The anarchist group “Dysínios Íppos” recently celebrated 20 years of existence and political action, as it has been active in the city of Patras (the 3rd biggest city and port of the country, located at Western Greece) since January 2004.
Today, our collective publishes the newspaper “Germinal” which is distributed hand-to-hand in social struggles and in social-political self-managed spaces throughout Greece. The group is also responsible for a publishing initiative called “Dysínios Týpos”, a publishing project aimed at highlighting, disseminating, and spreading social struggles, maintaining social-class memory, and promoting anarchist, libertarian, and radical ideas.
At the same time, the collective participates in a self-managed social space called “Epi ta Prosw” (in memory of the first anarchist newspaper published in Patras at 1896) where meetings, political and cultural events, film and documentaries screenings take place. It also houses a radical bookstore, a lending library, a record collection, a political archive, and more. Every year, at the end of May, we hold the Anarchist Book Festival, an institution that has been running for the last 10 years years (excluding the years of the pandemic).
Furthermore, the political action and intervention of the group are related to a wide range of social and political issues. These include mobilizations against imperialist wars and NATO military bases (such a base operates in the Araxos area of Achaia near Patras), support for labor struggles and the unemployed, participation in strikes, mobilizations against home foreclosures and high-cost measures, defending the natural envirenment and local communities from plunder and destruction, solidarity with refugees and migrants (especially in the city of Patras, which serves as an exit port to Western Europe and periodically experiences the presence of a large number of migrants and refugees), and supporting the struggles of prisoners for better detention conditions in prisons, as well as the fight against patriarchy and gender-based discrimination, among others.
Through a long period of discussions regarding the organizational restructuring of the anarchist movement, especially after the December 2008 uprising and the valuable experiences we gained, we were involved from the outset in the process of forming the Anarchist Political Organization. From November 2015 until March 2021, when we eventually withdrew, we were an active part of the organizational structure of the APO-OS (Anarchist Political Organization – Federation of Collectives).
Additionally, the group encourages and urges its members to participate in organized social and class structures, such as labor unions in workplaces, militant groups of students at universities, and neighborhood assemblies. Similarly, our women comrades participate in the struggle against patriarchy through the “Women Against Patriarchy Initiative”, organizing numerous mobilizations (March 8th, November 25th, against gender-based violence and abuse, etc.) and the student comrades organize in the Libertarian Scheme of Patras’ University.
For contacting the group, you can use the email d_ippos@hotmail.com. Additionally, every Tuesday and Friday from 19:00 to 22:00, we hold a political gathering at the self-managed space “epi ta prosw” located at 87 Patreos Street, Patras, where anyone can come into contact with us. Material from the collective and related political groups can be found on our website at ipposd.org, as well as on our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages.
Δυσήνιος Ίππος 