On 3 November 1896, in Patras, sandal-maker Dimitris Matsalis (or Matsanis by some, originated from Argos, a town of Eastern Peloponnese), who had attended the theatre play " William the Porter" which was played on in Patras at the time by an Italian troupe, and in which the power of wealth revealed outweighing any feeling of justice, attacked by a knife at Independence Avenue (todays Gerokostopoulos Street) against two renowned local figures. By his hits was killed on the spot the banker Dionysis Frangopoulos and seriously injured raisin trader Andreas Collas.
Matsalis was immediately arrested and during the initial interrogation he explained clearly his anarchist ideas, saying: "I would kill Collas or anyone else. I have nothing with him, as I have nothing with Frangopoulos. But I am against this society’s inequalities and whoever was in front of me would pay for this ...».
The first interrogation of Dimitris Matsalis lasted several hours. There, he defended his ideas, saying: "What I did was for the sake of the idea. Nobody pushed me. I did it by myself. By killing them I didn’t aim to the particular people, but I struck Capital. I am an anarchist, and anarchists are for violence. Christogiannopoulos * and the other socialists are ridiculous and nothing links me with those. They want to impose their ideas by persuasion, while I, as an anarchist, support terrorist violence".
On 6 November 1896, Dimitris Matsalis transferred to the prison in fortress of Patras. To the guards who accompanied him said: "I do not fear death. When I started to kill someone from this society, I knew that I would die at the end".
Since his first moments into prison he started propaganda to his fellow prisoners telling them that this society is unacceptable, that there should be a true and absolute freedom and that the laws are unnecessary and powers of all kinds must be destroyed. He was also sharing his food with the others. He did not betray or gave the name of anyone.
The event got an immense and huge publicity. Everyone everywhere began to see conspiracies. The time chronicler of the Athenian newspaper "Empros" (“Forward”) ** Yiannis Kondylakis wrote ironically enough for the anarchist movement of Patras and the rural population of the region, while most journalists named the event "The tragedy of Independence Street”.
In 5 November 1896 in “Neologos” (a daily mainstream newspaper in Patras, published a small 'interview' of D. Matsalis, from which we forward here the following excerpt:"Neologos: What is your impression by the way the press wrote about your case? Are you unhappy?Matsalis: No. The press could not write otherwise. They completed their task. If we had anarchist newspapers would write differently!Neologos: You will not disappointed by the outcome of the trial whatever will be?Matsalis: I will be unsatisfied only if they will convict me to life imprisonment. I want to be convicted to death and this will require it!“
At the same time other mainstream newspapers ("Paligennesia”, "Efimeris","Nea Efimeris",...
«Και τη στιγμή που η δομή, η ύπαρξη της εξουσίας των εκμεταλλευτών στηρίζεται καθαρά πάνω στη βία δεν αναγνωρίζουν σε μας ούτε τη στοιχειώδη αυτοάμυνα. Θέλουν να μας επιβάλουν έναν τρόπο ύπαρξης που αν τον δεχτούμε πιστεύω ότι δεν θα έχουμε κανένα δικαίωμα να λεγόμαστε άνθρωποι. Στη συνέχεια, όποιος αμφισβητεί αυτό το καλούπι κινδυνεύει να βρεθεί στη φυλακή. Χειρότερο πάντως από τη γυμνή βία της εξουσίας είναι η προπαγάνδα της, η ψυχολογική βία, αυτή που θέλει να σε πείσει εσένα τον ίδιο ότι είσαι κατηγορούμενος». Παναγιώτης Λιβερέτος
Στις 29 Γενάρη του 1977, στο λιμάνι του Ρίο ντε Τζανέιρο, το...
Η περίοδος που ξεκίνησε με την κατάρρευση της στρατιωτικής δικτατορίας - και κατά συνέπεια ολόκληρου του μετεμφυλιακού συστήματος του οποίου η δικτατορία αποτελούσε την έσχατη μορφή - σημαδεύτηκε από έντονες κοινωνικοπολιτικές συγκρούσεις που απειλούσαν τις ισορροπίες του μεταπολιτευτικού καθεστώτος, σε μια εποχή που οι φορείς της κρατικής εξουσίας - απογυμνωμένοι από το ιδεολόγημα της εθνικοφροσύνης - στερούνταν ενός συνεκτικού ιδεολογικού λόγου που να τους "νομιμοποιεί" στα μάτια της κοινωνίας, ενώ οι κομματικοί μηχανισμοί της αριστεράς βρίσκονταν ακόμα υπό ανασυγκρότηση και δε διέθεταν ισχυρά κοινωνικά ερείσματα. Σε αυτή την μεταβατική περίοδο, όπου το νέο καθεστώς κοινοβουλευτικής δικτατορίας αδυνατούσε να αποσπάσει την απαιτούμενη για την εδραίωσή...
Στο κτήριο της Ελληνικής κοινότητας της Μελβούρνης στις 18/07/2019
Με τον Ελευθεριακό στο Αυτοδιαχειριζόμενο Στέκι Πέρασμα, 22/01/2018