Great concerns were raised throughout Greece by a second attack by gun two days ago against a 16 years boy, the son of a cadre of PAME / KKE in Peristeri, a working class neighborhood, in the greater region of Athens. The police try to cover up the whole affair claiming that somebody else did the assassination attempt; but a .38 millimeters gun is the official weapon of the Greek Police…Fortunately, the kid, after surgery does not present serious problems. Two marches of protest against this new attack took place today in Peristeri, one by the school of the injured boy, another organized by the Communist Party, KKE. Yesterday, too, the marches in Peristeri were not united: the Stalinist KKE had its own separate march, and the extra-parliamentary Left another one.
At the center of Athens, in front of the historic building of Athens University, which yesterday became a battlefield between the riot police and the youth occupying the Law Faculty, a gigantic music concert took place from 15.00 pm until very late in the night. Well known singers and musicians put their talents in the service of solidarity to the youth and popular revolt against State terrorism.
At the same time, the “rally” called by the bureaucrats of GSEE ,the General Confederation of Labor, in front of the parliament, as an alibi to their refusal to call a General Strike, was, as it was expected a pathetic farce. Less than a hundred people attended, while the huge majority, many thousands of the workers and youth boycotted it and joined the concert of solidarity. The confrontation with the capitalist State unavoidably included a sharp conflict with the treacherous bureaucracies.
Despite the hatred campaign of the government and the hysteria spread by the mass media, which has escalated after yesterday’s clashes around the Law Faculty, there is a wide spread sympathy for the revolt and revulsion for police brutality. An incident shows it. The Megaron Mousikis (Palace of Music) in Athens is a private institution owned and directed by the big capitalist Lambrakis Press group, and dominating all the cultural life. Yesterday, a concert of classical music was interrupted when a part of the audience started to shout the well known and very popular slogan: “Cops, Pigs, Murderers”. The orchestra stopped playing and directed by the director turned to the audience and joined them in singing in chorus the anthem of these days: “Cops, Pigs, Murderers”!
Undoubtedly, there is a surrealist element of May 68 in this revolt!
Venceremos!
December 19, 2008
____Savas Michael
