Sorry, have no idea why this glamorously photographed confrontation is taking place. But not really surprised that the atmosphere is tense. It might be partly thanks to all those well-tooled up young men (helmets, wooden batons) taking the police on until they inevitably lose/have to run away, by which point the police are well worked up, and the violence spreads to the unprepared/unready. Oh for the Wombles.

On the other hand the police shouldn't be there at all, they should all be refusing orders and allowing students to break the law. Since they are there, I suppose, why not go for them? It's probably just what any peaceful protestor would do.

Looks nice, anyway.

go to the promoted newswire, scroll down a bit, and there are numerous postings that explain the background to this story. Basically the Greek state is following the dictat of neoliberalism and attempting to destroy free education and the existence of 'free speech areas' (i.e. police-free) on campuses, as is the Greek tradition after some outrage or other in the past that you could probably look up... A majoirty of Greek universities and colleges are in occupation, and as the left there is more anarcho and anti-authoritarian, they don't believe in negotiating but simply occupy and demand the government drop their plans (similar to France recently to a degree). The students have successfully used these tactics 4 or 5 times in the last decade.

I was expected a nice ironic end to the description starting "yound tooled up men" (e.g. the police), but you disappointed. You then ironically suggest that the police should allow the students to continue to break the law. As far as I know, most other european countries are not yet as 'free, democratic and civilised' as the UK, and so have not yet made protesting illegal.

I acknowledge the heroism and good intent which encouraged young men to fling themselves, with no real desire to harm, into a doomed struggle against forces infinitely larger and better armed. I think the fact that they expect to come out of this confrontation unhurt could argue a touching faith in the structure they claim to condemn, actually. Anyway, they're of course free to act as they wish; I also feel free to question their actions, since their photos are now being posted on indymedia UK.

It is quite possible that the Greek police would have begun to attack a group of entirely unresponsive people; now we will never know. It is perhaps even possible that the Greek authorities wanted the excuse of physical opposition to order their forces to react in the way they did - ie to crush all protest - and might even have placed a mole inside to promote this kind of action. It is, by a long stretch of the imagination, also possible that the Greek police were responding humanly (not humanely) to what they perceived as a genuine threat, and have been made more aggressive by it, as one sometimes is by fear.

Anyway, thanks to the (indy)media, I guess, since the fact that we're watching and thinking about it puts pressure on to contain the violence, one hopes. And thanks for the background. Wish I was in one of the universities!