#rbnews weekly bulletin 13-19 July 2013

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

Police attack on a demonstration for K. Sakkas (and my arrest for a video) - by @_giant_

By @_giant_, re-posted from Omnia TV and translated from Greek by @potmos

On Wednesday, July 10, a demo near the Acropolis was arranged in order to inform people about Kostas Sakkas’s hunger strike.

During the march, in which were about 150 people, slogans were written and leaflets were distributed, mostly in English, since the place is mostly a tourist destination.

When the march was stopped from continuing towards the Acropolis by police forces, it went on to Thissio through the pedestrian road, without an incident.

After a while, under the pretext that slogans were being written on walls, the march was attacked by a motorbike-mounted police force (DELTA), and arrests were made.

People protested the arrests and were attacked with flash-bang and teargas grenades.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 01-07 June 2013

Prepared by the #rbnews international team, translated by @IrateGreek 

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

Guest post: The new ‘age of insurrections’ is far from over!

Thoughts on the political significance of the Turkish movement

By Panagiotis Sotiris [1]

It is still early to fully appreciate the consequences of the popular uprising in Turkey. However, one thing is for sure: we are still at a very particular historical conjuncture, marked not just by protest and contention, but also by movements of impressive magnitude and an almost insurrectionary character.

From December 2008 in Greece, that extraordinary “postcard from the future”, to the Arab Spring, the Indignados Movement, the prolonged struggle of the Greek people against austerity, the Occupy movement in North America, the student revolts in Britain, Canada and Chile and the current Turkish protests, we have been witnessing movements that are not only massive but also go beyond simply articulating grievances and demands. These are movements that, one way or the other, demand radical social and political change. That is why they do not take the form of traditional protests, nor do they engage in pressure politics. Rather, they opt for new and highly original forms of almost insurrectionary practices that not only make manifest a deep discontent with contemporary neoliberal capitalist societies, but also attempt to turn their alternative visions of democracy and justice into practice.

The #MAT1236 photo exhibition in Finland (videos)

Posted by @IrateGreek

The photo exhibition #MAT1236 about the brutality of the Greek police opened on 02 May 2013 in Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. Greek activist Anna Gartagani sent to us videos from the inauguration and the panel discussion that took place after the opening. You can watch them after the jump.

6 May 2012 - 6 May 2013: one year from the Greek general elections of May 2012

By @galaxyarchis, translated from Greek by @anarresti, corrections by @IrateGreek

By Spyros Derveniotis
Translation: "Dirty immigrants, dying
where the Greeks eat!

Greece recently had two very important political anniversaries. More specifically, May 6th, 2013, marked three years since the adoption of the Memorandum which caused the greatest political rearrangements in the country's recent history, and one year since the 2012 general elections, when those dramatic changes were first expressed through the ballot box. Greek society is living in a period where political time is condensed to such a degree, that the changes occurring every month and every week can hardly be conceived by its collective consciousness. Since the May 2012 elections, which did not lead to the formation of a new government but to repeat elections a month later, the country's image and its political landscape kept changing at a rapid pace until today. In light of a greater tribute to the one year anniversary since last June's elections, when today's three-party coalition government came to power, we take a look at the facts and data which changed in this past year, starting from last May's elections.

The #MAT1236 photo exhibition in Finland

Source

By @Polyfimos, translated from Greek by @IrateGreek


Angela Merkel's visit to Athens in October 2012 went down in social media history under the code name #ΜΑΤ1236, after the registration number of the riot policeman [MAT in Greek] who, during clashes with protesters, used a young woman as a human shield. This action by the policeman, whose identity details are unknown, was the inspiration for an original, timely photo exhibition in the Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.

Nachrichten aus Griechenland #2 - 20. April 2013

Übersetzt von Real Democracy Now! Berlin/GR & @lamda

• Mörderischer Angriff auf bangladesische Erdbeerpflücker, die die Auszahlung ihrer Gehälter forderten.
• In Untersuchungshaft befinden sich die zwei Dorfbewohner Ierissos', die für die Teilnahme bei dem Brandanschlag gegen Einrichtungen der Hellas Gold in Skouries (Chalkidiki) angeklagt werden. Die Proteste in der Region werden fortgesetzt.
• Nach Migranten und Drogensüchtigen werden jetzt Obdachlose in Abschiebelager transportiert. 
• HIV-Infizierte im griechischen Gefängnis brachte sich um.
• Die griechische Regierung hat die Entlassung von 15.000 Staatsbediensteten bewilligt um die nächste Rate der Hilfskredite zu kassieren.
• Fortsetzung der Proteste gegen die Stilllegung von Indymedia und dem Radiosender Entasi in Athen

#Skouries : two citizens from Ierissos arrested

Two citizens from Ierissos were arrested in the night of 11th April, accused for having taken part in the arson  attack against Eldorado Gold worksite at Skouries in Chalkidiki, which happened on 12th February. The two people were kept until Sunday 14 April in the Thessaloniki Police headquarters, when they went through judicial interrogation.

Their lawyer denounced several irregularities in the process; the interrogation took place in the Police Headquarters instead of the Court, as designed by the law.

During the interrogation, about 3000 people demonstrated in front of the Police HQ. The two citizens were finally officially arrested. Further to this decision, another demo was called in Thessaloniki in the evening of 14 April.

A reminder about the Skouries case here, here and here.

And a storify of the #rbnews tweets below:

General strike in Greece 20 February 2013 - Summary and photo gallery

A general strike took place in Greece today 20 February 2013. It was called by the three main labour unions, GSEE (General Confederation of Workers), ADEDY (the umbrella union of civil servants) and PAME (the union affiliated with the Communist Party of Greece), and was followed by a large variety of professions from the public and private sector, including, among others, lawyers, tax collectors, engineers, doctors, builders, private sector employees, municipal workers, bank employees, teachers and dock workers. The strike was intended to protest austerity policies in general, and in particular measures pertaining to labour such as the abolition of collective labour agreements and the enforcement of civil mobilisation orders against striking workers.

#rbnews international show 09 February 2013: Police brutality in Greece

This week on #rbnews international, given the abundant news related to arrests and torture by the Greek police, we discussed the issue of police brutality in Greece with Maro Savvopoulou, the press officer from the Greek chapter of Amnesty International. Amnesty has recently published a report on this matter and is currently conducting a campaign to push the Greek authorities to investigate these allegations and take appropriate action.

You can follow Amnesty Greece on Twitter @AmnestyGreece.

You can listen to the podcast after the jump.

#rbnews international weekly bulletin 26 January - 01 February 2013

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is online. You can read it after the jump.

Another police intervention to a squat in Athens

Less than a week after the Greek police's second attack against Villa Amalias squat and the evacuation of Skaramaga squat, and only 3 days after the big demonstration in solidarity to all squats in Greece, the Greek police invaded another one yeasterday. This time it was the Lelas Karagianni squat turn in downtown Athens, next to a flea market.

Shortly after noon, police forces entered the Lelas Karagianni squat and arrested 16 people on the roof of the building, while a police helicopter was hoovering above their heads. The detained people were brought to the Athens Police Headquarters for "a control", while other policemen conducted a research in the building. Many people gather in front of the squat building in solidarity to the arrested, who were released some hours later, as no evidences came out. A solidarity demo took place in the afternoon and an assembly was also organised.

These events took place after police interventions to other similar self-organised spaces, like Villa Amalias (hit twice), Skaramaga squat, Radio Entassi in the Athens Economics University and Xanadu squat in the north of the country. Further to the police interventions to the first two, 92 people have been arrested and charged with felonies.  

Boletim semanal da Grécia #2, 5 de janeiro de 2013

1. A lista Lagarde, um rol das grandes fortunas gregas que cometem evasão fiscal e que a ex-Ministra das Finanças francesa havia entregue ao ex-Ministro Grego de Finanças Giorgos Papakonstatinu, está se transformando em um grande escândalo. Tal lista passou pelas mãos de dois ministros e um primeiro-ministro, que conseguiram mantê-la em segredo até que o jornalista Kostas Vaxevanis publicou seu conteúdo: os nomes de mais de 2 mil depositantes gregos com contas na filial suíça do HSBC, que são suspeito de terem evadido divisas.

Agora os rumores dão conta de que a primeira versão da lista publicada contém um número de supostos fraudadores menor que a segunda e mais recente versão, lançando fortes suspeitas sobre o ex-ministro das Finanças Giorgos Papakonstantinu, que supostamente manipulou o conteúdo da lista para ocultar uma eventual evasão de divisas de seus familiares. Na sequência dessas revelações, 71 parlamentares gregos apresentaram no Parlamento um pedido de investigação contra o ex-Ministro de Finanças. Os deputados pertencem aos três partidos da coalizão do governo, mas nenhum líder de partido ratificou o pedido.

#17Ngr from the #rbnews community

By @Krotkie and @mpatman

Skouries turned into a battlefield

By @Inflammatory_

The forest of Skouries in northern Greece's Halkidiki peninsula turned into a battlefield tonight as local villagers and Syriza leaning protesters clashed with riot police [see update below]. Approximately 2000 demonstrators marched peacefully to Eldorado company’s site over the severe environmental impact from its gold mining operations. Riot police squads had already blocked the way through the entrance and hurled teargas to disperse the crowd. 

"Corpus Christi" censoring attempts and the politics of faith in Greece

By @inflammatory_

 Protester’s jumper against “Corpus Christi” reads
“Orthodoxy or Death” via lifo.gr

Back in May of 1998, Manhattan Theater Club (MTC) in NY cancelled the scheduled production of the three-times Tony Award winner Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi play, prompted by anonymous telephone threats to burn down the prolific theater and kill its staff and the playwright. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights that was already campaigning against the play for blasphemy, disavowed responsibility for the phone-calls.  Those developments swiftly sparked outrage in the artistic community over the religious group's intimidation and MTC's administration for backing off and not standing firm.

Apparently the play was set on schedule again, following talks among NYC Police and MTC's artistic director Lynne Meadow, who was seeking reassurance that security will be adequate. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's office also issued a statement, reading "Although the mayor doesn't agree with the tone of the play, threats of violence in New York City will not be tolerated." During opening day, there were two counter demos outside MTC, one supporting the play and another demanding to get banned. Police officers and journalists were on the spot and the audience had to pass through metal detectors.

#rbnews international show - 29 September 2012

The English-language news show on radiobubble, hosted this week by @IrateGreek and @Pexlibanis. We discuss

• the anti-austerity demonstration on 26 September and subsequent arrests (guest: Chrysa Petsimeri), 
• the Geron Pastitsios blasphemy arrest, 
• a massive case of money laudering involving several prominent Greek politicians (guest: @Okeanews), 
• news from Belgium and the rest of Europe (guest: @Krotkie).

You can listen to the podcast after the jump. 

LIVE BLOG on May Day 2012 in Greece

By @inflammatory_ 

15:50 there seems to be no trouble in the area of Exarchia at the moment
15:05 Riot police in Exarcheia opposite protesters' barricades of trash bins in the middle of the street

pic by @_giant_

pic by @makissinodinos

Elderly man commits suicide in Athens over mounting debt, triggering rallies in the capital city

By @inflammatory_

Notes pinned on the spot where the man turned
his gun against him:"who' will be the next victim?"
"mnemonium is the murderer","it was not a suicide
but a murder" pic by @northaura

Another dramatic incident amid austerity was added on the long list of suicides over financial burden this morning in Syntagma square, central Athens, during rush hour. The 77 years old  retired pharmacist, allegedly said "I don't want to leave my children in debt" before taking his own life with a handgun near a tube exit. Passersby froze when the shot was heard. Sources said the man left a suicide note expressing his resentment over the government that left him hopeless:

Tsolakoglou* occupation government has literally nullified any chance of my survival that was based on a decent pension, to which I've been the sole contributor for 35 years without any state financial aid.
Since my age doesn't help for sheer resistance (of course without rejecting the possibility that if a Greek were to grab a Kalashnikov first, I'd be the second following) I see no other solution but a decent end (of my life) before I start searching for food into trash bins. I believe that one day, youths with no future will take up arms and hang upside-down those national traitors, as Italians did to Mussolini (in piazza Pareto-Milan) back in 1945."