Fòram na Gàidhlig

we will not accept our money being given to bankers so that they can afford to take our houses.

Greece: Police crack down as government and opposition seek to isolate mass protests

By Stefan Steinberg

(16 December 2008) -- Sections of the Greek media and leading politicians have sought to brand as "extremists" and "terrorists" the tens of thousands of Greek students, school pupils and ordinary workers, including immigrants and the employed, who have repeatedly taken part in mass demonstrations in the Greek capital Athens and other major cities.

Initially, demonstrators demanded the prosecution of those police officers responsible for the shooting death of a 15-year-old youth. Increasingly, however, the demonstrations have taken the form of protests against the Greek government and the entire political establishment. One of the most common demands of the protesters is the call for the resignation of the conservative Greek government led by Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis (New Democrats, ND).

Together with the concerted campaign to demonise the protesters, leading newspapers have called for determined police action to repress the mass movement. Last weekend, there were clear indications of a change in police tactics, which in turn points to a decision in leading government circles to isolate, intimidate and suppress the protest movement.

On Sunday, police charged a peaceful candlelit vigil in Syntagma Square, outside the parliament building and the city's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The crowd of demonstrators, numbering about 600, confronted several busloads of riot police who began to deploy at the front and back of the demonstration and on side streets.

One eyewitness told the BBC, "After the majority of the protesters had passed one of these side streets, a group of riot police charged and forced about 15 young men and women into a dark shop front on the corner of the street.

"As the protesters put their hands on their heads to signify that they were not intending to fight, the police began beating individuals with their batons, issuing threats of extreme violence. The women were handcuffed together and the men strip-searched."

The witness, a British businessman who speaks Greek, reported that riot police then turned on innocent bystanders: "A riot policeman ran up behind one of the men kicking him in the back making obscene comments about his size. As the man turned, the policeman began beating the young man with his baton, striking him on the head and the side of his face."

The witness said that he overheard the police saying to their detainees, "We have you now. You are out of your universities now.... We are going to kill you."

The BBC report is backed up by an eyewitness report (below) sent to the World Socialist Web Site by a Greek student.

The stepping up of police aggression comes at a time when the political establishment in Greece is closing ranks against the mass protests. The leader of the main opposition party PASOK, Georgiou Papandreou, recently called for new elections. But his party collaborates closely with the government in parliament, and the current Greek president is a former founding member of the organisation.

The propaganda of the government and opposition has been largely rejected by the population. Recent polls make clear that most people think the riots are a social uprising, rather than just a reaction to the police shooting.

According to the BBC, 60 percent of those questioned by the Kathimerini newspaper rejected the assertion that the disturbances have been merely a series of coordinated attacks by a small hard core of anarchists. Another poll, in the left-wing Ethnos newspaper, determined that 83 percent of Greeks were unhappy with the government's response to the violence. Kathimerini put the disapproval rating at 68 percent.

Some commentators called Sarko 'Le Pen light'.

On Sunday, police charged a peaceful candlelit vigilin Syntagma Square

neoni wrote:Nuair a bhitheas ruspal no dhà a losgadh càr bithidh a huile shit disturber a tighinn a mach air an eadar loine. Gach àm. Agus nas intennaiche, bithidh doaine a losgadh stùth agus an deidh bithidh iad air oillseachadh nuair a bhitheas am poileas a freagairt gu brùideal. No shit sherlock...you burn it you earn it.

nach do leugh thu na chur mi ann?

On Sunday, police charged a peaceful candlelit vigilin Syntagma Square