International Women’s Day – Demo for Solidarity with Kuneva organised in Sofia

GREEK RIOTS: POSTCARDS FROM A CHRISTMAS YET TO COME?

by Nikola Kosmatopoulos

More than a month after the outbreak of the “December riots” in Greece, it seems that the country is still unable to return into politics-as-usual. Even if the prime minister reshuffled his cabinet in order to show that he “got the message”, even if the conventional political parties downplay the significance of the riots, even if the national media refuse to report any forms of popular action still going on, the “Greek December” still disseminates waves of aftershocks in all possible directions. To be sure, Greece and in one way the entire Europe, will never be the same thereafter.

The workers will have the last word – not the media bosses

The thousands of protesters that filled the streets in Greece on Friday January 9th, proved that the fire of December wonʼt be put out, not by bullets and acid against activists, nor by the ideological terrorism spread by the media these last few days. Consequently, the Stateʼs only response to the youth and the workers was, once more, raw repression. Encouraged by the mediaʼs demands of zero tolerance, and by the orders of their bosses, the police were free to attack with chemicals, violence and arrests, against anyone who came their way.

The revenge of life

Some thoughts on the events that are reshaping Greece these days

by Ilias Z

Published firstly on Dec 14th at indy.gr (www.indy.gr)

(abstract — This is not a “no future” generation, it’s simply a generation that does not accept the present as its future, that simply can’t stand the idea that this present will freeze and reproduce forever. At 32, still “unsettled” in every sense of the word, this is how i feel part of this youth. We do not share the cynicism, the dysthymia of a society that keeps on repeating “what can you do, that’s the way things will always be”. We crave to construct our own, autonomous future. And there are a lot of things standing in our way. That’s the point of unity between pupils, students, young working /unemployed /precarious adults. When you really want to live, a spark is enough to make you instinctively attack anything that you think stands in your way. In these moments the youth feels that police stations, riot police squads and banks are blocking their way, so they’re just trying to push them aside. If they won’t budge, you just have to burn them down (which of course doesn’t work that way, but that’s the drive to do it). And in personal life, the obstacles are being realized as your family, your bosses, your “responsibilities”. –)