Riot Info #5

A necessary remark before you get down to reading: this is not all that's happening in greece right now! (For example, I've not covered at all the many occupations of mass media which have been taking place the last few days.) I've work to do which cannot very well wait until "change has come," so I'm coping as best as I can with the continuous stream of information coming from whichever way. For more info, please visit some of the webpages linked below & ask people there to post translations of what they deem important - TVXS, athens.indymedia, & indy in particular is your best bet. & keep checking the UK indymedia central for english content.

& check out this (latest) summary report, too!

GSEE [General Confederation of Greek Workers] occupied by insurgent workers (athens.indymedia, Wednesday morning)
[the translation may be found here]

New Provo proofs of fascists and Police under cover pretending to be Rioters
[follow the link to the video; a similar version of the video has been uploaded here]

Witnesses tell of Greek police 'brutality'
[find it here & be outraged as well]

They broke up a [peaceful] demonstration in Syntagma square with excessive violence (indy.gr, Sunday in the small hours)
[there's a short yet evocative video here]

[This is] the end of what even they call democracy.

It's very hard to me to describe, much more digest, what happened in Syntagma square at midnight. That's where a bunch of people & school students were demonstrating. At some point, it seemed like they had even decided to camp out on the square, in front of the [statue dedicated to the] unknown soldier. They carried some tents to that spot & sat down quietly. Suddenly, platoons of blue[-clad] & [green-]clad [riot cops] started assuming battle positions. Some people who were there went to them to talk, to tell them to assume no ction, this this is a peaceful protest... The kids were doing absolutely nothing, this was one of the most peaceful actions of the last days. The blue[-clad cops] started spraying the kids simply sitting there with chemicals. An unbelievable scene. They pushed & cornered people at the opposite side, by the steps leading to their burned [Xmas] tree, & at some point the people started singing "Pote tha kanei xasteria" [a song with clear political liberatory connotations] & to yell "Junta." Till this point, 03:00, there are a lot of kids there & an unbelievable amount of platoons lined up throughout Syntagma square. To everyone in the region: be careful, they're arresting people.

(another account of the same events)

After the cops had surrounded the people (about 500 of them) from three sides, & when they saw that people were getting fewer & fewer, they started in a coordinated manner, provocatively, & unprovocated to march forwards [thus] forcing the kids to the stairs on the square. The Riot Squad occupied the entire street & they sealed off the people from the stairs &
on. All this was committed to tape by the zougla.gr camera (here).

Subsequently, people showed no intention of leaving. They sat down & were yelling slogans in front of the Riot Squad [human] chain. With pulse, at one moment "junta, junta," at another "democracy, democracy," yet another "burn this brothel of a Parliament," & sung "Pote tha kanei xasteria." There were about 300 people left.

Some isolated people were attempting to get back to the statue & the cops were pushing them off. Apparently, the cops wanted to go home, since their plan didn't wuite work out they way they wanted, since the kids are still there.

It's indeed typical of a junta mentality to force people sitting down, & in fact peacefully so, to leave a public spot. It's a gathering ban typical of a junta.

The kids [are] flowers, the Riot Squad [cops] are... claypots (Argyro K. Morou, Eleftherotypia, Tuesday)

"Go home you fucking kids before I fuck you up," said &, a few minutes later, he kept his promise. The helmeted Riot Squad needed only 5 minutes - that's the time it elapsed since they showed up - to destroy what, earlier that day, some colleagues of theirs from YMET [another police team aki to the Riot Squad]. To initiate a dialog with the school students & to listen to them.

They turned the situation upside-down in Alexandras avenue, in front of the General Police HQ of Attiki, they beat up violently kids 13, 14 & 15 years old & sprayed chemicals on them manically, revengefully, on their face, yelling: "& this one is from me."

& that's how the sit-in for the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos turned into a problematic demo of exasperation & outrage with slogans against the police & stone-hurling until Kifisias avenue, only to break up in the back alleys of Mihalakopoulou street.

Not only did they provoke unrest, they also arrested school students demonstrating peacefully

Because, when the kids saw once again plain violence & a colleague of theirs being mercilessly beaten up by the Riot Squad men who were dragging him around & beating him up despite the fact that he did not resist in the least, they forgot what some men from YMET had told them earlier, that "not all are alike", that "if they could, they'd throw their shields & join the other side" etc.. They tried to help their colleague, from the Metaxourgio school, & to remove him from the hands of the platoon who had snatched him from the crowd. In vain. The school student found himself on the asphalt... gripped by the Riot Squad man who had achieved a headlock around the student's neck. & as soon as those who tried to help him were pushed back with chemicals & shields,he got sprayed in the face once again,whereas a girl got wounded in the head, presumably by a stone.

This was one of the two arrests yesterday noon in Alexandras avenue. The second one occurred a few meters before the Thon estate, on the traffic stream towards Kifisias avenue, & once again from among the crowd. There, where the platoons were pushing the school students.

"Excuse us for demonstrating for what has happened & we're not sitting [on our asses] like you do," some school students were yelling. At the same time that colleagues of theirs were setting trashcans on fire & were responding with stones, fruit & water bottles [hurled] at the police force who was swearing, spraying [chemicals], threatening & upturned everything in a peaceful demonstration just 15 minutes... before it was [scheduled to be] over, before the school students withdrew to discuss with their coordination committees.

Earlier, school students distributed flowers & smiles to the policemen outside theGeneral Police HQ of Attiki

"Why are you provoking? WHy aren't you stepping back? The kids will leave momentarily," a teacher was explaining earlier to the Riot Squad platoons who appeared & cordoned off the demo. To receive an offensive reply in the singular & ending with "re [common greek swearword]" by a Riot Squad cop. "Sir, I use plural & you reply in the singular & use 're'," the teacher reply to receive a "It's [people like] you who've been fucking with their minds." "We educate them. We teach them to be democratic citizens. To demonstrate peacefully sir," he added. But it was as if he had never said a thing... "They've never learned to talk. They only know how to beat [people] up," a student said to himself. At the same time that another teacher was screaming at the top of his voice "Dialooooooooog!"

Because throwing flour & yoghurt on the platoons was the excuse the "immobile soldiers" [another golden page in the V. Polydoras book of slander] - with a huge mouth - were looking for to make their threats true & break up violently a peaceful sit-in. That of the hundreds of... Alexis's who distributed flowers & some smiles to those who had cordoned off the General Police HQ of Attiki building - with their bodies, but also with police trucks - as if they would have been attacked by hordes of barbarians.

PASOK & the tmebomb (Stelios Kouloglou, TVXS, Monday at dawn)

During the last few days, members of PASOK [the "center-left"/"socialist" party which is alternating with Nea Deimokratia (ND), the right wing party currently governing] have been overjoyed. The gallops had shown their party leading the race, even before...

... the revelation of the total inability of the government to manage the latest dramatic events. With ND on the verge of collapse, PASOK will win the popular vote in the next elections &, either in the first or the second round, will form a government.

Nevertheless, the current situation beras no relation to the "right-wing parenthetical remark" of the period '90-'93, when A. Papandreou's party [a.k.a., PASOK] got back on power following [then leader of ND] K. Mitsotakis' interlude. Not only because this is[, now,] a different country but because this time around the citizens will not vote for PASOK. They'll just vote against ND.

Today's tragic situation in which the country finds itself (her financial credibility is currently compared to that of african countries) has two sources. First, ND's management as a government; when the greeks realize how much harm was done in these last 4.5 years, they'll literally be flabbergasted. & it's not only because hospitals have no bandages & the therapists in psychiatric wings haven't ben paid in 6 months.

The tax-collecting mechanism has been fully disassembled: it could be that, in a few months, the state will have no money to pay the salaries of its civil servants. For example, the mass media have concealed or only minimally explained that last year's disastrous [forest] fires are neither due to the "general [as in the military rank] wind" nor to "disproportionate threat" [both of them are among then-minister V. Polydoras' most surrealistic moments; it could be funny, if it were not so criminally irresponsible as to deserve a good flogging], but to a paradigm-setting impotency which we saw in rerun during the last 10 days & in full swing.

The second source of the current crisis is, though, that most of the problems rotting right now were created or amplified during [the] PASOK [governments]. Starting from the occurrences of corruption (as far as the Siemens scandal [search for Siemens below] is concerned, [a PASOK] member shamelessly admitted that he was receiving money [from Siemens] on behalf of the party), passing to the miserable state of a paranoid, authoritarian, mock-for-free education (PASOK's [current] leader [G. Papanderous] is familiar with these, as he was minister of Education for a while), & ending with the anachronistic mess between the church & the greek state or [even] the health [system]: was not it Mr. Simitis himself [then PASOK leader & prime minister] that put the reforms in the public health system on hold which could offer citizens a decent hospitalization?

The deregulation of the social security system & the precarious working conditions, the crafting of the "700 Euro generation" all have their roots in the PASOK period. "In the events of the last few days, the range of the outrage & anger surprised us all," as G. Papandreou admitted in his yesterday talk. Normally speaking, he should have admitted that the outrage & anger were also directed against him & his party.

PASOK will receive a timebomb, which can only be inactivated through brave initiatives & radical break-ups with his own past. But, up to now, there has been no critical review of this past with all the positive & negative [elements] it contains. To the contrary, & independently of its leader's intentions, PASOK includes enough people which are dreaming about putting into effect the same old techniques qhich created the problems in the first place. This is the most certain way to hell.

Because, what with the the size of the[se] problems, the grace period of any government will last way too little: it will soon find face to face with a generation of young people which has only received serious education in a very specific direction: that of tear gas & stone hurling. & [also against] a society which neither wants nor can it be governed in the same way it was governed for 34 years [i.e., after democracy being reinstated in the country following the colonels' junta]. Are the people in PASOK justified, then, to be overjoyed? As much as somebody ready to receive a timebomb which may explode while in their hands is [justified to be overjoyed].

The international press on the events playing out in greece (TVXS team, TVXS, Monday afternoon)

The recent events & the continuing mobilization in greece continue to be covered by the international press. [A] common axis [of the international publications] is that the unrest will go on & that the reasons behind the current events lies in chronic problems & weaknesses of the greek society which the current government has not managed to address.

The spanish newspapers cover the greek events extensively.

El Pais hosts statements made by the Rector of the [National & Kapodistrian] University of Athens Christos Kittas, who underlines that the youth is absolutely right to be demonstrating since the political forces ignore them.

La Vanguardia hostes statements made by Stelios Kouloglou [of TVXS], who estimates that the youth will rise globally & that greece was [solely] the first country to experience this. [He cites as a] reason the neoliberal model which marginalizes the youth.

ABC is also attributing responsibility for the recent events, remarking that the government is paying the price for the absence of reforms in education, [the] health [system], justice & the civil servant sector which[, neverhteless,] the government had promised in 2004. Regarding the fact that the first week from the death of the 15-year-old [Alexis] Grigoropoulos has been completed, it emphasizes that the government could have regained control of the situation if it had communicated its devastation officially to the youngster's family & [it it] had asked the police to simply be present without getting involved in violent activities.

La Razon estimates that the crisis will endure & suggests, as a solution, the resignation of the Karamanlis government. It also treats the subject of the repercussions that this situation will gave on the country's economy &, in particular, on the touristic sector.

[Some] characteristic excerpts:

Observer: «In Athens, the demonstrators of the middle-class are buying stones [to hurl, presumably]. Chaos has not ended.»

The paper's observer in Athens, following a 22-year stay in our country, states that the outrage expressed through the violence present in the [events of the] last days has impressed her. Her youngsters are far away from the characterization "extreme elements" that the prime minister has attributed to them & they offer a first-rate example for the entire planet, as it's pointed out in her article. The middle class children, which fight against a corrupt system without prospects, form the lubricant of the [mobilization] machinery.

"Even fanatic ND [Nea Dimokratia - the governing right-wing party]," Helena Smith who is signing the article points out, "called me to tell me they're deserting the [sinking] ship." Nevertheless, what with a prime minister who's refusing to announce elections, the country is doomed to remain strapped to the chariot of a "lame" government.

BBC: "The young generation bares its teeth."

Greece could've been the most successful country in Europe, if the country's social structure did not prevent personal value from being shadowed by personal relations. The paper also discusses the financial situation, on which the article's editor comments "Greece is a country with european prices & african wages." Malcolm Brabant, the editor, cranks it up a notch by attributing responsibility to [K.] Karamanlis for lack of reforms. "The bullet that killed Alexis also touched Karamanlis," he writes in particular.

Sunday Telegraph: "Why did violence & outrage shake the birthplace of democracy?"

Nick Squires, the newspaper's editor, characterizes the prime minister as an attorney [ahem - with a 6-month experience, may I add] without prior ministerial experience & points out that the Nea Dimokratia government, what with the scandals & the wrong moves, has managed to turn the euphoric picture of its early time as government on its head.

The [same] article hosts statements made by [greek well-respected journalist] Alexis Papahelas, according to whom the country is "undergoing a nervous breakdown" & is being led to self-disaster.

The newspaper also hosts statements made by demonstrators but also by store owners who saw their stores being wrecked.

Reports also [appeared] in turkish newspapers:

Ηürriyet publishes an article in which it's reported that groups of young people continuing to occupy the Polytechnic school released a communique in which they used an excerpt from a poem by Nazum Hikmet. In particular, "If I don't burn, if you don't burn, if we don't burn, how will light erupt from darkness?".

According to the newspaper, the unrest in Athens will not prove easy to quell down.

The Sunday edition of Zaman, in an article titled "Being a teenager" reports the recent events in greece on account of the 15-year-old's death & writes that, although the turkish right wing is also happy for greece's problems, while the left wing is envious, turks in general & irrespectively of political beliefs, sympathize with the greek youth which dares to revolt.

An opinion that the greek phenomenon might prove to be the catalyst for a world-wide domino od mobilizations is expressed in another article titled "Deflection." It also connects the recent tension with the global financial crisis.

Thessaloniki plows on (TVXS team,TVXS, Monday evening)

The Committee for the Coordination of the Struggle of School Students in Thessaloniki decided, on December 14, to continue the mobilization this week. These include marches, occuptions, absence from schools, & the occupation of central avenues.

Tomorrow, on Tuesday, the school & university students will demonstrate at 12:00 noon starting from the [E.] Venizelos statue. The schedule for Wednesday includes the occupation of central avenues & a march of PAME [] at 18:30 from the same starting point & which will be joined by parents & workers. Each school will decide on the shape of its demonstration through assemblies of the committees responsible.

The schools of Thessaloniki assume the initiative on Thursday & are putting on a concert at 12:00 at the [E.] Venizelos statue.

The official opinion of the Committee, as it was communicated in a press conference, is that it's against both the violence and [subsequent] murder of the student [Alexis] & the terrorism imposed by the "hooded ones" & is distancing itself from the disastrous unrest.

Marios Athanasiadis, who's in charge [of the Committee], states that the school movement has nothing to do with this unrest, as the marches are always well-guarded, & that the unrest is used as a alibi for the reinforcement of the repression imposed by the state.

In the spirit of mobilization, Aristotle University & a certain school at the Technical University of Thessaloniki have been occupied.

Riot Info #4

Today I'm doing some work to take my mind off things & rereading excerpts from Matthew Collin's "This Is Serbia Calling" - the similarities between Belgrade's Winter of Discontent ('96-'97) & the current situation in Athens are surprisingly striking - not because they go deep (they don't), but because they even exist. (No one can or should even try to forget the serbian tanks, the fact that S. Milošević was a dictator having stolen the public's vote repeatedly, the fact that the country was at civil war at the time, & a number of other things - no reason to be naive here.)

Everybody's body clock seems to be running on double time here, too; people get flamed up just by talking about how to raise awareness in the public - the public, not just those politically involved! - about what's happening in greece at the moment.

Some translations will follow in the course of the day.

They didn't [just] kill him... They murdered him in cold blood (Yanna Papadakou, Kyriakatiki Eleftherotypia, Sunday in the small hours)

[A translation already appeared here - I just touched it up a little.]

The 15-year old Nikos R., Alexandros Grigoropoulos' friend that was with him [, Alexis, on the night of the murder] in Exarchia square, shoots down one-by-one the special guard's, Epameinondas Korkoneas, arguments to the effect that the tragic event was, presumably, an accident. "They didn't kill Alexandros. They murdered him in cold blood..." ha says at the end of his statement.

Nikos describes how they had gotten to Tzavella street & that they were not part of any other group, nor did they hurl the plastic bottle [to the patrol car/the special guards]. &, what's even more important, that the policemen aimed at the two kids using both hands which were having a bite in the pedestrian street. They were shot simply because they happened to be there.

The entire testimony of the 15-year-old, who miraculously survived, is the following:

I attend the first grade of high school at the Public High School of Psychiko. I knew Alexandros, or Gregory, as his nickname was, [deriving] from his last name, since the fourth grade of primary school. We used to attend the same school. We were not close friends until the first grade of junior high school. Since then, however, & until yesterday that they killed him, we were tight.

- Were you with Alexandros yesterday, on December 12, 2008 ?

Yesterday, at around 17:50, I went visited a friend [living] next to Larisis [train] station. Before going there, however, I had spoken to Alexandros. He had told me that he was going to attend a [water-]polo match... I told him to call me up when the game was over, so that we could meet at Mesologgiou street, in Exarcheia. He was going to attend the match with his friend Nikos F. and P. H. We used to meet there at regular intervals. We were intending to go to Faros Psychikou later on, to find our friends from our old schools, and entertain ourselves because as I was celebrating my name day yesterday.

- In the long run, Alexandros did call you when the game ended. Where was he going to go?

Yes, he called me and told me to get going and he'd set out as well from the athletic field [down to the city]... As far as I can see on my cell phone, the call from Alexandros came at 19:10.

- When did you meet Alexandros at Mesologgiou street in Exarcheia?

I can't exactly recall. About 45 minutes before the incident. I walked from my friend's house. I went up Ipeirou (if I am not mistaken), then took a right at the Museum, a left at Stournari until the square to the right, and Mesologgiou is 10 meters further down. I waited for him 3-4 minutes.

- What did you do when he came?

When he came, we went to a convenience store 10 meters further up and bought something to eat and two soft drinks... We went back to the sidewalk on Mesologgiou streeet to eat and discuss.

- Where exactly did you sit?

We sat there, by the entrance of an apartment building at the intersection of Mesologgiou street and Tzavella street, at the left side where one sees Zoodochou Pigis street. There exist, there, three railings on the walkway where you can sit. We sat there. (At this point, they show the witness a printed map of the area.) We ate what we had bought and suddenly, as we were talking, we heard a somewhat loud bang. Near enough to hear it, but far away enough to not understand what had happened. We didn't pay any attention...

- Did you see light accompany the bang that you're describing to me?

No, we didn't have eye contact with where the bang came from, as there was a wall in between... In order to see what happens on Navarinou Street, you have to get to the middle of the Tzavella Street's walkway.

After a minute and a half we heard, from 4 or 5 passers-by, that "the cops are coming, something happened...". So, out of curiosity, Alexandros and I went to the middle of Tzavella Street to see what had happened. A distance of 2-3 meters away... When we got to the middle of the walkway, we saw two police officers at a distance of 15-20 meters.

They were exactly at the intersection of Zoodochou Pigis and Tzavella street. One was taller than the other. Subsequently, they stopped at the intersection of the two streets... In front of us there was nobody else. Alexandros was in front of me and I was behind them and to the right. When the policemen stopped at Zoodochou Pigis and Tzavella street, they had their hands, left or right I don't remember, on their weapons which were in their holsters hanging from their belts. Someone from behind me tossed an empty plastic bottle which, naturally, did not reach the policemen. I forgot to tell you that, as soon as I saw the policemen, they started cursing at me and Alexandros, saying "We will f... your Virgin Mary [classic heavy-weight greek obscenity], come here and I'll show you who's tough around here" and things like that. The guys behind us were yelling "get back" and "go to hell..." at the policemen...

As soon as someone threw that plastic bottle, the policemen, both of them if I am not mistaken, removed their weapons from their holsters, aimed in front of them, that is towards where I, Alexandros, and the other person were, and three subsequent shots rung out. I forgot to tell you that I am sure that one of the two police officers was holding his weapon with both hands. I saw then - and I am absolutely certain - that the policemen were not shooting neither towards the sky nor towards the ground. They aimed at our side and fired!

Alexandros fell on the ground, if I am not mistaken following the first or the second shot, [&] at any rate certainly before the third one... Following that, I didn't quite know what was going on. People were yelling and some people lifted up Alexandros's t-shirt. I saw he had a hole in the middle of the chest and a little towards the heart. There was also blood running from the wound...

Let me also tell you that the policemen who fired, as soon as they saw Alexandros falling, took off. I don't remember towards which direction... Subsequently, EKAB [the ambulance] came and took Alexandros, dead. I say this because he had no pulse and there was blood coming out of his mouth...

- What where the light conditions at the place where the incident you described [occurred]?

Even though night had fallen, there was light from the street lamps on the poles which shed [light] and also from the shops... There was a single non-operational light bulb, to Alexandros' s left...

- Do you want to tell us something else among all that you know?

The only thing I want to tell you is that they didn't kill Alexandros. They murdered him in cold blood...

Liberated Town Hall of Agios Dimitrios (occupation committee, Saturday)

[Background: here]

From the very first day that the Town Hall passed to the hands of the citizens, members of the "Democratic" municipality board aligned themselves across the street for where the Town Hall is. They aligned - as always - as enemies of the local community, when that latter community is geared into action bypassing bureaucracy. The mayor, after having tried to end the occupation by force, suggested "assuming a respectful attitude towards democratic processes" that we stop by his office to explain to him what it is exactly that we request & that he, in the end, decides whether the occupation will go on or not. Since then, the mayor, board members, & various lackeys camped opposite to the occupied building transferring [the stage where] the valuable profession of sitting [on your ass is played out] in the cafe. Using either their big mouths or force & even ridiculous slanders regarding material damages that, supposedly, the building has suffered or will suffer, they're trying to provoke against the occupation. Meanwhile, the region is chokefull with secret agents on motorbikes which patrol the region or trying to mix themselves - unsuccessfully - with the crowd.

Obviously, they're not scaring us - we can only laugh at the way they drag their decomposition around.

As a reply to the cries about the fact that, unless various services function, the immigrants will be deported, those employed with a temporary contract will be left unpaid &, in general, that the universe will fall apart unless the occupation ends, we offer the following:

- Those employed on a temporary basis under "stage" clocked in as usually, during the first day, & even this didn't have to happen the next day since there's no employee of the Town Hall in it anymore.

- Inside the Town Hall, all the necessary bureaucracy so that those employed part-time get paid was taken care of.

The person "responsible" for the applications of the immigrants, after having accused that is those people will be deported because of us, & after having committed to showing up in order to do her job... never did.

Regarding the course of the children's theater group - the person employed by the municipality didn't even deign to inform the parents that she'll not show up - we suggested that a theater game takes place with the guidance of a theater education export who's participating in the occupation.

The members of the union of those employed by the municipality, which fully understand the reasons behind the occupation of the Town Hall, are the only ones which, through a sincere interest for our municipality, are here to facilitate & to guarantee any communication & understanding we can have with those "across," are being slandered at this moment through the municipal authority's unacceptable phrasing.

The reply to the culture of terror, which they have been trying to cultivate to the residents of the region for days on end, was the [amount of] popular participation in the open assemblies, as the Town Hall is open for the first time to all citizens. This is the first time that so many citizens participate in an essential & self-organized way through direct-democracy practices. Practices which are alive & such that, no matter how many little assemblies or pseudo-festivities they put together, they will not overcome the dynamic environment that developed in the last few days in out municipality.

& to finally put a full stop here: our target are not your storefronts but the storefront & the content of the system itself, of the repression, the exploitation, the subjugation & of fear.

Far-right shadows (Patranews, Wednesday evening)

Charged exchanges regarding whether Golden Dawn members participated in the Patra citizens' block during the unrest on Tuesday (night). Sharp missives from left forces.

Where there Golden Dawn members in Tuesday's demo or not? Plain citizens insist that they were not led to react by far-right elements, at the same time that everything points to that there has been a, minimal at least, push for a counter-attack, at a time where terror & outrage were alternating with a telltale frequency.

The mayor of Patras, Andreas Fouras, [& while] speaking yesterday in Radio Gamma stated that, when the citizens take the law in their hands, then society crumbles down, pointing out the following: "We, the community, should be turning the city into a warfield, when[/every time] the state cannot function in the appropriate way. It's obvious that Patras had problems in the last few days, & yet the police cannot solve them. If you look at the pictures of the moment at which citizens initiated their engagement against demonstrators, you'll realize that this concerns an organized core, & it's peculiar, to say the least, that it acted both in front of behind police forces. This does not classify the citizens & store owners of Patras into far-right legions, nevertheless, when any citizen takes law in their own hands, what follows is perilous developments. & this, given that history teaches us that, in similar occasions murders unfold ([Patranews] editor's note: Lamprakis, Temponeras). I ask you, though, what are we going t do tomorrow? Will citizens take law in their hands regarding the immigrant refugee camp or open air markets?" Additionally, Mr. Fouras underlined that the State owes to obtain a just state & a feeling of security which will be putting citizens' rights & quality of life on the frontline. "The message I'm trying to pass is that Democracy suffers when citizens put themselves up front (I do not mean the merchants who were defending their property), because then society crumbles down," Mr. Fouras said. In fact, yesterday morning, the existence of Golden Dawn flyers in the city center with anti-anarchist & anti-immigrant content fueled even further the flames. "The whole city was full of those flyers. The merchants defended their properties in a worthwhile manner, but I saw none of them hurling stones & such slogans as 'Anarchists, you sons of ...[whores].' That's what the organized ones did. Democracy & civilization can only support state authorities defending the citizens' security & property. In the history of this place, every time someone took law in their hands, there have been murders such as hose of Lamprakis & Temponeras," Mr. Fouras stated.

In hiw own statements, the head of the Achaia Prefecture underlined that "when the state, the government & the police are absent, what happened is inescapable. There has been an organized reaction by certain people who grabbed the opportunity, & these are none other than the 'Kalampokas's' & Golden Dan members. But they were not the only ones to react. They just took advantage the unrest to achieve their own goals."

TEDK's president [Regional Union of Municipalities & Communities] Grigoris Alexopoulos underlined the following: "Whoever saw the unrest, saw with their own eyes Golden Dawn members behind the Riot Squad &, subsequently, a large crowd of citizens who were mostly protecting their stores. God forbid someone stating that the citizens & the store owners went all the way to Agias Sofias & to KTEL [the bus station HQ] chasing the hooded ones. Those [who did] were Golden Dawn members." The head of the Prefecture was called up by the PASOK leader G. Papandreou, who asked for a debriefing over the situation in the city after the extensive unrest, underlining that he will inform the Prime Minister regarding the police force's stance.

SYRIZA's Achaia branch points out that "Patras was singled out for the employment of a specific [strategic] plan aiming at stigmatizing the youth movement & at stimulating conservative instincts which the government hopes for - in vain - in order to reverse the climate of total resistance which has come into play. In this attempt, the government cultivated, exploited & put into good use the justified agony of a sector of merchants & citizens, reviving the scarecrows of the anti-demonstrations & of the "infuriated citizens" & disregarding the many & various consequences & perils."

NAR [New Left Current] points out that "Since yesterday evening, the Kalampokas team, the infamous Centaur team that murdered Temponeras, made its appearance felt again with chains, knifes, & crowbars & they pretented to be protectors of the order & security! The serpent's egg is raising its head again!" while the Social Strugglers point out that: "Yesterday, lives were at stake for the coordinated action of the paramilitary, who didn't dare make their presence felt in Patras for years on end because they've painted their hands red with blood. That's why we had Golden Dawn members or other gangs in Patras. Throughout the night, a pogrom took place in the city. They kept ringing bells, sloganeering (communists, we'll turn you into soap etc.), hitting people & turning them into the police," while at the same time they atrobuted part of the blame to the mass media.

Demonstration in support of the " 600 [euro] generation" in front of the greek embassy (Le Monde, Saturday morning)

Approximately 300 persons have demonstrated on Friday, December 12, in the parisian night [&] close to the greek embassy in solidarity with the "600 euro generation" - a reference to the monthly salary of young greek employees. Responding to the call of organizations related to education & to the left (the students' union UNEF [National Union Of University Students of France - the call's here], school students' syndicates FIDL [Independent & Democratic Federation of High-Schools] & UNL [Natiional Union of High-Schools], MJS [Young Socialists' Movement], JCR [Revolutionary Marxists]...), they gathered in Auguste Vacquerie street (XVIe), a few hundred yards away from the Arc de Triomphe & close to the embassy, which security forces where barring them from accessing.

The demonstrators attempted to advance towards Place de l'Etoile, but they were repelled by the CRS [the french Riot Squad]. They sybsequently descended the Marceau avenue where they set up a barricade it was quickly dismantled by the police. From there, they ascaped to Champs-Elysées, which they blocked by means of construction site-type barricades & b forming a human chain. The traffic got completely back to normal around 19:30, the demonstrators dispersed, mostly getting into the metro.

According to the police, six were [apprehended &] detained, three [of them] for damages & [another] three for hurling items at the security forces. The spokesperson for the LCR [see JCR above], Olivier Besancenot, & the member of parliament Jean-Luc Mélenchon, founder of the party Parti de Gauche (PG [Left Party]), participated in the gathering. "The confluence between youths but also workers which exists dow there [in greece], maybe that's what we're missing at this time of CPE [the infamous 'first-job contract' law in france], we're in need of a new May '68," Olivier Besancenot stated. "We need a social & european mobilization & that's what we're getting at", he added. The militants of NPA [New Anticapitalist Party] which will officially see the light of day in January, held a sign on which one could read: "Down with Greek State terrorism & long live the greek people & [their] fight."

Riot Info #3

Some more translation & hopefully (?), in the course of a day, a summary of events.

Dear parents (Kalia, athens.indymedia, Saturday in the small hours)

I know that I owe you a lot. You gave birth to me, you gave me water, you fed me, you brought me up. You even loved me. That's what you say at least. Because things are slightly different.

You got me here, in a world where you were forced to abandon me every day & run to jobs. You got me here & then started looking for a place to park me in. You kept taking me to school &, because this was not enough, you kept sending me to a bunch of private tutors & lessons, plus you planted in me stress about my precarious future. Since my future was supposed to be so precarious, since you even made this planet dangerous, why did you get me here? What's my life? For those two hours of TV & video games every day?

I want to see the world, to spread my wings & fly & see everything in a single moment. I want to get out, to meet those others, to play, to entertain myself, to feel joy & not to care about the fact that tomorrow I'll be going to school without having studied. I want to dream a world where people won't be looking for a place to park me, where they won't be always having work to do, where it won't be dangerous to meet other people, where future won't be scaring me, where there'll be no masters & no slaves.

I watch your misery but I'm not used to it & I don't want to get used to it either. I won't bow my head just because you did. I don't want to become anyone's slave or master, I want to be left alone.

Those uniformed hound dogs don't scare me, I'm not afraid of them. You see in them a certain order & security. I'm the one to be taken for a ride, because I see perfectly well that this order is hypocrisy, & as for security, it's themselves that form the gravest danger.

They're the symbols of authority. Yours, that of the teachers, of the politicians, of the grown-ups that live this way. You learned how to live like this, I haven't. If they want to mess with me, so much the worse for them. They're hopeless & let this be imprinted in their minds. I'm outraged & dangerous. & there are many of us, girls & boys, we're everywhere, even within the murderers' homes. They cannot hide from us, no matter where they stand. In one way or another, we'll remain standing, they won't.

Don't be mad at me, I'm doing what you taught me to do. You told me that revolt is chaos & destruction. Now that I'm revolting, you'll receive chaos & destruction.

I love you. In my own way, but I do.

But I have to make my own world so that I live my own free life, & to do this I have to take down your own world. This is what's most important to me. To phrase it in your own language: this is my job.

Is the greek virus spreading in Europe? (Stelios Kouloglou, TVXS, Friday at dawn)

In the beginning, they thought I was taken for a ride: in the last few days, various journalistic I'm friends with started calling me up. They're asking about the course of events & the reasons behind the unrest. So far, so good, but the final question is always [of a] different [sort]: "do you estimate that we'll have similar events in france or portugal as well?"

I'm not the most appropriate person to answer [this question], but my colleagues started passing on to me various interesting facts. The french EFEE [National Student Union of Greece] ([which] is not a ghost like our own one is) expressed its "solidarity" to the greek youth & placed itself "against police repression."

In fact, Le Monde wrote that predisenf [Nicolas] Sarkozy keep "one eye on the unrest in greece... The head of state & the person in charge of the government are afraid - without confessing it in public - mimetic [reactions]." According to a parliament member of the leading party, in fact, which dined together N. Sarkozy recently, the frence president told him, referring to greece, "that caution is needed so that they don't reach france."

What's interesting is that the identification of the peril transgresses party boundaries. The socialist former prime minister Laurent Fabius stated in EUROPE1 radio: "With such a financial crisis going on, such a widespread popular despair, a spark is enough to bring everything down, especially when one has a government which does not exhibit [any] understanding of the youth." The title of the relevant article in the station's website is "The greek outrage starts taking over Europe."

The discussion reached Berlin, where the Professor of Social Pedagogy [Arbeitsbereich Sozialpädagogik] of the University of Berlin [Freie Universität Berlin] Richard Münchmeier said that there's indeed a spark which has been transmitted to the rest of Europe, nevertheless those demonstrating are not numerous at this moment. Mr. Münchmeier added that all youths in Europe today basically have the same problems, because the prospects for the young do not seem good.

At the other side of the Atlantic, a similar article appeared in the Wall Street Journal, with correspondent accounts from Athens, Paris, Berlin & Madrid. The conclusion is that the unrest which has shaken greece reflects the increasing discontent not only of the greek youth, but also of the youth of other european countries, regarding the antiquated educational systems, the unemployment, the impossibility of finding jobs with social security benefits &, in general, the pessimism for the future.

As if all this were not enough, on Wednesday evening solidarity actions to the greek youth took place in Madrid & Barcelona, which were accompanied by attacks to a police station & a bank.

Two things are underway. Either the greek anarchists of SYRIZA [Coalition of the Radical Left; in the wave of populism drowning greek politics for years on end, this particular party has been accused by certain political leaders of sheltering the "hooded ones"] have branched off to Spain. Or, something goes wrong with the social model that's being employed in Europe during the last years.

Terrorism law in action (TVXS team, TVXS, Friday noon)

The 11 underage arrestees of Larisa, all of which are between 14 & 16 ears old & were arrested in the wake of the unrest in the city center of Larisa on Monday evening, will be tried according to the terrorism law.

The arrestees were temporarily released under [the usual] provisions [they're probably not allowed to leave the country & are obliged to report to some PD or other every once in a while the article doesn't mention the provisions though], following a confluence of opinion between the district attorney & the magistrate, while they will be tried by the Three-Member Misdemeanors Court of Athens for Underage Persons, at a time that will be set in the following days.

Each one of them faces charges for recurrent revolt, for removing &/or destroying documents &/or other objects entrusted to the greek state, damaging, arson, objurgations [against the police, apparently], criminal gang, larceny & violating the law concerning weapons.

A solidarity committee for the underage arrestees, which was put together yesterday because of this exact event, commented that "such charges have not even been put together for November 17 [the terror cell]."

Getting even with the murderers (Antonia Xynou, Eleytherotypia, Friday)

This is the condition in which the youngster was taken to the magistrate. Claypot, claypot, we know!

The... robust proof used by a policeman, who arrested a youngster last Monday during unrest, were a "dark [motorbike] helmet" & a "jacket with a brown fur hood." The youngster's attorney denounces [such tactics] through [his statement] "using arrests of this sort, they are attempting to get even on the issue of the two special guards" - the youngster faces 3 crimes & 3 misdemeanors, while yesterday it was decided by the magistrate that he, together with another 4 arrestees, should be temporarily detained.

The policeman's affidavit speaks for itself - he mentions that, amidts "molotov bombs, stones, bottles, planks & various other objects being hurled," he managed to imprint that "in between those attacking were two persons, one of which was wearing a dark [motorbike] helmet & a jacket with a brown fur hood. The other one, short, dark skinned, had a goatee on the chin & was wearing a checkered light coat." In fact, as he stated, [&] two hours after the first visual contact, the platoon arrested at some other point "a group of about 30, among whom [were also] the two persons I described."

Yesterday, at any rate, the magistrate decided that all 5 arrestees be temporarily detained, whom have been charged for crimes relating to "explosion," "violation of the law concerning explosive devices" & "conscious attempt to inflict grievous bodily harm" & for the misdemeanors "disruption of public peace," "damaging foreign property" & "larceny."

One of the attoreys of the 6 youngsters, Fr. Ragousis, commented upon their detention: "We were hoping that Justice would not become the long-reaching claw of the forces of repression. There were police lineups without the procedural right." Similarly, the other attorney, G. Gountounas, reported that "Today, Justice essentially acted as a public relations officer of a government ready to collapse. The file put together includes no photographs, it's a void file, but still 20-year-old kids charged with protesting were detained. & this [happened], because it was [deemed] necessary to get even for the murderers."

4 more youngsters, arrested the day before yesterday close to the Polytechnic & charged with arson, were taken to the magistrate where they were given a deadline [to prepare their affidavits]. Among them, only one confessed that he was, indeed, hurling stones at the policemen, while the way that a youngster looked was indicative of the way in which arrestees are treated - the youngster appeared to had been beaten up mercilessly.

At any rate, the magistrates' offices were crowded yesterday, since - apart from those labeled as "rioters" & "hooded ones" - about 30 immigrants among those arrested during the unrest, most of them Iraqis, were in those offices for the crimes of "gang formation" & "larcenies."

Greece of greek policemen, rufians, murderers, & torturers (Red Anti-Reporters, athens.indymedia, Friday night)

Cops pigs murderers.

The heroic Riot Squad & OPKE [Groups of PRevention & Repression of Crimes] forces arrest & beat up 12- & 15-year-olds mercilessly during the attack they attempted in Korai street before the march had even started.

They attacked from all sides & arrested as many school students as they could plus anyone shouting "don't beat the kids up!"... 4 uniformed [pigs] captured a female school student, they put handcuffs on, & dragged her, kicked her, clubbed her, & hit her with their shields while tugging at her arms handcuffed behind her back.

They trambled another student underfoot. A Riot Squad [pig] was sitting on his back & a second one with his knee on his face... while a third one was sneaking punches in, as he was putting the handcuffs on.

They snatched a lady's daughter & were dragging her on the street, they were beating up anyone reacting, they attacked - as if plagued by rabies - journalists, photoreporters & cameramen, syndicalists of OLME [Greek Federation of State School Teachers of Secondary Education], university & school students but [also] mothers & fathers & other citizens that were wedging themselves in between the Riot Squad & the kids to protect the latter. They were threatening us that they'll kill us together with the 15-year-olds by shaping their hand as a handgun...

Photos & video from the brutality of the Riot Squad on the school students, from the ΕΚΑΜ [Special Repressive Antiterrorist Team] appearance in the Parliament, & from the clashes in the Law School of Athens follow [follow the link].

It goes on... day & night

A society in denial (personal rant)

To kick off with a necessary disclaimer, I haven't turned into a political analyst overnight. To the contrary, my knowledge of political theory is very limited & either too bookish or too cartoonish, plus I always seem to not comprehend &/or leave out some important details. If you choose to read what follows, then, do not take anything for granted - do your own research & form your own opinions, don't take it from me. (More importantly: instead of reading the entire ranting below, read the translations I point out in it, those articles are really insightful.)

Those in need of overviews & summary reports on what has been going down can find a couple here, here, here, & elsewhere (follow links around). Most of these are compiled by people not in greece at the moment, which means that they're not eyewitness accounts of events but rather compilations of such accounts, political analyses, & what have you. There are certain things that have become clear - & not to me only - in the last couple of days; in my view, they can be summarized along the lines of "a representative segment of the youth is revolting; the state & the mass media remain in denial."

For one thing, the state-sponsored myth that the unrest is due to the "usual familiar unknowns" & to the "special circumstances" prevailing in the Exarchia quarter has collapsed with a loud bang: K. Raptis did an outstanding job there, in an article penned in Sunday (!) already (seek a translation below; the original is here). (As an occasional reader of greek newspapers, I can certify that this level of clarity of thinking - & of honesty - is not a commonplace occurrence in greek journalistic circles.) The same is true of S. Kouloglou's analysis early Tuesday morning (seek a translation below; original here) - both correctly, I believe, identified this as the tip of an iceberg: concealed beneath the surface, real, very-very real anger was fueling the first reactions. Further, it was clear from the beginning that the revolt did not even only specifically concern anarchists or leftists or what you want to call them; this is another (also state- & mass media-sponsored) myth which simply holds no water. In fact, it did not even concern these groups to a larger extent than other groups of citizens, despite the sentimentally charged central place Exarchia assumed in the story: the police station attacks carried out exclusively by school students (particularly the Sunday attack in Thessaloniki), the 5,000 people demonstrating in Patra yesterday against the outrage of the local police working side by side with neonazis (neonazis! honestly, can you wrap your head around this?), the reports concerning elderly citizens hurling lemons at the Riot Squad or of an old man in crutches standing face to face with the Riot Squad or of somebody in suit-&-tie trying to reclaim a 15-year-old from the police force's grip, all these testify that the common people feel an ignominy at the way their own state treats them that has little to do with political affiliations (or the absence thereof). The fact that anarchists & leftists got involved into this may well be because these people understand solidarity (& often have a heart) as well as they understand police brutality & repression. Were even more members of PASOK (the center party in greece) not remorseless strategists or scared-shitless-middle-class-members (depending on their position in the party), they could have participated equally well in the demonstrations, as this murder affects them as much as anybody else.

The government, instead, has been trying - up to this very moment - to blame all of this on one or another conspiracy theory: from minister of the interior P. Pavlopoulos' statement "image is one thing & reality is another" (had he replaced 'reality' by 'content,' he could at least have applied for the Most Misguided Situationist Quotation Award) to K. Karamanlis' statements about (unnamed) political forces which stir up trouble (correct; such as his own party's murderers, members of the Kalampokas team - seek below for the background -, which were reportedly spotted in Patras back in action). & my personal favorite: P. Pavlopoulos claiming - on Monday evening! - that the government has made the city safe; a reporter asking, not bothering or not managing to hide the disdain in his voice, how is it possible that he claims such a thing at a moment when the President of the Republic has to spend the night in the presidential building because it's not safe for him to be transported back home; P. Pavlopoulos' answer: I claim that the city is safe because it is safe. This is not only about the obvious tautology; even his first sentence is flawed, as if the issue were the fucking government! The center is getting looted & this jerk can only think of his government! Bush Jr. got shit about the now infamous photo of him looking down on New Orleans from his jet plane in the wake of the Katrina disaster; can you imagine even him coming out & defending his government without a word about what that government has actually done or is going to do to relieve those affected?

What's basically so interesting about this whole situation, were you to sit back & think about it idly (& from a certain, comfortable in its shoes, middle-class perspective), is exactly the aforementioned ignominy: a 15-year-old gets shot, people take to the streets - immediate result: people get beaten up brutally. (Recall the SKAI radio correspondent who went berzerk on Sunday, as he watched multiple men of the Riot Squad beating up, instead of arresting, a 15-year-old in the center of Athens; recall his words: "They've learned nothing! Nothing!") People flood the streets again; not only do they get beaten up again, the police decides to collaborate with the shadow state (yes, the neonazis!) & the mass media decide to call the latter "infuriated citizens" - as if this were the '50s & the '60s all over! Additionally: cops take out their guns & point them at demonstrators, while yet other cops shoot in the air - one dead boy is clearly not enough (yes, they HAVE learned nothing!). The district attorney who, apparently, plans to absolve those responsible for the "claypot incident" (search for it below), suggests that the special guards be allowed to walk free. On Monday evening, the government sends a clear message to the looters that no crackdown is scheduled for before Tuesday noon - immediate result: that same evening, the city center is looted to an extent that makes people think of Los Angeles in '92. Also, there's a whole shitload of pictures out there of "hooded ones" embedded in the police force (yes, I do believe that these are the same hoods that smashed things up in the city center; do you have a better explanation? Does the police have a better explanation? If it is, what is it?) & still more mind-boggling stuff, such as: the minister of the interior is all smiles off camera (or at least when he thinks he's off camera). & even more: on the night of the murder, the minister of educational affairs S. Stylianidis (who, in my view, is perfectly unfit for any post related to educational affairs) enjoys an evening out (heavy duty, too: in a club with live music); the next day, he attends a football match.

& this still remains the tip of the iceberg. Recall that, in the last year & a half only, the people living in the country have gone through:

(a) forest fires, who left .... acres of charred forests & about 100 people dead;

(b) the revelation that minister of culture (ha!) G. Voulgarakis became a millionaire overnight (actually, in the last 4 years);

(c) the same minister's reply to a newscaster's question (loosely amounting to "granted that what you did was legal; was it also ethical?") that ethical is identical to legal; in a country where I don't recall any minister having even being charged by a court of law with corruption/profiteering, this amounts to ethical is identical to achievable: if you can pull it off, you're doing fine;

(d) an immense scandal involving officials (reportedly high in the hierarchy) handing over vast amounts of state property to the church (the same church that refuses to even sum up its possessions - much less reveal them - & is exempt from taxes, although the church functionaries are paid by the greek state);

(e) the Siemens scandal, where it was revealed that pretty much everybody with influence, in both ND & PASOK (the two major political parties in greece), was on the take; & as there's no free lunch, Siemens was getting a preferential treatment in state affairs - much like selling tax money short & pocketing the net amount.

Finally, as S. Kouloglou & K. Raptis among others pointed out (as even L. Fabius pointed out; see above), all of these affairs (which have monopolized the front pages for weeks on end & thus were highly visible) occurred in a country where people in their '20s are employed (if at all) at a starting salary of as low as 660 euro (Athens is far more expensive than Berlin, for example, & comparable to, maybe, Amsterdam - apart from housing at least). Without social benefits & maybe without vacation - certainly without prospects; often forced to meet their employer halfway & get part of his/her contributions for social security/retirement plan as cash instead. Immediate result? What else: people lodging with their parents until into their 30's; people scared shitless to graduate, as their prospects are nil; people who are dying to get into the civil servant sector, i.e., get on the government's tab (in a country where that particular sector is already overgrown); people who get on that sector as temporary employees & spend years (literally) waiting for their salaries.

How, then, could one be surprised that these people revolted? Every single response of the government to the events in the last few days has added insult to injury, much like the humiliation many greeks must feel reading their Sunday paper of choice or turning on their TV & reading/seeing the same people that condemn them to precarity amass immense fortunes by selling short the citizens they have been elected to represent. (I know that this is what made me add 'occasional' to my self-description 'reader of greek newspapers' - that feeling I get of some corrupt, remorseless, insatiable bastard pointing at me through the pages & laughing in my face every time I read about multimillion deals & compare it to emails I receive from friends living in greece.)

Meanwhile, leaders in the rest of Europe apparently turn their heads south to size up the situation. The prime minister K. Karamanlis, who's in Brussels today, has reportedly conferred with his equals regarding the possibility of the riots spreading to the rest of Europe. S. Kouloglou wrote, once again, an excellent article regarding this issue (seek a translation above). Those who gathered to protest in The Hague (&, as I learned yesterday, also in Paris & maybe even elsewhere) had time to observe the reaction of the mass media & decipher what they observed: at least one TV crew in The Hague, at least one interview with a journalist in Paris (regarding the fact that the ambassador did not even deign to meet with the protesters) - net result: zero television time in the first case (& only sporadic, dried-out mentions of the incident in the local newspapers attributing the march solely to greeks; we don't want to plant fancy ideas in the queen's subjects, do we?), no mention of the ambassador incident in the second one. Even worse, the dutch conservative newspaper NRC Handelsblad did publish some articles which were simply revolting - representative sample (last paragraph): " The hooligans [it's a time honored tradition of dutch newspapers to stripping everyone protesting of any ideology by calling them a hooligan] have caused, i the past few days, damages of approximately one billion euro. 3,000 people face losing their jobs, because the stores [where they work] must stop or move. Some fear losing a quarter of their turnover during this month of big celebrations. Meanwile, the same protesters scream about the economy shrinking." A very dutch logic, indeed: work, get paid, live happily, let those who know better take big decisions [the benelux governments bailed out Fortis recently, which cost 11 billion euro; hardly anybody bat an eye]. They left out the distressing fact that people in greece don't quite get paid enough to live happily - greece is not the netherlands: get a clue.

Thankfully, some foreign mass media start getting a clue. Previous attempts clearly didn't hit the spot: I'm still laughing with BBC's article; not that it's that bad, but did anyone really believe that the explanation "rebellion is deeply embedded in the Greek psyche" would settle the question once & for all? Sounds good, but fit for a novel, not for a political analysis. Others were performing even more sloppily, reproducing state propaganda (all dutch papers on Monday which made a mention to the riots, for example), focusing on the number of cops wounded (CNN), & of course absolutely everybody interprets absolutely everything in economical terms (this is the modern agenda, after all - economy provides the setting, period). Well, this latter tendency won't leave any reports any time soon, but at least journalists seem to be doing their homework a little bit better, focusing on what lies under the stone-hurling & the massive demos - even in NRC somebody got off their ass & decided to look into the G700 phenomenon (known to the rest of the world as precarity). At the same time, it could be that the mobilization assumes a more (?) strategically sound form, with an announcement from the Polytechnic putting forth political demands (seek a translation below) & TV & radio station occupations; it's hard to tell, & half of the the leftists seems to be rejoicing with the fact that the revolt has had no leaders, while the other half with the fact that a strategy develops (don't forget that the greek movement is rather fragmented).

That's it, let's get back to some translations...

P.S.: We've even reached the point where a picture such as this one, published in the NY Times, doesn't even raise an eyebrow - what's wrong with it? The cop holds his truncheon wrong side up, a fact that created a steer in the past (& is explicitly prohibited, of course, as the handle of the truncheon has absolutely no protective coating...)!

Riot Info #2

There's no way I can keep up the pace from yesterday, but I'll do my best to provide some coverage on certain issues. This post will be updated as the day goes by & I make time to translate things.

Some background info (tribe4mian's blog, Wednesday morning)

[originally in english, this is simply copy-pasted]

If you are not Greek native, then you don’t get the clear picture of why the riots in Greece started. This is because you propably don’t know some details about the modern Greek history.

The whole thing started when the 37 years old police officer Epaminondas Korkoneas, shot and killed the 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the area of Exarchia, downtown Athens on Saturday, December 6 2008. Initialy it was stated that the police officer had 3 warning shots and that the kid was killed by accident. Witnesses stated that he aimed and fired.

• This takes us back to the 17th of November of 1985 when an other 15 years old kid, Michalis Kaltezas was shot in the back of his head by the police officer Thanasis Melistas.
  Melistas was sentenced for two and a half years and he got out in 8 1/2 months.
• On the 16th of November 1980, the 20 years old Stamatina Kanelopoulou and the 26 years old Iakovos Koumis were beaten to death by police.
  None was charged,the killers were never found.
• During August 1985, 22 years old American citizen Kathrin John Bull was shot dead after her denial to the cops to search her car.
• On March 1990 an other 15 years old student gets shot in the city of Preveza. He was killed cause he was trying to break in a video club.
• On April 1993 police officer Elias Stamatopoulos shot dead the 25 years old Giannis Tzitzis in a bar.
• The musician Theodor Giakas was shot dead on January 1994.
• On January 1996 police killed an emigrant.
• June 1996 police killed the 20 years old emigrant Fantil Nambuzi who tryied to steal two water mellons.
• 45 years old Tasos Mouratis was shot dead by a police officer in front of his kids during November 1996.
• 26 years old Elias Mexis didn’t stop for a police control on August 1998. He was shot dead.
• Police killed the 17 years old Yugoslavian Marco Bulatovic in Thessaloniki on October 1998.
• On March 2000, 18 years old Giorgos Atmatzidis didn’t stop for a police control, he was shot dead.
• Police shot in the head the 21 years old Marinos Christopoulos.He didn’t stop for a control. It was October 2001.
• 22 years old Iraklis Maragakis didn’t stop for a police control on December 2003, he was shot in the head.
• The cops beat up and injured the Cypriot student Augoustinos Dimitriou in Thessaloniki during the polytechnic demonstration in 2006.
• During August 2007, Greek police have clashed with African immigrants protesting over the death of a Nigerian man in the city of Thessaloniki.

Now, what we have here is police brutality. The killers remain unpunished. Alexandros Grigoropoulos’s mother received a phone call by some unknown person that told her to go to the hospital because her son was hurt and she better take a friend with her. Police never contacted her nor did they go to her door to bring her to the hospital.

As young kids see their parents struggling to make ends meet and they see no justice administrated for criminal activity brought on by people who are comitted to “serving and protecting” the riots started. All these follows on the heels of ultimate corruption within the church and political inactivity in the massive destruction of fires in 2007.

In Greece money begets power. The average working citizen, regardless of outcries and demands for justice, reaches a boiling point with the ensuing result.

Today, December 10 2008, it is general strike in Greece.

Wednesday summary report (indybay, Wednesday)

[follow the link to the report]

Far-right supporter, holding a knife (Yorgos Karahalis, Reuters, Wednesday)

[follow the link to the photo - it speaks for itself]

What happened in Patras on Tuesday night (Parartima squat, Thursday evening)

2008.12.06: The 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos is murdered in cold blood by a cop in Exarchia square. Nearly immediately, wide clashes break out in mostly all greek cities which mostly target symbols of capital & of state authority. It is obvious that, with the murder acting as a spark, a generalized feeling of discontent & doubt [towards the system] finds its release.

In the cadre of this release, similar mobilizations take place in Patras as well. From the get-go, people flow into the Parartima [a squat in Patras, originally belonging to the local University & highly active in local antiauthoritarian affairs] &, a while later, the General Police Administration of Achaea in Ermou street is attacked. The next day, a demo takes place followed by further clashes with the police forces in Ermou street. 5 get arrested; they're released that same evening, an attempt of the state to detonate the [explosive] situation. An intervention in the court house takes place on Monday until the 50 year old comrade who had gotten arrested the night before is released. In the evening, a march [reportedly of about 1,000 people!] takes place; it stops at the [TV station] Super B, which is occupied for the next half hour. During the return to the Parartima, 3 banks, a WIND store, Olympic Airways & [the discount supermarket] Dia are attacked.

At the same day that Alexis was buried, a demo is announced; thousands of people take part in it; it [also] goes unnoticed by the mass media rufians. In the duration of the march, all banks that the march comes across are laid in tatters. The demo concludes at the Parartima, where barricades are put up in the streets surrounding it & hour-long clashes with the cops break out - the participation [in the clashes] is immense. The police chokes nearby streets with teargas & chemicals, & it also makes use of plastic bullets. A little while after, the scum of the shadow state [parakratikoi] enter the stage; tgether with the Riot Squad & plainclothes policemen, & in military formation under the leadership of the director [of the plainclothes policemen] Ntavlouros, they attack the demonstrators. The clashes with the parakratikoi go on for a long while, but they cannot be pushed back despite the efforts, as their best pals the cops make sure the clear the way for them by continuously hurling chemicals which force the people to gradually retreat back to the Parartima. The retreta finally at the Agia Sofias square, where the people flee to nearby houses. A pogrom led by the parakratikoi follows, during which they drag people out of nearby cafe's & narrow streets & beat them up. Despite this, people decide to actively crush terror by taking part by the thousand in Wednseday's strikes.

What the parakratikoi & the cops started could not but be completed by the journalists, a fact which - once again - drives home the message: Cops, Mass Media, Parakratikoi, All The Scum Work Side By Side. The journalists keep talking about smashed-up stores & about 2,000 (!) citizens which chased the demonstrators. Whoever wants to check whether there are any smashed-up [family-owned] stores, they are invited to take a walk in the center of the city. It has been our [conscious] decision that we only attacked [the] police [station], governmental buildings & banks. Anything else is either a lie or police provocation. Regarding the 2,000 citizens which took to the streets against demonstrators, they're nothing more than a bunch of plainclothes policemen & parakratikoi such as Spinos from the [Ioannis] Kalampokas team (those parakratikoi were identified by older comrades). [A bit of history: in '91, Nikos Temponeras was murdered by Ioannis Kalampokas with a crowbar - in Patras. In that case, the parakratikoi counter-occupied the already occupied schools throughout greece, after they had been incited to do so by then-minister of education Vassilis Kontogianopoulos. In one of those counter-occupations, Nikos Temponeras - a teacher - was killed with a crowbar by the leader of ONNED - the youth organization of Nea Dimokratia, the current ruling party - Ioannis Kalampokas.] It is also obvious that similar events unfolded in other cities as well, & that the state chooses, once again, to use the shadow state in order to repress the vibrant mass demonstrations of recent days.

The attacks of the state & of its shadow state do not intimidate us - they infuriate us!

Let's all take to the streets to crush terror
Our last word has not been said
These days belong to Alex

Demo: 18.00 at the Parartima

We extend a call to all people to take part in the squatting.

The people of Patras react! (athens.indymedia, Thursday evening)

Over 5,000 people demonstrated today in the city center of Patras, an unprecedented magnitude for this city.

The provocation of cops & neonazis worked as a boomerang against them, as the people realized the role played by... "infuriated [citizens; the name traditionally assigned to the puppets of the greek shadow state by mass media & the state itself]" & flooded the streets.

Let it be remarked that a municipality cop [one part "neighborhood cop," one part "traffic cop," & one part common snitch] was lynched today in the city center. [Indeed: this reports that the cop was beaten by peddlers who were trying to sell their produce in the market, apparently without a license.]

At this moment [21:00 local time], there's a large demonstration going on in Patras, despite the terror crusade unleashed by local [TV] channels. Riot Squad forces have sealed off all side streets. Concurrently, SYRIZA [Coalition of the Radical Left; been given about 15% by recent gallops on the citizens' voting intention] organizes a gathering in Georgiou square with [former party leader Alekos] Alavanos. In the morning, the commerce chamber denied that anything was damaged - in fact, the sole merchant that talked on TV said that his storefront was smashed up by cops during the stone exchange with the demonstrators.

Special guard: Tough & unrepentant (Despoina Mprousali, Vima, Wednesday evening)

Without a trace of repentance or guilt regarding the murder of the 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos, the special guard Epameinondas Korkoneas testified yesterday to the 9th Magistrate Mr. F. Vlahos. As tough as a "pistolero" & unrepentant as if the student's death was not effectuated by his actions, the 37 year old defendant did not limit himself to rebuting the eyewitnesses[' accounts] which state that he aimed at the 15-year-old & fired with no other precedent than a verbal exchange. He went further by attempting to soil the memory of the person who fell dead from his firearm's shots. In particular, he presented the dead & his group of friends as offsprings of affluent families, for whom Exarchia square was the recreational area of choice & who caused unrest in [football] fields! & he concluded by attributing "deviant behavior" to him!

Epameinondas Korkoneas & his colleague Vasileios Saraliotis - who is a codefendant for abetting voluntary manslaughter [note that the term 'voluntary manslaughter' might not be misleadingly translated] - were both judged fit for detention following their testimonies & with both the Magistrate & the District Attorney agreeing on this point. During their transportation to the Evelpidon Court House, they were being protected by a significant police force which prevented the journalists from entering building 9 where the Magistrate's offices are located. Moreover, [&] as a response to the serial questions on the identity of the person who had ordered this [prevention of entry], the policemen pointed out the superior of the trimember administration [committee] of the Athens Court of First Instance Mr. Kranis who, in turn, pointed to the direction of the person in charge of the police force. The heavy security, though, did not prevent a group of youths hurling molotov bombs at the entrance to the court house, a fact which led to a TV van catching fire.

The attitude of the 11-page long affidavit which E. Korkoneas submitted to the Magistrate has already made its impact felt among law experts. In fact, the following two facts received the most attention from law experts:

- The fact that the special guard does not recall the number of bullets he fired. The defendant spoke of "two warning shots fired in the air" & commented that it's possible that he also fired a third one, since, as he claimed, "I hadn't realized [that], but my codefendant reminded me of it."

- All the insults he hurled at the dead, among which his claim that Alexandros had been expelled from the Moraitis School [a private school in Athens, mostly for the affluent]. Nevertheless, this point has also been negated by the Moraitis School itself which, in an announcement made public yesterday, reports that Alexandros "studied in the Moraitis School from the first grade of primary school until the third grade of secondary school. Following his subsequent graduation from junior high school, his mother - with which the school has always had the best of cooperations - decided, as it often happens, to enroll him in another high school without the [Moraitis] school exerting any influence on the events." Concluding, the Moraitis School remarks that, for the duration of his studies, "Alexandros had exceptional relations with his fellow male & female students, he was particularly loved by the staff, [&] his attitude was very good & reported [in his report card] as most proper (which it also was)."

The 37-year-old special guard claimed, through his affidavit, that he would not aim his gun at a person under any circumstances, "especially not at a teenager, because of the special sensitivity I possess for kids, as I am the father of three underage children." Continuing, he mentioned that, on the fateful day & in the crossroads of Harilaou Trikoupi street & Navarinou street, & while he was cruising in his police car together with his codefendant, "we were attacked from a group of approximately 30 people which kept screamng "cops, you bums, we'll burn you alive."" As explanation for [their choice of] returning on foot [to the point where he later fired], he offered a "group of anarchists" which they followed in order to inform further the Riot Squad in Harilaou Trikoupi street "which was a certain target for the anarchists." & he claimed that the group of youths assumed the offensive with "flares, molotov bombs, marble slates, metal ashtrays & other heavy objects."

University students announce occupations with political demands (TVXS team, TVXS, Friday; small hours...)

In today's meeting by a group of university students which took place in the Polytechnic, a sequence of actions & political demands was decided upon, starring among which the resignation of the Minister of Public Order. Mentioned among action points is the proposal for the creation of a radio station in the Polytechnic & the occupation of mass media.

The announcement concludes as follows:
We demand:
Down with the murderes' government-resignation for the Minister of Public Order & all those responsible.
The immediate & final conviction of the murderers-policemen & of their superiors.
Down with the anti-worker, anti-popular politics of this government as a whole.
Retreat of the Riot Squad from streets, demos, marches & from the Polytechnic area.
The disarmament of special forces.
The immediate release of those arrested during the demos.
Abolition of the immunity for members of the parliament which eradicates crimes.

We proceed to:
Pan-educational, pan-popular march on Friday, December 12 & sealing off of the Parliament at noon.
Pan-popular march on Friday at 18:00.
Long-term occupation of schools & university departments.
Protestation at the court hearings of those arrested.
Reaching out to schools-communication committee with the school students.
Daily coordination processes in the Polytechnic.
Turning the lower Polytechnic into a center of struggle.

We propose the following action points:
Creating a radio station-occupying mass media.
Installing a pharmacy in the Polytechnic.
Resistance to arrests & organized/coordinated popular anti-violence.

The misunderstanding (Stelios Kouloglou, TVXS, Thursday morning)

Mr. Kougias [who was appointed to represent the cop who shot the lethal bullets, following the resignation of his initial representative] had to come on stage in order to let the truth be heard: the country has been shaken up for 5 days due to a misunderstanding. The policeman did not want to murder Alexis Grigoropoulos, but [instead] to shoot in the air in order to scare the crowd that was about to attack him. It's just that the bullet misunderstood his intentions & got stuck in the 16-year-old student's heart. & it occurred to nobody to ask him how he walked away in his leisure from the infuriated crowd [that was about to attack him...] or why he didn't rush, as he owed to do, to help the kid which he supposedly wounded by mistake.

It was a misunderstanding that Alexis was a kid full of smiles, like all [the boys] of his age. In reality, he was a hooligan of the Northern Suburbs [the more affluent part of the city, in a city where class relations are definitely evident] - with an impeccable behavior [as the Moraitis School announcement clarifies]. The representative of the defendant, who obviously helped his client put together his affidavit, steered the public debate into a street that it should not have taken: you don't shoot a 16-year-old kid, even if he's the devil incarnate.

What's [genuinely] bad is that most mass media adopt the same theory of a misunderstanding . In most TV debates or reports, you see see nothing except for pictures of destruction & lame analyses regarding the "hooded ones." Apart from a minimum amount of exceptions, most do not understand that the school students which occupied the police station in Voula did not do it because the mistook its chief for their father & wanted to claim their revenge from him: they did it because they're outraged with their lives & with the society they're called to get integrated into.

There's no other country in the world with such a tough, uninteresting, stressful, soulless educational system as the greek one, the pinnacle of which are the introductory exams [which one has to take to enter tertiary education]. There's no other country that has, in a period of 30 years, altered a system which everybody considers as a failure. & there's no other country that rewards a super-effort spanning a decade with breadcrumbs amounting to 700 euros [the starting salary for most jobs in the 20's demographic is, reportedly, 66o euro]. Excluding countries at war, there's no other country that prohibits its teenagers from enjoying their [young] age. In the most enlightening picture of these [last few] days, at noon [&] in Syntagma square, the demonstrators stopped & played football [here]. That's what kids should mostly be doing, but they don't let them be.

In a parent meeting for kids in grade 1 of the secondary school that I attended, the school's principal suggested the following schedule: following the return to home at 16:00, lunch & rest until 17:00, studying from 17:00 to 20:00, & maybe an hour or so of TV! & when you turn on your TV at 20:00, you hear nothing other than [financial] scandals & priests [a reference to the recent Vatopedi scandals] or ministerial fiends that became millionaires in the last 4 years [a possible reference to minister Georgios Voulgarakis who did not limit himself to - allegedly - turning himself into a millionaire in the last 4 years but also felt necessary to be as provocative ασ as possible equating 'what is ethical' with what is 'what is legal' - in a country where I, for one, have trouble recalling the last time a minister was prosecuted for corruption]. There's no youth in the world that can live without hope. What can a young photographer hope in when he shoots the picture that all international news agencies would envy &, instead of receiving the Pulitzer prize, he gets fired? [A direct reference to Kostas Tsironis, the former Eleftheros Typos photographer, who got fired following his shooting the already legendary picture of a cop aiming his firearm at the demonstrators on the very next day after Alexis was murdered - see also the corresponding post below.] They revolted to recapture the lost hope.

This time around, they didn't manage to find [so] many reasons. Because the whole thing was overwhelmed by the damages & the lootings. Because no slogan or demand pointing to specific conquests, which would offer the joy of victory, was formulated. If, though, those responsible believe that what happened is due to a murder in cold blood or a misunderstanding, we should be expecting a lot more misunderstandings.

Reporter wounded (xanthi.press,Wednesday)

The ERA [Hellenic Radio, a.k.a. Greek National Radio] reporter Sami Karampouyoukoglou was beaten up today by Riot Squad forces during today's mobilization in Xanthi's city center.

Following the two-hour strike that the ESIEMTH [Journalists' Union of Macedonia and Thrace Daily Newspapers] had planed for today, Sami Karampouyoukoglou got to the area around the Prefecture of Xanthi to provide coverage on the mobilizations. That's where the marches of GSEE [General Confederation of Greek Workers ], ADEDY [Civil Servants' Union], of the students of the Xanthi Polytechnic & of the prefecture's school students had converged together with teachers who participated in the mobilization. When the university students attempted to occupy the building where the Prefecture is housed, they met resistance from the Riot Squad forces which had already assumed positions.

At that pojnt, the person in charge [of the Riot Squad] asked a second Riot Squad platoon to move in order to encircle the university students. When the latter realized [what was happening], they decided to leave. As soon as the university students turned on their heels to move out, & while [our] colleague was in between the police force & the university students, the Riot Squad started attacking. [Our colleague] was the first among them to be clubbed on the head, which resulted to him being taken to the General Hospital of Xanthi bleeding; there, he got stitched up & left an hour later. Following these events, everything calmed down &, a little while later, the demonstrators & the second Riot Squad platoon left the area.

It's remarkable that there's no question of the university students acting in a provocative or violent way, as they gathered [there] peacefully, while the identity of the journalist was already known [to the police forces] & it's impossible that someone mistook him for a university student. A similar tactic was followed yesterday by the Riot Squad, as they used teargas on the university students while the latter were [already] leaving, a fact that led to unrest. The university students haven't finalized their future mobilization plans. In any case, there's serious talk about the students of the Polytechnic moving to Komotini tomorrow to occupy the building where the Prefecture is housed in collaboration with all of the student associations of the Democritus University.

Flyer destributed in Kozani, Northern Greece

Saturday, 2008.12.06: 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos is executed in Exarchia by a special guard. A little while after, outraged people are gathering in many greek cities in order to demonstrate. In Kozani, at the same time, a banner is put up & the people march.


Sunday, 2008.12.07: 80 people march to the Police Administration of Western Macedonia, where the demonstrators have bypassed the fence & reached the outer periphery of the HQ sloganeering along the way against police terror & without unrest.

Monday, 2008.12.08: School students demonstrate with minor clashes occurring. In the evening, approximately 300 people - school & university students & citizens - gather, & the demo begins. As the demo concludes, the police station is attacked. The police forces use teargas & wounds 2 demonstrators, one of which was immediately hospitalized as he had serious face wounds. A police force got to the hospital immediately & arrested the 3 persons escorting the wounded [demonstrator]. 4 persons that got to the hospital at some later time were also arrested. Later on, clashes occur in the town square & another 6 people are arrested, dragged to the [police] station & beaten up. They did not even respect the 3 girls [arrested], which were humiliated & beaten up by men belonging to the Riot Squad & the police force. Further, inside the [police] station, they underwent psychological pressure & the customary blacklisting. The same charges were pressed on all arrested, irrespectively of whether they were in the hospital or in the demo.

Tueday, 2008.12.09: In the evening, a demo of 150 school students & youngsters takes place, a part of which attacks the police with stones & molotov bombs. 15 get arrested. Hours later, about 40 people who were simply walking around in the center are driven to the station by undercover cops.

The local mass media focus on the material damages, underplaying the fact that a kid lost his life because of a bullet fired by a tool of the state &, concurrently, hide the events which unraveled in the local community, aiming at terrorizing & dividing the public opinion. They do not try to understand the reasons behind the reaction of those kids that take to the streets but focus solely on the acts. These kids were born by the society itself, they're your kids, & society made them hate it. In the last few days, [our] town lives in a state where everything is run by the police, where tens of undercover policemen hang around achieving to instill fear in the citizens. Finally, we refuse to comment on the idiotic rumors about a "bus with anarchists" arriving from Thesaloniki.

Protesting in The Hague (verbal communication, Thursday)

So, yes, there had been a vague call on Monday (in amsterdam.indymedia, in fact) to get together & organize a demo or some sort of action. I don't necessarily go for that kind of thing... last time I participated in a demo, it was against the Iraq war. You know how it is, "what if" - I get arrested, beaten up, show up & know no one (I never know anyone anyhow), the works... But this time, just like that time with Iraq, I just couldn't believe it. That this happened, & that they're gonna get away with it, you know? Anyway, that's why I contacted the kids - greek students, of course; I even inquired after political affiliations & the like, to make sure I don't - well, there are no two ways about it, quite honestly... get in trouble. I wanted to scream & I wanted people to hear & I wanted it to have an efect, but I didn't want to spend the night in a cell - how middle-class & selfish is that, right?... So yeah, that's how I learned that we're meeting in The Hague the following evening, Tuesday.

I had a long train journey scheduled for Tuesday - work. Going towards Utrecht, past which lies The Hague, I kept thinking about getting off the train & going home... But then again I couldn't take this kid I know out of my head - he hadn't replied to my emails & calls, so I thought he might have even gone to greece to protest; how could I look him in the eye & tell him "yeah, in the end I didn't go, I mean, I figured what good could a bunch of greek kids do..."? I couldn't. So I went. I was an hour early, so I grabbed something to eat on the fly & went walking around the city - it's a rather beautiful, of way too posh, city. I was fighting with myself not to turn back & leave. I mean, what are we afraid of - I'm talking about the middle class - really? That they'll take our - WHAT? - away?... So, I decided that I'll get back to the station & check the crowd out - if I only saw hooded guys (I'm greek, right?), I'd split & get back home, no contact made. If I spotted some sensible people, I'd stick it out & see what comes down - I could always take a turn into some back alley after all, right? So, I get there & I can spot two people outside the station already - greek leftists=unshaved, haha! I walk past them & enter; & there, there's a crowd of half a dozen or so & two policemen checking IDs. Naturally - the announcement was posted in Indymedia after all... I walk past them & towards... nowhere, in fact, although that was also the general direction of the train back home; I need to think, you know? I turn, look at them once again, & feel myself propelling myself towards them - I'm not walking, I'm hovering over the ground, this is the impression I get. Right? & my heart pounds like crazy, because I know that I just made my choice. I approach them, ask them in greek if they're the group of people who'll protest & they tell me to wait outside otherwise they'll also check my ID. Naturally, as soon as I take a step, I'm told to stay where I am; we've started, I'm thinking - yeah, I know, this thought makes more sense in greek...

So, that's it, what more can I say? That we all got out &, instead of 8 people - I wasn't expecting any more - we were 30? That a dutch person of turkish descent was most helpful in dealing with the cops (we had to either get a permit to march or possibly face arrest, & there were few people speaking dutch as you can well imagine)? That I was still unsure as to whether we'll march to the embassy or to the police station, but somehow being among these people I had never met before & sharing the same fear with some of them (this was not trivial for every one of us...) gave me back a feeling I had forgotten about? That we got the permit &, instead of 10 or 30, we ended up being over 200? That we marched in between two details of policemen (single file - them, not us) to the cordoned off embassy which was guarded by the dutch Riot Squad (which exhibited a zero reaction to the "No Justice, No Peace, Fuck The Police" - sure, the usual fucking snitch was filming us as in every demo in this country, I hear; they're cops man, I didn't say they're angels...)? That the elderly policeman whom we mostly negotiated with said, in dutch, when we arrived at the embassy "Now let them hear your voice?" Yes man, I kid you not, that's what the guy said! A dutch punk I was in the train back with said "you know why? because the dutch cops also disapprove of the event" - I don't know whether they disapprove or not, but I know what we heard.

So, yeah, I could say all this & even more - about the Antifa people, for example: as soon as I saw them, I imagined trouble... All the way to the end, when I mistook the fucking plainclothes agents for neonazis (as I heard somebody saying on our way back: "taxi drivers, plainclothes cops, & kagoures - they're all cast in the same mould" - yeah, he was greek, what did you expect?). They turned out to be OK people, & they helped us out, you know? Just like the people chanting "elke strijd, onze strijd, internationale solidariteit" - which translates to "every struggle, our struggle, international solidarity" - who also helped us out. Anyhow, as I said, I rode the train halfway back home with a greek girl & a dutch punk; & they all looked like good people, you know? & this relief: that we did this, & hopefully someone heard us - not the ambassador, he was probably having fucking dinner in some fucking posh restaurant... - & we made it to the other end unscathed. & that I could look this young kid I know in the eye, man, I don't think you understand.

That's it then, you said you're gonna translate this & post this on the web? Ha, OK, good luck, gotta go!