The Greek No Vote Marks a Victory for Humanity

You could almost hear the collective sound of hearts being lifted across Europe in response to the Greek No ('Oxi') vote to the Troika's bailout demands, making it a moment to savour in itself. The hope that resonates with the defiance shown by the Greek people has been a long time coming for people suffering the weight of austerity, measured in the lack of fight to what has seemed a juggernaut of despair rolling over the lives of millions without respite.
Not anymore.

What this unfolding Greek crisis has exposed is that austerity is not so much an economic theory as an ideological concept - a code for class war, waged by the rich and their political servants against working people and the poor in order to maintain the wealth, privileges and profits of those who crashed the global economy with their unfettered greed and recklessness in the first place.

In calling this referendum, the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, and his Syriza government delivered a masterstroke, counterposing democracy to the tyranny of global capital, specifically the European Central Bank, IMF, and the European Commission, otherwise known as the Troika. The pressure arrayed against them in the process, both from without and within Greece by the country's privately owned media was inordinate and unprecedented. Yet despite this the people delivered a resounding No, thus plunging the Troika into crisis as Greece teeters on the edge of bankruptcy and exit from the EU.

More by John Wight on Huff. Post.

500 Greek families survive in ‘temporary camp’ with no power & running water for 15 years

Jailed Greek student Nikos Romanos’s family fear son will be ‘martyr’

From behind the bars around his bed, on the third floor of Athens’s Gennimatas hospital, Nikos Romanos could hear the thousands who took to the streets last week screaming his name, as heavily armed police looked on. Monitored by machine-gun-wielding riot police himself, the 21-year-old anarchist, imprisoned for participating in an armed bank robbery two years ago, has no desire to become a “martyr”.

“He is a fanatical lover of life. He wants to live,” his father, Giorgos Romanos, said in an exclusive interview with the Observer. “But this is his 27th day without food and his condition is deteriorating. He is getting weaker.” Death is not a word that crosses the dentist’s lips as he describes the descent of his son – his only child – from being a ski-loving model student to mascot for a seething segment of Greeks baying for a fight with officialdom at large.

But “martyrdom” is a distinct possibility. As protesters marked the sixth anniversary of the police killing of teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos – an event that would trigger weeks of violence widely seen as the prelude to Greece’s great economic crisis – the 58-year-old acknowledged that the desire for a martyr is real among the country’s growing contingent of angry, unemployed youth.

Clashes between 6,000 protesters and riot police erupted in central Athens on Saturday as teargas and water cannon were used to beat back protesters in the bohemian Exarchia neighbourhood, where about 200 black-clad youths hurled stones and molotov cocktails. A cloud of smoke billowed into the sky from the clashes. Dozens of shops were damaged and nearly 100 demonstrators were detained.

More at The Observer - Reverse Countdown by Nikos Romanos at The Anarchist Library

Loukanikos dead: News of Greek riot dog's death prompts outpouring of tributes

Loukanikos, the much-loved Greek riot dog who became internationally famous for appearing on the front line of anti-austerity protests in Greece, has sadly passed away.

Greek media reports that Loukanikos, or ‘Sausage’ in English, died two years after he retired from protests in Athens. The canine became a symbol of resistance in Greece after he was pictured facing off with riot police and surrounded by tear gas during various demonstrations.

More at The Independent

Greek gov’t seeks military camp to serve as prison for state debtors

Gradually, Greece turns into the 21st century version of the dark and gloomy world of Charles Dickens: with households burning wood for heating,  with workers working for nothing, … and to put the icing on the Greek cake, soon also with debtors’ prisons.  What we reported in January, turns into reality: tax prisons! The government seeks a military camp to turn it into a prison for those unable to pay their debts: to tax office or social security funds, for example.

However, this prison conditions will not be as harsh as in the Marshalsea prison, where Willam Dorrit spent long time. Modern Greek imprisoned debtors, for owing the state more than 5,000 euro  will “live in humane conditions,” as the ministry of Justice told members of the Parliament on Thursday.

“The state is seeking a military camp within the limits of Attica prefecture for the housing of state debtors charged with prison penalties, ” deputy Justice minister Kostas Karagounis told MPS adding that the special prison for debtors will improve their detention conditions that will be more humane.

See Keep Talking Greece

Greece Says Germany Owes It €162 Billion In War Reparations

Greece is considering slapping a €162 billion invoice on Germany as compensation for the Second World War. Athens has compiled a top-secret report that says the cash - enough to solve the Greeks' debt crisis - is owed in war reparations, Der Spiegel reported.

But the Greeks are said to be reluctant to take on mighty Germany over the debt, for fear of antagonising its Eurozone paymaster. The Greek media is said to be more bullish, with the To Vima newspaper headlined: "What Germany Owes Us". It set out a number of possible ways that Germany could repay the cash, after a panel of experts spent months preparing the 80-page classified report.

Huffington Post

Racist, anti-semitic, violent - the true face of Golden Dawn

Golden Dawn, the extreme right-wing party in Greece, won 18 seats in the country's last election. Since then support for the party has doubled as it pushes tough new anti-immigrant laws, including banning non-ethnic Greeks from the military and police.

Channel 4 News

Man trampled as hundreds of desperate Greeks scuffle for food

A fruit and vegetable handout in Greece led to one man being trampled on Wednesday, calling attention to the desperate conditions in the crisis-hit country. Some 55 tons of produce was given away by farmers who were protesting high production costs.

The person was injured when he was pushed by a crowd trying to grab the goods and fell and hit his head. The chaos was sparked when food stalls ran out of fruits and vegetables, prompting dozens of people to rush to a nearby truck. It was an “every man for himself” situation as the Greeks shoved their way to the front of the truck, competing for the food that was left. The 55 tons of food was completely gone in under two hours.

More on RT

Villa Amalias

Greek Police are evicting Villa Amalias, in Athens Greece, a building which is being used by a group of squatters to display how solidarity and organizing self sufficiency in society can withstand any crisis.

Villa Amalias: Athens Squat under threat (Greek Left Review) and here

More on Wikipedia

Golden Dawn has infiltrated Greek police

A senior Greek police officer has claimed that the far-right Golden Dawn party has infiltrated the police at various levels. He has laid the blame on consecutive governments and the leadership of the police force for turning a blind eye to what he describes as "pockets of fascism".

Speaking to the Guardian on condition of anonymity, the officer said the Greek state had been fully aware of the activities of Golden Dawn for several years, with the National Intelligence Service and other security agencies monitoring it closely. The officer claimed police chiefs had had the opportunity to isolate and remove these small "pockets of fascism" in the force but decided not to. The state, he said, wanted to keep the fascist elements "in reserve" and use them for its own purposes.

The officer said he believed that Golden Dawn members could be used against the Greek left, which has led popular street protests against the government and austerity measures imposed by the EU. He expressed his belief that neo-fascist groups may already have acted as agents provocateurs during demonstrations across the country, to provoke clashes between demonstrators and the police or even between demonstrators themselves.

The Guardian - Link to the video

Greek police used protester as human shield

Greek authorities have launched an investigation into allegations that riot police used a female protester as a human shield during angry demonstrations over a visit to Athens by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, this week. Witnesses told the Guardian the young woman, who has yet to be identified, was frogmarched in handcuffs ahead of riot police as protesters threw stones at officers.

News of the investigation came as magistrates launched a separate inquiry into a Guardian report that anti-fascist protesters, arrested after clashing with extremists from the neo-nazi Golden Dawn party, were subjected to torture by officers at the Attica General Police Directorate. Human Rights Watch said accountability for police abuse was urgently needed.

The group said: "The scenes described by the victims to reporters are deeply shocking. No one should be treated that way by police. Greece needs to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation of their allegations."

The inquiry into the human shield allegations was opened after photographs of the incident began to circulate on the internet, triggering condemnation of the tactics law enforcement officials stand increasingly accused of employing in Greece. "It is being investigated," said Lieutenant Colonel Christos Manouras, Greece's police spokesman. "We want to find out what these pictures hide."

More on The Guardian

Greek police send crime victims to neo-Nazi 'protectors'

Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party is increasingly assuming the role of law enforcement officers on the streets of the bankrupt country, with mounting evidence that Athenians are being openly directed by police to seek help from the neo-Nazi group, analysts, activists and lawyers say.

In return, a growing number of Greek crime victims have come to see the party, whose symbol bears an uncanny resemblance to the swastika, as a "protector".

One victim of crime, an eloquent US-trained civil servant, told the Guardian of her family's shock at being referred to the party when her mother recently called the police following an incident involving Albanian immigrants in their downtown apartment block.

"They immediately said if it's an issue with immigrants go to Golden Dawn," said the 38-year-old, who fearing for her job and safety, spoke only on condition of anonymity. "We don't condone Golden Dawn but there is an acute social problem that has come with the breakdown of feeling of security among lower and middle class people in the urban centre," she told the Guardian. "If the police and official mechanism can't deliver and there is no recourse to justice, then you have to turn to other maverick solutions."

The Guardian

Greek plea for Nazi damages

Greece has dramatically revived demands for billions in war damages from Germany as the euro crisis deepens. Ministers have set up a working party to add up how much Germany owes them for crimes committed after Hitler invaded Greece in 1941.

The Greek National Bank was also forced to lend the Nazis 476 million reichsmarks interest-free during World War Two — worth £8.7billion today. Greeks claim they were forced to accept “unfavourable” reparation payments in the 50s. Deputy finance minister Christos Staikouras said: “The matter remains pending — Greece has never resigned its rights.” He insisted the investigation would be “realistic and cool-headed”.

The move comes as opposition grows in Germany to handing out more bailouts to Greece. And it risks inflaming anti-German feelings in Greece, where newspapers regularly depict Chancellor Angela Merkel as a Nazi. Germany’s constitutional court is due to rule today on whether Berlin should hand more cash to Athens.

The Sun

Nazi’s Will Raid 'Hospitals And Kindergartens' And Throw Out Immigrants

Greek far right party Golden Dawn has no plans on gaining international acceptance anytime soon, it seems. According to Helen Smith of the Guardian, party MP Ilias Panagiotaros recently told a rally in Athens:

If Chrysi Avgi [Golden Dawn] gets into parliament [as polls predict], it will carry out raids on hospitals and kindergartens and it will throw immigrants and their children out on the street so that Greeks can take their place."

The comments came after reports that medical supplies and beds at hospitals are in short supply. Smith reports that the threat earned loud applause. This weekend, Greece is preparing for their second general election this year. The last election in May saw Golden Dawn receive almost 7% of total votes.

Business Insider

Greece: Golden Dawn assault on Antenna television

Golden Dawn's Ilias Kasidiaris slaps the Communist Party's Liana Kanelli three times in the face during a live broadcast of a morning news show on Antenna TV. Kanelli had stood up to challenge Kasidiaris after he had thrown water at Radical Left Coalition member Rena Dourou, amid a slagging match between the three, who were all elected MPs on May 6. 7 June 2012. Full story on Athens News

Return the Elgin marbles to Athens

The British Museum has had only one request to return something from its vast collections that it regards as official. The Greek government has asked the British government if it can have the Parthenon marbles back. Stephen Fry also thinks the issue of these sculptures is unique. In December last year, in a blog picked up over the weekend by a restitution lobby group, Fry wrote: "The Parthenon affair is a special case."

Which it is. That stunning building embodies the culture that gave us democracy, the Olympic Games and all that classical stuff we used to be taught at school. It inspired the Renaissance and Byron, and now the many who would like to see the bits in the British Museum – about half the surviving sculptures – given back to Greece.

Among the latter was the late Christopher Hitchens. For him the cause was the expression of a solidarity between a free Greece and "British liberals and radicals". Fry agrees, calling the idea of a return an "act of friendship" in the time of Greece's "appalling financial distress".

A big reason for restitutioners to argue for the uniqueness of the Parthenon case is to counter claims that any return would set off a string of demands for other things from other countries: being friendly to Greece would not set a precedent. In practical terms that is probably true – comparable cases would continue to be judged on their own merit. And as the British Museum says, so far no other claims have been put to it through the formal route of one government to another.

More on The Guardian – The Elgin Marbles on Wikipedia

'Greece doomed, economy total farce & fiction!'

The Greek parliament has approved new harsh austerity legislature needed to secure a 130-billion-euro bailout from the EU and the IMF in efforts to avoid devastating default. This comes amid violent riots against the vote in Athens. ­The lawmakers voted early Monday in favor of the bill that will cut 15,000 public-sector jobs and lower the minimum wage by 20 per cent. Patrick Young, from investment consultants, DV Advisors, says whatever happens in Greece, there's no saving it from a collapse that will be felt across Europe. (RT)

Ancient Greek sites could soon be available for rent

In a move bound to leave many Greeks and scholars aghast, Greece's culture ministry said Tuesday it will open up some of the debt-stricken country's most-cherished archaeological sites to advertising firms and other ventures.

The ministry says the move is a common-sense way of helping "facilitate" access to the country's ancient Greek ruins, and money generated would fund the upkeep and monitoring of sites. The first site to be opened would be the Acropolis. Archaeologists, however, have for decades slammed such an initiative as sacrilege.

AFP

Police clash with students in Athens

Greek security forces have clashed with protesters who were marching on the US embassy in Athens to mark the anniversary of a bloody 1973 student uprising which helped topple a US-backed army dictatorship in Greece.

The Thursday demonstration was swelled in numbers as many joined the rally to protest against unpopular austerity measures, aimed at saving the country from its debt crisis, Reuters reported.
More than 30,000 people marched in central Athens beating drums, waving red flags and chanting “EU, IMF out!” in the first test of public defiance against technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papdemos's new government.

PressTV

New Greek government takes over with former banker at helm

Greece's new technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos assumed power Friday at the helm of an interim coalition government that will seek to push through tough reforms and ensure the country avoids a catastrophic default.

Papademos, a former European Central Bank vice-president, leads a government including ministers from three parties. The bitter rivalry of outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou's Socialists and the conservatives of Antonis Samaras has been set aside as Greece's politicians struggle to put the country back on track financially and ensure it can retain its cherished use of the euro.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos retained his post, the conservatives got the key positions of foreign affairs and defence, while ministerial positions also went to members of a small right-wing party.

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