Anarchist Groups Direct Action Cells and Proletarian Cell Claim Attacks in Greece

(One of the storefronts targeted in May by the Proletarian Cell)

Direct Action Cells

The Direct Action Cells (DAC) have claimed the detonation of an improvised incendiary device (IID) outside the home of journalist and TV personality, Yannis Pretenteris, around 4:00 AM on the morning of June 30th. The attack caused significant damage to the heavy outer gate of Pretenteris’ home in the Neo Psychiko borough of Athens. As with previous attacks claimed by the DAC, the IID used in this attack was fashioned from a pair of butane gas canisters.

The claim accuses Pretenteris of disseminating government propaganda, giving a platform to affiliates of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party in the 1990s, encouraging xenophobia, and colluding with the country’s powerful elites. According to the DAC, “Pretenteris has proved at every possible opportunity that he is the most loyal mastiff of the corrupt economic and political elite that rules this place with arrogance and impunity all these years.” The claim goes on to accuse Pretenteris of further cooperation with Golden Dawn ahead of their 2012 electoral victories in parliament. The DAC make broader condemnations of the Greek elites and their roles in local scandals, notably mentioning current Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and accusing him of covering up the serial rape of minors by famous Greek actor/director, Dimitris Lignadis.

 The claim quotes a few passages from Pretenteris’ recent articles, and adds:

These are just a few references to the systematic laundering through his articles and one of the reasons he is at the top of the paid systemic journalism, but also a highly symbolic target for the fighting formations that, in spite of the times, try to keep lit the flame of social war. The arson attack outside his house in the area of ​​Psychiko is dedicated to those whom Giannis Pretenteris has insulted, slandered, humiliated and deported all these years. It is also dedicated to all the political prisoners that this bastard has slandered a few times. Finally, it is a call to all fighting forces. Our enemy is not invisible. It has a name and an address.

(Outer gate at the Neo Psychiko home of Yannis Pretenteris)

The claim then concludes with a call to action, which is characteristic of DAC and serves their aspirational objective of expanding their revolutionary network:

Friendly greetings to all the groups, the individuals, the nuclei who choose to contribute to the formation of the network of revolutionary violence that we have described through our texts. We have said it and we are doing it, we are organizing the Direct Action Cells to strike state and capital. From Athens, Volos, Thessaloniki, the smoke from the fires foretells the unrest we will cause. With the language of fire we will respond to blackmail and state terrorism.

Solidarity with political prisoners in Greek prisons.

A signal of solidarity to all unrepentant rebels in the prisons of Chile and Italy.

Revolving memory of Luisa Toledo Sepúlveda.

-Direct Action Cells

-Core of Rebellious Violence

(Yannis Pretenteris)

Proletarian Cell

Another anarchist group calling themselves the Proletarian Cell have claimed the May IID attacks targeting storefronts of businesses owned by the wife of Deputy Minister for Civil Protection and Crisis Management, Nikos Hardalias. The communique also claims another attack targeting the home of the VP of Greece’s state-owned electrical utility, HEDNO. The utility’s offices in Thessaloniki were targeted with a similar IID in June of this year, which was claimed by a prominent cell of the DAC, Organization of Anarchist Action. HEDNO has made for a popular target this summer, due to the company’s negligence on a construction project, which led to on-the-job deaths of three utility workers, who came into contact with a 20,000 volt energized distribution wire. Like the DAC attacks that were just claimed, these three also seem to have relied on IIDs fashioned from small butane gas canisters fastened to one another with a crude means of ignition. 

(One of the shopfronts targeted in May by the Proletarian Cell)

The claim condemns the Greek government for passing a set of highly controversial bills, all of which have seen significant street demonstrations and clashes between average citizens and the police throughout 2021. The first of these is an educational reform bill, whose most (but not only) hated feature is that it allows for the reinstallation of Hellenic Police units on university campuses—constitutionally forbidden since the country’s return to democracy in 1975, and following a state massacre of dozens of Greeks on the grounds of Athens Polytechnic. A labor reform bill has been equally as contentious, and seen as antagonistic towards workers, limiting their abilities to organize and call for work-stoppages, ending the eight-hour workday in favor of ten-hour days, removing the Sunday holiday and essentially gutting overtime pay. Perhaps a direct factor in targeting businesses owned by the wife of the Deputy Minister of Civil Protection is a bill that would severely restrict the rights of average Greeks to assemble and protest as they have for years, which many consider a healthy feature of their democracy.

On the April 2021 deaths of three HEDNO workers, the communique states:

Let us not get used to death in the workplace, let us not forget the dead and the dead of our class, let us take revenge on all those who were murdered by its capital and state. Against the gloomy condition that is taking shape, let us resist with all our might the capitalist restructuring and the intensifying attack we are receiving, as a class and as a movement.

TO UNITE TO ORGANIZE 

TO RESIST CLASS AGAINST CLASS […]

-Proletarian Cell

They include a note at the end of the claim, which describes a relationship between the state and members of Greece’s organized crime scene, who are currently incarcerated. Greek anarchists have for weeks accused these incarcerated members of Greece’s “mafia” of carrying out a recent assault against well-known anarchist and fellow inmate, Yannis Dimitrakis. Dimitrakis was charged with armed robbery and suspected of having connections to anarcho-nihilist urban guerrilla outfit, Conspiracy Cells of Fire, and probed for membership in another guerrilla organization, Popular Fighters Group. The Proletarian Cell claim states: “Our full solidarity and good recovery. Whatever happens to him, the government, Chrysochoidis and Nikolaou are co-responsible.” Michalis Chrysochoidis is the current Minister for Citizen Protection in Greece.