Friday 15 october 2021, Aman molli: Practice of Modal music, from 8pm.
We hope you are all healthy during these times! We plan to restart our modal music gatherings, starting with a gathering in mid October to meet each other after long time and plan for the future meetings! Bring your instruments and your best mood!
Aman molli: Practice of Modal music
Benefit for Lesvos Mutual Aid Network
Monday 27 September 2021, Benefit for Lesvos Mutual Aid Network, Volkseten Vegazulu. Food served from 7pm till 9pm, no reservation.
We are a network of comrades and friends active on the Greek island of Lesvos, with ties to collectives and movements that span the globe. We work to build relationships with people on the island, abolishing dominant norms/hierarchies and the socially constructed boundaries between our communities.
As a part of the broader anti-authoritarian movement, we condemn any and all fascist, sexist and racist behavior. We function through our assemblies, where we discuss topics, collectively take decisions and plan actions. We created an environment based on mutual respect where everyone can take part in equal terms, each according to their ability, each according to their needs. Our actions can vary depending on the needs we encounter and the dynamics of the group. We cooperate only with other self-organized structures, like “Women in Solidarity House”, “No Border Kitchen”, “Binio Squat” and other individuals that are active on the ground.
We as anarchists believe in solidarity that comes from the base and stand side by side with people in need, regardless of whether they come from another country, their age, class, ability, gender, the color of their skin or their sexuality. Here on Lesvos, we participate in multiple initiatives on the ground, all grounded in principles of antiracism, anti-authoritarianism, self-organization and mutual aid, each tackling different aspects of this common struggle. […Lees verder]
Benefit for Rosa Nera squat
Thursday 17 september 2020, benefit for Rosa Nera squat. Food will be served on the Steve Bikoplein, the square next to Joe’s Garage, from 19:00 and will be directly followed by music, also on the square. Rebetika with Georges, Charis and others. No reservation, vegan food, veggies from the garden. Donations welcome. If you want food to take away, bring your own containers.
On 5 September 2020, Rosa Nera squat in Chania, Creta was evicted by surprise at 5 o’clock in the morning. 16 people sleeping inside got arrested. 5 of them are immigrants. All of them got released after some hours.
Rosa Nera was squatted in 2004. The building belongs to the Polytechnic School of Chania. Rosa Nera has been for 16 years an emblematic space, not only in Creta but for the whole Greece, for the movement. Various groups and collectives have been using the space.
During the summer, a potential buyer came to check the building and was welcomed by a group of 200 people. Prime minister Mitsotakis is from Chania and had promised many years ago that when he will be in the government, he would evict Rosa Nera.
ROSA NERA is an autonomous, anti-authoritarian political collective and since 2004, has squatted and given its name to the historical building that was formerly known as the “5th Army Division”, declaring it, for the first time in its history, a liberated space.
The squatted building of ROSA NERA, was built around 1880 by the Turks as a palace for the local pasha. It continued to house different representatives of the authority, the latest being the local military command, during the military dictatorship of Papadopoulos.
In 1985 the building passes from the ministry of defense to the ministry of education, which offers it to the Technical University of Crete, under the condition that it would be used solely for educational activities. Nevertheless, from 1985 till 2004, the building was totally abandoned.
In June 2004, the building was occupied and revived. It was transformed from a ruin that was falling apart, into a political, cultural and social activities center, as well as a house. Everything was accomplished with collective work, collective will and collective financial support. That means that the people did it all, by organizing themselves through horizontal and non-hierarchical procedures.
ROSA NERA squat had organised and operated amongst many other things, an non-commercial cafe-bar, a theater, a clothes exchange bazaar, a children’s space, an event and film projection room, a library, a workshop, a guest house, a collective kitchen, and an open vegetable-garden. At the same time, many political and cultural events were taking place, always with a free entrance or voluntary-donation based.
Most importantly, ROSA NERA, as a political group, supported and participated in social and class struggles, always standing in solidarity with the oppressed and struggling people, fighting against any exploitation and oppression, for justice, equality and freedom.
On the 5th of September 2020, after 16 years of active presence in the social and political life of the town of Chania, police forces evict the squat, arrest the people inside and empty the building with the assent of the municipality and the administration of the Technical Universcity of Crete. The reason behind this eviction was the leasing of the building by the university, to a privately owned hotel group (BELVEDERE) in order to turn it into a luxury hotel.
In a town that is suffocating under the unrelenting growth of tourism, where the public space has all but disappeared and during a health crisis that has gravely affected the labour market and has highlighted the catastrophic character of the economic monoculture of tourism, the eviction of Rosa Nera and the plans of turning this historical building into another boutique hotel, seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The struggle is just beginning.
SOLIDARITY WITH ROSA NERA SQUAT
STRUGGLE FOR FREE, NON-COMMERCIAL SPACE
Chania, Greece, 2020
Rosa Nera squat http://rosanera.squat.gr/ […Lees verder]
Take Away Voku for Lesvos Mutual Aid Network
Monday September 14th 2020, Take Away Voku for Mutual Aid Network Lesvos, 7pm, no reservation.
Take-away voku for the Lesvos Mutual Aid Network. The network was started this year to support people in need on the Greek island of Lesbos, in the light of the covid-19 situation. We organise distribution of dry food items, clothes and personal support for 600 locals, migrants and everybody in need. Somebody from the Network will be present to anwser questions and give updates on the current situation on the Island with regards to the social-political situation.
Lesvos Mutual Aid Network: lesvos_network [at] protonmail [dot] com
Benefit for No Border Kitchen Lesvos
Thursday May 21st 2020, No Border Kitchen Lesvos Benefit, Volkseten Vegazulu, Take Away People’s kitchen, vegan food, no reservation necessary (or possible!). Falafel with salad n’ sides! Pick up food from 7pm till 8:30pm. See you on the Steve Bikoplein.
Today’s meal is a benefit for No Border Kitchen Lesvos. This is what they do:
A message from Lesvos to Amsterdam.
Lesvos, Greece. A beautiful Island. The Biggest Prison in Europe.
No Border Kitchen is a horizontal and self-organised collective with and for the people on the move on the Greek Island of Lesvos. Since 2015, we have been providing basic needs to the people that are left behind at the walls of Fortress Europe. We provide support mainly in two ways. We provide cooked food every day to about 300 people in the Mytillni area. This is mostly aimed at people that are either forced to stay in the streets or are living in squats, rented houses or somewhere slightly outside of the city. Then there is the food-boxes. A food-box contains dry food, oil and fresh vegetables and is meant to support people that are living in Mytillini and pay rent but get no state support. We want to provide these things to make it more accessible for people to live outside of the refugee camp, Moria. With the donations we have been receiving recently we have been able to upgrade the food-boxes with hygiene items and some other things that were to expansive before, like coffee, spices and better quality vegetables.
A silent war is being waged in the Aegean and the Central Med. A new cold war, with migrants as the nuclear weapons of the 21st century. Since November of last year, with the announcement of amendments to the Greek migration & asylum laws, we have been bracing for the start of 2020.
And so far, it has been not been great. Starting from February there has been an increase in xenophobic groups attacking migrants, activists and volunteers. After a period of increased threats and violence, the Covid-19 measures started. This put a temporary stop to the violence but made continuing our day to day activities rather difficult. However, we were able to find a way to continue our work. With the implementation of the amendment to the Greek migration & asylum laws we are entering a new era of racism and oppression against people on the move. They aim to deport a greater group of people with maximum efficiency. Already on the sea border the amount of illegal acts has also increased. Under cover of night, boats that try to reach Greece via sea have their engines disabled and are being set adrift towards Turkish waters by the Hellenic Coast Guard.
This will send a message to all the people that want to try to get to Europe.
The message is: “If you try to get here, you will be held in a camp isolated from the rest of the world with nothing and if you are not recognised as a ‘legitimate’ refugee we will send you right back where you came from”.
The idea that migrants are so radically different from us is false. National identities are made up. And they are made so that it appears as though we have more in common with millionaires or career politicians than with people who risk everything seeking the same thing most of the people in the world want: Safety.
No Border Kitchen Lesvos https://noborderkitchenlesvos.noblogs.org/
Benefit voku for Apatris, Greek anarchist newspaper
Monday December 23rd 2019, Benefit voku for Apatris, Greek anarchist newspaper. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.
The street newspaper APATRIS (https://apatris.info/) began in 2009 from Heraklion (Crete) and for a year was distributed only locally. In 2010, comrades from other places in Crete began to collaborate with the project. Since then, Apatris has been issued as a Pancreatan anarchist newspaper. You can find it everywhere around Greece and further in various social centres around Europe, Joe’s Garage included!
Joe’s Garage is always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. If you want to know which days are still available in the schedule, mail us and book yourself the night. You can, of course, also participate by rolling up your sleeves and doing the dishes.
Aman molli: Last Practice of Modal music for 2019
Friday December 6th 2019, Workshop of Modal music.
The last Aman Molli gathering for 2019, let’s meet to practice together and exchange knowledge of modal music! First half is the practice of repertoire our guests showed us last year, open to all levels! Second part is open to improvisation and experimentation. Bring your instruments and your best mood!
The Fig House (Pitzi Kampouroglou, 2019)
Monday November 11th 2019, special screening: The Fig House (documentary from Pitzi Kampouroglou, 2019), 102 minutes, in English with English subtitles. Doors open at 19:00 with food. Film starts at 21:00. Fee entrance, donations welcome.
The independent collective Amanita Films presents their new documentary The Fig House. The filmmakers will be present for questions and a discussion before and after the film screening. The film tells in twelve chapters the misadventures of ten friends and a cat, living for seven months in a squat in Greece. Activists and refugees all together, they come across the everyday troubles of living on the edge of society, while trying to reach Germany through the refugee’s Balkan Route.
Amanita Films is a project born from the making of the documentary The Fig House, a self-produced work by the same protagonists of the film. Amanita Films does not respect the rules of the film industry, believing that they are just instruments to preserve the privileges of those who have all the interests to prevent the free circulation and creation of art-works. We therefore do not recognize the copy rights of commercial exploitation neither our own neither others’ art’s works. We believe in a cooperative form of film production and in the creation of an alternative distribution network to the official one.
The idea of getting in a car and taking the film a tour around Europe, was born precisely from this need to get out of invisibility, to build a network of contacts that could become the basis for the diffusion and self-financing of independent audio-visual works.
The Fig House had its premiere at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, registered with false names and fake documents, winning the young jury special prize. Despite this small success, however, no distributor has declared to be interested in distributing a work that cannot be commercially exploited since it does not comply with and is registered to any copyrights.
We are now only a month away from going to Athens to start filming our next documentary: Love in Time of Crisis. We decided to go there by car, a one-month road trip to close a circle with our previous work and at the same time to open a new one.
We will depart from Zurich to arrive to Greece via Germany, Holland and Italy and we will stop in every city where there will be an squat, a cultural center, an private association, willing to support our project by hosting a screening of our previous documentary: The Fig House.
The purpose of the tour is also to be able to finance part of the expenses for the filming of Love in Time of Crisis through the support of our same spectators. The screenings will always be open to everyone and free; at the exit there will be a donation box where, whoever wants to, can leave a concrete support.
We want to share the experience of The Fig House with the largest number of people. The donation is not at all a discriminating factor in this sense, but only a possibility for the spectator, after having seen the film, in case it is liked, of being able to help Amanita Films to continue to produce cinema in a free and independent way.
Topics: The small mishaps of everyday life in the squatted house are the reason to raise some questions about immigration and solidarity, in particular on some issues that are not discussed very often. The film questions the vicious circle “illegality – poverty – prison”, as well as the topic of the “invisible wounds” – the psychological traumas connected to the migrant status. The documentary is essentially a story of friendship and solidarity, instability and despair. An opportunity to ask ourselves what kind of Europe we are building and if there is space for a better common future.
Synopsis
A group of friends, activists and migrants, decide to organize an escape plan through the Balkans, in order to reach illegally Germany from Greece. To accomplish their plans, they decide to divide the tasks, and while some are dedicated to find a suitable means of transport for the group, others are looking for an abandoned ruin to turn it into their home. When things seem to be going well, they have to face small unforeseen events that inevitably delay the completion of the plan: the cat of the house breaks his leg, a friend is arrested and one of the boys decides not to leave anymore. These continuous blows of misfortune end up weakening the psychological resilience of Ilias, one of the boys, who begins not to withstand the psychological pressure anymore, what is complicating the situation and putting the plan at risk.
For more infos: amanitafilms [at] protonmail [dot] com
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