Theofilos Mavropoulos was arrested two months ago after being wounded during an armed confrontation with two police officers (who also got their share) in northern Athens. He spent several weeks at Red Cross Hospital before being transferred to a prison hospital and then to A Wing at Korydallos Prison. Below is his first full-length open letter.
Letter of anarchist political prisoner Theofilos Mavropoulos who is imprisoned in Koridallos prisons
“A revolutionary is like a kamikaze, who simply does not accept the fate that the machine gave to them. It is simple to ask for a life that is worth living. Those who totally deny this society have already faced the risk of death. The struggle against the existing way of things is an armed goodbye.-
War or suicide”
Collaboration of individuals for the realization of the negative
(abroad)
from the pamphlet
On 18/5/2011 in the area of Pefki, me and my comrade had an accidental meeting with cops. They wanted us to stop, we tried to leave but we failed (a cop dashed at my comrade while my comrade tried to escape) and thus, wanting to get us out of this situation I made the choice, the political choice of armed conflict. Wanting to slip away from the armed praetors of democracy and since we could not surrender without a fight, deciding to risk in this way, gave the opportunity to my comrade, who was unarmed, to get away. My comrade made it away successfully using their own copcar, but I could not follow because of my injury.
The reason that me and my comrade did not stop at a police control is because we had made the conscience choice of revolutionary illegality. The last and obligatory choice of someone who denies the imposition of imprisonment on them from “Justice”.
The condition of illegality involves a life on the edge of the razor, where the choices get tougher since the risk goes sky high. Legality” is therefore of obvious use to a revolutionary entity.
Nevertheless for all those revolutionaries that come to the dilemma of surrendering or not, how easy or how difficult they will “sell their corpse” leaves its own deposit of disobedience. As in the case of the “robbers in black” who for many years have made the choice of illegal freedom instead of arrest and imprisonment, and more specifically Simos Seisidis who refusing to stop at a police check lost his leg from a cops bullets. Their examples and not only fill all our hearts with pride and strength.
From now on i define myself as one more anarchist revolutionary political prisoner in the hands of the state. A state that ahead of the likely hatched social disturbances tightens the bonds of its subjects abolishing indirectly or directly a lot of democratic pretexts (abolishment of anonymity of phones, required to carry id card, bounties on fighters heads, publication of photographs of fighters, imprisonment of some of them with non existent evidence, the hood law…).
Such moves however cannot intimidate the generalised war of conscience that is being carried out. A multiform war, in the here and now, constantly evolving, aiming at the inversion of the existing way of things. A revolutionary war. Without a beginning, middle or end, but with many fronts. From the open public assemblies to the dynamic and militant demonstrations and from armed guerrilla attacks to the little everyday influences that evolve us at an individual and collective level.
In order for the anarchist/anti-authoritarian movement to be effective against the methodized moves of the enemy, it should not be torn apart. Shams, individual vanities, personal disputes, envy but mainly the tolerance and consent to such kind of behaviours should give their place to the composition and continuous refreshing of the a/a movement. Especially the moment we observe attempts of organised internationalisation of subversive action, from Latin America all the way to Europe, this need is more important than ever.
Also the fact that the number of political prisoners has increased rapidly recently leads to various conclusions. Apart from the matter of our solidarity, which has substance when it is bidirectional and aggressive, we must contemplate the need for the subversive forces to always be a step ahead of the enemy.
In order to win a war, not only will and abilities are necessary but also strategy. When the opponent moves the pawns so must you.
The way each one will choose to fight is an individual choice and responsibility. Beginning therefore from the individual all it takes is to collectivize the common desire to fight against authority. Surely political balances play their part, whats important however is the effort to invert them for the better.
The spreading of a/a ideas has a leading role. The quantitative and qualitative strengthening is necessary. Moreover casualties are statistically certain in a war. The motive however for a potential revolutionary henceforth is not only the undesirable integration in the lower social layers. It is such the sovereign mesh of capitalistic relations and perceptions in the lives of everyone that you meet “underprivileged” in all social and economic classes. When human life becomes a product on the shelves of supermarkets and marketing, what use is it to speak of expensive and cheap products, when everything has its price. Without a doubt in the classes of the poor and exploited there are healthy revolutionaries, however ther are loyal subjects, many loyal subjects…
“Those of you who today watch your children playing carefree in the playground and in the school yards, do not be surprised if tomorrow you see them forming revolutionary alliances or participating in armed attacks against the state and the capital”.
With consistency and insistence therefore, as well as with inexhaustible fighting mood many things can be done. The degree of conciliation may differ. It either flourishes in the amphitheatres or extinguishes at the barrels of the guns but the aim is the same: REVOLUTION FIRST AND ALWAYS.
… My fingerprints were found in the apartments in Kallithea and Nea Ionias in Volos. I cannot take the historical and political responsibility for my participation in the revolutionary organisation Conspiracy Cells of Fire, since i never had a joint configuration in the political word of the organization, for which I maintain certain disagreements. Therefore I declare clearly that I was not a member of the r.o. C.C.F.
In no case however would these disagreements prevent the path we carved together. Together with the comrades of C.C.F. we evolved, we learned from one another and stronger henceforth acted in favour of the case of freedom and revolutionary prospect. For these reasons therefore I proudly declare myself PRESENT in the houses of Kallithea and Volos, present also in the lives of members of the r.o. C.C.F.
Recognizing their revolutionary action I stand in solidarity to all imprisoned members of the organisation and I send them my comrade greetings.
The pamphlet “the sun will continue rising” should become a prelude of a new more merciless, destructive and unrelenting circle of hostilities. Comrades, whatever the cost we remain with the necks unbent.
HONOUR TO ANARCHIST LAMBROS FOUNDAS
MEMBER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE
SOLIDARITY TO ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS
UNTIL THE DESTRUCTION OF THE LAST PRISON
NO ONE IS FREE
18th of July 2011
Theofilos Mavropoulos
1st wing, Koridallos prisons
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