PUBLIC DECLARATION OF FORMER POLITICAL PRISONERS (greece)

August 29, 2011 by actforfreedomnow

who have refused to give a DNA sample or would not give one were they
asked to

Greece looks nothing like the advertisements of the Ministry of Tourism.
We live in an era of subtle dictatorship. Organised assaults on
protesters, joint para-State and police actions, racist pogroms, dozens of
political prisoners, training the army in “crowd dispersal”, water
cannons in Keratea area and outside the Parliament, fences in Evros river
but also in V. Sofias Avenue.
The bourgeoisie is armed to defend its interests; with attempts at
“psychological warfare” by journalists, the attacks of IMF and EU, the
action of Greek and multinational capital …with new measures and new
memorandums.
The world of power is armed to exterminate its political opponents. Each
scheme of undirected and global resistance must be crushed. Each
perspective of revolutionary insurrection must be defeated in advance;
with upgraded terror-laws, fabricated prosecutions, dictated reports,
bounties, special courts; with the dispersion of the detainees to prisons
all over Greece and their isolation in “fortified wings”.
Our position, we, eight former political prisoners, who have been
imprisoned over the past two years accused in various cases, our answer to
all those who interpret our refusal to give DNA sample at will and as it
suits them: “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a
revolutionary act”, as G. Orwell reminds us.
The option that police are taking and analyzing DNA it is not just another
“special interrogation measure” as introduced with the first terror-law
(ν.2928/2001). On the pretext of the upright denial of those accused of
“terrorist acts” to give DNA samples, another “eloquent” element is being
constructed. An initial “indication of guilt” is enough for you to be held
in custody; following that requests for release will be rejected and so
the prosecutor confidently recommends your conviction. In the end that
will be enough, so you will be sentenced to severe retribution.
The refusal of political prisoners to donate something of themselves to
the laboratories of the Division of Criminal Investigation does not
concern the contempt of every law of the Constitution that is about the
“respect and protection of human dignity”, “personal freedom” and
“protection of sensitive personal data”. These concern the Law professors
and constitutional experts. Our refusal relates to something much more
important. This is a clear political position against exploitation,
coercion, alienation, control.
Therefore our refusal to give DNA is not governed by a superficial,
reactionary type of non-cooperation with the protection units of the
regime; nor is it characterized by political type of destitution or
insignificance in substance. It is a vital political position, an
additional subversive dispute which builds a political and practical
barrier in the supervision of our lives. We will never consent to genetic
material banks and to the exchange of personal data between intelligence
services (from September ’09 U.S. authorities have officially free, on
line, access to the records of fingerprints and DNA of the Greek Police).
Because we will resist the genetic profiling that aims to enforce the law
even for those accused of misdemeanours; because we will never legitimize
the most controversial identification process, given that even Interpol,
according to its reported affirmations in the 1st International Conference
on use of DNA, refers to “the need for all operators to treat with caution
the data (on DNA), that the police can seize”. Because we will never offer
the chance to the police laboratories to replicate and place our genetic
material – even if the equipment is put up for sale for free on the
internet – on explosive devices, outside hideouts, inside banks burnt to
the ground …and will let our choice have its precise price.
Not hiding anything, simply because we have nothing to fear. And if some
look for pretexts and excuses, we understand them. They are not able to
comprehend that there are people who do not put their personal interests
above everything; above their values ​​and conscience; above the struggle
for the overthrowing of capitalism. They cannot understand such a
“suicidal” choice, simply because it moves against the world that they are
defending; the world of exploitation and class separations of appearances
and lies, fear and subjection; a world of power which we are continuously
fighting more and more .
Our DNA is on the barricades, in the areas of clashes where the revolution
is not negotiable, it is in the prison cells where our comrades are
imprisoned, in the assemblies, in the hardcore marches and strikes,
sabotages and powerful attacks. It is found where the radical struggle
takes flesh and bones: in the fermentation, communication, solidarity and
comradeship. It is found in every expression of the social war; the war
for anarchy, overthrowing, freedom.



Fei Mayer
Vaggelis Stathopoulos
Sarantos Nikitopoulos
Christoforos Cortesis
Panagiotis Masouras
Aris Seirinides
Christos Politis
Dimitris Michael

[published in Pontiki newspaper athens 08/07/11]

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