Today thousands of students, schoolchildren, teachers, university professors, workers marched again in Athens against the State repression and the government of murderers showing clearly that ,as the slogan of the youth says, “Christmas are postponed, the revolt no!”
Some slogans, of course, expressed the spirit of Christmas, such a new one saying, in an approximate translation into English, the following:
“Revolt is everywhere, chaos is everywhere,
Today even Christ is a “hooligan” like us!”
In Syntagma Square, in front of the Parliament and the infamous “Christmas tree’ of the right wing Mayor of Athens, a specimen and a symbol of the vulgarity of our government guarded now by a special unit of dozens of riot policemen fully armed, we sung the Christmas Carol in a new version
“Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree
How beautiful you are when we burn you!”
It is important to mention that many members of the Communist Youth of the Stalinist CP/KKE, disgusted by the reactionary, pro-government attitude of their leadership opposing violently the revolt, joined today’s march, some of them marching in our Trotskyist contingent. KKE’s daily paper Rizospastis vehemently attacked as “dangerous hooligans the anarchists, NAR and EEK”. (NAR and EEK are both allies in the Front of Radical Left-MERA). AT the same time the KKE’s deputy Liana Kanelli, an ultra-nationalist journalist, invited to her radio program in “City 99.5” Thanassis Plevris a deputy of the far right party LAOS, a notorious fascist and vicious anti-Semite…
When the march in Athens ended (after some inevitable clashes with the police) meetings were held to discuss future action. A number of class struggle trade unions met to organize the campaign for a new General Strike. The Executive Council of ADEDY (National Federation of Public Employees) announced its decision for General Strike, probably on January 21st, and asked the GSEE (General Confederation of Labor) to join it and transform it into a national General Strike both of the public and private sectors.
Under the threat of a police invasion in the Polytechnic and the Economic Universities, the occupation was cancelled until early January 2009.
In the Law Faculty under occupation, on the contrary today’s general assembly voted by majority the proposal by EEK to continue the occupation during the holidays. Activities for the Christmas days were planned and a lot of artists gladly decided to contribute to make these days a real Festival of the Oppressed with theater plays, music concert, movies etc. The danger of a police attack is, of course, obvious; so vigilance is needed here as well as solidarity from our comrades internationally!
On January 5 and 7 the National Coordinating Committees of the schoolchildren and the students will meet and a new national day of demonstrations was decided for January the 9th, anniversary of the murder of the left wing teacher Nicos Temboneras in 1991 by the gangsters of the youth organization of the government party, the right wing New Democracy.
The December 2008 events appear to be only the prelude for the coming storm in 2009.
December 23, 2008
____Savas Michael
