The surveillance scandal which was "revealed" in Greece is actually nothing new. The new fact is that it is coming to confirm with the most loud way that the "Big Brother", the surveillance police state society in other words, consists a necessary condition and not an error of the global established regime.

The media were shocked and they are still playing the story, mainly because among the list of the 100 tapped mobile phone numbers there were the personal mobiles numbers of ministers, other state employees and of the prime minister himself. Of course the continuous play of this scandal by the mainstream media and the state has another purpose: To hide the fact that the surveillance against society, either through phone taping or through surveillance cameras or even through "secret" agents or civil cops, didn?t began before the Olympics and it will not finish now with this "revelation" as long as there are exploited and exploiters. Whoever is surprised by such "news" is either unable to understand the social and class war that is going on, or he is on the side of the authority.

All these tapped mobile numbers belong to the Vodafone multinational company and it was "revealed" that the surveillance began a few months before the Olympic Games. The installation of the spy software was done in the software of Vodafone?s main servers, and the Vodafone antennas which were used for spying are located around the region of the USA embassy in Athens (see the following graphics).

On the same moment the Overseas Security Advisory Council that operates in the USA embassy of Athens is declaring openly its purpose of existence (http://www.osac.gov/about/mission.cfm) and continues to monitor the activities of the social resistance movement and especially the anarchists (http://athens.osac.gov/).

In the list of the tapped phones there were the names of four comrades from the Antiauthoritarian Movement: Grigoris Tsilimantos, Argiris Mouratidis, Attila Ihtiar and Marina Meintani (who used to be a member of the antiauthoritarian newspaper "Babylonia"). We have already expressed our opinion about this case on a previous communique which you can see here.

Last Thursday 9/02/2006 a demonstration was called by trade unions, political and social organisations, against surveillances and "Big Brother" type of society. We participated by forming a block in this demonstration.

The march began from the Aristotelous Square and passed from the USA embassy, UK embassy and finished at the local Ministry.

At the moment the demonstration started the protestors tried to destroy a surveillance camera of the police, by attempting to throw down the 12-meter-high pylon on which the CCTV was attached.

Immediately the police attacked with a few riot police squads and a new type of chemical which causes dizziness and disorientation. The demonstrators clashed with the riot cops and the attack was blocked successfully allowing the march to continue, even if the attempt to destroy the CCTV was unsuccessful. No arrests took place and there was one injured riot cop. Later, on the way, a Vodafone store was spray painted.

On the same day a similar demonstration took place in Athens as well.

We have already said, and we declare it once more that the real sense of this case is that the parasites of authority, who live by exploiting society and by assaulting the social fighters, must receive a response by the community of all who are part of the social struggles, a response by the people who don?t compromise and refuse to sell out their existence and dignity to the mechanisms of authority, to the bosses and to the state. In this category belong the three imprisoned social fighters P. Aspiotis, P. Karasarinis and G. Kalaitzidis, and we will continue to struggle for their final release.

. . . the struggle goes on . . .

VIDEO:
Protestors clash with riot cops in order to safeguard the march.
Previous direct actions against police surveillance cameras in Thessaloniki:
(11/09/2004, 17/11/2005)

DIGNITY - SOLIDARITY- RESISTANCE

AGAINST THE "BIG BROTHER" POLICE STATE

Greece, 10/02/06
Antiauthoritarian Movement (Assembly of Thessaloniki)

PS: see Athens Indymedia report here.