A few words about the Exarchia riots on 12th April 2025

In the evening of April 12th, we chose to confront the forces of repression in the streets of Exarchia. This conflict erupted in a climate of intense police presence in the neighbourhood by the state and attempts to instill fear among those who resist.

Exarchia constitutes an area claimed by the state and capital of all kinds (tourist-hotels, restaurants, bars, construction, housing-real estate, airbnb). By fast-track procedures, especially since ND has been at the helm of the state but also with increased acceleration from the covid and post-covid era, a relentless attack has been taking place on the characteristics of the place in an attempt to extirpate the fighting past of the movement, the insurrectional tradition and riots. Beyond the presence and attacks of the cops this is also carried out through territorial claims by the state with the eviction of the squats (in which SYRIZA was also a participant). This state/investors’ attack consists of the elements of repression toward the people in struggle, the displacement of anyone that ‘does not fit’ and cannot withstand the cost of housing and the establishing of a sterilized reality characterized by investment, over-consumption, surveillance, violent ‘touristification’, hipsterism, alternativism and police reppression.

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We publish the text “Let’s take queer history into our own hands: Ballroom Culture” in english that was written in 2023 and presented in Antiviosi squat in Ioannina. The text was translated for BAB2025. We take a look at the history and the historical context in which ballroom culture was created and flourished and how we value it as part of the queer experience. We also draw a parallel to the Transvestite pageants that were held in Greece from some available sources. The text in greek can be found here: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1623133/

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Let’s take queer history into our own hands: Ballroom Culture

The beginnings of the drag ball culture can be traced back to the second half of the 19th century in the USA. The first masquerade queer ball was held in 1869 at the Hamilton Lodge Hall in Harlem, New York, where 500 same-sex couples attended to dance. Its format was similar to that of a ball of the elite.

Balls as a form of entertainment were maintained in the following years, and by the beginning of the next century they had taken the form of drag balls, i.e. fashion shows with performances in which drag queens participated. The events were organized by white gay men and were spaces accepting to homosexual and bisexual visibility, and even trans identities. From the late 19th century, with the abolition of slavery, balls were able to be multiracial, which potentially meant the gradual participation of black people in them.
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We publish the text “Queering of space: Historical and militant structures and communities” which was presented in the context of Antiviosi squat’s 14th Birthday in October 2022, Ioannina and was translated in english for BAB2025.

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[ΕΝ] Queering of space: Historical and militant structures and communities.

Queer struggles and stories have always been omitted or even subdued from the tellings of history, resulting in both the erasure of the radical past of the queer liberation movement and its connection with self-organization and anti-authority, resulting in the loss of its subversive multidimensional beginnings. We, therefore, consider it important to highlight a part of queer history which is connected to squatting, anti-authority, and direct action as a means of creating (reimagining) a world we want to live in.

Queer identity, like any other sexuality and gender identity, is considered a purely personal matter. Neo-Marxists have disparaged it from political analysis on the pretext that desire is a matter of body politics alone, and thus it hinders our engagement with more “serious” issues. They relegated sexuality to the bodily/local/personal which they considered less worthy of attention than the class/global/political. Ergo, the exploration of sexuality relative to space has been underdeveloped in the discussions concerning globalization and transnational capitalism. As if the division into local and global is natural, and the struggles involved in each are unrelated. At the same time, and perhaps more calamitously, the methods that various(marginalized) communities used to “conquer” a space they could belong and be able to act for themselves (and their communities) were ignored.
Continue reading [GR/EN] Κουίρινγκ του χώρου/ Queering of space (Greece) →