The 48h strike of the National Electricity workers has seen 7 major power stations close, with workers threatening to shut down more and plunge Greece in blackout.
The National Electricity Company (DEH) workers 48h strike which began today has been decided in demand for a reversal of the austerity measures and of the freezing of 2,000 new positions in the industry. The workers yesterday occupied the Unemployed Office Headquarters in Athens, the Company's offices in Ptolemaida and Megalopolis (both major power producing units) and a production unit in Agios Dimitrios. Since the beginning of the strike in the early hours of the morning today, 7 major power-plants have shut their engines, with the Ministry of Interior claiming that if workers shut down one more unit, as they are threatening, the State will be forced to implement local black-outs so as to avoid a country-wide major black-out. The workers are expected to meet with the Minister of Labour tomorrow for negotiations.
Meanwhile, nurses who have gone on a 24h strike against the austerity measures marched in Athens today. The Minister of Health has promised not to implement the cutting of subsidies and salaries in their sector, to initiate many new working positions and to include nursing within the list of "heavy and unhealthy" jobs, which provides with better pension and salary. At the same time, doctors across greece's public hospitals have began an open-end withdrawal of labour in reaction to the austerity measures. The doctors' labour action is forcing many hospitals to work with emergency personnel.
At the same time workers of WIND formed a demo outside the LAbour Inspection headquarters in Athens in protest to the firing of one worker by the company, while workers of the textile industry ELITE blockaded the entrance of the Ministry of Labour. Meanwhile in the north of the country, textile workers of ENKLO industries occupied two major banks of the city of Komotini, as well as the County headquarters of Imathia.
Tonight ADEDY is organising a central protest march against the measures in Athens. Reactions to the measures are expected to climax as the Minister of Labour has gone public proclaiming the feared reform of the social security system a one-way road.
Moreover, taxi drivers and gas stations have called a 24h strike for Thursday.
It must be noted that from all of the arrested during the protest march of the general strike, all have been released apart from a 28 year old swimming instructor. The man whose photos have been released being brutally pulled by the hair by riot cops, has been charged with possession and use of molotov cocktails, as well as under the anti-hood law. The decision of the court to put the man behind bars in Koridallos prison pending his trial has sparked reactions of outrage even amongst the bourgeois media. The man's bag who the cops claimed contained molotov cocktails only contained his working clothes and tools (shampoos and googles), while in none of the pictures published does the man wear a mask or cloth covering his face. The court has demonstrated utter prejudice by only accepting one defense witness and waving all the others, in a hurry to put the man in remand. His lawyer, Ioanna Kourtovik made the following statement: "Far distanced from society and from legal proofs that apparently leave it cold and indifferent "realy-existing Justice" has put a young man behind bars with the single testimony of a policeman, which is being contradicted most saliently by a series of photographs declared at the interrogation, and by dozens of witnesses present in his arrest, who sponteneously came and demanded to testify. The recent change in the law regarding remand has definitively made the conditions of it more strict, and demands such a decision to be based on "previous condemnations for similar acts" or "special characteristics of the act" from which derives a danger for committing more crimes. How can we console a young man who is goinf to prison, just because he has rasta hair and was carrying a sack with his work's clothes in it?"
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Update: Due to the continuing
Update: Due to the continuing Electricity workers strike, the Ministry of Interior has implemented hourly rolling local black-outs in all major greek cities (meaning 10 sections of Athens for example will be blacked-out between 19:30 and 20:30, the next 10 sections between 20:30 and 21:30 and so on). Meanwhile ambulance workers have blockaded the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace in Salonica. At the time of writing the ADEDY march which is estimated at more than 10,000 people has reached Klathmonos square on its way to the Parliament, while its tail is at the height of Rex on Panepistimiou street. The march is surrounded by strong riot police forces.
Update2: The march in Athens
Update2: The march in Athens was concluded with protesters throwing stones at the riot police squads guarding the parliament, and the cops responding with tear gas. One man has been detained. Similar protest marches took place in Salonica and in Herclion, Crete.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Justice has demanded the file of the case of the 28 year old protester of the general strike in remand. On the other hand the infamous Minister of Public Order has responded to open letters and e-mails condemning the arrest and imprisonment of the man, by claiming the greek police and justice system are immaculate...a fact further proved by photos of riot cops attacking protesters in the courts yesterday with the back-side of their globs (the photo on the TPTG article is of a man heavily injured during the attack).
what are the early
what are the early indications as to how this strike--or others like it that put some manner of hardship on the larger population--will be received by ordinary people?
i've translated most of it
i've translated most of it plus the updates into DEUTSCH, the end is more info about the hoodie law pasok announced to abort and the cop-coop with germany
http://de.indymedia.org/2010/03/275908.shtml
http://anarchypress.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/%c2%ab%ce%b4%ce%b9%ce%b1%cf%87%ce%b5%ce%af%cf%81%ce%b9%cf%83%ce%b7-%cf%80%ce%bb%ce%ae%ce%b8%ce%bf%cf%85%cf%82%c2%bb%cf%84%ce%bf-%ce%ac%ce%bb%ce%bb%ce%bf-%cf%8c%ce%bd%ce%bf%ce%bc%ce%b1-%cf%84%ce%b7/
Thanks iaourti, thats
Thanks iaourti, thats great!
At the moment there does not seem to be any resentment towards the DEH strike, as one hour black-outs are not such a huge problem for daily life. Generally people are tolerant to problems created by strikes, or simply used to them. Of course the media do their best to vilify this and any strike as burdening the people, but such neoliberalist tricks are far off the target in the present situation where so many people are seeing their salaries cut.
Spanish
Spanish translation:
http://www.klinamen.org/article7586.html
off topic, but.. can ya
off topic, but.. can ya explain this? sounds like they tried interview him similiar to ksiros. i know it's no good time for rumours but if there is truth in it we should scandalize esp outside of greece.would be a weapon...
if ya suggest "later" just delete the question
http://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/17948
I dont think that reproducing
I dont think that reproducing unverified rumors on the conditions of the assassination of Lambros Foundas serves any goal here apart from consuming ourselves in a spiral of conspiracy theories.
Regarding the strike, 18 out of a total 30 of electricity-producing units across the country have shut their engines, with 80% of DEH employees participating in the 48H strike. Electricity workers have also occupied the DEH central officers in Athens since the early morning. At noon the workers will be meeting with the Minister of Labour and will then hold an assembly to decide the future of their mobilisation. The rolling local black-outs in Athens, Salonica and other major cities will continue today in order to avert a general black-out in the country. Meanwhile ambulance workers in Salonica have moved to a 4h stoppage blocking Agiou Dimitriou street and performing a short occupation of the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace.
Thanks for the reporting
Thanks for the reporting taxikipali!
Great to hear that so many strikes are occurring. How is the government responding to the strikes? Are they even considering any of the demands?
Quote: taxi drivers.... have
jesuithitsquad
Yeah - how are all us revolutionary tourists going to get to the demonstrations without a cab? There's going to have to be "taxikipali"/"class struggle" strike if us ordinary revolutionaries are going to avoid the hardship of having to walk to the march to support the class struggle and the hardship of finding our shoes worn out - and then the further hardship of having to walk to the shops before the blackouts cause some mass proletarian shopping of the shoeshops - no "Nike" for the "taxikpali" then. What, with those power cuts, us ordinary barefoot radicals will remain in the dark about everything important (e.g. our banners).
Sorry, couldn't resist (well, I could - but as Oscar Wilde said - "I can resist anything but temptation"). I know "jesuithitsquad" didn't necessarily imply anything of the kind, but "hardships" caused by blackouts and taxi strikes, etc. are nothing to the hardships which will be caused by the repressive financial misery being imposed on Greece, not to mention (but of course i will) the "hardship" caused by ecological collapse, global warming, etc. on top of a fairly imminent second wave of "credit crunches" etc.etc.
It'll be the State trying to induce "ordinary" people to moan about the "hardships" caused by the class struggle.
The riots of Sebokeng, South Africa in 1984 virtually destroyed all the shops, beer halls, rent offices, etc.etc. and the local population went seriously hungry for a few days before re-stocking could re-start the whole circulation and consumption of commodities. But they certainly felt it was all worth going hungry for - the struggle had nourished them, fed their hearts and heads and relationships; now humanity cannot live on stuggle alone, but their stomachs were later better filled by the fact of not having to pay the rent hikes that had sparked off this amazing revolt. Revolt involves often immediate 'hardship' so as to achieve a lower degree of hardship in the longer run.
More concretely - are there any indications that electricity workers are prepared to talk with other proletarian groups and individuals, or are the Unions keeping workers/unemployed/students, etc. separate?; and are there any attempts by the latter to connect to power workers?
samotnaf wrote: Yeah - how
samotnaf
as you say, clearly this isn't what i was implying so why waste your time and the bandwidth? it's bizarre actually.
which is precisely why it's important to know the perception of the larger class as a whole. you know, do they see this (or that) struggle as part of their larger struggle? obviously any kind of large scale struggle is going to involve some level of "hardship" but making connections with the larger class gives the struggle a far better chance of success. you clearly understood this was the undertone of my post but decided to make a point of it to, well, make a point. jesus.
Update: According to the
Update: According to the bourgeois media three anarchists have been charged for the attack against the GSEE boss Panagopoulos during the demo of Friday 5th of March. It is indicative that the GSEE and the State work hand in hand to persecute 3 well known anarchists when in reality the attack against the union boss pig was performed by over 100 people and applauded by half a thousand others. The socially discredited PASOK-lackey GSEE has thus declared an open war with the anarchist movement that reveals its true quisling nature.
On other news, a demo at the spot of the killing of the anarchist Lambros Foundas during a gun battle with the police in Dafni has been called for Saturday.
jweidner: apologies for
jesuithitsquad:
apologies for making you feel I was getting at you, for taking this personally - just felt like taking the piss out of all those who'll be off to Greece to do "their bit" for the revolution , and to make a point about "hardships", which really had nothing to do with you (as i said) - but which i've often heard from some anarchists who consider themselves representatives of 'ordinary people'. As for 'jesus' - well, I was just showing some cheek that you should have turned - against me in not such a serious way. Christ!
link for
link for 20th:http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2010/03/17/219-gathering-in-memory-of-anarchist-lambros-foundas-at-the-point-of-his-assassination-saturday-march-20-12-00/
i might be a stupid jerk but i don have questions like above. for me it simply looks like that the people do what they gotta do,
black-outs are not everythere the same
but bikes.
indymedia germany#1 is blocked again or only for some special ip's but it's open for posting bank-accounts to spend for the public guilt of greeks! this shit sux even more if the account is real (i wanted to link resalto-account...because i don get jokes)
one thing disappeared i'd might remember back:
beside i feel funky that not only the cabbies but also gas-stations strike.
a german-greek paper pointed out that some folks had to get rescued by fire-army out of their elevators. hopefuly some flight-students don mistake some central-parks with the schools airport again. downtown athens' towers are that huge.
a german business-men made it through to some authorities askin how he'd come to work without a cab. since the pedicabs they used for the olympics seem to be gone (back to germany like their too ugly too big windturbines will move(!)) the answer was simply:"Man, just call the army they got drivers oh so many! (thinking:malaka)"
taxikipali: i think the link is wrong anyway. maybe leave the link but delete the comment...
international solidarity happened in belgium i think two cars of the greek dipolmatic corps can't gas anymore
to give some power: i was
to give some power: i was listening to the song "people power" by joe shithead keithley (and as i think sudden death rec could be interested to bring out a solidarity sampler) but when hearing that the "mountains will eventually fall" (in whistler?) i thought: not the greek!
still there is water and fish. and if it's getting tough? dynamite fishin close to Imia!
so i've changed disk to "disaster strike", followed by "the proletariat"
GREECE I MISS YOU! KEEP ON STRONG!
Update: DEH workers have
Update: DEH workers have announced that if talks with the Ministry of Labour on Friday are not satisfactory towards their demands, they will begin continuous 48h strikes starting on March 24, which is the day that ADEDY has called for a new 24h strike for the public sector.
By the way, bourgeois media have reported incidents of elevator trappings due to the strike, but the validity of these reports are in doubt and look more like the usual anti-strike propaganda: the time-tables of the local blackouts are widely published and aired and, alas, very few buildings in Athens have more than 5 floors to necessitate elevator use anyway.
Great reports taxikipali,
Great reports taxikipali, thanx.
Firstly I've read here (http://actforfreedomnow.blogspot.com/2010/03/news-from-press.html) that the judge in the trial of the cops who killed Alexis Grigoropoulos has resigned from the case. Is this confirmed? If it is are you able to comment on what the hell is going on with the case? And do you have any other updates on the case?
Secondly I note various comments suggesting radicals around the world may be rushing to Greece to 'help out'. My understanding is that Greek radicals do not call for 'solidarity' nor riot tourism, but rather express the desire that people act and struggle in their own countries to internationalise all our struggles. That is a view I would agree with, strategically and tactically - the last thing I'd imagine the Greek comrades need right now is to be encumbered by a bunch of non-Greek speaking internationals.
Thirdly, seems to me the current situation is at a bit of an impasse. What is the likelihood of strikes extending from 24/48 hours to all out in a general sense?
You are right MH, the judge
You are right MH, the judge of the Grigoropoulos murder case has offered her resignation, although it is still unclear if it has been accepted. Meanwhile the two lawyers on the boy's family side have also resigned over a controversy over a supposed eye witness who has retracted her testimony and has been accused by radical circles as a police stool pigeon. Whatever the case might really be, now the boy's family is being represented by Nikos Konstantopoulos, the ex-leader of the Radical Left Coalition and a leading lawyer in the anti-junta trials of the 1970s. There is a possibility due to these changes that the trial will start all over again for a third time. To demonstrate the confusion regarding the case, let me mention that the lawyer of the assassin cops has charged the mother of the assassinated boy for libel over her testimonies in court. A total chaos if not parody of (bourgeois) justice in short...
I would also agree that the current situation with 24/48h strikes is leading nowhere. What we need is an open end general strike that will bring the State to its knees. By the way, talk of the IMF is rife these days in Greece, which if true could see huge changes on how the country is run. If that does not lead the workers away from the quisling unions, nothing will.
About the second point of MH,
About the second point of MH, i would agree totally with him, that action and class struggle everywhere (this is what 'solidarity' means anyway) is much more important than coming here to enforce the resistance. Your last phrase though, about "a bunch of non-Greek speaking internationals" is not the best way to talk about the comrades abroad, don't you think? Anyone that would like to come here will find a place to stay and his way to any mobilizations he is interested of attending. This happens for people from other cities of the country and of course the same is for people from other countries. But this is not what anyone here calls for, as the number of the radicals is not the most crucial thing right now. My view is that a radicalization of the population is happening (or at least i hope so) and this is what counts, here in greece and everywhere. If a call is published, you will know about it.
About the parody trial of the murderers of Alexis, i would like to note also that in greece the maximum time that somebody can be held in jail without trial is 18 months, which means that they can't go on postponing the end of the trial or they will set free the two murderers by summer, with unpredictable reaction by the population.
About taxikipali's view for the "deadline" of IMF, i would like to remind that in Argentina the bankruptcy of the state followed the IMF "help" (if I am wrong, correct please), and then the revolt took place. Unfortunately, some people continue not to see the dead-end and act accordingly, until they are already there.
MH with the bunch i think
MH with the bunch i think the same. but that's my personal opinion unproved by anything regarding "trip brigades" but since i think that there and here is pride around solidarity announcements go like "fight at home, everybody out in the streets" and not "help us pl"
if ya take care about that tourists don get to be a problem in the streets...
means volunteers are welcome everywhere!
if ya also got reporting/translater skills it could be better to be there. 1st it spares time for the usually updaters
2ndly it's easier for yourself to trigger on ya situation back home.
there are people reporting from athens
salonika also but what's about the rest?
f.i. on spot reports from chania or crete in general would make sense.
also some inputs about connections between german and greek nazis aka autonomous nationalists and history about how it developed (and got blocked: hardcore bleibt nazifrei) would be appreciated
there are more things to do too
but if ya call out cops will (again like on 5th/6th of dec 09) try to get foreigners to proof black blaq media lust
sure that's not the point cuz media gots fantasy
at least it's one's own decision
there is no command
no order
and no no
the european comrades must get straight to make cops busy cuz if they are busy at home
it' s getting more difficult to send (police) troops to greece.
first one has to try back home information
if the "euro-police-force" gets known to public..
that would be one step
if the 7000 euro-cops come THEN it's nice to see their tactics get teached by foreigners...
i'm sure that greece will try to stop teargassings and gets water-canon-tanks, also they will try to fence demos more (wandering kettle) and send "sneaker-cops" without shields and sticks to make lots of arrests - that would be german police work that they do so (trained)since 86...
that delta-cops thing must end - one called it iranian riders - france had them too in the eighties but they killed too much with their sticks!
hi from greece! even
hi from greece!
even dead-ends can explode. there is the door, go through the wall!
regarding the flier of the agents of xaos it's unimportant if IMF or an european version (Schaeble's idea but not fixed) of it.
more important is that by this it means to downgrade Greece onto the level of a banana-republic or any other 3rd world nightmare.
for argentinia it seems more that the revolt ended in 200 squatted factories that are now run by the workers. from far away it looks just like revolutionary but get closer: integration.(?) or would it be different if the ELITE and UNITED TEXTILES workers would decide the same?
and then all the others! the only way then to not get integrated in a more friendly (partly) self-run capitalism would be to be "anti-modern" world trade is the death machine. trade belongs on the street-market and not on some trucks, ships or planes that carry goods thousands of kilometers around. f.i. tourism: the tourist(=terrorist) wants fish. so it comes from canaduh and from japan. if it only comes out of sea it propably won't be daily diet. siga.siga.if these tourists are nice they will understand and take the opportunity of greek cuisine. i know it's hard cuz lots of people depend on tourists but when it ends up in making greece into an agaen disneyland there beach sleepers get hassled, hmm. and i mean real beach sleepers who care about the inhabitants and leave after 3 days to the next beach when they see that camps could build up. on the other hand the "green" ideas for future tourism will lead into gentrification.
who knows today about the self-run factories in jugoslavia? are they gone? with the wars?
was there are reason behind? means: were these factories one reason to start the wars?
and again: anti-modern. if ya can't fix ya car get an old one or forget about cars. the european market destroyed lots of possibilities for subsistence but it won't take a generation to get back and be independant. the only problem is that the bosses and the politicians know this door too. it could lead out of e.u. into asia minor.
a blog has been setup with
a blog has been setup with info on marios's case -- the swimming instructor referred to by taxikipali. it has some content in english.
http://freemariosz.wordpress.com/
taxikipali: Quote: The
taxikipali:
couple of questions:
Does the government's promises count for anything in Greece - are they always kept? And if not, are the health unions therefore refusing to be affected by these promises into retreating from strike action? Or what?
How do the austerity measures affect doctors? (sorry if I somehow missed this bit of information).
And once again, since my questions were probably forgotten or ignored because the rest of my previous post was a bit "bizarre" (jesuithitsquad):
Don't want to overwhelm you with questions which must take up a lot of your energy answering - but so many people reading these reports and threads are waiting with baited breath for news of developments there. And obviously ignore these questions if they're answered in what i imagine will be your soon-to-be released update, taxikipali.
@ Samotnaf Promises are
@ Samotnaf
Promises are usually binding when made in bilateral meetings between unions and the government. For example today the Minister of Health has announced that subsidy cuts on doctors will not be realised. This comes as a response to mass labour withdrawal in public hospitals (which are 90% of hospitals in greece). Naturally the government backing down on this or that clause of the measures for a given sector can either lead the sector to retreat, or to go for more. Incidentally, there is a huge controversy over the new tax legislation (part of the austerity measures), as it came to parliament today with so many exceptional causes (as a result of sector union pressures) that it has been decried as discriminating against other sectors and had to be withdrawn and redrafted. The parliament talks on the tax law must have been very amusing, as striking taxi drivers were at the time performing a motorised march outside the building with mass honking interrupting MP speeches. The government is so furious with the taxi drivers that it is threatening to remove the trade from the list of "closed trades" if the drivers do not conform with the measures. Meanwhile the gas station strike has led to a blockade of road customs on the Greek Bulgarian border.
Now regarding students, the first student rally happened today, alas, by KKE allied students. However the Polytechnic professors are staging a 4h stoppage on Friday which is the first move by academics as such against the measures. Mechanics and geo-scientists are also participating in the stoppage. Also the State Music School in Salonica was occupied today by students with a wide range of demands. Generally speaking however there is no visible process of workers coordinating with students in the struggle.
@ Samotnaf The doctors have
@ Samotnaf
The doctors have other problems that they face right now. There is a last years' law, that talks about 6 maximum 24-hour long work (don't know the word in english) per month and a day-off the next day. Nevertheless, this law is only paper, because if this law is implied, the hospitals will close after the third week of each month, as there are not enough doctors employed to cover 30 days, the same time that thousands young doctors are jobless. So they work more (about 10 "24hour log work" without day-offs) than the law says. They do this almost voluntarily, as they might not get paid for the (against the law) extra work they (are forced by the administrations of the hospitals to) do. If you sum this to their not getting paid for the "24hour cover" since December (their salary is paid, but not the extra money), you understand easily the reason why they are frustrated.
Their unions said that this month they will follow exactly what the law says (less work), which means that from the next week the hospitals won't have doctors, if something doesn't change immediately. Of course, the doctors' sector is not the most radical one, and my opinion is that many doctors don't care about the conditions of work, as long as they get paid, many in the private sector. It's interesting to see what will happen, considering that the government doesn't want to confront with this sector for obvious reasons...
taxikipali, from_gr: Thanks
taxikipali, from_gr:
Thanks for the info. Must rush, but keep on posting - it's all useful and interesting (don't bother to sleep: Napoleon had just 4 hours a night, and we don't want the class struggle in Greece to meet its Waterloo).
from-gr's presentation of the
from-gr's presentation of the doctor issue is to the point. Also one of the most controvertial points in the new tax legislation is whether and how to tax doctors...a very complex and thorny issue.
On a quick note, early this morning the national headquarters of Golden Dawn, the neo-nazi party of greece, were hit by a powerful explosion after a warning call to the daily Eleftherotypia. Nobody was hurt, as the building and the nearby hotel were evacuated, but the headquarters of the fascists are said to be severely damaged by what appears to be a time-bomb. No organisation has claimed yet responsibility for the attack, and it remains to be seen if it was indeed the work of urban guerrillas or part of a new 'strategy of tension' by the state.
Update: PAME invaded the 34th
Update: PAME invaded the 34th annual congress of GSEE and attacked ETUC's spokesman Tom Jenkins who was reaching for the podium. Clashes between GSEE and PAME syndicalists ensued with the latter claiming that the spokesman is a rep of the bosses. On other news, photos published online have revealed the extent of damage done to the offices of the Golden Dawn, in short total demolition with a big crater figuring at the site of the time-bomb.
Pakistani leader's home
Pakistani leader's home bombed in Athens
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8577614.stm
Also, could somebody point me in the direction of some good texts on the 'strategy of tension'?
The bomb was pre-announced
The bomb was pre-announced via a phonecall to the press and caused little damage. The Pakistani leader targeted is the vice-president of the Pakistani Community and a member of the central committee of the Immigrants Forum (an organisation allied to leftist groups). It must be noted that an Pakistani embassy official was murdered a week ago. The incidents have sparked a row in the Pakistani community and are widely considered to be linked with the Pakistani secret services.
@Samotnaf: i'm not sure if
@Samotnaf: i'm not sure if it really makes sense to do the "job" like this. to not get enough sleep will result in mistakes and i bet Napoleon wasn't online that much too... btw did ya check into the "indymedialinksunten" about translating? it's not said to do it all and one can also use the site for only partly translatings of the articles but i think it would help to use this channel... see for "greek revolt" it's possible for french, spanish, dutch, italian,...
@deadend: you have to google for, also look for "Gladio", sometimes even wikipedia brings input... But i don't think it plays a role like it did in Italy in the 60/70ies but what's about the 7000 european cops that could get send in Greece?
Correction: regarding the
Correction: regarding the bomb at the Greek-Pakistani Association's vice-president's home see http://libcom.org/news/urban-guerrilla-offensive-athens-20032010
dead end, here is a quick
dead end, here is a quick overview of the strategy of tension in Italy:
http://libcom.org/history/1969-the-strategy-of-tension-in-italy
There are a bunch of articles about it here:
http://libcom.org/tags/strategy-of-tension