Solidarity with the protests in Greece

On Saturday 6 December, the Greek police without being provoked, murdered in cold blood a 15-year old school boy in the centre of Athens. Immediately afterwards, spontaneous protests spread through Athens, Thessaloniki and other cities in Greece.The protests to escalated to widespread riots all over the country joined by thousands of people and lasting till early hours of the morning. The following day a big demonstration with 10,000 people marched in the central streets of Athens towards the Central Police Station and ended up in clashes with the police for a second night.On Monday morning, thousands of high school students skipped classes and headed to local police stations all over Greece showing their outrage against the police brutality.In the evening huge crowds gathered in central Athens in front of the House of Parliament and battled with the police and the security forces for a third night in a row.In all the big cities but also in towns as small as Arta, Korfu and Ithaqa, social unrest is mounting and tension with the authorities has brought the Government to a situation beyond its control.Contrary to the Government’s and media, this murder is not an isolated event. The Greek police has increasingly used violence against students, workers, youngsters, immigrants and social groups resisting the policies of austerity, unemployment, social insecurity and the collapse of the public education system.The Greek government has created a police state in order to suppress the escalating social unrest that its own neoliberal agenda has created. The continuous armament of an expanding police force, the adoption zero-tolerance policies, the shrinkage of civil and political rights, are used as mechanisms of social control. A series of events like workplace accidents, hunger strikes by prisoners, pogroms against immigrants and refugees, torture at the police detention centres, numerous economic scandals, all contributed to the unprecedented social tension of the last few days.We express our solidarity with the protesters in Greece and support their just struggle and we call for the immediate release of all those arrested in the protests in Greece.

http://socialistresistance.org/2008/12/09/solidarity-with-the-protests-in-greece/