Statement by the international team of Prosfygika.
For 16 years, the Community of Squatted Prosfygika exists as one of the biggest self-organised and liberated neighbourhoods in Europe. In these 8 building blocks in the heart of Athens, 400 inhabitants, from 27 different countries speaking 20 different languages, with different religions, ideologies, ages and backgrounds live, struggle and organise together.
Grounded in communal ownership, solidarity, mutual aid and horizontality, the community has not only hosted, housed, fed and supported thousands of individuals in the past 15 years - it also shows how collective self-organization and communal life is possible, even in increasingly precarious times.
Prosfygika has succeeded in building a politically united neighbourhood with numerous occupied apartments and over 20 different autonomous structures answering the basic needs of the inhabitants. To name some of them: The Children’s house and Self-Education Structure and the Self-Organized Kindergarten; the Health Structure and Social Pharmacy’ the Hosting Structure for Patients and their Companions from the Cancer Hospital ‘St. Savvas’; The Collective Bakery Structure; The Women’s Structure.
The community is getting stronger, but so is our repression. In summer 2025, the local government secretly initiated the plan to evict four buildings of the community and renovate them as part of the advancing gentrification of the area, starting in July 2026. The official goals outlined in the contract - the repurposing of the buildings into apartments for visitors of a nearby clinic, and social housing - must be debunked for what they are: ignorance towards the reality that these buildings are already inhabited, that the community is consisting of people from below, and that the community already opened a guest house for the relatives of the patients of the nearby cancer hospital.
It is propaganda that legitimises the violent displacement of its current inhabitants and the attack on a self-organised community.
On February 5th, one resident of the community (Aristotelis Chantzis) began a hunger strike to the death, demanding that the local government cancel the contract, guarantee the residents’ right to stay in their homes, and the transfer of the renovation rights of the buildings to a legal entity in the hands of the Community.
My name is Aristotelis Chantzis, as a member and resident of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika.. I am going on a hunger strike to the death, recognising this action as a means of struggle to highlight a collective struggle aimed at preserving Prosfygika as social housing and as a structure of solidarity for vulnerable social groups…
The attack we are facing is part of the holistic attack by the state and capitalism on the world of community, self-organization, solidarity, and social resistance. Aristotelis Chantzis
On the 1st May, fellow resident and member, Suzon Doppagne originally from Belgium, joined the hunger strike. At the time of writing, both hunger strikers were experiencing serious health complications and neither intend to stop their strike.
The Community of Squatted Prosfygika is a living example that another way of life is possible - in rupture with the dominant capitalist and patriarchal system. In a time of global crisis and a world war, the only way for our societies to survive and create a different paradigm is through building the world of the Community, of self-organization and solidarity. Suzon Doppagne
How can you support us?
Donate to and share our online fundraiser.
Sign our statement with the demands of the hunger strikers.
Organise a fundraising event.
Become part of the international campaign. Follow us on Instagram @int.saveprosygika, Mastodon @intsaveprosfygika, and our website.
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