‘From borders to police departments, democracy murders’ (slogan on a wall)
Although the state and the spectacle attempted to reduce the events of December 2008 to “riots by youngsters” whose inherent in their age sensitivity justifies their reaction against grown-ups‟ world, these events are the most important historical ones during the last 35 years in Greece. In December a minority of the working class that lives in this little corner of the world rebelled. Through its actions, it criticised contemporary social relations, labour, commodity, state. This destructive and at the same time creative critique was anti-capitalist and not reformative; it expressed the need for overcoming capitalist relations.
“Remember, remember the 6th of December” was a slogan on a wall in Athens. From that night onward, the actions of a mass of young (but not only) proletarians spoke: attacking cops and police departments, setting banks on fire, destroying and looting department stores, vandalising ministries, occupying universities, town halls and other public buildings. Attacks against expensive stores started from the very first night; the link between the murder of the 15-year-old boy and capital‟s arrogance was directly and explicitly stated. Attacks against car agencies, traffic lights, bus stops, that is, aspects of circulation in the city, regularly took place. Attacks against banks, which symbolise and territorialise within urban space money dominance over people’s needs, were fierce; during the first days of the uprising there were always attempts to set them on fire…
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