Athens is burning!

ATHENS is burning tonight, Sunday February 12.

Says From the Greek Streets: "Tens of banks and other buildings are burning across Athens after today’s demonstrations. There are huge riots in Thessaloniki and Patra as well. The situation seems to be spiralling out of control."

Reports Reuters: "Historic cinemas, cafes and shops went up in flames in central Athens on Sunday as black-masked protesters fought Greek police outside parliament, while inside lawmakers looked set to defy the public rage by endorsing a new EU/IMF austerity deal.

"As parliament prepared to vote on a new 130 billion euro bailout to save Greece from a messy bankruptcy, a Reuters photographer saw the buildings engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke rose in the night sky.

"The air over Syntagma Square outside parliament was thick with tear gas as riot police fought running battles with youths who smashed marble balustrades and hurled stones and petrol bombs.

"Many businesses were ablaze, including the neo-classical home to the Attikon cinema dating from 1870 and a building housing the Asty, an underground cinema used by the Gestapo during World War Two as a torture chamber.

"As fighting raged for hours, protesters threw home made bombs made from gas canisters as riot police advanced across the square on the crowds, firing tear gas and stun grenades. Loud booms
from the protests could be heard inside parliament. 'Tear gas has reached the parliament chamber,' said leftist lawmaker Panagiotis Lafazanis.

"'Enough is enough!'" said 89-year-old Manolis Glezos, one of Greece's most famous leftists.'They have no idea what an uprising by the Greek people means. And the Greek people, regardless of ideology, have risen.'

"Glezos is a national hero for sneaking up the Acropolis at night in 1941 and tearing down a Nazi flag from under the noses of the German occupiers, raising the morale of Athens residents.

"'These measures of annihilation will not pass,' Glezos said on Syntagma Square, visibly overcome by teargas and holding a mask over his mouth."

Updates are still being posted on From the Greek Streets, though pages are not always available.

Here is the latest section of timeline:

00.22 A few hours ago, enraged demonstrators in the city of Corfu stormed the offices of the local ‘socialist’ MPs Gerekou and Dendias (an ex-minister of Justice), destroying them completely.

00.20 The town hall of the city of Volos is burning. Earlier, people had stormed the local tax office, destroying plenty of documents inside.

00.14 A demonstration has only just started in the city of Athens, with people roaming through the city’s streets and the police tucked away in the sidestreets.

23:07 Demonstrators attacked the Exarcheia Police station a few minutes ago.

23:45 Smoke from tear gas and burning buildings has covered central Athens. Clashes are still going on and the streets are full of people. Earlier, a lot of demonstrators tried to attack the house of the former Prime Minister Costas Simitis in the upper class district of Kolonaki (Anagnostopoulou st.)they clashed with the police units guarding the house.

Earlier a group of demonstrators tried to invade Acropolis police station. The police officers managed to protect the police station but several of them were injured while police vehicles in front of the station were burnt.

Early in the afternoon a DELTA motorcycle police unit, was trapped by demonstrators: people held a rope across the street throwing down the speeding motorcycles.

23.10 GMT+2 It is entirely impossible to estimate the number of people who have taken to the streets in Athens tonight. They are definitely in the hundreds of thousands – there are simply people everywhere.

23.07 GMT+2 The building of Marfin bank (the same building where three bank workers died on May 5, 2010) has been burnt to the ground.

23.05 GMT+2 A gun shop in Omonoia, Athens, has been looted.

23.02 GMT+2 Information about the alleged occupation of the town hall is confirmed: a group of people entered the building, only to be evicted and arrested by riot police a few minutes later.

22.42 GMT+2 The town hall of Athens has allegedly been occupied.

Also see the #syntagma hashtag on Twitter.

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Greece: updates from the front line

MAJOR battles broke out on Sunday in the streets of Greece - the current front line of the global resistance against neoliberal fascism.

A number of buildings have also been occupied. Athens Law School was stormed by police thugs during the day but also held by rebels were the Ministry of Health in Athens, Cinema-Theatre Olympion in Thessaloniki, Building of the Regional government of Western Greece in Patras, Building of the Regional Government of Ionian islands in Corfu, Building of the Regional Government of Crete in Rethymnon, Building of the Regional Government of Thessaly in Larisa,
Rethymno City Hall, Holargos City Hall and Regional Union of Imathia in Veroia.

Live streaming of events in Athens can be seen at http://prezatv.blogspot.com/2012/02/live-stream-from-athens-general-strike.html

Regular updates are being made on the From the Greek Streets blog.

Here are the last few entries at the time of posting.

19:50 Quite a few injured demonstrators. On the Propylea of Athens University take place harsh battles at the moment, people report of head to head clashes. The Law School occupation has defended all police attacks and eventually it  remains there, More than 500 people in the school now. The occupation calls for Red Cross medics who are on the streets to go towards the school with first aid material as there are injured demonstrators in the School.

19.40 At least five open fronts on Fillelinon str, on Othonos, Syntagma square, Stadiou and behind the ministry of Finance. Face-to-face clashes outside the Law school. Things temporarily calm down outside parliament.

19:07 A block of demonstrators on the corner of Othonos & Amalias st, on Syntagma square blockaded police offensive and big crowd of people gathered there and gradually moved back towards the House of Parliament.  A few minutes ago police units joined forces and attacked to that group.

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School of Ideas - new Occupy London squat

OCCUPY London activists have opened a new squatted centre near Old Street, the heart of the City. 

They say: “It is a deserted primary school with loads of beautiful airy classrooms, a small gym, and some pleasant outdoor space.

“It has lain unused for three years and the owners are awaiting planning permission before demolishing. in the meantime, the hope is to put it to good use for the community.

“Since being quite violently evicted from the UBS-owned 'bank of ideas' squat, the campaigners have tried to occupy three further buildings, each time facing swift but illegal evictions at the hands of the police.

“However, this time they have made the new space secure, and after preparations over the past week, they are now opening up to the public.

“The new occupiers have, so far, set aside a co-ordination office, an art project, a cinema, and a well-being area, as well as a cafe in the large reception hall and an exhibition covering the history and struggle of squatting.

“They intend to run a bike workshop, an internet cafe and tech area, gardening and permaculture training, and video and media projects including livestream.

“Currently they are inviting people in to the free/donation cafe, and they are open to offers and ideas for positive use of the other spaces available.

“The space will be open to the public from Tuesdays to Sundays from midday to 8pm each day.

“Among the projects starting up, there will be a continuation of the 'free university' initially started at the 'Bank of Ideas', where more than 400 talks, lectures, workshops and meetings took place over a couple of months.

“This was all run by more than two dozen professors who, unhappy at the introduction of £9000 fees, offered alternative qualifications there for free. among the many subjects covered were alternative economics, self-defence, and building renewable structures.

“The new site, on the corner of Bunhill Row and Featherstone Street, was a purpose-built primary school until closing in 2009, and so it is decorated in lots of bright colours, gaining spectacular light from circular ceiling windows and glass walls.

“It has been empty for three years. the owners, the Southern Housing Group, are hoping to demolish it and turn it into flats, but are awaiting planning permission for this, and in the meantime it is hoped they might be amenable to its use for the community. contact has already been made and an initial meeting set up.

“The new website www.schoolofideas.org.uk will publicise all workshops and events and you can also call the info line on 07954 227762.”

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The new fascism - two photos say it all

 

THESE two photographs, circulating round the world yesterday, tell us all we need to know about the new fascism threatening humanity.

The first shows US Marines in Afghanistan, posing proudly with a home-made addition to the Stars and Stripes which ‘coincidentally’ happens to be the same as the Nazi SS logo.

The second shows a Greek riot cop kicking in the head a protester who had dared to show his opposition to the slavery and poverty being imposed on his people by the IMF and the banks.

We do not think it is an exaggeration to describe the current neoliberal global regime as a new form of fascism.

On the level of political ideology, there are clearly big differences between the nationalist corporatism of Mussolini and Hitler and the internationalist capitalism we now must confront.

But there are similarities, and indeed a traceable continuation, on a deeper level.

At the end of the Second World War, the US and UK recruited large numbers of former Nazis and Fascists into their Gladio network of anti-communist secret armies.

At the same time the West learned from the Nazis’ work in various fields – from rocket science to  mass manipulation by propaganda, which also proved so easy to transfer to the commercial realm.

As so often happens, the victory of capitalism over fascism turned out in the long term to have been more of a merger.

While, on paper, the neoliberal model presents itself as the ‘democratic’ opposite of fascism, that has always been a lie, as anybody paying a modicum of attention will have noticed.

Now that it finds its hegemony under threat, its fascistic essence is becoming harder to conceal.

It is significant that more obviously identifiable far-right extremists, who in the 20^th century would have been fiercely opposed to ‘cosmopolitan’ capitalism, are now instinctively drawn to defending the neoliberal world order, as we have previously noted.

Like the US Marines attracted to the SS branding, they somehow know that this is the same entity, resurfaced after its apparent death nearly 70 years ago in a new guise but with the same life-hating brutality.

Millions gave their lives to defeat the evil of the original fascist incarnation. 

And now a new generation are going to have to do it all again.

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Greeks strike against neoliberalism

  
GREEK unions have called a 48-hour strike in protest at the latest punitive measures imposed on the country by the IMF and EU.

The minimum wage will be cut twenty two percent, pensions will be slashed and yet more jobs will go in the public sector.

Says From The Greek Streets: " On Tuesday, Eurostat announced that 27.7% of people in Greece already live below the poverty line.

"On Wednesday, the country’s official statistical service, Hellenic Statistics, announced that in November 2012 unemployment reached above 20% — all this only two years after the original loan agreement between the Greek government and IMF/EU/ECB."

For latest updates on Friday's strikes and protests against neoliberalism, see From The Greek Streets, ContraInfo  or Athens Indymedia.

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Video - Iraqis celebrate victory of anti-US resistance

 

THOUSANDS of Iraqis have been celebrating the victory of their resistance movement over the USA.

Thursday's triumphal event in Baghdad's Sadr City marked the pull-out of American troops.

And even mainstream US media were this week reporting "declining American influence in the country" as more cracks appear in the global neoliberal empire.

Anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said in a recorded message broadcast on a large screen at the celebrations: "The armies of resistance terrified the occupiers, so they left after they lost.

"The occupying forces were working for strife and destruction and to destabilise security. The occupier is not the one who can bring peace and safety to Iraq, but rather you, and only you."

At the urging of the cleric, his supporters shouted, "Yes, yes, to unity, yes, yes, to peace, yes, yes, to resistance."

Sadr also called on the Iraqi government to release imprisoned resistance fighters.

AFP reports that thousands of Sadr Movement members marched in formation with Iraqi flags at the event, while supporters gathered on the roadside, some holding banners reading, "No, no to America, no, no to Israel."

Among those attending the event, which was held under tight security, were cabinet ministers, members of parliament and religious figures, as well as representatives of some Arab countries.

Hazem al-Araji, one of the leaders of the Sadr Movement, told AFP that, "Today is the day of the real victory for the people and a message of unity that we throw in the face of the occupier."

Meanwhile the New York Times reports: "Less than two months after American troops left, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of declining American influence in the country.

"Officials in Baghdad and Washington said that Ambassador James F. Jeffrey and other senior State Department officials were reconsidering the size and scope of the embassy, where the staff has swelled to nearly 16,000 people, mostly contractors.

"The expansive diplomatic operation and the $750 million embassy building, the largest of its kind in the world, were billed as necessary to nurture a postwar Iraq on its shaky path to democracy and establish normal relations between two countries linked by blood and mutual suspicion.

"But the Americans have been frustrated by what they see as Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag.

"After the American troops departed in December, life became more difficult for the thousands of diplomats and contractors left behind. Convoys of food that had been escorted by the United States military from Kuwait were delayed at border crossings as Iraqis demanded documentation that the Americans were unaccustomed to providing.

"Within days, the salad bar at the embassy dining hall ran low. Sometimes there was no sugar or Splenda for coffee. On chicken-wing night, wings were rationed at six per person. Over the holidays, housing units were stocked with Meals Ready to Eat, the prepared food for soldiers in the field.

"At every turn, the Americans say, the Iraqi government has interfered with the activities of the diplomatic mission, one they grant that the Iraqis never asked for or agreed upon. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s office — and sometimes even the prime minister himself — now must approve visas for all Americans, resulting in lengthy delays. American diplomats have had trouble setting up meetings with Iraqi officials."

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UK prepares chemical war on dissent

THE BRITISH state is planning to use chemical warfare against its own population, it has been revealed.

The news confirms the increasingly fascistic forms being assumed by neoliberalism as it struggles to hold down popular discontent with its corrupt system.

Reports The Independent: "Leading neuroscientists believe that the UK Government may be about to sanction the development of nerve agents for British police that would be banned in warfare under an international treaty on chemical weapons.

"A high-level group of experts has asked the Government to clarify its position on whether it intends to develop 'incapacitating chemical agents' for a range of domestic uses that go beyond the limited use of chemical irritants such as CS gas for riot control.

"The experts were commissioned by the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of sciences, to investigate new developments in neuroscience that could be of use to the military.

"They concluded that the Government may be preparing to exploit a loophole in the Chemical Weapons Convention allowing the use of incapacitating chemical agents for domestic law enforcement." 

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