From The Department of “If Greeks or Germans Are So Interesting to You, Move to Greece or Germany”:
Three weeks after the murder of Alexandros / Andreas / Alexis Grigoropoulos (December 6) in Athens by Epaminondas Korkoneas, the riots which followed are estimated to have cost businesses in the capital more than $1bn. There have been rallies and protests throughout Greece, and solidarity actions across Europe and elsewhere, including a number of occupations of Greek embassies and consulates. Hundreds of schools and many University campuses and the main offices of the General Confederation of Labour (GSEE) have been occupied (although this occupation, like that of the Polytechnic, has since ended). So too, a number of newspaper, radio and television outlets have been occupied (albeit temporarily), and the flow of bourgeois society interrupted on the airwaves as well as the streets. This has extended to mass transportation, with small groups of anarchists sabotaging ticketing machines and distributing tracts calling for the self-management of mass transit.
Naturally, all this monkey business has created a good deal of attention.
Malcolm Brabant interviews a Trotskyist (a member of the Sosialistiko Ergatiko Komma or SEK, a member of the Cliffite International Socialist Tendency), notes the role of the Greek Communist Party (“The communists have been among the more responsible politicians over the past fortnight, condemning the violence and exerting tight discipline over their protest rallies. Intelligently, they are doing their utmost not to alienate the masses, whereas Syriza, the coalition of the left, supported by younger voters in the last general election, has been accused of stoking the flames”), and argues that Europeans can help “stop Greece’s social uprising escalating… by taking a holiday in Greece” (Riots push Greece to the edge, Malcolm Brabant, BBC, December 25, 2008).
NB. Georges Prevelakis, a Greek-born professor of Geopolitics at the Sorbonne University in Paris, claims to have received confirmation that the killing of Alexandros was an accident: that is, he was killed by a bullet ricochet (as opposed to a direct shot).
Uri Gordon asks whether Greece provides A road to revolution? (Haaretz, December 26, 2008 (Kislev 29, 5769)).
Finally, some neat-o notes on How to Organize an Insurrection by CrimethInc Ex-Workers Collective : “We humbly present one of the first inside reports from participants in the upheavals that shook Greece after the police murder of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the anarchist neighborhood of Exarchia on December 6. This is only the first set of answers to come in from our Greek comrades. We hope shortly to receive further perspectives from other elements of the Greek uprising, so we can provide a comprehensive background on the context and dynamics of the revolt. If you or someone you know is situated to give your own answers to these questions, please email them to us at [email protected].” Questions answered by Void Network (Theory, Utopia, Empathy, Ephemeral Arts); posed by agents of the CrimethInc. ex-Workers’ Collective.
- Other good sources of infos include:
Center For Strategic Anarchy
NEA από όλο τον Κόσμο : “The objectivity of the presentation of news is almost impossible. So I simply reproduce what others say, and that seems to be quite effective. A continuous «collage» of news or “arpakola / paste-copy” .. with a few comments of mine .. ”
Greece unrest (libcom.org)
On the Greek Riots (Occupied London)
tapes gone loose : fiery the angels fell from the spires of my fortress of youth
Teacher Dude’s Grill and BBQ: Random thoughts on teaching EFL/ESL and living in Greece : monkey business in thessaloniki
See also:
French youth fear police violence along Greek pattern (December 20)
Athens, New York… Melbourne (December 19)
December 20, 2008 : International Day of Action Against Murder by the State (Melbourne) (December 18)
“Stop watching, get out onto the streets” // “Free everyone who has been arrested” (December 17)
Vents : ‘Class War’ (December 16)
Melbourne protest at killing of Alexandros [Andreas] Grigoropoulos, December 13, 2008 | Greece : You. can’t. stop. the music. (December 15)
Meanwhile, in Europe, ¡anarcholocos! (December 14)
Failure to communicate : Epaminondas Korkoneas in court | Greece : Still the One (December 12)
Greece Is The Word | Dancing lessons (December 11)
Greek neo-Nazis join forces with Greek police (again) | The police murder of Andreas Grigoropoulos | The more it stays the same, the less it changes | The Kids are Alright (December 10)
Greek kids continue to disrespect authority | Latuff on the murder of Andreas Grigoropoulos | Shattered spectacles (December 9)
OMG. Gang Storms London Greek Embassy! | …and on the third day, they rioted again… | Andreas (Alexandros) Grigoropoulos ( December 8 )
Anarchy is a dead Greek fag! (December 7)
Bonus!
Announcement by the Polytechnic Occupation 12/24/08
infoshop.org
Contributed by: Anonymous
December 25 2008Immediately after the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos by the special police guard Ep. Korkoneas and the first clashes in the streets of Exarchia, the Polytechnic university gets occupied and is turned into a focus for the expression of social rage. Being a space historically and symbolically connected in the living memory of the rebels and of a big part of society with the struggle against Authority -from the period of dictatorship until today’s modern totalitarian democracy-, the Polytechnic becomes the place where hundreds of people gather spontaneously: comrades, youth and workers, jobless, pupils, immigrants, students…
The Occupation of the Polytechnic ended at midnight of the 24th of December – The struggle continues…
The two guys wearing masks are ready to charge the bank, all set on smashing the security camera and disabling the ATM. However, there is a young woman there, oblivious to the mayhem around here who is taking out her money. The masked men wait, politely ask her if she has finished, then set about the cash machine with hammers.
A march goes past a van, inside two tiny Shetland ponies stuck in a space not much bigger than they are. The protesters, enraged by this, discuss what to do. In the end they take down the number plates as to… report the owners to the authorities. Just a few metres behind them riot police approach menacingly.
50 kids, one no more than 10 years old, pelting the central police station with rocks, as bewildered shoppers seemingly unable to grasp what is happening gawp while pieces of paving stone clatter around them. The quasi-military riot police up against tweenies.
Walking along Egnatia Boulevard lit up by at least a dozen fires, acrid smell of tear gas and burning plastic everywhere. Two middle aged bystanders argue over whether the anarchists about to firebomb a bank are doing the right thing. The older, white haired guy, says: “What do you care? It’s not your money”.
An old woman buttonholing a passing masked teen, scolding him about what has been happening. Others join in a passionate debate what has been happening over the last few days.
A smartly dressed woman, shopping bags around her waiting at the bus stop, claps and cheers masked protesters marching by. The man next to her shouts out “Shame, shame on you”.
Meanwhile, in Germany, a Columbus-like discovery as:
Neo-Nazis take their struggle to the streets
David Wroe
The Sydney Morning Herald
December 26, 2008As the recession bites, dangerous right-wing splinter groups are embarking on a new strategy, writes David Wroe in Berlin.
Alois Mannichl’s attacker confronted him on his doorstep.
“Greetings from the national resistance,” the man, described as a tall bonehead, reportedly told the police chief when he answered a knock at the door.
“You leftist pig cop, you won’t trample on the graves of our comrades any more.”
He then plunged a 12 centimetre knife into Mr Mannichl’s chest, narrowly missing his heart and leaving him seriously injured.
Mr Mannichl, the police chief in the southern German city of Passau, is known for being tough on extremists. In July he ordered that the grave of a revered neo-Nazi be opened and an illegal swastika removed from the coffin.
The brazen stabbing a fortnight ago has shocked Germany and sparked calls for the NPD – the National Democratic Party and the backbone of the far right – to be banned. At the same time, experts warn the attack presages a new phase of violence as stable, relatively disciplined alliances among neo-Nazis collapse, leaving dangerous splinter groups.
“I’ve had a feeling for about the last half a year that they were getting more aggressive,” said Matthias Adrian, a former bonehead who now helps neo-Nazis quit the movement.
“There’s a part of the right-wing extremist scene that’s had one foot on the gas and the other on the brake, and now they think it’s time to lose the brake,” Mr Adrian said…
In Australia, this may help to explain why Welf Herfurth (former NPD member and leader of the New Right and the ‘national anarchists’) has thrown in his lot with the handful of boneheads belonging to Volksfront Australia.
