{"id":5383,"date":"2026-05-13T20:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=5383"},"modified":"2026-05-13T20:45:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:45:00","slug":"stone-bat-molotov-cocktails-the-knowledge-textbooks-of-anti-authoritarians-cases-of-extreme-violence-at-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=5383","title":{"rendered":"Stone, bat, Molotov cocktails: the &#8220;knowledge&#8221; textbooks of anti-authoritarians &#8211; Cases of extreme violence at universities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Humiliation of students inside <b>university institutions<\/b>, shaming <b>teachers,<\/b> <b>car break-ins<\/b>, <b>violence<\/b> and <b>violence<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This is the&#8230; <b>legacy of the terror and violence that anti-authoritarian groups have left over the years in the country&#8217;s higher education institutions.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The Manifesto takes a look back at the most shocking incidents that have provoked public outrage and political reaction <b>parties.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Obviously, more courageous decisions must be taken to break the &#8220;abscess&#8221; that is maligning Greek university institutions.<\/p>\n<h2><b>The shocking attacks at AUTH and PA.DA.<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>The attacks recorded on Tuesday morning at <b>AUTH<\/b>, and the University of West Attica<\/b> in the afternoon of the same day, are only a small part of a &#8220;mosaic&#8221; that the <b>members of anarchist collectives<\/b> make sure to form with their actions at regular intervals. <\/p>\n<p>In Thessaloniki, the <b>&#8220;assault battalion&#8221; of anarchists<\/b> that stormed the Polytechnic School with sticks, clubs and flares caused the injury of seven students. They attacked in plain sight, spread panic and terror and yet <b>managed to escape without any of the perpetrators being arrested. <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Senior officers of the <b>Police Department<\/b> are trying to identify the perpetrators through video footage, but until then they remain elusive and ready for new&#8230; actions.<\/p>\n<h2><b>The perpetrators of the Burantonis attack are on the loose<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>One of the most shocking cases that captured public attention was the <b>grave beheading of the rector of the Athens University of Economics and Business, Dimitri Bourantoni.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>On 29 October 2020, a group of <b>masked<\/b> invaded his office, immobilized him and put a sign with a slogan in favour of occupations in university institutions on his neck. <\/p>\n<p>Mr Burantoni&#8217;s image <b>had &#8220;frozen&#8221; public opinion<\/b> and had caused &#8220;numbness&#8221; in university &#8220;circles&#8221;. And yet, despite the mobilization of the police, the perpetrators of this particular attack remain at large even today. <\/p>\n<p>The Athens Monomial Plenary Court ruled that the three people, two men and a woman, who had been accused of involvement in the case are innocent. According to the reasoning of the decision <b>&#8220;the witnesses did not recognize in their faces the perpetrators of the attack against the then rector of the University of Economics and Business.&#8221;<\/b><\/p>\n<h2><b>The ASOEE&#8217;s sanctuary<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>For decades, the area of the Economic University on Patision Street <b>had been turned into a &#8220;sanctuary&#8221;<\/b> due to the presence of hundreds of hooded members of the anti-authoritarian movement, who <b>had turned the school&#8217;s premises into a&#8230; hangout. <\/b><\/p>\n<p>Riot, barricades, fires and <b>vandalism<\/b> were the daily routine of students and bystanders alike. It took years of effort, police intervention and the mobilisation of the dean&#8217;s office and students to return the school to the ownership of its rightful owners rather than being the <b>&#8220;hangout&#8221; of a small group of delinquents who had imposed their presence through intimidation.<\/b><\/p>\n<h2><b>Decades of occupation at the Polytechnic<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>At least two of the <b>Polytechnic<\/b> buildings in the <b>Exarchia<\/b> area had been under occupation for a number of years and, rather than essentially functioning as educational spaces, had been turned into a base for grocers. <\/p>\n<p><b>The five-storey building of the &#8220;Machine Shop&#8221; had been under occupation for twenty years. <\/b>The building had been vandalised, the window frames had been ripped out, as had the radiators with the picture being described as shabby to say the least. <\/p>\n<p>The second place to be vacated, after sixteen years, was a canteen in the Gini building. <b>His occupation began in 2008. The anti-authoritarians had named this particular squat&#8230; &#8220;Kulitsa&#8221;. <\/b><\/p>\n<p>The third squat in the historic complex was of the Plastic building, as well as the &#8220;Linear&#8221; squat. All spaces have now been returned to students and professors.<\/p>\n<h3><b>The attack on Dimitris Karoni<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>On 20 April 2026, <b>unknowns caused arson in the car of professor and expert witness, Dimitris Karoni,<\/b> inside the grounds of the Zografou campus. The fire that broke out in the vehicle caused extensive damage, while the perpetrators &#8220;disappeared&#8221; in the crowd of students.<\/p>\n<h3><b>The attack on Iakovos Michaelides and the targeting of Vana Nikolaidou<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Only at the beginning of May this year, two more incidents with university students as victims and anarchist perpetrators saw the light of day. <\/p>\n<p>In Thessaloniki, the vice-rector of the Aristotle University<\/b>, Iakovos Michaelides was targeted by members of Roubicon. <\/b>The perpetrators, who remain unidentified, &#8220;bullied&#8221; and insulted him <b>as a result, he was rushed to the AHEPA hospital,<\/b> where he underwent tests without requiring hospitalization. <\/p>\n<p>At the same time, <b>Vana Nikolaidou, professor emeritus of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, <b>Vana Nikolaidou<\/b>, was also the target of &#8220;self-inflicted&#8221; punishers. <b>Members of Rubicon proceeded to vandalize<\/b> the entrance of the apartment building where the professor resides, <b>wrote slogans, while they did not fail to capture their act<\/b> with photos posted on social media.<\/p>\n<p>As in the case of Mr Michaelides, <b>the perpetrators remain at large.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Student assaults inside universities, the shaming of professors, car arson, violence and riots.<br \/>\nThis is the &#8230; legacy of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greece"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}