Cleaners march in Athens, lawyers stage demonstration against anti-anarchist legislation in Salonica, and doctors go on new round of stoppages and demos across Greece.
On Tuesday 20/5/2008 the independent union of cleaners of Attica (PEKOP), whose general secretary, K. Kouneva, was attacked last December with sulfuric acid and is still struggling for her life in hospital, took the the streets of Athens alongside hundreds of solidarity protesters, demanding the immediate stoppage of subcontracting to hospitals, schools, universities, public transport and other segments of the state sector. Kouneva's struggle against death planned by her bosses continues to inspire multiform struggle across the country, often in ways controversial. Last week a theater play based on Kouneva's life was attacked and canceled by solidarity protesters who claimed it is an effort to assimilate the class struggle of cleaners, and to turn it into a cultural commodity within the society of the spectacle.
On Wen. 21/5/08 members of the independent lawyer's initiative greeted the Minister of Justice, and well-known pastime right wing thug, Mr Dendias, with slogans against his anti-anarchist legislative proposals during his visit to the headquarters of the Lawyers' Association. After surrounding the Minister and pushing him out of the building, the lawyers formed a protest march inside the premises of the High Courts of the city where Dendias continued his visit, visibly humbled by the militant reception.
At the same time doctors of the Greek NHS are continuing their struggle for immediate hiring of more personnel, staging rolling stoppages in the hospitals of Athens. The striking doctors staged a demo outside the Ministry of Health on the afternoon of the 21/5.
The recent labour strife comes in the midst of rising tension in the country punctuated by spiraling urban guerrilla activity in the greek cities. During the previous week, a central branch of Eurobank, one of the country's major banking corporations, was reduced to pieces by an explosive device that fractured its very foundations. Authorities claimed to suspect the Revolutionary Struggle behind the demolition attack. At the same time, so-called low-scale diffuse guerrilla groups bombed two police stations under construction in the greek capital, while waging a large-scale arson campaign against police vehicles, arms and uniform shops, and national electricity company premises, the latter as a response to increasing incidents of lethal labour accidents in the sector.
Comments