Dimitris
Well-Known Member
Hello all 
I was in Athens today for the demo, just returned back home and I will give you a short update.
I estimate we were about 3 to 4000 people on the demo. It started from Propylaia, towards the parliament and back. It was a quite passionate demo, with a lot of chants, especially anti state and anti capitalist chants, but also about workers rights, employment status and of course in solidarity to Constantina Kuneba. The demo I think it got bigger as we started moving, as more people were coming to join.
We moved peacefully in the center of Athens, reaching the parliament, where a lot of police was waiting. A lot of the policemen at the parliament were wearing full face masks under their helmets, in order not to be recognized. We turned from there and returned back. Towards the end of the demo, some clashes against the police started, when 2 banks were smashed. Police threw mostly stud grenades against the demonstrators (they have run out of chemicals again) and the people responded with stones. The clashes continued on the near by streets towards Exarchia, where quickly road blocks were formed with rubish bins, and stones were again thrown. Police threw more grenades, also some of the new ones that they use during the last months, that have flame as well and black smoke. They can be really dangerous and injure someone if they explode on you ... A bit later all clashes finished. I am not aware of any injuries or arrests, I do not think that there were any.
Barking_Mad this story has dropped of the news even in Greece not only in your country or elsewhere. No, noone can say that the people feel the same anger as on December, especially on the first few days, when you could see massively people of all ages on the streets attacking the police. But things are not the same though and will never be. This uprising, as all the previous ones, has left its own signature on the people. During that period, a lot of people of all ages were motivated and got on the streets. We even saw teenagers, the generation of internet and ipods, being on the demos ACTIVE and even attacking against the police and police departments. We even saw these very teenagers, then demonstrating outside the police headquarters, in solidarity of the arrested demonstrators. All these experiences, remain and the people's actions are never going to be the same. A good example is the whole situation at the park at Patission str, where the trees got cut out. If that had happened a year ago, it is certain that the peoples' reaction would be less massive than now. More than 1000 people gathered on a demo outside the Athens Town hall, in order to demonstrate against the park destruction, something that we would never see before for such a matter. People actively got on the street and tried to prevent the town workers from destroying the park, even by attacking the RIOT police that was there... The publics' reflections are tense, anything that may happen that will bring people on the streets again can much more easilly escalate now. Problems as the financial crisis, and the big economic scandals that have taken place during the last years, are still making the people angry... On various opinion polls that newspapers are carrying out, we see a big number of people, in some cases the majority, answering that they trust NO political party in order to be the new government.
The whole movement in solidarity to Constantina Kuneba also proved this. Nomatter the fact that the most mass media say nothing about her, nomatter the fact that the formal syndicalist bodies and GSEE are being completely quiet, worker assemblies and groups have managed for all this time to keep this incident on publics' attendance. This is why, today, nearly 2 months after the attack against her, nearly 5000 people were on the streets in solidarity to her. This is why, the whole incident of Constantina, finally reached the parliament building, and we see members of the parliament discussing about this issue and about work conditions in general. This is why, some left political parties even thought of telling Constantina to run as an MP candidate for next elections with them, something that Constantina has completely rejected, as she only cares about the workers and her collegues.
Farmers, especially the ones of Crete, also understood how this state is working. They understood how this police is being used AGAINST the people, is being used in order to oppress any form of demonstrations. The state and the current government, are being preparing themselves for early elections, and instability while approaching pre election period is never good for them. During the days that the Cretan farmers where at Pireaus port, a lot were chatting with comrades who got there in order to speak with the farmers, and were saying that now they understand better what is happening on the streets and the demos, and it is not always the demonstrators' fault when clashes are starting.
The movement WILL continue. It will not because I am saying so, but because there are still a lot of people who are actively trying to mobilise people, because there is a big number of open assemblies, video projections, talks and discussion groups being formed in order more and more people to get informed of what happened on December, what happened to Kuneba, what this state is doing and of the movement in general.
NOTHING IS OVER YET.
I was in Athens today for the demo, just returned back home and I will give you a short update.I estimate we were about 3 to 4000 people on the demo. It started from Propylaia, towards the parliament and back. It was a quite passionate demo, with a lot of chants, especially anti state and anti capitalist chants, but also about workers rights, employment status and of course in solidarity to Constantina Kuneba. The demo I think it got bigger as we started moving, as more people were coming to join.
We moved peacefully in the center of Athens, reaching the parliament, where a lot of police was waiting. A lot of the policemen at the parliament were wearing full face masks under their helmets, in order not to be recognized. We turned from there and returned back. Towards the end of the demo, some clashes against the police started, when 2 banks were smashed. Police threw mostly stud grenades against the demonstrators (they have run out of chemicals again) and the people responded with stones. The clashes continued on the near by streets towards Exarchia, where quickly road blocks were formed with rubish bins, and stones were again thrown. Police threw more grenades, also some of the new ones that they use during the last months, that have flame as well and black smoke. They can be really dangerous and injure someone if they explode on you ... A bit later all clashes finished. I am not aware of any injuries or arrests, I do not think that there were any.
Barking_Mad this story has dropped of the news even in Greece not only in your country or elsewhere. No, noone can say that the people feel the same anger as on December, especially on the first few days, when you could see massively people of all ages on the streets attacking the police. But things are not the same though and will never be. This uprising, as all the previous ones, has left its own signature on the people. During that period, a lot of people of all ages were motivated and got on the streets. We even saw teenagers, the generation of internet and ipods, being on the demos ACTIVE and even attacking against the police and police departments. We even saw these very teenagers, then demonstrating outside the police headquarters, in solidarity of the arrested demonstrators. All these experiences, remain and the people's actions are never going to be the same. A good example is the whole situation at the park at Patission str, where the trees got cut out. If that had happened a year ago, it is certain that the peoples' reaction would be less massive than now. More than 1000 people gathered on a demo outside the Athens Town hall, in order to demonstrate against the park destruction, something that we would never see before for such a matter. People actively got on the street and tried to prevent the town workers from destroying the park, even by attacking the RIOT police that was there... The publics' reflections are tense, anything that may happen that will bring people on the streets again can much more easilly escalate now. Problems as the financial crisis, and the big economic scandals that have taken place during the last years, are still making the people angry... On various opinion polls that newspapers are carrying out, we see a big number of people, in some cases the majority, answering that they trust NO political party in order to be the new government.
The whole movement in solidarity to Constantina Kuneba also proved this. Nomatter the fact that the most mass media say nothing about her, nomatter the fact that the formal syndicalist bodies and GSEE are being completely quiet, worker assemblies and groups have managed for all this time to keep this incident on publics' attendance. This is why, today, nearly 2 months after the attack against her, nearly 5000 people were on the streets in solidarity to her. This is why, the whole incident of Constantina, finally reached the parliament building, and we see members of the parliament discussing about this issue and about work conditions in general. This is why, some left political parties even thought of telling Constantina to run as an MP candidate for next elections with them, something that Constantina has completely rejected, as she only cares about the workers and her collegues.
Farmers, especially the ones of Crete, also understood how this state is working. They understood how this police is being used AGAINST the people, is being used in order to oppress any form of demonstrations. The state and the current government, are being preparing themselves for early elections, and instability while approaching pre election period is never good for them. During the days that the Cretan farmers where at Pireaus port, a lot were chatting with comrades who got there in order to speak with the farmers, and were saying that now they understand better what is happening on the streets and the demos, and it is not always the demonstrators' fault when clashes are starting.
The movement WILL continue. It will not because I am saying so, but because there are still a lot of people who are actively trying to mobilise people, because there is a big number of open assemblies, video projections, talks and discussion groups being formed in order more and more people to get informed of what happened on December, what happened to Kuneba, what this state is doing and of the movement in general.
NOTHING IS OVER YET.
) 
they'll have to prosecute just about everyone in Greece. Really they've lost the plot altogether... they've have even gone crawling for help to the Scotland Yard... really, what next, the FBI and the CIA?
