Inter Arma received and translated: STARTING…
Today, 12/04, I am on the 30th day of hunger strike. In these 30 days 0f hunger strike I’ve lost 13 pounds, sugar and pressure levels are at breaking point and I had some fainting episodes. The possibility, after a proposal from the doctors, of me being transferred to a hospital is open in the following days. So, I declare that my hunger strike will continue there too and I make it now clear that it will not accept serum and I do not allow doctors administer it to me even if I fall into a coma. The responsibility for my life is mine alone. The responsibility, however, for my imprisonment falls exclusively on the judges Lyga, Panagiotakopoulou, Stergoudi, Zografou and on my 39 co-defendants.
All this time I consciously chose not to speak my mind with a second personal text, since the demands of other hunger strikes that had started before me were not satisfied at all. So I only published some updates on the state of my health. Besides, anyone who wanted to know what was going on, was able to find out.
All this time my 39 co-defendants, rather than trying to contain their humiliation they have engaged in a cheap game of impressions, online comments and texts filled with lies, while others have chosen the tactic of the ostrich.
So, I have to answer in public, since all these people are trying to present a completely falsifying view on several events.
SOME THINGS THAT MUST BE ANSWERED
1. “He began a hunger strike while other hunger strikes were in progress”
For me such a question shouldn’t be raised, simply because my imprisonment coincided with the other hunger strikes of political prisoners which were in progress, in the same period. Let the comrades with good intentions ask themselves, who the one of the two organizers of the solidarity event held at the University of Athens (Gini building) four days before my arrest in response to the hunger strikes which were in progress since then, was.
2. “He disrespects and devalues hunger strike as a means of struggle”
The fact that I choose the means of the hunger strike is my issue and no other’s. I put my body on the line, not theirs. Did I have to ask the “movement” or the management team of Indymedia first? One’s respect for the means of hunger strike is displayed by the fact of being on a real hunger strike or not. Besides, I did not require from any assembly to support me and I in fact asked already for my case to be separated from the other hunger strikes which are or were in progress.
3. “Due to the hunger strike of Stratoulis , all the defendants were acquitted of charges of criminal organization”
This is something that does not apply in any way. The entire case file was generally a poorly set up and created case. Already from the first days of the arrests, it was obvious that this (criminal organization) would not stand. Especially on the issue of the criminal organization, there had been many discussions with lawyers, who said that this could not substantiate for too many reasons. I say this because the anarchist squat Nadir has another case – first invasion in the anarchist squat Nadir in December 2010- regarding criminal organization, so I was familiar with this issue since then.
4. “He wasn’t interested in the trial, he didn’t contact us”
Then what was the communication with lawyers and several of my co-defendants during the trial? I went so far as to publish an open letter so that it noone could say that he did not know. What I was told by everyone I spoke to, I’ve mentioned again.
5. so that it noone could say that he did not know. What I was told by everyone I spoke to, I’ve mentioned again.
My lawyer Ragkousis Franciscos is an amazing man who for two years, from the first hours I was in counter-terrorism agency’s hands, has helped me sacrificing dozens of hours on the “Phoenix” case which is on trial for 11 months. He has conflicted too many times with the cops of the counter-terrorism agency on my behalf during the trial, he has dedicated hours for court hearings and the man who did all this, did so at great personal cost. So in this trial too, he did all those actions needed, realizing the seriousness of the situation.
6. “Only he and the cops reported the inner-movement ruptures”
My position on this issue is very clear and it’s reflected fully in my testimony to the investigating persecutor. There I mention that: “Obviously there were inner-movement ruptures but they never happened in a violent or criminal way”. But apparently, and this is something known, in the war of impressions that some have chosen, the twisting of everything is a very popular method of them.
7. “The most telephone calls that exist in the case file are his”
My view on the telephone talks for which I am accused by the cops is very specific and it is reflected in my testimony to the investigating persecutor. In summary then, there I claim that I not the one charged by the cops as the speaker on calls regarding criminal actions and also that I do not accept the wiretapping as an evidence for making a case. How do you now come and tell me that these phone conversations are mine? what the cops claim.
8. “He is on ahunger strike to blackmail his co-defendants”
Unfortunately this is the first time there is an anarchist prisoner on hunger strike because of both the State and the anti-authoritarian movement. Still I do not understand the reasoning according to which I want to go on a hunger strike to blackmail my co-defendants. The hunger strike has started since the beginning with filing a document to the Ministry of Justice where I demand my release. However, my 39 co-defendants could pay the bail in order for me to be released. This probably justifies the fact that they feel blackmailed, since although the claim to be anarchists, they are partly responsible for my imprisonment for one month now. I also imagine that the persons among them who feel blackmailed the most, are those who had been in prison or were fugitives in the past. For them, the shame is double.
9. “The case of Stratoulis”
Although I do not want to further occupy myself, especially now, with this individual, however many questions are raised. Like for example, how easily is a junkie proclaimed a fighter, with what ease are criminal prisoners celebrated when dozens of imprisoned anarchists of all tensions are found in Greek prisons, when will some people learn from the past since during the last decade in many cases, the respective criminal prisoners disappointed their solidarians sooner or later. With such people, not only comradely but also friendly relations have to be dealt with great caution.
FOR THE END…
The ease with which the 39 defendants raise indifferently their shoulders saying “let him die in prison…” is tragic and the indifference shown by the comrades who have not isolated such people who call themselves anarchists yet, ridiculing the essence of anarchy, is provokative. Such tumbling and such cowardice I have not seen before.
For the “hangouts of Thessaloniki”, I have to say that you are cheap because your answer was a false text, especially since I was in 15th day of hunger strike.
For the former members of Nadir, I have to say that you are clowns and that no match for the situation because not only didn’t you try to rectify your mistakes but you launched threats instead, especially when I have helped many of you in many cases. And something else. Normality is not only the shops and the alternative lifestyle but can as easily be the Mohawk haircuts, the fly jackets and the punk attitude. Whatever is not converted to an attack against power, rots and becomes assimilated. This is what happened to you. All of you, the 39 co-defendants did the biggest political mistake that someone in the anarchist-antiauthoritarian movement could make. Now all the 39 of you, are not separated by much, instead you share a common moral code.
PS. I thank the comrades who have supported me with their texts and the comrades who remembered me during their night wanderings.
HUNGER STRIKE UNTIL THE END – FURY AND CONSCIENCE
Spyros Mandylas – anarcho-nihilist
member of the assembly of Anarchist Hangout Nadir
12/4/2015