by V N Gelis
. The peaceful nature of the protests reached their limit. More than 2 million Greeks gathered in squares and the end result was... worse IMF measures after the govt restructuring. The bankers and interest bearing bondholders need to paid. Soible stated that Greeks must give up even the sun. Everything else is to be sold off in a fire sale of immense proportions without an actual sale, but a giveaway. No wonder people chant Thieves to Prison for the Politicians in Parliament and a new banner has appeared stating the ‗Biggest type of Violence is that of being Sacked and Unemployed‘.
The circling of Parliament seems to have been a call made by a section of the demonstrators and a section of the media as well (with posters appearing with no organisational link to them) but done in such a manner whereby one would need around a million to cover all the entrances from the main roads instead of where the actual entrances are. In other words they are spreading people thin ensuring thus if the numbers don‘t show up, (how can they when there isn‘t a political organisation that can control this) their actions won‘t have the actual desired effect. Coupled with the role of the KKE which marches separately and leaves the scene just as teargas is fired, the new 48hour general strike (which hasn‘t occurred ever since the fall of the Junta) we have had a new situation developing.
Alongside that has been the massive media attention now to default and what has occurred in other countries from Russia to Argentina to Iceland. The worlds press has been present in Greece since the 15th June and the issue is why? Since 1985 Greece has paid back E865billion and its economy doesn‘t add up to more than 2% of EU GDP. All the new measures don‘t reduce the actual size of the foreign debt but magnify it by attacking working class living standards directly and indirectly.
Coaches are coming from many parts of Greece and many of the demonstrators this morning seem to be well prepared with gas masks and sea goggles for the eventual tear gas attacks. The mood appears to be that something will kick off, but we don‘t know exactly when. 2pm
Afternoon and Evening Events
Between 2-6pm the known black hooded police provocateurs started to attack police lines not anywhere near Parliament but at either end of the square giving the riot police the excuse to tear gas everyone away from the main squares as all that remained apart from the ‗indigenous‘ were the leftist groups. Most people left in order to come back in the evening during the Parliamentary debates. At some point the riot police teargased both entrances of the Sindagma metro so people who were inside could choke and many did as women with young children ended up needing to be hospitalised.
KKE– PAME arrives in order to depart from jeering crowds At around 7pm the KKE via its union leadership PAME arrived at the top end of the square right in front of Parliament and most people greeted them that finally they had come to join the common struggle against the IMF. They have a very large truck with many loudhailers and this was parked right in the middle in the square and it is usual for the KKE never to be a minority and when it holds its own meetings in squares talks only to itself so to be in an area as just another organisation was too much for its organisers. So when they started to depart people started jeering them and a few scuffles broke out. Many shouted shame or clapped ironically saying also well done, the parade is over. During arguments with the KKE stewards their complaint was that if they arrive on the square (one month after this movement started) people don‘t want them and if they leave people jeer at them. This is obviously quite logical as the KKE criticised those who were on the squares when they said the struggle is only in the factories when ironically they had always stated people should hit the streets against the economic measures and when they did they told them to go back to the factories (as if everyone is working!!) What was clearly discernible was that the volume of people on the streets has affected the KKE and it can no longer pretend its policies are actually serving any other purpose than a left cover for IMF-PASOK
Tear gas for 5 hours straightbut people don’t go away After the KKE left the motorbike contingent against the IMF arrived in the square to the crowds who clapped in support and soon thereafter the riot police started a 5 hour barrage of tear gas and little rocket bombs that make a massive amount of noise to shake you and a little explosion. People started to defend themselves and throw water bottles at police lines and anything they could find, but the volume of teargas was so intense that even if you had gasmasks and sea goggles the smoke alone meant it was difficult to see, but at least you could breathe. During lulls in the conflict two individuals climbed over the police barriers and confronted the riot police on their own. The shouting and screaming at the police was constantly interspersed with slogans of Police, Pigs, and Murderers which thronged the whole square and Hellas Hellas. Despite the volume of tear gas the people never dispersed just retreated as the police fired tear gas straight at you and you could be seriously injured by the teargas canister. Fires were lit in the square below and aids were handing out Maalox (chemical compound for bad stomach diluted) spray for the burning eyes.
28/06/11
At the same time this morning a minister stated Greece will not be Argentina when by all accounts this is the beginning as the old order is disintegrating and by teargas alone one cannot keep such a large mass of people in check. To what extent people today will accept to be attacked by the police indefinitely without counterattacking in the known ways (Molotov cocktails etc.) may be the marvels or our ‗modern era‘. At the same time the ‗Special Olympics‘ are occurring which have cost around 100million. There are more than 15,000 police who have been on duty now for around 2 days straight and thousands of protestors are arriving from many parts of Greece. The battle begins anew.
29/06/11
VN Gelis
Athens Burns in IMF Induced Teargas Hell
Continuous Eyewitness Account: Part 2-48 Hour General Strike Whilst the govt ‘s IMF package Mk2 passed with 155 votes and just as the KKE‘s parade ended the police using its riot police launched a brutal teargas war with the hundred odd thousand in the main square. Tear gas was thrown right in the middle of crowds right above the heads of protestors, Chinese made bomb sounding pellets were also thrown to create maximum confusion and panic. But the protestors didn‘t panic. They stood firm, as most were prepared with gas masks and sea goggles to avoid the effects of the tear gas which is stinging eyes and burning sensation in all skin surfaces left uncovered. Alongside the tear gas they threw gas which meant you couldn‘t also breathe. Brute force without the use of police provocateurs was the order of the day after they had a trial run the night before.
More than 500 people were injured, the police wanting to disperse the top end of Sindagma Sq. also in order to ensure the bottom end of the square sections of which are funded directly by the Ford Foundation and Soros in the USA weren‘t to be left out. By dispersing the bottom end of the square they revealed that their aim was to show that a banana republic has to crush all resistance to the IMF in order to prove to the banksters that have them on the payroll as to what a good protectorate they are. What they achieved on the ground, they lost in the spirit of the people, who faced the riot police unarmed, with plastic water bottles and their arms.
Whilst the battles lasted for up to 8 hours yesterday and the riot police must have thrown the equivalent of 6 months use of tear gas, they created another set of problems. By dispersing the crowds they set them further afield at least half a mile from the centre and created at least five zones of conflict. Pavements were ripped up and the marble was broken to be used as rocks against the riot police. Fires were set at the central Post Office, the Economics Ministry at a certain 4x hotel, phone booths and bus stations. For hours the youth fought and the riot police returned the rocks throwing them back. At various times they brought the mobile police units on motorbike that drove past the crowds on the side streets and they threw tear gas at them. They even attacked people eating in restaurants and in cafes who didn‘t necessarily have anything to do with the demo. They threw tear gas into the main
metro station right where there was a standby area for injured people creating a gas storm ensuring the injured became even more injured and hoping that someone may die.
During the day two members of Parliament were attacked (one a member of the KKE and another member of PASOK). The political situation has now changed irrevocably beyond the pale. The peaceful nature of the protests so far reached their limit. One cannot confront the praetorian guards of the IMF with plastic water bottles or with bare hands. The IMF hasn‘t usually departed peacefully anywhere on earth. It arrives sucks the blood out of the people leaves behind chaos disaster and despair and provokes rebellion. It appears what happened in Athens yesterday was the last chance for the IMF to leave peacefully. It didn‘t happen. Next time the parliamentary junta will be overthrown and the 300 Quisling MP‘s will be thrown out. People learn quickly in Greece. In the first six months of the IMF 80‘s abstained from local elections, and in another six months 2 million took to the squares. In the next six months they will chase and hound every politician wherever they are, their local offices, their electoral offices, they will refuse to pay for all the new tax rises and they will confront the IMF banksters head on.
As they say on the square with the large banner and the slogans they chanted against the riot police
Bread Peace Freedom, the Junta Didn’t Die in 1973 In this square we will Bury the IMF From words to deeds will be the next phase. Just as in the Russian Revolution the masses unorganised demonstrated in their thousands with peaceful intentions against the Tsar and were met brutally head on by the praetorian guards of the era, so in our times, the IMF will be buried in Greece. We witnessed the future in the events of yesterday and it is clear the people can no longer be ruled and those who rule can no longer rule in the old way. Greece will be reborn on the ashes of the IMF, the EU and the Euro.
Greece belongs to the Greeks and will remain so despite the giveaway nature of the new measures. For that no one who demonstrated had a different opinion and the mood of the masses wasn‘t one of defeatism, but resistance till victory.
June 2011 VN Gelis
Taxi Drivers on Indefinite Strike Against IMF Liberalisation Measures
For three weeks now Greek taxi drivers have been on strike against the neo-liberal measures of the IMF and the quisling PASOK government. They have had marches, blockades of ports and airports and have essentially bypassed their elected representatives. In Crete, at Iraklion airport the taxi drivers blockaded the airport for 5 hours, teargas was fired and conflict ensued. North and South Greece was cut off due to the blockade at Rio-Antirio. PASOK offices have been attacked in Northern Greece and have been destroyed.
Many taxi drivers at least 25% have paid around E200k for their licences. The govt announced overnight that their licences are to be worth zero and they would issue new licences for a small sum. There are already 14,000 licencesmany of which are also fake and don‘t actually have a licence to operate and due to the economic crisis takings have been reduced significantly. The destruction of their licences without the state undertaking to buy them out has pushed taxi drivers to the edge.They have adopted the tactics and strategy of a generalised guerrilla war with the govt in the middle of summer right bang in the middle of the tourist season. When large cruise ships with 5-10k passengers are unable to dock in Piraeus, or no taxis can be found from one end of Greece to the other, this shows a level of commitment which hasn‘t been seen so far by any other section. The taxi drivers meet daily and decide on the spot what type of action to take thus bypassing the leadership. Indeed today Limberopoulos the leader of the taxi drivers stated we cannot control their reactions essentially stating that he condemns their form of resistance as after all the leaders of all the traditional leaderships are allied with existing political parties of formations and were brought into those positions in the pre-IMF era.With the governmentt reshuffle during the events in June (protests by Indignant and 3 general strikes culminating in the battle of Athens) which convulsed Greece a new minister of Transport took over called Rangousis and he sought fit to crush the taxi-drivers in the middle of the summer season gambling on the fact that if they are defeated that will open the way for the liberalisation of all the closed professions as dictated by the IMF-EU.
The bankruptcy of the Left is highlighted once more as they are spectators of an unfolding drama in the struggle of the Greek taxi drivers. If they are defeated, companies will take over many of the taxis and the drivers will become salaried employees many of whom in order to keep the wages to a bare minimum will end up being recently arrived immigrants and the taxi drivers will suffer the same fate as suffered by farmers, truckers before them.Apart from verbal messages of support the KKE abstains. The Euros on the other hand openly condemned the forms of struggle of the taxi drivers in Parliament saying itdoesn‘t do justice to their struggle. One of the taxi drivers slogans has been ‗with blood we gained our licences, with blood we will give them away‘ ‗taxi drivers are here united and strong‘ (paraphrasing an old PASOK slogan)
Postscript
The taxi drivers like the truckers before them were eventually sold out by their leaders. Union leaders who belong to the previous generation of sellouts committed either to the ruling PASOK gov‘t or the KKE. 13 regionally leaders without a vote from the base decided to end the strike whilst 6 voted for a continuation with Thessaloniki voting for as well.
July 2011VN Gelis
Drachma or Euro? Default on Way
For the corrupt mass media a return to the Drachma equals destruction! For what reason they don‘t say. It is served as an honour and explanations don‘t exist. It is destruction, because it is ...destruction, pure and simple!
―Catastrophic for Greece was how it was characterised by a journalist Ev Mitilinaios the scenario of returning to the drachma‖ we read in the VIMA newspaper, without anywhere the argument being justified.
The same goes for Papariga (leader of the KKE) who actually doesn‘t tire in warning us: ―A return to the drachma under the current conditions would be catastrophic‖!
The why and how must be held only for themselves.
Also the European specialists speak about destruction but we understand them e.g. The president of the European central bank, Z. C. Trichet who supports that it will be: destructive for the Eurozone the return to the drachma. He doesn‘t say this for Greece. We would agree with him, with the meaning that a departure of Greece from the Eurozone would mean the end of an opportunist, stupid and criminal attempt to impose a united currency without a united economy and state. The responsibility belongs to the architects of the EU and the Eurozone, with the victim being Greece and the other countries of the European South.
There are others who state that due to the lack of a similar experience, the honest reply to the question as to ‗what will happen if we return to the drachma‘ is simply, ‗I don‘t know‘!
We Have Experience In reality there is experience not from one but many countries. Typically they aren‘t the same, but essentially they don‘t differ. Before we analyse things more, let us give a hypothetical preliminary example so one can be better understood:
Let us assume we had held onto the drachma but had latched it onto a hard currency, something which isn‘t at all rare in international practice, e.g. the Euro. Whoever gave us one drachma we would give them back one euro. That is what happened in the beginning of the 1990‘s with the Argentinian peso. So as to be confronted, they said, inflation would be added to the dollar. One peso=one dollar and the opposite. This occurred with the bright sparks down at the IMF!
The Results are Well Known. The problem of the Argentinian economy was found in its currency? A big deceit. A case of fetishism, which we come across only in the field of religion. Where the painter of holy images paints Mary and falls down on his feet in front of his piece of art and asks for himself to be saved! Thus man in society and commercial production has lot from his eyes his true relationships with his co-citizens and the division of labour among them,
due to common survival and fantasizes that his life is determined not by the relationship with his co-workers but by other creations e.g. from a printed piece of paper, like the peso, which in and of itself has minimal value.
The diagnosis is wrong and the medicine chosen also. The patient wasn‘t the typed piece of paper as is always to be believed by monetarist bourgeois economics but in the given situation the low level of competition of the Argentinian economy in the international arena. The medicine chosen for the peso to become as hard as the dollar, without having in the background the dynamism of the US economy, the only thing it could achieve was to destroy totally the competitiveness of the Argentinian economy. As exactly happened.
Argentina had to travel backwards; its peoples had to suffer for a decade, to go bankrupt essentially for 75% of the debt to be written off, to disconnect the peso from the dollar and for it to be devalued, for the economy to start to develop once more. Naturally the problem wasn‘t solved permanently as the Argentinian economy is part of the world economy and in conditions of world crisis they cannot but influence all the national economies. The abandonment of the policy of the hard currency in Argentina ended up being the correct and imposed choice.