The Day's News...

Apologies once again for the delay between posts and thanks to everyone who sent encouraging e-mails. The new site is almost finished; a preview can be seen at anarchiststrategy.com. If you're interested in the ad spaces (currently represented by two small gray boxes on the right side of the column), send an e-mail to lobsterbeard@gmail.com. The new site will feature rolling news updates, multiple contributors (who are waiting, blog posts at the ready, for the new site to launch), fancy graphics, and a host of other luxurious features.

Anyway, here's a dose of news to hold you over:

• Law enforcement officials are vastly expanding their collection of DNA to include millions more people who have been arrested or detained but not yet convicted. Until now, the federal government genetically tracked only convicts. But starting this month, the FBI will join 15 states that collect DNA samples from those awaiting trial and will collect DNA from detained immigrants — the vanguard of a growing class of genetic registrants. The F.B.I., with a DNA database of 6.7 million profiles, expects to accelerate its growth rate from 80,000 new entries a year to 1.2 million by 2012 — a 17-fold increase.

• New details have emerged about the FBI's homebrew spyware with the publication of some heavily redacted documents. Wired reports that "on page 152, the FBI's Cryptographic and Electronic Analysis Unit (CEAU) 'advised Pittsburgh that they could assist with a wireless hack to obtain a file tree, but not the hard drive content.'" Be wary anarchist hackers, the FBI has learned to use the series of tubes.
  

• And everyone's favorite swashbucklers continue to wreak havoc on the world's busiest shipping lane, despite recent U.S. military intervention. Over the weekend, Somali gunmen seized a Belgian-registered vessel in the Indian Ocean; that ship is now being steered toward Somalia. And early this morning, a Maltese-flagged ship managed to shake off Somali pirates after they attacked it with rocket-propelled grenades. Illustrating one of the pirates' strategic advantages, Dutch commandos freed 20 Yemeni hostages on Saturday and briefly detained seven pirates who had forced the Yemenis to sail a "mother ship" attacking vessels in the Gulf of Aden, before freeing the pirates due to a lack of legal jurisdiction. Oh, and ship mounted non-lethal weapons aren't going to stop them either.

• C.S.A. Strategy Quote Of The Day: “It is necessary to develop a strategy that utilizes all the physical conditions and elements that are directly at hand. The best strategy relies upon an unlimited set of responses.”--Morihei Ueshiba
  
  

Free The Passwords With Sslstrip

An anarchist superhacker has just released a powerful little program called "sslstrip." The C.S.A. barely understands even the most simple computer operations, but here's our boneheaded explanation of how it works: on encrypted web pages, the letter "s" appears at the end of "http." This program strips the "s" away, leading the victim to an unencrypted but otherwise identical version of the page. The victim then enters their log-in information unaware that the attacker is recording what they type. The program requires its operator to be between the victim's computer and its internet connection, such as on a free wireless internet server. And that's about it. You can read more about the details here and here.

Clearly there are uses for this program far beyond merely harvesting credit card numbers and Facebook passwords, as most users of sslstrip will probably do. Imagine there's a password for, say, a secure network containing information that may be useful to people facing persecution. And imagine that some users of that network are lazy, unaware, and apt to sign-in to the secure network at Starbucks. Well, if you're in the right place at the right time, sslstrip will allow you to get the log-in info for such a network.

Is that a little too vague? Here's a concrete example: an FBI agent logs-in to his network from a laptop at a coffeeshop. An sslstrip user harvests his password, then logs-in to the network to see whatever information is there. Or imagine the victim is an employee of a multinational corporation that does naughty things to trees or beagles. Or works for a private military firm. Or whatever.

Now imagine that those people are too cautious to log-in at Starbucks. So instead of sitting in an overstuffed armchair while stealing their passwords, the attacker uses an antenna to access the wireless network in their building, cracks the code to their secure wireless network, and then harvests their password.

Or imagine the intended victim doesn't use a wireless network at all. Then the attacker has to put a piece of hardware between the target computer and the network. Which means they may need to use some social engineering to access the building within which the victim uses the computer, perhaps by posing as an electrician who has to fumble with a bunch of wires. And so on and so forth.

Those are just some of the possible scenarios. Of course using sslstrip in those ways is completely illegal and the C.S.A. strongly discourages and condemns such uses, along with illegal activity of any kind.

Check back here for updates on this story, as it appears to be gathering steam across the series of tubes. You can download sslstrip here.

The Day's News...

Sorry for the delay between posts. The C.S.A. is in the midst of relocating and revamping this site to a vastly superior, more secure location. The new site will have much superior functionality that will allow for more frequent updates, greater ease of use, and much, much prettier design. Formal announcement coming soon; in the meantime, munch on this:

• Watch an advertisement on a video screen in a mall, health club or grocery store and there's a slim - but growing - chance the ad is watching you too. Small cameras can now be embedded in the screen or hidden around it, tracking who looks at the screen and for how long. The makers of the tracking systems say the software can determine the viewer's gender, approximate age range and, in some cases, ethnicity - and can change the ads accordingly.

• Bad economic times are forcing the NYPD to slow down plans to assign 800 officers to the area near Ground Zero and Wall Street. The NYPD planned to deploy the officers along with 3,000 networked security cameras to Lower Manhattan; to date, 300 cameras have been installed and 30 police cars with roof-mounted cameras have begun reading license plates of passing and parked cars. And a 28th-floor command center is up and running, monitoring the spycam feeds.

• The new director of national intelligence told Congress on Thursday that global economic turmoil and the instability it could ignite had outpaced terrorism as the most urgent threat facing the United States. The assessment underscored concern inside America’s intelligence agencies not only about the fallout from the economic crisis around the globe, but also about long-term harm to America’s reputation. The crisis that began in American markets has already “increased questioning of U.S. stewardship of the global economy,” the intelligence chief, Dennis C. Blair, said in prepared testimony.

The Day's News...

• A logic bomb allegedly planted by a former engineer at mortgage finance company Fannie Mae last fall would have decimated all 4,000 servers at the company, causing millions of dollars in damage and shutting down Fannie Mae for a least a week. On the afternoon of Oct. 24, a Unix engineer was told he was being fired because of a scripting error he'd made earlier in the month, but he was allowed to work through the end of the day. Five days later, another Unix engineer at the data center discovered the malicious code hidden inside a legitimate script that ran automatically every morning at 9:00 a.m. Had it not been found, the FBI says the code would have executed a series of other scripts designed to block the company's monitoring system, disable access to the server on which it was running, then systematically wipe out all 4,000 Fannie Mae servers, overwriting all their data with zeroes.

• The relationship between photographers and police in Britain could worsen next month when new laws are introduced that allow for the arrest - and imprisonment - of anyone who takes pictures of officers 'likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.' A person found guilty of this offence could be liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and to a fine.The law is expected to increase the anti-terrorism powers used by police officers to stop photographers, including press photographers, from taking pictures in public places.
  

• The U.S. housing market lost $3.3 trillion in value last year and almost one in six owners with mortgages owed more than their homes were worth as the economy went into recession. The median estimated home price declined 11.6 percent in 2008 to $192,119 and homeowners lost $1.4 trillion in value in the fourth quarter alone. The U.S. economy shrank the most in the fourth quarter since 1982, contracting at a 3.8 percent annual pace, the Commerce Department said. Record foreclosures have pushed down prices as unemployment rose. More than 2.3 million properties got a default or auction notice or were seized by lenders last year.

• C.S.A. Strategy Quote Of The Day: "Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are."-- Quentin Crisp

The Day's News...

• 

  Five Somali pirates drowned when a wave washed off their getaway boat as they squabbled over over how to split their $3 million ransom. The ransom had been paid to the pirates to end the world's biggest ship hijacking; the canister full of cash was parachuted onto the gargantuan oil tanker Sirius Star, which was captured in November with 25 crew members, 450 nautical miles southeast of Kenya in the boldest seizure to date by Somali pirates.

• Japan's new biometric immigration control system has been breached by a South Korean women who had been deported in 2007 for overstaying her visa and then slipped back in. She successfully got past the fingerprint system by purchasing a forged passport in South Korea and getting a piece of clear tape to put over her finger. The tape contained a fingerprint of someone who was not in the Japanese database.

• C.S.A. Patron Saint Jeff Monson--world champion submission grappler, UFC heavyweight championship challenger, and committed long-time anarchist--seems to have displayed some seriously bad judgment recently: a warrant has been issued for his arrest in Washington state after a photographer for ESPN The Magazine, who was with Monson as part of a profile for the magazine, took a picture of him apparently in the act of spray-painting anarchist and anti-war graffiti on the Washington state capitol building. The photo was published along with the profile in the December 29th issue of the magazine.

• C.S.A. Strategy Quote Of the Day: "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."--Winston Churchill
  

Actions In Oakland In Response To Police Shooting

As you may be aware, a cop shot and killed a man in Oakland, California on New Year's Day. The details make the incident particularly galling for many: the man, an unarmed African American, was laying prone beneath two cops while they restrained and handcuffed him. A third cop standing above them pulled his firearm and shot the victim, Oscar Grant, in the back, killing him. The incident, which took place on a commuter train platform, was witnessed by dozens of people and filmed from multiple angles, allowing news and evidence of the killing to spread rapidly.

On Wednesday, January 7th, a week after the killing, a protest march convened at the train station where the killing occurred. After listening to speeches for two hours, the crowd began marching towards downtown Oakland. At a nearby intersection, the windows of a police car were smashed and a dumpster was set on fire. Riot police arrived soon after and attempted to disperse the crowd with tear gas and targeted arrests. Marchers retreated and splintered, with some groups smashing the windows of businesses both local and corporate, torching two cars and smashing the windows of many others, and burning more dumpsters. As the rioting continued into the night, over a hundred marchers were eventually cornered by a large number of riot cops and arrested.

Yesterday, the windows of an Oakland police station were smashed during the night by anarchists. Further demonstrations are planned and solidarity actions are likely to continue in the coming days.

Corporate media reports of the mini-riot have focused on the damage caused to locally-owned small businesses and the destruction of private vehicles. The windows of a business called Creative African Braids were smashed, and the car of a local school teacher, a man taking tap-dancing lessons, and a local reporter were smashed or set on fire, all apparently at random. Part of what has attracted the media to this element of the story is that the owners of the damaged cars and businesses are mostly African Americans, as were many of the marchers seen carrying out the vandalism, muddying the racial narrative. It remains unclear how local businesses came to be targeted and by whom.

Undoubtedly, this aspect of the events in Oakland will cause the greatest controversy among anarchists. As the rhetoric of European insurrectionists has gained prominence in the American anarchist community, the literal manifestation of bombastic slogans like "Burn them all, big and small!" is bound to make some reconsider their language. Insurrectionary ideologues will likely accuse those made quesy by the sight of smashed Black-owned small businesses of bourgeois spinelessness or some other liberal pejorative.

Hopefully, a discussion of strategy will prevail in this debate. As long as an ideological commitment to one form of action or another remains the norm, whether pacifist or insurrectionary, strategy will be dictated by dogma instead of actual conditions. It's possible to have no sympathy whatsoever for small-time capitalists and still argue that destroying cars and stores at random, regardless of who does it, makes for bad strategy. It's also possible to argue the opposite and not have a fetish for window breaking. The C.S.A. encourages anarchists to discuss these events on their strategic merits rather than the dictates of their preferred doctrine.

As perceptive readers can probably discern from the tone above, the C.S.A. sees the destruction of random small businesses and the cars of tap-dancing students as a strategic mistake. The targeted attacks that have occurred in Oakland on cop cars, police stations, and the symbols of global capital such as banks, are far more effective at conveying the motivations of anarchists, and make a small but real dent in the institutions that actively reproduce capital and the state.

Lending support to undirected vandalism is often a misguided attempt to discover or encourage a direct action ethos among non-anarchists. But ignoring the context of actions and focusing exclusively on tactics is folly (Kristallnacht was a riot that involved a lot of window smashing, too.)

As a matter of power dynamics, hair braiding businesses probably cannot compare as oppressive institutions to cops and banks, and their wholesale destruction would lead no where. Anarchists who wish to participate meaningfully in solidarity actions ought to focus their attention on the institutions in their own communities that enforce hierarchies of oppression and privilege, whether those are physical spaces or social dynamics or something else entirely, not soft targets that are incidentally located along a parade route.

Riot Cop Shot in Athens

From the BBC: "A Greek riot policeman has been left seriously injured after being shot in central Athens.

Greece's police chief says bullet cases matched the Kalashnikov rifle used in another attack on police in December. The officer, 21-year-old Diamandis Matzounis, was part of a unit guarding the culture ministry when the pre-dawn attack took place.

Greece's police chief, Lt Gen Vassilis Tsiatouras, said an automatic rifle and a handgun were used, and that a hand grenade was also thrown during the attack.

He said the rifle was the same as that used on 23 December, when two gunmen hidden within the grounds of Athens University opened fire at a riot police bus as it passed by. (Editors' Note: Either the BBC or the Greek police are being disingenuous here. The only way to know if two bullets were fired from the same gun is to compare the 'fingerprint' of tiny scratches left on two intact, untouched bullets, a difficult and imprecise process that requires lab testing. All that can be reasonably claimed at this point is that the two bullets were of the same caliber, in this case 7.62x39mm, the caliber of an AK-47, the most common firearm on the planet. The AP makes even more far reaching claims here, citing ever-reliable and preternaturally rapid Greek ballistics tests. If that matters at all.)

The incident took place in the Exarchia district, close to where Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot last month. "

Occupied London is reporting that cops immediately moved in to Exarchia and began raiding, beating, and arresting people in bars, cafes, and anarchist community spaces. At least 72 and as many as 100 people have been detained.

A piece posted on Athens Indymedia, translated here, speculates that the two shooting incidents were orchestrated by the state to "neutralize the climate [created by] the shooting, in cold blood, of Alexis Grigoropoulos, and to create once again some sympathy for the police - who at the moment are spat on in the streets by pretty much everyone for anything they do. They are trying to create, at the same time, an atmosphere of violence and terrorism for all the rest who resist in any possible way."

While the C.S.A. detests conspiracy theories and generally believes that the state is blamed far too often for behavior that is usually just wing-nutty or misguided (which could often describe those who do the blaming as well, in addition to lazy), the jury would seem to still be out on this one. Either those responsible are wing-nutty and misguided, or some element within the Greek state is feeling desperate. Regardless, the Greek cops will undoubtedly make the most of this in their effort to restore equilibrium.

Of course, the percise motivations and identities of the shooters is no more important in this case than in the shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos. Hopefully Greek anarchists can avoid being sucked into the melodrama of bourgeois justice and will continue building on their impressive gains of the last month.

The Day's News...

• The Israel Defense Force has begun calling houses before they are targeted for destruction. Palestinians reported that in some cases, the caller leaves a message on their voice mail warning that the IDF will bomb any house where weapons or rockets are found. During the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Israelis used text messages to warn residents of incoming rockets. Last week, as the airstrikes against Hamas began thousands of Gazans received Arabic-language cell-phone messages from the Israeli military, urging them to leave homes where militants might have stashed weapons. Hamas has been sending Hebrew-language text messages to Israelis' phones, warning them that "all cities" will be threatened by the terror group's rocket attacks.

• The FBI said on Monday it had launched one of the largest hiring blitzes in its 100-year history, involving 2,100 professional staff vacancies and 850 special agents, aimed at filling its most critical vacancies. The agency said it currently has more than 12,800 agents and about 18,400 other employees. FBI Assistant Director John Raucci of the Human Resources division said the federal law enforcement agency is seeking to bring more people on board with skills in critical areas, especially language fluency and computer science.

• A French warship captured 19 Somali pirates on Sunday when it came to the rescue of two cargo ships threatened in the Gulf of Aden. The French naval vessel "Jean de Vienne" was on patrol off the Somali coast as part of a European Union anti-piracy force when it came to the rescue of a Croatian cargo vessel and a Panamanian ship crossing the Gulf of Aden.The European Union set up an anti-piracy naval task force under British command last month involving warships and aircraft from several nations in the first such naval operation of its kind. The 19 Somali pirates, armed and equipped with tools to board the vessels, were captured and have been handed over to Somali authorities, the statement said.

• C.S.A. Strategy Quote Of The Day: "The absence of the will to live is, alas, not sufficient to make one want to die."--Michel Houellebecq
  

Seeking Contributions For A Timeline Of Events In Greece

The C.S.A. is putting together a timeline of events in Greece over the past month for the forthcoming issue of Rolling Thunder. Any readers interested in contributing to this article should post items in the comments of this post with the date of the event, description, and a link, if possible.

Apologies for not updating recently; things have been busy at The Center. In addition to a spate of print articles for a variety of outlets, we're working on a complete overhaul of this site that will result in a major upgrade over Blogger, with much improved functionality and superior aesthetics. More details to come.

And remember, tips for news articles are always accepted and often published. Send them to lobsterbeard@gmail.com

C.S.A. Position Paper: The Greek Riots

It's been a very busy few weeks. What has happened in Greece is momentous. But since Christmas, the flow of news has slowed considerably, as evidenced by the shorter, sparser postings here, so this seems as good a time as any to reflect on these events and their implications for anarchists in the U.S. (with apologies to all of our new readers from around the world, although hopefully you'll get something out of this too.)

As we've learned from this excellent interview over at the CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective blog, what happened in Greece was not accidental. In fact, the rioting, firebombing, street-fighting, occupying, looting, and marching was largely initiated and coordinated by autonomous affinity groups of anarchists, some more defined than others, with roots in the occupations and social centers around Greece. This should come as no surprise to observers; these actions bear all the hallmarks of non-hierarchical self-organization, from the break-away marches to the nighttime arsons to the spray paint. And it worked, beautifully.

If there's a lesson to be learned from such a structure--beyond a confirmation of our long-held belief that affinity groups form the basis of anarchy in action--it's that projects that sustain our communities are critical components of our fights elsewhere. That is not to say that mimicry of the Greek model will lead to success. Many anarchists have found that the maintenance of squats or occupations or social centers or infoshops in the U.S. is more draining than it is sustaining, and the events in Greece don't invalidate those criticisms; there may be reasons why such spaces are easier to maintain in Greece (and the rest of Europe for that matter.) What it does prove, though, is that we must build a sustainable, multi-generational anarchist community through projects that nurture and embolden our ranks over the long-term if we are to launch meaningful attacks on capital and the state. Inevitably that will look different here than it does in Greece; our task is to figure it out for ourselves.

Perhaps the most crucial point in the interview, however, is that anarchists in Greece have consciously worked to end their subcultural identification. It is worth quoting at length:

After ’93 we had a strong tendency in the Greek anarchist movement—accompanied by many serious internal fights—that eliminated the influence of “subcultural” styles inside the movement. This means that there is no punk, rock, metal or whatever anarchist identity in the Greek anarchist movement—you can be whatever you like, you can listen to whatever music you like, you can have whatever style or fashion you like, but that is not a political identity...The separation from subcultural identity politics made people understand that to call yourself an anarchist it takes much more serious participation, planning, creativity, and action than just wearing a t-shirt with the antichrist on it and walking around punk concerts drinking beer and taking hypnotic pills. Now there is an understanding that to call yourself an anarchist you have to come to demonstrations, to come out into the streets... Also, that you should participate every week in one, two, or three different assemblies with people for one, or two, or three different preparations of different actions, plans, or struggles to call yourself an anarchist. You have to be friends with people you trust 100% to plan anything dangerous, you have to be aware and informed about anything that is happening in this world to decide what the proper course of action is, you have to be crazy and enthusiastic, to feel that you can do incredible things—you have to be ready to give your life, your time, your years in a struggle that will never end.

Unfortunately, this could not be a less accurate description of anarchists in the U.S. Most anarchists here are content to languish in a subcultural ghetto comprised of amateur fashion critics and energetic music consumers. The strong subcultural affiliation of anarchist organizing in the U.S. is perhaps its greatest weakness, ensuring its inaccessibility and irrelevance to most people, even those with strongly-held anti-authoritarian politics. What is also obvious to most observers is that subcultures are rooted in fads, and only a tiny fringe of eccentrics remain attached to a dated fad. We cannot build a workable anarchist community if no one believes it has long-term viability, and our subcultural affiliation is in large-part responsible for that mostly accurate perception. Glorifying consumption habits, whether in clothes, music, or reading material, is not a strategy, it is a fetish, and in this case, a fetish that nullifies a great deal of otherwise valuable work. Pro-actively working to end this affiliation is necessary if anarchists are to become a force in American society, as they have become in Greece by doing the same.

On a different front, it is worth noting that the Greeks employed a combination of formal and informal consensus process. In the streets, the casual consensus of affinity groups gave them the mobility and flexibility necessary to carry out daring attacks and to make strategic retreats. In holding daily assemblies of occupied buildings, they employed the more formal process necessary for large groups of people. In both cases, the lack of centralized leadership, whether from individuals or federations, was pivotal to keeping apace of a dynamic and complex situation. Such a mix of non-hierarchical processes is nothing new, but in the U.S. it has largely been used in the context of summit actions. A greater awareness of process and its suitable deployment in everyday activities might prove fruitful for anarchists here.

Another important point raised in the interview is that many non-anarchists, especially youths, adopted direct action tactics due to the anarchist influence in youth struggles over the last four years. Anarchists in the U.S. have experienced a similar phenomenon with the adoption of consensus process by countless leftist and reformist groups as the de facto form of decision-making due to the influential role of anarchists in the anti-globalization movement. The point is that we can define the tactical framework for all radicals by engaging with others on our own terms. Anarchists did not spread consensus process by compromising with liberals and giving them extra votes at spokescouncils; we did it by proving the efficacy of our tactic while meaningfully engaging with people beyond our tiny subculture. The result was the widespread diffusion of our tactic and a larger audience for our ideas (in fact, some people arrived at anarchism simply by delving deeply into consensus.)

This is especially critical given the unprecedented attention paid to anarchists in the last three weeks. Even the most error-ridden, sensationalist news pieces have been forced to refer to "self-styled" anarchists as important actors in the revolt, bringing the term into the public consciousness for the first time in a good while. The challenge, and thus the opportunity, comes from the fact that anarchists are presented as being "over there"--in Greece--someplace far-off and exotic, unlike the mundane cities and towns most of us inhabit. By taking action locally and creating a public presence for anarchists, we can piggyback on the publicity afforded the Greeks and link anarchists here and there in the minds of the public.

By making our actions militant and avoiding symbolic protests which only serve to reinforce most peoples' sense that resistance is futile, we can create expectations for what anarchists do. This will, perhaps most crucially, shape our perception of ourselves as well. The Greeks have set a high bar for anarchist behavior; by rising to meet it, we can create a set of expectations for ourselves which will become our own standard for effective revolt.

Speaking of which, the call and response of international solidarity during the past three weeks illustrates the importance of building and maintaining contacts abroad. Greek anarchists and non-anarchists alike were impressed by the intensity and timeliness of solidarity actions in places like Spain and Germany, and indeed the media has formed a budding obsession with the use of mobile technology in spreading the word about the riots. But the truth is we could have done better in the U.S. The Greeks opened a window of opportunity for anarchists around the world to take action under a powerful spotlight. By reducing the layers of mediation and forming more direct contacts with anarchists elsewhere, such coordination will become faster and simpler.

In terms of what we can do in the very near term--aside from solidarity events, some of which have been powerful, other of which have been mundane--we can focus on January 20th. Even if nothing happens in Greece between now and then--and the smart money seems to believe something will--there is still plenty of momentum and opportunity to carry us forward. If ever there was a time to re-announce our presence and usher in an era of anti-political action, January 20th would seem to be the day. While some might object to synchronizing our efforts to the cycle of electoral politics, the date gives us a beautiful opportunity to convincingly and forcefully proclaim that, indeed, whoever they elect, we are ungovernable.

Furthermore, we can make the "Hope From People" call a swan song for anarchist leftism, rather than the beginning of a cowardly and counter-productive retreat into the failed bourgeois politics of mass and ideology. We can do that by outshining them, which shouldn't be hard since most people will ignore them. As has been proven decisively by our peers in Greece, anarchists can be as relevant and dangerous as we want to be--if we are organized, daring, and accountable. By holding ourselves to that standard, we too can make this moment our own.

Major Rioting in Greece (12/26/08)

Yeah, I took yesterday off; sue me. Updates will now continue as usual.

• I'm not sure how Uri Gordon got this mostly excellent piece published in Haaretz, but it's almost a call to arms. Excerpt: "These are no single-issue protests or vague grievances. This is full-blooded revolutionary anarchism.
  
  The mainstream media simply cannot stomach the notion that what is happening in Greece is by now a proactive social revolt against the capitalist system itself and the state institutions that reinforce it. It is time to acknowledge that the Greek anarchist movement has successfully seized the initiative after the killing of one of its own, framing the issues in a way that appeals to a larger - albeit mostly young - public...
  
  Will the riots in Greece lead to an anti-capitalist revolution? Only if the opening they have torn in the social fabric widens and deepens, involving ever-growing sections of society and creating new grass-roots institutions alongside the destruction of the old. This seems unlikely in the short term, as bureaucratic labor unions and the Communist Party attempt to domesticate the revolt and cut their own political coupon with their demand to disarm the police.
  
  But there is no doubt that a new benchmark has been set for what can be expected in Western countries during the coming era of economic depression and environmental decay. European governments will no doubt ratchet up their policies of surveillance and repression in anticipation of growing civil unrest. But that may not be enough to keep the population subdued, as crisis after crisis calls the existing arrangement of power and privilege into question."
  

• Here's a good report-back, including photos, from the lightly controversial solidarity march in San Francisco.

• As usual, CrimethInc. gets the goods. Here's a very insightful interview with a Greek anarchist on the riots, the structures used to support them, and the organizing that allowed them to happen in the first place. If anyone else with first-hand knowledge of the events in Greece wants to answer this same set of questions, feel free to send your answer to lobsterbeard@gmail.com. I'll post them here.
  

• Here are two documents posted on Occupied London from the School of Economics occupation and the Athens Polytechnic occupation, respectively. The first is an analysis of contemporary capitalism and the second an explanation for the end of the occupation.
  

• A Greek government official's car was firebombed in front of his house on Friday while assailants threw a Molotov cocktail at a bank and another group attacked a police car, authorities said. The government car used by a junior environment minister, Stavros Kaloyannis, was hit by a petrol bomb early Friday while it was parked in front of his house in the northwestern city of Ioannina.
  
  Assailants also threw a molotov cocktail at a branch of the Greek Farm Bank in Psychiko, a suburb of Athens, causing minor damage.
  
  In the evening, a group of youths banged up a police car that was passing in front of an Athens hospital, where they had gathered in support of a union member who was hospitalised there after being attacked by unknown assailants.
  
  The police officers fled and no one was injured.
  

Major Rioting in Greece (12/24/08)

• Greece has acquired an advanced security system from the United States.
  A leading U.S. firm has delivered a command, control, communications, coordination and integration system to Greek authorities. Science Applications International Corp. said the C4I system would coordinate police, coast guard, fire and ambulance services. "System acceptance is an important milestone in the implementation of this state-of-the-art system, and properly recognizes the tremendous efforts of the Greek state and SAIC to deliver an effective solution," SAIC executive vice president Donald Foley said.

• Here's another installment of the detailed and illuminating daily reports "dim" has been posting on the situation in Athens.
  

• From a conservative Athens newspaper: Hundreds of self-professed anarchists who have been squatting in university buildings over the past two weeks were reportedly packing their bags. According to sources, the premises of the National Technical University of Athens and the Athens University law school were slowly emptying.

  University rectors were due to start taking stock today of the damage wreaked during the sit-ins. Sources said windows had been smashed and chunks had been hacked out of marble staircases and floors for use as missiles against riot police.

• An anarchist group calling itself Nocturnal Arson Insurrection yesterday claimed responsibility for a bomb blast targeting the offices of far-right party LAOS in the coastal suburb of Alimos during yesterday’s early hours. The homemade device, comprising several gas canisters, caused damage when it detonated, but no injuries were reported.

• From the International Herald Tribune: "Ballistics tests show two military-type automatic rifles were used in an attack on a riot-police bus in Athens, authorities said Wednesday.

  While street violence sparked by the police shooting of a teenager has eased, the discovery raised fears that far-left extremist groups may be taking advantage of the unrest to renew attacks on the police. Despite a lull in violence over the past few days, protesters have vowed to keep on the streets.
  

  "Christmas is off this year, the Virgin had an abortion," read a slogan painted on a central Athens wall.

  On Christmas Eve Wednesday, about 700 mainly young protesters marched peacefully through Athens' main shopping district to demand the release of those arrested during the rioting. Demonstrators sang carols with protest lyrics and scattered fliers, as dozens of riot police looked on.

  Chanting "Priests, thieves, pedophiles," protesters sprayed slogans on metal boardings outside Athens Cathedral, painted anarchist logos on the 19th century building's marble columns and tore down a Greek flag.
  

  Cathedral officials said they were canceling a scheduled Christmas Eve service after the vandalism.

  Riot police cordoned off central Syntagma Square to protect the capital's main Christmas tree, which replaces one burnt by rioters two weeks ago. However, the protest ended without further incident."

Major Rioting in Greece (12/23/08)

• Occupied London reports that the various university occupations, now 17 days old, are expected to end later this week, due to fatigue.

• Here's a surprisingly long list of solidarity actions in Russia, including three in Siberia.
  

• Tests comparing the substances found on the bullet that killed 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos on December 6 and materials taken from the scene of the shooting in Exarchia, which sparked this month’s riots, suggest that the policeman charged with the boy’s murder shot at him and not in the air, as he has claimed.

  The results of the laboratory tests, due to be made public next week, reportedly suggest that the bullet hit a surface less than 40 centimeters above the ground before entering the boy’s body. “There is no evidence that a shot was fired in the air,” a source told Kathimerini.

• Here's a report on the campus asylum issue from a conservative Greek newspaper:
  

  The government yesterday refused to take a stance on the thorny issue of university asylum, saying it was an issue for the judiciary and academic community to tackle, as the capital’s main university faculties remained occupied by hundreds of students and self-styled anarchists.

  Meanwhile university deans told Kathimerini that the sit-ins would probably end over Christmas so it would be best to leave things alone.

  “Lifting university asylum is not an issue for the government,” said government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros, adding that “those whose responsibility it is to maintain order and the smooth operation of universities will do their duty.”

  Antonaros was reacting to a decision by an Athens prosecutor on Saturday night to send police into the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), which self-styled anarchists had been using as a base from which to attack riot officers.

  The planned intervention was averted by the NTUA’s dean, Constantinos Moutzouris, who said he feared the presence of police may reignite tension. “We believe that constant dialogue and persuasion are the best solution even in extreme, condemnable situations,” he told Kathimerini.

• More than 3,000 protesters chanting "Cops, Pigs, Murderers" marched through Athens on Tuesday. Earlier Tuesday, shots were fired at a riot police bus in Athens. None of the 19 officers on board was injured, authorities said, but the attack raised concern that violence against police could escalate. Police said the bus came under attack in Athens while passing a university campus. Authorities said they had recovered seven 7.62-millimeter bullet casings.
  

  Tuesday's march kept many stores in downtown Athens closed. A group of youths overturned a police car, but the incident ended without further violence. Protesters set fire to a papier-mache model of a pig wearing a policeman's hat, before the rally ended peacefully. Another protest is planned Wednesday's in the city's main shopping district.

• A group of high-school students staged a rally in front of the education ministry slated to be their last before the holidays.

  The students, who are expected to decide in early January whether or not to pursue their protests over the teenager's death, claim they continue to occupy about 700 schools and several universities in Greece. The education ministry claims only about 100 are occupied.

The Day's News...

• Home sales declined dramatically last month and housing prices posted their sharpest decline in four decades as a rapidly slowing economy discouraged many potential buyers from tip-toeing into the market. Sales of existing homes declined 8.6 percent last month, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.49 million, according to the National Association of Realtors, a trade association. The median price of a home fell 13 percent in November , to $181,300 from $208,000 a year ago. That was the lowest price since February 2004.

• Shoplifters and employees who steal walked away with $34.8 billion in 2007, or an average of $350 per U.S. household, according to the National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C. The shoplifting portion is estimated at $12 billion. As the economy has worsened in the last few months, some retailers say they are seeing that figure grow 5 to 20 percent. Cities and states also lose vital tax dollars. The Retail Industry Leaders Association estimates that Missouri lost $27 million and Kansas lost $14 million in sales tax revenue due to shoplifting in 2007. (Brief commentary: shoplifting does make a difference.)

• A counterfeit casino chip scam has cost one casino more than $100,000 in recent weeks. A cashier had detected several $100 chips that were slighter thicker than the casino’s own and did not fit properly into storage racks. No one has been charged yet, said Lt. Bob Zubeck, the patrol’s gambling enforcement supervisor for the state’s western district. “These were really high quality, the best I’ve seen,” he said.
  

• C.S.A. Strategy Quote Of The Day: "Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."-- Thomas Jefferson

Major Rioting in Greece (12/22/08)

Sorry for the late start today folks...As usual, this post will be continually updated as news becomes available.

• Here's a report-back on a solidarity march and rally in Ankara, Turkey.

• Here's a report on vandalism in Milwaukee in solidarity with the Greek riots.

• Here are the Greeks once again setting a high bar for this type of action (under the fantastic headline "Cretan Attacks"): "Two banks and a car dealership were attacked early yesterday in Iraklion, Crete. Police said that assailants threw petrol bombs at a branch of the Pancretan Cooperative Bank at about 3 a.m. The branch was destroyed in the ensuing blaze. A branch of Alpha Bank was then attacked before the arsonists moved onto the car dealership. Nobody was injured in the attacks."

• Here's a report-back on some solidarity vandalism in Kansas City and a march in Portland.
  

• Here's a report-back from a solidarity march in St. Louis that got rowdy and ended with six arrests. And here's a video of some of the arrests from a local news affiliate.
  

• Greek police experts on Sunday carried out an on-site forensic investigation at the spot where Alexis Grigoropoulos was shot dead, trying to gather more evidence related to the case.

  The investigation lasted about two to three hours and was conducted in the presence of the 9th examining magistrate who is in charge of the case.

  Athens News Agency said that the additional specialized investigation, which seeks to find evidence to complement the findings of the ballistic report in light of eyewitness accounts claiming that the officer was aiming directly at the group of youths, was requested by lawyers representing the family.

• Here's some video of recent street fighting in Exarchia.

• Here's Occupied London's update on the current state of the Athens Polytechnic occupation:

  Last night was calm at the Polytechnic. As mainstream media report, the academic asylum at the campus has already been suspended - which means it is now entirely up to the police to decide if they will raid. Until recently, it used to be that the law, preventing the police and army from entering university grounds, could only be suspended after an explicit decision of the university senate. However, according to a voted amendment, an attorney general can also order its suspension should there be felonies committed in the university grounds and within 48 hours since this happens. Given that the most recent clashes with the police took place on Saturday night (Molotovs thrown against them: a felony) they have until tonight to attempt to raid the university, if they so decide...Meanwhile, the occupied GSEE (trade union) building was handed back to the GSEE yesterday, following a decision by the occupation’s assembly.

• Here's a video news report (in Greek) on yesterday's events.

• Here are some photos and on the ground info on the action in Germany.
  

• From Der Spiegel: While police and demonstraters continued to battle on the streets of Athens over the weekend, German police broke up a large sympathy protest after it grew violent.

  Scores of German riot police confronted an estimated 950 protesters in Hamburg over the weekend who were expressing their sympathy for student protesters in Greece by marching under the banner of "Solidarity is a weapon."

  Police reported that the protest actions -- which allegedly included numerous members of the far-left anarchist scene -- were broken up on Saturday after they escalated to rioting, with special police units and journalists being pelted with bottles, iron rods and fireworks. Four police officers were reported injured.Protest actions, some violent, also continued to bring chaos to the streets of Athens over the weekend as police battled riots and lawlessness sparked by the Dec. 6 police killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos.

  On Saturday, a memorial service to the slain boy turned violent and led to scattered groups of masked youths showering police with rocks and Molotov cocktails and igniting at least six police vehicles and numerous garbage containers. As black smoke lofted above the skyline of the vast city, heavily armed police broke up crowds of protesters with tear gas.

  Other incidents Saturday included the fire-bombing and destruction of a credit-reporting agency and clashes around the 18-meter-high (60-foot) Christmas tree in Syntagma Square between police and protesters trying to hang trash bags from its branches. The original tree was burned down by protesters on Dec. 8, the third day of riots, and replaced soon thereafter.

Major Rioting in Greece (12/21/08)

• Here's a report on the day's events in Greece, focusing on Athens.
  

• A band of demonstrators, many wearing black masks, stormed a bustling San Francisco mall Saturday evening, upending garbage cans and foliage and damaging crystal merchandise at one kiosk. An estimated 50 to 75 people were involved in the disruption at Westfield San Francisco Centre, police said.

  The disruption began around 6:30 p.m. as holiday shoppers crowded the mall on the last Saturday before Christmas. Some protesters threw food, police said. Others tried to toss a large planter onto the food court below.

  According to mall management, the protesters were part of a "Solidarity with Greek Uprising" demonstration, which began in the Mission District earlier in the afternoon. An international day of action was called on Saturday to protest the death of a young man in Greece in early December.
  

  A police source said five or six protesters were arrested for misdemeanor vandalism.

• Newspaper headlines in Athens focused on speculation that the current government might fall or be forced to reorganize.
  

• Six police vehicles were torched by unidentified hood-wearing assailants wielding petrol bombs in the west Athens district of Nea Philadelphia in the early hours of Sunday morning. The vehicles were parked outside the building of the police accounting department at Patriarchou Constantinou street, which also suffered damage in the attack.

  At around the same time, rioting and clashes with riot police continued in the area around the Athens Polytechnic (National Technical University of Athens), with protestors again lobbing petrol bombs at police.

  Earlier, a anti-racism rally in Syntagma Square had led to another violent confrontation between protestors and riot police when a group tried to deposit bags of rubbish at the foot of the new Christmas Tree set up in the square by the Athens municipality, replacing the tree torched on the first day of rioting triggered by the death of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos at the hands of police. Police used tear gas to disperse the protestors.

  Protests over the events in Greece were also reported from abroad. Dozens were arrested and four police officers were injured in Hamburg on Saturday during clashes that broke out on the margins of a rally in support of the protest movement in Greek high schools.

  There was also a small protest by some 15 demonstrators who picketed the Greek Consulate in New York to protest against police brutality worldwide.

• Occupied London is reporting that the administration of Athens Polytechnic has bypassed the usual process and given the police indirect authority to enter the campus:
  

  A few moments ago one of the pro-vice-chancellors of the Athens Polytechnic announced to the people inside the occupied building that the control of the building is no longer with the university senate and that it has been passed on to an attorney general instead. Anarchist radio 98 FM reports that the senate has ordered the university guards to leave their positions.

  There is a general assembly happening right now at the Athens Polytechnic, with people deciding whether they should leave the building or not.

  What the pro-vice-chancellor claimed to have happened is absurd and 100% illegal even by the state’s own laws. What we are all fearing is that a police operation inside the Polytechnic is imminent. This would be the first time in over a decade that such an operation takes place - and the first time ever that police enter university grounds with a mass operation without prior permission by the senate.

  If the occupiers remain and the police do attempt to clear the campus, the backlash from such an action could be intense. A defiant statement has now been issued calling for a mass convergence on the campus.
  

• Four gas stations were vandalized yesterday in Tacoma, Washington in solidarity with the Greek riots: "Early on the morning of the 20th, in memory of the 15 year old hero Alexandros Grigoropoulos and all those murdered by the police and other defenders of this false and rotting order, and in memory of our own lives, fuel hoses were slashed, pump consoles were destroyed, and the message 'walk to work and murder your boss' was left at two Shell stations and two Chevron stations in Tacoma."

• Here's a TV news report, containing some misinformation, on a solidarity protest in Turkey.
  

Major Rioting in Greece (12/20/08)

• Here's two separate video angles (1, 2) of the action around Athens' Christmas tree today. Next year in Rockefeller Center!
  

• As our commenter points out, here is a report on today's action in Greece, focusing on Athens.
  

• Greece’s most recent economic data was released today, further taking the wind out of the sails of the deterministic economic desperation narrative pushed by the corporate media: “Unemployment in the third trimester of 2008 fell to 7.2 percent, down from 7.9 percent in the same period in 2007, the Greek national statistics service said on Thursday. This is the lowest level of unemployment on record in the 3rd trimester of any year since records began in 1998.”

• Here's a very thoughtful, intelligent analysis of the situation in Greece and its implications for anarchists in the U.S. from the CrimethInc. blog. Worth discussing at length.
  

• The first 50 or so photos here are from today.
  

• From the AP: "Hundreds of rioters battled police in central Athens on Saturday, fire-bombing a credit reporting agency and attacking the city's Christmas tree two weeks after the police shooting of a teenager set off Greece's worst unrest in decades.

  Saturday's violence followed a memorial gathering at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) where 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos died Dec. 6, in the Athens neighborhood of Exarchia.

  The rioters, using the National Technical University of Athens as a base, launched attacks against police, throwing rocks and petrol bombs and erecting roadblocks.

  Saturday evening, masked men broke into the building housing the offices of Tiresias SA, a company that keeps records of delinquent debtors and cardholders, and firebombed the company's offices. The fire was extinguished but the company's offices were destroyed, witnesses said. (Note: this action earns high marks)
  

  At around 4 p.m. Saturday, about 150 youth attacked the Christmas tree at Syntagma Square in central Athens, hanging trash bags from its branches before clashing with riot police. The square was cleared within two hours. At least three news photographers were injured by police batons. The tree survived the attack.

  Police said about 1,000 people turned out for a demonstration in Hamburg, Germany. Bottles were thrown at police during and after the protest, and four officers were lightly injured; nine people were detained."

• Stores in the northern and southern suburbs have seen a sharp dip in activity, as forecasts that shoppers avoiding the riot-shaken center of Athens would turn to them ended up being inaccurate.

  Managers and employees at shops in The Mall, Athens, the popular commercial complex in Maroussi, tell Kathimerini that their turnover has plunged by between 30 and 90 percent this year. The drop is partially attributed to the impact of the economic crisis but also to the riots in central Athens which, they say, has had a “numbing” effect on consumers.

• Here's the latest from Athens, via Occupied London:
  

  "The plan for today was for many small demonstrations to take place around the entire city of Athens, so that this decentralised action could bring the city to a standstill. There were demonstrations in the neighbourhoods of Gyzi, Peristeri (were the second student was shot), Chaidari, Petralona, Nea Smyrni, Victoria, Vyronas, Illion (that’s tomorrow) and in the cities of Thessaloniki, Heraclion and Larisa.

  Fresh “anarcho-transportation” actions took place at the metro stations of Brahami and Ayios Antonios. In the last few days, many stations around the city have been visited by small anarchist groups that sabotage the vending machines, handing out leaflets (”the self-organisation of the passengers will bring the end of the ticket inspectors”…)

  At least four more radio stations were occupied today (”Best,” “En Lefko”, “Athina 9.84″ and “Republic 100.3″; texts against state violence and in solidarity with the arrestees of the riots were read.

  Responding to a callout by the Athens Polytechnic occupation, we will be gathering at the point of Alexis’ assassination in the next couple of hours. We’ve been reading the reports from the solidarity actions across the world. Keep them coming. The states murder the people but tonight, a night against state murders, is a night of the people. This is our night."

• Here's a very good, freshly posted summary of yesterday's actions in and around Athens. Most of the events described here were not mentioned in corporate media reports, but this source has proved reliable.
  

• From the AP: "Protesters attacked a city-sponsored Christmas tree in central Athens Saturday, tossing garbage and hanging trash bags from its branches before clashing with riot police.

  In the northern city of Thessaloniki, a small-group of self-styled anarchists occupied a cinema in the city's main square and threw cakes and candy at Mayor Vassilis Papageorgopoulos and one of his deputies. The mayor was attending a Christmas-related event distributing the sweets to children with sickle-cell anemia, when the rioters seized the stand and threw its contents at the city officials.

  The Christmas tree protest had been advertised as part of a day of events in Greece and around the world exactly two weeks since a 15-year-old was shot dead by police.

  The crowd of about 150 clashed with dozens of police shortly after 4 p.m. after throwing garbage at the tree in Athens' central Syntagma Square. Riot police used pepper spray on the protesters.

  The square's first Christmas tree was burned to the ground on Dec. 8, the worst day of rioting in the Athens center.

  Another gathering was set for Saturday night at the site where teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot dead in the central neighborhood of Exarchia on Dec. 6. A similar gathering the previous Saturday ended with self-styled anarchists armed with rocks, iron bars and Molotov cocktails clashing with tear-gas-throwing riot police."

• Here's an incomplete list of announced solidarity events happening today. If you don't see something happening in your town or these events don't appeal to you, go make something happen on your own or with friends. We have the power to build on this momentum; let's not miss a golden opportunity.
  

  Atlanta - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 10:00 - 14:00
  * Location: Tower Place, Suite 1670 3340, Peachtree Rd., N.E., Atlanta, GA 30326, United States
  * Info: protest at the Greek consulate

  Napoli - 20 December 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 10:30
  * Location: Piazza del Gesù, Napoli, Italia

  London - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 11:00 am
  * Location: Embassy of Greece, 1A Holland Park W11 3TP, London, UK

  Boston - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 12:00
  * Location: Fanueil Hall, Boston, MA

  Santa Barbara - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 12:00 (noon)
  * Location: Meet in front of Java Jones on Lower State, Santa Barbara, California, USA
  * Info: Solidarity/Awareness Rally to Support Greece and Spread the Word

  Katovice - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 12:00
  * Location: not sure, Katowice, Poland
  * Info: Początek demonstracji na ul. Stawowej (przy fontannie z żabą).

  Cardiff - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 12:00 (noon)
  * Location: Nye Bevan statue, Queen Street, Cardiff, Wales
  * Source: [1]

  Nuuk - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 12:00 - 14:00
  * Location: Nuuk, Greenland

  Leiden - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 12:00 - 17:00
  * Location: (ergens op de)
  Haarlemmerstraat, Leiden, the Netherands
  * Info: Open lucht expositie + 20.00 openbaar debat en vergadering, Linkse
  Kerk, Vrijplaats Koppenhinksteeg

  New York - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 12:30
  * Location: Starbucks at 1117 Lexington Ave & 78th, New York City, NY, USA
  * Info: march to the Greek embassy

  Ankara - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 12:30
  * Location: exact location see link, Greek Embassy, Ankara

  Dublin - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 13:00
  * Location: Meet top of Grafton Street, Dublin, Ireland
  * Info: Demo against Repression and State Murder, Solidarity with Greek Uprising!

  Pamplona - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 13:00
  * Location: Plaza de Mercaderes, Pamplona, Spain

  Warszawa - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 13:00
  * Location: Krakowskie Przedmieście 47/51, przed biurem Radcy Handlowego Grecji Warszawa, Poland

  Frankfurt - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 13:00
  * Location: Bockenheimer Warte, Frankfurt, Germany
  * Info: Demonstration

  Paris - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 13:00
  * Location: la Fontaine des Innocents (Les Halles) Paris, France

  Paris - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 13:00
  * Location: Place St Michel (devant la Fontaine), Paris, France

  São Paulo - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 14:00
  * Location: Consulado Grego no Rio, Praia do Flamengo 344, São Paulo, Brazil

  Cyprus - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 14:00
  * Location: Parliament, Nicosia, Cyprus

  Hamburg - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 14:00
  * Location: Uni Hamburg, Allende-Platz, Hamburg, Germany

  Toulouse - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 14:00
  * Location: Metro Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France

  Montauban - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 14:00
  * Location: devant la préfecture, Montauban, France

  Eugene - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 14:00
  * Location: Fairgrounds, Eugene OR, US
  * Info: Bring music, banners, and anything else you can think of.

  Roma - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 14:00
  * Location: Colosseo, Roma, Italia

  London - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 14:00
  * Location: Wood Green Library, N22, London, UK
  * Info: Demonstration against Police Brutality and State Terrorism

  Istanbul - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 14:30
  * Location: Taksim Square, Istanbul Turkey

  Lyon - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 14:30
  * Location: Place de la Comédie (devant l’opéra - hotel de ville), Lyon, France

  Lisbon - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 15:00
  * Location: Praça da Figueira, Lisboa, Portugal

  Washington DC - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 15:00
  * Location: Greek embassy, 2228 Massachusetts Ave., NW (Metro-Dupont Circle), Washington DC, US

  Porto - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 15:00
  * Location: Casa Viva, Praça do Marquês, 167, Porto, Portugal
  * Info: cultural actions, popular dinner

  Brest - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 15:00
  * Location: Place de la Liberté, Brest, France

  Ankara - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 15:00
  * Location: Yüksel Ankara, Turkey
  * Info: demo and press statement

  San Fransisco - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 16:00
  * Location: 24th and Mission, San Francisco, United States
  * Info: March and General Assembly

  Brussels - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 16:00
  * Location: Solbosh (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
  * Info: Demonstration

  Rochester MN - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 16:00
  * Location: Apache Mall, Rochester, MN, US
  * Info: anti-capitalist drum circle

  Toronto - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 16:00 - 18:00
  * Location: 365 Bloor Street, Toronto, Canada
  * Info: protest at Greek Consulate

  Flensburg - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 16:30
  * Location: Südermarkt, Flensburg, Germany
  * Info: demonstration for squats showing solidarity with the greek anarchists.

  Smyrna - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 Dec 2008
  * Time: 16.30
  * Location: Konak, Smyrna (Izmir), Turkey
  * Info: The march starts from Old Sumerbank building

  Portland - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 17:00
  * Location: North Park Blocks, Portland, United States

  Rochester NY - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 17:00
  * Location: Washington Square Park (181 S. Clinton Avenue), Rochester, NY, US

  Hamburg - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 17:00
  * Location: Neue ABC-Strasse, Hamburg, Germany
  * Info: troubles with authorities about time and place, see source link

  Syracuse - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 17:00
  * Location: Hanover Square 133 E Water St, Syracuse, NY 13202, US

  Milwaukee - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 18:00
  * Location: CCC, Milwaukee, US
  * Info: Infonight

  Barcelona - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 18:00
  * Location: Portal de l’Àngel, Barcelona, Spain

  Strasbourg - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 18:00
  * Location: Place Broglie (à coté du “christkindelmarik”), Strasbourg, France

  Copenhagen - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 18:00
  * Location: Hammerensgade, Copenhagen, Denmark
  * Info: Rally at the Greek embassy

  Edinburgh - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 18:00
  * Location: W.Parliament Square Edinburgh, Scotland

  Valladolid - 20 Dec 2008

  * Date: Saturday 20 December
  * Time: 19:30
  * Location: Fuente Dorada, Valladolid, Spain

• A Wells-Fargo bank in Fort Collins, Colorado had a window smashed last night. This action was in solidarity with the social insurrection in Greece and with immigrants and prisoners everywhere.
  

• Today is an international of solidarity. If there's an action you'd like to see announced here, send information, including links, to lobsterbeard@gmail.com or post in the comments. Here's the call: "Following a collective decision of the occupied Polytechnicʼs general assembly on Saturday 13/12, we called for global actions against state terrorism on Saturday 20/12. Because we do not forget and we do not forgive. Because the use of murderous violence by the state and bosses against those that struggle is not a localized phenomenon but rather a universal suffocating reality. Because zero tolerance and repressive terrorism, wage slavery, poverty and social exclusion, exploitation, oppression and social control are not constrained by borders – but neither is the struggle for freedom."

• Here are some more details on yesterday's interruption of a premiere at the National Theater in Athens:

  The premiere of the national theatre in Athens was interrupted by around one hundred people tonight - they took the stage and held out a banner reading “everyone to the streets”. The text distributed to the audience and actors read, among others: “now that you’ve deactivated your mobile phones, it’s about time you activated your consciousness”. Once hitting the streets, the crowd quickly formed an impromptu demonstration through central Athens - by the time we had reached Omonoia Square, our number had doubled and seemed enough to scare off the ten or so Zeta force policemen (motorcyclists) who drove off at our sight. The cast and director refused to continue the play, in solidarity with our struggle. Yesterday, a similar action took place at the Athens concert hall.

Major Rioting in Greece (12/19/08)

• About 50 protesters interrupted the premier of a play at a newly-renovated stage of Greece's National Theater in downtown Athens. They carried a banner reading ''Everyone on the streets - Free all arrested (protesters) now.''

• Liberals continue to predict that the Greek riots are a harbinger of things to come in the rest of the West.
  

• Here's a report-back with photos from a rowdy solidarity march last night in New York City. Good job folks!
  

• Here are three translated communiques from the on-going occupation of the Athens headquarters of the Greek business union GSEE.

• The first dozen pictures here are from today.

• This TIME Magazine article was posted here when it came out eight days ago, but it's worth taking another look at in light of the global day of solidarity called for tomorrow. Here's an excerpt:

  Utilizing both peaceful and violent tactics, the "Seattle Movement," as it came to be known, was a grass-roots effort to fight the ill effects of capital-driven globalization. Two years later, in 2001, the movement came to a head at the G-8 summit in Genoa, which was marked by three days of violence and the fatal shooting by Italian police of a 23-year-old protester. Only the attacks on Sept. 11, seven weeks after the chaos in Genoa, diverted the debate from global capitalism to global terrorism. Now, the so-called No Global protesters, feeling vindicated perhaps by the financial crisis and the coming wave of unemployment, may hope that this week's attention paid to Athens will rejuvenate their cause.

  Tell us, insightful readers, do the recent events in Greece and the solidarity actions around the world signal the rejuvenation of anti-capitalist resistance? Debate in the comments! And make sure you have exciting plans for tomorrow!
  

• In Syntagma Square, riot police guard a new Christmas tree, erected by municipal authorities to replace the original burnt the week before.

• Here's a good first-hand recap of yesterday's action around Greece

• A branch of Emporiki Bank on Skoufa Street in the central Athens neighborhood of Exarchia was robbed by two armed men yesterday. It was not clear by last night how much money the two suspects, who left on foot, escaped with. Another branch of Emporiki, in the district of Galatsi, was also robbed yesterday. Again, it was not clear what amount the lone robber stole.

• Here's one nice condensed video of yesterday's action in Athens.

• The headlines in Athens on Friday focused on the shooting referred to below.
  

• Thousands of youths demonstrated in central Athens Friday as anger flared in the Greek capital following the shooting of another teenager.

  The situation began heating up during a protest rally Thursday that followed the bizarre shooting of a high school student in an Athens suburb earlier this week.

  The 17-year-old was hit in the hand by an unknown assailant as he was talking to a group of schoolmates in the western suburb of Peristeri. Initial police reports showed the student -- the son of a leading trade unionist -- was hit with a .38-caliber handgun.

• Greek youths firebombed the French cultural institute in Athens on Friday and hundreds of students marched in a 14th day of anti-government protests set off by the police killing of a teenage boy. A nearby bank ATM was also damaged.

  A gang of about 20 youths attacked the French Institute in Athens, burning its exterior and smashing windows in its interior courtyard, but no one was injured in the attack.

  In western Athens, hundreds of school pupils holding a banner reading "Their Terrorism Will Not Work" marched through the streets to protest against the shooting in the hand of a 16-year-old boy on Wednesday by an unidentified gunman.

The Day's (Other) News...

While news has been streaming out of Greece at a breakneck pace, we've been holding back one of our regular features, "The Day's News..." Have no fear, we'll return to Greek riot updates first thing in the morning. If you're new to this blog, we hope you'll enjoy this small taste of what we post when there aren't insurrections in Greece.

• In the past two months alone, Somali pirates have attacked more than 30 vessels, eluding beefed up naval patrols, going farther out to sea and seeking bigger, more lucrative game, including an American cruise ship and a 1,000-foot Saudi oil tanker. The pirates are recalibrating their tactics, attacking ships in beelike swarms of 20 to 30 skiffs, and threatening to choke off one of the busiest shipping arteries in the world, at the mouth of the Red Sea. UN officials recently estimated that Somali pirates had netted as much as $120 million this year in ransom payments. The UN recently authorized land and air attacks on pirates.
  

• U.S. foreclosure filings climbed 28 percent in November from a year earlier and a brewing “storm” of new defaults and job losses may force 1 million homeowners from their properties next year. Rising unemployment, expiring foreclosure moratoriums and state efforts that “run out of steam” will push monthly filings toward the record of more than 303,000 set in August. The number of homes that revert to lenders, the last stage of foreclosure and known as “real estate owned” or REO properties, will increase to 1 million from as many as 880,000 this year.

• Legions of Mexican immigrants have been exiting the U.S. because of the economic crisis. Municipal officials in Mexico City predict that 20,000 to 30,000 of the city's former residents will move back this Christmas alone.

• The world's first refrigerated beach is to be built at a luxury hotel in Dubai so vacationers don't burn their feet on the scalding hot sand. The beach will sit next to the new Palazzo Versace hotel and will include a system of heat-absorbing pipes built under the sand and giant wind blowers, designed to keep tourists cool in the searing 40-50C heat. The hotel, which is due to open late next year or early 2010, will be controlled by thermostats linked up to computers and feature a cooled swimming pool.

• C.S.A. Strategy Quote Of The Day: "If you find yourself in a fair fight, you failed to properly plan beforehand."--Anonymous (we've used this before, but it seems timely.)
  

Major Rioting in Greece (12/18/08)

NOTE: This post will be continually updated throughout the day. Please check back often.

• Alright, here's another series of short videos (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) of today's action from the same person who brought you the previous four short videos. Let's hope they start editing future installments into a single, longer video.
  

• Here's a series of short videos (1, 2, 3, 4) showing various elements of today's march in central Athens.
  

• For those you that enjoyed The Economist piece below, here's something of a study in contrasts: a Turkish newspaper interviewed a handful of what appear to be actual Turkish anarchists about what anarchists do and why the Greeks succeed in keeping it so real.
  

• Here's TIME Magazine's profile of Black Bloc tactics in today's actions, along with a half-assed attempt to understand the larger role of anarchists in keeping the riots going.

• Here's a series of photos of the clashes in central Athens today.

• Here's video and photos of a riot police bus set on fire today near the Athens Law School.
  

• Here's a video news report on today's clashes.

• For all you lovers of radical cartography out there, here's a series of maps on the Greek riots and solidarity actions around the world. And here's a version in French.

• A group of anarchists stormed a supermarket in the Thessaloniki district of Stavroupoli yesterday, filling shopping carts with food before charging past the checkouts and distributing the booty to passers-by. Before making their getaway, the youths scattered leaflets with slogans condemning the rising cost of living.

• Here's video of today's clashes in Syntagma Square.
  

• The Greek capital was suffocating under a barrage of tear gas today as 5000 protesters swamped riot police outside parliament, 12 days after the police killing of a teenager sparked riots.
  

  Militant youths tried to breach a cordon guarding the Syntagma Square complex, prompting police to use teargas, an AFP correspondent said. When the initial attack at the parliament was repelled, protesters came back with a hail of oranges - before setting cars, bins and pavement cafe furniture ablaze as they retreated towards their rallying point, the Athens Polytechnic university.
  

  More rallies were planned for after dark.

• Here are some great photos from today.

• The Economist, perhaps the most articulate and coherent media expression of capitalist ideology, fears this blog. That's right, blogs, along with a host of other newfangled technology (the Twitter, the YouTube, etc...) has the power to disseminate anarchy outwards from Greece like a techno-meme intent on bringing down all that is sacred to the Keynesian fraternity. Check this out:

  Is it possible to imagine an Anarchist International, a trans-national version of the inchoate but impassioned demonstrations that have ravaged Greece this month?...[T]he psychological impulse behind the Greek protests—a sense of rage against all authority, which came to a head after a 15-year-old boy was killed by a police bullet—can now be transmitted almost instantaneously, in ways that would make the Bolsheviks very jealous. These days, images (moving as well as still) spread faster than words; and images, of course, transcend language barriers...The spread of sympathy protests over what began as a local Greek issue has big implications for the more formal anti-globalisation movement. That movement has ignored the idea of spontaneous but networked protest, and instead focused on taking large crowds to set-piece events like summits. Such methods look outdated now. Governments are not the only things that networked “anarchy” threatens.

  If we could actually fulfill every one of these capitalist nightmares published by the corporate media in the last two weeks, we'd be unstoppable!
  

• A homemade explosive device, planted outside a branch of Eurobank in the Thessaloniki district of Kalamaria early yesterday by unidentified assailants, damaged the building’s facade when it detonated. A similar device smashed the windows of a local Citizens’ Information and Service Center (KEP).

• Sources told Kathimerini (Athens' conservative newspaper) that the results of a ballistics test on the bullet that killed 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos, triggering the riots, appear to contradict the claims made by the policeman charged with the boy’s death. The results, to be published today, indicate that the officer had fired with his arm at a right angle to his body in the direction of the child, not straight above his head in a warning shot, as he has claimed.

• Lots of photos from today's clashes here.

• Riot police clashed with rock-throwing demonstrators in central Athens on Thursday, sending Christmas shoppers and people in cafes running for cover. Frightened parents scooped up their children from a Christmas carousel in the city's main square and fled.

  The protesters broke away from a peaceful rally and hurled rocks and firebombs at police and buildings near parliament, overturned a car and set fire to trash bins. They also splashed police with red paint.

  Police responded with tear gas.

  Firefighters and police also rushed to stop protesters from burning down the city's main Christmas tree, which was just replaced earlier this week after the first was torched in riots. Families abandoned the carousel in downtown Syntagma Square after happily going on rides all morning.

  Before the violence broke out, some 7,000 students and other protesters marched in a rally Thursday, chanting "We are the law, we'll stay on the streets." As they passed, fearful shop owners shuttered their store fronts. Some demonstrators painted white crime-scene-style body outlines on the streets.

• Greek marchers hurled firebombs and stones at police outside parliament on Thursday while unions grounded flights and shut down public offices in a 13th day of anti-government protests since police shot dead a teenager.

  Protesters waving red flags jostled with police, who formed a cordon around parliament, and attempted to burn down a Christmas tree in the square outside. Police fired teargas to disperse the crowd. Adding to tensions in the capital, before further protests planned on Thursday and Friday, police said a 16-year-old had been shot in the hand by an unidentified gunman in Athens late on Wednesday.