Greek Updates and not Media Spin !

People rise up against the latest round of austerity measures; 48 hour General Strike; full Occupied London coverage

For our latest updates, continue checking this post or follow the February 10-11 General Strike tag.

Saturday, Feb 11

• Athens: Second communiqué by the occupied Law School
• Peacetime crimes
• Leader of far-right LAOS party warns of possible army intervention
• Heraclion, Crete: Anarchists occupy local TV station (video) 
• Thessaloniki: Olympion cinema occupied
• “Let’s organise the implacability of human dignity”

Friday, Feb 10

• Photos from Athens General Strike, day 1 
• “So it’s final now”
• New memorandum agreement to come to parliament on Sunday or Monday
• Mental Health workers occupying Ministry of Health issue statement 
• Videos from tonight’s General Strike, Athens 
• Updates from the General Strike demo, Athens, Feb 10 
• Building occupations as of Feb 10 (AM)
• Statement by the anarchist occupation of the Law School
• 48-hour General Strike called for Feb 10-
• Full text of the agreement of the “bailout” loan agreement between the troika and the greek government

Leader of far-right LAOS party warns of possible army intervention

Karatzaferis, the leader of far-right LAOS (a member party in the coalition government) warned yesterday that “it might be necessary to turn to other forces”, when asked about the much-discussed statement by a police syndicalist union according to which “police will refuse to turn against their siblings”. The picture below comes as the most fitting response to the statement in question.

Building occupations spread ahead of the General Strike demonstration

In Athens, the Law School remains under occupation. The buildings of the ministry of Health and the ministry of Labour are also occupied.

The Town Hall of the suburb of Holargos in the city is now also under occupation, by the local open assembly.

In the northern city of Veria, people have occupied the local “peripheral union” (a governance body).

The prefecture of the city of Larisa is now occupied, and so is the prefecture in the city of Corfu.

In Crete, students have occupied the Polytechnic (in the city of Chania) calling the people of the city to join them at the General Strike demonstration today. People have occupied the town hall of the city of Rethymno, too.

Popular mobilisations in Greece continue, as rumours regarding the date of the voting of the new memorandum go wild

After a full day of demonstrations in Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Chania, Kavala, Mytilini, Volos and Trikala, yet more demonstrations are planned for all the major cities tomorrow (Saturday). The major build-up however seems to be for Sunday, the alleged day of the voting of the new memorandum in parliament. While the banker-led government already seems to have serious ‘leaks’ (of MPs probably unwilling to sacrifice their personal safety for another vote), it is still unclear when the voting will take place. Originally planned for Sunday, the voting is -according to certain mass media- possibly being postponed for Monday. Whatever the date, the next few days are already promising to be some of the most crucial in recent years.

Peacetime crimes

greek original (old boy)

If at the first memorandum we were caught by surprise and we succumbed at the dilemma “the measures or a catastrophe”, the dilemma is now turned on its head: the signing of the new memorandum will be the catastrophe; its signing will be the road of no return; its signing will be the complete demolition.

In the past, at roadworks there were signs reading: “the hassle will be temporary, but the improvement in our quality of life will be permanent”. The exact opposite happens now, with the terms accompanying each loan instalment: every budgetary relief is temporary, but the demolition of society is permanent.

There is no worse scenario, there is no more dramatic scenario than the imposition of the terms of the new memorandum. No matter how dramatic the consequences of its rejection might be, we ought to not commit suicide as a society, we ought to say to the international and to the domestic troika alike that this is a democracy, not an experiment lab, that it’s people living here, not animals, that this is an independent state that ought first and foremost to prevent the degradation of its people, the demolition of its structures, the dismantling of the social fabric. We ought to be millions now saying this on the streets. Not tens, not hundreds of thousands. Millions.

No to the very much of a class politics of the peacetime criminals; no to the abolition of labour laws; no to the annihilation of the legal culture comprising Europe; no to the turning of Europe into a third world.

History is not written without us, History is written by us.

If we don’t stop them now, we will find ourselves a few months down the line once again being blackmailed, one demolition level lower. And so on, and so forth — until there is nothing left. Let’s salvage what we can still salvage. We ought to do so. And we can. We can become an example for the people who will find themselves in our position tomorrow. We can become an embankment against the wider class-based plans, we can prove that the experiment was not fit here. From now on, every gunny-pig either responds, or dies slowly and painfully from its medicine.