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#218 | “The judge, the jury and the executioner” (photos and video from Athens, today)

(Video captures the moments when the riot cops attack those gathered in solidarity, unprovoked. The gathered people are heard chanting “the passion for freedom is stronger than all prisons” and, “you’ve got shit inside your helmets, what could you know about freedom”


Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

As reported earlier, a 28-year old swimming teacher has been ordered in pre-trial detention (imprisonment) after being arrested on Thursday’s general strike demonstration. He is charged with possessing molotov cocktails – and yet, as videos and eye-witnesses confirm, his bag only contained bottles of shampoo (…) that he used for his swimming classes.

On Monday at the courthouse, once the announcement of his imprisonment was made, the riot cops started viciously attacking the gathered crowd; holding their batons up-side down (riot cop number 45-24 is pictured doing this here)…

…they seriously injured at least one of those gathered in solidarity – the person below, who is epileptic and was beaten by the cops, was later hospitalised.

#217 | Demonstrator from Thursday’s general strike is imprisoned

One of those arrested at last Thursday’s general strike demonstration has been ordered in pre-trial detention (imprisonment) by a general attorney in Athens today. The young protester was arrested with no clues by the greek police; many photos/ videos confirm this.

Riot police who were guarding the courthouse in Athens attacked the people who had gathered in solidarity; people have been injured; update, shortly.

#216 | A communique circulated in athens and thessaloniki 11/3

Democracy

There’s no escape.

The big pricks are out.

They’ll fuck everything in sight.

Watch your back.

Harold Pinter (He already said it on February 2003)

In the historical point we are now the contradiction of capital is increasingly becoming clear worldwide. Proletarians around the world are in turmoil while their own reproduction becomes more and more difficult. As it is already difficult for the proletarians to continue their lives, it is capital itself as a relation of exploitation which is in reproduction crisis. The current struggles of the proletarians are the expression of the current form of this relation of exploitation.

During the last year in China where the economy still grows very quickly, all kinds of contradictions are rising. Clashes of workers with the police is common for a number of reasons: because of demands for increasing the very low wages (on which steep economic growth is based), because of preventing land enclosures in villages, because of attributing compensation to dismissed workers, against the inadequacy of the health system resulting in high mortality rate of children. In USA where a historical low record of workers’ demanding struggles has appeared, thousands of homeless and unemployed people occupy vacant houses which have been seized by banks and students occupy universities in California and New York writing on their banners: We have decided not to die, demanding this way what was until recently taken for granted, that is, just their ability to continue being students. The reproduction of their own life (of course from a much worse position imposed by the hierarchy of capitalist states) proletarians in South Africa and Algeria demand as well as they clash with police because they still do not have water or electricity and are forced to live in slums; in India as well, because the price of bread suddenly rises and they starve to death. Last year in Spain workers in shipyards which are shut down burn police cars; in South Korea dismissed workers as well occupy factories and clash with police for two and a half months; in Bangladesh, dismissed workers again, clash with police and burn factories. In France and Belgium, dismissed workers kidnap their bosses, placing explosives in the factories and threatening to blow them up if not compensated for their dismissal. In India and China they kill their boss during the conflicts because of thousands of upcoming dismissals. In this historical phase proletarian struggles are objectively struggles for the assertion of life reproduction itself.

At the same time, restructuring of labour relations is accelerated and precariousness is the predominant situation for everyone now. Precariousness is manifested in the worst conditions: 43 suicides of employees in France Telecom within two years but also 1,000,000 unemployed in USA desperately waiting to see whether Obama will once again extend the unemployment benefit which expires in April or they will be left with nothing. Unemployment numbers in most countries surge hitting records higher than in any other historical period.

In this historical phase we are, proletariat is more than enough for capital.  The latter cannot effectively exploit the former, namely, it cannot produce the amount of profit needed so as a part of it to be anew put into profitable investments. This is the essence of any capitalist crisis regardless of the form it takes. The present form of crisis objectively puts proletarians’ reproduction at the center of the contradiction. The crisis which first appeared as debt crisis of proletarian households in USA has already been transformed into a countries’ debt crisis and it is possible to be transformed into a monetary crisis; that is, debt crisis of big countries with strong currency or whole blocs of capitalist states such as the European Union. The debt crisis forces capital to turn to its only choice at the moment, which is to continue the strategy that created this crisis, namely to further reduce wages and benefits in every possible way. This is the only choice of capital, because debt crisis is the result of the globalization and restructuring of capitalist relation from which there is no turning back. From proletariat’s standpoint: ” Caught in the stranglehold of competition that can only reduce prices by reducing wages, in the servitude of debt which has become just as indispensable as income in order to live, the waged have, to cap it all, the chance of being tyrannised at their own cost, since the savings instrumentalised by stock-exchange finance, savings which demand to be repaid without end, are their own.” (Le Monde diplomatique, March 2008).  From capital’s standpoint, it is a relentless pursuit of the lowest possible price of labour power across the planet, but which has a limit that is the existence and reproduction of labour power as this is socially defined in every capitalist state.

Capital is forced to try to resolve the crisis by destroying fixed capital (buildings, machinery, infrastructure) and variable capital (human) to recreate the conditions of its reproduction, without being, at the moment, able to do it with its only directly effective manner: the widespread, global war. Thus, for the time being, the restructuring inevitably deepens. The wage cuts are rising up to the point that the lowest wage and unemployment benefit tend to be equal, which results in the explosive growth of debt for more and more proletarians. Privatizations of reproduction sectors (health, education, social insurance) multiply, the unemployed have smaller and smaller benefit and are forced into slave working conditions with wages below the level of reproduction. The present historical period reaches its limits. That’s why the state places police corporal guards outside schools in France or inside schools in the USA to arrest the undisciplined students. Capital’s only way out today is repression, namely, there is absolutely no way out of the crisis. This is obvious in cases of natural disasters such as in Haiti and Chile. In such cases, capitalist system is directly put into question by proletarians, who, temporarily unable to be labour power, organize the expropriation of commodities and use them according to their needs in order to survive; and the only way to maintain capitalist property is by using military violence. Curfews during the night and straight assassinations (Haiti) are imposed or imprisonments without trial (Chile) take place and suddenly life looks like prisoners’ life in concentration camps similar to undocumented migrants who in thousands live imprisoned at the borders of each capitalist state.

The attack of capital against that part of the working class in Greece is an aspect of this crisis of reproduction of capitalist relations. Greece today is in the eye of the storm of the debt crisis for many reasons. The most important is that the most precarious part of the proletariat rebelled in a way we all know in December 2008. Greece is the experimental lab of the new phase of the absolutely necessary for capital global restructuring. The bourgeoisie class in Greece, as has many times happened in the past, asks for help by more powerful bourgeoisie classes in order to impose a new form of exploitation (from the very beginning, the government announced higher national debt than the one announced by the ex-government to accelerate the introduction of the Stability Program) but also the bourgeoisie themselves are in the centre of the global crisis. The entire international economical press waits to see the reaction of the proletariat here in Greece and then have an overview of the situation internationally. The biggest stores of loan sharks are competing with each other in order to lend and, thus, control in the future the Greek state and, thus, the form and intensity of the local proletariat’s exploitation. The creation of the European Monetary Fund to IMF standards clearly shows that the contradiction of competition between capitals can now be solved temporarily but also shows that it does not matter who the boss of the proletariat is.

Any attempt to present the situation in a better way than it really is just falls in a meaningless gap. Any attempt to present the restructuring as Germans’ attack against Greece is suitable only for B-class TV-stations, even if SYRIZA [1] tries to promote it declaring nonsense about the “sacred money” for compensation of German Nazi occupation. An Orwell type propaganda of mass media has necessarily been mobilized and restructuring is presented as natural disaster. At present, this propaganda has been partly successful. Several clerks and workers in the private sector welcome the reductions in salaries of the employees in the public sector. The employees in public sector are divided on the basis of who is “truly privileged” and who not. But all these have an expiry date. If someone wonders what being privileged means, they can ask the dismissed of Olympic Airways who squatted the State General Accounting Office while 15 days ago they would recognise “the difficult and quite heavy programme of the Ministry” when the step-minister ignored them after they had begged him for a meeting. Also, about the impacts on daily lives because of the attempted restructuring, one can ask the workers at the National Printing Office who after reading the text of the austerity plan’s law and realized that 30% of their income is cut, they decided to squat the building they work at in order to prevent from printing the Gazette! One can also ask them about the role of their trade union leaders who ended the occupation because they were orally “promised by the government” a circular amending the law!

There is nothing that can improve the situation. The ceremonial demonstrations called by leftists, as long as they remain as such, they result in nothing but showing up the dead-end. We are in front of the unmasking of reality from the veils of politics. The stones that were thrown during last Friday 3/5 and covered the sky are not enough to make them listen to us. While more and more unemployed people will be occupying buildings and police will be repressing them, while more and more precarious workers/unemployed will be clashing with the forces of repression at any slightest opportunity, while the social chaos will tend to organize itself on its own and take the form of class revolt, then the smile of the showmen on TV-news will freeze on their faces and the encounter will be in similar levels to the violence accumulated for many years because of the accumulation of capital and the expropriation of the proletarians’ lives.

“What will happen in history, tomorrow, it can only be compared with the major geological disasters which change the face of Earth …”

- Victor Serge

agents of chaos


[1] Parliamentary leftist party.

#215 | Fil Kaler in Athens

London-based photographer Fil Kaler has been sending photographs from the streets of Athens to Last Hours, view the entire set here.

#214 | 16 people detained in Athens today, nine of them face charges; videos of some of the arrests

16 people were detained in total in today’s demonstration; of these, nine will face charges (i.e. the detentions were turned into arrests) and will be held, most likely, until tomorrow, to appear before an attorney. Two videos of three of the detentions just outside the Athens University building of Propylea, from Athens IMC:

#213 | Photos from today’s general strike in Athens

More on Athens IMC

#212 | Live updates from Athens on the General Strike day

Map of today’s events from Last Hours

15.37 GMT+2 Street-fighting has moved to Exarcheia; the riot cops have just stormed the area’s square; people are gathering in the Polytechnic.

14.30 GMT+2 In Athens, clashes with the police in Omonoia square (central square of Athens), many groups of demonstrators moving in different places. Extent use of tear-gas in a large area.

14.22 GMT+2 Back in Athens, a team of the Delta motorcycle force was attacked by demonstrators while trying to make an arrest. At least one more demonstrator has been arrested on Stadiou Avenue this time, after being heavily beaten by riot and motorcycle cops.

14.20 GMT+2 In Thessaloniki today’s demonstration is reported much larger than last general strike. A first report on IMC claims 6-7,000 demonstrators; two chain supermarkets and one large confiserie were looted. One CCTV camera was smashed; riot cops tear-gassed the demonstration at that point, but the demonstrators remained calm. Also, during the demo, many ATMs, a fast-food chain store, vodafone, and a church’s store were smashed.

13.57 GMT+2 Riot police have once attacked the demo, toward its end, at  the corner of Panepistimiou Avenue and Sina Street. At least five detentions, the demonstration has been broken off.

12.38 GMT +2 The riot police (MAT) attacked the demo almost as soon as it set off, it seems. There is MAT forces on all the side streets of Patision Avenue; they have tear-gassed the demo. There are clashes around Stournari Street right now.

12.03 GMT+2 A reminder for anyone who might be in Athens at the moment: There are absolutely no buses and only line 1 (green) of the Metro is functioning today; the other two lines (underground) and the tram network are all closed down by the strike. Additionally, line 1 is closed in its Piraeus extension for works and reports say there are no replacement buses today, so access to the centre for people coming from the direction of Piraeus will be hard.

#211 | Anarchist murdered by the police in Athens

35 year-old comrade Lambros Foundas was murdered by cops on Wednesday morning in the suburb of Dafni (south Athens).

The police claims that he was a “terrorist” and that he was shot while trying to steal a car, and that was carrying firearms. Fountas was one of the over 500 anarchists arrested at the Polytechnic riots of 1995, in Athens.

The flier above reads: “HONOR TO THE ANARCHIST LAMBROS FOUNDAS”

more info as it comes

#210 | “How would it feel if a foreign policeman was beating you up in Athens? (the Greek uprising is truly going European!)

(article written by an Occupied London author for our friends at Last Hours, on the eve of tomorrow’s general strike. Continuous updates and photos, on both websites, tomorrow!)

It is early in the morning of Tuesday, March 9th. Bemused audiences tuned in to an Athens news station to listen to an evidently uncomfortable police spokesperson. How could he not be? He must explain a rather embarrassing incident: days earlier, on March 5th, the police had tear-gassed Manolis Glezos in the face for trying to prevent a youth’s brutal arrest [photo]. Glezos is 88 years old today; it was almost 70 years ago, on May 30 1941, in Nazi-occupied Athens that he and Apostolos Santas climbed up the Acropolis and tore down the Swastika – an action for which he was arrested and tortured the following year.

Trying to justify the police’s action and to show that things must stay under control at any cost, the spokesperson made quite a revealing statement: “if the local police fail at their task”, he claimed, “the EU and the Greek government are ready to dispatch a 7,000-strong European police force to repress what might seem like an upcoming revolt”. “Imagine it!”, he added, “how would it feel if a foreign policeman was beating you up in the streets of Athens?” A funny question, that one. You would imagine police baton blows feel similar regardless of the passports of those holding them. Whether or not his statement was a slip-of-tongue, it definitely seems to hold some validity: a supra-national police force, the “European Gendarmerie Force” (EGF) does exists already and is prepared to take operations in countries where local governments invite it [http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/oct/eu-gendarmerie-treaty-sept-2007.pdf]. The Greek government have so far declined to answer questions on the issue in parliament. I don’t think Manolis Glezos was expecting to see German public forces on the streets of Athens again in his lifetime. But then again, if they tear-gas the way the Greek cops do, there won’t be that much for anyone to see…

General strikes are more common in Greece than in most European countries – but still, they tend to come in the rate of one or two per year – not per calendar month. Thursday’s general strike is the country’s third (two full-day and one half-day) in the few weeks alone. Panepistimiou Avenue, part of the main protesting route – and one of Athens’ major thoroughfares – has been closed off for a week by strikers of Olympic Air; on March 10th, an attorney general ordered the police to disperse the crowd of about 2,000 who have gathered there.

The country’s official printing-house (where state laws are printed in order to come into effect) is currently occupied by employees in protest against the newly-introduced austerity plan. The general accounting office (this, ironically, in charge of monitoring the effects of the implementation of the austerity plan) is also under occupation by its employees. In the small northern city of Komotini employees at a local troubled company went straight to the source and occupied two of the city’s main bank branches.

December’s revolt had been a strong warning sign. The “700 euro generation” (in a country where everyday living expenses closely compete to the UK’s) had every reason to revolt. The death of a 15-year old boy? Cities smash and burn for days. An “austerity plan” pushing labour rights back by a few decades overnight; severe wage cuts, VAT increases, pension-freezes…

It is Wednesday, March 10th – the eve of the third recent strike in Greece. “I don’t really earn enough to get a cab to tomorrow’s demonstration”, writes a commentator on Athens IMC. “And there’s no public transport, as everyone is participating in the strike. Good for them. We are driving down there tonight, staying with a friend. And we’ll be using the car’s engine oil to wash the streets, our little gift to the thugs of the police’s motor-cycle Delta force.” There is anger building up in Athens’ streets and many expect to see it outpouring in the event that multi-national force descends in the city, if not before… Whether national or international, next time Manolis Glezos takes on the security forces he most certainly will not be alone.

#209 | Updates for March 7 and 8 (in English und auf Deutsch)

As published on Athens IMC

Greek Revolt (7th & 8th March 2010)

“… I have tried many times in the past to talk with an authoritan, express the social problems and remind him that a state is constructed in order to serve the citizens and not the bankers and plutocracy. The only responce I ever took from these creeps was a bunch of cheap bananas, grown in countries with fascistic status quo. Whenever I taste these bananas, I feel like having a drop of human blood on my tongue …”
Sunday 7th March 2010

•Protest by anarchists, out-parliamentary communists, leftists in Irakleio town on Creta island. The protest took place during Ms. Anna Diamantopoulou, the Education Minister, was making a speech in the town. The protestrors condemned the governments plans to reform the educational system and the decision to make financial cut-outs for education through the government’s and EU’s austerity program.
Photos: http://arakeaak.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/diamanto-poulous/

•Clashes in the Town Hall of Volos during the speech of Ms. Katerina Mpatzeli, agricultural minister, who was promoting to the local society the necessity of the austerity program. When a group of leftists started shouting slogans against the government’s and EU’s plans some undercover bigs and bodyguards attacked them and expelled them from this public discussion. Thanassis Vogiatzis, journalist of Thessalia Newspaper, was brutally beaten up by a pig when he tried to use his camera and make some fotographs.
•The citizens’ reports about para-statists’ actions in the city of Thessaloniki still go on. For one more time, undercover pigs attacked without any several reason to a team of people who were walking in a central street of the town. So, the Greek police after the tortures in cop stations, the asassinations, the snitches, the spying of citizens, now they go one step further and use methods of social terror that remind of the times of military junta.

•Clashes in Xanthi town during a speech of George Floridis, member of PASOK (“socialistic” party on government), while he was talking about the necessity of the austerity economical program. When some people tried to rise up their voice against his propaganda, state bodyguards and pigs attacked them.

•Gathering under the rain in front of Avlonas jailhouse in solidarity with imprisoned anarchists comrades and any other prisoner of the system. There was no announcement for this action, the decision for the gathering was taken secretly but the special pig units were there before the arrival of the people, event that proves for one more time the spying repression methods of the state.
Fotos & Video (slogans: “The passion for freedom is stronger than any jail-cell”, “Fire and bomb for this bordello”):

https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1140683

•Intervention by comrades in the ecological fiesta that was organized by SKAI TV-station on Ymittos mountain. The TV-station often organizes such fiestas and calls citizens to plant some pine trees, but they never say to people to them how to plant the tree so it can survive or they even never water them. On the other hand, the same companies which organize such fiestas, after some time they also organize new distructions of the nature with constructions that take place on the same mountains. Further more, the certain action took place on a burnt forest area, area that must be a no-go area because people step on the baby trees that grow and destroy the rebirth of the forest. Also many trees that are used in these ecological fiestas are types of certain companies and never chosen after any scientistic ecological research.

•Pigs attacked with their cop-dog against an immigrant from Iraq in Igoumenitsa town. The immigrant was known to the authorities, after spending time in the local hospital (he has lost one of his lungs because of the chemical weapons that were used in Iraq, and his heart has also been relocated). When the pigs saw him on the streets of the town, they started laughing against him and let their dog attack and bite him on the knee.

Monday 8th March 2010

•The week actions in Exarcheia district of Athens against the heroin dealing still go on. To remind about the past, after the election of PASOK, the district was occupied by special pig forces in daily time and when the cop-occupation came to an end the state decided to transfer the heroin dealing to the area. The residents have opposed against the heroin dealers continuesly by chasing them away and many times under a risk of their lives. In the area are active several open social centres, squats and political organizations. (watch older updates)
Video: https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1140885

•Announcement from AGRA Publication Company for the re-employment of the dismissed syndicalist Ntinos Palaistidis. After the struggles and strikes of his co-workers and the solidarity from other several base’s unions Ntinos is back in his working place.
•The squats in the National Printing and the State General Accounting Office still go on (watch older update). Since today, also two agencies of National Bank of Greece in Komotini town are squatted by workers of the United Textiles. The Landfills of Sanitary Garbage Burial are also kept closed since last Friday against the government’s and EU’s austerity program. They will keep being closed until the 11th of March, day of the next General Strike.

•Announcement of Antiracism Initiative of Thessaloniki:

The refugees’ hostel functions only under our own support.

After the apparent failure of all officially involved persons, first and foremost the Ministry of Health, to find a way so the Hostel of Refugees’ Welcome Centre could remain in function, the case now goes definitely in the hands of society. Since late February any state economical support has been stopped and the previous administration of the Hostel is unable to continue its operation.

From the first time, the Antiracism Initiative has requested for the function of the Hostel as a hosting area open for the refugees and the society. Responsibility for this belongs above all to the Ministry of Health, which must provide (as hitherto) the necessary public funding, but also to find a way of management and administration for it, always according to the needs of refugees and always under social control. But the Ministry, seems to put up behind the excuses of “renewal of the population of tenants” or behind the sudden inadequacy of the building, to get rid of an unnecessary “provision”, leading to the closure of the hostel.

After the mobilization of all of us in the last month, many of the families that used to live in the Hostel moved to other accommodation. But the issue is not only that: equally important is the hostel to remain open, the only place for hosting refugees in the center of our city. Not only for the families that are left in it, but also for the dozens of others that will need to accommodate the coming years.

Today, as the hostel is left without gas, electricity, food, it is now our responsibility, the antiracist and immigrant organizations, the workers and federations of this city to decide if we want to keep open this necessary social stracture. Already, since last week, it was needed to be there every single day, to ensure oil, food and support to the refugees.

We call all collectives, organizations and citizens of Thessaloniki in a joint action to claim from the Ministry a permanent solution for the hostel, but also to ensure the uninterrupted operation of it until the solution.
For the next few days the refugees need food (mainly bread, vegetables, fruits, baby equipment and children’s milk), cleaners, oil, and participation in visits there. For more information contact to: info@socialcenter.gr and 0030 – 2310241015

Antiracism Initiative Thessaloniki

•Educational – Antifascist demonstration in Chania town of Creta island after the last period’s nazi attacks. 400 pupils, students, teachers, professors, political organizations, anarchists demonstrated through the town of Chania to spread information about the events of nazis in the town.

Announcement of workers in Greek Telecommunication Company, OTE (today another scandal of Deutsche Telecoms, partly owner of OTE, came up):

Those who talk about (social) peace …
declared war against us!

Crisis, my nerves are in crisis …

… and for the confrontation of the crisis, the state reveals once again the true face of repression by implementing new measures that will turn the living standards of the social majority back to standars reminding of past decades. With vulgar ideologies such as “forward all Greeks to save the country”, the government calls the working classes, employees and retirees to sacrifice gains and rights in order to pay back for debts and deficits which were not created by people themselves. Gambling of the reserves from the Social Insurance funds into stock-markets and structured bonds, glaring escape of taxes from the side of employers, government grants (-supposed- to boost employment) of millions of euros to businesses, which in turn exported their money abroad and founded off-shore companies to pull through taxation, are only some of the reasons that led to the current reality. In any case, the crash of the 14th and 13th salary, the devastating cut-outs in allowances for public sector’s employees paving the way for corresponding cut-outs of income also in private sector, the freezing of the pensions, even of those of 360 euros per month (substantial reduction, when calculating the inflation), the new taxes that will rise up the prices even for basic need products, the new taxation for fuel, drinks, cigarettes, the new higher prices for electric energy, etc., do anything else but do not affect those who are responsible for the situation of the economy. In fact, what we watch happening is just a blatant redistribution of social wealth for the benefit of capital.

Cheers for the suckers …

At the same time when the government together with parliamentary opposition, in perfect cooperation with the Mass Media, call hysterically the youngster with the 700 euros salary and the pensioner with the 600 euros to “tighten their belts” because “there is no cash”, some numbers are very meaningful: 300 billions was the banks’ profit for the last eight years, 166 companies with high profits which in the case they will be taxed with 40% (a percentage as it was before some years and not at 20% as it is today) the state can have an income of 5,6 billions, 30.000 Greek families have private banking departments in banks with almost 50 billions and another 40 billions are deposited by Greek citizens abroad, 10.000 off-shore companies under Greek benefits handling around 500 billions which do not pay taxes of almost 6 billions per year to the state … and the related list is endless. Finally, as it seems, the cash exists and it’s really enough.

The only answer, our collective struggles …

The new measures have already targeted the most bad economically affected part of society and can be lightly characterized as disastrous because in reality the drink the blood of low-payed workers and pensioners. The bully treatement of the government does not end on this point … it is expected to take tougher new measures!

To ensure the profitability of capital, they are determined to remove any remaining rights of workers. Against, however, the governmental robbery, workers and youth are demonstrating their opposition to the plans of bourgeoisie experts who decide against our own lives. The massive participation in the General Strike on 24th February and the protests on 4th and 5th March are a first signal of what will follow for the next time. But the workforce can not wait to be expressed only through structures of GSEE (General Confederation of Workers in Greece) and ADEDY (Confederation for workers in public sector) type. The masks have fallen long ago … The official syndicate unionism not only can not express the interests of the affected social majority, but does not want as well, after their extent clearly interwoven with the state and employers mechanisms. They leader syndicalists act repressionly against the real interests of the workers, GSEE and ADEDY are unable to form the front and defend the attack against workers’ rights. The only solution is the coordination of the independent workers, the unemployed, the pensioners and youth, all those parts of the society who are under attack. We coordinate with other base’s unions and put the spotlight on our needs and our rights. The beauty is on the streets …

” … Those who steal the food from our table
are preaching about austerity.

Those who take back whatever was given
are asking for sacrifices.

The well-fed talk to the hungry people
about the great times that will come later …”

- Bertolt Brecht

Everybody in the General Strike demonstration on 11th March

•Announcement of workers in Landfill of Garbage Healthy Burying of Ano Liosia district of Athens:

We decided to keep closed the Landfill of Garbage Healthy Burying of Ano Liosia until the 11th of March. We also decided for strengthening the safeguarding of the strike in the landfill and our continuous presence on the spot because of danger that the cops will attack us for one more time. None employee will work on Wednesday 11th of March in any municipalities and prefectures around Greece. We, all type of workers in public sector, will protest in front of the Labor Ministry in Athens and we will also participate in the strike of Thursday as all the social classes will do.

On Thursday we organize a new assembly to decide for further actions.

Everything starts now!

P.S. It would be clever from the cops not to attack against us like the last time because this time we will smash them with our garbage-trucks.


★ AUF DEUTSCH

Es geht nicht gegen Windkraft – Windmühlen gibt’s seit 500 Jahren – sondern gegen die Zerstörung empfindlicher Natur durch Mega-Anlagen von Profitgeiern wie Siemens; in Deutschland sind Anlagen an solchen Orten wohlweisslich verboten! Die griechische Sonne reicht völlig aus, um Ernergiebedarf mit kleinen privaten Anlagen zu decken, aber damit lässt sich nicht abartig viel Geld machen. Die Tatsache, daß Siemens-Manager, die auch noch frank und frei in Interviews zugeben, daß mind. 2% ihrer Investitionen in Griechenland Schmiergeld sind und die Erwähnung, daß diese durch deutsche Justiz vor Auslieferung geschützt werden, als Verschwörungstheorie und griechischen National-Stalinismus zu bezeichnen, heisst eigentlich nur, daß du öfter mal über deine Schulter blicken solltest.

Auch ist hier niemand gegen Krankenkasse, allerdings gegen den Zwang dazu, der kleine Gewerbe ins Elend treiben soll, damit Konzerne den Dienstleistungssektor übernehmen können. Das gleiche gilt dafür Arbeiter als “Subunternehmer” in die Selbstständigkeit zu zwingen.

http://www.siemens.com/answers/de/de/index.htm?stc=deccc020112

http://anarchypress.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/%ce%b3%ce%b7-%ce%ba%ce%b1%ce%b9-%cf%8d%ce%b4%cf%89%cf%81-%ce%ad%ce%b4%cf%89%cf%83%ce%b5-%ce%bf-%ce%b3%ce%b9%cf%89%cf%81%ce%b3%ce%ac%ce%ba%ce%b7%cf%82-%cf%83%cf%84%ce%b7-%ce%bc%ce%ad%cf%81%ce%ba/

Währenddessen gehen Streiks, Demos und Besetzungen weiter. Die Nationaldruckerei wird weiterhin von ihren Arbeitern besetzt gehalten und damit die Veröffentlichung des Gesetzes zu den “Sparmaßnahmen” verhindern, d.h. ohne Veröffentlichung ist das Gesetz weiter hinfällig:

http://www.griechenland.net/news_details.php?siteid=8765

Griechische Revolte, 7. u. 8. März 2010
.

Sonntag 7. März 2010

- Protest in Iraklio (Kreta) von Anarchisten, außerparlamentarischen Kommunisten und Linken gegen eine Veranstaltung der Erziehungsministerin. Die Protestierenden verdammten die Pläne zur Bildungsreform und die Kürzungen im Bildungswesen durch das Sparmaßnahmenpacket von Staat und EG.

Video: http://arakeaak.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/diamanto-poulous/

- Zusammenstösse im Rathaus von Volos (Zentralgriechenland) bei einer Veranstaltung der Agrarministerin Batzeli zur Notwendigkeit der Sparmaßnahmen. Als eine Gruppe Linker Parolen riefen, wurden sie von Zivis und Bodyguards angegriffen und aus der öffentlichen Diskussion getrieben. Dabei wurde der Journalist Thanassis Vougiatzis der Thessalia News beim Versuch Fotos zu machen von einem Bullen brutal zusammen geschlagen.

- Erneut Bürgerberichte über parastaatliche Aktivitäten in Salonika. Eine Gruppe Passanten wurde ohne jedwegen Vorwand von Zivis angegriffen. Nun geht die griechische Polizei also noch einen Schritt weiter: Nach Folter auf Polizeiwachen, Morden, Schmiergeldern und Ausspionieren, jetzt also sozialer Terror als Methode, die an die Zeit der Junta erinnert.

- Zusammenstösse in Xanthi (Nordgriechenland) bei einer Pasok-Werbe-Veranstaltung für Sparmaßnahmen durch Parteimitglied George Floridis. Leute, die gegen seine Propaganda protestierten, wurden brutal von Bullen und Bodyguards angegriffen.

- Knastkundgebung bei strömenden Regen in Avlonas aus Solidarität mit gefangenen Anarchisten und anderen Geiseln des Systems. Obwohl die Mobilisierung nicht öffentlich lief, waren die Aufstandsbekämpfungsbullen bereits vorort. Ein weiterer Beweis für die repressiven Polizeistaatsmethoden.

(video Parolen: “Die Leidenschaft nach Freiheit können keine Gefängniszellen aufhalten” “Feuer und Bomben für diesen Puff”

https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1140683 )

- Intervention von Genossen beim ökologischen Fest von Skai-TV im Imyttosgebirge. Der Sender veranstaltet öfter solche Baumpflanz-Aktionen ohne die Leute beim Pflanzen der Bäume anzuleiten, geschweigen denn später zu gießen. Außerdem sind die Firmen, die solche Werbegags durchführen an der Zerstörung der Gebirge durch Bebauung beteiligt. Zusätzlich werden von bestimmten Firmen Bäume gepflanzt über die es keine Untersuchungen über ökologische Verträglichkeit gibt. Am schlimmsten ist allerdings, daß diese Aktionen in vor kurzem verbrannten Gebieten stattfinden und so die frischen Triebe der sich selbst regenierenden Pflanzen platt getreten werden.

- Bullen hetzen ihren Köter auf einen irakischen Flüchtling in Igouminitsa. Der Flüchtling war den Schweinen bekannt, er verbrachte längere Zeit im Krankenhaus, weil ihm ein Lungenflügel entfernt werden mußte und er eine schwierige Herzoperation hatte. Das Opfer chemischer Kampfführung im Irak wurde von den Schweinen ausgelacht und sie hetzten ihren Köter auf ihn, der im ins Knie biß.

Montag 8. März 2010

- Die wöchentlichen Aktionen gegen Drogenhandel im Berirk von Exarchia gehen weiter. Nachdem kurz nach der Regierungsübernahme von Pasok Aufstandsbekämpfungsbullen Exarchia mehrere Tage lang besetzt hatten, beschlossen sie nach Abzug, den Drogenhandel nach hier zu verlegen. Seitdem wehren sich die Bürger unter Lebensgefahr gegen die Heroindealer. Erst vor ein paar Tagen hatte ein Dealer dabei auf Bürger geschossen.

In der Gegend sind einige offene soziale Zentren, besetzte Häuser und politische Organisationen. (siehe ältere Aktualisierungen)

Video: https://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1140885

- Nach wochenlangen Streik-, Blockade und Besetzungsaktionen seiner Kollegen wurde der wegen “schlechtem Benimm” gekündigte und aktive Gewerkschaftler Ntinos Palaistidis vom “intelektuellen” und angeblich arbeiterfreundlichen AGRA-Verlag wieder eingestellt.

- Die Besetzungen der Nationaldruckerei und dem Büro des staatlichen Rechnungshofs in Athen gehen weiter (siehe ältere Aktualisierungen), dazu kommen zwei Besetzungen von Filialen der griechischen Nationalbank in Komotini (Nordgriechenland) durch Arbeiter von United Textiles. Außerdem werden seit Freitag (5.3.) die Mülldeponien von Santary Garbage Burial aus Protest gegen die Sparmaßnahmen von Regierung und EG bestreikt und blockiert, sie sollen bis zum 11. März, dem Tag des panhellenischen Generalstreiks geschlossen bleiben.

Mitteilung der Antirassismus Initiative von Nordgriechenland:

Das Heim der Flüchtlinge funktioniert nur mit unserer eigenen Unterstützung

Nach dem offensichtlichen Versagen der offiziell Verantwortlichen – in erster Linie das Gesundheitsministerium – Wege zu finden, das “Flüchtlings Willkommens Zentrum” am Laufen zu erhalten, geht die Angelegenheit jetzt definitiv in die Hände der Gesellschaft über. Seit Ende Februar bleibt die finanzielle staatliche Unterstützung aus und die Heimleitung fühlt sich außerstande, den Betrieb aufrecht zu erhalten.

Von Anfang an hat die Antirassismus Iniative darauf bestanden, das Heim als offenen Raum zur Beherbung der Flüchtlinge und für die Gesellschaft offen zu halten. Verantwortlich für diese Belange ist in erster Linie das Gesundheitsministerium, das sich um die öffentliche Förderung zu kümmern hat und Wege für Management und Leitung finden muß und zwar übereinstimmend mit den Bedürfnissen der Flüchtlinge und unter sozialer Kontrolle. Doch das Ministerium scheint sich hinter einer Neubelegung und einer plötzlichen Unzulänglichkeit des Gebäudes zu verstecken, um sich von “unnötiger Versorgung” zu befreien, was zu einer Schliessung des Heims führt.

Nach der Mobilisation von uns allen haben viele Familien das Heim verlassen und sind anders untergekommen. Das ist aber nicht das einzige Problem: es ist das einzige Haus für Flüchtlinge im Zentrum unser Stadt und es muß nicht nur möglich sein, daß die noch dort Lebenden bleiben können, sondern es muß auch weiterhin offen bleiben für all die Neuen, die die nächsten Jahre kommen werden.

Jetzt, wo das Heim ohne Strom, Gas und Lebensmittel da steht, liegt es an uns – den antirassistischen und Immigrantenorganisationen, den Arbeitern und Vereinen unser Stadt – zu entscheiden, ob wir diese notwendige soziale Struktur offen halten wollen. Bereits seit letzter Woche ist es notwendig jeden einzelnen Tag hier zu sein, um sicher zu stellen, daß die Flüchtlinge mit Öl, Lebensmittel und Unterstützung versorgt werden.

Wir rufen alle Bürger, Kollektive und Organisationen von Thessaloniki dazu auf, in einer gemeinsamen Aktion vom Ministerium eine dauerhafte Lösung des Problems zu fordern und dafür zu sorgen, daß bis zur Lösung das Heim ununterbrochen im Betrieb bleibt.

In den nächsten Tagen brauchen die Flüchtlinge Lebensmittel, vor allem Brot, Gemüse, Obst, Babysachen und -milch, aber auch Reinigungsmittel, Öl und Beteiligung bei Besuchen. Für weitere Informationen: info@socialcenter.gr und 0030 2310241015

ANTIRASSISMUS INITIATIVE THESSALONIKI

- Antifaschistische Demonstration des Bildungswesen in Chania (Kreta) gegen die Nazi-Angriffe in letzter Zeit (mind. 20 Attacken in den letzten drei Monaten nur in Chania). 400 Schülern, Lehrern, Studenten, Professoren, politische Organisationen, Anarchisten und Immigranten marschierten durch Chania um Informationen über die Überfälle zu verbreiten.

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