Greece: The revolt continues

[Joanne98]

The demonstrations that rocked Greece at the end of last year resumed on January 9, picking up where they left off before the holidays with a militant march of 20,000 teachers and students in Athens.


The protests erupted last month after Athens police killed 15-year-old student Alexandros Grigoropoulos. After a wave of student occupations and huge street battles with police, Greek unions called a general strike on December 10.

A wave of even bigger protests followed.

Despite intense repression, the movement has continued to develop. Students were again the driving force in a January 9 demonstration, called in memory of Nikos Temponeras — a teacher who was murdered on that date in 1991 by right-wing thugs of the ruling New Democracy party.

Temponeras was killed while defending his school’s occupation in the protests that took down that government.

Today, students are once again out to topple another right-wing New Democracy government, this one run by Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis. After marching January 9, students and the teachers took over the centre of Athens for more than four hours, demanding justice for Alexis, money for education, the disarming of police and the resignation of Karamanlis.

As has been the case in previous protests, police violently attacked the peaceful demonstration without any pretext.

They arrested 80 protesters and 15 lawyers who appeared at the police headquarters to defend them.

The police reserved their most rabid attacks for members of the media who were trying to document the police brutality. This attack has outraged journalists and students — and breathed new life into the student movement right before general assemblies scheduled to decide their next actions.

The Karamanlis government has already tried to charge many arrested students with ridiculous crimes under the anti-terrorist laws passed in 2001 and again before the Athens Olympics of 2004.

Continued>>>
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/780/40212

[IndianaGreen]

1. Farmers' roadblocks continue for 8th day

Here is more on the current situation in Greece:

Farmers' roadblocks continue for 8th day

Today is the 8th day of the mass peasants’ mobilizations. The governmental bid of a special 500-milion euros plan was rejected by the farmers who intensify the struggle with more roadblocks across the country.

Thousands of tractors continue to block the Athens-Thessaloniki national highway at Tempi, central Greece, and the intersections of Mikrothebes and Nikaia near the city of Larissa. Blockades also continue in Northern Greece, at the border crossings of Promachonas, Exochi, Evzoni, Doirani as well as at the Kipi east border post in Evros. In southern Greece the farmers have announced that they will block the bridge at isthmus strait cutting of Peloponisos from central and northern Greece, while mobilizations also take place in Crete.

Aleka Papariga on Sunday January 25 visited a farmers' blockade in the central Thessaly province, and spoke with the farmers and conveyed the solidarity and support of KKE. Aleka Papariga commenting to the press about the farmers’ mobilizations underscored that "Throughout Greece, from the north to the south, and of course, here in Thessaly, there are blockades are poor and middle-income farmers who are suffering from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the policy by the government, who obey the European Union's orders". She also noted that "For us there are no blue, green or red blockades. Among the protestors are people that follow different paths, vote for different parties and have some differences in their demands, but this is an issue that the farmers will solve by themselves. We support all the blockades and we don't make any distinctions," she said.

The KKE general secretary also condemned the recent sentence by a court of farmers because of their participation in previous mobilizations and underlined that the farmers' struggle must be also associated with the struggle for democratic and unions' freedom.

The farmers' protests are behind held in demand of guaranteed minimum prices for their products, increased pensions, and abolition or reduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT), lower fuel prices and others .

http://inter.kke.gr/News/2009news/2009-01-farmers2/