AGAINST THE ENGLISH BASE AT AKROTIRI
AGAINST THE ENGLISH BASE AT AKROTIRI
4 July 2002
There is only one word to describe what happened last night in Cyprus: insurrection.
But let’s take the facts from the beginning. Last Sunday the Green Party made a call for a road block at the English base of Akrotiri from where Britain carries out much of its slaughter, as the latter were due to start work to erect yet another giant listening antenna to add to the already existing ones which cover a large area. These antenna don’t only create an environmental hazard, they give rise to health problems in the people who live nearby and beyond.
The Greens set up camp at the entrance to the base, but the only people who accepted their call were some anarchists of the Cyprus group. A few of us had spoken to some of the villagers that afternoon who said they had decided to come to the base next day at dawn to attack the convoy. The anarchists spent the night outside the base preparing to attack along with the villagers when they arrived. During the night the area was surrounded by cops. In the morning the villagers failed to turn up. Perhaps the threats and bribes from the English masters had been successful in keeping them away. (The base covers a large area which has destroyed the land, and has become the main source of income for many local people.) The demonstrastors (anarchists and ecologists) had nothing left to do but block the entrance to the bulldozers etc that were arriving to start the work.
When clashes began a few hours later the road was closed completely. Following a final ultimatum from the English army, special forces cops (SBA) arrived on the scene and violently attacked the demonstrators, pushing them down an embankment and immobolising them in order to open up the road again and let the bulldozers into the base. They arrested one comrade who was released later in the day after being charged. Meanwhile construction of the antenna had begun.
In the afternoon of the following day, Monday, there was a demonstration of discontented from the communist party of Cyprus AKEL at the scene of the construction. The AKEL’s intentions were obvious: on the one hand the party is trying to keep a ‘revolutionary’ profile because of the approaching elections and on the other hand they want to gain leadership of the whole struggle, keeping it within the lines of political ‘legality’, i.e. symbolic passivity.
But it seems that others had a different opinion! The main demo stopped 100 yards from the base, but the anarchists (carrying a banner ‘Death to the Base of Death’, and giving out lealfets in Greek and English), ecologists, young local guys on motorbikes, etc, went right up to the entrance of the base, now guarded by SBA riot police and English soldiers in full riot gear. Some members of the communist party who wanted to keep going like the others didn’t do so because their party didn’t give them permission! Slogans were shouted and there were some skirmishes with the cops. It was soon realised that we wouldn’t be able to stand up to them because we were outnumbered. After a brief evaluation of the situation along with the others present (the ecologists desisted) everyone decided to leave. The English dominators and their henchmen thought that the night was over. But they got it wrong.
Anarchists and young rebels very quickly gave themselves an appointment for a couple of hours later, and in the meantime went to look for reinforcements to swell the number. They met as arranged, and after a brief organisational discussion, returned to the base. The night was a celebration. There was a battle with the cops who received a storm of stones, molotovs and pieces of wood. In the face of the continuous attack from the cops, furious demonstrators began burning the place all around in order to hold them back. Each one was very well self-organised, especially during the retreat which took place in convoy, driving around the base in dozens of open trucks spilling over with young people, as well as in cars and on motorbikes, all under the spotlight of the wide beams of the military helicopters hovering above. The rebels attacked. Part of the police station was burned, factory buildings, a car and a lookout post near the base were also torched. Such moments are indescribable. At one point the whole convoy drove to the nearest petrol station and filled up crates of empty beer bottles in order to return and continue the attack against the base. Some were thinking of the many planes that have taken off from this place, and how many bodies of humiliated people had been dismembered: that was enough for us to want to burn it all!
Here it should be said that there were none of the patriotic flags so visible in the riot the previous year following the arrest of a right wing deputy who had been protesting against the erection of a similar antenna. This time it was a question of people rebelling for themselves. Needless to say, the press reported this present attack as an act of ‘hooligans’.
Finally three arrests were made. Two young guys and another comrade were arrested from the base area by the Cypriot cops, because they declared they hadn’t stop at a check point. Later all the accused were released
Comrades, something very strong has begun here, and whoever says that insurrections are not happening, just needs to look at what happened last night on this island, where apathy and indifference are widespread.
DEATH TO THE BASE OF DEATH. DEATH TO THE BASE OF THE DOMINATORS.
THE BASE OF DEATH MUST BE DESTROYED!
The British army have gone ahead with force to begin work to install yet another giant antenna in the land they occupy outside Akrotiri village, regardless of the fact that this is against the will and the wellbeing of the people of Akrotiri.
Commencement of the dirty work began under protection of the army in full riot gear after the SBA had violently disposed of the few protestors who tried to stop bulldozers from entering. This is a stark reminder that there is not one but two, or rather three, occupying armies in Cyprus: the Turkish, the British and the Cypriot (which like all armies will not hesitate to turn on its own people to protect class interests).
The village people, under the threat to their means of subsistence, had decided to go to work that day as normal, not realizing perhaps the full implications of what is happening around them.
In the first place, living with the daily presence of an active armed force which is deployed in many parts of the island. This force, as well as killing local people with their toxins and destroying a large part of the beauty of this island by causing irreversible ecological damage, is a force at war, sending bombers to kill defenceless men women and children to whichever part of the world they and their masters desire. Yugoslavia and Afganistan are but two recent examples. Military aircraft also carry out constant surveillance on the local population they claim to protect against the invading army in the north.
Now these murderers are declaring that the new antenna will not be a health hazard, using the ‘proof’ of ‘scientific tests’. Science and the new information technologies are the new religions of death, and we must not listen to them, but in the first place to our hearts and desires. We must think and act according to our own convictions. We must destroy what is oppressing us and others against who we have no grudge, recognizing who our real enemies are and fighting them with all the means at our disposal.
This struggle should not be delegated to the political parties, even those who are against the base. The means they use, even if their brave militants put themselves on the line and get beaten by the police, always end up at the negotiating table over the heads of those who elected them.
Only self organization, direct action and sabotage by all those who are really interested changing their lives will find the way to uproot the pylons of death.
In this social struggle, which refuses the logic of militarism, patriotism or parliamentarianism, the people will always find anarchists at their side.
Solidarity with the people of Akrotiri!
The base of death must be destroyed!
Cyprus anarchist group
WE CAN DESTROY THE BASE OF DEATH!
Yes we can no matter how powerful they boast they are, behind the weapons and space age uniforms are just mean petty men. They are merely pawns, instruments of authority who, even with their cutting edge equipment, will never be able to put a brake on the more powerful weapon we all have at our disposal: resurrected passion, the will for life and disobedience concerning anything that corrupts our dignity. Even if they look unbeatable, they and their equipment are nothing when faced with real feelings. If their apparent omnipotence sets the boundaries within which they want us to act, we respond that it is necessary to break these boundaries and get away from predictable, programmed ways of protesting to reach perspectives of liberation without parties or representatives, coordinators or organisers, sheep or shepherds, and take our lives into our own hands.
Why the base is a project of death
The base houses a forest of antenna which, along with the new one under construction, are of absolutely no social use whatsoever. On the contrary, these instruments are only of use to the British military and their allies the USA.
We can and we must destroy the base of death because they emit invisible pollution in the form of radio waves which are known to produce various types of cancer, thus endangering our health and that of our children;
Because the antenna can also be used to emit microwaves to control people’s minds and behaviour. The British government are pioneers in this field, already causing cancer, depression and unfocussed aggression among the catholic population of northern Ireland.
Because the base controls our lives. Every day readings from the antenna are sent to secret services GCHQ in England. Every day helicopters and spy planes fly over our heads to reconnoiter the area. Police road blocks and army patrols are a part of our daily life.
Because the constant sight of the base and military paraphernalia offends our aesthetic sense, our love of life, putting nightmares in the place of dreams.
Because the antenna control all the countries of the Middle East and far beyond, thereby placing this island under constant threat of attack. Many terroristic State attacks have used the base at Akrotiri in recent years, and more are foreseen in the near future – see the plans of mass murderers Bush and Blair to bomb Iraq.
For these reasons and many more that we don’t know or don’t have space to go into here, we must destroy the base of Akrotiti.
The political parties and organisations against the base
The communist party AKEL says it is against the base, but goes no further than organising huge demonstrations for people to express their democratic dissent. These demonstrations usually take the form of long marches with the aim of tiring us out and making us feel that we have done something significant against the base, while keeping it at a safe distance from our anger.
The ‘greens’ and ecology parties are against the antenna because it threatens the local flora and fauna, and because of the threat to health seen as a thing in itself, ignoring the actual military and social significance of the base. They organise symbolic actions against the base, thereby getting the media attention they desire, but back away from actions by local people who intend to attack the base. They say they want to save nature, but do not do anything concrete against those who are polluting it.
The peace movement – they are against the base, but, being nonviolent are also against the idea of attack.
Right wing member of parliament Matzaki is also against the base. His patriotic fervor contains hatred, not of all instruments of State terror against the people (all peoples) but of the English army as such, leaving the way open to the local police and military.
Who are we
We are anarchists, and as such are against all forms of imposed authority and control. We despise those who claim to act on others’ behalf as we know that they only do so for personal power or wealth. We also despise those who put decisions concerning their lives into the hands of such thieves and scoundrels. We struggle for the world we desire to live in, a world without bosses or slaves, alongside the exploited who take responsibility for their own lives in struggles where freedom becomes a reality, even for brief moments.
What can we do
In the face of such a monstrous reality as the base of Akrotiri it would be easy to become discouraged, feel powerless and leave the way open to the political parties, continuing to suffer in silence.
In actual fact, the only force capable of destroying the base of death is that of the people themselves, all those whose lives are affected by it. We are not alone. Many others are struggling against similar antenna in other parts of the world, and they would become our supporters and comrades. The media, instead of lies, would have to show the world at large that a people have taken up arms against their masters.
So let’s wake up! The struggle against the base must be real, not symbolic. It must be an ongoing, constant struggle, not one that leaves deadlines to demos and blockades called by groups who are simply following their own political schedules.
This struggle is not a political battle, it is part of the social war that requires employment of the means of all times: sabotage, attack, the spreading of information and self-organisation of the exploited to defend their own interests and take back their lives and those of their children.
To do this, those who are already convinced that direct attack and the eventual occupation and destruction of the base is the only thing we can do must begin to act in this sense right away.
We must organise in small groups with people we know and trust and carry out the actions that we decide upon ourselves. We must keep in touch with other similar groups, keeping alive the attack that has already begun and spreading it horizontally until the day when we all enter the base, men women and children armed with all the means at our disposal: tractors, lorries, bulldozers… to throw the out lords of war in a great joyful dance of life.
TOGETHER WE CAN DESTROY THE BASE OF DEATH!
Anarchist group of Cyprus