Greece: Report on the 19th's General Strike and demonstration
g* | 23.03.2008 09:43 | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | World
Demonstrations were organized after a call by workers unions and syndicates in Greece's larger cities, against the new law on the pension system. Below are gathered some of the reported direct action.
Actions during the strikers demo
(Athens Thessaloniki Heraklion Larissa, 19-20/3/2008)
Source: Athens.indymedia.org,
http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/
and some e-mails.
Demonstrations were organized after a call by workers unions and syndicates in Greece's larger cities, against the new law on the pension system. Below are gathered some of the reported direct action.
Athens: Workers initiatives and anarchist/antiauthoritarian collectives shut down luxurious shops that were working on a strike day (photos of an action at repo-zine.blogspot.com). The marches start with more than 200.000 people in several blocs. Clashes begin near the parliament, where some surveillance cameras and a few bank glass windows were broken down. Street battles continue near the universities (Propylaia) and Exarcheia area where people build up a few barricades. The cops shoot plastic bullets against the protesters. Around Exarchia square, people attack the riot-police brigades. It's worth mentioning that syndicalist leaders left the marches so as to intimidate people participating. Some photos at:
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=844341
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843464
Βίντεο:
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843444
http://athens.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/7raqdkx.jpg
Thessaloniki: More than 20.000 protest in the city center. During the demonstration a collective throws garbage and paints against shops that stayed open during the strike (Photos at stasiepisfaleias.wordpress.com).
Also, glass windows and cameras of banks were broken, while an ATM was set on fire. During these actions, leftists clashed with demonstrators who had their faces covered, participating or encouraging such actions. Photos at: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843289#843299
Heraklion, Crete:
Around 4.000 persons participated in the city center, where since early in the morning strikers had forced shops to close down for the strike. During the march groups of anarchists/antiauthoritarians broke down several surveillance cameras outside banks and threw paint at the Nea Dimokratia (ruling party) offices. The march headed towards the Prefecture of Crete offices, where many attempted to occupy the building, while some syndicalist bureaucrat's (friendly to PASOK, ex-ruling and currently opposition party) prevented them and clashed with anarchists who at last broke the Prefecture's entrance.
More photos:
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843525#843526
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843569
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843758
Video from a camera sabotage:
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843435
Larissa: Clashes erupted when the PAME (a frontal organization of the KKE "communist" party) attacked against anarchists/antiauthoritarians, autonomous and leftists in order to keep their blocs away from the march, though the PAME tough guys were repelled succesfuly.
20/3: During a demonstration outside the parliament, an initiative attempted to break the police line but was repelled with exessive tear gas and riot-policemen attacks. Many demonstrators responded covering their faces and attacking the policemen with stones, while starting fires to minimize tear gas effects. The syndicalist bureaucrats once more, left the area.
Here are some videos:
From the 19/03 demonstration
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=844142#844221
Ftom the 20/03 demonstration
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=845205
(Athens Thessaloniki Heraklion Larissa, 19-20/3/2008)
Source: Athens.indymedia.org,
http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/ and some e-mails.
Demonstrations were organized after a call by workers unions and syndicates in Greece's larger cities, against the new law on the pension system. Below are gathered some of the reported direct action.
Athens: Workers initiatives and anarchist/antiauthoritarian collectives shut down luxurious shops that were working on a strike day (photos of an action at repo-zine.blogspot.com). The marches start with more than 200.000 people in several blocs. Clashes begin near the parliament, where some surveillance cameras and a few bank glass windows were broken down. Street battles continue near the universities (Propylaia) and Exarcheia area where people build up a few barricades. The cops shoot plastic bullets against the protesters. Around Exarchia square, people attack the riot-police brigades. It's worth mentioning that syndicalist leaders left the marches so as to intimidate people participating. Some photos at:
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=844341 http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843464 Βίντεο:
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843444 http://athens.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/7raqdkx.jpg 
Thessaloniki: More than 20.000 protest in the city center. During the demonstration a collective throws garbage and paints against shops that stayed open during the strike (Photos at stasiepisfaleias.wordpress.com).
Also, glass windows and cameras of banks were broken, while an ATM was set on fire. During these actions, leftists clashed with demonstrators who had their faces covered, participating or encouraging such actions. Photos at:
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843289#843299 Heraklion, Crete:
Around 4.000 persons participated in the city center, where since early in the morning strikers had forced shops to close down for the strike. During the march groups of anarchists/antiauthoritarians broke down several surveillance cameras outside banks and threw paint at the Nea Dimokratia (ruling party) offices. The march headed towards the Prefecture of Crete offices, where many attempted to occupy the building, while some syndicalist bureaucrat's (friendly to PASOK, ex-ruling and currently opposition party) prevented them and clashed with anarchists who at last broke the Prefecture's entrance.
More photos:
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843525#843526 http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843569 http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843758 Video from a camera sabotage:
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=843435 Larissa: Clashes erupted when the PAME (a frontal organization of the KKE "communist" party) attacked against anarchists/antiauthoritarians, autonomous and leftists in order to keep their blocs away from the march, though the PAME tough guys were repelled succesfuly.
20/3: During a demonstration outside the parliament, an initiative attempted to break the police line but was repelled with exessive tear gas and riot-policemen attacks. Many demonstrators responded covering their faces and attacking the policemen with stones, while starting fires to minimize tear gas effects. The syndicalist bureaucrats once more, left the area.
Here are some videos:
From the 19/03 demonstration
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=844142#844221 Ftom the 20/03 demonstration
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=845205
g*
Homepage:
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2008032204532082
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
Hit small businesses or encourage cooperativism?,syndicalist bureaucrats??
23.03.2008 11:28
ESE,AK are anarchosyndicalist unions in Greece but I doubt they tried to oppose you physically & they would have defended you in a major attack. Personally if I saw a group of students or anyone on strike attempting to smash a small businesses I definetely try to discourage it. Small businesses can be reactionary many of them can also be big libertarian supporters & struggle to survive. They often do better on all angles when co-operativised, or join with larger shops to form regional coops & all coops also are active in the labour movement struggles.
General strikes are necessary to stop predatory bosses, though cooperativism is also another very valid tactic without the dodgy risks.
When strikes happen some workers in emergency services & healthcare stay open,
maybe they should consider withdrawing labour for politicians or adults who support socially negative policies.
On longer strikes in which we often loose support, we need to encourage withdrawal of service from the rich & or negative sectors like police stations known to be oppressive & the nuclear arms industry rather than the whole population. During the winters of discontent in uk,unions lost alot of support.
Some anarchists encourage disorder in times like this seeing it as a small chance to redistribute wealth etc, rather than aiming for the big social issues & policies, I believed in this short term tactic myself once, but it often leads to confusion & destroys our support.
green syndicalist
THEY ARE NOT SYNDICALISTS
23.03.2008 12:41
Syndicalist means 'revolutionary syndicalist' in english, quite different from the trade unions. The people who you are talking about in this article being friendly with the ex ruking party and stopping anarchists from aking action are certainly NOT syndicalists.
check your engrish
Homepage:
http://iww.org.uk
reply to green synsyndicalist
24.03.2008 17:00
and shutting down these shops during a general strike is a good thing.
Fly posters
also....
24.03.2008 17:03
Fly posters