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Punching back in Greece
On an early September evening in 2017, just weeks before the anniversary of Fyssas’s death, people were trickling into the half-basement of an old grey apartment block in the Greek capital. Once inside, they remove their shoes and disappear into locker rooms before re-emerging to take their spot on the padded blue and red floor.
A punk song blares from the speakers. A black flag hangs beside the bathroom door. "The genuine anti-fascist fighting club," it reads.
This is the White Tiger Muay Thai Camp, one of the first anti-fascist gyms in Athens, and Ilias Lamprou, a 39-year-old anarchist, is its founder and instructor.
Barefoot and wearing a grey hoodie with cut-off sleeves over a faded black shirt, he directs his 40 or so novice students as they warm up.
"Faster," he urges them, speaking over a litany of grunts as fists and legs thud against punch bags. His hair is short, neat and peppered with grey. A scatter of tattoos on his arms and legs; he stands cross-armed as he issues directions.
Earlier in the day, Lamprou sits at his cluttered desk in the gym's office. On the wall are photos of him competing in Muay Thai tournaments, fists raised as he poses with fellow fighters and students.
Started in 2012, White Tiger, he says, applies the political philosophies of self-organisation and anti-authoritarianism to martial arts.
He recalls how, when he was 20 years old, a friend advised him to start Muay Thai training. But what began for "practical reasons" - a need to defend himself from the police ("ACAB" - the acronym for "all cops are bastardss" is emblazoned on a banner that hangs from the gym's ceiling) and Golden Dawn, a neo-fascist party that currently holds 17 seats in the Greek parliament and whose members have been known to attack refugees, migrants and antifascists - became a passion.
"I started Muay Thai, and I loved it," he recalls, adding that the martial art was still relatively unknown in Greece at the time. "You can't avoid falling in love with it ... I tried and loved it from the first time. So, I continued."
[...]
At the time White Tiger was established, the country was in the midst of a sharp surge in far-right violence, much of which targeted refugees and migrants, who the far right blames for the country's economic woes.
That uptick in bloodshed reached its pinnacle in 2012 with the rise of Golden Dawn.
In the run-up to that year's elections, after which the neo-fascist party first entered parliament, the Greek economic crisis fuelled street battles between anti-fascists and Golden Dawn.
After the elections, the violence did not subside. Golden Dawn carried out anti-migrant raids across the country. In some instances, their attacks on migrants and political opponents - such as those on 26-year-old Pakistani labourer Shahzad Luqman and Greek anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas in 2013 - were deadly.
In October 2012, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said that 87 racist attacks had been recorded between January and September of that year. Often equipped with clubs, crowbars and attack dogs, they targeted undocumented migrants and refugees from places including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Somalia. In many cases, the assailants reportedly wore Golden Dawn insignia.
Lamprou says there was an urgent need for gyms that provide practical training in self-defence while reflecting the political world view of the anti-fascist movement.
Although far-right violence has decreased since then, it has not stopped. As Greece absorbed tens of thousands of asylum seekers in recent years, Golden Dawn has targeted camps in both mainland Greece and on islands like Kos and Chios, among others.
'We own the streets'
"After the big boom of Golden Dawn, it was a necessity in Greece [to create] self-organised gyms, and gyms that keep out fascists and the cops," Lamprou says, explaining that many other gyms are frequented by police officers and far rightists.
Clasping his hands together as he recalls those turbulent times, he continues: "There was a purely practical [reason]: We own the streets, and we want to keep them ours."
Lamprou also argues that martial arts demand respect for opponents and those who are different from you. "That's why we cannot give martial arts to the fascists."
The White Tiger has more than 120 students who are spread across three skill levels - beginner, novice and expert - many of whom participate in competitions as a team and attend training sessions several times a week.
Among them are Greeks, internationals from across Europe and North America, and migrants and refugees from places like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The top level includes some 30 people, known as the fighting team, who participate in competitions in Greece and abroad twice a month.
[...]
For Lamprou, one of the most important features of White Tiger's approach to athleticism is the rejection of patriarchy, which he says is prevalent in mainstream gym culture. Attendees who engage in sexist or patriarchal behaviour are kicked out. "Anti-sexism is part of our life," he says. "It's not an ideology; it's a way of life."
Around half of the White Tiger's weekly participants are female, and Lamprou says his female competitive squad is "the best in Greece".
"If any macho guy comes, he'll see that the environment isn't good for him," he continues.
Drawing on the anti-fascist notion of denying platforms for racists and fascists, Lamprou says he will not put his fighters in the ring to compete with opponents who are known Golden Dawn affiliates or supporters. "We can't compete with [fascists]," he explains.
"In Muay Thai, there is a lot of respect for the opponent. You can't pay respect to a fascist."
The streets, he says, are where the far right ought to be confronted.
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