The murder point where Alexis was killed on 6th of December 2008 ...
I was out of the web for a couple of days not because of "christmass" but because I was in bed - hospital, doctors etc.. The reason? Problems with my breathing because of all the chemicals that I have inhailed. I was feeling a lot of pressure to my lungs, thankfully that was only because I was using the gas mask very long and my lungs were working more in order me to breathe normally, so they got tired.... I am given a sprey for my nose, also some pills that make me sleepy a lot, one more that makes me cough all the time in order to clean my lungs ... hopefully I will get better soon.
At Taxamo: Yes the take over finished... Basically the only take over that continues is the one of the Law Department but even this has nearly nobody in there remaining, it is possible that it will also stop. These take overs lasted for long enough anyway, for more than 18 days, and the fact that not a lot of students remained in them basically means that asylum is over and police could raid in anyway. It does not neccesarily means that the struggle is over, or that they will not be taken over again in the recent future, it depends on what the assemblies will decide...
What we witnessed, during those 15 days is something that we have not seen again ... This was an uprising that started by school students, by the generation of playstation, ipods and computer games, and not by any political movement... The left movement and parties, quickly enough understood that they "lost" control of the situation, as the demands of the students had nothing to do with them... Anarchists and anti authoritarians, were more closely related with all this, but the mass media worked well to label all of us as "vandals" and actively tried to allienate us from the community.
University students followed this uprising quite well... More than 160 university departments were taken over by students, maybe a lot are still under occupation, and struggled on the streets and the demos with the school pupils. Political movements within the uni students, especially the left ones, created more problems than helped, as they could not decide on a common framework of action but everyone was trying to support their own theories and beliefs..
The workers movement did not participate that much.. A lot of workers were on the streets during the last days, but again the various political movements and parties created more splits rathen than unite the workers to a common struggle. The general strike of GSEE was hopefull but only lasted one day, and GSEE decided not to participate on the big demo that day but did a gathering at Syntagma square instead... The result was a lot of workers not to participate on the gathering but to the demo, but the damage was allready made. For the next big demo, GSEE did not decide for a general strike, so the building was occupied by comrade workers. On a general assembly that took place on that day there, more than 800 workers attended (the first time that something like this happens at GSEE since the 30s) and decided for a general strike, but the most unions did not attend. Nodoby expected anything different though, the most unions are controlled by right wing or "socialist" (DAKE and PASKE) syndicalists, who try to use their role for their own interest, rather than fight for workers rights.
A lot of things have to change within the workers movement... Just attending a demo one day and next day returning to work, to this modern slavery, really does not change much.. Actually it even helps the system even more .... The workers should try to inform more their collegues within their work environment, to make the workers to go against the unions that are controlled by syndicalists - puppets of the system.
The local communities should also be informed more for the uprising and our demands. I did notice one poster here earlier on this thread pointing this out, I agreed a lot but decided not to comment on that point, as I felt and believed that providing information was more important then... We can all understand that the mass media, their propaganda, actually controls the oppinion of the community on various subjects of our lifes... There was an effort with radio stations of the occupied buildings, as well as by taking over other popular radio stations, even TV channels.... They maybe helped but not a lot in my opinion. Alternative information is a big must, more and more comrades should be involved on trying with any means possible to inform more and more people on their area, their neighborhood and try to involve them on this uprising. It is as important as demos, even more importand than them in a lot of occassions...
This whole period did give its messages though... A lot of people came on the streets, a lot that have never been up to now, because the reason that got them there this time was the murder of an innocent kid... it could be anybodys child, it could be anyone of those teenagers that were on the streets as well.. Do not forget that during this time one more school kid was also shot, thankfully not killed, because that kid did the "mistake" of being a communist and speaking with his friends for the demos .... A lot of people therefore witnessed for their first time the police brutality, did see men with full faces and clubs hitting them instead of the police, they did see innocent people and kids that were just passing by being arrested by the police, people that are now charged with serious crimes and felonies that they never did.. All these things, that up to now the common citizen did not know, or had heard but not believed in, they now did see it with their own eyes.
The school kids did give their message also that they DEMAND a different world.. That no matter how much propaganda and lies their are been told, they have the ability to think critically and understand what is happening, they understand more than the system believes that they do... School kids within all Greece witnessed for their first time police violence and chemicals, and definately understood that if they demand something they will have to really fight for it, even by risking their own health and life ..
Maybe this uprising now is not really so evident as it was during the first days... A lot of us are now tired, or even with health problems (like me), but that does not necessarily means that everything is over... 9th of January is not that far, it will be a good test to see how many of us are determined to continue and how many not...
My belief? .... NOTHING IS OVER YET.
