Thousands took the streets again!
Reports from Greece
Thursday (12/18): reports from Greece
Nothing is over, thousands took the streets again!
This morning (19 December) it was made known that another 16 year old pupil was shot last night in Athens. There was no demonstration at that point, the boy was in a public space with some schoolmates and were discussing about further student mobilization in their school, in Peristeri. Then one shot hit the kid in the hand. He was transferred to the hospital and went throw surgery today and he is doing well. When his friends went back, a few minutes later, to search for the calyx, there was a second shot. The police, immediately claimed that the shots were fired by an air-gun and denied any involvement.
Later the doctors at the hospital contradicted the police report saying that the kid was shot with a firegun. The doctors also said that the shot was made from a big distance and that's why the bullet didn't go throw his hand and into his body. In such a distance it's impossible to aim, especially at night, which means that whoever shot, was aiming the group of kids in general. It was a matter of luck that the bullet hit the student in the hand and not in the (or any of the other kids) head or heart! It is, at least, weird that no cops (according to the police) were nearby when most (if not all) of the schools in Athens are closely surveillanced by the police since the beginning of the riots.
In the afternoon there was a demonstration in the area, were pupils, students, residents and parents attended. It is worth mentioning that members of the greek “communist” party (KKE, a Stalinist bureaucratic party which is unpopular with the leftists and anarchists because of its methods and its collaborations with the government and the police) took part too. The father of the kid is a member of the party. KKE from day 1 has been accusing the demonstrators as provocateurs and extremists. This had been the party's stand for decades now and it's methods include giving other protesters to the police and accusing everyone as “people-enemies” but its members.
At around 1.30pm the big demonstration in downtown Athens started and thousands of people took part. When it reached the parliament building, some protesters “showered” the deployed riot squads with red paint and fought them with sticks and later started throwing objects at them. The police soon started firing tear and asphyxiating gas, some of which have never been used before in Greece. The people started throwing rocks and some molotov cocktails and soon enough the city center felt like a gas chamber from all the gas fired by the cops.
The riot squads started hunting people and moving them towards the occupied universities. When some protesters tried to set alight the new christmas tree in Sintagma square, a riot squad deployed around it to protect it! The protesters gathered at the law school and at Propylea, where the riots continued. The riot squads kept throwing gas. Near the law school one money transfer van was burned and flaming barricades were created to keep away the cops and also for protection from the gas. Owners of the nearby shops were trying to turn the cops away, cause their presence there was triggering more fighting.
The police once again followed the plan “throw gas, beat up people and arrest anybody”. Several people were detained and at least 3 arrests were made. One of the people detained was a 15 year old pupil who was just filming the riot cops with his phone. When reporters and passersby confronted the cops for the arrest, they threatened them too. Some people got detained while they were just looking the fights outside the law school.
Photos of the demonstration: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_...50107
Photos of the fights: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_...49951
more photos of fights: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_...50002
and then some more: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_...50016
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_...50384
Riot cops under the christmas tree, worst present ever, someone was really bad this year: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_...49851
Videos: http://www.in.gr/video/default.aspx?videoID=77044
http://www.skai.gr/master_avod.php?id=104540
In the afternoon there was a demonstration in solidarity with the migrants and even though the police presence was heavy, there was no fighting.
In Thessaloniki: due to the bad weather and the uncertainty by many if the demonstration will take place or not, the crowds were smaller than expected but they demonstrated. In the evening the benefit/solidarity show gathered around 6000 people! In the small hours of Tuesday morning, a bank was attacked.
In Patras, after the planned demonstration, the trade union building was occupied.
Photos from the occupied trade union building: http://patras.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_...#3455
Photos and videos of yesterday's actions against Alexis Kougias in Patras: http://patras.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_...=3432
More radio stations were occupied today: 2 in Thessaloniki, 1 in Sparta and 1 in Tripoli.
In other cities. Gatherings or demonstrations took place in Corfu, Larissa, Chania and probably more.
The results of the ballistic testing came out today (sort of). The media are saying that the report says that it's still not completely clear what happened. It is said that the bullet was fired aiming close to the ground (in contradiction to the cop stating that he fired in the air). There is also evidence that the bullet hit on something before it reached Alexis. They are now saying that they need to examine the crime scene to find where the bullet hit. However, there are still eyewitnesses which have testified that the cop fired aiming towards the young boy.
The building of GSEE in Athens is still occupied.
Two more communiques by the occupants of GSEE building: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_...49446
We destroy the present because we come from the future. A communique by the occupied ASSOE: http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_...49735
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Saturday December 20, 2008 19:16
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Jump To Comment: 1Born in Athens and raised by a Marxist father who remained faithfull to his ideas by forming a company and driving a black Mercedes. As I grew up I was attracted by socialistic ideas but most of all I was fascinated by the way of life of the Anarchist amd common communities. I was 13 when I first saw the Greek flug being burnt at the Polytexneion University and all the young people that where throwing molotov at the pigs heads. I think it was 1993 and everybody said ohhh what are they doing? The flag? People fighiting on the street? And almost everybody with property started getting anxious because cars were burning, cops where burning, stores, TV panels and generally the ass of the capital started sparkling. What I saw that day made me and many other at my age believe that something great was happening. Everybody at the highschools had a beautiful glow in their eyes no matter if they came from a brutal Christian Fasict or Commusit family, the kids loved the sight of the burning flag and the city of Athens in fire. Well 15 years passed and I am in a tiny village in Greece staying hidden from the authorities and out of trouble's way and I open the TV and I see Athen's burning and most of all, the big beautifull christma's tree butr to the ground 40 meters outside the parliament and I wanted to cry tears of happiness because this view was better even of that 15 years ago. Yes I know the flag represent's the borders the racism and the Capitalism and it is great to see it burn, but what I saw know was the structure of society burning in the image of the christma's tree. And yesterday I saw a chain of 20-30 cops around the new christma's tree with fear on their face's because there was an angry croud around them holding real dead pig heads protesting throwing garbage on the cops and some of them dancing in a cyrcle around the well guarded christma's tree. And I hope that every rich bastard in Greece has a personal cop near his tree because their tree is next as so is their preoperty until it is either ashes or property of the poor immigrnants junkies homeless and desperate people of the street of Athen's Geraniou street Tosista Street Vathis Street. And now is the time to strike with any means necesarry all around greece either in the street's protesting, smashing banks burning this illusion that is called private property and we need every descenest Anarchist here in Greece because I believe that it is the right time for everyone to come in our major cities and help as make Anarchy a reality first in Athen's, Thesallonikh, Patra. We take the country, we start the spanish model and we send the revolution to Paris. This is not fat word the situation in Greece is very mature. Come my brother's there is work to be done.