Sunday 15 November 2009

Greece: new tension ahead over police murder


GREEK rebels are preparing for another hot December of resistance, as some significant events loom up on the calendar.

"Before the cops’ trial however, there is the annual commemoration of the anti-dictatorial student uprising of November 17th, 1973. The ministry of public order (in its new doublespeak, ministry of “citizen protection”) is trying to keep the calm ahead of this date – and of course December 6th, the date of Alexis’ assassination, is not too far in the horizon."

The potential for unprecedented levels of insurrection in Greece in the weeks ahead has not gone unnoticed in the UK corporate media.

A hand-wringing liberal-leftist writing on The Guardian's website on November 15, and deploying the term 'terrorism' with notable frequency, said: "In a few weeks, Greece will commemorate the "December events", which began last year when a police officer killed a young boy in Exarhia, an area that's been described as a semi-ghetto of leftist dissidents and anarchists in the centre of Athens.

"Following this event, weeks of protests ensued and from there began a trajectory of decline on many levels of society, which ended with the fall of the undoubtedly inadequate government.

"Then, just three weeks on from the victorious election of a new government, and a wave of grassroots terrorism was making headlines. This was, apparently, unprecedented: it is said that never before had there been a substantial wave of terrorist activities during the honeymoon of a new government."