By Amy Abdalla
ATHENS – On an afternoon in June, a German researcher, a Croatian couple on vacation and an American journalism student gathered outside of what looked like an abandoned building. “Maybe this is when they ambush us,” one man joked while banging on the chained doors.
The German pulled out her mobile phone and displayed a photo of a poster, to reassure everyone they were in the right place. Copies of the red and black poster were plastered on walls across Exarcheia, Athens’ anarchist-controlled neighborhood, and announced a gathering to discuss the eviction of refugees from abandoned buildings in Greece.
Intrigued, each of these foreigners had made his or her way to the Gini building of Polytechnic University at 6 p.m., just as the poster prescribed. What they hadn’t realized was that anarchists aren’t known for being punctual.
The group bided its time by examining the graffiti that caked the outside of the building. Political statements on issues including LGBTQ rights, anti-war sentiment, migrant inclusion and anarchist power covered almost every inch of the once-cream-colored campus.
