Thrasybulus's blog

This weekend the Greek government ordered striking teachers back to work. The union of secondary school teachers(OLME) had voted on strike action to take place starting this week. In an attempt to stifle the strike before it could begin the government issued civil mobilisation orders. Under such an order a worker must return to work or face arrest.

Bosses at a strawberry farm in Manolada, Ileia opened fire on workers demanding back pay on Wednesday afternoon. More than 20 people were wounded and taken to hospital after the attack. The majority of the workers were immigrants from Bangladesh.

There are days in Greece when a number of 'small' incidents happen at the same time and together paint a picture of life in the crisis. The 24 hours between late Monday 8th to Tuesday 9th of April was one of these times. If you looked through Greek media sites on this day a number of small news items would have caught your attention.

Members of the far-right party Golden Dawn(GD) were forced to leave a small village on the island of Thasos at the weekend. GD representatives had come to the village of Potamia on Sunday with the aim of handing out food exclusively to Greeks.

The last few days have seen more incidents in the dispute over gold mines in Northern Greece. Police invaded the town of Ierissos, which is close to the mining site at Skouries, on Thursday morning whilst carrying out an investigation into an earlier arson attack.

On Sunday morning a group of 40-50 people raided the compound of the mining company Hellenic Gold in Skouries, northern Greece, and set fire to some vehicles and equipment. The raid, which caused a substantial amount of damage, was another act in the continuing resistance to the environmentally destructive gold mines in this area.

Supporters of the fascist Golden Dawn attacked self-organized spaces in the Athens' neighbourhood of Zografou on Saturday night. The attack, which was beaten back, came as supporters of Golden Dawn and nationalists marched nearby.

Over the weekend the Greek government forced an end to a nine day transport strike which brought much of Athens to a standstill. The union representing the Athens' metro workers called the strike in opposition to wage reductions which are demanded by the Troika(EU-IMF- European Central Bank).

Once again this afternoon a helicopter could be heard circling over central Athens. These days this is a good indication that another police eviction operation is under way. Today the police attacked another squat.

In the early hours of this morning shots were fired at the main office of the government party New Democracy in central Athens. Media reports claim that around 9 shots were fired at the building which was empty at the time. At least one of the shots hit the Prime Minster's office itself.

There now seems little doubt that the Greek state is carrying out a sizeable and sustained assault on squats and the anarchists movement in general. In the last weeks as well as Villa Amalias, two other squats in central Athens have been attacked by police forces.

There was an attempt this morning to reoccupy the Villa Amalias squat in the centre of Athens. At this point details are unclear as events are still on going. Reports state that early this morning a group of people managed to get back inside the building which has been under police guard since an eviction on 20th December.

The political and financial worlds have been feeling pretty pleased with themselves recently. The next instalment of loans to the Greek state have been released and the country's credit rating has even improved. The Prime Minister and his government tell us that this means Greece is on the road to recovery.

I'm reposting here some reports on a current police raid on the Villa Amalias squat in central Athens. The raid began early this morning and event are still on going. This is the latest in a series of raids and attacks by the state against autonomous spaces.

Remember, remember the 6th of December. Four years on the police murder of 15 year-old Alexis Girgoropoulos was remembered on the streets of Greece. Almost every major city or town across Greece held a demonstration against police and state violence on the 6th December. Some of the demonstrations led to clashes with police forces and arrests.

Over the last six months and more if you checked the news from Greece in the morning it's likely you would see a report of another attack or incident involving far-right groups. Whilst sadly this is still the case recently it's become just as likely that there will be a report of another antifascist action to brighten up the morning. This has especially been the case the last few days.

There are grounds for both pessimism and optimism when looking at last week in Greece. On the one hand another batch of austerity measures passed through parliament and whilst the mobilisations were big they were also nothing new. On the other hand for a more optimistic view we could point to some moments from the struggles of last week which suggest resistance is shifting and not weakening.

The extreme right wing party Golden Dawn(GD) has been gathering more attention from the media recently. There have been significant reports about GD from the BBC and the Guardian. These reports are useful but the problems in Greece are not just from GD. Lets not forget the role of the official Greek state in the persecution of those deemed foreign.

On the 18th October a general strike shut down large parts of Athens and Greece as a whole. The day saw large protests taking place in the centre of Athens as around 70,000 people came out onto the streets. The protest marches headed to the parliament building on Syntagma Sq.