Major Rioting in Greece (12/13/08)

• Two banners were dropped today in Milwaukee on Saturday December 13th. They read "SOLIDARITY MEANS ATTACK: this is global social war" and "BURN GREECE BURN: Alex was here." A statement released in conjunction with this action read in part:

  Our incendiary device is the generalization of our struggles, it is to connect out of our collective isolation as an ungovernable multiplicity ensuring that with our own weathered hands one day our friends, some now facing potential prison time for their alleged actions during the RNC, will never again go to prison, because there will be no more prisons.

• Youths in Greece have firebombed a police station next to the Exarchia district. Police fired tear gas at about 100 youths who had congregated, with similar numbers in Thessaloniki also vandalising a gymnasium before holing up in a university premises.

• “Athens must burn, especially the banks,” said a teenager in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans called Marios to a reporter during a protest on Friday.

  Nearby, rioters had smashed the display screens of cash dispensers and shattered dozens of shop windows, carting off mobile telephones, watches, clothes and computers. A few rioters dragged a drinks refrigerator on to the street, ripped off the back and filled their arms with bottles and cans. They drank a few and used the rest as projectiles.

• This reprint of an earlier news story includes some new details, including this quote from one of the occupiers of Athens Polytechnic: "We have no leaders, we have no organization, we make our policies by meetings and consensus."

• Authorities say dozens of youths on foot and on motorcycles attacked a police station in central Athens, at least three banks, several stores and a government building. The youths threw at least one petroleum bomb at the police station this evening before smashing paving stones and setting up barricades with burning trash bins.

• Here's an exhaustive list of the various marches, occupations, and direct actions over the last week in Greece, many from small towns unmentioned in the corporate press.

• According to Occupied London: "Around 300 anarchists attack the offices of the Ministry of Planning and Public Works in solidarity with the struggle of the people of the village of Leukimi in Corfu (a local woman was assassinated by the police there in the summer). Two banks are also smashed and burnt. High street shops are smashed. The police are nowhere to be seen.

  Thousands of people have gathered at the point of death of Alexandros (at the corner of Messologiou and Tzavella Street in Eksarhia) and a demonstration is about to begin."

• Here are videos (1, 2) of the demonstration today in Syntagma Square. And a report from the scene there last night, with some general updates and this quote: "'Speaking as an anarchist, we want to create those social conditions that will generate more uprisings and to get more people out in the streets to demand their rights,' said 32-year-old protester Paris Kyriakides."

• Here are some photos and details from the rowdy solidarity march in Madrid on Wednesday: "400 people gathered at Sol in the city center, painted and sprayed the windows of companies and [marched] to Gran Via, the cities biggest road, to stop all the cars. After this a police station was attacked with paint bombs, the walls sprayed with slogans. Soon the people began to smash the windows and to throw stones.
  
  From all directions riot cops began to storm into the people, to beat up people. 3 people were arrested, 1o hurt and 3 cops hurt. The newspaper El Pais reported that the damage done to the police station was 15,000 Euro and that 12 banks were smashed."

• The focus of widespread protests following the police killing of a teenager shifted to the scene of his death Saturday. Alexis Grigoropoulos was killed exactly one week ago on the night of December 6, and radicals occupying nearby university buildings said they would gather over the weekend at the spot where the 15-year-old died.

  Swelled by anarchists, students blocked off the central Syntagma Square after an earlier sit-down protest by around 300 school pupils ended peacefully, and mostly dispersed by around 6:00 pm. As darkness fell, around 100 of the more militant among them continued to loiter -- amid growing police frustration, going by one officer's conversation on his mobile and not least due to low stocks of tear gas.

  Student pamphlets also announced rallies planned in front of the Athens police headquarters on Monday and back at parliament square on Thursday, when school pupils and teachers are expected to back the protests.

• Hooded youths firebombed banks and businesses in pre-dawn attacks across Athens Saturday in the eighth day of civil unrest triggered by the shooting of a 15-year-old boy by police.
  Angry youths hurled firebombs at four banks in the southern Athens suburb of Paleo Faliro as well as a supermarket, the offices of newly privatized telephone company OTE and the local party offices of the ruling conservatives. One more bank was reportedly torched in central Athens.

• Here's a call for a popular assembly in Athens, which, based on the number of these calls that have appeared recently, seems to be part of a developing trend across Greece.

• On Tuesday, anarchists occupied the TV station Super B in Patras and broadcast their own message over the airwaves. A video of the broadcast can be found here. If someone wants to translate this, that would be a major service; please post in the comments or send to lobsterbeard@gmail.com. But even if you don't understand a word of it, it's pretty entertaining to watch the news anchor clip off his microphone and walk away, leaving the bearded anarchists to deliver their spiel into the camera.
• An edgy stand-off developed on Saturday as up to 2,000 demonstrators squared up to police outside the Greek parliament in Athens on day eight of their protest movement over the killing of a teenager. Students and anarchist blocked off Syntagma Square after an earlier sit-down protest of around 300 school pupils ended without incident.

• Here's a solid report on some of the details of yesterday's actions in Athens.

• Here's a brief report from the city of Larisa in Greece: "Monday's demonstration had about 2,500 people, an unheard of number for Larisa and as a result 36 banks, the justice building, city hall, and the military justice center were attacked." Larisa is also apparently hosting a popular assembly every day in an occupied school.

• Here's a report-back from a solidarity demo in Helsinki: "Around fifty people gathered to the Greek embassy on Friday to express their support for the rebellion in Greece. There was also a demonstration in the city of Turku. In Helsinki the protesters blocked the road in front of the embassy for almost an hour and then took to the surrounding streets and made their way towards the university of Helsinki and the central railway station. A Greek comrade was teaching people their most popular chants like: Cops, Pigs, Murderers! The cops kept their distance and the demo was completed without any trouble. More protests are planned in Helsinki."

• Here's a call for a solidarity demo in London on the 14th.

• The education ministry on Friday said 130 high schools were under occupation or otherwise shut across Greece. Police said yesterday that since the start of the riots on Saturday, 176 people have been arrested, 100 of whom are foreigners. Of those, 131 have been charged with causing damage to shops and 45 with rioting.
  
  An office of the ruling Nea Dimokratia party was attacked Friday night, while a mobile telephone business was destroyed. The attacks lasted only a few minutes, the television report said.
  
  Shortly before midnight some 50 cyclists blocked the main road in front of the parliament building for 30 minutes and shouted chants against police brutality, the television report said. The protest caused traffic problems in central Athens.

• Here's another glib attempt by the corporate media to find an all-encompassing explanation for the riots, with one decent quote thrown in: "'I can't keep waking up every day not wanting to wake up,' the young man wearing the helmet said. 'We see how our parents were manipulated by the system and how afraid they were to take chances...This is a rage against that kind of decay.'"

• Saturday's newspaper headlines in Athens focused almost entirely on the fate of Greek prime minister Costas Karamanlis, who doesn't seem like he's going anywhere fast (note: are there really 18 daily newspapers in Athens?) If Greek voters seem fed up with the conservative New Democracy government -- despite having re-elected them only last year -- they may simply be trading one political dynasty for another were an election to be held. In all, a Karamanlis or a Papandreou has ruled the country for 32 of the last 53 years -- including 21 years since the fall of the dictatorship in 1974.
  

• Four different protests related to the shooting death of 15 year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos by a policeman a week ago have been planned for Saturday in Athens. The mostly youthful protesters are were also demonstrating in a number of Athens' outlying districts as well.

  Unknown suspects firebombed four bank branches, several shops and a supermarket in the coastal Athens suburb of Kalamaki early Saturday morning.

  A peaceful rally was held on Saturday outside Greece's diplomatic liaison office in Skopje, in protest over the death of 15-year old Alexis Grigoropoulos last Saturday in Athens. Protestors held a large banner with the word "Solidarity", while condemning what they called the Greek state's methods and the situation prevailing in the country. The rally ended 45 minutes later.

  On Friday in Melbourne, protestors held a rally outside the Greek embassy, expressing their support to demonstrators in Athens and condemning police for the fatal shooting of Grigoropoulos. Demonstrators held banners and shouted slogans against Greek police. The rally was organised by self-styled anarchists in Melbourne.

• Here's a video on last night's events in Athens, with some nice footage from what look like strong solidarity demos in Paris and Germany.

• A week after the police killing of a 15-year-old boy sparked riots across Greece, young protesters on Saturday promised to remain on the streets until their concerns are addressed. Several dozen students took part in a peaceful sit-down demonstration in Athens' central Syntagma Square. More demonstrations are scheduled later in the day, including a vigil at the place and time that 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was fatally shot by a police officer a week ago.

• Here's a better translation of the call for an international day of solidarity on Saturday, December 20th.

• Here's a report-back from solidarity actions in Germany:

  As the economy crumbles and prices increase all over Europe, we too raise the price of what it costs to kill one of us. On Friday late evening more than 1,000 marched in Berlin in solidarity with Greek comrades, police brutality and repression in Germany. Small protests of between 20 and up to 200 protesters took place in about ten cities across Germany. During the night there were minor arson attacks across Berlin on banks, cars and garbage bins.

• The results of forensic tests indicate that the bullet that killed 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos, and sparked this week’s rioting, appears to have entered the youth’s body directly. This casts doubt on claims by the 37-year-old policeman charged with the boy’s murder that the bullet had been fired as a warning and ricocheted.
  

  Also, in Piraeus, youths attacked a police station with stones, prompting officers to respond with tear gas. In Athens a protest march that began outside Athens University at 6 p.m. had escalated into violence by nightfall. Earlier, around 200 youths had staged a sit-down protest opposite Parliament.

  In the central district of Patissia, hundreds of pupils from a local school rallied outside a police station, some hurling stones at police. In the suburb of Korydallos, near Piraeus, more than 700 pupils from local schools clashed with police outside a prison and were met with tear gas and stun grenades. Local authorities were critical. “The attack by police was unprovoked, these were children,” Korydallos Mayor Stavros Kassimatis said.

  Students staged sit-ins at about 100 university faculties yesterday in protest at the death of the 15-year-old and the government’s education reforms. A rally is to begin in Omonia Square at noon today.

• Here's a list of planned solidarity demos. Be sure to check and see if one is happening near you, and if you're planning one in your town, be sure to post it to this list.

• The assembly of the Athens Polytechnic occupation has designated Saturday, December 20th as a day for worldwide resistance in memory of all youths, immigrants and fighters that have been murdered by the state. That should give everyone plenty of time to come up with a plan for an impressive show of solidarity with the Greek uprising. Remember: solidarity means attack!

• Here's a photo montage set to what sounds like Greek hip-hop.

• Here's an updated version of the communique from the Athens Polytechnic occupation. Excerpt:

  In these conditions of fierce exploitation and oppression, and against the daily looting and pillaging that the state and the bosses are launching, taking as spoils the oppressed people’s labor force, their life, their dignity and freedom, the accumulated social suffocation is accompanying today the rage erupting in the streets and the barricades for the murder of Alexandros.

• In Moscow, a one hundred strong solidarity bloc marched to the Greek embassy--which was fire bombed two days ago--hitting banks with paint bombs and anti-cop graffiti along the way. Much respect to anarchists in Russia, who put up with a lot of fascist craziness and still manage to keep it real.

• While the Greek police are rushing to get more tear gas sent from Germany and Israel, protesters claim that they have been using old stock from the 1980s in a desperate bid to contain the rioting. They claim that corroded chemicals were causing some demonstrators to collapse and need medical attention. “We found tear gas canister dated from 1981,” said one demonstrator, calling himself only GK. “The old chemicals make us sick, people have fainted and have trouble breathing,” he said.

• Here's a report-back and photo from a solidarity action outside of the Greek consulate in Chicago.

• A bunch of events are evidently planned for tomorrow in Athens and elsewhere. If someone wants to post a better translation in the comments, that'd be helpful.

• Here's a compilation of video clips, including a distant but discernible shot of the now notorious cop-getting-hit-by-a-Molotov incident. Pretty intense.

• The Greek government defended its handling of the riots, while the Socialist opposition took every opportunity to announce that it could have done a better job of crushing the uprising.

• More riot video.

• The corporate media continues to grope for answers. The Independent (UK) have dubbed the events in Greece the "first credit-crunch riots" and claims the weak European job market means rioting may crop up in other countries facing similar economic conditions. The Scotsman (UK) fears that rioting will become the tool of "opponents of globalization, disaffected youth and others outraged by economic turmoil." Obviously what is lost in these deterministic explanations of the Greek riots are the Greeks themselves, who do considerably more than simply react to contemporary economic condition. Anyway, more analysis later.

• Some solidarity bank smashing in Santa Cruz last night:

  Last night rocks were thrown through the windows of 2 Bank of Americas and another ATM location. We did this because the uprising of our comrades in Greece, England, Moscow and elsewhere will not go without a response. People here are killed by cops, screwed by banks, and we will revolt with just as much fury. These and the outbreaks in Europe show that it is simple for us to respond in the most direct way to the forces of repression in order for them to fall.

• The media seems pretty intent on making a story of the use of Facebook and YouTube in spreading news about the riots.

• Greek Justice Ministry officials say the government will proceed with plans for a major prison release despite this week's rioting. Authorities are planning to release some 5,000 inmates, or about 40% of Greece's prison population, starting this month. The decision followed a mass hunger strike staged by inmates last month to protest overcrowding. Justice Ministry officials said Friday that the plan would not be delayed. They did not say how many inmates would be released this month.

• In Paris, about 300 demonstrators gathered outside the Greek Embassy. Some scuffled with police and spilled over onto the Champs-Elysees, partly blocking Paris' most famous avenue, some ripping out streetlights from the center of the road as they moved along. Outside the embassy, demonstrators shouted "Murderous Greek state!" and "A police officer, a bullet, that is social justice!"

  Hundreds of protesters also marched through Berlin's Kreuzberg neighborhood, behind a van broadcasting messages of solidarity with the Greek protesters.

• Some highlights from an entertaining Times (UK) account from inside Athens Polytechnic: "Fresh-faced students, anarchists, workers and unionists huddle in discussion around camp fires fueled by looted goods from gutted chain stores... The 'masked ones', as they are known, hold informal assemblies each day, where everyone has a chance to discuss where this 'revolution' is headed. They even debate whether it is a revolution. 'It is a social riot,' said a gate guard, 'and it’s still going on. We don’t know yet where it will lead.'"

• Protesters in Spain, Denmark and Italy this week have smashed shop windows, pelted police with bottles and attacked banks in solidarity, while in France, cars were set ablaze outside the Greek consulate in Bordeaux.

• A news video on today's rioting and the damage to chain stores.

• A group of young protesters in Piraeus attacked a police station as more than 700 students in the suburb of Korydallos clashed with police.

• Here's a rough translation of a report-back from a building occupation in solidarity with the Greek rioters in Granada, Spain.

• If you happen to be in New York City, there will be a showing of footage from the Greek riots tonight (12/12/08.) Perhaps a plan for further action in the 5 boroughs will come out of that gathering as well.

• Here's a fresh video taken from within a crowd of rioters clashing with police; intense and awesome. There's some speculation that the cops are retreating faster from these clashes due to their lack of tear gas.
  
• This is Greek news video is from a couple of days ago, but it's got a lot of solid riot footage.