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From our comrads in Greece….

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We are sending you a brief chronology of some of the tremendous events that have been happening in Greece since Saturday the 6th of December.
Short presentation of the recent events in Athens
through the eyes of some proletarian participants

Shooting by police on Saturday 6th of December has triggered off in cities all over Greece the fiercest riots in decades. What follows is a first –and incomplete– presentation of the recent riots in Athens, which are still going on, based on our own experiences and on what we have heard of. On the one hand, the fierceness of the riots and the determination of the rioters and looters and on the other hand, the unfolding strategy of the state certainly need more time and closer attention to be adequately estimated, something that we are honestly not in the position to do at the moment, because we participate in several local activities, demos and assemblies.

Saturday, 6th of December
At about 9.10pm, a police special guard shot dead a 15-year-old boy, Alexis-Andreas Grigoropoulos, in cold blood, in a quite usual bickering near Exarhia Square. Immediately after that, lots of people –mainly anti-authoritarians– gathered in the area to find out what’s going on and to express their rage against police brutality. Hundreds of policemen attempted to seal the area in order to suppress any reactions, but with no result. Spontaneously, people started to attack the police in the streets around the square with every means possible. In less than two hours, more than 10.000 people had taken to the nearby streets to communicate the event and clash with the police. Some anarchist groups occupied the historical building of the National Technical University, which lies a few blocks away, and the Faculty of Economics, which is situated 1km away to use them as centres of struggle. The same was done by leftists at the Faculty of Law, less than 1km from the point where the murder took place. At this district, clashes with the police and attacks against banks and stores lasted until 4am, as far as we have witnessed.

The news concerning the murder spread rapidly to many people through mobile phones and the internet. As a result, about 150 people, who already were at Monastiraki Square, spontaneously attacked and looted almost all the stores at Ermou Street, the world’s 11th most posh street. There, lots of passers by joined in from nearby pubs and clubs.
In the centre of Athens that night, some people attacked the police station near Acropolis causing severe damage.

It has to be noted that the news concerning the murder of the young boy immediately spread to several cities (Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Irakleio, Volos) where attacks against banks, police stations and stores also took place.

Sunday, 7th of December
The Faculty of Law squat called for a demonstration at 2pm outside the Archaeological Museum which is right next to the also squatted historical building of the National Technical University in Patission Avenue. Many people gathered and at about 3.30pm the demo towards the Athens Police Headquarters begins. We already knew that the police would never let us approach their Headquarters, but we were determined to arrive as close as we could. Bank-smashing and stone-throwing against the cops started immediately after we had left the square. As we turned right to Alexandras Avenue standing at the end of the demo, we realized that the participants amounted to approximately 4.000 people, of all ages. There were attacks against every store in sight, mainly luxury car shows and banks. At the beginning, police stood at a safe distance from the rioters and didn’t let themselves become a target. Then, as they came closer, the rioters attacked them mainly with stones. The police made a first attempt to break the demo with teargas near Argentina Square, but with no result. After ten minutes, at the corner with Ippokratous street, they made a second fiercer attempt with lots of teargas which finally proved successful: the demo broke into several parts and its main parts headed to the right towards Neapoli. Attacks against stores and banks kept going on, also accompanied by car-smashing. Lots of people chose to keep on marching towards Police Headquarters by a parallel street, but after some time it became clear that there was no way through: a small street perpendicular to Alexandras Avenue is the spot that the already famous photo with the gun-holding riot policeman was taken. Tension was high. We decided to move back and return to Exarhia Square to see what was to be done next. At the way back, clashes with the police were still taking place but to a lesser extent. Some people attacked the 5th police station which is located nearby and the police responded with plastic bullets.
Later in the evening, there began clashes with the police again –and to a lesser extent attacks against stores– around the National Technical University and the Faculty of Economics, which would last until late at night.

Monday, 8th of December
In the morning, youths from several high schools gathered spontaneously in front of the Police Headquarters to protest. Many youths from the northern, east and western suburbs moved to the city centre making a spontaneous demo. Youths from the schools of Pireaus (a port at the south-west part of the city) attacked the central police station overturning police cars.

At 6pm, the Faculty of Law squat called for a demonstration at Propylaia, a central Square of Athens. Our estimation is that more than 20.000 people, mainly young people, participated in that demo. Lots of them, maybe more than 1.500, were walking “in and out” of the demo smashing banks and destroying the luxurious shops of the city centre. They started to destroy or loot the commodities almost from the first moment of the demo. The youths destroyed banks at Omonoia square and attacked more than half of the shops of Stadiou Avenue and Filellinon Avenue. Also, severe looting took place at the shops in the first blocks of Piraeus Avenue. People were walking slowly and nobody really tried to stop neither the attacks nor the looting. Some even stood by and cheered the attacking youths. At the same time, youths were also attacking the cops, the banks and the shops in various parts of the city all the way down to Syggrou Avenue, a street leading to the south of Athens. Up until now, the real extent of the damage caused to private property that night has not been estimated. The media says it amounts to 10 billion euros, which could be true since dozens of stores were attacked, looted or burnt down mainly by greek and immigrant “uncontrollable youths”.

Although one could say that the greek youths (students and precarious workers) had the initiative and the immigrants followed by, we have to admit that it was very difficult to distinguish the one from the other in the streets. As far as immigrants are concerned, Albanians of second generation participated mostly in the attacks against cops and buildings and immigrants of other origin –mostlyAfghans and Africans- confined themselves to looting. Riots and looting covered approx-imately half of the city centre. Although the police made several arrests that evening, it would be untrue to say that they could even think of controlling the situation, because there were so many people in the streets, acting in small groups of ten or twenty people.

Tuesday, 9th of December
Teachers of primary and secondary education went on strike that day against police brutality. At noon, the demonstration began from Propylaia Square and headed towards the Parliament, but there were no more than 3.000 participants. After the end of the demo, and despite the fact that they were small in number, 150 youths hurled firebombs, rocks and other objects at riot police.

The so-called Communist Party (KKE), scared by the prospect of a generalized riot, showed once more its counter-revolutionary, reactionary nature. They declared the rioters and looters as secret agents of ‘foreign dark forces’ and called the ‘people’s movement’, an imaginary subject of which they are supposedly the rightful representatives, to stay away from the fight. History repeats itself: this party for the last 35 years has been chanting the same, monotonous and dangerous mantra about ‘provocateurs’; in 1973 they had done the same against the students and workers who had occupied the National Technical University; a riot that had led to the overthrow of the dictatorship. Once again, they are trying to save the state and restore public order.

At 3pm the funeral of the dead boy took place in the cemetery of Palaio Faliro, a suburb in the south of Athens. More than 5.000 gathered there to bid Alex the last goodbye and to shout once more against police murders. During the funeral, about 200 young people were involved in attacks against the riot police, who stood a few blocks nearby. This confrontation lasted for more than an hour, in the course of which some stores and banks were attacked; stones were also thrown against a police car. After an hour, young people headed towards the Palaio Faliro police station, but the police stopped them a few blocks away. During this riot, three police motor bikers shot more than ten times in the air to “scare” the rioters.

During the night, fascists appeared in the streets around the National Technical University and the Faculty of Economics where fierce clashes with the police were taking place. At Victoria Square, immigrants attacked the police and tried to loot 3 stores, but undercover police and “civilians” brutally arrested one of them. Generally speaking, this was the day that the state unofficially pushed forward the so called “social automation” and encouraged the collaboration between shop owners, fascists, “civilians” and the police against the rioters.

Wednesday, 10th of December
This day was a day of general strike, and its aim had been predetermined over a month ago: it was mainly “against the state budget 2009”. Due to the ongoing riots, the chief unionists spoke against police brutality, separating at the same time the “rioters” from the “responsible quiet de-monstrators”. More than 7.000 people attended the gathering at Syntagma Square. Some protesters threw fire bombs at police during a general strike which paralyzed Greece and piled pressure on a doddering government.

Small scale riots took place at Panepistimiou Avenue. After the demo, many people attended the assembies at the National Technical University and the Faculty of Law to talk about what is going to be done in the next days. Later on, there was a big assembly of the anti-authoritarian milieu at the Faculty of Economics. Earlier in the morning, high school students attacked the local police station in the suburb of Kaisariani. At night, clashes with the police took place at Tritis Septemvriou Avenue, in the center of Athens.

The riots have spread to some 42 prefectures of Greece, even in towns where not even demos had taken place before. The pattern is the same: mainly students and young people attack police stations, banks, stores and state buildings. They gather spontaneously, after communicating with each other over mobile phones. Anarchists and politicos are just a small part of the rioters and in many cases they are taken aback by the fierceness, the spreading and the duration of the riots.
It is mostly in Athens and Irakleio (Crete) that a big part of the rioters are immigrants and so this riot can be rightfully called a multinational one, the first of this kind in Greece. Against this totally new situation, the media have tried to change their propaganda and talk of ‘greek protesters’ and ‘foreign looters’, in an effort to flare  up racism.
Up until now, about half of the arrested people in Athens are immigrants and the main charge against them is looting. The vast majority of the arrested throughout the country is young people.

Thursday, 11th of December
On Thursday, high school students abandoned their schools and gathered outside police stations all over Athens. Some of them were attacked with rubbish bags and stones and the police threw tear gas and in some cases  …stones back. All in all 35 police stations were blockaded in Athens and at some places other people participated as well, mostly parents. The entrance of the prison in Korydallos was also attacked by students.
The media said that 4500 tear gas canisters have been used by the police these 5 days. They are running out of tear gas and think of importing some from Israel!

In the morning a group of libertarians occupied the Town Hall in a suburb in the south of Athens. A lot of people from the neighborhood participated in the evening assembly and the municipal workers who supported the occupation issued a communique which can be found in the appendix of this chronology. The Town Hall has been used since then as a gathering place and a counter-information centre.

In several universities assemblies took place and university occupations spread. Militants from the student organization of the Communist Party (PKS) tried to block assemblies in order to prevent the occupations (Panteion University, School of Philosophy in the University of Athens). Their attempts were unsuccessful as occupations expanded throughout Athens and Greece.

Early in the evening there was a big demo (maybe 5000) in the centre of Athens called by an as-sembly of mainly leftist trade unionists and organizations who gather at the occupied Faculty of Law. At the end of the demo there started clashes with the police in the centre of the city and around the occupied Faculty of Law which lasted for some hours.

In Komotini, a town in the eastern-north, near Turkey, a demo of mostly university students was attacked and chased into the university by many fascists and far right thugs who infest the area to protect …national security.

There is a general feeling of hostility towards cops and fedding up with everything. Police brutal-ity in an increasingly police state after the 2004 Olympics, lousy wages and working conditions, high school student overwork and pressure, university students’ discontent with a life that is in-creasingly characterized by insecurity and fear, government and church high officials’ corruption, immigrants’ overexploitation and a society torn apart by deepening class divisions: a explosive mixture where the murder of the kid was just the fuse.

The publication of extracts from the testimony of the cop who murdered the kid caused general outrage. He ‘accused’ the student of having ‘deviant behaviour’ because ‘he was expelled from the private school he was attending’ (which is a lie, to say the least). His lawyer, a notorious TV celebrity, made an even more provocative statement: ‘It is now only up to the Greek justice to decide whether the young boy was justly killed, or not’. The ballistic examination report was ex-pected today. “Leaks” in the media the previous days have been suggesting that the report will claim Alexandros was killed by a ricochet and not a direct shot (which is against what every sin-gle eye witness says). However, such provocations are at least answered in the streets. Among other things, new imaginative slogans are invented every day: ‘We did not throw stones; they were ricocheted’, ‘The right thing is for the lawyer to be killed by ricochet’.

Friday, 12th of December
Seven hundred high schools and one hundred universities are occupied and their number is ex-pected to jump up. A big student demo was called in Athens (10000 or more). Students and other demonstrators attacked the police and some banks were smashed. During the demo two hundred anarchists trashed the lawyer’s office. The riot cops arrested several students (some of them are 13-14 years old).

Saturday, 13th of December
A sit-in was organized in Syntagma Square at noon by the coordinating committee of student university occupations as well as by political groups. More than 1000 people of all ages participated: university students, high school students as well as workers. The sit-in went on until the end of the night. After midnight the police attacked the peaceful protest with tear gas and dispersed the gathered crowd. Protests and demos were also organized in suburbs around Athens: Nea Smirni, Peristeri, Zografou.
In the evening the Ministry of Environment and Public Works in Patission street was attacked by a crowd of two hundred people. At 9 o’ clock about a thousand of people gathered in Exarhia to protest against the murder of Alexis-Andreas Grigoropoulos near the spot he was murdered. Some people attacked the local police station whereas others clashed with the riot police. There was a demo heading for Monastiraki and Gazi, neighborhoods where many people go clubbing on Saturday night. The demo was attacked by the police and few people managed to continue. The conflicts went on in Exarhia but the attacks of the police forced the people to disperse into various directions. A large part of the crowd was pushed into the premises of National Technical University. Riots continued in the streets around National Technical University during the night.
People who managed to follow the demo passed from Monastiraki, Thisseio, Gazi and then they tried to return to the centre marching on Piraeus street. Some banks and surveillance cameras were attacked by the demonstrators. The police attacked again the demo near Omonia square and there were more than 50 arrests. The arrested people were let free without any charges.
During the day several banks were attacked throughout Athens.

What is to be done? Who knows? One thing is certain: the riot is going on!

14/12/2008
TPTG

There follows a workers’ communiqué and a chronology of the events in Thessaloniki, written by our Blaumachen comrades.

APPENDIX 1
COMMUNIQUE
On Saturday night the greek police killed a 15 year old student.
The murder was the last straw.
It was the follow up of a coordinated campaign, a campaign of state terrorism with the help of the fascist organisation ”Golden Dawn”, which aimed at university students that are fighting against the privatization of education, the high school students, the immigrants that are under constant state control because they have the wrong colour, the working class who have to work for a nickel and a dime until they die.

The government praetors who have covered up a lot of crimes against society, who burnt the greek forests in the summer of 2007 are also responsible for the  burning of the cities these days. They maintain nepotism. They protect the government people who were involved in the mobile phone interceptions scandal, those looting the public pension funds, those who kidnapped and tortured immigrants and were involved in law, stock market and church scandals.

We are in civil war with the fascists, the bankers, the state and the mass media who want the young people to be submissive and society to be pacified. Although they have no excuses, they try again to use conspiracy theories as well as theories of ”irregular attack” in order to calm spirits down.

The rage that has been accumulated through the years had to be expressed and it shouldn’t end.

Throughout the world people set their eyes on what is going on here.
People must uprise everywhere.

This generation of poor, unemployed, precarious, homeless and immigrant young people will smash the display window of this society and will wake up the obedient citizens from their sleep of the ephemeral American Dream.

DON’T WATCH THE T.V NEWS, CONSCIOUSNESS RISES IN THE STREETS

WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE ARE MURDERED, THE OLD PEOPLE SHOULD NOT SLEEP

GOODBYE ALEXANDROS, MAY YOUR BLOOD BE THE LAST OF AN INNOCENT TO RUN.

The workers’ s union of municipality of Aghios Dimitrios, Athens,11/12/2008

APPENDIX 2

A first update on the recent upheaval in Thessaloniki, Greece

This short presentation cannot satisfy the need for an in-depth account of the recent upheavals in Greece. It’s just a first attempt to inform comrades and proletarians abroad about the ongoing events from the perspective of people participating in them. This is an update for the events as we experienced them (or most of them) in Thessaloniki.

Saturday, 6th of December
Immediately after 15-year-old Alexis-Andreas Grigoropoulos was murdered by police special guard in Athens, 200-300 people, mainly anarchists and leftist students, gathered in Polytechnics School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), which is located near the commercial and cultural city centre. A spontaneous demonstration headed towards the police station at Aristotelous Sq (the most touristic square of the city), where fights with cops took place. At the same time, there were people fighting riot police with stones and Molotov cocktails around Syntrivani Sq, near AUTH. Clashes with cops continued throughout the night.

Sunday, 7th of December
A demonstration began from Kamara Sq (located in the students’ quarter near AUTH) at 12pm. 1500-2000 people (high school and university students, anarchists and leftists) marched via the commercial streets of the city centre (Egnatia, Agias Sofias, Tsimiski), destroying some bank and shop windows, to the police station at Aristotelous Sq. There, many protesters attacked the police with stones and some Molotov cocktails. A cop was set on fire. Police responded with tear gas. The demonstration continued to Ermou st and then through Venizelou st to the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace. Many stores and the Town Hall were destroyed at Venizelou str. After reaching the Ministry, the demonstration headed via Agiou Dimitriou st to the police station of Ano Poli, where riot policemen were attacked again. Heading to Kamara Sq, a supermarket was looted by young people. While the demo was finishing, some high school kids tried to loot a bookstore and new clashes with the riot police started.

Later in the evening, the Higher School of Drama and the offices of Thessaloniki’s Bar Association were occupied, the first by Drama students and anarchists and the second mainly by leftist students. Both these spots, located in the city centre, were going to be used as meeting points for people participating in the demonstrations.

During the night, clashes with cops took place outside AUTH. A rioter was injured by police rubber bullet. During the same night, the police station in the eastern district of Toumpa, the Town Hall of Agios Pavlos district and the party offices of Nea Demokratia (this is the government party in Greece) in 40 Ekklisies district were attacked.

Monday, 8th of December
At 10am, 400 high school students demonstrated in Toumpa district and attacked the police sta-tion once again. Road blockades took place in other districts of the city as well. Meanwhile, 1500 high school students erected barricades and clashed with riot police on Svolou and Ethnikis Amynis streets and Navarinou Sq, in the students’ quarter of the city centre. Stores at Tsimiski and Venizelou streets were attacked, too. Nine university faculties were occupied by students. During the same morning the police station in the western district of Sykies was attacked, too.

A demonstration was called at 6.30pm at Kamara Sq. 6000 people marched through the city centre. There were high school and university students, some immigrant kids, hooligans, a few workers, anarchists and leftists. A great number of banks and stores (mobile phone, electronics, clothing and fast food companies and jewelries) were destroyed, mainly in Tsimiski st, the city’s most commercial road, and Venizelou st. Some of them were looted, too. Clashes with cops took place in front of the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace. Cops suffocated us with tear gas. Fights with cops continued around AUTH during the night.

Tuesday, 9th of December
This was the day when the funeral of Alexis took place in Palaio Faliro, Athens. Teachers of pri-mary and secondary schools were on strike and there was a work stoppage after 12pm for all public sector workers. A demonstration was called at 12pm at Kamara Sq. 4000 people marched towards the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace, where limited clashes with the police took place.

During the night there were some fights between young people and riot police in the university area. We have to mention that many university departments were looted by school kids coming from various suburbs during these days. During the same night, fascists appeared near the uni-versity. The same happened in many cities all over Greece, especially in Patra, something that indicates that this was organised by the government. In some cases, like in Larisa, fascists attacked rioters together with undercover cops and “angry shop owners”.

Wednesday, 10th of December
This was a day of general strike, called much earlier by the General Labour Confederation of Greece (GSEE) and the Civil Servants’ Confederation (ADEDY) against the 2009 state budget. Due to the ongoing riots, the chief unionists announced on Tuesday that they would cancel the proclaimed demonstrations. In Thessaloniki, the local branches of GSEE and ADEDY tried to constrain strikers in a peaceful gathering in front of the city’s Trade Union Center. High school kids and university students appeared there determined to drag strikers in a demonstration and they succeeded. 4000 students and workers marched towards the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace. There, a few high school kids attacked the cops who responded with tear gas. Fights con-tinued for half an hour in an area of 500m between the Ministry and the Trade Union Center. A few kids fought police, but many workers and students supported them by remaining in the place and insulting the cops. Finally, cops were compelled to draw back. After that, 500 people blocked Egnatia st, a central avenue in the city centre, for more than an hour.

In the evening, high school kids clashed with the riot police for a while on Ethnikis Amynis st. During the same evening, the occupation of Thessaloniki’s Bar Association offices ended.

Thursday, 11th of December
In early afternoon, 80 anarchists attacked the offices of the local Newspaper “Makedonia” at Monastiriou st.

A demonstration was called by the School of Drama occupation at 5pm at Kamara Sq. 2000 people, mainly university students and anarchists and few high school students, marched peace-fully towards the eastern heavily inhabited districts of the city. No clashes took place this day, as far as we know.

The ghost of freedom always comes with the knife between its teeth

Shooting in the flesh is the high point of social oppression

All the stones removed from pavements and thrown to cops’ shields or shop-windows of the commodity’s temples; all the flaming bottles drawing orbits under the night sky; all the barricades erected on the city’s streets, separating our areas from theirs; all the bins full of rubbish of a consumerist society that the riot’s flames transformed from nothing to something; all the fists raised over the moon; these are the weapons giving flesh and real power, not only to resistance, but freedom, too. It is this feeling of freedom that only deserves to bet on in these moments: the feeling of forgotten mornings of our childhood, when everything can happen because it is us, as creative human beings, that have awaken up, not the future productive human-machines of the subordinate, the trainee, the alienated worker, the private owner, the family man. It is the feeling of confronting the enemies of freedom – not fearing them anymore.

So, everyone who wants to continue minding their own business, as if nothing is happening, as if nothing has ever happened, has serious reasons to be disquieted. The ghost of freedom always comes with the knife between its teeth, with the violent mood to break every chain that reduces life into a miserable repetition, useful for the dominant social relations to reproduce themselves. Since Saturday the 6th of December no city in this country functions normally: no shopping therapy, no free roads to reach our workplaces, no news about government’s next recovery initiatives, no carefree zapping among lifestyle TV shows, no night drives around Syntagma square and so on. These nights and days do not belong to shop owners, TV commentators, ministers and cops.  These nights and days belong to Alexis!

As surrealists, we have been out in the streets from the very first moment, together with thousands rebels and other people expressing their solidarity, because surrealism has been born by the street’s breath and does not intend to abandon it. After the massive resistance to state murderers, street’s breath is even warmer, even more hospitable and even more creative. Proposing a direction to this movement doesn’t correspond to us. However, we accept full responsibility for the common struggle, because it is a struggle for freedom. Without being obliged to agree with every expression of such a massive phenomenon, without being partisans of blind anger or violence for its own shake, we consider this phenomenon’s existence right.

Let’s not let this flaming breath of poetry to just defuse or die!

Let’s convert it into a certain utopia: the transformation of world and life!

No peace with cops and their bosses!

Everybody in the streets!

Whoever cannot understand the rage can just shut up!

Surrealist group of Athens, December 2008