Today, 11 May as senior EU and IMF inspectors arrive in Athens, across the country workers have walked out yet again against austerity measures.
The inspectors will determine whether Greece will get a fifth aid tranche from the €110bn bail-out that saved it from bankruptcy last year and whether Athens should be given improved loan terms or more aid to avoid debt restructuring.
One year into the EU-IMF deal, the Socialist government has slashed salaries and pensions. Wages have fallen on average by 20% is for wages and unemployment is up to a record 15.1%, yet the economy shows no signs of improvement.
The general strike so far has grounded flights and halted shipping. Hospitals will operate with only skeleton staffing, schools are closed and city transport is disrupted. Only emergency flights will be allowed between 0900 and 1300 GMT.
Many shops and most public offices are also closed, and huge demonstrations are expected.
Please post any updates below
Comments
Apparently clashes with
Apparently clashes with police have broken out.
Ferry and rail services have been suspended, and dockworkers have joined the strike. Air-traffic controllers walked out, and journalists are also on strike leading to a blackout of all radio and television news.
a comment on Occupied London
a comment on Occupied London mentions one severely injured demonstrator ... all the Indymedias from Greece are down at the moment
updates in greek can be found
updates in greek can be found here
apparently Syntagma Square was heavily blocked by police. I'd hazard a guess this was most likely for fears of people trying to enact a Tahrir Square like occupation
Entdinglichung wrote: all the
Entdinglichung
i think that is related to this
http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2011/05/04/463-previous-administration-of-athens-polytechnic-on-trial-for-hosting-athens-indymedia/
Just run an auto translate on
Just run an auto translate on it. Sounds like the police have had a day.
17:35: Two demonstrators this moment be operated in general government owned Nice. The situation 30[chronoy] is very serious says the doctors. Also and a demonstrator is operated [kathoti] it has accepted a lot of blows, her situation however is not judged critical.
In statement that published the Local Committee EINAP of General Hospital Nice Tens, [kataggelei] tens wounds of demonstrators struck from SUBDUE, demonstrators [diakomistikan] with the [EKAB] or they came alone them in the hospital. Most with [thlastika] lesions in the head. “[Aytin] [ti] moment is operated from our colleagues that fight they save the life”, it leads.
Harrison Myers
Harrison Myers
it was working this morning
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/wor
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13356923
Reports on From the Greek
Reports on From the Greek Streets
Some coverage in German
Some coverage in German language at the FAU website.
Quote: About 150 hooded
- here.
Harrison Myers
Harrison Myers
Syntagma Square is always heavily blocked by police because the Greek Parliament makes up the entire east side of the square. But it's also the heart of city and is more strategic than either the large Omonoia Square or tiny Exarcheia Square.
Report on Anarkismo
Report on Anarkismo
The Times is claiming that
The Times is claiming that the 150 people that tuned up the cops in the hospital were anarchists, is this true?
Yes - The Times reporter
Yes - The Times reporter rushed along to the hospital and whilst the cops were lying around groaning, conducted an opinion poll of them which went like this:
Please tick the following where applicable:
Are you
(a) A Social Democrat?
(b) A Marxist?
(c) An Anarcho-Syndicalist?
(d) An Anarcho-Communist?
(e) An Anarcho-Insurrectionist?
(f) An Autonomist
(g) A Debordist
(h) A Vaneigemist
(i) None of the above
And all 150 of them ticked boxes c, d or e. And then the hooded anarchists started having a fight amongst themselves, not having realised that they were different types of anarchists.
I wasn't saying I was
I wasn't saying I was convinced they were anarchists, calm down, I was skeptical of the times reporters claim. Thats why I bothered to ask on the this thread, because if it was anarchists people on here are most likely to know about it and if nobody on here knows who did it then I can completely disregard it as slander. Which I was going to do anyway if nobody responded with anything constructive. Jesus fucking christ.
rough translation from the
rough translation from the FAU article
FAU
http://www.fau.org/artikel/art_110512-062202
and here is a video
FAU
Samotnaf wrote: Yes - The
Samotnaf
who today is a Vaneigemist? your categories are fucked :wall:
Quote: your categories are
What do you expect from a Times reporter? (the reporter's an anarcho-individualist Sternirite, and didn't bother to include that category in his opinion poll for obvious reasons) but there still seems to be at least one Vaneigemist around.
The 30 year old protestor is
The 30 year old protestor is still in critical condition with many others in less serious condition. Violence by the riot police was particularly high yesterday and has even been condemned by the ministry of justice ('protection of the citizens') as well as the stronger condemnations from the various shades of leftists and anarchists. The video above is being investigated too. Three cops are temporarily off duty while they are under investigation for using too much violence. There have been small spontaneous demonstrations against the police and state repression yesterday all around greece, and bigger ones planned for today.
My impression is that the police, using very savage violence, targeted the more soft anti-authoritarian parts of the demo, i.e. the worst place to be is outside the more respectable/institutional blocks but also outside the more militant and violent 'black blocs' (my impression is that the latter did not have much of a presence).
re the report Samotnaf re-posted, I have looked around and the only reference I found is the following from eleftherotypia newspaper, quick translation:
Two nights ago in Athens a 44 year old greek man was stabbed to death while trying to take his wife to the hospital to give birth. He was stabbed in a robbery apparently by immigrants. The far-right has been demonstrating violently in that area and trying to co-opt the moment (which has very high publicity in greece given the angle of family tragedy) into a pogrom, attacking immigrants and also fighting with anarchists in squats. Last night a man from bangladesh was stabbed to death, probably by fascists, in the same area. Molotovs were also thrown against a house of immigrants with no injuries.
Must admit, after having
Must admit, after having posted the report I realised it sounded pretty dubious: if you go along hooded to a hospital along with 149 others, it wouldn't just be one cop that would end up with serious injuries to the head, whilst the others remained slightly injured.
Some brief bits of
Some brief bits of information:
The oldest University building in Athens, in the centre, is being occupied, with constant debates going on.
The only union to condemn the cop violence has been the teachers Union.
A top cop explained the violence of the cops as being due to the situation in Keratea just a few weeks ago, where the cops had, for 3 months, been subjected to the united community violently opposing their presence, and no-one had sympathised with what they had to endure, so they just needed to take out their frustrations on somebody. A policeman's lot is not a happy one.
Harrison Myers wrote: rough
Harrison Myers
«Athens News» today published this photo, showing MAT orcs at “work“. It lllustrates what witnesses are blaming the cops for.