INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-GREECE:

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN THE INSURRECTION IN GREECE:

As Molly puts this blog to bed the developments in Greece do not look at all good, as the following stories will illustrate. First, and worst of all, the workers occupying the headquarters of the General Confederation of Greek Workers in Athens have quit their occupation. If this is a signal of anything it is a signal that their initiative wasn't taken up by a large section of the Greek working class. It was actually probably opposed by a majority, some of them quite vociferously. This is a clear sign that it is unlikely that the rebellion will spread beyond its youth base. If this doesn't happen the revolt is doomed in the end.

Meanwhile the Greek government feels either confident enough (or perhaps desperate enough ?) to have revoked the right of asylum on University premises. Whether they are willing to risk serious bloodshed and perhaps many deaths by actually carrying out their threats to invade University grounds has yet to be seen. If not, if they have played their cards correctly, the occupations will peter out as predicted over the Christmas holidays. Not that this won't leave them with considerable political discredit, but that is for the future. In the tense atmosphere surrounding the present events they managed to get their budget passed, opposed by a coalition of Socialists, Communists and the far-right Popular Orthodox party (LAOS). The leftist Syriza Party (Coalition of the Radical Left) abstained, but they had more than enough to speak about, defending themselves from the other "leftist" parties. PASOK and the KKE spend almost as much time attacking attacking Syriza for presumably "being soft on the rioters" as they did talking about the budget.

Presently, according to public opinion polls, almost 90% of Greeks "feel the country is going in the wrong direction". The main beneficiaries of this mood have been the socialists, and the main losers the conservative New Democracy government. Polls give PASOK 38.5% support, the ND 32.5%, Syriza 12%, the Communists 8% and the LAOS 4%. Molly has to admit that she especially pleased by the fact that the leftist party is more popular than the communists. Both the socialists and the communists have become less strident in their calls for new elections, the socialists probably because they see no way to go up up as the riots and the economic crisis drag on, the communists because they fear plunging even further into irrelevancy.

Without at least the passive acquiescence of the leftist parties the insurgency in the streets has a snowball's chance in Hell of actually toppling the government, let alone achieving any other vaguely defined goals. In the end the most likely major beneficiaries of the events will be the Syriza Party as they position themselves, in legend at least, as the heirs of the inchoate sentiment against the police and the state. As to the anarchists, all that Molly can say is that these happenings have shown in crystal clarity the need for a positive vision beyond the romance of rebellion. It's a old rhetorical canard that "revolutions that go half way dig their own graves". This should perhaps be updated to say that "revolutions that go 2% of the way and haven't the foggiest clue as to what to do next will get only a light sprinkling of dust rather than a decent grave".

But enough of editorializing. Here's more news from Greece. First from Athens Indymedia...

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Emergency Communique from the Occupation of the Polytechnic University in Athens:
There is increasing talk that the occupation of the Polytechnic will be stormed by the police. In sight of this, the occupation's assembly issued an emergency communique.

On the evening of Saturday December 20, and after the clashes in the area of the Polytechnic (one of the tens of massive clashes of demonstrators and police which followed the murder of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos), a flood of rumors started to circulate around the area of the occupation of the NTUA [Polytechnic].

Continuous information about an invasion of the police into the space of the occupied Polytechnic University, in combination with the strategic movements of the riot police during the time of the clashes, foretold the obvious. The police plan to rush the occupation. Doing an end run around the dean's council [who would ordinarily have to approve suspension of asylum that prohibits police from entering universities], and offering the "earth and water" of the Polytechnic to the prosecutor, the police force, and the ministry of the interior, they sent the message indirectly but clearly, with threats and intimidation, that we have only "a few hours" left.

We answer them that we have as much time left as the part of society that has risen up and doesn't accept ultimatums, decides. That, for all of those who participated and participate now and will continue to do so in revolutionary practices, they had best respect them and fear them. These very men, these very women, these thousands of people who have risen up, the students, the workers, the jobless, the immigrants, our comrades, we call on them all to keep unceasing vigilant watch in the area of the Polytechnic, in view of the plotted invasion.

We call everyone to a mass presence at the occupation of the Polytechnic.

We call you to an open general assembly today, Sunday, December 21, at 9 p.m.

We call you to a concert for solidarity and financial support for our imprisoned comrades in the uprising, at 6 p.m. in the area of the occupied Polytechnic University.

We will have the last word!

These days and nights are for Alexis!

Polytechnic Occupation, 12/21/08

http://katalipsipolytexneiou.blogspot.com/

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Here also from the Athens Indymedia is a further post about the lifting of the right of asylum, how it was done and what it means.

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Pushing for lifting of asylum (translation):
Saturday night the prosecutor decided unilaterally to lift the asylum that prevents the police from entering university grounds. Only the disagreement of the provost board prevented a police invasion.

Acting on his own authority, the prosecutor on duty on Saturday evening, December 21, decided to lift the asylum [that normally applies to university grounds and prevents the entry of police onto the campus] for the National Polytechnic University of Athens, but in the end the police did not intervene, after the disagreement of the provost's advisory board.

Police intervention in the university schools under occupation in the coming days, with the argument that they are being used as staging areas for disturbances, by means of a judicial decision and not an academic one, is now an open possibility.

The occupations in the central universities are expected to continue through the holidays, while the schools close tomorrow for Christmas vacation and the students bid farewell with a rally at midday on Tuesday in Athens, and they have set a date for a new rally on January 9th, the anniversary of the murder of Nikos Teboneras (murdered during the student uprisings in 1990-91). In their company will be teachers from all grades, since the unions representing school teachers and university professors decided the day before yesterday to participate in the rally and to act in common with the students, while they are also discussing the possibility of a strike.

Telephone call from the Greek police force about intervention

As the "News" [mainstream Greek daily newspaper] learned, the provost and vice-provost of the NTUA, Mr. K. Moutzouris and Mr. G. Spathis, this past Saturday evening during the episodes in the region around the university, received a phone call from the police force, which informed them a plan was in the works for intervention, since the prosecutor on duty decided that inside the building there were felonies being carried out, such as the construction of explosives. The law gives to police the right to intervene with an order from the prosecutor, even without a decision to lift asylum from university officials, when it is determined that felonies are being committed.

"Dangerous for victims"

The provost authorities of the university disagreed with this decision. "I believe that the clearing of the Polytechnic [of the occupying students] must happen with dialogue and not police intervention. I hope that the occupation will have ended peacefully before the holidays," Mr. Moutzouris told the "News". "The lifting of university asylum is a political decision and if they want, let them make it, as they have the right to do even without our consent. We don't bring up such an issue because there is the danger of having victims, and also because there hasn't been serious damage to the university and the issue of occupations is more general", added Mr. Spathis.

Under occupation are about 160 schools in universities and technical institutes across the country, with basic centers the Law School, the Economic University and the Polytechnic University in Athens, and the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki.

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Finally, from the Occupied London Blog, further news about recent events, including news that the school occupations are likely to be ended as well.

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Polytechnic raid scenario weakens; police resort to dictatorship-style surveillance; shots against riot police van; student demo set to start:
UPDATE, 19:41 Mainstream media now report that the riot police van in Goudi received 7 shots, not 2. A group calling itself “Popular Action” (Λαϊκή Δράση) has claimed responsibility for the attack. The student demonstration in central Athens ended an hour ago. There was a very good turnover and the demo was relatively peaceful; one police car was flipped over.

After a quiet night at the Athens Polytechnic last night, mainstream media (which, more often than not, prepare the ground for police operations) are now reporting that a police raid of the polytechnic is unlikely. The people occupying the building have successfully defended their right to decide themselves when to leave - this will happen at today’s open assembly (6pm).

Reports are coming in, both on Indymedia and the occupations’ open assemblies, that the police have been approaching taxi drivers asking them to pass on information about their passengers (just like they would do during the 1967-1974 dictatorship). In one instance a woman who hailed a cab outside the occupied Economics University and asked to be taken to a northern suburb of Athens was driven straight to the police headquarters. Luckily she realised what was going on a block away from the police building and managed to jump out of the taxi’s window and escape, chased both by the taxi driver and the police.

Meanwhile, mainstream media also report a riot police van was shot at twice at 05:50 am in the Goudi suburb of Athens, next to the university campus in Zografou; one bullet hit the van’s tyre and the other hit the engine.

The last student demonstration for this year is set to start in a few minutes. There has already been a call for a fresh student demo on January 9th and it is expected that demonstrations will continue apace in the new year.

It is also expected that the anarchist occupations of the three universities (Economics, Polytechnic and Law school) will all end later this week, as fatigue is seriously kicking in at these unprecedented 17-days long occupations. Actions will, of course, continue - the biggest bet right now is to expand the revolt and unrest in time and people are focusing their plans on this. We should have a better idea of where things will go after this week’s assemblies.

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FURTHER NEWS FROM THE MASS MEDIA ON EVENTS IN GREECE:

**Greece: Second shooting provokes new wave of mass anger.

**Greek Parliament approves 2009 government budget.

**Greek Parliament passes budget.

**Greek Parliament adopts 2009 budget with 2 percent deficit.

**Police squelch violent Hamburg protest.

**Unrest has ND on shaky ground poll indicates.

**Greek police bus attacked; 3000 at rally.

**Students march, gunman shoots police bus in Greece.

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-GREECE:

FURTHER COMMUNIQUES FROM WORKERS OCCUPYING UNION HQ IN ATHENS:

The following are communiques from the workers occupying the headquarters of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE in the Greek abbreviation). These workers have found it necessary to respond to respond to lies being told about them by the GSEE boss, Mr Panagopoulos, a life long PASOK (Greek socialist party) bureaucrat.As to why Greek workers are enraged at their union bosses it merely serves to mention that these arms of the state actually receive part of their bloated funds from compulsory deductions from social security payments. In these troubled days the bosses are asking that their generosity be repaid, and too many union bureaucrats seem eager to respond. The following two messages are from the Anarkismo website. Please follow the blog that has been set up by the workers occupying the headquarters. If you cannot read Greek use Google Translate.

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From the liberated building of GSEE:
by Proletarian Initiativ
Communiques #2 and #3
English translations of the 2nd and 3nd communique. Both are responses to Panagopoulos' (president of GSEE in Greece) claims.
Communique #2

(17 December)

An offhand answer to "mr." Panagopoulos regarding his statements on NET channel (State TV station in Greece).

"Mister" Panagopoulos stated on the state channel (NET), that "some youngsters occupied the building of GSEE (...) if they were manual workers, they'd be on building sites now (...)".

This unearthly subject, belonging to the managerial staff of National Bank of Greece,that "represents" the workers, where is he himself now, and what does he know about building sites?

He has been a technocrat for his entire life, a manager in State Companies (DEKO), a party wangler and a gravedigger of struggles. This spokesman of PASOK politics within the workers' movement lives in the northern suburbs, smokes cigars and gets a fat paycheck, from National Bank and GSEE, while administering huge state and European-union funds.

He got promoted from his boss, while it is forbidden for trade unionists to get a promotion during their service time - and he accepted the promotion.

He organized a conference for the 90 years of GSEE in the amphitheater of National Bank, namely the amphitheater of his boss mr. Arapoglou, with funds of the Foreign Office, thus showing his intentions and his class position.

Panagopoulos can go join his bosses, just as he does every day. Just as he signs the collective agreement with the employers, giving us the lower wages in Europe.

How dare he reproach the insurgent workers, he who is the ringleader of repressing every labor demand?

Here in the occupied GSEE, there is plaque that commemorates each of its leaders. Above the name of Panagopoulos, there are many other names of bureaucrats who got the reward of becoming PMs: Kanellopoulos, Protopapas, Polizogopoulos. On this plaque there are also the names of the appointed (not elected) professional unionists during Junta and the Occupation. That's where Panagopoulos' name deserves to be.

He can abandon us where we've been since forever: at work, unemployed, in our class position, in our night shifts, on the streets, on the insurrection during daytime, on the street...

If Panagopoulos has worries about those who now are at work, let him stay calm. They will turn up for the evening assembly, that will open up the building he kept closed during all these years. They will not go to work tomorrow -the day he refused to call for a strike-, to hit the streets and express their rage.

A rage Panagopoulos can't and does not want to comprehend, because that's what his fat paycheck and his repressive role dictate...

Here we are...

Proletarian Initiative from (not that young) night workers of the liberated GSEE building
Related Link: http://gseefreezone.blogspot.com/


Communique #3

(17 December 2008)

by same as above

Thu Dec 18, 2008 23:49
An answer from the liberated building of GSEE

Panagopoulos declared this morning that we are not workers, since workers are at work. This, among many other things, reveals what Panagopoulos' "job" really is. Panagopoulos' "job" is to make sure that workers are at work, to do everything within his reach to secure that workers are at work.

But for the last ten days, workers are not only at work, they are out on the streets. And this is a fact that Panagopoulos and every Panagopoulos can't hide, even if he succeeds in hiding the sun that brings light to our steps and rage onto the streets of this city.

We are working people, we are jobless (paying in layoffs our participation in strikes called by GSEE, when they -the trade unionists- are rewarded with promotions), we are working under contract moving from job to job, we work unsecured formally or informally in "stage" programs or in subsidised jobs to lower the unemployment indices. We are part of this world and we are here. Whoever wants to understand can understand.

We are insurgent workers, end of story.

Every single one of our revenue stamps is paid with blood, sweat, violence, broken waists, broken hands, knees, feet, heads.

The entire world is made by us, the workers.

PS. We heard on the radio that our act was an artistic happening. We accept this characterization, but only as far as the proletariat will abolish art and philosophy (along with state and capital)

...two enraged proletarians from the liberated GSEE

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OTHER NEWS LABOUR GREECE FROM THE MASS MEDIA

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Greek riots to derail vital economic reforms

Rioters of the World Unite

The tragedy of Greek apathy

Athens protests refuse to subside

Riot police, youths clash in Athens:shoppers flee

Riots in Athens escalate

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-GREECE:

INSURGENT WORKERS OCCUPY UNION CONFEDERATION HEADQUARTERS:

I originally discovered the following item on today's LibCom site, but it is here, there and everywhere across the "anarcho-net" today. it is likely that the original source is the Athens Indymedia where it has been translated into Spanish and French as well as English. there is another take on the story as well at THIS LINK.

To say the least this may be the most important development in the events in Greece so far. Despite much government(and Communist Party) propaganda the students and immigrants have not been the only people present in the past two weeks of demonstrations and riots. Ordinary working class people, disgusted with the venality of the government and its conservative policies, have joined in as well, despite the efforts of the socialist PASOK and the communist KKE to contain and defuse the protests.

The role of the Communists (whose initials 'KKE' are known in Greece as either "kappa-kappa-epsilon" or "koo-koo-eh", the latter being most appropriate) has been particularly despicable. They have taken to sending their goon squads into premises to prevent their being occupied. They are also the source of the bizarre assertion mentioned earlier on this blog that the uprising is an "American plot". Like my asshole chews bubblegum. But unreconstructed Stalinists can believe anything. Look what they believed for decades. The problem with the goon squads is that they simply don't have enough goons to cover the now hundreds of targets of occupation. Can we say "outnumbered". The problem with the great lie is that only the most mindless party loyalist could take it seriously. The actions of the KKE are such that persons unknown have already firebombed several of their party headquarters in anger. Molly certainly doesn't agree with this sort of tactic, if for no other reason than the fact that such places contain resources that should be put to better use than Communist propaganda.

Within the union movement the Socialists and the Communists have held a stranglehold for decades. The occupation that is reported below shows that at least a segment of the workers that the politicians claim to represent are fed up with their conservative tactics, and are in support of more fundamental change in Greek society. The Communist-Conservative alliance in all but name should hardly be any surprise to anyone who knows the history of working class upsurges in the past half century in western Europe. The rejection of the traditional political parties of the left is an absolutely necessary prelude to any fundamental change in any developed country today. That may be happening in Greece today, even if only at a small level so far.

Before moving on to the article Molly would like to recommend a site that covers the events in Greece at a truly admirable level. The Open Anthropology Blog doesn't just post the news. It also has what is the best list of other libertarian sources on what is happening in Greece today that I have come across. VERY highly recommended.

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Workers in Greece occupy union offices:
The historic central offices of the General Confederation of Greek Workers in Athens have been occupied by militant workers.

The action forms part of a strategy to counteract the designs of the union bureaucracy to distance its membership from the current revolt, and protest its management and mediation of workers' struggles in Greece. The occupants aim to create a space in which to facilitate a grassroots and self organised workers response to the crisis, and bring the wider working class into the events unfolding on the streets of Greece. Town halls in Athens and Thessaloniki have also been occupied in order to hold general assemblies.

The communique of the "General Assembly of Insurgent Workers" follows below:
DECLARATION:
We will either determine our history ourselves or let it be determined without us.

We, manual workers, employees, jobless, temporary workers, local or migrants, are not passive tv-viewers. Since the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Saturday night we participate in the demonstrations, the clashes with the police, the occupations of the centre or the neighborhoods. Time and again we had to leave work and our daily obligations to take the streets with the students, the university students and the other proletarians in struggle.
WE DECIDED TO OCCUPY THE BUILDING OF GSEE
-To turn it into a space of free expression and a meeting point of workers.
-To disperse the media-touted myth that the workers were and are absent from the clashes, and that the rage of these days was an affair of some 500 "mask-bearers", "hooligans" or some other fairy tale, while on the tv-screens the workers were presented as victims of the clash, while the capitalist crisis in Greece and worldwide leads to countless layoffs that the media and their managers deal as a "natural phenomenon".
-To flay and uncover the role of the trade union bureaucracy in the undermining of the insurrection -and not only there. GSEE and the entire trade union mechanism that supports it for decades and decades, undermine the struggles, bargain our labor power for crumbs, perpetuate the system of exploitation and wage slavery. The stance of GSEE last Wednesday is quite telling: GSEE cancelled the programmed strikers' demonstration, stopping short at the organization of a brief gathering in Syntagma Sq., making simultaneously sure that the people will be dispersed in a hurry from the Square, fearing that they might get infected by the virus of insurrection.
-To open up this space for the first time -as a continuation of the social opening created by the insurrection itself-, a space that has been built by our contributions, a space from which we were excluded. For all these years we trusted our fate on saviours of every kind, and we end up losing our dignity. As workers we have to start assuming our responsibilities, and to stop assigning our hopes to wise leaders or "able" representatives. We have to acquire a voice of our own, to meet up, to talk, to decide, and to act. Against the generalized attack we endure. The creation of collective "grassroot" resistance is the only way.
-To propagate the idea of self-organization and solidarity in working places, struggle committees and collective grassroot procedures, abolishing the bureaucrat trade unionists.

All these years we gulp the misery, the pandering, the violence in work. We became accustomed to counting the crippled and our dead - the so-called "labor accidents". We became accustomed to ignore the migrants -our class brothers- getting killed. We are tired living with the anxiety of securing a wage, revenue stamps, and a pension that now feels like a distant dream.

As we struggle not to abandon our life in the hands of the bosses and the trade union representatives, likewise we will not abandon any arrested insurgent in the hands of the state and the juridical mechanism.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF THE DETAINED

NO CHARGE TO THE ARRESTED

SELF-ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKERS

GENERAL STRIKE

WORKERS' ASSEMBLY IN THE "LIBERATED" BUILDING OF GSEE

Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 18:00
General Assembly of Insurgent Workers
A banner handing from the facade of the building reads:
From labor "accidents"to the murders in cold blood

State - Capital kill
No persecution

Immediate release of the arrested
GENERAL STRIKE
Workers' self-organization

will become the bosses' grave
General Assembly of Insurgent Workers