 10 lives to spare. What’s the damage my old shot-gun [transl. use of term for 18th to early 19th century guns of the mountain bandits and guerrillas]. I have never turned it against an other human, much less against another human’s mind. Now my question is why it is I with my old shot-gun the prosecuted one who risks his life at the hands of an enraged death-squad, while my judges and my hunters are those who with their lucrative superweapons degenerate and sterilize the spirit of a whole people, leading them to mental necrosis. a On second thoughts maybe the law on weapons should change. Whoever holds an old shot-gun should be prosecuted for a capital offence!!!

Now, since it’s the first time I intervene with a public statement, I wouldn’t want it to end in a dispiriting way. So, let me add an allegoric enigma-quiz, I find it won’t trouble you much to solve. What is the name, of a deputy sheriff of some mountainous and remote village of Utah, USA, overjoyed to his award winning by the FBI, for heroically and always risking his life arrested and gave to justice some dangerous elements to the order of his village? Who, apart of that precious award, also fed the ambition to have his triumphous achievement turn into a big Hollywood move, with George Clooney acting as him, something that pissed off his american patrons so that they exiled him, reducing him to the ranks of minister of “Citizens Protection” of some independent Balkan state. Who, to my exclusive information keeps fantacising about and anxiously sweeping for new "troublemakers"!

To make it even easier for you, I can also add some of his favorite words: Democracy, Revolutionary Fund, Ghetto, Communicating Vessels, Destabilization, Zero Tolerance, Organized Crime, They will be arrested and prosecuted. He is also a devoted fan of snitching and loves "rats" and his hobbies include setting prices for the heads of wanted. Keeping in mind though, that one of his many qualities is revanchism, I come to clarify that any similarity to real persons or events is totally unintended. Every police reporter that solves the quiz, enters a lottery for an exclusive interview.

My militant regards to all those that don’t surrender the weapons the chose to fight with, for the life they dream of.

PS. Some oil guys, they do rust.

signature and fingerprint Vassilis Palaeokostas”

On Vanity

"In jedem Land, in dem Eitelkeit herrscht, wird der Geschmack an erste Stelle gesetzt werden, weil er die Klassen voneinander trennt und ein Erkennungszeichen unter den Individuen einer Klasse ist."

Madame de Staël, De L'Allemagne, herausgegeben von der Gräfin Jean de Pange, née Broglie, Band II, Hachette, Paris 1958, Seite 217

(Dt. Übers. nach Nicos Hadjinicolaou, Die Freiheit führt das Volk von Eugène Delacroix - Sinn und Gegensinn, a. d. Französischen von Gisela Kubel und Susanne Wallmann, Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1991, Seite 14)

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Foto: Piz Kesch (3418 M.ü.d.M.), Albula-Alpen, Graubünden, Schweiz, via Umblätterer

Uni-Besetzungen in den Niederlanden

Auch aus den Niederlanden werden jetzt Hochschulproteste gemeldet. So besetzten am 1. Februar hunderte AktivistInnen Universitätsgebäude oder Hörsäle in Utrecht, Amsterdam und Rotterdam, um gegen die Ökonomisierung der Bildungseinrichtungen zu demonstrieren. Demonstrationen gab es auch in Delft und Nijmwegen.

An der Universität Utrecht, der größten niederländischen Hochschule, wurde das Rektorat (Board of Directors Building) besetzt. Auslöser der Aktion ist hier vor allem der Plan der Universitätsleitung, die Printausgabe der Universitätszeitung einzustellen. Gleichzeitig fordern die StudentInnen stärkere Mitwirkungsrechte bei der Verwaltung der Universität, die Rücknahme diverser Sparmaßnahmen und ein "Mea Culpa" des niederländischen Wissenschaftsministers Ronald Plasterk für Versäumnisse in seiner Amtszeit.

http://studentenprotestutrecht.wordpress.com/

http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2010/02/65068.shtml

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