Friday, March 5, 2010

Manolis Glezos Sent to the Hospital by the Greek Riot Squad

That's absolutely right: Manolis Glezos was sprayed by a unit of the greek riot squad earlier today. 88-year old Manolis Glezos, one of the two people who removed the german Nazi flag from Acropolis on 31 May 1941, the person who declared last year that it is the traitors & not the freedom fighters who need full-face masks, was sprayed earlier today: with chemicals, full on the face, by a helmeted riot pig, during a workers' demo, & in front of the Monument of the Unknown Soldier. He was promptly removed from the area & carried to a hospital by his comrades, after he passed out. (If you feel like cringing at the ignominy of it all, here's a link with pictures.)

The symbolism of this did not escape those who paid a modicum of attention to the events that unfolded today. A commentator in good ole tvxs summed it up wonderfully as follows:

' The point is that Glezos fell wounded in front of [the Monument of] the Unknown Soldier, struck by a greek employee of the Greek State, at the same time that the Head of [that] State was begging in Germany - only to hear that Acropolis should be sold... Isn't history a bitch? '

Another commentator in the website of greek liberal paper Eleftherotypia wrote:

' People, this one cross-checked: Glezos attacks the riot squad cop after he has been sprayed, which [cop] retreats three steps like a chicken...

Manolis, the Tsoliades salute you. Were we there, we'd have climbed down to kick that riot squad cop. '

If this post is authentic - that is, if it indeed comes from a member of the Presidential Guard (known as Tsoliades, a.k.a. Evzonoi) - its symbolism & meaning cannot be brushed aside lightly...

I'll stop here for now & hopefully add more to the post tomorrow. Until then, let me close with my very own 'Isn't history a bitch?' anecdote: as I read today, Ministry of Interior employees took over the presses at the National Printing House of Greece. This activism aimed at disrupting the printing of the new issue of the Official Government Gazette, namely the one containing the law with the new economic measures. [A greek law is validated once it appears in the Gazette.] Tantalizingly, this brought in mind the following excerpt from L. Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution (excerpted from Max Eastman's 1932 translation, which can be found in its entirety here):

' At the same time General Khabalov issued an edict – prepared in secrecy from the government – declaring Petrograd, on His Majesty’s orders, under martial law. So here too was an attempt to mix hot with cold – hardly intentional, however, and anyway of no use. They did not even succeed in pasting up the declaration of martial law through the city: the burgomaster, Balka, could find neither paste nor brushes. Nothing would stick together for those functionaries any longer; they already belonged to the kingdom of shades. '

She is a bitch after all, isn't she?...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep it coming

Now is the time

Anonymous said...

Long live GLEZOS.

Anonymous said...

Long live GLEZOS !!!!!