any articles or perspectives of comrades on here on the situation?
There should be an article about Greece on our site soon. In process of translation. The news of the occupation of the GSEE building is pretty cool. We posted the declaration of the occupiers on our site here: http://en.internationalism.org/iccon...ccupy-union-hq I've pulled together some of the posts we have made on Libcom: In general we think the riots in Greece are different to the 'banlieu' riots in France several years ago, which didn't have a positive perspective. The movement in Greece has to be seen in the context of movements in other countries - the French anti-CPE, the Italian students, the German school students. But the support from the population in general seems to much stronger, and the Greek state, much weaker than that of France or Germany, seems to be visibly rattled, even though we're still very far from a revolutionary situation. It's noticeable that the media focuses mainly on the confrontations with the police, but there already seems to be a serious level of organisation - regular assemblies, demonstrations, etc. What's happening in Greece is a much wider and more significant movement which has the capacity to engender a very different kind of self-organisation and politicisation. The French riots were essentially restricted to a kind of blind rage, and tended to isolate the 'rioters' from the population whose own cars, schools etc were being attacked. In Greece the young people on the streets seem to be expressing a far more widespread anger. The information coming through about assemblies and attempts to unite different sectors shows an expansive tendency which didn't exist in the French 'urban riots' (unlike the anti-CPE movement). Not every confrontation with the cops can be reduced to a riot and can indeed be a moment when people unite and experience solidarity in practice. On the other hand the danger that the movement will burn itself out in endless clashes with the police (and/or aimless destruction) is surely very real. The only way the movement could go onto a higher level would be through achieving higher level of organisation and reflection on its aims. One expression of this reflection seems to be that the demonstrators have concsiously tried to avoid being provoked by the state. It is very interesting that the demonstrations are being organised by the open assembly and have gained respect. They certainly look like a possible way forwards for bringing others into the movement. Their revolutionary discipline certainly must worry the state, which appears not to be able to provoke them into confrontations, and will encourage those who are scared or worried about the violence into joining such demonstrations. Another is the occupation of the trade union HQ and the beginnings of organisation into workers' assemblies. This is the clearest confirmation we have had that this movement is far more than a series of riots, but has an authentically proletarian core. The characterisation of the movement as 'the riots', constantly used by the bourgeois press, has already been rejected by some elements of the movement itself. We are clearly moving onto the terrain of class organisation. Inevitably, in this situation, the official trade unions show themselves to be open servants of the state, and are recognised as such by the most combative proletarians. Of course it has to be remembered that the Greek state reflects the weaknesses of Greek capitalism and is not very sophisticated in its methods. Police openly fire on demonstrators, openly use fascist thugs, and the trade unions unashamedly turn up with their thugs to evict workers occupying their HQ. But these 'crude' methods actually reveal a much more universal reality, which is merely better hidden in more flexible democracies like Britain. http://libcom.org/forums/news/police...thens-06122008 B.
The IBRP also have an article here: http://www.ibrp.org/en/articles/2008...-to-resistance I would quite like to send someone there as it is next door to us. Devrim
Article in solidartity with student movement in Greece now online here: http://en.internationalism.org/iccon...ents-in-Greece
