More Than 40 Hurt in Athens Rioting

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More Than 40 Hurt in Athens Rioting

Friday March 9, 2007 8:01 AM

AP Photo XTS114

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Rioters protesting education reforms battled police for more than three hours Thursday, hurling Molotov cocktails and vandalizing businesses in central Athens, leaving more than 40 people injured, authorities said.

Police said 13 police officers were among those hurt in violence that erupted outside Parliament during a rally against education reforms. More than 60 people were arrested.

``I've never seen anything like it, so many petrol bombs,'' said one riot policeman, who asked not to be identified. ``Five of my colleagues are hurt. We've seized flare guns and wooden bats from the rioters.''

Police in Athens responded with massive amounts of tear gas to some of the worst violence since students began protests against the proposed reforms to increase the autonomy of state-run universities, and relax a ban on police entering campuses.

Greece's conservative government has promised to overhaul the higher education system and change the constitution to allow private universities from next year.

Chanting "it will never pass" and carrying black banners reading "down with the government and its reforms", a group of hooded youths set fire to a bank branch, smashed shop windows and a presidential guard post and destroyed the entrance of a luxury hotel in Constitution, or Syntagma, Square.

Riots also later broke out in Greece's second largest city early Friday, hours after the rampage in Athens near the capital's main Syntagma Square.

Demonstrators in the northern city of Thessaloniki threw Molotov cocktails at police, who responded with tear gas. The youths later barricaded themselves inside a university building near the city center.

A teacher identifying himself as Stavroula Mavromichali countered: "We were left with no other option but to react this way."

The demonstration was the latest of many, as wide-ranging discontent forced the closure of hundreds of university departments and resulted in violent protests across the country.

The walkouts have crippled Greece's educational system and many fear tens of thousands of students risk of losing the school year.

One of the changes, altering the law on asylum, seeks to make it easier for police to enter university grounds.

Police have been prevented from entering university campuses since the days of the Greek military junta when the military crushed a 1973 student uprising with tanks, killing dozens.

Police are often faced with the problem of anarchists, armed with fire bombs, avoiding arrest following protest marches by seeking refuge in universities.

Private tertiary education institutions are banned from operating in Greece and the conservative government believes the new law, allowing for the operation of private universities, would lead to greater competitiveness and higher educational standards.

Teachers, students and union leaders insist the government should upgrade free public education instead and fear the move could lead to higher education costs and lower teaching standards.

Educators accuse the government of failing to keep one of its main pre-election promises of hiking education funding to 5 per cent of GDP from a current 3.5 per cent.

Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6467921,00.html)
Roundup (http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_18059-ROUNDUP-Greek-Students-Clash-With-Riot-Police-Over-Education-Reforms.html)
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Yesterday we had one of the most violent clashes of the last decade. Athens was a warzone between students and police against the education reform of the conservative government which intends to pass a law that would allow the foundation of private universities, instead of increasing the funding of the public one's.

The Law passed on Thursday which was the day of protests. Many people were injured during the protests, students which had done nothing were arrested and are right now illegally held by the police which is remarkably cavalier of any idea of Justice.

Ironically the Greek Prime Minister called us ''Undemocratic Fascists''! That's because some Greek flags were burned and a wooden kiosk dedicated to the ''Unknown Soldier'' - a monument in front of the parliament - was burned. Evidently the government want to play with the patriotic feelings of the public and turn them against us.

The majority of the Universities are now occupied, the decision of this action is taken with direct democracy by the students via our General Assemblies, which take place once every week, where we discuss our forms of struggle. We were thinking to perhaps stop the occupations after Thursday because this situation is going on for almost a year now and has tremendous effects on us, as we have lost our entire semester, but in the lights of the recent events, we have now become more determined than ever and we believe that now it is the time to escalate our struggle against the brutalities of the police and the State. It is now or never.

Unfortunately there are also big disagreements in the movement, to say the least, between the Communist Youth Party and the more Anarchist orientated leftists. During the protests, there is an absence of solidarity between us, as if there are two groups which protest.

The Communists refuse to use violent means in the protests as opposed to the more Anarchist orientated leftists. The fact that there is no unity between us is illustrated by how the two sides call each other: the Communists describe the Anarchists as government provocateurs for their excessive use of violence while the Anarchists call the Communists a reconciled bourgeois party which engages the protests merely for political gains.

This is how I would describe things going on here.

Pictures from the protests (http://indy.gr/newswire/enimerosi-gia-tin-foititik-poreia-stin-athna-8-marti)

Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1fRfPodlQE)

Venceremos

[travisdandy2000]

God, I wish I could have been there.

[Cheung Mo]

If the "communists" think it's okay for the state to use violence but that it is not okay for its leftist opponents to do likewise, they are not our allies.

[The Grey Blur]

I know some Greek comrades of ISR who were extremely prominent in the university unrests last year, good to see their struggle is continuing.

[Okocim]

"The Communists refuse to use violent means in the protests as opposed to the more Anarchist orientated leftists."

what the hell?



But thumbs up to Greek comrades though for knowing how to deal with shit like about universities - in england students just rolled over and took the introduction of fees. We had a demo in november in london, 15000 max were there. pathetic.

[RNK]

Does anyone else recognize the revolutionary potential of that situation? It's unfortunate that the fracture in the Leftist movement in Greece will probably mean that broader, more permament action won't be taken. It will settle down in a few days, and in month or two it will be forgotten. An oppurtunity missed.

[The Grey Blur]

in england students just rolled over and took the introduction of fees
These guys didn't. (http://www.socialiststudents.org.uk/page.php?article=1048)


We had a demo in november in london, 15000 max were there. pathetic.
Everything has to start somewhere comrade, that is a decent base to expand from. And you've got to take into account that Greece has a history of student militancy as opposed to the UK.


"The Communists refuse to use violent means in the protests as opposed to the more Anarchist orientated leftists."
That's not true at all, the ISR comrades (Xekinima) I know have participated in volent resistance towards the pigs and actually lead two universities in coming out with make-shift arms. Perhaps they mean the official Stalinist "Communists" who have been releuctant to support any action.


Originally posted by Xekinima
The general tendency in the movement is to advance and expand The basic problem is on the one hand the tactics of the Communist Party youth which divide rather than unite the movement and on the other the tendency to take sectarian unilateral action by a section of the leadership. Also there is a lot of confusion about what should be done.

What happened on yesterday’s demo is characteristic of these tendencies. Not more than a hundred demonstrators, went into a head on collision with the riot police. This gave the riot police an excuse to massively overreact. Then the anarchists took over and the center of Athens was turned into a battlefield. The riot police took full advantage of the opportunity to attack with extreme violence the main bulk of the demo.
There's why I disagree with the Anarchist minority provoking trouble to prove how "hardcore" they are. Though at this point violence has been forced on the students and I support the violent resistance. Clearly the way forward is to attempt to link this up with the workers. Has anything been attempted along these lines Venceremos?


It will settle down in a few days, and in month or two it will be forgotten. An oppurtunity missed.
Nice crystal ball you have there. If the students are able to achieve the linking of the student movement with the workers’ movement, then victory could be very close.

[Okocim]

Originally posted by Permanent Revolution+March 11, 2007 03:00 pm--> (Permanent Revolution @ March 11, 2007 03:00 pm)
in england students just rolled over and took the introduction of fees
These guys didn't. (http://www.socialiststudents.org.uk/page.php?article=1048)[/b]

that seems pretty interesting, shame i can't make it. :(


Permanent [email protected] 11, 2007 03:00 pm

We had a demo in november in london, 15000 max were there. pathetic.
Everything has to start somewhere comrade, that is a decent base to expand from. And you've got to take into account that Greece has a history of student militancy as opposed to the UK.

this is true, though the demo was filled with middle class tossers who'd pretty much been bussed down to london with the promise of "a topping day out" or something. It was actually against removing the cap on fees as opposed to getting rid of them altogether.

[Entrails Konfetti]

It's good to see that teachers actually care.

[Keyser]

That's not true at all, the ISR comrades (Xekinima) I know have participated in volent resistance towards the pigs and actually lead two universities in coming out with make-shift arms. Perhaps they mean the official Stalinist "Communists" who have been releuctant to support any action.

They meant the 'official' pro-USSR/stalinist Communist Party of Greece, the KKE.

The Communist Party's refusal to support any form of direct action or support the right of violent self defence by the protestors against police violence and brutality is just typical of the reformist social-democratic set that most of the 'official' pro-USSR/stalinist Communist Parties in Europe (be it in France, Italy, Germany, Britain, Portugal, Spain or Greece) belong to.

Remember the treason and class betrayal of the French Communist Party (PCF) in May 1968, when the PCF sided with the reactionary, authoritarian and right-wing government of General De Gaulle against the combined revolutionary movement of workers and students.

Thanfully, most 'official' stalinist Communist Parties are small and have lost out on winning over new people who have been radicalised, thus allowing their reformist social-democratic brand of politics to rot.

[bcbm]

Tight work.


There's why I disagree with the Anarchist minority provoking trouble to prove how "hardcore" they are.

:rolleyes:

The state is a violent institution and any time its interests are threatened it will react violently. Protest violence seems pretty common place in Greece, "provoked" or not, so to try and lay the blame on anarchists who went right at the heart of those trying to keep them down, instead of the forces of repression, seems a bit absurd. There can be no compromise with civil society.

[The Grey Blur]

I've talked to comrades in Greece and they say that when any large protest occurs an Anarchist minority will deliberately provoke the pigs into charging the rest of the crowd. It's entirely unproductive as it only ends up with protestors being battered and the state getting an excuse to further it's attacks on students and workers. The proposals they have put forward as a solution has been for democratically elected stewards, who would be able to stop the pointless provocaton but ensure adequate militancy of the march itself. I'm not sure how that went down as I haven't chatted to them since last Summer.

Of course the agents of repression are the class enemies here but adopting the wrong tactics in this situation would be self-destructive I feel. Reaching out to the workers is clearly the next step if this battle is going to take a revolutionary character.

I'd like to see what Venceremos thinks and if he can give us any updates...I'll also check the Xekinima website...

[bcbm]

Originally posted by Permanent [email protected] 12, 2007 06:10 pm
I've talked to comrades in Greece and they say that when any large protest occurs an Anarchist minority will deliberately provoke the pigs into charging the rest of the crowd. It's entirely unproductive as it only ends up with protestors being battered and the state getting an excuse to further it's attacks on students and workers.
The state needs no excuse to do such a thing and would probably love non-violent marches, because then they aren't on the front lines. Perhaps the enacting of rage against the agents of repression is premature, but I don't see any real problem with it beyond that.


The proposals they have put forward as a solution has been for democratically elected stewards, who would be able to stop the pointless provocaton but ensure adequate militancy of the march itself. I'm not sure how that went down as I haven't chatted to them since last Summer.

I'd be interested in knowing more about this if you can get any information?


Of course the agents of repression are the class enemies here but adopting the wrong tactics in this situation would be self-destructive I feel. Reaching out to the workers is clearly the next step if this battle is going to take a revolutionary character.

I agree entirely on the last point, but I don't think violence is a "wrong tactic." I can't say I know a great deal about the Greek economic situation, but if it is anything at all like the rest of Eastern Europe, the workers are probably none too happy with the current situation as well.

[The Grey Blur]

The state needs no excuse to do such a thing
It does, unprovoked violence from the state would enrage a wider section of society and would deeply embarass them politically.


would probably love non-violent marches, because then they aren't on the front lines.
I doubt the state appartus enjoys thousands and thousands of people coming out and calling for it's defeat.


Perhaps the enacting of rage against the agents of repression is premature, but I don't see any real problem with it beyond that.
Premature violence is counter-productive as it isolates the students, it won't further their demands and it gives the state the excuse it needs to crush this uprising.


I'd be interested in knowing more about this if you can get any information?
I'm afraid I don't, I'll send out a few messages though and see what's up. Here (http://www.anticapitalism.org.uk/action/2006/revoltingyouth/Greece.html) is a Xekinima article on similiar unrest last year.


I agree entirely on the last point, but I don't think violence is a "wrong tactic." I can't say I know a great deal about the Greek economic situation, but if it is anything at all like the rest of Eastern Europe, the workers are probably none too happy with the current situation as well.
Hopefully you can see from that article what I think represents the majority view in Greece, amongst students and workers regarding pointless destruction/violence. You only have to look at the example of the Ungdomshuset a few weeks ago to see that un-coordinated violence is entirely ineffective. And yes i'm glad you agree, the Greek workers are quite militant, reflecting the student mentality. If the two movements could link up we could see a very positive situation, the two obstacles to this being student reluctance to each out to workers and secondly the interference of the Stalinist reformists. There has been a large Communist movement there historically and this has gained a second wind with the 21st century struggle.

I'd just like to say though that Venceremos could offer us much a much better analysis. I'm just going on what I can analyse from the outside and what my comrades in Xekinima described to me regarding the political situation there (this was early Summer 2006).

[RNK]

Originally posted by Permanent [email protected] 11, 2007 02:00 pm

It will settle down in a few days, and in month or two it will be forgotten. An oppurtunity missed.
Nice crystal ball you have there. If the students are able to achieve the linking of the student movement with the workers’ movement, then victory could be very close.
The keyword is if. Given that the situation is already fracturing into different ideological camps, it seems unlikely. Don't get me wrong -- I'd love nothing more than to see unity actually happen, and a successful situation take place. But perhaps I'm too pessimistic and frustrated with all of the infighting and inefficiencies.

[eremon]

a new demonstration , in athens, have declared the student movement for tommorrow 15/3 while at the same time the media are cultivating a climate of war and violance against students....

[eremon]

i will be there tomorrow... :redstar: :trotski: :marx: :engles:

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First of all my name isn't Venceremos. Venceremos means ''We will win'' in Spanish. :P :lol:

Permanent Revolution everything Xekinima writes here..


Originally posted by Xekinima+--> (Xekinima)The general tendency in the movement is to advance and expand The basic problem is on the one hand the tactics of the Communist Party youth which divide rather than unite the movement and on the other the tendency to take sectarian unilateral action by a section of the leadership. Also there is a lot of confusion about what should be done.

What happened on yesterday's demo is characteristic of these tendencies. Not more than a hundred demonstrators, went into a head on collision with the riot police. This gave the riot police an excuse to massively overreact. Then the anarchists took over and the center of Athens was turned into a battlefield. The riot police took full advantage of the opportunity to attack with extreme violence the main bulk of the demo.[/b]

...is absolutely correct.

My experience from the last protest was this.

The main body of the protests lasted from 12pm to 8pm and some Anarchists had barricades in the central streets of Athens up until 1am.

As I said there are two main groups of protesters in the movement. Those who are in the Communist Party and those who belong to the Independent left (they are called EAAK). While the youth involved in the Communist Party is involved in direct action, they usually prefer not to engage in fights against the police. There is also an Anarchist bloc, they usually march with the Independent Left movement.

I will speak about those who belong in the Independent Left and give a chronology of events, based on my experiences, of the things that occured last Thursday.

The first fight against the police occurred at 4pm. At that time the general tendency of the protesters was favourable for a clash against the police. Subsequently, we begun throwing rocks against the police and a major fight occurred.

Now at 7pm, which was the time when the police beaten hundreds of protesters, the thing went like this: We were gathered, thousands of us, in front of the Greek Parliament and we were planning to camp there all night. The police wanted so badly to kick us out from there but they didn't since a one sided attack by the police would be strongly criticized by the public opinion. So everything was going fine. Suddenly, I see a group of Anarchists, 7-8 of them maybe more, throwing rocks against the police at a time when nobody was ready nor even wanted to engage in a battle! This gave the perfect pretext to the policemen to attack, send thousands of tear gas and beat hundreds of students. On top of all this, nothing happened to the guys who threw the rocks. They did what they did, they used thousand of students as shield for their actions and then they run away, looking selfishly only about themselves. This is what made most of us who belong in the Independent Left movement (EAAK) mad.

At past, we used to give ''asylum'' to the Anarchists, meaning that when the police hunted them we let them enter out blocs which are consisted by thousands of students thus the police couldn't touch them. But this time they acted very selfishly and they put many students in danger.

Once the police attacked, most of the students were panicky running away, it was truly like slaughtering sheep. Many students run towards the Communist Party Youth's bloc for a shelter and... guess what? They weren't letting them to take shelter in their blocs! Instead they were leaving them at the mercy of the Police. For the Communists (the party members I mean not the ordinary one's) you are either with them or with the enemy. They have this soldier like iron discipline, where they take their decisions prior the protest and then they stick to their 'line'. They rarely show solidarity for those who don't belong to their blocs. They will only engage in fights against the Police if one of ''them'' is captured. Of course some of them did help, but they did that by going against the ''line''.

This is generally what the situation is like here.


Permanent Revolution

The proposals they have put forward as a solution has been for democratically elected stewards, who would be able to stop the pointless provocaton but ensure adequate militancy of the march itself.

This is what the Communist Party Youth does, the Independent Left (aka EAAK) are against electing ''guardians'' or representatives within their blocs. In fact this is one of the main main disagreement's with the Communist Party Youth. The Independent Left refuses to do this because they believe that like this a vanguard is being created.

Anyway, tomorrow its going to be a real war-zone in Athens. Everyone is preparing for a war. :lol: The police has asked permission to use plastic bullets against us but the Government declined, since the public opinion would react negatively against such a move plus elections are coming and they don't want to lose precious votes.

On the top of all this, Putin is visiting Athens tomorrow so yeah tomorrow is going to be crazy and tomorrow's march is the top news here.

By the way for more information about the 'Independent Left' that I was refering to go here.

EAAK (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAAK)

And this is a link of the Communist Party's Youth faction which exists in the Universities it is called 'Panspoudastiki' though most called it just 'PKS'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspoudastiki

Regards

[eremon]

$Greek government uses military-police methods against protesting youth

By Stamatis Karayannopoulos – Editor of Marxistiki Foni



Tuesday, 13 March 2007
The right-wing government of Kostas Karamanlis has revealed its barbaric face to the whole of Greek society. Last Thursday, March 8, the Greek police brutally attacked a big demonstration of 30,000 university students in the centre of Athens. Dozens of students were heavily beaten about their heads, and 61 of them were arrested. Thousands of students suffered breathing problems after the "storm" of tear gas bombs unleashed by the special police forces.

Many young people were taken to hospital with serious injuries. The hospital workers' union representatives at the Erithros Stavros Hospital publicly denounced the fact that many students were taken to the hospitals under police escort.

As is all this were not enough, the students who had been arrested were kept under complete isolation for three days with no access to their families or their lawyers. And all this took place in a country in this "civilized and democratic Europe", in Greece which has been used as one of the examples of economic growth within the European Union during the last few years...

Just after the brutal attack against the students the Prime Minister and president of the New Democracy party, Kostas Karamanlis issued a short but cynical statement: "Everything went well"! This declaration came two days after another provocative declaration on the part of the Minister of so-called "Public Order", Vyron Polydoras. His comments were about an earlier incident involving a policeman who shot at demonstrators on February 28. This was the first case of a policeman opening fire on a demonstration in Greece in 27 years!

In his comments the Minister, who openly admits to being an admirer of Machiavelli, said that the policeman who had opened fire in an attempt to terrorize the demonstrators was "acting within the framework of legality".

All this is an indication of the impasse of Greek capitalism. They need to attack the workers and youth on all fronts. Their system can no longer afford the concessions they made in the past. Thus these brutal attacks go hand in hand with the counter-reforms being carried out by the government. In the past they would have attempted some kind of compromise. Instead what we see now is more and more brutality.

There are clear symptoms of a regime that is turning more and more to police methods. After the students were arrested, instead of attempts to defuse the situation, we have more repression. Just after the students were arrested, the general prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos immediately paid a visit to the General Headquarters of the Police and in record time he pressed charges against 12 of the arrested students. He also issued an order stopping the chairman of the Synaspismos party, Alekos Alavanos, from visiting the arrested students. And last but not least, last Sunday we saw articles appearing in the serious bourgeois press discussing "the possibility of using plastic bullets again against demonstrations", for the first time since the fall of the hated colonels' dictatorship in 1974.

Ongoing radicalisation of the youth movement
All these developments, together with the general political "atmosphere", reflect the tremendous concern of the ruling class in the face of an escalating youth movement. It is now almost one year since the student movement erupted and it has continued to mobilize. First there was the struggle of the university students and then last autumn this was followed by the schools students.

The first wave of struggle was from May to July 2006. After massive protests, demonstrations and faculty occupations, the government was forced to delay their plans to push through parliament a law that would prepare the ground for legalization of private Universities.

The second wave came in October when the school students occupied over 1000 high schools all over Greece, in a struggle against the government's policy to reduce the number of University places open to high school students. Together with this there were the student demonstrations in solidarity with the teachers that had been on strike for two months.

After about six weeks of very militant struggle the school student movement retreated under the pressure of a dirty campaign of lies and rumour-mongering. For example they terrorized bourgeois public opinion with fantastic stories about the students organising "sex orgies" during the occupations and so on. But the responsibility also lies on the shoulders of the Stalinists in the leadership of the movement who proved incapable of doing anything to answer this campaign and who also did nothing to win the active support of the working class.

The third wave of the youth movement became the critical point. This time the aim of the University student movement - having gained renewed confidence after the victory of last summer - was to put a halt to the attempts to revise article 16 of the Greek constitution which would open the door to the setting up of private universities.

A great victory with political consequences
From January 10 onwards, every week the centre of Athens was full of thousands of students demonstrating in defence of state education. The University teachers also declared an all-out strike and they took their position into the movement.

The results of this massive movement were spectacular. It forced the right-wing leadership of the PASOK - because of the fear of an open split in its parliamentary group - to withdraw all its MPs from the parliament debate and vote. This was to create a major problem for the ND government. In order for the amendment of article 16 to go through the government is legally bound to have the support of 180 MPs. But without the PASOK MPs the government only had 161, and therefore the amendment of the article had to be postponed to the next parliamentary session. This was an unexpected victory for the movement!

After this major defeat the government reacted immediately and defiantly by presenting once again for discussion in parliament the same law that the student movement had stopped with its mobilisation last summer. It was clear that the government was intent on getting revenge against the student movement that has been a point of reference in the struggle of the working class against of the government over this period.

PASOK and GSEE leaders save Karamanlis
The government's proposed law on the Universities - the so-called autonomy of the Universities - clearly states that the financing of the Universities will be according to their "productivity" and "usefulness to the economy" (i.e. to the capitalist corporations). Every University will have a finance manager whose responsibility it would be to link the University to the "market". Another important change that would be introduced by this law would affect the "right of asylum" of University students. At present this right protects students from police intervention, formally at least. The amendment would abolish this right.

This time, however, the leadership of the PASOK behaved like a "loyal opposition" to the government. Giorgos Papandreou announced that the party would not vote for the government's proposed law. He could afford to do this because he knows full well that the ND government on its own has the necessary number of MPs to guarantee a majority). But he then publicly presented an "alternative law" which was in essence a "copy" of the government's proposed law.

And just to make sure that that there were no misunderstandings as to where he stands he expelled from the party the ex-minister Kimonas Koulouris who has been going around describing himself as an "Andreo-Papandreist". [Andreas Papandreou was the father of the present leader of the PASOK and the left politician who founded the party in 1974]. The real "sin" committed by Koulouris was that he publicly attacked the right-wing PASOK ex-minister Theodoros Pagalos who had declared in the bourgeois press that the "police must be free to carry out there day-to-day task inside the University faculties"!

With all this happening, the leadership of the GSEE (Greek Confederation of Trade Unions) adopted a passive stance. In spite of repeated appeals from the students on the GSEE leaders to take action in support of the student movement, they remained silent. The mass bourgeois media also openly supported the government by creating a mood of hysteria and calling every day on the government to take "measures" to re-open the Universities.

The counterproductive role of the Anarchists
One of the most useful services offered to the government came from the anarchist groups who were mixed up with hooligan elements and all kinds of police provocateurs. Before the student demonstrations finished these groups started a "blind" and completely pointless battle with the special police forces, throwing stones and "Molotov cocktails". As a result, the police had the excuse they needed to smash up the demonstrations and terrorise the student activists.

The government, aided by the mass media, tried to identify the big demonstrations with these small groups of anarchists. The minister of "Public Order", the extreme right-winger Vyron Polydoras, declared a "war of Order against the anarchist urban guerrillas and their political supporters". Thus after the events of March 8, the TV channels zoomed in on a fire lit by some anarchists or provocateurs in front of a national monument in Syndagma Square, the monument in question being treated in almost mystical terms by the national bourgeoisie, that of the Unknown Soldier. Although the square was full of students with sever injuries inflicted on them by the police the mass media showed over again and again the fire in front of the monument. The aim was clear: to whip up the more backward and petit bourgeois elements of society.

The student struggle continues
It is clear that the government is trying to avoid a big defeat over the question of amending the Constitution by diverting attention on to other questions and that explains its provocations, use of state terrorism and the spreading of hysteria among the petit bourgeoisie and presenting itself as the "defender of law and order". But all that this tactic is achieving is to make the students even angrier and more radicalised.

In reality without the help of the leaders of the PASOK and the GSEE the "New Democracy" government would no longer be able to stay in power. A very basic trade union solidarity action with the students and a modest left reformist opposition to the government would be enough to bring down this government. It has been in power now close to three years, and these have been full of class straggle on the one hand, and big corruption scandals on the other.

Although this week the law was voted in parliament, 280 university faculties remain under occupation and big demonstration have been called for the next few days. The students in a united front with the University teachers are continuing their struggle with the aim of stopping the law from being acted on. "This law is dead for us" the students have declared.

The students after one year of struggle have become very radicalised. Some of the more advanced layers have started to draw the conclusion that it is vital to link up with the workers' movement. They have also how important it is to separate the mobilizations from the politically criminal methods of anarchism while at the same time defending their struggle from state and police repression with class methods, together with the workers' movement.

As things stand at the moment, the most likely scenario is that the mobilizations will continue at least until the Orthodox Easter, next April. The combination of a determined and fighting mood on the part of the students with street mobilisation and the government's stubbornness in strengthening police repression it is not excluded that there may be some deaths. In reality the government is "playing with fire". If there were such a death, a massive wave of workers and youth protest would put an end to this government.

Whatever will be the exact scenario in the near future, one thing is sure: during these last few months what we have seen in Greek society are clear symptoms of future revolutionary developments. The youth is in a state of permanent radicalisation.

We must also not forget that the Greek workers have also demonstrated their willingness to change society by taking part in seven general strikes between March 2005 and December 2006! Class conflict in Greek society is becoming ever sharper. This is the clear message from this marvellous student movement. The escalation of state repression on the part of the Karamanlis government is another indication of the same process.

It is only the huge political vacuum on the left that explains why there is a delay in the political expression of this mood of radicalisation that is affecting the whole of society. The leaders of the Synaspismos and the KKE have come out in support of the student struggle but both with a wrong policy.

The KKE leaders try to avoid any kind of common action with the activists of Synaspismos, by following a sectarian tactic, which has nothing in common with the Leninist policy of the united front.

On the other hand, over one third of the Synaspismos leaders openly support the idea of Prodi-type government in Italy, while the remaining two thirds support a very "soft" left reformist policy, that cannot provide a solution to the problems of the Greek working class and youth.

That is why the only way forward for the worker and youth activists is in the struggle to build a new revolutionary leadership by defending a Marxist programme and policy inside the working class and youth movement and within the mass organisations of the working class. This is the struggle that in Greece the Marxist Tendency is dedicating itself to with enthusiasm and faith in the socialist future through its journal Marxistiki Foni.

[вор в законе]

One more thing:

Few hours ago there were clashes between Communists and Anarchists, a Communist was injured by 5-6 Anarchists and went to hospital, and it seems that tomorow at the march there might be fight between them during the protest.

1Police vs Communists vs Anarchists goto1

Talking about unity. :wacko: :lol:

[The Grey Blur]

Originally posted by Red Brigade+March 14, 2007 03:47 pm--> (Red Brigade @ March 14, 2007 03:47 pm) First of all my name isn't Venceremos. Venceremos means ''We will win'' in Spanish. :P :lol: [/b]
:lol: I was pretty sleepy-headed when I wrote that.


Originally posted by [email protected]
...is absolutely correct.
Cool, I wasn't sure if their critiscisms would still apply. I personally support the efforts of a Left alternative to the Stalinists but not these minority "anarchists" (I put it in quote marks because I believe there are real anarchists on these marches who aren't just hoping to get kicks from provoking the police).


RB
Talking about unity
It is a shame.

Keep us updated comrade and good luck!

[Brekisonphilous]

Amazing, I really hope they continue spreading their dissent, now they just need to make something happen.

[Karl Marx's Camel]

Maybe some of our comrades should participate in the marches and wear banners denouncing capitalism, so people will at least start to see the link between the student movement and workers movement. In any case it won't hurt.