Thodoros Iliopoulos: An interview

#70 | Thodoros Iliopoulos: An interview
Saturday, August 15, 2009 http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/page/2/

    “How long? Not long. Cause what you reap, is what you sow” (RATM)

The interview that follows was conducted by Ntina Daskalopoulou and
published in an Athens daily this morning. It is translated and
posted here as is: with no comments, additions or explanations – none
is needed. After 36 days on hunger strike, Thodoros’ words are
crystal clear. In his face, the State has found an enemy to unleash
all its revanchist rage, some rage in reality directed against an
ever-growing current of disobedience, resistance and solidarity. As
long as there are people like Thodoros standing up to the wrath of
the State, the next December will always be close. In the struggle
against their order, Thodoros is not alone — trans.

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    “I took a stance for December and I am now faced with the
State’s reprisal”

    - Thodoros Iliopoulos

Eight months in pre-trial detention for December’s events, the last
one also on hunger strike. His anticipated release in July never
came, the theatre of the absurd of the charges against him continued
and Thodoris remains incarcerated. But a fighter. This time, his
“weapon” is his own body. He spoke to us over the phone from the
prison of Korydallos. From there he sees the revanchist face of the
State, that Greece of violence and repression but also another Greece
of the restless youth, of the faith in ideals. Insisting on his
innocence and his own beliefs. Paying dearly for both.

I hear his voice with intermissions from the loudspeakers blasting
orders to the prisoners of Korydallos. He is extremely polite,
low-pitched, strong within his weakness. Now fragile, but determined,
in the middle of August, the month with no news, he fights the
struggle for his freedom with the only weapon he has left: His own
body. For more than one month now (trans: 36 days), the only
remaining prisoner of December is on hunger strike. Despite having
lost 12 kilos, having low pressure and suffering hypoglycaemic
shocks, and although his doctors insist that he can now suffer
irreversible damages, the prison administration refuses to transfer
him to hospital. Thodoris Iliopoulos declares his innocence. A
hostage.

- The state prosecutes you for legal offenses, felonies and
misdemeanors, and considers you so dangerous that will not release
you under restrictive terms. How do you feel about this?

“From December 18 I found myself being a protagonist in this theatre
of the absurd. They arrested me together with others en mass, as I
was walking down Akadimias Street with some friends. Five riot police
units surrounded around ten of us. I started running and two of them
caught up with me, they threw me on the pavement and started kicking
me in the head, screaming “now you’ll see what will happen to you”. I
had no idea what would happen to me. Finally, what happened was that
I found myself charged with three felonies. According to the
inquisitor, at the moment of my arrest I was outside the Law School
throwing molotov cocktails. The only witness account existing of this
is that of the two riot police who arrested me. When the inquisitor
asked them if they would recognise me on the street and they
responded positively, she put up her finger, showed me and said, “is
it him?” She exposed me herself! Of course, the riot police…
recognised me. From that point on they won’t release me because in
reality they need me as hostage. From the arrested only a few took a
stance for December. I’m not saying they were obliged to. I took a
stance and I am faced with the State’s reprisal.

- How did you experience the December events?

“My dad is on his final days and he is suffering from altsheimer and
my mom is 83 years old and cannot look after him. For this reason I
only made it to the streets twice, unfortunately. It was a very good
opportunity to discuss and to think, to offer solutions, to exchange
ideas. Some, with dubious interests, read the events with crocodile
tears, they weep for the disaster and the destruction. And yet
December gave birth to a different way of thinking and most
importantly, it took kids away from their playstations and internet
cafes. It is naive and unfair to say that the kids took to the
streets only to ease their rage. They were claiming their ideals and
their dreams”.

- What was your stance toward the State and what is it now?

“If I tell you, they’ll throw me in jail for life… I’m kidding. I
don’t want to assign any labels to myself, like anarchist or
anti-authoritarian. I am a visionary of direct democracy, of deciding
and acting together. During my teen years I was fascinated by the
philosophy of anarchism from Zenon to the cynics and all the way to
Enrico Malatesta. Even today, I remain fascinated by these. I am
struggling for a different world. Not with molotovs and stones, but
with ideas and texts. I am not the first nor the last to which the
state shows its revanchist face. What bothers them, what they repress
is not my action, but my stance and my ideas.  They charged me with
fabricated charges, they ignored the proofs I submitted of my
innocence. The issue, for the state, is that I insist on thinking.
And I think differently. In this sense, tomorrow morning you – or
anyone else – could find yourself in my position”.

- Do you now fear the country called Greece?

“No. It is frightening to walk down Akadimias street and then to find
yourself locked up in a cell for months, but I have such a great
desire to live that I am not afraid. And also, beyond the Greece of
repression and violence, I also see another Greece, that of a
restless youth, solidarity, faith in beliefs”.

- Why did you chose the hunger strike?

“When anyone commences a hunger strike, they should normally be
examined by a dentist – it is the teeth that get damaged first – and
a psychiatrist to prove that s/he is not suicidal. Although this did
not happen in my case, I want to assure you that I am not suicidal, I
do not at all want to die. Neither do I want to suffer some
irreversible damage that will leave me injured for the rest of my
life. Of course, as explained by my doctor, after the 30th day of
hunger strike the really serious problems begin, as some of your
vital organs can fail. But really, I have no other option left. My
body is my ultimate weapon.”

- Does the hunger strike flirt with death?

“Everything flirts with death. If you are a migrant, a visit to the
playground of Ayios Panteleimonas can automatically mean your death.
Or if you are a worker in a factory. Or if you are a cyclist in the
streets of Athens. A hunger strike can bring you a few steps toward
death, but closer to freedom. As the foreigner that I am in the
bosses’ world, as a worker, as a cyclist, I never feared death. As a
hunger striker I live with the hope of liberation, not with the fear
of death”.

- You are in love, you were preparing for your release in July and a
common house with your lover. What do you two say now?

“We spend endless hours talking everyday, she writes to me and I
write to her, we plan out our life. We are very close, we face this
as a team. The prison limits the freedom of the body, not your soul.
Each time we hang up she tells me venceremos. We are young, in love
and have so many beautiful things to live together. And we shall win”.

- What dreams do you have?

“In the beginning I had nightmares. With a daily struggle I managed
not only to eject anything that could destroy me, but also to have
dreams with power and joy. I have chosen to live creatively this
chapter in my life”.

- What did you learn in prison?

“Every prison is a miniature of the society. You see people convicted
of financial crimes who are interested in doing business even here,
all the way to child molesters. But you also see innocents, people
who had no money for a good lawyer or to pay their bail. Before
coming in here I was dogmatic about this, I thought that… it’s the
bad ones who are in prison. Yet in here you are forced to understand
that what is bad is subjective, to admit that anyone could be a
potential murderer under given circumstances.

“Everything is inside us. In prison you learn new codes and, most
importantly, to trust no-one. And some ways that help your life. Here
you live with the absolute minimum. What we consider rubbish outside,
is useful here. Who would ever know that in order to cover your
bookshelves with a curtain you would use burnt ear buttons instead of
glue?”

- How do your fellow prisoners treat you?

“Political prisoners were always treated with respect by the penal
ones, although I don’t want to make this distinction. We are all
imprisoned and we face the same problems. We as well, even if we are
political prisoners, face the penal code. My fellow prisoners support
me: Nikos Tsouvalakis went on hunger strike on the same day as me, in
solidarity. Other prisoners abstain from their meals. Most of them
support me with simple, everyday actions: They visit me in my cell,
they lend me books, they give up their place in the phone queue. ”

- What is your cell like?

“You are locked up 18 out of 24 hours in a space of maximum 8 square
meters, together with another 3 prisoners. The heating is
insufficient. Cockroaches and rats often make their appearance. The
toilets are in the basement with broken windows and cold water.”

- The prisoners say your biggest enemy is time. How do you spend your days?

“There is this theory in prison that the more you sleep, the faster
you come out. I think that the more you sleep, the less you live. Now
that I can no longer walk I read in the cell, I write, I paint, I
listen to music, I make DIY constructions from cheap materials.”

- What inspires you?

“The corridors, the prison bars and the barbed wire. All this has put
me in the process of creating another reality, comprised of words and
paintings”.

What would you tell the minister of justice if you saw him?

“I would read him a poem by poet Titos Patrikios:

I pluck the words one by one from my throat/

if they ooze blood/ wrap them in your handkerchief/

wrap them in cotton/

or then maybe grab them with a  clip and say/

“he’s only saying these, to make an impression”/

Do what you want,/

but silence is not enough no more/

words are not enough no more/

I pluck the plain words, one by one/

and I send them to you.”

- How do you dream of your life after prison?

“Plain in terms of living, rich in terms of thinking – and I also
want us to have a kid that won’t ever leave me alone!”

- After all this grueling experience, would you take to the streets again?

“Of course. With the only difference being that I will be absolutely
ready to face any fixed-up charges. After all, I always took to the
streets with my face as my only hoodie.”