Greece: New general strike against austerity

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 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

all the Indymedias from Greece are down at the moment

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 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

Entdinglichung

all the Indymedias from Greece are down at the moment

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/

it was working this morning

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13356923

Reports on From the Greek Streets

Toward the end of what had been an otherwise largely uneventful demonstration for the General Strike in Athens, the police launched an unprovoked, vicious attack: tens of demonstrators passing in front of the store “Attica” on Panepistimiou Avenue were encircled by riot police who kicked them, crushed them against the pavement and threw tear gas and stun grenades indiscriminatingly,  directly into the crowd. There are at least twelve people injured. One 30-year old demonstrator is in critical condition. He was transferred to the Nikaia General Infirmary in a life-threatening state and undertook surgery. He is in the intensive care unit and according to doctors his condition will remain critical for the next days, at least.

There were clashes between police and demonstrators in Exarcheia earlier in the evening. At least seven more people were seen being detained right outside the gates of the Athens Polytechnic.

As of the time of writing (19.34 GMT+2) the police presence in Exarcheia is still strong, and the situation of the injured demonstrator is still critical.

More updates, hopefully, soon.

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Villa Amalias, the anarchist squat on Aharnon Street in Athens is under attack by police and people aiding them, not clear if these were organised fascists.

The attack was ongoing as of 20:05 GMT+2, local time in Greece. All info from phone calls, more as it comes.

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40-50 people, some fascists, are currently (20.46 GMT+2) at the corner of Tritis Septemvriou Street and Ipirou. Anyone heading to Villa, be very careful.

According to the first, raw information coming in, the scuffles began when anarchists at Villa Amalias realised there was a small group of neo-nazis on Victoria Square attacking migrants, and headed there to attack them in return. Scuffles quickly broke out and the police that appeared tried to push the anarchists back toward Villa Amalias.

Many riot police units mixed up with fascists at the side of Victoria Square at the moment.

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Latest info on the 30-year old demonstrator who went in a coma after being beaten by police in Athens today (by katalipsiesiea)

According to his hospital doctors, the demonstrator has two serious head injuries and has lost a lot of blood. He remains intubated in the Emergency Healthcare Unit and the next few days are crucial regarding his survival.

Meanwhile, impromptu demonstrations broke out in the cities of Thessaloniki and Heraclion, Crete in response to the brutal repression of today’s demonstration in Athens. In Athens itself, there is unverified information that 200 demonstrators of the Communist Party (KKE) are heading to the Police Ministry to demonstrate against today’s events.

There is an emergency anarchist assembly starting in the Athens Polytechnic in a few minutes and another assembly at the offices of the Bookworkers’ base union on Messologiou Street in Exarcheia, both to discuss today’s police attacks and possible action.

Some coverage in German language at the FAU website.

About 150 hooded demonstrators attacked three policemen in an Athens hospital after a protester was seriously injured in an anti-austerity march on the first day of a visit by EU and IMF inspectors.
Police had fired several rounds of teargas earlier on Wednesday to disperse stone-throwing protesters as senior EU and IMF envoys began talks with the government on stepping up fiscal reforms needed to get the next slice of a bailout package.
“The hooded youths broke into the hospital manager's office and beat up three policemen who were there investigating the protester's injuries,” said a policeman who declined to be named. “Two policemen were slightly injured and one suffered more serious injuries to the head.”

- here.

Harrison Myers

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

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

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 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 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 FAU article
FAU

Indymedia Athens reported that there were so many serious injuries, because many MAT police had turned their batons, hitting on demonstrators with the metal ends (handles?).

http://www.fau.org/artikel/art_110512-062202

and here is a video
FAU

Athens, 11 May 2011: MAT-police "at work"
[youtube]celyhv_P79Y[/youtube]

Samotnaf

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.

who today is a Vaneigemist? your categories are fucked :wall:

your categories are fucked

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 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:

According to information, a group of people who were at the hospital of Nicea attacked an officer of the police, who had gone to the hospital to speak with the doctors about the case being investigated (of the protestor in serious condition). The officer (who according to information is one of the sub-directors of the plainsclothes unit) was wounded in the assault but managed to escape after being aided by other police, doctors and hospital staff.

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 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 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

rough translation from the FAU article
FAU

Indymedia Athens reported that there were so many serious injuries, because many MAT police had turned their batons, hitting on demonstrators with the metal ends (handles?).

«Athens News» today published this photo, showing MAT orcs at “work“. It lllustrates what witnesses are blaming the cops for.