“In a local and international environment where states, institutions, and people are transforming to cope with a dystopian landscape of crises and globalized conflict, can our societies truly succeed? And if so, how? With which social imaginaries and which social examples?” (Sykapro, 2026).
Right now, as Prosfygika faces another existential threat from the state, the Community resists by any means necessary. Our comrade Aristotelis Chantzis has been on hunger strike – until death – for 75 days now, for the defense of life. A second comrade will begin a hunger strike on May 1st.
There is an urgent need to unify our forces and act now for the defense of the community, locally and globally!
To open the issue to broader society, including perspectives from representatives of the Greek movement, the Community of Squatted Prosfygika will hold an event in Athens on Tuesday, April 21st.
In the invitation is stated:
“The struggle currently being waged by the Community of Squatted Prosfygika, including the hunger strike since 5/2/26 by Aristotelis Chantzis, does not concern only the survival of the community itself and its people. It raises crucial questions about our contemporary world.”
As internationalists who align with the vision the Community of Squatted Prosfygika creates, and who were already prepared to organize its defense in the past weeks, months, and years, we need to escalate our resistance towards the next level.
But why do we need to defend the Community of Squatted Prosfygika?
What does the Community mean for our social struggle locally, and what perspectives can we gain from it?
How can we foster strong movements that form a counter-force to the dominant culture of oppression?
On the event on April 26th, we, as the Internationalist Committee to Save Prosfygika, invite you to discuss these questions and to help define the next steps for how we move forward for the defense of the Community.
The Community of Squatted Prosfygika will present the current situation of the planned attack and the progress of its social self-defense.
The Internationalist Committee will be briefly presented, and we will hear from different organizations around the world about the mutual bonds and visions which already exist.
The link for participation is: https://lecture.senfcall.de/sav-loj-48f-nxo
We encourage all organizations to organize public streaming in their localities. For the first part of the event, press is invited.
We invite you, whether organizations and individuals, to join our event, mobilize in your localities, and participate in the discussion on how to connect the struggle, strengthen our mutual bonds, and defend Prosfygika.
The world only continues to exist if we share it! Either we will win or we will win!
For the mobilization of the 5th of April we called our internationalist comrades to participate in solidarity hungerstrikes, organize actions and mobilize for the 5th of April, which supposedly should be both and internationally and panhellenic day of action for the defense of the community oft squatted Prosfygika.
The 5th of April 2026 marked the day where our comrade Aristotelis Chantzis is since 60 days in a hunger strike until death for the defense of life. With this, the necessity becomes bigger to escalate and increase the pressure on the Greek state and the region of Attica and the EU-Commission but it is also a call for us to transform ourselves towards a serious opening to the internationalist and locals spheres, to include everyone who wants to be included and to find the organisation tools and the strength, to put what we wish for into practice.
On that day, the 5th oft April over 2000 people, families, revolutionaries, elderly, teenagers and various internationalist organizations from Turkey, Kurdistan, Sudan and Europe took the streets of Athens center for the defense of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika.
On the internationalist sphere we received solidarity actions in over 30 localities from 4 different continents, some of them were old friends we worked a lot together or had here and there intensivied discussions with each other. Many of the responses though were new connections that found us in the time that is the most challenging for all of us.
In Ankara, revolutionary youth organizations gathered in front of the Greek embassy. Saturday night our comrades in Berlin took with bengalo and fireworks the streets, while comrades from Leipzig organized a solidarity event. The Kurdish social center in Düren, comrades from Cologne, Freiburg, Copenhagen, Marseilles, Liege, Brussels, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon, Ljubljana and from the squatted community spazio popolare in Torino sent their declarations of solidarity. In Vienna and Belarus the Greek embassy got attacked with colourbombs.
In the weeks emerging into the the 60-days hungerstrike, comrades from Rome, Scotland, Serbia, Augsburg, the US and Berlin participated in symbolic hunger strikes. Multiple statements of solidarity reached the community from the US, the polish-belarussian border and Rojava and many more places.
We want to share also parts of the statement Subcommandante Marcos from the Zapatistas put in a speech from (date) in which he is referring to the Community of Squatted Prosfygika.
“Comrades, don ´t worry about your size, your numbers, your mediatic impact, but about your convictions (…). Because there are a lot of ones who are just passing by and only the ones that have very clear the why (meaning there history), the what for (meaning their objective and the how (meaning their organizational way) are the are the ones that (…) don’t give up (…) and abandon their ideals (…). And the struggle will continue, and in Palestine they will continue resisting, and in the rebel Greece in the community of Prosfygika defending their struggle for life; and they will do the same in Israel, and in Kurdistan (…) and they will keep struggling in the Europe that don ´t have black outs, and in the forgotten Africa, and in the Oceania from down and to the left, and in the Asian continent with all its differences, and the Mapuche people will also do, and all the Native Peoples in the world, and with them we will shout MARICHIWEYU (Mapuche word that means TEN TIMES WE WILL WIN), because ten, hundred, thousand times we will win, because we will rebel, we will resist, we will not give up, we will organise, and the life would be our horizon, our step and our warm destiny.”
And everyone would call themselves however they want to, and would have their own word, their own ways, their calendars, their geography, and would celebrate their differences dancing and singing on top of the ashes of a system that brought nothing but death and destruction, because the biggest Gods, the ones from first, the ones that created the worlds, they planted the hearts of men and women, and the ones that are not this not that, one seed that must be worked upon to give fruit and that is called freedom.”
-Capitan Insurgente Marcos (San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, 04/04/2026
Those statements, letters, actions and events from the internationalist commune proved the existence of the broad and determined network of solidarity committed to defending the Community of Squatted Prosfygika. It shows that this network is based on a common struggle, a common struggle in which an attack on one part will be an attack to all of us.
It stands for a commitment for a liberated life and society, for an alliance among opressed people internationally and comradeship, as a trusting bond that organizes our internationalist solidarity no matter how and from where we are fighting ✊✊✊
We are in another week full of events, protest, assemblies and festivities. On sunday will also happen a big easter celbration.
Come to visit and get to know the Community of Squatted Prosfygika in Alexandras Avenue. You can also find us daily in the hungerstrike support tent between 9.00-14.30 as well as 5.30-8.30!
Tuesday 07.04.:
18:30: Solidarity Assembly for Prisoners, Fugitives and persecuted Comrades
Wednesday 08.04.:
16:00: Collective care and cleaning of the space of the Children and Self-education structure
18:00-19:00: Open contemporary dance lesson for women and femininities
19:00: Open anti-zionist Assembly
19:00: Open Assembly against educational restructuring and the repression in univerities
Thursday 09.04.:
18:30: Solidarity Assembly for the squatters of the koukaki community
19:00: Open collective Cafe
20:30: Documentary screening: “Caesar must die”
Friday 10.04:
18:00-19:00: Open contemporary dance lesson for women and femininities
Saturday 11.04.:
19:00: Open collective Cafe
Children Programm: 19:00: Kids Cinema: Nikostratos, le pelican
International solidarity actions took place in defense of the self-managed Prosfygika neighborhood.
Romanos Lioutas
ATHENS, Greece — April 5, 2026
An unlimited hunger strike in Athens has ended its second month as protesters oppose plans to evict around 400 people from the self-managed Squatted Community of Prosfygika in the city center.
“Hunger Strike Until Death, For The Defense of Life”
On February 5, Aristotelis Chantzis, a resident and member of the Prosfygika Community, began a hunger strike which, he has stated, will continue if necessary to the point of death. April 5th marks the 60th day of his strike. As the situation reaches a critical phase, which culminated on Friday by his fainting outside of the Ampelokipi police station, masses of people from all social classes and ages in Athens took the streets in a planned demonstration this afternoon in support of Chantzis and in defense of the Community. Followed by months of protests different actions emerged panhellenically and internationally in over 29 cities in Mexico, Columbia, Rojava, Turkey, the US, Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Serbia, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Ireland. Under the hashtag #saveprosfygika, people are announcing weekly their intent to join solidarity hunger strikes in support of Chantzis’ demands in defense of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika.
Summary/Top Lines
The hunger strike and related protests come in response to a plan by the regional government of Attica to evacuate and renovate the buildings of the neighborhood. The project implies the imminent eviction of the approximately four hundred residents of the Community who have lived there for decades with their families.
In June 2025, the Regional Government of Attica, which the city of Athens belongs, approved a programmatic contract for the “renovation” and evacuation of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika. The planned renovation is to be funded by the European Commission at an estimated total cost of 15 million euros. Concrete proposals for the housing of hundreds of members of the Community, including children, patients and relatives from the adjacent oncology hospital and other highly vulnerable groups, have not followed.
Despite being branded as a social housing project, the contract has been widely criticized over this lack of proposal, raising increasing doubts over the wider gentrification process of the wider neighbourhood, and Greece’s capital as a whole.
Key Demands
Chantzis has put forward three key demands in his hunger strike:
• Immediate cancellation of the contract by the region of Attica
• The right of all residents of Prosfygika to remain in their homes
• The right to carry out restoration of the Community in a self-organized way
The Community states that it has maintained the buildings for years and announced a self- organized restoration plan last summer to be financed by its own resources rather than public funds.
Deteriorating Health Conditions
Aristotelis Chantzis is being monitored daily by a Team of Solidarian Doctors and the Health Structure of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika. In a collective statement published on 29.03.2026, they report that his condition is now critical after nearly 60 days without food. He is experiencing severe weakness, dizziness when standing, and heart-related issues, with medical tests showing abnormalities that could lead to dangerous or even fatal heart rhythm problems. Each day that his hunger strike continues, the risks to his heart and overall health increase, with potentially life-threatening implications.
On April 3 and on his 58th day of hunger strike, Aristotelis fainted outside of the Ampelokipi police station, where he needed to go for his monthly signature, a penalty he got for attending a demonstration in solidarity with Palestine. His senses returned and he was taken by ambulance to Gennimatas Hospital, before returning to the Community.
Chantzis says that he is aware of the serious health risks of the hunger strike, including the possibility of sudden cardiac arrest from the beginning. He also acknowledges that even if the strike succeeds, prolonged starvation can cause permanent damage to his body, especially to his nervous system, including during recovery.
Quotes
“Of course, I am aware that I may experience health complications from the first days and throughout the strike, not so much from starvation but from cardiac arrest. I also know that even if the outcome is successful, chronic starvation can cause irreparable damage, mainly to my nervous system, even during the recovery period.” -Aristotelis Chantzis, on Hunger Strike since 5 February
“On the verge of its sixtieth day, his health has reached a critical phase. He has been experiencing progressively worsening episodes of orthostatic hypotension, weakness with fatigue and tachycardia upon standing, while daily electrocardiograms reveal persistent abnormalities that predispose to potentially fatal arrhythmia’s. Every day the hunger striker faces an ever-increasing cardiovascular and metabolic risk with potentially life-threatening complications.” -Team of Solidarian Doctors for Aristotelis Chantzis
“We know that if Prosfygika is evacuated, a lot of us will end up on the streets” -Aristotelis Chantzis
Hunger striker Aristotelis Chantzis, who is on his 60th day of a hunger strike, on Friday, April 3, 2026, suffered a fainting spell a few minutes after 3:00 p.m. and was transported by ambulance to the “Georgios Gennimatas” Hospital.
Examinations conducted in the emergency department of the “Georgios Gennimatas” Hospital revealed low serum urea levels, hyperuricemia, and symptomatic hypoglycemia—findings consistent with starvation.
At the same time, he was administered intravenous treatment with crystalloid fluids (normal saline enriched with potassium chloride, magnesium sulfate, and MVI). Additionally, he presented with paresthesia (numbness) in the left lower extremity without other focal neurological signs, and further outpatient evaluation was recommended.Additionally, diminished tendon reflexes were noted in the context of malnutrition and muscle atrophy.
Upon completion of the tests, hunger striker Aristotelis Chantzis returned to the Prosfigika neighborhood.
We repeat that, since the first few weeks, he has been experiencing progressively worsening episodes of orthostatic hypotension, dizziness with fatigue and tachycardia upon standing, while daily electrocardiograms reveal persistent abnormalities that predispose him to potentially fatal arrhythmias.
He is already on his 60th day of the hunger strike and weighs 49.3 kilograms, having lost a total of 24.1% of his initial body weight.
Every day, the hunger striker faces an ever-increasing cardiovascular and metabolic risk, with potentially, life-threatening complications.
His demands reflect the collective demands of the community.
IMMEDIATE CANCELLATION OF THE CONTRACT BY THE REGION OF ATTICA.
ALL RESIDENTS OF PROSFYGIKA TO REMAIN IN THEIR HOMES, IN THE PLACE AND AREA WHERE THEY LIVE AND HAVE ESTABLISHED SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND ORGANICAL TIES.
CONCRETE GUARANTEES TO BE GIVEN FOR THE RESTORATION OF PROSFYGIKA BY THE NON-PROFIT COVIL LAW COMPANY KNOWN AS “RESIDENTS AND FRIENDS OF PROSFYGIKA ALEXANDRAS AV.” USING ITS OWN FUNDING! – NOT A SINGLE EURO OF PUBLIC MONEY FOR THE “REHABILITATION” OF PROSFYGIKA!
The hunger Striker Chantzis declares that he does not intend to end his hunger strike despite the health risks, until his demands are met.
After 60 days of hunger strike and given the progressively worsening deterioration of the hunger striker’s health, everyone involved is to be held accountable for the imminent complications or even a fatal outcome, especially the Regional Administration of Attica.
Group of Solidarian Doctors
Healh Structure of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika, Alexandras Av.
A new Telegram channel was opened to inform about the situation in the Community of Squatted Prosfygika. There will be daily updates and a weekly voice note to keep you informed. Join here!
Our common language is resistance! Either we will win or we will win!
April starts with another week full of events, assemblies, protest and action in the Community of Squatted Prosfygika.
Tuesday, March 31 6:30 PM: Assembly in solidarity with the prisoners, fugitives, and persecuted militant comrades
6:30 PM: Open assembly regarding the case of the torture of V. Mangos
Wednesday, April 1 6:00–7:00 PM Open contemporary dance class for femininities
7:00 PM Open Anti-Zionist Assembly
7:00 PM Open assembly against educational restructuring and repression at universities
Thursday, April 2 6:30 p.m. Solidarity Assembly in support of the squatters of the Koukaki community
7:00 PM Event – Discussion by Global Sumud Flotilla, Freedom Flotilla Coalition, and Thousand Madleens to Gaza: “From Gaza to Havana, We Set Sail Against the Empire” & Open Collectivist Café
Friday, April 3 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Open contemporary dance class for femininities
Saturday, April 4 8:00 PM Rebetiko party with “Laiki Orgi” Krater: a dance relay, where a performer takes turns with a dancer continuously for several hours in front of the 1st block
Sunday, April 5 1:00 PM Solidarity demonstration in support of the refugee camps (meeting point: Propylaea). Greek national and international day of action
4:00 PM Collective Kitchen & Open Collective Café
5:00 PM Open Solidarity Assembly of the community of squatted Prosfygika
9:00 PM Live at the Collective Café: “The Community Sings!”
PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN Friday, April 3 6:00 PM Introductory workshop on microorganisms & games
In June 2025 the Regional Government of Attica (which Athens belongs to) approved a programmatic contract for the “renovation” and the evacuation of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika, where more than 400 people live. 53 days ago, on February 5th, our comrade Aristotelis Chantzis started a hunger strike until death for the defense of the Community, for the defense of life. Soon in the next weeks, a second comrade will follow and start a hunger strike. Several weeks of actions in Athens and internationally have passed. The opening of the Community to the broader society, in Greece and internationally, is to build toward its social self-defense. This opening includes a full events program, a weekly open assembly, guest houses for cancer patients of the nearby Agios Savas hospital, and construction works to renovate houses, create more hospital guest housing, and the construction of the civil war museum. Hundreds of internationalists, solidarians and locals answered the call to come to the community and support the work for its defense.
On March 14th, thousands of people took in Athens the street for the defense of Prosfygika. Solidarity actions also took place in Poland, Serbia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Colombia.
Although large parts of the movement and the society have been mobilized, the Greek state and the regional government of Attica remain silent and haven’t canceled their ongoing plan. This puts the life of our comrade Aristotelis Chantzis in danger, together with the lives of so many members of the Community who will face extreme life-threatening conditions without the support of the Community and its 22 self-organized social structures.
In Athens we are mobilizing for a central demonstration on the 5th of April. Internationally, we call all people who are for the defense of life to initiate or participate in solidarity actions to promote the panhellenic and international actions on the this same day, in solidarity with the Community of Squatted Prosfygika.
The neighborhood of the Squatted Prosfygika on Alexandras Avenue, we started to inhabit autonomous squats from different political and cultural backgrounds as early as the 2000s, shortly after the state forcibly expelled terrorists by expropriating and demolishing 177 out of 228 apartment owners in the Prosfygika residences. In 2010, the residents of the squatted Prosfygika decided to come together as a collective. This was a time following the 2008 uprising, when numerous projects were being created, squats were succeeding each other as centers of struggle, and collectivization seemed like a natural step.
Mafias were subleasing the houses, trafficking and producing narcotics, defiling the neighborhood, and the police were in and out daily to take their share of the profits. This initial condition triggered our reaction, along with the impending repression we knew the state would unleash to gain control of the houses, as it is prime real estate in the city center. We realized that in order to survive, we needed to unite and collectivize. We envisioned a community where people live together, houses are communal and belong to no one, decisions are made collectively, members support each other, and we fight together on a common path, struggling for our lives.
We imagined an autonomous community where we can sustain ourselves by producing food and maintaining the houses and neighborhood collectively. Our children would self-educate within the community, without needing schools like the ones outside with all their problems. A community where there is no violence among us, and our issues are resolved on different terms, terms based on inclusion, horizontality, and acceptance. We imagined many things and we decided to turn our fantasies into reality.
But how do you turn imagination into reality? How does the fantastic become realistic? The answers are not easy because it requires a counterproposal to the existing system. However, self-organization naturally finds its way, and so the answers constantly revolved around the words “structures” and “infrastructures.”
Our initial thought was about bread. Food that represents humanity and all its differences. Every corner of the world has its unique culture and history, just like bread. We could tell our own story by making our own bread, initially covering the community’s needs and eventually generating income. So, a bakery structure was the first to be established within the squatted Prosfygika neighborhood, shortly after the formation of the organized assembly, “Sy.Ka.Pro.” (Squatted Prosfygika Assembly) in 2012.
The bakery structure started in 2013[1]. Over the years, we realized that the breadmaking process was much more than what we initially perceived. There’s a dynamic that maintains cohesion within the community, brings old and new comrades together in kneading and during difficult times in the community after repression operations. It manages to give us the strength and perspective we need to continue the struggle, making us resist with determination when barbarism threatens to overwhelm us.
Today, the bakery structure operates daily, producing various types of bread and has expanded distribution points beyond the neighborhood. It serves as a reference point for the community, and the process of hands working together to create a common dough, beyond its practical aspect, holds a strong symbolism for what communal life is and how people mold themselves in collective processes.
Welcome to the health structure of the community of squatted Prosfygika. Existing since the beginning of the community – evolving ever since in a collective process. It’s able to take care of the needs of the community and furthermore of the neighborhood. In contrast to the states healthcare system it’s centering the social, mental and physical needs of each one. Continuously working against racist and sexist discrimination regarding healthcare. #saveprosfygika
Another week full of events, cultural happenings, assemblies, and all-day activities in the Community of Squatted Prosfygika!
Tuesday, 24/3:
18:30 Open assembly for the case of torture of V. Maggos at Steki
18:30 Solidarity assembly for imprisoned, fugitive, and persecuted militants at the Social Center
Wednesday, 25/3:
18:00-19:00: Open class of contemporary dance and improvisation for women & femininities at the Women’s Structure
19:00: Open Anti-Zionist Assembly at the Social Center
19:00: Open assembly against educational restructuring and repression at universities at Steki
Thursday, 26/3:
18:30 Solidarity Assembly for the squatters of the Koukaki Community at the Social Center
18:30 Participatory theater (based on two plays written for the Community of Squatted Prosfygika) in the Square of Prosfygika
19:00 Open collective café at Kioski
19:00 Motorcycle demonstration for the propaganda of the Panhellenic and international mobilization for the Community of Squatted Prosfygika on April 5. Starting point: Prosfygika
20:30 Screening of the documentary “Sudan, remember us” at Kioski
Friday, 27/3:
17:00-18:00: Open contemporary dance and improvisation class for women & femininities at the Women’s Structure
18:30: As part of the International Days of Action for Housing: Gathering in Prosfygika and open discussion (1st block & Square of Prosfygika)
Saturday, 28/3:
14:00: Open Afro-Brazilian dance class in the Square of Prosfygika
“Birds Always Defend Their Nests” by the Open Antispeciesist Assembly:
16:00 Bicycle maintenance and repair workshop. Construction workshop
18:00 Birdwatching walk: We listen to the sounds of wild and caged birds in the city
19:00 Event – discussion & Open Collective Café
20:30 Performances in front of 1st Block
Sunday, 29/3
18:00: Open Assembly of the Solidarity Fund for Imprisoned and Persecuted Militants at the Social Center
16:00: Collective Kitchen & Open Collective Café (Kioski)
17:00: Open Solidarity Assembly with the Community of Squatted Prosfygika at the Kioski
Sunday, 29/3: childern program:
12:00-13:30: Capoeira class for children at the Children Structure
15:00: Workshop by the Children, Animal, and Bakery structure “Making treats for the animals in our neighborhood” at the “Berkin Elvan” Bakery
19:30: Open Assembly of the Children Structure of the Community Of Squatted Prosfygika at the Square
The Community of Squatted Prosfygika is one of the biggest self-organized and liberated neighborhoods in Europe, existing since 16 years. Home to 400 inhabitants from 27 different countries, it has succeeded in building a politically united neighborhood with over twenty autonomous structures answering the needs of its inhabitants, as well as an active participation in broader political and social movements.
While the autonomy keeps growing stronger and stronger, so is the repression: Prosfygika is currently facing urgent attacks and threat of eviction by the local government, financed by European Union funds. These plans of gentrification are set to start by July 2026.
Thus, Prosfygika now, more than ever before, decided to open the community, exposing every lie of the State, which claims to “build” something it will never do, something that is already here organized from the below: social housing, children’s and health structures, a bakery, and guesthouses for patients of the nearby oncological hospital and their relatives.
The struggle for creating this autonomy is from the beginning a struggle based on internationalist solidarity, as it learned from the guerilla in the mountains of Kurdistan and from struggles in dozens of other geographies — because the struggle for liberation was, is and will be a global one!
To renovate, build and to struggle together we call for all organizations, collectives and people of solidarity to organize internationalist brigades to come and support us!
If you are:
– crafters of any branch
– medical personnel
– political or revolutionary organizations and individuals
Open assembly on the case of the torture of V. Maggos – 18:00
Assembly of solidarity with imprisoned, fugitive, and persecuted militants/activists – 18:30
Wednesday, March 18
“To Peridromio in Prosfygika”: Collective participatory workshop with the groups LUDD & ACAN – 11:00
Theatre workshop with “Afantoi” – 15:00–17:00
Open class in contemporary dance and improvisation for women and femininities – 18:00–19:00
Open assembly against educational restructuring and repression in universities – 19:00
Open Anti-Zionist Assembly – 19:00
Thursday, March 19
Assembly of solidarity with the squats of the Koukaki Community – 18:30
Open event by KEERFA: “Solidarity and struggle for a world without racism, poverty, and war” – 18:30
Open Collective Café from 19:00
Screening of the documentary “Favela, okupa community, commune” – 20:30
Friday, March 20
Open contemporary dance and improvisation class for women and femininities at the women’s structure – 17:00–18:00
Celebration of Newroz (the Kurdish New Year and Spring) and of the resistance of the Kurdish people – 20:00
Saturday, March 21
Children’s workshop for the International Day Against Racism, organized by the Children’s Spaces of Prosfygika & Notara 26 – 12:00 *Eid Mubarak celebration (end of Ramadan) – 14.00
Utopian reading circle: “Urbanization without Cities” – 17:00
Open Collective Café & celebration with Laïki Orgi to support legal expenses for those arrested during the 2020 march at the Acropolis – from 19:00
Sunday, March 22
Children’s book presentation with Nikoleta Tripsa: “MITZOU, A PROMISING LITTLE FISH” – 12:00
Building planters & planting at the Children’s Space – 14:00
Open Collective Café & Collective Kitchen – from 16:00
Open Assembly of Solidarity with the Community of Squatted Prosfygika – 17:00
Presentation by Giannis Tombros of his haiku poetry collection “There Are Certainly Moments, Arrhythmic” & open poetry reading for World Poetry Day (21/3) – 19:00
This article was written by the hunger-striking comrade Aristotelis Xantzis. We release this translation on his 30thday of indefinite hunger strike to death in defense of life to prevent the eviction of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika.
The photographs of the 200 executed men of Kaisariani on May Day 1944 emerge perhaps at the most appropriate moment, as we are reminded that those who took the path of resistance did not think of the cost and looked death in the face with a raised fist. After 84 years [sic], they are a breath of life, a source of inspiration and struggle for the new generations.
In these photographs it is not only these unyielding fighters who are depicted, but sketched in their implacability is all of the resistance to the brutality of the Haydari, Merlin, and Akronafplia camps, as well as of so many other hells.
Every one of the 200, just like so many still-“unknown soldiers” —because they were, are, and will be the true unknown soldiers who gave their lives against the occupiers— had a name, a story, ideals. They were workers, trade-unionists, members of the KKE [Communist Party of Greece], Trotskyists, Archeio-Marxists. The majority of them were handed over from the Metaxas regime to the occupying powers, having been condemned under Venizelos’s Idionymon1, which was maintained and reinforced by Metaxas by replacing it with the so-called “emergency law”.
The declaration of these historic photographs to be a “monument” is not simple hypocrisy of the Ministry of Culture, but rather shows the meaning that the current government ascribes to “monuments”. For the government which gives land water and land to American interests and to the oligarchs, which prepares the modern Akronafplia camps in the form of eight new prisons, which is to blame for the deaths of hundreds of refugees and immigrants, which threatens independent journalism, which paves the way for new Idionyma with anti-communist korones2, “monument” means distortion of the history of the resistance.
For the government of the New Penal Code, of the executive state, of PREDATOR3, of OPEKEPE4, of Tempi,5 of the extreme repression, which gave the Byzantine Museum to the Glücksberg family for a dinner party; for the government of the vile shamelessness which grips the ruling class, “monument” means oblivion in the historical memory.
For the government of the political progeny of the Nazi collaborators and of the Tagmata Asfaleias6, is it possible to respect this historical memory?
Today, the same government is trying to constrain the Community of Squatted Prosfygika of Alexandras Avenue, with the pretext of the creation of social housing and hosting structures for companions of the Agios Savvas cancer hospital. The Prosfygika buildings on Alexandras Ave., a remaining monument of contemporary history because of the marks of bullets and mortar shells from the battles of the Dekemvriana7, are threatened to be plundered in the name of gentrification of the broader Ampelokipoi area. Along with them, the plunder of historical memory as well as the continuity of the resistance.
But what is the Community of Squatted Prosfygika? What does it represent? Why is it such a great danger for the Mitsotakis government? What are the stakes?
In these 16 years of its operation, the Community of Prosfygika has reinforced the participation of individuals in shared issues through direct-democratic processes in regular assemblies, plenary conferences, and a plethora of social solidarity structures. Structures for housing, for food, for health, for education and childcare. Structures for hosting cancer patients who are hospitalized at the Agios Savvas cancer hospital along with their companions. Structures for women’s empowerment, culture, art, technical support for occupants, and many others.
Just as in the period of the occupation, until the end of the Dekemvriana, the “National Solidarity” organization was the one that organized bread lines, built daycares, pharmacies, clinics, hospitals, and houses, while the political ancestors of the contemporary elite lined up with the [Axis] occupiers; so today, the structures that suffer the most severe criminalization and repression are those which really try to solve the social problems that the elite has created.
Just as after the Dekemvriana they closed and demolished with explosives the offices of “National Solidarity”, arrested and imprisoned its officials, destroyed and looted its structures; so today in the same way they make attempts at the social solidarity structures. This is the main reason for the attacks by the Mitsotakis government on the Community of Prosfygika.
Prosfygika is not a monument only because it is marked by the English bullets and mortar shells that butchered the Athenian people. Prosfygika was the place where, hidden away, the resistance forces set their ambush of the Ethnofylaki [“national guard”] whο were on their way to free the collaborators in the Averof prisons8. It was the passage used for the destruction of the warehouses in the English barracks. It was a disputed territory between opposing forces. It was another place of uprooted refugees that formed the backbone of the resistance.
Today, the members of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika are under constant attack because of their participation in social resistances, in the Tempi movement, in marches in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in mobilizations on the 6th of December and 17th of November9, because of their social proposal and actions against the policies of barbarity.
If we accepted that the Prosfygika buildings are merely a “monument,” empty of content, that the 200 of Kaisariani are merely a “monument” as defined by the Ministry of Culture, it would be like spitting on the monuments and memorials of those who resisted. It would be like spitting in the face of the downtrodden sectors of society who groan from the anti-social policies of those in power.
It is our duty to continue to exist so that we can strengthen and broaden the world of community, social self-organization, and solidarity in the face of policies of obscurantism, corruption, and repression.
In the face of the political descendants of the collaborators and the Tagmata Asfaleias, we honor the 200 people executed in Kaisariani on May Day 1944. We honor the historical memory of Prosfygika, certain that we are on the right path.
1[The term idionymo in Greek refers to a specific kind of law. However, the Idionymon of Venezelis refers to a law proposed by the liberal-democrat Eleftherios Venizelos in 1929, also known as Law 4229.In an article on Unicorn Riot, Nikos Georgiades cites Neni Panourgiá’s Dangerous Citizens: “the Idionymon ‘decreed that those ideas that have at their basis the violent overturn of the political system constitute a danger’ and that this also applied to ‘nonviolent means, such as the development, dissemination, and application of theories and ideas’.”]
2[Singular korona, in music it is when a singer holds on a single note for a long time, often at the end of a phrase. Metaphorically, here Aristotelis suggests emphasis and perhaps ultimate intent.]
3[Predator is a spyware developed by Cytrox, a malware/digital surveillance company with ties to the Israeli Occupation Forces. This program has been used in recent years to spy on Greek journalists and the leader of PASOK, Greece’s socialist opposition party.]
4[OPEKEPE is a Greek government agency that handles distribution of certain funds among other things. Specifically, it oversaw the distribution of European farming subsidies within Greece. In May 2025 it was revealed that OPEKEPE had paid these funds out in “subsidies for nonexistent sheep and goats on the island of Crete and banana plantations on Mount Olympus”. See: https://www.dw.com/en/greek-government-in-crisis-after-eu-subsidy-scandal/a-73095982]
5[On February 28, 2023, a passenger train and a freight train collided head on at Tempi, in central Greece. Fifty-seven people were killed in the crash, and in an audio recording that came out afterward, a person can be heard yelling “I don’t have oxygen!”. This, along with the fireball created by the crash and evidence at the scene later, has led Vassilis Kokotsakis, the expert on the side of the families seeking justice, to conclude that the explosion and asphyxiation resulted from chemicals carried illegally on the freight train. The anniversaries of this tragedy have brought tens to hundreds of thousands to the streets of Athens.]
7[The “Events of December” in 1944. Germany had withdrawn from Greece in October of that year, which brought the the fore tensions between forces that had been resisting the occupation. On December 1, the British Lieutenant-general Ronald Scobie ordered the communist EAM-ELAS to disarm. A demonstration was called against this order, and the Greek police and gendarmes fired into the crowd, killing 28 and wounding 148. This led to armed confrontations throughout December, between the EAM-ELAS on one side and the Greek police and British armed forces on the other.]
8[The prisons at Averof were located at the present site of the Supreme Court of Athens, which is right next to Prosfygika, on the same side of Alexandras Ave.]
9[December 6, 2008: the date on which 15-year-old anarchist Alexis Grigoropoulos was killed by the pig Korkoneas in the Exarcheia neighborhood of Athens. November 17, 1973: the date of the uprising against the military junta at Athens Polytechnic.]
Today, on March 11, the Hungerstrike of Aristotelis Chantzis has reached day 35.
The different works in the Community of Squatted Prosfygika are continuing to develop.
Today we also commemorate Berkin Elvan, a Kurdish revolutionary who was murdered in 2018 in the age of 15 by the Turkish Police while he went to buy bread. The collective bakery of Prosfygika is named after him.
Interview with two Members of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika, Greece’s largest squat and a political project that has been ongoing for 16 years. Around 400 people live in the community and experiment with new structures of cohabitation.
The Community is highly influenced by the Kurdish movement and its concept of Democratic Confederalism. It provides insights into how self-organization and the establishment of autonomous structures within a capitalist society can be possible and what problems such a project faces.
Who has been on a hunger strike since February 5th, 2026 (Day 30).
During the physical examination, intensifying signs of orthostatic hypotension and tachycardia upon rising are observed.
The hunger striker has lost a total of 15.5% of his initial body weight. Blood tests indicate low serum urea levels and reversible hypoglycemic episodes accompanied by numbness in the upper limbs. These findings are consistent with starvation.
It is clear that hunger striker A. Chantzis, now on the 30th day of his hunger strike, faces a risk of serious complications as he is in a state of prolonged fasting. He presents increasing cardiovascular and metabolic risks and faces an escalating danger of complications and arrhythmia’s.
His demands express the collective demands of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika at Av. Alexandras and are as follows:
IMMEDIATE CANCELLATION OF THE CONTRACT FOR THE “REDEVELOPMENT” OF THE PROSFYGIKA BUILDINGS BY THE REGIONAL GOVERNMENT OF ATTICA, AND OF THE PLANNING FOR THE SUPPRESSION AND EVACUATION OF THE COMMUNITY OF SQUATTED PROSFYGIKA.
THAT ALL RESIDENTS OF PROSFYGIKA REMAIN IN THEIR HOMES, IN THE PLACE AND THE AREA WHERE THEY LIVE AND HAVE CONNECTED SOCIALLY, CULTURALLY, AND ORGANICALLY.
THAT TANGIBLE GUARANTEES BE GIVEN FOR THE RESTORATION OF TPROSFYGIKA BY THE NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION (NPO) “RESIDENTS AND FRIENDS OF PROSFYGIKA AV. ALEXANDRAS REFUGEE HOUSING NPO” WITH ITS OWN FUNDING! – NOT A SINGLE EURO OF PUBLIC MONEY FOR THE “REDEVELOPMENT” OF PROSFYGIKA!
Hunger striker A. Chantzis declares that he does not intend to stop his abstention from food until the above demands are met. It is the responsibility of the competent authorities to immediately satisfy these demands, given the continuously deteriorating health of the hunger striker.
Solidarity Medical Team Health Structure of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika at Av. Alexandras
On 14th of March, the Community or Squatted Prosfygika is calling to the streets of Athens for a massive demonstration in solidarity with its struggle against the state plans of plundering and eviction.
In this spirit of resistance we call for everyone to engage in actions of solidarity on the same day, to show the Greek state and Europe that this is our common struggle and we will win! Long live internationalist solidarity!
We call on you to organize gatherings, posterings, solidarity events or to get creative. If you do something, please take photos and videos, upload them on Instagram with us as collaborator and send them to us
On 11th of February 2026 the Community of Squatted Prosfygika together with the Committee for the promotion and defense of the Community and its collective memory organized a press conference in the Athens Association of Lawyers. In this press conference, which was about the plan of defense of the Community against the new plan of the state regarding the evacuation of the neighborhood, participated members of the Community and the Committee together with two lawyers from the alternative intervention of lawyers of Athens trading union, Kostas Papadakis and Panagiotis Antoniou. In addition, in the discussion intervened two professors of the school of architecture of Athens, Stavros Stavridis and Tasis Papaioannou, the lawyers Anny Paparrousou and Thanasis Kabagiannis and the architect member of the united initiative against auctions Tonia Katerini.
In this short video, our comrade gives a description about the history of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika. which exists for 16 years since 2010, but the communal way of living exists for thousands of years.
Yesterday evening we had the first open assembly about the state of emergency in the community, which was also the first big open call we had since the start of the hungerstrike on Thursday. The assembly had massive participation by several hundred people. Numerous organizations, from different parts of the movement, made statements supporting the community in the current struggle. The assembly showed a big strength and unity in face of the attacks of the state.
After the assembly the cops provoked and terrorized the neighborhood by positioning them on the exits of the neighborhood and constant drone presence over our heads. After an intervention from us they left. Their weak attempt of provocation can not change the fact how successful and important the evening was for us.
Today we are in the fifth day of the hungerstrike which is going strong. We will have a press conference on Wednesday, which will also be live-streamed in Greek. We will try to add subtitles as fast as possible and then send it also here.
We thank you for all the solidarity and support we received the past days!
During the summer of 2025, secretly, the Region of Attica, through a programmatic agreement, initiated the planning for the repression and eviction of the Community of the Squatted Prosfygika on Alexandras Avenue.
With the beginning of 2026, it set in motion the new phase of its plan, using paid articles by government mouthpieces and promoting all the steps that foresee the violent eviction of the Community of Prosfygika within the next six months and — as usual — a major feast of public money.
Over the last decade, this is the fourth time that the state and the government have attempted to evict and plunder Prosfygika. This time appears to be the most serious and is about to be implemented immediately. All indications show that there is a plan that provides both the funding of the project—whose total estimated cost amounts to €15 million with European funding from the Attica Regional ESPA 2021–2027—and, at the level of propaganda, the supposed creation of social housing and hostels for relatives of patients of the anticancer “St. Savvas” Hospital, attempting to exploit social sensitivities and reflexes.
They will not succeed, this time either!
Prosfygika constitutes a Community of more than 400 people—Greeks, refugees, and migrants—including 50 children, vulnerable social groups, people with serious mental health issues, cancer patients, elderly people etc. Over its 16 years of operation, drug dealing and production spots—including hard drugs—that had plagued the neighborhood with the tolerance of GADA (General Police Administration of Attica) have been removed, and 22 autonomous structures of social self-sufficiency, benefit, and self-organization have been established for the people of the Community and the wider areas of Ambelokipi and Gkyzi.
Indicatively, we mention:
The Children’s House and Self-Education Structure and the Self- Organized Nursery School, operating daily with a full educational program for the children of the Community of Prosfygika and the widerneighborhood, in direct cooperation with schools, parents’ associations, and teachers’ unions in Ambelokipi, across Attica, and nationwide.
The Health Structure and Social Pharmacy, offering care to neighborhood residents in need, in cooperation with dozens of self-organized health structures, social clinics, and healthcare workers’ unions in panhellenic level.
The Hosting Structure for Patients and their Companions from the Anticancer Hospital “St. Savvas” , in cooperation with the hospital employees’ association.
The Collective Bakery Structure “Berkin Elvan” producing bread and pastries daily for residents of the neighborhood and all of Athens.
The Technical Works Structure for the continuous maintenance of Prosfygika buildings.
The Collective Café and Cinema Structure for children and adults, offering entertainment and contributing to the cultural development of residents of the neighborhood and Athens more broadly.
The Social Center, which hosts the Community’s weekly general decision making assembly and the Library and Reading Room Structure of the neighborhood. Over the years it has also hosted numerous events, presentations, and assemblies of social, political, and cultural character, both of the Community and of other social groups and collectives.
The Women’s Structure, aimed at the collectivization and
empowerment of women and femininities, the creation and
dissemination of a culture opposed to the patriarchal system, also
functioning as an emergency shelter for women and femininities in
need.
The Solidarity Crew, hosted within the Community’s infrastructure,
which provides food five days a week to dozens of people in the center of
Athens.
All Community structures are open to everyone and operate on the basis of self-organization and social solidarity.
Already within the last year, the Community has publicly announced its decision to carry out the external renovation of the Prosfygika buildings, through self-financing and with the participation and support of architects, civil engineers, and other technical specialists. The Region’s plan is a response intended to preempt this social initiative in order to lay hands on public money.
This new attempt by the Region constitutes a central political directive and decision of the Mitsotakis regime to dismantle the largest social project currently existing within the urban fabric of Athens—and nationwide—and one of the largest in Europe, which has attracted the attention and interest of universities and cultural and educational institutions in Greece and abroad.
Beyond its social character, the Community of Prosfygika, has consistently been on the front line of social, political, class-based, and internationalist struggles, while militants from Greece, Europe, and revolutionary organizations from Turkey and Kurdistan also reside within the Community.
The Mitsotakis regime sees Prosfygika both as a political opponent it seeks to destroy and as an economic asset it dreams of plundering and exploiting.
This is a political decision that, behind the lies about “neighborhood development,” aims at expelling people and dismantling social models of self- organization and social contribution. It is clear that, among other things, it is yet another pre-election trick by a collapsing government whose only remaining product is the doctrine of “law and order.”
They are liars when they claim the Region cares about social housing. Prosfygika already constitute social housing for hundreds of people whom the crisis pushed onto the streets and the collapse of all social structures forced into misery and marginalization. Their plan to throw more than 400 people onto the streets in order to accommodate 50 of their own is the height of hypocrisy and inhumanity of a system that cares exclusively about its own profit and the plunder of public and European funds. It is a shameless excuse to loot already-existing social housing in the name of new social housing, while 80,000 vacant apartments owned by the Municipality of Athens remain empty and unused in the city center.
They are liars when they claim the Region cares about the relatives of cancer patients whom the Community has hosted and cared for for years — people who often sleep in their cars for days or weeks whiletheir loved ones undergo long-term treatments. The Community of Prosfygika already provides healthy living conditions and support through its own labor and resources. The Region plans to throw relatives of cancer patients onto the streets while setting up clientalist relationships with people in need. At the sametime, countless properties owned by the state and the Church lie just a few blocks away from Prosfygika.
They are liars when they claim the Region cares about social issues in the neighborhood, when the Prosfygika is an example of harmonious coexistence of people from all over the world—27 different nationalities and corresponding languages, cultures, and religions. It is the only neighborhood adjacent to an OKANA (Drug Addiction Treatment Organization) unit without a drug dealing hotspot. The only public safety problem in the area is the policies of GADA and the Ministry of Public Order, which periodically invade the neighborhood with tear gas — bordering two hospitals — to dismantle a self-organized Community promoting a different model of social equality and justice.
They are liars when they claim to care about the utilization of Prosfygika and the development of Ambelokipi. The redevelopment of Prosfygika will cause rents and living costs to skyrocket across the area, forcibly displacing dozens and hundreds of our neighbors who cannot withstand the high cost of life. This condition will gradually affect all surrounding areas, changing the social composition by displacing existing residents in favor of the wealthier.
We call on every person with conscience and empathy to stand beside the Community of Prosfygika, against the plans of eviction and plunder of this historic neighborhood of resistance, self-organization, and refuge.
We call on everyone to mobilize and communicate our struggle in their neighborhood, family and social circles, schools, unions, and workplaces, to protect Prosfygika from the predatory plans of government grand swindlers.
Those who did not care about the lives of 57 people on the trains. Those who have turned Greece into Europe’s dumping ground. Those who have dismantled every social structure and public service of health, education, housing, and culture. Those who let so many people die during COVID. Those who have reduced farmers and the countryside to beggars. Those who have driven half a million young people out of the country over the past decade.None of them deserve any trust regarding Prosfygika, and everyone must know the dirty plans hidden behind their words.
The eviction and repression of the Prosfygika will have incalculable consequences for the mental and physical health of dozens of children, elderly people, and patients in the Community. Many of them will not be alive in the year following the eviction—by responsibility of the government and its agents.
The eviction and repression of the Refugee Housing will also affect the movement and all ongoing struggles, as every liberated space that is lost is a blow to the common struggle against exploitation and injustice experienced by nearly all of society.
For our part, we have a responsibility and a duty to defend the homes we have cared for selflessly for years as if they were our own, keeping alive a national and architectural monument that state planning would have allowed to collapse in order to profit from its reconstruction. We have a responsibility and a duty to defend the people of our Community, who would otherwise end up sleeping in cardboard boxes, in hunger and misery.
We publicly declare that we will not give up a single inch of land to the regime and its companies, and that we will fight with all our strength to practically cancel their dirty plans — even with our lives. We have a historical and social duty to struggle and to continue.
We will ensure that the enormous cost we are forced to bear to protect our neighborhood and Community will be even greater for the government and its agents.
IF WE FALL, WE WILL FALL ON THEIR HEADS
We call on:
Everyone, individuals, collectives, unions, associations, organizations, to do everything possible to break the operation of repression and eviction Prosfygika
Everyone, individuals, collectives, structures, initiatives, to stand alongside or come to live in Prosfygika.
Everyone to remain vigilant against possible provocations by the state and police, who will attempt to divide and break the Community and our common struggle.
NO PROSFYGIKA FOR MITSOTAKIS AND HIS COMPANIES – PROSFYGIKA OF
SOCIAL RESISTANCE, SELF-ORGANIZATION, EQUALITY, AND SOLIDARITY
NOT A SINGLE EURO OF PUBLIC MONEY FOR THE REDEVELOPMENT OF PROSFYGIKA
FULL RESPONSIBILITY TO THE COMMUNITY – SELF-FUNDED AND SELF ORGANIZED
HANDS OFF PROSFYGIKA
EITHER WE WIN, OR WE WIN
We invite you to an Open Solidarity Assembly with the Community of Squatted Prosfygika, for detailed information about the situation and the plan of defense for the neighborhood and the Community.
Sunday 8/2, 17:00 at the Social Center of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika, Degleri & Alexandras Av.
Assembly of Squatted Prosfygika Alexandras Av. (SY.KA.PRO.)
