by V N Gelis
VNGelis
Spitha Movement which became a Personality Cult around Mikis Theodorakis, split and degenerated May-June Events 2011 The Rise of the Indignants (Aganaktismenoi) Editor’s Note: As was noted in the previous articles Greeks eventually would hit the streets en masse and they did in their millions throughout May-June. This was probably the last peaceful attempt at derailing the IMF and the 300 quisling politicians that prop it up. Left leaderless from now on the script will be written on the street in ways which will encompass past history and current reality.
Greeks Occupy Central City Squares Arab Style
Maria Damanaki ex-KKE but PASOK for the last two decades and a Euro Commissioner
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/damanaki/index_en.htm stated in the EU today that 'either the Greeks adopt the 2nd round of cuts and privatisations' with a unity across the two major parties, or Greece will return to the Drachma.
Taking into account her current position as an EU Fisheries Minister, she cannot be saying things without high level agreement with Papandreou. It is being used to threaten and cajole the Opposition Parties (bar the KKE) to allow PASOK to get through its legislative programme of more cuts by forcing the 180 votes required in Parliament
this time (2/3 of total) otherwise the government will fall. New Democracy traditionally the pro-American party may be seeking a Euro exit for Greece.
The government doesn't seek elections as it would lose so it is now pushing for a Plebiscite for the new round of measures sought by the IMF
At the same time over the last few days, influenced by the Spanish events 300 Greeks have occupied Sindagma Square (most of them are exSpitha members) and today they called a Facebook protest on the square and 150,000 have signed up on Facebook which has collapsed in Greece.
We Have Woken Up- in Both Greek and Spanish
Athens Madrid Lisbon All of Europe on the Path of Struggle are two of the banners and slogans shouted. Tell the Government we won‘t sell our Country; tell the Politicians to Leave said one demonstrator on live streaming
http://www.zougla.gr/page.ashx?pid=85&playerType=flashe streaming
VN Gelis All night discussions occurring in the central squares about what to do next.
A main issue is to stay there until the government leaves or for workers to join protests nightly after work if theycan‘t be there round the clock.
The discussions are occurring in a fraternal manner and it is reminiscent of the last days of the junta. The police so far haven't attacked the demonstrators with tear gas, but the night is long and one doesn't know what will happen. Some will obviously leave but some will return. The spirit is to fight, most of the mass media has ignored it, but it is widespread on the internet.
Facebook and mobile phones where initially blocked in the square but they have returned. The other issue is whether the organised left will join the protests and try to derail them into a safe for capitalism direction. There is a very large component of youth who were organised via the social media and if it lasts during the night and into the morning it will be difficult to get Athens moving.
So workers may end up joining the protests in the morning... Some pictures from Indymedia
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1295118
26th may-Update
The police didn't tear gas the massed crowds. A contingent of workers from the electricity workers union GENOP-DEI arrived with a large banner and the crowd supported them.
They placed their banner and shouted slogans outside the Economics Ministry which is on Sindagma Sq. which stated We Don‘t Sell, We Can‘t Be Sold and shouted slogans, cheap electricity for the masses.
The main media hasn't really promoted it and Facebook was downed a few times alongside mobile phone networks in the centre when people were gathering. The fact that it occurred in every Greek city means there is a shift now and one doesn't know how it will develop as they aren't controlled by the trade union bureaucracy or the political Left and as such it is still new. If nightly gatherings persist and gain in volume it may develop into a real conflict if it isn't derailed or controlled. But by creating a power vacuum, with the state not initially intervening in a heavy hand manner which it has done over the last 12 months every time Greeks have gathered in the centre, may imply the government is looking for an exit, but as yet does not know how or where to go...
Slogans from last night:
-EE Oh Oh, take the IMF and Get Out...
-Democracy, Freedom and Justice
-A magical night as in Argentina we will wait to see who gets in the Helicopters first'
-Greece of Greek bankers, snitches, usurers, exploiters
-'Bread, Education, Freedom, the Junta didn't Die in '73'
-Leave Your Weapons and Join Us 26th May 2011
Although a Greek website one gets a flavour of the demos in the various cities of Greece including the island Rhodes.
http://www.zougla.gr/page.ashx?pid=2&aid=317762&cid=4
For a second night thousands turned up in Sindagma Sq. and an open air debate occurred. But it started raining... Some of the slogans that have been heard by the alleged 'apolitical' audience as reported now by the mass media... most of these rhyme in Greek so translation is difficult.
George (Papandreou) you Wanker we Didn't Come Here for a Joke
31st May 2011
The occupation continues for a 7th night. Some scenes with the background music of a new song by a popular Greek singer called Cooking Pot about how empty it will become.... and a lot more… http://tinyurl.com/6fy4ewf
The media hasn't interviewed people on the square and just mentions it.
7,000 attended a meeting in the centre with Theodorakis as speaker and many shouted for Papandreou to leave now. Theodorakis said this film has been replayed before in 1944 with his grandfather in the same place (implying that this led to defeat of the Left) and he got booed for it...
A video of the speech today. http://tinyurl.com/64ljlc4
From the video one can clearly discern the waving of Greek flags and the social composition of the audience which clearly isn't middle class.Greece will allegedly receive its 5th interim loan this week after agreement by Merkel, but massive cuts in benefits are going to be the payback, so it looks like the demos on the streets of the major cities in Greece will continue as the crisis isn‘t going away.
1st June
Last night after the Theodorakis speech thousands surrounded the entrances to Parliament changing Thieves Thieves Politicians not allowing them to leave. When some got into their chauffeur driven cars, they were sworn at, rude hand gestures Greek style were made to them and some were followed by old ladies along the narrow pavements. As the police deemed it would spiral out of control some were rushed to other exits than the main ones along dark pathways leading to the national park adjacent to Parliament.
For the whole of today the mass media has attacked the protestors as being basically hooligans alleging Greeks are as bad as Mugabe and that this is a massive attack on Parliamentarism, not the IMF measures which are crippling the country. They are also alleging that these are acts against democracy and elected Parliament, whilst thieving pensions and creating mass unemployment are obviously democratic acts of a flourishing social system which condemns people to a slow and arduous death. They then brought out the riot police to surround the side entrances to Parliament without attacking the protestors but guarding those who wanted to leave Parliament.
One of the leaders of the Euros today Alavanos, not having appeared to support the movement of the Disgruntled (which is what it is being labelled by the media) stated the Left should depart from Parliament. The peaceful nature of the protests which have gone on for one week now is nearing an end. The situation will end up spiralling out of control. If people in such large numbers have gone on the streets they will end up staying until the govt departs. Already a big banner has replaced all others stating We Will Stay Until the IMF, the Govt and the Debt Goe
s.
Either the government will have to attack the demonstrators at some stage, or clear the area on some hygiene issue or it will have to depart. What happened last night has raised the morale of all undoubtedly; the streets will undo what the IMF politicians created...
June 3rd 2011 Two events yesterday have hit the mass media.
Govt spokesperson Petalotis went to give a speech at a pensioners club in Argiroupoli a working class district of Athens and the local residents confronted him and he had to be scurried out via the back door.Riot police were called out to control the crowds of workers and pensioners...
In the meantime in Corfu Greek politicians and invited Euro MP's were scurried out by yachts after leaving a hall they were meeting in by a port due to the massed citizens protesting and calling in one of their slogans for the whole of Greece to become like Keratea (are that defeated the IMF govt after they attempted to impose a rubbish dump)
16 PASOK MP's have written a letter to Papandreou showing reservations against the new round of cuts for the 5th interim bailout package which in reality is an accounting trick as no money ever arrives in Greece from the IMF it is just funnelled away from peoples‘ pockets to the banksters.
The next few weeks are going to be crucial as Greeks are still congregating in the main squares and this Sunday‘s event is billed to be the biggest ever...
KKE
CP leader Papariga has come out firmly against a return to the drachma and does not even call for elections or the government to go now. It hasn't called its members to take part in the demos in the main squares and it is doing everything in its power to prop up the IMF govt, but it will start to lose many of its younger followers in the coming period...
VNGelis
Eyewitness Account of 5th June protests in Athens occupied Sindagma Square
For more than 11 days Greeks have occupied the main squares in many cities: Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Iraklion among them. Left leaderless by all parliamentary parties and under siege from more IMF-imposed measures to save a moribund capitalism, the people are taking matters into their own hands. The wholesale privatisation of Greece is on the cards, prefiguring mass redundancies in the public sector as the Greek Economics Ministry is being directed more and more from Brussels and New York.
A large number of Greeks have decided to camp in the main Athens square opposite Parliament and demand a plebiscite on the EU/IMFimposed measures. Most of them were organised previously in the Spitha movement associated with Mikis Theodorakis but they became disillusioned with it when they heard there were moves afoot to form a government.
Since then a tidal wave has grown beyond their initial expectations. Many via Facebook started to campaign independently for direct action by occupying squares and when on the evening of 25 May more than 100,000 turned up a new movement was born.
The media has presented the demos as those of the 'Indignant' who aren't political; what they mean is there is no politics because no political party owns it. But in reality the event is deeply political as can be readily seen in the extremely militant slogans, displays and discussions. No one wants anything to be sold, or privatized anymore, or the country to be broken apart and sold off bit by bit to foreign banks.
What we are witnessing are the people in motion against the Parliamentary parties. If there was a real Left it would have quit Parliament and campaigned with the people for an indefinite general strike until the government is toppled, but this clearly does not yet exist.
Throughout the last week more than 500,000 have turned up at Sindagma to show their opposition to the MPs in Parliament. There are essentially four parts to the events that occur:
• A group of drummers arrive with loudhailers and chant slogans between 7-10pm every evening
• The group of 300 hundred occupies the square on the corner and demand a Referendum on the IMF measures
• A group that has occupied the main square outside the main metro station hold nightly debates in a Popular Assembly.
• There are also groups of artists, intellectuals, poets etc. camped out in the square. On Sunday, 5 June, as the sun was going down, massed crowds started to arrive. Pensioners, mothers with their children, disabled wheelchairs users, young people of all ages – all participated in the various events in the centre.
Those who wanted to chant slogans assembled under the two main banners: one read ‗Bread Education Freedom, the Junta Didn‘t Die in 1973 in this square the IMF will fall‘ and another massive banner carried the slogan ‗Out! with a massive picture of a helicopter.
Many crowded the square to engage in political discussions at the various stalls and displays. So many arrived from all over Greece that the police started to use roadblocks in the Corinth area and also they used teargas to block protestors trying to join in the Athens demo at the Evangelismos Hospital.
The Commu nist Party was on the periphery of yesterday‘s events, handing out a four colour leaflet advertising all the new measures that the IMF is going to impose – as if the protestors don‘t know what is coming or aren‘t fighting against it with their countless original slogans which change daily and are reported by all Greeks to their friends, workmates when they go back home.
In conversation a KKE militant said that even if the IMF is rejected, as it was in Argentina in 2002, nothing will change. The same people condemned their own members this time last year for trying to occupy Parliament, calling them ‗provocateurs‘ and their leader stated openly that she does not condone the disruption of a meeting held by PASOK. Yet she hasn‘t got a problem when politicians use riot police against peaceful citizens‘ protests, as everyone knows that they cannot appear in public anywhere anymore without meeting with confrontations and protests.
These daily protests are taking a logic of their own and they will lead inevitably to some form of conflict as the state cannot allow indefinitely for this to go on. They are waiting for it to dissipate. But it has grown stronger up to now. The possibility always exists for a Latin American-style provocation (use of agent-provocateurs amongst the protestors, or use of bombs) and then us this as an excuse to clear the centre, but this will be difficult to sell due to the volume of people participating.
The social crisis is not going on holiday so the situation does not appear to be orientating towards a de-escalation, thought nothing can be totally guaranteed. What is clear is that large bodies of people are now in a political vacuum. No one wants any of the old parties and they openly rally against them. We are clearly in a transitional period where the old is dying and the new has yet to be born.
Mon 06, June 2011 @ 12:43
VNGelissaid… On Monday the media apart from the govt one was on 'strike' so no reports occurred regarding the size of Sunday‘s demo. The tickets on the Athens metro were reported to be around 250,000 and only a third ever pay and schools as yet haven't gone on holiday. Last night a Govt Minister went to give a speech in an area of Athens and the police used tear gas for the first time against citizens protesting and they had to get her out on a police motorbike wearing a police helmet.
As far as one can make out the politicians won‘t be able to travel at all anywhere. The KKE condemned most of these events as a sign of populism and they condemn all signs of violence whatever that implies, as the violence of unemployment, price rises and the IMF of course are 'hidden' from view. As the situation spirals out of control the KKE makes declarations of legality to the state.
Late last night frictions were created in the square as the people who organise the speeches under an umbrella organisation called realdemocracy.gr organised by the Euros who for years carried Greek flags are now opposed essentially to people who wear flags on their backs and support the demonstrations chanting Hellas Hellas (Greece Greece) alongside other anti-govt slogans. The topic of debate was the issue of the Debt by the 'specialists' those who allegedly are up to the job of analysing the crisis, as if it isn't specialists who already in power...
Tue 07, June 2011 @ 17:2
6
VNGelissaid…
9th June General Strike called today by government public services, Post Office plus Savings, Telecoms, Water, Ports, Greek Defence Industry plus Banks. Whistles and hats were distributed by many of the unions and the demos were separate once more but were on the same path. The KKE had around 1,000 whilst the others were at least same path. The KKE had around 1,000 whilst the others were at least 6 times bigger. The slogans weren‘t that militant and are clearly behind what is going on Sindagma Sq. They marched passed the Sq. and did not stay there to give speeches, but the midday sun was so hot everybody would have collapsed anyway if it occurred in front of Parliament but it could have occurred at the bottom end of the Square below and it didn‘t. The union bureaucracy‘s don‘t want to be associated with the ‗riff raff‘ on the square presumably.
There are severe difficulties for the govt at the moment as it is being pressurised by the EU-ECB to propose a new round of measures which are agreed by the two main parties PASOK-NEW DEMOCRACY to be sold to the Greek people, but agreement appears to be difficult for it would imply hara-kiri for both.
The issue is now when the vote is alleged to occur on 15th June whether agreement will have been reached by then or whether the govt will have fallen. Another possibility is for a provocation to occur on the square and force the people to go home and they don‘t appear to be doing so. Each day doesn‘t have as many but various events increase or decrease numbers accordingly. Many should come again this weekend and if they continue this will put even more pressure on the govt to take some form of action. This situation cannot go on indefinitely and already sections of the media are stating Athens in under siege. Over the last 5-6 general strikes black hooded characters have thrown Molotov cocktails at police ranks right in the middle of the workers demonstrations and then given the green light for the police to attack and disperse the crowds. So far they haven't appeared on the square, but this being Greece, one is sure they are never far away.