Table Of ContentXQPOL
(xoros)
Terms 1
My First Detainment 1
This is a Piece of the Fiction 9
The Revolutionary Project 28
Back to Bachala 55
KouKouA.oq>opm-Hoods 68
The Story of the Liberation
of a Migrant 77
I1pooq>uyu<a (Prosfygika) 93
International Psychosis 104
Works Cited 111
Terms
X@pos (xoros)
Generally defined as space, an opening, a
place of encounter and a place where a
crack has been cut or ignored, where resis
tance (friction) occurs. It also refers more
generally to the milieu, the movement, the
people engaged in radical actions, and of
ten with conflicting people and theories. So,
the term xoros both refers to the people in
anarchist and other 'opening' movements,
the movements themselves, the general at
mosphere/ aura they carry with them, and
the space in which they operate and build.
It is an almost ecological term, in that it
envelops. the system/ environment and its
parts/ functionaries .
.MJTaxa.A.a (bachala)
A slang word, that generally refers to mess,
or the making of a mess. In the political con
text (and on the streets of Exarchia) it has
become inextricably tied to riots, riot mak-
ers, and the space rioters create with their ac
tions. Its associations are lumpen: dirtiness,
chaos, uncontrollable energy, trash, hoo
liganism, poverty, theft, revenge, raucous
fun, cathartic release (of an almost sexual
orgasmic quality), and indiscriminate de
struction/ attack. Things that we associate
here in America with racialized terms meant
to invoke fear of the class below the work
ing class, the (badly) hidden and uncontrol
lable (tightly monitored) people who do not
work, and emerge in the narrative and in the
mainstage of images during any crisis as an
object of fascination and distinction. Bachala
has its own walk and timing. This image is
often the one associated with the colloquial
caricature of anarchy.
KovKovA.ocpop17 (koukoulofori)
Literally, the hooded ones, the hoods, the
hooded. An image mostly drafted by the
mainstream media of the people who make
bachala. It was meant to dissuade people
from entering the streets and investigating/
ii
meeting rioters, especially with the insurrec
tion of 2008, by creating a character who was
dangerous, irrational, not to be interacted
with, who thirsts for violence and destruction
at all costs (kinda a caricature of nihilism as
well). It is also meant to discredit the political
aims of anarchists, and to just paint them as
violence hungry hooligans. After the insur
rections of 2008 and the public disillusion
ment of the Syriza party of Greece, the kouk
oulofori became almost a cult icon, a folk hero,
associated with rebellion, all things against
capitalism and the system. This character
often appears in a hood, with a t-shirt mask,
and knock-off Adidas apparel (the kind that
you can buy off the streets from north Afri
can migrants), often equipped with a rock
or molotov, and weaponized words (curses).
Anarchists for the most part seem to distance
themselves from the word, partly because it
was produced by the mainstream media, and
partly because it is associated with hooligan
type behavior. Others see the word as an im
age of viral potential.
iii
Anarcho-Tourist
This was me. Anarchists in Greece generally
divide this category into two types. One is
people who come to enjoy the autonomy and
lifestyle the anarchists have developed in Ex
archia and Athens more generally (collective
kitchens, squats, liberated sexual practices,
etc.), who are usually painted as hippies
who do yoga in the square and smoke weed
all day. They sometimes participate in riots,
but mostly come to live it up. The other type
is the more 'serious' anarchists, who came to
Athens to help, learn, participate, and spread
the knowledge being generated in Athens
internationally. These types usually get into
some serious shit, but not too serious, just
enough to whet their whistles and become
addicted to action, and to the imagination
fostered in the safety of a liberated space,
one created in the cancerous body of a failed
state. (I'm sure the politicians would say that
anarchy was that cancer and that Exarchia is
the largest tumor.) I guess the other type of
anarcho-tourist is the nark, but they gener-
iv
ally fit into either of the two categories, most
likely the more serious one. At first I was ac
cused of being an Interpol agent, but was in
vited to participate in actions and assemblies
anyways. As someone told me, "I have no
problem with undercover cops, we are very
similar. We are both infiltrators."
Kara.Arp17p (katalipsi)
Refers to squats. Literally it means under
taking, or against-taking. In the neighbor
hood of Exarchia there are around twenty
squats. They serve as fortresses, operations
of attack and defense, locations for collec
tive kitchens and assemblies, places where
parties can be put together, or movie screen
ings can happen, they serve as both commu
nity centers/meeting places and as places
where the literal resources for survival and
revolution can be built and kept (weapons
storage, their planning, beds for those who
need them, libraries, computers, etc.). They
are also usually associated with a certain
clique, or coalition of cliques, with their own
v
