“Steeped in history and struggles, this neighbourhood belongs to its inhabitants and occupants”, say founders Eva and Nicolas
~ Patrick Schindler, Le Monde Libertaire ~
Opening a new activist space in Exarcheia has a significant dimension. This historic district of resistance to the dictatorship, and today to gentrification, is particularly threatened by the Greek government and developers. Squats evicted and migrants controlled, permanent presence of police forces and muscular surveillance.
It is against the current of the urban transformations underway in the centre of Athens that Eva and Nicolas decided to launch a new solidarity and activist initiative in this district, and have just opened a café-library, a meeting place open to people that the government wants to chase away from there: La Zone, at rue Soultani 17 in Athens.
But let’s start with my meeting with Nicholas, thanks to two activists from the Nevers Anarchist Federation who came to Greece with a solidarity convoy.
Drawing a portrait of Nicolas Richen is quite simple because it is made easier by the foreword of his book The Buds of Hope of a Terrible Greek Winter. He explains to us how when he was a student in Quebec, the Maple Spring in 2012 (the largest student movement in Quebec history) made him aware of “our collective strength”, the basis of his political commitment. This ultimately led him to Greece in 2016 “to learn, observe and participate in self-managed collectives”.
It was in Ioannina (Epirus) that he met his accomplice, the photographer Antonia Gouma, and they decided to take portraits of some “victims of the austerity measures decreed in the early 2010s by European banks and the Troika “. A sulphurous context, aggravated by the rise of xenophobia, fascism and the extreme right in reaction to the influx of refugees in Greece. A series of photos, “The cry of the street“, introduces this series of live testimonies. One is one dedicated to Anastasia, a 56-year-old divorced woman, a former art teacher “with a broken life”. Then come those of young people who are part of the “exodus generation”, 4% of Greeks, many of whom emigrated between 2008 and 2016.
So why did many of them—often students doing low-paid jobs to survive—decide to stay, to continue fighting and not to lose hope?
This is what Sofia, the convinced, frank and passionate anarchist, or Fotini, a shy and anxious young girl, in solidarity with the refugees, will explain to us. Or Zografia, curious about the world but, unlike the others, still trusting the electoral process and the parties’ demonstrations.
Between two series of photos, Nicolas tells us about his participation in the march of November 17, 2016, in memory of the student uprising against the dictatorship in 1973. An edifying insight into the presence and repression of the police in Athens.
Then come the testimonies of Nikos, Manos, son of a worker, Ilirida, originally from Albania, or Rania, who joined after the police murder of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in 2008. All trying to finish their studies, forced into small makeshift jobs and often living with their family.
But with what prospects for them? Escape the deadly circle of capitalism, reclaim language, build a new collective imagination? From the struggle can be born many popular initiatives, free without conditions and self-managed: from social kitchens to residential squats to health clinics.
Finally, Nicolas takes stock of these testimonies “as so many echoes of a hope beyond generations and borders “.
We can also discover a more intimate Nicolas Richen in Des nuits et des étoiles, feu et vagabondage dans la ville , his collection of poems dating from 2022, dedicated to all alley cats with the stated objective of “sharing certain fragments of emotions and aspirations”.
The political commitment of Eva Betavatzi, the second person behind the La Zone space, dates back to 2015, when she joined the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts in Brussels, and then worked there from 2018 to 2021. The ‘Greek crisis’ was already well established. Her meeting with Mamadou Bah, a Guinean activist who had been attacked by Golden Dawn and had taken refuge in Belgium, was decisive and forged Eva’s conviction that the fight against illegitimate debt was an integral part of the anti-colonial and anti-fascist struggle. At that time, the last Nazi leader of Golden Dawn, a member of the European Parliament, also moved freely in Brussels with complete impunity. Eva then campaigned in Belgium in anti-eviction groups and for the cancellation of rents during the first lockdown and then for the reduction of rents in Brussels.
These experiences led her to Athens in 2021, but above all made her think a lot about her first job as an architect. Today, she practices it voluntarily in the service of causes other than commercial ones, such as renovating in 2022, with Nicolas and other comrades, the ground floor of one of the oldest Athenian squats.
Is opening a new place of exchange in Exarcheia, in the form of a café-library, an act of resistance to gentrification for you?
Yes, but we would first like to point out that the Athenian anarchist movement is seriously lacking space. One could say that it is “too cramped” within the city walls. In addition, in recent years we have witnessed a deprivation of spaces since the election of Mitsotakis and the strengthening of gentrification. Many squats have been evicted since 2018-2019 and quite a few activist groups are struggling to find new buildings and even to rent premises with the skyrocketing prices of rent and electricity. From a more sociological perspective, the struggle and survival of squats in Athens necessarily raises the question of the multiplication of meeting spaces and conviviality, not only in Exarcheia, but everywhere in the city, in order to effectively combat the spread of all-out commercialisation.
Opening such a place from scratch must represent a huge financial challenge, not to mention the paperwork?
Yes, for La Zone , it is a bit of a “Do it yourself” challenge, because we initially only had a very small investment budget. But in DIY , we must include the real solidarity movement that was spontaneously established from the start of the work. Thanks to the support of many comrades and friends, we acquired skills in painting, carpentry, plumbing, electricity, etc. We were able to count on the help of the resourceful people used to squats, on our friendly relations, on getting by, on spontaneous support, especially from other cafés in the neighbourhood. For transporting materials and recycling: our arms, supermarket trolleys and a car from Brussels!
We also had to learn how to use a coffee machine, do accounting and orders… other things that may seem like trinkets, but are nevertheless crucial. For the administrative side, yes, we can talk about a Kafkaesque journey, particularly in Greece. Getting directions to the right procedure, the right office, and especially the right tips so as not to get lost indefinitely in the bureaucratic labyrinth, etc. Small and big hassles requiring a lot of energy.
What does your stock include today in terms of books and magazines?
For the moment, we have benefited from many donations, particularly from the anarchist and radical left in countries such as Belgium, France, Serbia, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, etc. But also spontaneous deposits from individuals, publications from local collectives, the press, literature, posters and even recipe books!
Why did you choose the name La Zone ?
The story began when we were looking for premises in the Kypseli district further west of the city where there is a street called “Sainte Zone”, hence the play on words. But for us, La Zone is also a snub to the spaces for the bourgeoisie. But we can also see it as “joyous mess” or even a reference to Zone à Défendre (ZAD) or a Zone without borders! We chose a French word because we wanted to be a place of primarily Greek and French-speaking expression (and at most multilingual in the longer term). Finally, La Zone fits well with the idea of DIY and the warm aspect of a lounge to hang out without having to consume.
How did the inauguration go on September 7?
There was a lot of joy and it was to our great surprise that we managed to bring together around 80 participants. It was, it must be said, a great sport. We had to improvise as bar tenders and animators. People had brought their favourite poems to read. It was very positive, we received gifts, people we didn’t know bought books, lots of exchanges and common desires, projects for rebetiko evenings or film screenings, poetry evenings or writing workshops, translation and collective learning…
Athens is a very large city, for you, is the atomisation of the places of struggle a handicap or on the contrary an opportunity? And what do you think of the Greek anarchist movement?
The atomisation of the anarchist movement can be seen in a positive way as an escape from centralisation. Given what happened in Exarcheia in recent years, it is not necessarily a bad thing. When you think that today some “tour operators” allow themselves to visit the neighbourhood as if it were an “alternative” zoo, not to mention the voyeurism of misery! But as for the Athenian movement, not all anarchist groups have the same conception of anarchy, far from it. Here we see criticism from both sides of various groups. Some have a pyramidal organisation, for others it is less the case. There is also a problem here with the machismo still very anchored in our circles. The same goes for racism. This is the feeling shared with many queer or non-queer comrades and those fighting with refugees.
But what should be noted is the real solidarity during the strong mobilisations, as was the case in 2022 when thousands of people, comrades, assemblies and anarchist, autonomous and even left-wing groups took to the streets of the centre against the metro construction site on the only square in the Exarcheia neighbourhood and against the permanent presence of the cops. This is the most recent period of massive mobilisations for the defence of the neighbourhood. The barricades were set up at least one evening a week and nights of clashes took place. Today, the anarchists gather a little less massively, the movement has lost space but also energy, and the repression is stronger than before, in particular because of the recent revision of the penal code which authorises the cops to do almost anything. Athens remains a place where there is a lot of resistance from below: something happens every day. But let’s never idealise radical spheres, neither in Greece nor in France for that matter.
One last question, what are your dreams, your hopes?
Eva: it would be that the people from the last squats in the neighbourhood mix with other groups and activists, because since gentrification, Exarcheia is no longer very welcoming for migrants, especially with the constant police presence. For this, the multiplication of meeting places and also self-managed living spaces is more than necessary.
Nicolas: I don’t like the term hope anymore, because it often locks us into a wait-and-see attitude. I would be happy if our new space contributed to creating new relationships of solidarity and anti-authoritarianism to build immediate actions, relationships of mutual care, beyond all forms of borders. Living in such a metropolis and in an often dystopian reality, it is this everyday neighborhood solidarity and internationalist relationships that allow us not to go “crazy”. Whether in Athens or elsewhere in the world, queer, feminist, decolonial, anti-racist/anti-fascist and ecological struggles are intertwined. This is what gives collective strength and a subversive joy to move forward.
Photos: Nicolas Richen. Machine translation edited by Uri Gordon.
