two items on the Greek uprising
MichaelP
Le Monde diplomatique - English edition --January
BAILOUTS FOR THE BANKS, BULLETS FOR THE PEOPLE
Mass uprising of Greece's youth
Why did Greek youth take to the streets? For the first time since the
second world war young people have no hope of a better life than their
parents. But there is also a failure of trust in politicians and all state
institutions, particularly the police
By Valia Kaimaki
*Valia Kaimaki is a journalist based in Athens
##############
The veteran Greek politician Leonidas Kyrkos, now in his eighties, is an
iconic figure of the Greek left. He told me what he'd like to say to the
young people out on the streets: "Welcome to social struggle, my friends.
Now you must take care of yourself and your struggle."
Following the killing of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos by a special
police unit on 6 December, school and university students have risen up in
an unprecedented outpouring of rage. Spontaneous demonstrations, mostly
organised by email and SMS, have shaken towns and cities across the
country: Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa, Heraklion and Chania in
Crete, Ioannina, Volos, Kozani, Komotini.
This is an uprising with many origins; the most obvious is police
brutality. Alexis is not the first victim of the Greek police, only the
youngest. But its roots also lie in the economic crisis - a national one
which struck hard even before the consequences of the global financial
storm made themselves felt. On top of this, Greece is going through a
profound political crisis, both systemic and moral; it comes from the
duplicity of political parties and personalities, which has broken all
trust in state institutions.
Alexis's death wasn't an exceptional case, or a blot on the otherwise
pristine copybook of the Athens police. The list of student and immigrant
victims of torture and murder by the police goes back a long way. In 1985,
another 15-year-old, Michel Kaltezas, was murdered by a police officer - a
crime whitewashed by a corrupt judicial system. The Greek police may be no
worse than police forces in other parts of Europe, but the wounds left by
Greece's dictatorship, the military junta of 1967-74, are still open here;
and the memory of those seven dark years is deeply ingrained in people's
minds. This society does not forgive as readily as some.
THE 700 EURO GENERATION
This united front is led by a generation of the very young. There is a
reason for this: daily life for most young Greeks is dominated by
intensive schooling aimed at securing a university place. Selection is
tough and children focus hard on it from the age of 12. But once the lucky
ones get there, they soon discover the reality of life after university:
at best, a job at 700 ($1,000) a month.
The Greeks know all about the "700 euro generation". One group has now
named a new association after it: Generation 700, or just G700. They try
to give a voice to this generation, and give free legal advice too. Those
who are lucky enough to get the 700 are freelancers or subcontractors.
Even a short-term contract is seen as exceptional, because that would
entitle you to some social security, redundancy pay and holidays, whereas
a freelance agreement, now common even in the public services, gives you
no legal rights or security.
Stratos Fanaras, a political analyst and director of the public opinion
survey company Metron Analysis, outlines the situation in Greece: "The
studies we have recently conducted show that all economic indices as well
as people's aspirations for the future have sunk to a record low. People
feel let down and disillusioned, and cannot see the situation improving.
This reaction is the same for men and women, and across all social classes
and educational levels. And studies by the Foundation for Economic and
Industrial Research, which has been publishing monthly reports since 1981,
also show that economic indices have never been so low."
For the young, the political system and parties that represent it have no
legitimacy. Three political families have reigned over the Greek political
scene since the 1950s. The two main parties, New Democracy on the right
and the socialists of Pasok, have shared power for more than 30 years.
The Communist Party of Greece (KKE), still Stalinist, is in no position to
provide solutions. The Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) does at
least know how to communicate with the young, and its leap in the opinion
polls in the last months has been spectacular: after a modest 5.04% in the
national elections of September 2007, it won almost 13% of voter
preferences six months later. The election of Alexis Tsipras, 33, as
leader of its biggest component, the Coalition of the Left of Movements
and Ecology, Synapismos, has also contributed to this rise in support. The
original positions it has taken on current issues have helped to gain
support from some young people, as have some well-chosen media coups
(Tsipras took a young woman immigrant from Sierra Leone as his partner to
the Greek president's annual reception to commemorate the restoration of
democracy). Even after some levelling out, Syriza is still getting about
8%, well ahead of the KKE (which is finding its decline hard to swallow).
NEED FOR A SCAPEGOAT
This struggle for primacy on the left may have led the KKE to ally itself
with the New Democracy government and the far-right Popular Orthodox Rally
(Laos) when the government denounced Syriza as a "haven for rioters". New
Democracy needed a scapegoat to divert the public debate from the causes
of the uprising. Pasok, meanwhile, is keeping its mouth shut, knowing that
its turn to govern is coming sooner than it expected.
The government of Kostas Karamanlis has much responsibility for all this.
Elected in 2004 on a promise of openness and honesty, it has become
embroiled in scandals even worse than those of its predecessors. Bribery,
corruption, nepotism - and more. The latest concerns the illegal trading
of state land for less valuable land owned by the monastery of Vatopedi on
Mount Athos, for which those responsible have still not been brought to
justice.
The young are right to believe that in such a corrupt country, no one gets
punished. And this belief fuels the violence of their response. Their
faces hidden by masks or balaclavas, the most radical demonstrators,
mostly anarchists or autonomists, often gather in the main square of the
Exarchia district in central Athens, the area where Alexis was killed. The
police have a longstanding vendetta against the anarchists of Exarchia,
particularly because the district is right next to the Athens Polytechnic,
where students fought a decisive battle again the junta in 1973.
Street-fighting between radicals and the police in Exarchia has a long
history.
NO LESSONS LEARNED
TV coverage of the uprising across the world focused on stock images of
burning buildings and petrol-bombers. But there are significant
differences between these demonstrations and earlier ones. The crowds of
violent protesters are much larger. And the protests are not just in
Athens but in a host of towns across mainland Greece and the islands - and
they have been going on for some time. That suggests that a great many
young people have joined in the violence, and most had no previous contact
with the anarchists. On the barricades that have sprung up everywhere you
can find kids of 13 or 14.
The government of course used the masked petrol-bombers to inspire fear of
a "threat to democracy". "What democracy?" ask the protesters. It is true
that schoolchildren and university students attacked police stations with
rocks and that others damaged banks. But only a few days earlier the
government, indifferent to the impoverishment of hundreds of thousands of
Greeks, gave those banks a gift of 28bn ($39bn). And these are the banks
which use private debt-collection agencies to insult and threaten anyone
who owes them small sums of money, and to seize their property.
But young people's anger hasn't yet led to their politicisation, at least
not in the traditional sense. This is not surprising since the political
parties themselves, with the exception of those of the far left, are deaf
to the demands of the movement. open discussion, not even any sign that
they have got the message, no lessons learned," said Fanaras. "It's as if
they're just waiting for the young to get tired of smashing things up and
believe that will be the end of the uprising." Some, he thinks, may
retreat into passivity and isolation. Others may be drawn into terrorist
groups. "It was already like that after the murder of Michel Kaltezas,"
said Alexandros Yiotis, a former journalist and "anarcho-syndicalist" who
had been active in that movement in France, Spain and Greece. "In
particular, they swelled the ranks of the [Greek] 17 November terrorist
group."
There are two striking things in the state propaganda relayed by the
media, especially television. The first concerns the role of immigrants in
the uprising. It is claimed that all the shops that were burned were
targeted by hungry immigrants. And even that in Asia, for example, "it is
standard practice: people demonstrate, break into shops and then loot
them." But the violent protesters were, for the most part, ordinary
Greeks, in revolt against a corrupt political system. And when Roma took
part in some of the violence, they were avenging their own people,
forgotten victims of police repression.
Still, some of the looting was indeed the work of hungry crowds, Greek for
the most part. "It's a new phenomenon," said one student. "In protests in
the past you'd get students and trade unions at the front, then political
parties with Syriza at the back. Behind them would be the anarchists and,
when things kicked off, they would move among the ranks of Syriza and
everyone would get beaten up. But now, behind the anarchists there's a new
bloc - the hungry. Whether they are immigrants, drug addicts or
down-and-outs, they know you can usually get something to eat on a
protest."
WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
A second invention of the government and media is the claim that "angry
citizens" have taken the law into their own hands to chase off rioters. On
the contrary: they have often tried to chase off the riot police. Small
shopkeepers shout at them to get lost; passers-by wade in to try and
rescue students they've arrested. Having understood they cannot keep their
children at home, parents and grandparents join them on the streets in
order to look after them. A world turned upside down.
Will the movement continue to grow? "There's plenty of fuel for it," said
Dimitris Tsiodras, a journalist and political analyst. "For the global
economic crisis will soon begin to bite here and a great many young people
will remain marginalised; and the education system isn't exactly going to
improve tomorrow morning, and there isn't any sign of an end to political
corruption."
It is not only a question for Greece. The movement has managed to export
itself - or simply converge with others elsewhere. For one good reason:
there is a whole generation, the first since the second world war, which
has no hope for a better life than their parents. And that is not an
exclusively Greek phenomenon.
#############
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20040
UPDATE ON THE GREEK UPRISING
Interviewing Nikos Raptis
ZSpace - December 23, 2008
By Chris Spannos
and Nikos Raptis
Simmering social and material tensions in Greece were detonated by the
police killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Gregoropoulos earlier this month
on December 6th. The past three weeks have seen daily and nightly
tumultuous clashes between those rising up and the Greek state.
Demonstrations, protests, barricades, and riots have rocked the streets.
TV stations, universities, high schools, workplaces, and city
halls---overall hundreds of institutions---have been occupied.
Last Saturday was an international day of solidarity with the Greek
uprising. Labor and student demonstrations are scheduled to continue early
in the new-year.
Nikos Raptis is a resident of Athens and also a long-time contributor to
Z, which happens to be named for the Costa-Gavras film, also titled Z,
that is about resistance and repression in post-war Greece. Raptis's
article, "Greek Teenagers," provides background to the uprising. Z
collective member Chris Spannos interviewed Nikos for an update on the
current status of the revolt. The interview took place between December
17-23.
THE GREEK POPULACE
CHRIS: First, moving into the third week of rebellion, can you give an
overview of events this week and into the foreseeable future? What is the
mood of those protesting and of broader society more generally?
NIKOS: Chris, allow me, before we go ahead with the interview, to make a
few comments on the mood that I [or any other person] find myself in these
days. For example, in the morning of December 18 I read in the news:
First: In the New York Times of December 17 we read: "Jose and his brother
Romel [two Ecuadorian immigrants] appear to have been misidentified as gay
as they walked home, arms around each other, on a predawn morning in the
Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Romel managed to escape the three men who
emerged from a passing car wielding a baseball bat and shouting anti-gay
and anti-Latino epithets.
Jose was struck on the head with a bottle, then kicked and beaten into
unconsciousness... and expired last Friday night, one day before his
mother, who was traveling from Ecuador, could reach him".
Second: In today's Greek press we read: Alexis Gregoropoulos, the
15-year-old Greek, was murdered by a Greek policeman on December 6.
Yesterday, 12 days after the murder of Alexis, around 11 am, a group of
about 10 high school kids, members of the Coordinating Committee of their
school, were assembled at an open public space at Peristeri [a rather
downgraded part of Athens] discussing the program for the demonstrations
of the next day. A shot was fired from some distance and a 17-year-old kid
was hit on the palm of his right hand. The kid was operated upon this
morning and a 38-caliber revolver bullet was extracted. According to the
other kids a second shot was fired 10 minutes later from a closer
distance.
The government covered up the incident for 14 hours. Whoever did it, he
scared the lights out of the parents of the uprisen Greek teenagers. The
police have already leaked the "information" that it was a "crazy"
[neighbor] that did it. My estimate is that it was done by one of the
neo-Nazis that the government uses to do its dirty work. Again, this is my
guess.
Third: Again from the Greek press: The policeman that murdered the
15-year-old Alexis and the policeman with him during the act, were not
jailed in the main Athens prison, as there was fear that the other
prisoners might harm them. So, they were imprisoned in a small prison away
from Athens. They were put in the same cell. Yesterday, after midnight,
the murderer cop attacked his partner-cop in the cell, shouting that he
[the partner] was a "demon" and that he [the murderer] wished to have a
religious "confession" [to a priest]. The general feeling is that this is
"theater" aiming to plead insanity for the pig. Also, as expected, it
might be that the cop who did not use his gun is about to start "singing"
and therefore the attack was in earnest.
One can claim that the reference to the existence of murderous assholes in
any society is a truism. That is correct. However, what needs to be
answered is: why these murderous assholes feel that in our
"order-and-security" societies they will [tacitly] have the protection of
the police and of the [by definition conservative] judiciary? This is not
an exaggeration! Any honest observer of what is going on in our societies
will come to this conclusion.
Now to answer your question:
THE EVENTS
The above items concerning Greece give you the answer for the most
important events up to Wednesday, December 17. The wounding of the high
school kid, in Peristeri, is taken very seriously by the ordinary Greeks.
They are almost certain that whoever shot at the kid was shooting to kill.
There is one eyewitness, who has not testified officially, yet. He attests
that the shooting came from people dressed in civilian cloths in a car [a
white "Citroen"] with a big radio antenna that sped away in a flash after
the shooting. The police used to have this kind of car and antenna. This
event, naturally, has increased the anger in the populace, especially of
the revolted teenagers. On the other hand, after the shooting the parents
will try to keep the kids out of the streets. Yet, the name of Peristeri,
the site of shooting, is becoming an important word of the uprising.
Already there has been a peaceful but massive demonstration at Peristeri
to protest the shooting.
From December 17 to this day [Dec. 22] there were demonstrations but there
were no burnings and damage of banks, shops, etc. in the downtown Athens
area or other cities, as in the first days of the uprising. All these days
since about December 17 the action has been precisely targeted and, in
general, away from the center.
CHRIS: What were the targets and how significant were they?
NIKOS: The choice of targets is very revealing and of great sociopolitical
significance.
The targets were:
The headquarters of the riot Police.
The Police Academy, in New Philadelphia, in Northern Athens.
The French Institute, where the Greek youth acquires French as a
second or third language. My estimate is that it was targeted because of
the Sarkozy "phenomenon".
A government building where the data for people that have trouble
paying, taxes, loans, etc. are stored.
Sit-in by laborers at the General Federation of Workers of Greece. A US
"constructed" labor syndicate, since 1947.
Occupation of the law offices of Kougias, the "famous" lawyer who
defends the policeman that murdered the young Alexis, and "tidying-up" of
the establishment. Also, two attacks against Kougias at the city of
Patras, this time the "illustrious" barrister was defended and saved by
the police from possible severe "disciplining" by very angry youngsters.
Attack against the police unit that guards the central complex of court
buildings in Athens.
Invasion of the National Theater and stopping of the show.
Pelting of the [perennial] rightist Mayor of Salonica, a former
M.D. and a track and field athlete, with candy, bon bons and castor sugar.
The verbal reaction of the "cultured" mayor towards the young people that
"offered" him the sweets: "You social outcasts!" The bystanders approved
of the act of the...young people.
One of the most important acts of the youths of Greece these last few days
is the "creation" of the saga of the Christmas Tree at the very center of
Athens, the Constitution Square. By the way, the Preamble of the US
Constitution starts with the words "We the People". Article Three of the
Greek Constitution dictates: "The established (used to be the "official")
religion in Greece is the religion of the Eastern Orthodox Church of
Christ. The Orthodox Church of Greece, that recognizes as its head our
Lord Jesus Christ...", and so on. No wonder that the mayors of Athens,
"socialists" or rightists, always strived to erect the most glorious
plastic Christmas Tree in Europe. As most of the people in the world have
seen on their TV screens the huge Grecian Orthodox Christmas Tree [a.k.a.
Tannenbaum] was burned by the Greek teenagers et al, in the first face of
the uprising. The rightist mayor of Athens, a certain Nikitas Kaklamanis
[also an M.D.], with zingy energy managed to erect a new glorious plastic
Orthodox Christmas Tree, in record time. A few days before that, the
personnel [doctors, nurses, etc.] of one of the most important hospitals
in Athens stepped out of the hospital on the street and started cleaning
the windshields of the passing cars [symbolically] asking for money to buy
gauze for the operation rooms of the hospital as there were none in the
hospital because of lack of money. In the previous rightist government
Kaklamanis was Minister of...Health.
On Saturday, Dec. 20, a group of boys and girls, of the Superior School of
Fine Arts [of University level] went to the central meat market in
downtown Athens and asked the shopkeepers to "donate" to them all the
spoiled meat available. The shopkeepers were more than enthusiastic and
they added a half-boiled pig head to the donation. Then, securing and a
sufficient number of plastic bags full of garbage, they proceeded to the
Constitution Square and the Christmas tree. Where they started improving
the decoration of the tree. The ordinary citizens present at the time
encouraged the students. Finally, the riot police, and the firefighting
trucks arrived, beat the hell out of the students and from then on the
heroic policemen stand guard in full combat-gear all around the Orthodox
Christmas Tree.
The "joyful" saga of the Christmas Tree was accompanied by a
characteristic act of police brutality a few blocks from the Christmas
Tree. A young soldier in mufti walked down a main Athens street with his
girl friend. For no reason at all a group of policemen on the sidewalk
attack them and beat the young man hurting one of his eyes. An
eye-witness, a lawyer, intervenes. He gets rough treatment by the police.
The young man is arrested and he is now accused with very serious crimes.
The "soldier-case" has become a very serious case of police brutality for
the Greeks.
About the foreseeable future. It seems that the present "intifada" of the
Greek teenagers will not end as the youth uprisings of recent history [May
'68, etc]. One new development that corroborates this view has been the
spread of support for the Greek youth all over the world. My estimate is
that the kids are very serious in the pursuit of their aims. Yet, no one
can be certain. The most important future event is the nation-wide
demonstration, on January 9, in memory of the murder of Nikos Temponeras,
the young high school teacher of mathematics in the city of Patras years
ago [in 1991], by the leader of the [rightist] Youth of New Democracy, the
party of the present Greek government, who crushed the skull of the young
teacher. This rather forgotten murder came back in the forefront because
of the murder now of Alexis. My sense that is that the name of Temponeras,
the martyr of Patras, will play a significant role with the teenagers as
things develop. The 9th of January 2009 is a date to be studied with
interest.
As to the mood of those protesting and the broader society, Chris allow me
to dwell a bit on this subject.
As I have written in my previous ZNet Commentaries I think that in any
given population, 1/3 of it, for a "strange" reason are people who
consider themselves "conservative", that is "cryptofascist". Whether these
people [mentioned as the "1/3" from now on] are born or "made" this way is
irrelevant. This, naturally, holds also for the Greek population. These
"conservative" Greeks think that the murderous armed policeman that killed
Alexis, was defending himself, in the presence of half a dozen teenagers,
and that he was right in killing the kid, whom they consider to be a bum.
Also, they think that Kougias the "famous" lawyer is defending the
policeman effectively, by claiming that the death of the kid was the "will
of God" and that the "courts should decide if the death was necessary". If
I may add a remark here Chris, this "1/3" of reactionary individuals might
be the root of all evil in he world.
The Minister of Justice, one person named Chatzigakis, or something, in
the Greek Parliament stated that the British Government not only forgave
the policeman who killed the Brazilian youth during the attack against the
London subway a few years ago, "but reinstated him to active service".
Therefore the Greek government should, etc.
In the notoriously extreme rightist Sparta area, in Peloponnesus, there is
a movement to raise money for the family of the murderous policeman!
A group of "intellectuals" signed a declaration that confirms Noam
Chomsky's opinion about them. The tenor of their text was that the kids
were not doing the right thing.
The worst reaction about the uprising of the teenagers was that of the
Secretary of the central Committee of KKE [the Communist Party of Greece],
Aleka Papariga. She insisted that this was not an "uprising", no matter
how many the demonstrating youths. She claimed that revolutions happen
only when the workers revolt under the guidance of the communist
leadership. Also, she insinuated that the "Coalition of the Radical Left"
[a formerly eurocommunist split from KKE] was condoning the burning, etc.
An accusation that is not only incorrect but dishonest.
The most dangerous group in the events of these past weeks was that of the
neo-Nazis. The demonstrations, the burnings, the lootings, etc. gave them
a golden chance to mix with the demonstrators and carry out their horrid
work. [By the way, they call their Nazi organization the "Golden Dawn"!].
During the first days of the uprising they found the opportunity to mix
with some shopkeeper that tried to protect their shops at Patras and did
what some people called a "Kristallnacht" chasing people and breaking even
into their houses. Similar acts by neo-Nazis were performed in the
northern Greek city of Komotini.
This behavior thrives through the protection of the neo-Nazis by the
police. It seems that in the police corps there is a significant number of
neo-Nazis of the "Golden Dawn". One of the most significant events during
these days has been a video showing neo-Nazis [or policemen dressed as
demonstrators] wielding crowbars, etc., walking out of a group of regular
policemen and starting to break glass windows of shops. One of them using
a regular...sledgehammer.
However, what is of greater importance is the fact that the neo-Nazis, who
operate in the fringes of the above 1/3, have managed to enter in the
Greek parliament as an acceptable political party with a percentage of 3
to 4 % of the votes in the parliamentary elections. Most of the time in
the parliament they try to present a "populist" image using the language
and the arguments of the...communist party! However, yesterday their
leader, bearing the Turkish [!] name Karatzaferis, a former journalist
[and amateur boxer], asked the Parliament to vote for a new "special act".
The history of the "special act" ["idionymo", in Greek] is one of the most
sinister pages of the political life of Greece. This was a law
"constructed", in 1929, by the famous "father" of the Greek nation, the
"great democrat" Eleftherios Venizelos", whose innumerable marble or
bronze statues are dispersed all over Greece. The "special act" was
designed to start a brutal persecution of the Greek communists and
anarchists, who "intended to overturn the established order". This was the
beginning of a pogrom especially against the Greek communists that
included, imprisonment, torture and later, after Venizelos, executions in
the thousands, that lasted up to 1974. When Venizelos was told that the
Greek fascists of that era were intent in overturning the established
order, he declined to include the fascists in the "special Act"!
Of course, all this shouting by Karatzaferis, the "representative" of the
neo-Nazis in the Parliament, is simply posturing, because more than anyone
else he knows that if the hoods are removed many of the faces under them
will belong to "Golden Dawn" thugs or policemen.
Chris, here at this point, I have to describe a situation that is of great
importance in the political life in Greece. There are a few persons that
dominate the news in the Greek society almost on a daily basis. These are
the following:
There is an upper level Orthodox Christian priest in Salonica [I don't
know his rank but in his rank they call them "Saint"!] that goes by the
name of Anthimos. For years now he delivers from the pulpit an incredibly
extreme right wing and warlike political preaching that is very dangerous.
For example, he threatens the Macedonians [the name, etc.] with invasion
by the Greek army, or dares them a la W. Bush "let them (the Macedonians)
come!" Who supports him in this kind of behavior?
Again in Salonica, there is a guy by the name of Psomiadis, a rabid
rightist, who plays the role of the prefect, who is the non-cassocked twin
of Anthimos the priest. Although, once he came close to the
black-cassocked priest when he donned a black "Zorro" costume and rode a
horse. For years and years he appears on the TV screens from early in the
morning. What might be his role?
Then, there is Theodore Pangalos, a 70-year-old heavily overweight man,
who is proud of his weight as is attested by the story that once with the
microphones in the European Union[?] forgotten in active state he attacked
Angela Merkel verbally by saying: "Has she ever been fucked by a fat
man?", intending thus to show his prowess as a fat man. Pangalos is the
grandchild of a military general with the same Christian name, who was a
dictator [!] of Greece in 1925. As happens in some cases with the progeny
of dictators Pangalos, the grandchild named himself a leftist and enter
politics. Actually in the 60s he managed to be close to Mikis Theodorakis,
the great composer and heroic figure of the Greek left. When the
"socialists" won the elections in 1981 Pangalos joined them and for almost
two decades he held ministerial positions in the "socialist" governments,
mostly in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The "peak" of his career came
when in 1999, as a "socialist" Minister of Foreign Affairs, he delivered
Ocalan, the leader of the Kurds, to the Turks who is rotting in the
Turkish prisons since then. A couple of days ago Pangalos attacked the
"Coalition of Radical Left" as "political bums" who supported the hooded
rioters that burned, etc. The accusation is so blatantly false that one
should ask himself where is Pangalos aiming, why, and who is supporting
him in this provocative behavior for almost a half of a century? The fact
is that for the last 48 hours all are talking about the word "bums" that
Pangalos spat out of his mouth.
The two other persons in the above category of "what-is-their-role" in the
Greek society, are Kougias the lawyer and Karatzaferis the Leader of the
extreme rightists in the Greek Parliament.
There is one more new factor in this uprising in Greece; the immigrants.
At first they did not participate in the riots. They only did most of the
looting. However, in some cases they participated in the riots. This was a
natural and expected thing to do. Most immigrants that were lucky enough
to be dragged to a Greek police station, leave it as rabid haters of
everything Greek. Sodomizing with broomsticks or clubs is the "mundane"
procedure by the brave Greek policemen. The most tragic "description" of
the procedure was offered by a young Albanian man, who, years ago, after
declining to answer to the insistent questioning by Greek journalists he
said that the Greek policemen did to him "what is done to women". The
young Albanian was murdered in Albania, by the Albanian police, after
having commandeered a Greek Bus. The most recent procedure by the Greek
police, captured also on video, was to have an Albanian immigrant torture
another Albanian for the enjoyment of the Greek policemen, members of a
superior race.
CHRIS: So what about the remaining 2/3 of the population?
NIKOS: For the first time ordinary Greeks started throwing flower-pots
against the police from their upper-floor apartment balconies. For the
first time the ordinary Greeks took videos of the actions of the police
from these balconies and distributed them to the media making public the
brutality of the pigs. Actually the video with the sledgehammer is in
black and white, which might mean that the camera was of an older era.
Also, a young woman captured with her camera the scene of the departure of
the two murderous policemen walking away from the murder scene of Alexis.
A bit of information that is going to be used in court.
The most proper word to describe the mood of the 2/3 populace is:
"participatory". As for the teenagers and the students it is heartening to
listen to them stating that they fight for "dignity", that they do not
approve of barbaric "competition" in society, that they want real
education and not cramming of their minds simply with "information". Also,
it is heartening to see students and teenagers trying to extinguish fires
or prevent destruction of small shops, while the "disciplined"
demonstrators of the KKE were passing by in indifference. It seems that
this time in their struggle is very serious.
CHRIS: Is there anything particular about Greek society, history, or
relations across generations that may help explain the revolt?
NIKOS: There is a Greek "particularity" that might help in this struggle.
The Greek family is still a very close-knit entity. The present teenagers
are two generations away from the generation that experienced the Nazi
occupation of 1941-1944 and the bloody revolt of the Left against the
British and the US up to 1949. Yet in most Greek families there is a
"residue" of that experience which, given the strong bonds in the family,
enables the Greek teenagers to understand quite accurately how the world
runs. This was corroborated, now, by the maturity of their views, as
articulated during the last days.
CHRIS: Could you outline some of the material conditions please, the ones
affecting those rising up and calling for rebellion, for the youth,
students, workers, migrants, etc.?
NIKOS: The most important aspects of the material conditions are the
joblessness, the salaries of what by now is called the "generation of the
700 Euros" [about US $ 970 per month], the University degrees that are
almost useless, the flight of Greek companies to neighboring countries in
search of cheap labor, the "flexible" treatment of hiring and firing, the
unbelievably high prices in the Greek supermarkets much above the ones in
the rest of the European Union, the scandalous treatment of the money of
the taxpayers by the Government, the unbelievably bad condition of the
National Health System, the exorbitant profits of the Greek banks, and
finally the "strange" insistence of the Greek governing elite to follow
the "neo-liberal" economic model after what has happened worldwide.
THE STATE AND LEGAL SITUATION
CHRIS: Tuesday (Dec. 16) Prime Minister Karamanlis said he accepted "a
share of the blame" in the scandal involving a monastery which exchanged
tracts of farmland in northern Greece for state-owned property in Athens.
How has this affected the credibility of Karamanlis and his New Democracy
party? Is this crisis of credibility extending beyond the politicians and
parties who hold positions in the ruling apparatus, to a critique of the
political apparatus itself?
NIKOS: Karamanlis has received a savage ridicule from all quarters, except
the "strange 1/3", who have invested in him a lot [material and
immaterial]. However, even his people consider him as a not very capable
"manager", that is they consider him as incompetent. That has been
discussed confidentially even among his ministers.
Almost all scandals in Greece are swept under the carpet. The principal
factor in this rampant dishonesty, beside the politicians, is the
extremely corrupt and reactionary judiciary, originally "constructed" by
the CIA since 1947 [as most institutions in Greece] and undergoing the
necessary "maintenance", ever since. The fact that the judges "used" by
the dictators are still powerful in the judiciary is indicative of the
truth of this.
The "2/3" of the Greeks, as above described, know what is going on, but a
part of them is trapped by the "socialists" in a client-relationship as
voters, for economic reasons and the rest that are on the "real" left have
an animus that has its roots in historical reasons. One way out of this
impasse is for the leadership of the KKE [the "traditional" communists] to
depart and the base of KKE, the ordinary members, to have the honesty to
recognize past faults and join forces with the rest of the Left. The same
holds also for the base of the "socialists".
Personally I think that the teenager "intifada" will play a role, as the
kids have gained a right to a dialogue with the adults in their families
and society in general.
The legal situation has reached the following point: The bullet that
killed Alexis was examined in "Demokritos", the most important research
center in Greece, and the findings show that there were traces of "silicon
dioxide", which might mean the bullet hit some construction material
before entering the body of Alexis. However, all eyewitnesses insist that
the shots were horizontal, not in the air. That the fatal shot was
horizontal has been confirmed by the in situ investigation by technical
experts. The general consensus is that even if the bullet ricocheted, the
use of a gun was criminal.
Kougias, the defense lawyer, continues to provoke the entire Greek
population in a queer way. Many people are really angry against him. It
seems that his bravado is based not on courage but on some unfathomable
motives.
As for the policemen in prison, after the violent "theater" or real
attack, there is nothing of importance about them.
CHRIS: The police officer who shot dead Gregoropoulos has been charged
with murder. How has this affected popular disaffection with the police?
How has it affected the broader concern with worsening social and material
conditions, and the need to change society?
NIKOS: The public disaffection of the majority of the Greeks with the
police has been a given for almost half a century. What is new is the
reaction of the teenagers.
The concern about the police during this period is minimal, in contrast to
previous decades when the police could effect the ruining of lives or
could bring about everyday misery for a part of the population.
CHRIS: The Greek police have a history of violence and brutality. Do you
think the Greek state is holding back repression of the uprising for fear
of instigating even more militancy and revolt, for example, imagine the
consequences if there was a police raid of the Athens Polytechnic
University?
NIKOS: The state is not holding back repression. The impression of the
first couple of days, that the police acted "defensively", is inaccurate.
CHRIS: How far can the uprising go? How is the Greek ruling apparatus
responding? Do you think there is reason for them to be concerned about
losing control? Do elites share a common strategy for how to deal with the
uprising or is there differing opinions and fragmenting within their
ranks?
NIKOS: The uprising can go a long way. The crucial factors are the base of
the KKE and the base of the "socialists" [PASOK]. There is no reason to be
concerned about losing control. The Greek elites have always been
dependent on the favor of the White House. The ones that have reason to be
concerned are the people of the CIA station in the US Embassy in Athens. A
strong, united Greek Left has historically been a nightmare for the US.
CHRIS: Thank you Nikos.
NIKOS: Thank you.
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