London, UK - Alpha Bank shut down in solidarity with Simos Seisidis. Anyone who defends a bank is a cop or an idiot
In a flash, as two huge banners were unfolded, two comrades entered the bank, disturbing the pompous atmosphere of rich clients, secretaries and managers going about their dirty business. The latter were rooted to the spot as the two moved around shouting ‘Freedom to Simos Seisidis!’, ‘The banks are the real terrorists’, etc, throwing leaflets and replicas of banknotes in their faces.
When they left the bank the doors were immediately locked shut and the comrades outside blocked them further with their banners. Leaflets were handed out to passersby, mainly bank staff in smart clothing. Suddenly, out of the blue, the pavement was invaded by a class of French school kids on an organised trip to London. They immediately recognised the encircled A on the banner and started yelling “Vive l’anarchie!” in unison with some of the comrades. An indescribable moment, these beautiful high-pitched children’s voices screaming with joy as they battled to take leaflets and ‘banknotes’. For an instant, a flash of brilliant light illuminated the heart of darkness. The teacher then appeared to see what was going on, took a leaflet saying it would be the topic of the next lesson, and they went on their way. The bank was shut down for about half an hour.
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The next stop was a nearby flyover, an excellent spot to hang the banners in full view of the passing traffic and surrounding office blocks. Groups of shady figures in posh suits could be seen peering through many of the windows. Leaflets were handed out to curious pedestrians. At the end of this small but passionate demonstration, just as everybody was setting off, a posse of City of London cops trussed up in absurd gear emerged from a shiny blue vehicle. Nobody was in a mood for arguing and we continued on our way, stimulated by these moments to stay alive and to hell with the prison society and its guardians. ‘Whose streets, our streets’ is not just a slogan on a demo. From the exclusive zones of the powerful to ‘the slums of London’ it’s time to make our presence felt any day, any time, to show our disdain for our enemies and find our accomplices.
On the 16th of January 2006, following a robbery of the National Bank of Greece in Solonos street, in Athens, anarchist Yannis Dimitrakis was arrested; under a terror-hysteria climate formed by the media, three of his comrades were picked out and targeted by the persecuting authorities as accomplices of Yannis, but also as members of the imaginary gang of ‘’Robbers in Black’’. They were accused for this very robbery in addition to six other robberies. Not expecting to find any trace of justice within the delirium of terror-lust by the state of media, comrades Simos Seisidis, Marios Seisidis and Grigoris Tsironis, chose the difficult path of clandestinity.
What followed over the next four years did nothing more than confirm that they had made the right choice. Meanwhile, Yannis put on trial and initially convicted to the corrosive sentence of 35 years, despite the collapse of the ‘’Robbers in Black’’ scenario and his acquittal for the rest of the robberies. The media carried out an orgy of misinformation targeting the three fugitives; ‘’photographing’’ them as suspects concerning many severe criminal acts that were taking place occasionally. Arrest warrants were issued in order to put the responsibility on the three comrades for some other unsolved cases; trials that were parodies of justice were carried out unbeknown to them. And as if all this was not enough, a bounty of 600.000euro was put on their heads by the infamous minister of public order M. Chrisohoidis, who eventually succeeded in transforming the streets of Athens into the Wild West; full of heavily armed sheriffs shooting anything that moves…
Unfortunately, on the 3rd of May 2010, Simos fell upon a blockade of such wild sheriffs. In his attempt to run away, he was shot in the back by policeman P. Bokos and even though he was bleeding profusely, he was being beaten relentlessly. We cannot know if cops’ behaviour was because that’s how they act whenever someone runs away or because they recognised Simos from the hundreds of photos hanging on the walls of police stations all over the country. In the first case, they are sick criminals, dangerous for public safety… in the second case they are hit-men that were sent to kill deliberately, following very specific orders from above.
Under the most dreadful conditions imaginable, two months of hospitalization followed; the anti-terrorist forces invaded his room and imposed their presence at both KAT and Evagellismos hospitals. Sadly, the doctors and nursing stuff in the majority of cases followed their orders blindly. As a result of all this, Simos’ right leg was amputated.
On the 30th of March 2011 Simos’ trial for the robbery in Solonos street began, with the only probative evidence the testimonies by two, manipulated by the state, witnesses. On the 5th of May 2011anarchist Simos was declared innocent by all the judges, but despite the acquitting decision related to all the robberies, Simos was taken back to jail with the twisted accusation of attempted murder of the cop that shot him from behind.
FREEDOM NOW FOR SIMOS SEISIDIS
What is the crime of robbing a bank compared with the crime of founding one.
Banks: financial institutions at the base of the world economic system. It is they that allow the economy to run, in ‘good’ as well as in ‘bad’ times. Does this mean that they are useful to us? Because they are certainly useful, if not indispensable, to those in the high ranks of power, the corporations, the tycoons, arms traders, politicians engaged in electoral campaigns, and so on.
But are they also useful to us, to all those who do not belong to the above mentioned categories? They are not! It is exactly ordinary people who work, buy commodities and borrow money that make it possible for banks to run their dirty business and increase the amount of finance to be dispensed to big companies, which in turn benefit the billionaires and the corporations. It is through bank accounts, debit and credit cards, loans etc that banks operate, financing all sorts of activities that are devastating to life on this planet. They render possible exploitation on a global level, always ready to invest in the lowest labour costs resulting in millions of people toiling like slaves to fill the high street shops and supermarkets with gadgets, sweatshop produced fashion garments and food exported under the eyes of starving deliberately indebted populations. They finance predatory projects of eco-devastation in all the corners of the earth, provide arms producers with the means necessary to fabricate deadly weapons (and blackmail impoverished countries into buying them), sustain the looting of natural resources, the list could go on for ever.
In a system based on economic forces and the eternal need to extract profit at whatever cost to life be it individuals or entire nations, the banks and the stock exchange are major players in provoking famine, desertification, social deprivation, individual suicide and generalised misery. These are simple truths that can easily be seen by everybody, you do not need to be a radical or have subversive ideas in order to clearly see the role of banks in the misery of the majority of people.
The current ‘economic crisis’, which is manifesting itself with increased prices of essential goods and cuts to all social services, is once again weighing on the poorest in society. It is the poorest who are being called upon to make sacrifices and endure deliberately planned poverty and social isolation to pay for this crisis, which is mainly the result of irresponsible financial transactions (if any ‘responsible’ financial transaction ever existed) operated on a global scale and whose main protagonists are the banks the world over, all of which interact, lending and borrowing their spoils between them and when they fuck up, calling on their henchmen, the State, to extort money from the population to bail them out. There is no such thing as a ‘good’ bank or an ‘ethical bank’. The very existence of a bank is unethical, immoral and anti-life. Over and above that, banks continue to pay out bonuses of hundreds of thousands of pounds to their directors and staff, even if we hear politicians talking of ‘regulation’ of the financial system. There is no such regulation because banks are there to maintain their role as robbers of poor people’s money. Just to make the economy function.
All this considered, to rob a bank is an ethically acceptable and responsible act. Who robs a bank is just taking back (at great risk to his own safety) what has been stolen from him or her. In this respect, if we were all to become bank robbers we would just be taking some of our life back. Social cuts will not take us out of the crisis. If we want to survive the ‘crisis’ and avoid a life of misery and submission we must destroy the banks, refusing to pay when we are asked to.
Most of the population of the planet have been paying for centuries for a world they do not want. The hour has come to destroy the monster that has been generated from what has been stolen from everyone by the thieving mafia known as banks and fight for a life no longer wasted producing and consuming fictitious ‘needs’. A world without bossses or slaves, prisons or banks (which are interdependent) in which dull work and exploitation give way to creativity and play. Time is running out. Nothing will grow from the toxic ashes of this death-orientated society. The new world already exists in embryon, in the elsewhere of indivual or collective acts of life -inspiring devilry.
BANKS ARE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, THOSE WHO MAKE THEM FUNCTION ARE TERRORISTS IN THE TRUE SENSE OF THE WORD
FOR THE SABOTAGE OF THE EXISTENT BY ALL THOSE WHO ARE NOT AFRAID TO REJECT DOOM-STRICKEN SECURITY AND VENTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN.
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