LETTER FROM CHRISTOS STRATIGOPOULOS TO NEW GREEK MINISTER OF JUSTICE

LETTER FROM CHRISTOS STRATIGOPOULOS TO NEW GREEK MINISTER OF JUSTICE HARIS KASTANIDIS

Dear Minister

I am an anarchist recently imprisoned in Amfissa prison. Obviously, I am as related with socialism as you are with anti-authoritarianism. I say this because I have just heard that Mr George Papandreou insisted that his new ministers ‘behave as antiauthoritarians towards authority’.

Personally, I have always been a supporter of specific actions and not on the contrary of abstract words and that is the reason why I presently find myself in prison and not, naturally, for ideological reasons.

I do not wish to tire you with my words, esteemed minister of justice, but I say to you directly that if I had the possibility to decide for the prison system personally I would destroy everything or at least close everything. Personally I have the possibility of dreaming of a different form of social restitution of debt, of so-called justice, that I cannot imagine you would ever be in a position to support. But I want to inform you, if you don’t already know it, that Greek prisons, especially this one of Amfissa where I am presently being held, are one step away from the Nazi concentration camps or the corresponding gulags that existed in the countries of so-called real socialism. As new minister of justice, if you were to visit the prisons you could not fail to confirm the truth of my words.

Finally I want to ask one last question. What do you intend to do about the present conditions in Greek prisons Mr Minister? Do you want to continue to coop men up like mice or are you indeed able to create I don’t say good but at least acceptable conditions for all prisoners. You know perhaps that the very custodians of your laws refer to the prison of Amfissa as a crematorium.

With much reflection

Christos Stratigopoulos