drug use in exarchia, athens; anarchists "beating up" users

[ed miliband]

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/vice-news/sisa-cocaine-of-the-poor-full-length

(i don't know what's wrong with me today, can hardly string a sentence together. sorry if this is rambling...)

vice have produced this documentary about a new drug being used by addicts in greece, called 'sisa'. it seems to be a mixture of methamphetamine and very nasty stuff like battery acid. the whole documentary is worth watching, but perhaps the most questionable part for me comes about 16m20s in. the journalist interviews an anarchist about the heavy drug use in exarchia, which it has been suggested was encouraged by the police. the anarchist has no shame in saying the intend to deal with drug users by "beating them up", "hitting them hard". am i a wimpy liberal for thinking this is horribly fucked up?

i've read a bit about "left-wing" actions aainst drug use - famously in ireland, but also in italy and the berlin squatting scene. whatever my thoughts on those, i always respected the fact that - in most cases - users weren't being targeted but dealers, and that alone is troublesome. plus his line, "we're macho, we're anarchists" -- wtf? was he being sarcastic?

[brigadista]

Vice docs are terrible - sensationalist and no context ever

[ed miliband]

Vice docs are terrible - sensationalist and no context ever

nah.

have you even watched it (silly question); the journalist doesn't just go "oh look there's all these people taking a new drug!", the crisis in greece is explored, and the impact this is having on organisations working with drug users is too.

anti-vice shit is so silly. maybe a few years ago, but their output has improved a lot since then. they also have a large amount of good, sound freelance journalists working for them, so it's pure bullshit to tar everything vice put out as crap.

[goalkeeper]

nah.

have you even watched it (silly question); the journalist doesn't just go "oh look there's all these people taking a new drug!", the crisis in greece is explored, and the impact this is having on organisations working with drug users is too.

anti-vice shit is so silly. maybe a few years ago, but their output has improved a lot since then. they also have a large amount of good, sound freelance journalists working for them, so it's pure bullshit to tar everything vice put out as crap.

Exactly. Vice makes some of the best documentaries being put out these days. Often the summing-up conclusion point thing is cliched bullshit, but most of the documentaries let the subject speak for themselves.

[Dr Doom]

yeah this was pretty good, especially compared to their other drug documentaries, which i think are quite shit. took this one more serious i guess.

but yeah that 'anarchist' was a tool, he sounded pretty serious about that 'we are macho' shit too, ugh. the part when he says 'they are already beaten up, theres nothing worse we can do to them', is strange, because if thats true then whats the point of beating them up ?

[ed miliband]

to me it says a lot about political / activist scenes; you're cool here if you're a anarchoid / insurrectionary / autonomist squatter, we'll police your activity if your aren't.

fucking hell, doing the work of police and golden dawn for them. macho bullshit.

[hatzel]

I can't say this is hugely surprising; we've already heard there are loads of sexists waving black flags in Greece, and with this same macho-sentiment going on. I guess it's to be expected, though, as conflict intensifies and the movement swells beyond the old ideological 'core,' there will always be some pretty rough specimens popping up in socialist/communist/anarchist/etc. movements, the question everybody needs to find an answer to being 'how do we keep the movement on track?'

[Sasha]

there is a good tradition of anarchists waging a low intensity war against by fash and cops paid harddrug dealers in the neighborhood, they dont really talk to the media (about it), doesnt surprise me if Vice found some tool who didnt really get the line between dealers and users...
and (i havent seen it) but maybe he was speaking about dealers or dealing users and that got lost in translation or on the cutting floor...

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I watched the doc. You can't help but feel sorry for the junkies using that drug. The poor kid with the snot running from his nose is clearly killing himself. He obviously hated what he was doing but the drug was the only thing left in his life. I wonder how many users would continue using if there was actually a good infrastructure to help them get over their conditions.

I think there are a number of problems going on from the anarchist commune's POV. It seems that the police were trying to chase the drug users into that area. It's also true that drug addicts can become very violent and attack people - the drug users themselves in the video talk about how the drug puts them into a violent sort of fugue. I can see why a parent or a person concerned with the safety the general community would not want people jacked up on Shisha around.

The bigger problem though is that these drug addicts are obviously the victim of the economic crisis (and addicts obviously didn't have an easy time to begin with). It's clear in the video that cuts to Greek drug programs and other social welfare important for keeping people off the streets has had an impact on the rise of this kind of activity. Obviously an anarchist commune lacks the infrastructure to take its place, but beating up drug users is not going to treat their condition, and it won't fix the social problems leading to it - the anarchist in the video has obviously written the drug users off. What these people need is love, care and attention from the community, not an asskicking from an anarchist with a testosterone problem. His "we're macho" line was pretty ridiculous and revealed his true character. I was hoping he was just kidding, but his whole attitude towards the drug users was basically the same attitude a cop would have. He was the anarchist version of a NIMBYer - he seems to care more about keeping his streets clean than fixing the social conditions that messed them up to begin with.

One more thing - did anyone notice the anti-KKE graffiti at the anarchist commune? Its written on the steps of what I think was the polytechnic institute.

[Wings Of Redemption]

One more thing - did anyone notice the anti-KKE graffiti at the anarchist commune? Its written on the steps of what I think was the polytechnic institute.

Noticed that too, from other Vice docs I've seen from Greece and from one of their HBO shows (downloaded it online since I'm not in America) it seems that the KKE and the Anarchists despise each other.

[Jimmie Higgins]

One more thing - did anyone notice the anti-KKE graffiti at the anarchist commune? Its written on the steps of what I think was the polytechnic institute.It wouldn't have to be an anarchist spot. If they had a shot of any graffiti-covered wall in Athens, then there was probably a shot of pro- and anti- and pro, but then crossed out KKE graffiti.


there is a good tradition of anarchists waging a low intensity war against by fash and cops paid harddrug dealers in the neighborhood, they dont really talk to the media (about it), doesnt surprise me if Vice found some tool who didnt really get the line between dealers and users...
and (i havent seen it) but maybe he was speaking about dealers or dealing users and that got lost in translation or on the cutting floor...

This sounds a bit like wishful thinking. I've met a few young people in my area where they're totally sincere and totally identify with revolutionary ideas and have part of the picture, but then will just also have some severe thing they can't get over against homeless people or drug-users or something. Whenever there's a thread about drugs on RevLeft someone comes out and is like, "they should all be banned, it destroys people's lives, my dad was an addict... etc". Dealing with tons of poverty and wreaked people all around you takes a toll. Dealing with the craziness of capitalist life - and I'm sure it's at it's upper-middle level of craziness in Greece these days - fucks with people and I think can pull them in different directions at the same time.