text of the assembly about the police invasion of 22-10 in ASOEE university and the arrests:

On Tuesday 22/10 the cops attacked once again the ASOEE university because they wanted to damage the trade that we do outside of the school. The minister of development Notis Mitarakis and TV channels were outside the university together with the cops. Journalists from the TV channel ALPHA were  near  ASOEE from 9am and we suppose that they were informed of the operation of the police, because it took place at 11am. Finally, they didn’t seem to be pleased by how things happened and TV channels didn’t show anything that day. The cops entered the school yard and surrounded it and they allowed only students to enter. They wanted to go inside the buildings and they arrested everyone who seemed to be foreign. On 9/5/2012,when the cops had made a similar operation at ASOEE, they arrested a world know Indian professor, who was invited by the university!

Hundreds of students were gathered at the school yard, they sang slogans and they demanded the police to leave. The cops remained about an hour at the yard and eventually not only failed to invade the buildings but they were driven out of the school by the students. However, they arrested 4 immigrants in totally different places around the school and while no clash had taken place, they accused them (as usual) for resistance against the authorities and attempting to cause serious bodily harm.

At noon of the same day, a general assembly of students decided to occupy the school until Thursday 24/10 and to make a protest march against the invasion of cops and for solidarity to the 4 arrested immigrants. The protest march took place in the afternoon near the neighbourhood.  On 24/10 the four detainees were led to court, where regular day of trial was set for 31/10. On 30/10 the cops tried again to create an aura of terror by surrounding ASOEE and they remained in the wider area for about three hours, while they threw a few tear gases. The next day in court the case of  four immigrants was not heard and the trial was suspended for 10/12. The thing that is the most frustrating of all is that while from the first time on 24/10, the court had decided that the 4 immigrants will be released until the trial, on the contrary they remain detained until today.

This situation makes us feel angry but it doesn’t surprise us, because we know that many inhabitants of this country, the immigrants, are estimated from the state as second-class people. Too many racist administration laws define their lives to such an extent that there is a serious chance for them to be transported to the other side of the world, or to the detention centres all over Greece. On every occasion the cops and their political superiors advertise this policy, so as we get used to the submission and degradation of our lives. The detention of immigrants without official identities for 12 to 18 months is supposed to be a special case of the law, but however it is the rule since the decision is made by the police.  Apart from the special administrative measures which impose the deprivation of liberty only for immigrants, there are also special provisions that give the additional capability to the cops to exclude any immigrant (with or without official identity) even from these administrative laws, and to consider him as a “danger to public safety or public health”. They can even decide to remove his identity, confine him for eighteen months in a concentration camp and deport him. In other words, the police can arrest an immigrant, accuse him for whatever they want (as they very well know how to do) and then decide that this arrest makes him “a danger to public order or security of the country” and therefore lead him to detention and deportation. And in case of appeal against this decision, responsible to judge is again the police…Even if these measures are not enough, the police have the political support and cover to continue an illegal, unjustified and vindictive detention, without any written decision, as it is the case of the detainees of 22/10.

The attack that the cops made at ASOEE is not irrelevant to our everyday life. The state and the cops run after us everyday. The fascists with their cover move freely and attack in our neighbourhoods. The bosses do whatever they want with us, because for them it is like we are inferior people. We all remember the shots against immigrants labourers in Manolada. They want us to be afraid in order to remain harmless and quiet in our homes. Otherwise we expect operations of massive round-ups know as “Xenios Dias”, detention centres and expulsions. In the neighbourhoods where we live the police patrols are very often, the TV channels talk about us and the government implements new laws, while it makes new detention centres. They say all the time that we “take their jobs” but it is the state that reduces the salaries, it eliminates pensions and destroys public health and education. The state knows that its policy is too extreme and chooses to terrorize the people and create an aura of fear for immigrants and all those who struggle.

The aim of the attack at ASOEE was not only to frighten us, but also to make us stop what we are doing here. For us the trade outside the university is the only way in order to earn the money that we need to live, to pay the rent, the food and our bills. We want to work so as to be able to live with dignity. The state does not care about the trade that we are doing, but it attacks us because we have chosen to stand all together and feel equal.

The only solution for us is to find ways to live and act together against the difficulties we face and all those that will come. We fight against any discrimination of race, sex, color, we stand together and united against any kind of brutality and we are making the foundations for the world we want to live in. All together immigrants and natives, we fight against racism and poverty they are trying to impose.

RESISTANCE- SELF ORGANISATION- SOLIDARITY

COMMON STRUGGLES OF LOCALS & MIGRANTS

Assembly of immigrants and solidarians at ASOEE

on Thursdays at 19:00, ASOEE (76 Patission Av.)