Terrorist group says November blast at industrialists’ HQ was for workers

The Popular Fighters Group (ELA), which claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on the headquarters of Greece’s industrialists in Athens in November, has issued a proclamation saying it carried out the attack in defense of workers’ rights and against businessmen who support the implementation of bailout measures.

The proclamation was downloaded onto a memory stick that was placed inside an envelope that was left at a telephone exchange on Strefi Hill in central Athens. A member of the group called a newspaper to inform where the proclamation had been left.

The 32-page statement said the bomb had been placed at the headquarters of the Greek Federation of Enterprises (SEV) early on November 24 as “an expression of popular justice against those who grow rich on the back of our literal and metaphorical deaths.”

The urban guerrilla group then referred by name to the four workers who lost their lives following an accident at a Hellenic Petroleum (ELPE) refinery last summer.

November’s blast caused extensive damage to SEV’s offices and the Cypriot Embassy next door but no injuries.

Since first appearing in 2013, ELA has claimed an attack on New Democracy’s headquarters, the German ambassador’s residence, a Mercedes-Benz dealership and a car bombing at the Bank of Greece.