Greeks have good reasons to protest

Declan Hill, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Sunday, December 18, 2011

Athens

‘Almost everything that you thought you knew about current-day Greece is wrong.»

That thought went through my head as I stood among a mass of demonstrators in Syntagma Square during the recent general strike. There was a festive air: souvlaki sellers amid grandmothers, students singing and lots of street theatre performances. It was unlike any of the images that I had seen; there was no stone throwing, no tear-gas or water cannon attacks. I may have been lucky but there was a wide spectrum of ordinary people marching in the demonstration. The usual suspects were there, of course: the anarchists, the Communists and the general drop-a-hat-see-me-protest lot. But there was also a broad range of others: nurses, farmers, doctors, actors and teachers.

 After the demonstration was over, I walked past the rows of gas-masked policemen (generally far nicer

Like a Phoenix from its Ashes

Yesterday’s scene in front of Parliament sums it all up. The old clashes with the new as the country is in flames.

Τα σημερινά επεισόδια έκαναν το γύρο του κόσμου – Greece in Pictures: The protests at Syntagma today

Βόμβες μολότοφ, πετροπόλεμος, χρήση χημικών και χειροβομβίδων κρότου λάμψης κατάφεραν για άλλη μια φορά να αμαυρώσουν την ογκώδη διαδήλωση δεκάδων χιλιάδων εργαζομένων του δημόσιου και ιδιωτικού τομέα που βγήκαν σήμερα στους δρόμους της πρωτεύουσας στα διεθνή μέσα ενημέρωσης.

LIVE STREAMING GREECE – ATHENS (19-10-2011 / 20-10-2011)

Live Streaming ΑΠΟ ΣΥΝΤΑΓΜΑ 19/10/2011

Live streaming from Syntagma Square in Athens

The Question on Everyone’s Mind: What is Eurogendfor doing in Greece?

What is Eurogendfor and what is it doing in Greece?

According to their Official website, which you can find here: http://www.eurogendfor.eu/

«The European Gendarmerie Force (EGF) is an initiative of 5 EU Member States – France, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain – aimed at improving the crisis management capability in sensitive areas. Since Wednesday, 17th December 2008, the High Level Interdepartmental Committee Meeting (CIMIN) decided to

I wonder if the rest of Europe would react in the same way

I wonder what would happen if the citizens of Germany, France, Belgium, Holland or England  realized all of a sudden that their elected representatives decided they would close down government agencies in areas where immigrant numbers foreshadowed potential instability or insurrection that would warrant my services as a reaper of souls.

I wonder what they would say if state-owned corporations that monitored basic household necessities

Why isn’t Anyone Talking about the Demonstrations Tomorrow in Thessaloniki?

How convenient don’t you think, my dears? Tomorrow the International Fair , the city’s most important annual event, kicks off in Thessaloniki and no one has spent a single paragraph to tell the world what is about to take place.

No, the foreign press has decided to snub the whole affair, because to them, the Greeks are just lazy, complaining spoilt brats who have no idea what’s going on in their lives. Well, let me tell you

«The banks and politicians are afraid» – Spartan Indignants Walk to Athens (video)

The Greek Prime Minister’s new government faces a vote of confidence in parliament today after George Papandreou reshuffled his cabinet last week with insurgent socialist MPs and street protests opposed the latest austerity measures.

Thousands of people from the so called Indignant Movement are expected to join anti government protests outside Parliament in time for the vote.

IF THERE’S ONE ARTICLE YOU DECIDE TO READ ABOUT GREECE, IT’S THIS ONE

Democracy vs Mythology: The Battle in Syntagma Square

I have never been more desperate to explain and more hopeful for your understanding of any single fact than this: The protests in Greece concern all of you directly.

What is going on in Athens at the moment is resistance against an invasion; an invasion as brutal as that against Poland in 1939. The invading army wears suits instead of uniforms and holds laptops instead of guns, but make no mistake – the attack on our sovereignty is as violent and thorough. Private wealth interests are dictating policy to a sovereign nation, which is expressly and directly against its national interest. Ignore it at your peril. Say to yourselves, if you wish, that perhaps it will stop there. That perhaps the bailiffs will not go after Portugal and Ireland next. And then Spain and the UK. But it is already beginning to happen. This is why you cannot afford to ignore these events.

The powers that be have suggested that there is plenty to sell. Josef Schlarmann, a senior member of Angela Merkel’s party, recently made the helpful suggestion that we should sell some of our islands to private buyers in order to pay the interest on these loans, which have been forced on us to stabilise financial institutions and a failed currency experiment. (Of course, it is not a coincidence that recent studies have shown immense reserves of natural gas under the Aegean sea).

China has waded in, because it holds vast currency reserves and more than a third are in Euros. Sites of historical interest like the Acropolis could be made private. If we do not as we are told, the explicit threat is that foreign and more responsible politicians will do it by force. Let’s make the Parthenon and the ancient Agora a Disney park, where badly paid locals dress like Plato or Socrates and play out the fantasies of the rich.

Indignants gather in Syntagma Square

Another Intignants’ gathering took place for the fourth consecutive Sunday in Athens’ main Syntagma Square, the 26th day in the row that protesters have assembled in the square. According to The Athens News reporter on site, there were more than 50,000 indignants gathered at Syntagma Square this Sunday.

ΤΑ ΒΙΝΤΕΟ ΤΟΥ ΣΥΝΤΑΓΜΑΤΟΣ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ 15/6/2011 – VIDS OF TODAY’S DEMONSTRATIONS

ΒΙΝΤΕΟ ΑΠΟ ΤΑ ΣΗΜΕΡΙΝΑ ΓΕΓΟΝΟΤΑ ΣΤΗΝ ΠΛΑΤΕΙΑ ΣΥΝΤΑΓΜΑΤΟΣ.

VIDEOS OF TODAY’S EVENTS AT SYNTAGMA SQUARE OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT.

Greek strikers hurl yoghurt and stones at Athens police

Police have been firing teargas in an effort to disperse the crowd

Greek police have fired teargas at protesters outside parliament as MPs prepare to debate new austerity measures required for the EU and IMF bail-out package.

Demonstrators around Syntagma Square in Athens responded by throwing yoghurt and stones.

Thousands are taking part in a general strike, the third in Greece this year.

Ports, public transport and banks are badly disrupted as the main public- and private-sector unions go out on strike.

Prime Minister George Papandreou is seeking support for a new austerity programme of 28bn euros (£24.6bn; $40.5bn) in cuts to take effect from 2012 to 2015.

State-run companies have also joined the walkout, while hospitals are only offering emergency care. However, airports are operating normally after air traffic controllers called off their strike.

Greece’s Indignants: The White Tower Whispers Messages – Posters of a Protest (Part 1)

For Sale

iReport —

A walk around Thessaloniki’s White Tower, the city’s symbol of freedom and one of the central meeting points where citizens gather to rejoice national or local successes has turned into a hub of restlessness. The cries of joy from a far-away victory in the European Football Championship under huge screens set up along the waterfront under the imposing presence of this historic tower in 2004 have turned into enraged cries, pleas for help, threats against treacherous politicians.

I took my camera along on a Monday morning to let posterity see what a Greek demonstration

‘Indignados’ go to old Athens University with Theodorakis

The «Indignados» of Athens’s Syntagma Square moved on Tuesday afternoon to the old Athens University (Propylaia) to form a big peaceful demonstration.

Responding to the call by composer Mikis Theodorakis and other university professors, who decided «to join their vioice with the voice of society against the measures being taken without us», they walked down Panepistimiou avenue and flooded the surrounding streets.

After nearly three weeks Yiannis Kafkas, the demonstrator injured by riot police, leaves hospital

Yiannis Kafkas, the demonstrator who had been seriously injured by riot police during the General Strike demonstration of May 11th, left

Greek opposition sets demands as EU/IMF verdict nears

By Harry Papachristou and Renee Maltezou

ATHENS | Mon May 30, 2011 7:55am EDT

(Reuters) – Greece’s conservative opposition demanded tax cuts on Monday as the price for a consensus deal with the Socialist government on imposing yet more austerity, a major condition for getting further aid from the EU and IMF.

Conservative leader Antonis Samaras called for a flat 15 percent corporate tax and rejected government plans for hiking taxes to tackle Greece’s budget deficit and please fiscal inspectors mulling the next, key tranche of a 110 billion euro bailout.

‘Indignants’ gather in Syntagma for European-wide protest

In greater numbers than on any night since the protests began earlier this week, the ‘Indigants’ kept the date made via Facebook and other social networking sites on Sunday, descending upon Syntagma Square for yet another sit-down demonstration against severe austerity cuts. This night they were joined by protesters in Milan’s Piazza del Duomo, Champs Elysee in Paris and another 100 cities of Europe that held simultaneous peaceful demonstrations.

Athens’s Mayor Sabotages Demonstrations?

iReport —

For the second day in a row, Greece takes to the streets, setting up shop in central squares nationwide. Yet again, these peaceful demonstrations were surprisingly not impeded by riot police, yet the government’s displeasure was evident once more.

Reports had already appeared by eye-witnesses on various Greek blogs the day before concerning wifi and cell phone reception blackouts in Athens’s central square in front of Parliament where protesters had assembled. Complaints about not being able to call or send pictures from cell phones were heard from day one but many surmised that it was natural for providers to crash with over 50,000 demonstrators present at Syntagma Square. 

Thousands Take to the Streets in Greece

Peaceful demonstrations took place yesterday afternoon in central squares all over the country as frustrated citizens quietly protested against the government’s latest decisions to increase taxes yet again and sell off the country’s most profitable organizations, most of which are government-run at the behest of the IMF.

The situation over the past year and a half is unfathomable to most foreigners who only see a debt-ridden nation unwilling to pay what it owes. What most foreigners seem to forget is that the