ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Riot police fought running battles with mourners Tuesday after the funeral of a teenager whose shooting by officers triggered Greece’s worst rioting in decades… “Everyone has let our children down … Every day I see that students are becoming more hostile toward us and figures of authority,” said Christos Kittas, who resigned as the dean of Athens University after the rioting spread to campuses…
Officers battle demonstrators outside parliament as pressure mounts on government to call early election
…With many struggling to make ends meet, and one in five living below the poverty line, there is growing discontent over the tough fiscal policies of a government determined to reach the prescriptive benchmarks set out by Brussels and rein in budget deficits. The disaffection has been exacerbated by allegations of corruption and a series of scandals implicating members of Karamanlis’s inner circle.
Secondary school students rushed to join the protests, throwing stones at police in clashes in front of the Athens parliament yesterday, and on islands and mainland towns nationwide.
“A lot of teenagers identify with Grigoropoulos,” said Christos Mazanitis, an Athenian journalist. “There’s a whole generation out there who see their parents in debt and feel they have nothing to look forward to in the future. Fear and despair are what these riots are about.”
YOUR DEMOCRACY SHOOTS US
16 YEAR-OLD DEAD BY A COP’S BULLET
There is a planned rally/vigil for Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Melbourne – the city with the biggest Greek population outside of Greece:
Saturday, 13th December, 2008
1:00PM outside the Greek Consulate 37-39 Albert Road, South Melbourne (St Kilda Rd trams)
Bring Greek music, friends, candles, flowers, etc.
Statist reactionaries are calling for a massive police crackdown on the rioters. If this occurs, it may well require a declaration of martial law, and the army may be called in to smash a sufficient number of heads. In such circumstances, the possibility of another fatality occurring would certainly increase, and the political costs to the state be escalated further as the struggle widens to embrace other groups, and the ghost of ’74 assumes an Earthly visage.
To the people of Oaxaca
To the people of Mexico
To Section 22
To the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca
To the media
In the early morning of Monday, December 8, 2008, murderer Ulises Ruiz’s Oaxacan state government, through its Preventative and Municipal police, on board various police pickup trucks and motorcycles, violently attacked those who live and work in the political and cultural space of the house located at 408 Crespo Street in the historic center of Oaxaca, “Oaxacan Autonomous Solidarity House of Self-Sustaining (Autogestive) Work” (Casa Autonoma Solidaria Oaxaquena de Trabajo Autogestivo – CASOTA)…
Swedish police apparently blocked the entry into Sweden of antifa crews from Germany and Denmark, on their way to Salem to help nutzis celebrate their (temporary) occupation of the town, a practice initiated in 2000 and constituting the largest neo-Nazi knees-up in Sweden, and one of the largest such rallies in Europe. In the end, police detained 470 (counter-)protesters, and approximately 700 neo-Nazis completed their mini-Nuremberg rally under the watchful eye of hundreds upon hundreds of police. NB. The few reports available online make it unclear precisely who was stopped from entering the town/country, why, and how many actually attended the event. It is known that neo-Nazis successfully destroyed an autonomous social centre in Stockholm but were unsuccessful in attempting to murder a union activist’s family a few days later.
The situation today is starting to resemble the situation during the 90’s with financial crisis, a growing sense of insecurity among people and accelerated nazi violence.
…The same-same-but-different-card is habitually played every time anti-racists protest against marching nazis and should, once and for all, be unveiled as the false play it certainly is. If one claims that the twenty or so murders committed by nazis since the 80’s in Sweden alone, as well as the severe hate crimes, arsons, bombings and assaults they have carried out, is equal to the rock-throwing and street fighting of anti-racists, one lacks a sense of proportions. That should be obvious for everybody, at least since Nazis a couple of days ago in cold blood tried to torch a child because her parents are syndicalists and anti-racists…
Not according to some local (Melbourne) “punks”. But fuck ’em…
Rioting and protests over the shooting of a teenager by police continued to spread across Greece Monday, leaving authorities frustrated by their inability to stop the country’s worst civil unrest in decades. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis once again appealed for calm after an emergency meeting Monday with his ministers and top security officials, trying to find a way to break the chain of violent events. “The state needs to protect society,” said the prime minister in a live televised address. “The emotions that followed the tragic incident cannot and will not be tolerated.”
Several universities in Greece have been occupied by protesters as part of a wave of rioting and unrest that has swept the country in the wake of the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy in Athens on Saturday night, the Reuters news agency reported. “Most of the clashes have occurred in university cities and have involved students,” the BBC reported.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Gangs of youths smashed their way through central Athens and Thessaloniki on Monday, torching stores and buildings after the fatal police shooting of a teenager sparked Greece’s worst rioting in decades. Dozens of shops, banks and even luxury hotels had their windows smashed and burned in a night of lawlessness as youths fought running battles with riot police. Black smoke rose above the city center, mingling with clouds of tear gas. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, whose increasingly unpopular government has already faced a growing number of sometimes violent demonstrations in recent months, called an emergency Cabinet meeting Monday night. In Athens, rioters torched the capital’s massive Christmas tree in central Syntagma Square. As the hooded youths moved on, some protesters posed for photos in front of the blaze, and others sang the Greek version of “O Christmas Tree.”
Athens Indymedia requests assistance from translators
Indymedia activists in Greece are urgently in need of help with translations from and into Greek.
There is a lot of international attention for what is going on in Greece now and there are many articles on the Athens IMC website – in Greek language.
The Athens indymedia website is currently struggling with a huge number of people accessing the site. The global Indymedia network is now working on a different solution and this solution needs help translating technical terms into Greek.
If you understand Greek and want to help translate either the Greek content of athens.indymedia.org or (mostly easy) technical terms into Greek to help the new site come to life, please contact these addresses:
==> www-gr[AT]lists.indymedia.org for *content* <==
==> imc-tech[AT]lists.indymedia.org for *tech terms* <==
Please be patient - the Greek activists are under a lot of pressure now.
Another option is of course to pick interesting articles in Greek language from IMC Athens, translate them and post the translations as articles. This would also be appreciated.
You won't be expected to do more than you can. Any bit of help is a great help.
The state/corporate media has some explaining to do…
For Athens police, the Exarchia neighborhood is enemy territory. A perennial sanctuary for the capital’s marginalized far-left youth, the central district has been the scene of sporadic anti-government violence for years. But clashes rarely grow as big as those that have wracked Greece for the past two days. They began when police shot dead a 15-year-old boy in Exarchia on the night of Saturday Dec. 6. That killing sparked riots that spread to at least a dozen towns and cities across the country and have so far left 67 people injured, including 37 police officers. Protesters have destroyed at least 17 banks and set fire to dozens of shops and cars. It is the worst political violence in Greece in 17 years. (See pictures of the riots in Greece.)
The BBC’s Malcolm Brabant looks at why student anger has erupted across Greece over Saturday’s fatal police shooting of a teenage boy. The riots that have swept Greece for the past two days and look set to continue for the foreseeable future underline why the most important day in the national calendar is “Oxi” or “No” day. “Oxi” day commemorates 28 October 1940, when Greek leader Ioannis Metaxas used that single word to reply to Mussolini’s ultimatum to allow Italy to invade Greece, propelling his nation into World War II. When Greeks say no, they mean it in spades. Rebellion is deeply embedded in the Greek psyche. The students and school children who are now laying siege to police stations and trying to bring down the government are undergoing a rite of passage.
As an aside, a headline article on Chabad.org reads Strengthening Riots in Greece Keep Jewish Residents on Edge. It quotes a Rabbi Mendel as stating that “Thank G-d the Jewish community is okay… So far, the rioters have not been targeting people, but I don’t know how Jewish businesses have fared”, thus implying that anarchists might target Jews. Why the Rabbi thinks so is unknown, but rather obviously, no anarchist worthy of the name would target Jews or any other racial, religious or ethnic minority. More likely, Greek fascists might take the opportunity to do so. In such an event, they’d best not be caught doing so by anarchists, who would likely beat them to a pulp. The rabbi might also like to examine anarchist resistance to fascism and neo-Nazism, from its origins in early twentieth-century Europe to today. In that struggle, anarchists have always been on the front line, and many continue to pay with their lives for their resistance.
NB. The guy wearing police uniform is Greece PM Kostas Karamanlis. In his bullet proof vest the abbreviation of his party, “New Democracy”. Check out Latuff’s other work on deviantART. It gets ***** from slackbastard.
On Saturday 6th of December at around 10pm, two Greek policemen, 37-year-old Epaminondas Korkoneas and 31-year-old Vassilis Saraliotis, were on patrol in a central street by Exarchia square, in the centre of Athens. There they had a verbal argument with a small group of young people. During the argument, one of the officers, Korkoneas, pulled his gun and twice shot a 16-year-old male, Andreas (Alexandros) Grigoropoulos. Andreas was taken to Evangelismos Hospital, and declared to be dead on arrival. According to eye-witnesses, the officer had been swearing at Andreas, and exposing his genitals, before shooting him…
“In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation.”
Sunday
Protesters chanting “cops, pigs, murderers” hurl petrol bombs at Athens riot police. Helicopters hover over the demonstrators and clouds of teargas erupt in the streets.
The stylish anarchist movement partly traces its roots in the resistance to Greece’s 1967-74 military dictatorship. The youths tend to espouse general anti-capitalist and antiestablishment principles, and have long-running animosity toward the police.
Up to a hundred protesters are held in a stand-off with police after trying to storm the Greek embassy in London.
Demonstrators tore down the Greek flag from the building in Holland Park and set it on fire.
The action follows three days of riots in Greece sparked by the killing by police of a 15-year-old boy.
Sky’s Leah Borromeo, who is at the embassy, said the group was there “to show solidarity with the dead teenager”.
“This anarchist group has adopted him as a martyr, and has raised an anarchy flag over the embassy,” she said.
The protesters, who had earlier marched from Hyde Park, were chanting, singing and jeering, while police had set up two cordons around the building, she said.
In Greece, riots flared in Athens, Thessaloniki and other cities after the shooting of Alexandros Andreas Grigoropoulos in Exarchia.
“There are a lot of disoriented young people who feel they don’t have much to expect from the future and are very disconnected,” said Professor Thanos Dokos, an analyst at a Greek thinktank. “These feelings have been exacerbated by the corruption and economic climate and are being used as ammunition by anarchist groups today.” ~ Greece riots enter third day, Policeman charged with murdering teenager whose death sparked violent protests across country, Helena Smith in Athens, Mark Tran and agencies, guardian.co.uk, Monday December 8 2008
Direct Action News from Greece : This blog is an attempt to cover, publicise and translate any reported direct action news from Greece (and southern Cyprus) apart from the mass media mediation…
In Greece, in response to the police murder of teenager Andreas Grigoropoulos, riots and uprisings kicked off on Saturday evening, beginning in Athens and soon spreading across the country and to all major cities. These continued on Sunday (December 7), and appear to be continuing on Monday (December 8).
Over the three decades since the end of the US-supported military dictatorship (1974), while Greek police have killed numerous individuals in the course of various social and industrial struggles, the shooting to death of Andreas is the first teenage casualty of such violence since 1985 (Michalis Kaltezas). Then as now, there has been a violent reaction.
What makes the recent response to the murder more significant is that it takes place in the context of a serious downturn in the Greek economy, broader economic and social discontent, and just days prior to the commencement of a general strike (scheduled well prior to Andreas’ murder and directed against pension restrictions and neoliberal economic policies). Thus while young people, especially students, have been taking to the streets in their thousands, University and high school teaching staff expected to go on strike on Wednesday have halted work two days early, and it would appear possible that workers in other sectors may join them.
In terms of governmental politics, both the Socialist opposition and the Communist Party have been forced to declare their distaste for such inevitable expressions of state violence, and to organise popular demonstrations — hopefully, in their eyes, firmly under political, if not police, control. The position of the police, and that of the current, ‘conservative’ New Democracy government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, is unlikely to have aided by the defense offered by the two policemen accused of killing Andreas: “One of them, who is accused of murder, said he fired a warning shot and that the boy was killed by a ricochet, but eyewitnesses told Greek television that the officer aimed directly”. Also according to the BBC, “The family of the boy, named as Alexandros Grigoropoulos, has hired an independent pathologist to ensure there is no cover-up” (Greece braced for further protest, December 8).
The explanation for the violence has been located as arising from economic, historical and political factors. In the realm of economy: “The shooting angered Greek youths, already resentful about a widening gap between rich and poor“. Historically speaking, hatred and resentment towards police, on the part of students in particular, is framed in terms of the role of police and military forces in sustaining the Greek dictatorship.
The law prohibiting the entry of police onto University grounds was introduced following the overthrow of the military junta in 1974, and constitutes one of the lasting legacies of the student revolt that helped end the dictatorship. On November 17, 1973, striking students at the National Technical University of Athens (also known as the Athens’ Polytechnic) barricaded themselves behind the walls of the University. The Greek government, under Georgios Papadopoulos, ordered the army in to crush the occupation, and the army, literally, sent the tanks in, declaring that — like the Mayor of Copenhagen — there would be no negotiations with anarchists. The exact number of persons murdered by the army in the subsequent attack remains disputed, but most sources claims anywhere between dozens and scores of students (and civilians who had gathered at the Polytechnic in support of the students) were killed, while hundreds more were injured and thousands arrested.
Apparently, even the young have memories.
As for politricks, Reuters recounts: “This comes at a very difficult moment for the government,” said Anthony Livanios of pollster Alpha Metrics. “If this continues, it could have a devastating effect on the government and on stability.” University professors started a three-day walkout on Monday and many school students stayed away from class in protest. “He could have been our brother. He could have been our fellow student, he could have been one of us,” said Vangelis Spiratos, 13.
“He could have been one of us” — an explosively dangerous idea.
The 15 or 16-year-old shot dead by police in Athens on Saturday December 6 has been named in reports as being Andreas Grigoropoulos (Pictured above. Source: Athens Indymedia). In response to the teenager’s murder, some hundreds if not thousands of people, mostly young, have rioted in Athens, Thessaolinki, Patras and other cities, torching banks, cars and shops, and fighting with police.
Police expressed “deep regret” over the shooting.
Update
…my Greek is er, non-existent, but GiaNt’s blog appears to feature video footage shot at the time of the killing…
Alternative accounts suggest that the police version of the killing is… the police version. Thus while police accounts describe a hostile and violent group of 30, others claim that there were six people on the street near the main square in Exarchia where Andreas (Alexandros-Andreas) was shot dead. (The two policemen who have been arrested in relation to the killing are 37-year-old Epaminondas Korkoneas and 31-year-old Vassilis Saraliotis.) According to anarchist and other, independent accounts, the shooting took place following an argument between the small group of youths and the three two police in their patrol car. The group carried no weapons of any kind (as police claim). The killing took place in front of a number of eyewitnesses from surrounding bars, which were very busy, and was committed by one of the three pair after he left his vehicle and shot Andreas in cold blood. These accounts have not been published by Greek or foreign corporate/state media, but are circulating via independent media, blogs, bulletin boards, e-lists and so on, mostly in Greek.
Protests and rallies have been held in many cities and towns across Greece, and solidarity actions are being organised across Europe.
teacher dude’s blog has some interesting accounts of the response in Thessaloniki.
Oh yeah:
1) Apparently, a general strike was already organised for December 10;
2) Greece has embassies and consulates right around the world.
ATHENS (AFP) — Hundreds of protesters set cars ablaze, lobbed molotov cocktails at banks and clashed with police in several Greek cities on Sunday in a night-long display of anger at the police killing of a teenager.
The death of 15-year-old Andreas Grigoropoulos late Saturday set off outbursts throughout the evening from the capital Athens to the southern island of Crete.
The clashes continued through Sunday morning in both Athens and in the Greece’s second largest city, Salonika.
In central Athens, a group of masked youths threw stones and molotov cocktails at police officers who responded with tear gas in front of a university.
Other groups held siege at the polytechnic school in the Exarchia district, where Grigoropoulos was shot by a police officer who opened fire after youths threw objects at his car.
In Salonika, a dozen banks and shops were torched by protestors as around 2,000 demonstrators rallied in the city centre.
The windows of Salonika’s city hall were broken, and the Greek National Bank and Emporiki Bank were targeted as well as clothing stores and supermarkets.
Demonstrators intially took to the streets of Athens late on Saturday to protest the “arbitrary” police action, shouting slogans against the right-wing government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.
Youths set fire to garbage bins in the central Exarchia district, scene of frequent clashes with police.
The anger spread to other cities as protesters set about 20 cars on fire in Athens, Salonika and western Patras through the evening.
The facades of 17 banks in Athens and five in Salonika were damaged, while some businesses were also attacked. Demonstrators threw molotov cocktails at the police station in Patras.
On the island of Crete, three banks in the main city of Iraklion were damaged while molotov cocktails were tossed at city hall in the town of Chania.
Grigoropoulos was among a group of about 30 youths who threw stones and other projectiles at a car transporting two police officer. One of the officers got out of the car and opened fire, hitting the teenager with three bullets.
He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead of a chest wound.
Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos called for an “exemplary punishment” against those responsible for what he termed an “isolated incident.”
Three prosecutors were tasked with investigating the shooting, while the Athens Press Agency reported that the chief of the police station in Exarchia and the two police officers involved in the shooting were suspended.
Pavlopoulos and the police expressed “deep regret” over the shooting.
“Police keep watch and try to ensure order for citizens by defending themselves … but this type of isolated incident that led to the death of a youth is never justifiable,” Pavlopoulos said.
He called on human rights groups and leftist organisations planning protests on Sunday to avoid “extreme acts.”
Pavlopoulos and junior minister Panayotis Hinofotis offered their resignations to the prime minister, who did not accept them.
In 1985, 15-year-old Michalis Kaltezas was shot by a police officer, triggering violent clashes between far-left youths and the police in Exarchia.
…In July of 1976, during conflicts in the centre of Athens between construction workers and the police, a police armoured vehicle murdered a woman aged 66, Anastasia Tsivika.
In 1978, men of MEA (special police units) murdered doctor Tsironis in his home in N. Smyrni, when he declared that his house was a dominion autonomous from the Greek state.
On the 16th of November 1980, during the demonstration from the polytechnic to the American embassy, Iakovos Koumis and Stamatina Kanelopulou were beaten to death by the MAT (riot police).
On the 17th of November 1985, during clashes around the polytechnic, riot-policeman Melistas murdered 15 year old Michalis Kaltezas.
In 1986, in Kessariani, during clashes between strikers of the EDOK-ETER and the MAT, the worker Agelos Mavroudis was killed.
On the 9th of January 1991, the teacher N. Temponeras was murdered by right-wing thugs who wanted to stop the students’ occupations of schools in Patras.
On the 10th January, 1991, during clashes after the students’ demonstration after the murder of N. Temponeras, tear-gas thrown by the MAT set fire to a shopping centre and four citizens died. On the 27th of the same month the death after torture of the Turkish political refugee Souleiman Aknar was announced. He was detained in the Public Security Building.
On the 10th January 1994, officer Lagogianis, who belongs to the police station of Moschato, with 5 shots executed Th. Giakas, during a simple identification.
In December of 1995 an Albanian prisoner was murdered during an attempt to escape from Stavrakiou Ioanninon prison.
In July of 1996, in Piraeus, on the ship Pegasus, inside cabin 53, anarchist Christoforos Marinos was executed.
The same year, in a police blockade outside the city of Livadia, policemen murdered Tasos Mouratis a Roma.
In December of 1997, an Albanian prisoner was murdered by policemen in his effort to escape Diavaton prison in Salonica.
The list of murders by the “democratic” state and the “democratic” police has no end. None of the murderers ever paid for their actions…
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Rioting erupted in central Athens on Saturday night after police reportedly shot and killed a 16-year-old boy.
The violence began when youths in the Exarchia neighborhood of the capital attacked a police car with rocks and firebombs, and one of the officers inside fired a weapon that seriously wounded the teenage boy, witnesses said.
Two Greek TV stations said the youth was rushed to a hospital but died upon arrival.
The news enraged hundreds of youths in the area who began rioting by attacking other police cars with stones and firebombs. Police responded by firing tear gas at the crowd, evacuating some restaurants in the area, and closing several streets to all traffic.
A few hours after the rioting began, the youths appeared to divide into at least three separate groups and there was a lull in the fighting.
At least one teenager was arrested, but no casualties were reported among the rioters or police.
two
Riots erupt in Athens after police kill youth
Demetris Nellas
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Hundreds of rioters fought pitched battles with police in two Greek cities Saturday night after an officer shot and killed a 16-year-old in Athens.
Witnesses said the shooting occurred around 9 p.m. when a small group of youths attacked a police patrol car. An officer fired three shots, hitting the youth in the chest.
Police issued a statement saying the patrol car, with two officers inside, was attacked by a group of 30 stone-throwing youths while patrolling the central district of Exarchia. According to the statement, the two officers left their car to confront the rioters
“The two (police officers) maintain that they were attacked again and responded, with one firing a stun grenade and the other, by shooting three times, resulting in the fatal wounding of the minor,” the statement said.
Two Greek TV stations said the young man shot was rushed to a hospital but died upon arrival.
The two officers and the local precinct commander have been suspended pending an investigation, the police statement said.
“The government expresses its profound regret over this incident. An inquiry on the circumstances of the death has already begun and, if the policemen are found to have been derelict in their duty, the punishment will be exemplary,” Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said in a statement.
The news enraged hundreds of youths in the area who began rioting, attacking other police cars with stones and firebombs. Police responded by firing tear gas at the crowd, evacuating some restaurants in the area, and closing several streets to all traffic.
A few hours after the rioting began, the youths appeared to divide into at least three separate groups and there was a lull in the fighting.
Shortly after midnight, rioting resumed with some protesters marching through the city center and others fighting police nearby. Police fired tear gas, and rioters threw stones and firebombs.
In the northern city of Thessaloniki, dozens of youths attacked a police precinct in the city center and several others have blockaded a road.
At least one teenager was arrested, but no casualties were reported among the rioters or police.
Calls were posted on Web sites for more people to join the protests in the two main cities as well as the city of Iraklio on the island of Crete.
Two Greek anarchists are making molotov cocktails. One says to the other: "So who will we throw these at then?" The other replies: "What are you, some kind of fucking intellectual?"
