Updated version: December 16, 2010.
(note: Use of a google map of Athens will help)
An eyewitness report
In Today’s demonstration in Athens, the gathering of the demonstrators extended from the junction of Leoforos Alexandras and Eikostis Ogdopis Oktovrioy/ Patision street, to Omonoias Square (Plateia Omonoias in Greek) , up Stadioy street until Korai square (Dragatsanioy and Paparigopoulou cross Stadioy street). It was thus one of the biggest demonstrations of late, equivalent to the massive demonstration of the 5th of May that took place in Athens, if not slightly bigger. It was a indisputably massive demonstration. Since we in Greece practically have a junta, and like the previous time we had a junta in Greece we had to listen to the international media in order to know what was going on in Greece, we will present here the figure that the BBC journalist covering the event gave for today’s demonstration. The BBC journalist calculated today’s demonstrators between 100.000 and 200.000.
Please see the following videos and read the descriptions of the events that took place in Athens today. You will find nowhere else such an objective and detailed description, especially not in the Dutch press.
The demonstrators marched up Stadiou street and towards Syntagma square where the Greek parliament is.
See the masses of demonstrators here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6MQYcvr_7k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3UlRoW7Vds
As they had gathered in Eikostis Ogdopis Oktovrioy/ Patision street, and as they marched towards the streets of Athens. The demonstators seen in these videos participated in the “Initiative of Work floor Trade Unions” blocks. The demonstrators of the Anti-Authoritarian Movement (A.K.) were present within these blocks.
In 1:09 – 1: 36 of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3UlRoW7Vds you can see the president of the trade union of Athens Metro/ Underground railway workers calling of a constant strike action and stating that today a new junta has been established in Greece.
In Omonoia Square http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdfvtNc1Ha4 demonstrators gathered to march with the blocks of the PAME i.e. the trade unionists of the Communist Party of Greece.
These three videos above present only a part of the people that had gathered for the demonstration.
As the demonstrators were pouring in Syntagama square in their tens of thousands, outraged and impoverished normal demonstrators attacked the Conservative MP K. Xatzidakis, a well know advocate of extreme neoliberal policies, which was arrogant enough to take a walk with his armed bodyguards next to the demonstrators at a crossing street of Panepistimioy street. What happened you can see in the following videos at 2:52 – 3:18 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuJZdWTiaJM&
and: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWr9p-HhSps&
Following this event the riot police started attacking the whole demonstration at Syntagma square. Its aim was obviously to disperse the demonstration, cut it into two and remove all the demonstrators from Synatgma square so that the demonstration would not be able to be conducted and completed. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjsx29Ykl_8
the people that were gathered in the center of Syntagma square near the metro underground station at the moment that the riot police started its tear and chemical gas attack on the demonstrators that were pouring in Syntagma square. It goes without saying that this strategy of the police is a gross violation of the Greek constitution and especially article 9 which guarantees and safeguards the right of the people to demonstrate. But the Greek police was never bind by the laws and the constitutional arrangements of the Greek state, so it proceded doing with what it knows best i.e. oppress democracy and the people’s democratic rights.
In this CNN video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBCaDrG-_KI you see the riot police attacking the demonstration. The violent attack carried out by the riot police was of course directed against the demonstration as a whole. As the demonstrators received a barrage of tear gas and chemical gas attack by the riot police, they were swept from the Syntagma square. See video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Tres394UM& which presents fragments of the massive police tear and chemical gas attacks in order to disperse the demonstrators on Syntagma square and cut the demonstration into two parts.
As a result of this attack, the massive blocks of demonstrators that were marching up the Stadio street were prohibited from entering Syntagma square and continuing their march, passing by the Greek parliament and then turning left on Leoforos Eleftherioy Venizeloy and then march down Panepistimioy street. Massive blocks of demonstrators were trapped between the junction of Leoforos Alexandras and Patision – Plateia Omonoias – and Stadio street and Servias Karagiorgi street. Masses of demonstrators remained on Panepistimioy street up to the area of Panepistimioy metro station, where the “Rectorship building” of the University of Athens is.
The riot police that was stationed in every crossing street of the previous mentioned boulevards were constantly bombarding all the demonstrators with every possible tear gas and chemical gas that you can imagine. Indicative of the atmosphere that the demonstrators faced are the images shown in the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv80b-E2pT0 There was not a single demonstrator today that was not affected by the tear and chemical gas attacks of the riot police. Nobody could breath properly without coughing, without feeling their eyes burning or without his or her skin being affected by the tear and chemical gas used by the Greek riot police.
Indicative in the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t491x3WEXvY&NR=1
Between 1:06 – 1:46 you can see demonstrators marching up Stadiou street not being able to breath due to the tear gas and chemical attacks of the Greek riot police. Thus, you can see all the demonstrations are trying to cover their nose and parts of their face and neck.
The “Greek” government has made massive shipments of all these “products”, illegal according to international law, from the state of Israel recently.
In the CNN video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBCaDrG-_KI you can see form 0:00 to 0:48 fragments of the attack of the riot police against the whole demonstration that happened on Syntagma square. Later on, you can see at 1:06 – 2:14 the attack by the riot police which cut the demonstration into two parts at Leoforos Eleftherioy Venizeloy and Synatgma square, while some demonstrators return in kind the violence to the riot police which had initiated far in advance a planned attack on the demonstrators.
On http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tiQ_uReNUo&feature=sub and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT9xYL4lTyc
you can see the riot police attacking the demonstrators at the Leoforos Eleftherioy Venizeloy and Panepistimioy street being attacked by the riot police. The riot police in their attempt to disperse the demonstrators continued its attack on Stadiou street until the Anglican church that is placed on Stadiou street.
In the CNN video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBCaDrG-_KI you can also see in this video the demonstrators as well as the top parts of their banners as they are trapped on Servias Karagiorgi street and Leoforos Eleftherioy Venizeloy. Of course the masses of the demonstrators are marching up Stadio Street and not being able to enter the Syntagma square due to the actions of the riot police.
It goes with out saying that some demonstrators responded in the same terms to the violence of the riot police. In the following video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuJZdWTiaJM between 0:05 and 0:45 you can see the response of radical demonstrators, mainly anarchists, to the tear gas attacks that the riot police had unleashed upon the demonstrators. The violent scenes took place in front of the most expensive hotels in Athens: King George Hotel and Great Britain Hotel. Here multiple members of the EU–IMF troika who follow the implementation of the draconic neoliberal policies in Greece live and spent there time as well as the money of the Greek taxpayers who they are skinning alive with their policies. Two very expensive cars were burned during these clashes.
Between 0:46 – 0:50 you can see the result of the police tear and chemical gas barrage as it was redirected towards the area where the above mentioned demonstrators were.
Minutes 0:51 – 1:39 present part of the main police attack that took place at Leoforos Eleftherioy Venizeloy and Syntagma. The aim of the massive police attack was to cut the demonstration into two, which of course it achieved due to the violence and above all chemical and tear gas barrages that were used.
As the police attack against the demonstration intensified and the demonstration continued being cut into two parts at Leoforos Eleftherioy Venizeloy and Syntagma square, half of the block of the “Initiative of the Work floor Trade Unions” (i.e. the radical base trade unions, something close to the Italian COMBAS) were forced to retreat on Leoforos Vassilissis Amalias towards Zappeio and in front of the National Gardens, due to the police tear gas and chemical gas attacks.
In the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_NPLjkVL5A from 0:00 to 0:19 you can see the movement of the demonstrators mentioned above, that were trapped in Syntagma square.
Simultaneously to these events, the police attacked the demonstrators at the junction of Stadio and Servias Karagiorgi street, which is the second entry for the demonstrators to Syntagma square. This can be seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_xjM_KNEp0
The demonstrators reacted and clashes between radical demonstrators broke out with the riot police units that were blocking the rest of the demonstrators from entering Syntagma square.
See minutes 1:40 – 2:21 of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuJZdWTiaJM
Clashes also took place near the ministry of Economics, as demonstrators that were on Syntagma square responded to the police maneuver that had cut the demonstration into two while other demonstrators tried to leave Syntagma square as they could not bear the tear and chemical gas attacks that the riot police had unleashed upon the whole demonstration. See video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tyMYevfgdo
However the demonstrators were not dispersing despite the police violence and the gas attacks. Instead they were constantly regrouping and trying to continue to march.
Following these events, the riot police carried out a massive attack sweeping every demonstrator from Syntagma square. Part of that police attack can be seen in the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EKfiN7iFUE
The police force shown in this video was stationed next to the Ministry of Economics at the junction of Fileleinon and Mitropoleos street (Syntagma square).
As time went by, the part of the block of the “Initiative of the Work Floor Trade Unions” that had retreated on Leoforos Vassilissis Amalias marched down Leoforos Vassilissis Amalias, Leoforos Eleftherioy Venizeloy and Panepistimioy street.
The demonstrators of the “Initiative of the Work floor Trade Unions” gathered in their way all the isolated groups of demonstrators that had found themselves trapped between the riot police units on the surrounding areas of Syntagma square. Thus gathering these scattered groups of demonstrators, liberating them and taking them with them. As soon as the block of the “Initiative of the Work floor Trade Unions” and other radical demonstrators reached Panepistimioy street, the massive blocks of demonstrators was reunited with the rest of the demonstrators.
In the mean time on the junction of Panepistimioy street and Sina street, a blood thirsty attack of the riot police units was unleashed against the student unions of the University of Athens. The students of the Physics Department of the University of Athens were in the unfortunate position to receive the main thrust of the murderous riot police attack. Of course the attack was as always unprovoked. Many students ended up in hospital once again, while the medical doctors that treated them were once again appalled by the violence of the riot police. (For previous condemnations by NHS Medical Doctors, of the violence exercised by the riot police against the Greek students see http://www.enet.gr/?i=issue.el.home&date=12/12/2010&id=232511 text in Greek, a “google translation” is indicative enough though. The text is published in the third biggest Greek daily newspaper)
The student demonstrators were able to regroup – which is a miracle in itself – and continued their demonstration.
The “Initiative of Work floor Trade Unions” and the demonstrators of the Anti-Authoritarian Movement (A.K.) continued marching down Panepistimiou street towards Omoneia square, were they turned right on Eikostis Ogdopis Oktovrioy/ Patision street. The demonstrators marched towards junction of Leoforos Alexandras and Eikostis Ogdopis Oktovrioy/ Patision street, the place which they had initially gathered at the start of the demonstration. The offices of the official trade union federation (GSEE) are to be found near that junction. As the official trade union federation has been actively involved in the implementation of the cancellation of collective bargaining in Greece (a decision which has lead to the disintegration of the presidency of the Trade Union federation, the official president of which has gone into hiding in his villa in Politia, the most expensive suburb of Athens and was nowhere to be found today) the demonstrators attempted to occupy the offices of the Trade union federation (GSEE). They were met though by units of riot police which underestimated the strength of the demonstrators and attacked them. Fragments of the clashes that took place in the surrounding areas of the offices of the official trade union federation can be seen in the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G28CI8trJ_A
The riot police units were forced to retreat, while a riot police unit pulled out their guns and threatened the demonstrators with their guns in their attempt to prevent the demonstrators which had pulled them aside from entering and occupying the offices of the official trade union federation. It is the second time in the past weeks that the police pulled their guns against striking demonstrators. The junta is back.
However 100.000 – 200.000 people that participated in today’s demonstration in Athens as well as the millions that were on strike today have given their verdict to the government of the rich Greeks, the IMF and the EU, your time has passed, it is time for all of you to go.
The junta will fall. As it has happened in the resent past, once again the coming days or months the junta governing Greece will fall.
The struggle continues.
GIO 