Greek protesters disrupt national day parades

ATHENS, March 25 (Reuters) - Greek police fired tear gas on Sunday to disperse anti-austerity protesters at national day parades to mark Greece's independence from Ottoman rule in three cities.

The annual military parade to commemorate Greece's uprising in 1821 was held under unprecedented security measures in Athens, preventing a repeat of minor clashes and heckling at previous celebrations, when protesters called President Karolos Papoulias a traitor.

The protests reflect public anger at the stifling austerity measures imposed by the government to secure the funding it needs from its international lenders stay afloat.

The measures, which include steep cuts to pay and pensions, have helped push Greece's economy into its worst recession in four decades, driving unemployment to a record 21 percent.

In Athens, streets were cordoned off and about 4,000 police officers were deployed to the city centre, including snipers on the roof of parliament and other buildings on the main Syntagma square, the scene of violent anti-austerity protests last year.

The parade in the capital was concluded peacefully but tight security meant very few people besides officials and dignitaries were able to get close enough to watch it.

"Today Greek people are fighting a tough battle. After achieving the impossible back then, we will also succeed this time," President Karolos Papoulias told reporters after the parade in Athens.

Greece, which faces elections in late April or early May amid a deep economic malaise, needs to stick to difficult economic reforms prescribed by its lenders - the European Union and the International Monetary Fund - to continue receiving aid under a second bailout deal.

In the western port city of Patras a group of about 50 protesters pelted police with bottles and stones after they were blocked from getting close the stand of dignitaries watching a student parade.

Police also fired tear gas at about 200 protesters who tried to disrupt student parades in the cities of Heraklion and Chania on the island of Crete. Police said 39 people were detained across the country. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Karolina Tagaris)

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/greek-protesters-disrupt-national-day-parades

So they had a parade that the public was not allowed to attend. What is the point? It seems that surrealism is a symptom of a ruling class losing it's grip, on power and reality.

looks like the cops will keep their jobs...for a while...

Austerity kills Greek pensioner

A Greek pensioner killed himself outside parliament in Athens in on Wednesday morning's rush hour saying government austerity had destroyed his chances of survival.

The man shot himself in the head in Syntagma Square after shouting: "So I won't leave debts for my children," according to eyewitnesses.

A hand-written note found on the retired pharmacist's body read: "The Tsolakoglou government has annihilated all traces for my survival. Since I cannot find justice, I cannot find another means to react besides putting a decent end to my life, before I start searching the rubbish bins for food."

Many Greeks have dubbed Prime Minister George Papandreou a "Georgis Tsolakoglou" after the general who headed the collaborationist government during WWII.

Shortly after the suicide messages were pinned to the tree under which the man shot himself reading: "It was a murder, not a suicide," and "Austerity kills."

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/content/view/full/117463

R.I.P., but no rest for the living. Let us channel the rage.

Tsolakoglou...bastards.
It was a murder, not a suicide

Fucking A...

I heard it on the radio this morning. I have no words. :mecry: 2 more people in the island of Euboea killed themselves few weeks ago. Fuck.

Big times ahead, some excerpts:



“We say to the people that they should not be concerned, even if this may sound shocking, which of the two parties will come first and whether the Prime Minister will come from ND or from PASOK or whether they will agree again on Mr Papademos or some other alleged technocrat or another political personality.

And it has nothing to do with them, not because the question of who will be in government is of no interest to them. But it does not have anything to do with them, in regards to them hoping that some better government could emerge. In this sense only one thing should concern them: how on the morning of the 7th of May, certain possibilities and pre-conditions will be created, so that the people can achieve, with a movement which has been strengthened substantially, with a real counter-offensive, not just a slogan but in essence, the blocking of the worst of what will arrive in June- the first staging post for the measures, which in any case has been announced- as well as the measures which will follow (…)”

Aleka Papariga stressed that a pre-condition for such a thing is the strengthening of the KKE in the elections and added: “I assure you that after the elections, over the next years, the issue of the capitalist development path or the development path which we promote in the framework of our political proposal , which is addressed to non –communists regarding working class popular power and the people’s economy, are issues which in different ways, with polemics as well as with positive discussions, will come onto the agenda even more decisively.”

Though we here often dismiss bourgoise elections here is how they are useful to a developed movement. Once you are strong enough elections function as an referendum and if you are strong enough a not so veiled threat. Growth in support at the polls will kindle further interest on the street. This has nothing to do with taking offices in a government which you cannot control.


On Wednesday A. Papariga, the GS of the CC of the KKE, speaking in the popular neighbourhood of Kallithea (Athens), referring to the discussion about a “left government”, underlined amongst other things that: “Yesterday, Tsipras, for example said the following things to you. He says that when the government of the left is formed the bankers will hand over the keys to us. Do you know of any country where because a left government was elected and the banks handed over the keys to the government. It is the job of the people to take these keys without the agreement of the plutocracy and not of the government. We have forgotten Chile with the truly heroic Allende who preferred to die rather than surrender. We have forgotten Portugal, we forget what is happening in Venezuela. We forget what happened during the whole process, not that a left government was elected, but a government which in a certain phase was not 100% to the liking of the country’s plutocracy. And indeed Tsipras said the following. He said that the ship-owners are threatening that if there is a “left government” they will remove the Greek flag and raise the Liberian flag. But he says their villas are in Greece, we will tax them. Really, does anyone believe that by taxing the villas of the industrialists and ship-owners in Greece so much money can be gathered? You will let them keep their businesses, you will let them take their ships and leave Greece, you will let them keep their factories, and you will let them take their cash and leave and you will tax their villas. And by taxing the villas you will re-construct the economy and redistribute the wealth. Tax the villas, not socialization which is what we propose (…) we are talking about working class-people’s power. The immediate solution for the people, the solution today is a strong people and a strong KKE.”


A nice demolition of the left-democrat- Green 'solutions' like the dingbats who here say what we really need to do is rein in CEO compensation. Complete attention given to a minor symptom while ignoring the pathogen is a form of distraction.

http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2012/2012-04-06-elections-brief/

National elections probably in 6th of May. Most likely, PASOK or ND wont be able to gather the necessary number of MPs to form a government unless they create a coallition after the election. Unfortunately, most likely the neo nazis will enter the parliament. The open wound of the bourgeois political system is rotting and all the old parasites of capitalism are now come to life. Nazi propaganda is rampant in poor neighborhoods esp. among the petty bourgeois indignants of ND and PASOK. The "progressive" Left is promising unicorns and flying carpets to the people declaring that a greek withdrowal from EU means a nationa disaster.

Early elections- 6th of May

Aleka Papariga: The people must take a giant step by voting for the KKE in every electoral ward.

12/4/2012

The Prime Minister L. Papademos declared early elections to be held on the 6th of May after his meeting the President of the Republic, K. Papoulias.

In a statement made immediately afterwards at the headquarters of the CC of the party, Aleka Papariga, GS of the CC of the KKE, noted :

“We address ourselves to the exploited working class, to the tortured poor popular strata in the city and countryside, to the new generation and women who are suffering and call on them in the May elections to make a giant step, giant in every way, by voting for the KKE’s lists, in every electoral ward, all over the country. This will be the new element and new message of these elections. This is the solution and the pre-condition is for the people to unite their just cause, which they know very well, the indignation which they feel, with optimism, combativeness, and the emergence of people’s initiatives. A surging people’s alliance must emerge from the elections more powerful and dynamic than before, which will seek and manage to repel the new measures which are in the pipeline and will be even worse than those which we experienced from the PASOK government and the PASOK-ND coalition government which also included for a period the LAOS party.

The KKE has a solution for the people, a proposal for government and power. But, above all, it has been demonstrated that it knows how to fight and struggle in all conditions however varied, it know how to inspire optimism and give strength to the people, it always remains stable.

We call on the working class and popular strata not to trip up on the misleading and fake proposals of the so-called “anti-memorandum” forces, not to scatter their hopes left and right only to be disappointed in the end, which will be a major blow for the effectiveness of the struggles. We call on them to take into account that the crisis in the EU, in the Eurozone will deepen, that in the years to come the EU will not remain as it is, it will become smaller, it will create enormous problems for the people and consequently the people must be emancipated from the one-way streets of the EU and the development led by the owners of capital, the monopolies at the expense of the people.

We call on the members, friends and supporters of the party as well as fellow militants, who despite their particular views and whatever differences they may have in relation to the KKE, nevertheless struggled alongside it all these years and we of course call on the members and friends of KNE to action both night and day, with self-sacrifice, so that the alternative proposal of the KKE for a way out of the crisis in favour of the people can reach everywhere. We must not let anybody who wants something different and a solution to be misled by the parties of power, or by ignorance or to be frightened by the reactionary propaganda into not taking the giant step and voting for the KKE.

The people must emerge victorious against the intimidating dilemmas, which will become even worse up until the moment the ballot boxes open.

The intimidators want a defeated people, a people on their knees so that they can steamroller through these new measures. The misleaders want to exploit the justified popular anger in order to promote allegedly easy solutions. The solutions for the people are never easy. But the solution which the KKE is proposing is pro-people, pro-worker and realistic, precisely because it is in the interests of the people and depends on the people for it to become a reality.”

http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2012/2012-04-12-ekloges/

Raise and call, the chips are on the table.