Greece

The Greek Left, A Call For Pan-European Change

January 27, 2015 Antonis Broumas, www.roarmag.org Educate! Elections, Europe, Greece, Left, Syriza

This is the first time since the Spanish revolution of 1936 that a left party wins general elections in Europe. In this weekend’s national elections in Greece the leftist SYRIZA took 149 out of 300 seats and will now form a coalition government with a small right-wing anti-austerity party to run the country. After seven years of neoliberal overkill the Greek people overthrew the two-party regime that has been governing the country for the past 40 years with socially catastrophic results. The populist-right New Democracy (ND) party took 27,8% and the ex-socialist (now turned neoliberal) PASOK received a petty 4,6% of the votes. SYRIZA has increased its electoral base by 10% since the 2012 elections, by amassing the votes of the underclasses and the violently proletarianized lower middle class.

Syriza’s Historic Win Puts Greece On Collision Course With Europe

January 27, 2015 Ian Traynor and Helena Smith, www.theguardian.com Educate! Elections, Greece, Left, Politics, Syriza

Voters handed power to Alexis Tsipras, the charismatic 40-year-old former communist who leads the umbrella coalition of assorted leftists known as Syriza. He cruised to an eight-point victory over the incumbent centre-right New Democracy party, according to exit polls and projections after 99% of votes had been counted. The result surpassed pollster predictions and marginalised the two mainstream parties that have run the country since the military junta’s fall in 1974. It appeared, however, that Syriza would win 149 seats – just short of securing the 151 of 300 seats that would enable Tsipras to govern without coalition partners. “The sovereign Greek people today have given a clear, strong, indisputable mandate,” Tsipras told a crowd of rapturous flag-waving party supporters.

Prospects And Consequences Of Syriza Government

January 26, 2015 Roger Strassburg and James Galbraith, www.economistsview.typepad.com Educate! European Union (EU), Finance and the Economy, Greece, Syriza

That said, what is the leverage that would be applied to the Greek government if it chooses to recognize this reality and take a different path? In fact the leverage available is not zero, but it's limited to some measures that would be fairly extreme in ordinary conditions. On the one hand, there are certain parts of the debt that should ordinarily be rolled over. Since the debt is now almost all – all the significant parts of it are in the hands of public authorities, the question of whether they would roll it over is a policy question for them. In some sense they have the ability, if they were to choose, to place the Greeks in technical default, but one has to ask what happens under those circumstances, and the answer is, I would think, not very much.

Syriza Wins, Declares End To ‘Vicious Cycle Of Austerity’

January 26, 2015 The Guardian, www.theguardian.com Organize! Elections, Europe, Greece, Left, Syriza

The anti-austerity far left party Syriza has won the Greek election by a decisive margin, but just short of an outright majority. With more than three-quarters of the results in Syriza is projected to win 149 seats in the 300 seat parliament. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras said his party’s victory marked an end to the “viscious cycle of austerity”. Referring to the neoliberal conditions set by the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, he said: “ The verdict of the Greek people renders the troika a thing of the past for our common European framework.”

Europe’s Ascendant Left Declares ‘Subservience Is Over’

January 24, 2015 John Queally, www.commondreams.org Organize! Europe, Greece, Left, Spain

Syriza and Podemos have become the mouthpiece of the anti-austerity movement in southern Europe while Tsipras and Iglesias have emerged as key political leaders who emerged from the grassroots, street-level protest movements which rose in opposition to the severe economic policies imposed by elite forces following the financial crisis that began in 2008. In relatively short time, both Syriza and Podemos went from being non-existent political entities to standing on the doorstep of taking power. With national elections in Greece just days away, and Syriza's polling numbers only improving, Alexis Tsipras announced that his party is prepared to "overthrow" the status quo and vowed to implement swift changes to undo the austerity policies—imposed at the behest of foreign creditors and attached to a bailout package offered by the European Central Bank and the IMF—that have left the Greek economy in tatters.

EU Showdown: Greece Takes On The Vampire Squid

January 8, 2015 Ellen Brown, www.truth-out.org Educate! European Union (EU), Finance and the Economy, Greece

Greece and the troika (the International Monetary Fund, the EU, and the European Central Bank) are in a dangerous game of chicken. The Greeks have been threatened with a “Cyprus-Style prolonged bank holiday” if they “vote wrong.” But they have been bullied for too long and are saying “no more.” A return to the polls was triggered in December, when the Parliament rejected Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ pro-austerity candidate for president. In a general election, now set for January 25th, the EU-skeptic, anti-austerity, leftist Syriza party is likely to prevail. Syriza captured a 3% lead in the polls following mass public discontent over the harsh austerity measures Athens was forced to accept in return for a €240 billion bailout.

Major Opportunity For Anti-Austerity Left Party In Greece On Horizon

December 19, 2014 Helen Smith, www.theguardian.com Organize! Democracy, Greece

Early elections with the potential to destabilise the eurozone could be called in Greece next year, after the country’s 300 MPs failed to elect a president in their first round of voting. In a ballot of MPs that disappointed government officials, 160 lawmakers backed Stavros Dimas, the conservative-led coalition’s candidate and former European commissioner. “There are another two rounds ahead of us,” Antonis Samaras, the prime minister, said, emerging from the parliament after the vote. “I hold hope that a president will be elected. The conditions are difficult for the country, and I am certain that deputies are aware that the country must not enter troubled times.”

Tides Of Relief: Nikos Romanos Wins Victory In Hunger Strike

December 12, 2014 Foula Farmakidis, Spyros Marchetos and Christina Laskaridis, www.roarmag.org Resist! Education, Greece, Hunger Strike, Political Prisoner

Tides of relief emanated from Greece on Wednesday, when the anarchist prisoner Nikos Romanos ended his month-long hunger strike that sparked solidarity actions across the globe. His demands were essentially met, with the parliament decreeing that student prisoners will be allowed educational leave on certain conditions, including electronic security tagging. Romanos’ desperate struggle against an intransigent government brought up international memories of Bobby Sands and the other Irish republican prisoners who died in 1981. Now his victory, suggesting that the extreme right-wing Samaras government may be on its last throes, shows what a huge influence a person can have when they are unafraid to risk their own life and when they are backed by a resourceful solidarity movement.

Is Greece On The Verge Of Another Social Explosion?

December 7, 2014 Jerome Roos, www.roarmag.org Resist! Greece, Revolution

The hunger strike of an anarchist prisoner and the reaction on the streets are rekindling long-standing conflicts in Greek society going back to 1944. The Greek streets have been relatively quiet of late. After four years of devastating economic depression and continued state repression, the revolutionary zeal that once animated the spectacular mobilizations of the early years of the crisis has since given way to a widespread sense of despondence. This may now be changing. Students and anarchists have been mobilizing in force in recent weeks to show their solidarity with Nikos Romanos, the anarchist prisoner who has been on hunger strike since November 10. Both Nikos’ struggle and the response on the streets are laden with symbolic significance and historical resonance.

Anarchist Prisoner’s Hunger Strike Sparks Riots In Athens

December 4, 2014 Parthena Xanthopoulou-Dimitriadou, www.roarmag.org Resist! Greece, Hunger Strike, Protests, Riots, Student Activism

Yesterday, demonstrations in solidarity with the Greek anarchist Nikos Romanos — who has been on hunger strike for 24 days to demand his right to educational furlough — were called in big cities and islands across Greece. In Athens, more than 10.000 people marched, proving that no one is to be left alone in front of the vengeful fury of the state. Once again, however, it was confirmed that, when the twisted justifications of the repressive state don’t work, the batons of the police are ready to do the job. The demonstration started at Monastiraki and arrived at Syntagma Square, where Syrian refugees have been camping out for 15 days to demand state recognition of their political refugee status. Until its end, the march was followed by heavy police forces.

Hunger Strike In Greece: For A Breath Of Freedom

December 3, 2014 Danai Limneou, www.roarmag.org Resist! Greece, Hunger Strike

Twenty days ago anarchist prisoner Nikos Romanos went on hunger strike to demand his educational furlough. His situation is described as ‘critical’. Nikos Romanos’ name is closely tied to the equally well known Alexandros Grigoropoulos, the 15-year-old boy who was shot and killed by police officer Epaminondas Korkoneas in Athens, on December 6, 2008. Only 15 years of age himself, Romanos witnessed his best friend die in front of his eyes. The murder sparked weeks of nationwide rioting. Several years later, Romanos was caught together with four of his comrades while trying to flee from a bank robbery in Velvento. Following their arrest they were beaten up under police custody to such extent that the photographs released by the police had to be overtly photoshopped to hide their injuries.

Greece: Commemorate Revolt Against US-Backed Dictatorship

December 1, 2014 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Resist! Greece, Protests

Over 40,000 people marched to the American embassy in Athens, Greece on Monday to mark the 1973 student-led revolt against the country's former military dictatorship and to protest the U.S. role in backing the junta. The largest such anniversary commemoration in recent years, the procession was met with nearly 7,000 police, including many in riot gear, who reportedly fired teargas at the crowd. Dozens of students at Athens Polytechnic University were killed on November 17, 1973, when the army brutally suppressed a protest against the dictatorship, which lasted from 1967 to 1974. The revolt played a role in weakening the regime, which was backed by the U.S. government as a Cold War geopolitical maneuver.

Greece: Brutal Police Repression Of Mine Protest

November 26, 2014 Stavroula Poulimeni, www.revolution-news.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Greece, Mining

Once more a demonstration against Eldorado Gold’s Skouries mine in Halkidiki was met with tons of teargas by the riot police. More than 1.500 demonstrators of all ages marched to the location where Eldorado’s subsidiary, Hellas Gold, is developing a huge open-pit gold and copper mine right in the middle of what used to be a pristine forest. Approximately 180 hectares of forest have so far been cleared in order to make way for the mine, a processing plant and two monstrous tailings dams. For the past three years, the local people and the broader solidarity movement resisting the mine have faced extreme repression and penalization of their struggle.

Riot Police Attack Student Protesters In Athens

November 15, 2014 Markos Vogiatzoglou, www.roarmag.org Resist! Greece, Student Activism

It’s been some time since we last heard from the Greek movement. But, thanks to the Greek government and its riot police, today became a day of large student demonstrations, clashes with the cops, injuries and rising tension. First, let’s see what happened. Early in the morning, the Athens Law School students arrived at their university in order to carry out their assembly decision, which included a symbolic occupation of their university until the 17th of November — commemoration day of the 1973 student revolt against the military dictatorship. The problem was that the school was already occupied by the riot police. The Athenian Universities’ rectors had decided to apply a peculiar “lock out” of the students and employees, supposedly for “security reasons”. The government gave a helping hand by sending in hundreds of cops, in riot gear, to carry out the decision. The cops assaulted the students, seriously injuring a couple of them and dispersing the rest.

Reasons Greek Public Broadcasting Shutdown

November 4, 2014 Michael Nevradakis, www.truth-out.org Resist! Capitalism, Greece, Media, Public

The transfer of these valuable broadcast rights for dubious sums provides a strong hint as to the true reasons behind the sudden closure of ERT. These reasons likely have less to do with a desire to "trim waste," combat corruption, or to establish a more independent and transparent public broadcaster in its place. Instead, they have more to do with the interests of Greece's major media and business moguls, who own the country's largest national broadcasters and DIGEA, a consortium of Greece's six largest national private television stations. It is DIGEA that has benefitted the most from ERT's shutdown, as the events of the past year have proven.

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