Italy's Collectivo Prezzemolo's solidarity release for Kostas Sakkas

Collectivo Prezzemolo from Italy issued the following release for Kostas Sakkas: 

We demand the immediate release of Kostas Sakkas

"Kostas Sakkas is on hunger strike for 36 days. He has been held in preemptive detention for more than 30 months. His ongoing detention is violating the Constitution and the legislation, which do not allow for more than 18 months of imprisonment without a trial.

Kostas Sakkas is accused of arms possession and participation in the organization “Fire Cells’ Conspiracy” despite that both himself and the arrested members of the organization deny it. In an official announcement, the governing party of New Democracy is accusing Sakkas of “anarchism”, in an attempt to penalize his ideas.

At this point, his health is considered to be in a very critical condition, as the doctors have stated that they consider not only the possibility of permanent health damage, but also his death, as a potential outcome of the hunger strike. He is determined, though, to go forward with it, until the end.
Despite the above, a decision issued last week by the Judiciary Council of the Appeals’ Court stated that his preemptive detention can be continued. The Amnesty International, the Lawyers’ Boards and many other relevant institutions have identified many shortcomings in the legal procedures that were followed.

The Greek State, blindly following the Troika’s diktats, appears once again ruthless and insensible. Having adopted a strategy of extreme repression in order to apply a disastrous neoliberal economic policy, it once again chooses to ignore its own legislation and is ready to let a human being die in prison, without even officially confirming what he is accused of.

The Greek state promotes a logic that permits it to penalize any kind of struggle, to invade the homes of anti-mine activists in Skouries, to send the riot police inside the Rectorate of the Athens University in order to arrest protesting students, to condemn a whole society in “slow death” through the extreme austerity measures. It is this exact logic being applied in the case of Kostas Sakkas.

Because the Greek government’s disastrous economic policy and frontal attack to labor rights cannot be applied without extreme forms of repression and liberties’ suppression.

We won’t let them murder Kostas Sakkas! We won’t allow them to kill the Greek people!

We demand the immediate liberation of Kostas Sakkas."

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.

#rbnews international weekly bulletin 19-25 January 2013

The text companion of the #rbnews international show of 26 January 2013 is online. You can read it after the jump.

Human Rights Group rings alarm bell for HIV Positive women held in prison

By @zoemavroudi

“Their lives are in danger.” Human Rights Group rings alarm bell for HIV Positive women held in prison for alleged threat to public health

On April 29 2012, shortly before the Greek May 6 election, dozens of women allegedly working illegally as sex workers were rounded up and taken into custody by Greek police in Athens. Rapid HIV testing was performed on them by Greek authorities at police stations where they were told they were being led for identification purposes. They were subsequently diagnosed HIV positive and were charged with “the intention of causing heavy bodily harm” while photographs of 17 of them at first, were published on the official Greek police website.

The case has caused uproar both in Greece and internationally for what human rights groups have called a clear violation of international laws for the protection from the deprivation of one’s freedom, right to consent to medical testing and medical confidentiality.

Reflections on Greece: a social crisis

Edited by Andrew Brady for USi

USi spent six nights in Athens recently to gather momentum for our ‘Solidarity with Greece’ campaign with trade unions and community networks. This article is one of three on our reflections on the challenges facing the City and Greece – and what as trade unionists we must do to assist.

With Greece’s future increasingly in doubt an emergency government was established on Wednesday (16 May) with new elections set for 17 June. Away from the debates swirling around about GDP debt ratios, sovereign debt, and, bond rates something very profound and alarming is happening on the ground.

Unemployment, suicides, prostitution, drug abuse, depression, homelessness and hopelessness are sky-rocketing. You can see the visible impact of the economic crisis when you walk around areas of the City such as Omonoia and Agios Panteleemonas. It is not easy to witness or take in.

Greece’s jobless rate hit a new record in February. Data from Greece’s statistics service on Thursday (17 May) showed unemployment hit 21.7 percent in February. In the 15-24 age group it rose to 54 percent. The data showed nearly 1.1 million people were jobless, 42 percent more than in the same month a year ago, reflecting the huge scale of the human damage. However, the true scale of unemployment and underemployment is higher. The country’s economy continues to contract for a fifth consecutive year.

The New York Times reported in April that in Greece, the suicide rate among men increased more than 24 percent from 2007 to 2009, government statistics show. The suicide rate increased by 40 percent in the first half of 2011. Greece’s financial crisis has also made some families so desperate they are giving up the most precious thing of all – their children – as they can’t take care of them any longer. There are estimates that up to 20,000 people are homeless in Athens.

Prostitution is legal in Greece, with regular health checks for sex workers required, but authorities say only a fraction of brothels are operating with a license. According to the disease control center, 954 new HIV infections were reported in 2011, a 57 percent increase from the previous year. The authorities say they are concerned about the overlap between drug use and illegal prostitution. The Athens City government has said at least 315 brothels are currently operating illegally in the Greek capital. Greece is also the busiest transit point for illegal immigration in the European Union – and for human traffickers bringing women from Eastern European countries.

In conversation after conversation USi was told of the network of grandparents who are holding Greek society together with their pensions and support but this entitlement is continuously under attack to the point of being eroded. Wages have been decimated as you can read elsewhere on our site. People openly speak about moving out their homes (owned or rented) to move back in with family or friends as they can’t afford to pay the costs of living. Solidarity networks have sprung up all over Athens such as the Network for Cheap Potatoes and Convenience Stores to help alleviate the pressure and pain. But people and communities are hanging by a thread.

Society is approaching a critical point. This is the story the vested interests who pursue austerity do not want you to read or hear.  They would rather it remains focused on the perpetuation of myths such as ‘lazy Greeks’ in order to carry through privatisation and liberalisation of the whole state for profit. The human damage is irrelevant or at best secondary to private sector investors being reimbursed for ill-judged financial decisions and the subsequent exposure they bear on other European markets. As has been illustrated elsewhere – particularly by Yanis Varoufakis – the economics of Greece is minor to the financial tsunami that threatens to implode across Europe – and the people of Greece are way down the pecking order.

The imposed conditions of the second bailout will be enforced in June including tens of thousands of job losses and further pay cuts. Those fortunate to still have a job are of course extremely worried about their futures. On the day the agreement was reached in February this year Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: “Today the problem is solved”. To the contrary, unless resistance to austerity continues and increases – the problem may be only beginning.

LIVE BLOG on #We_Are_All_Greeks_Now demos

By @inflammatory_

A wave of demonstrations under the slogan "We are all Greeks now" is taking place this afternoon in various cities across Europe and on the other side of the pond, where the Occupy Wall Street movement began. The list with the cities where people plan to march in solidarity with Greek people's struggle against the austerity is long: Milan, Helsinki,Cologne, London, Dublin, Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Stockholm, Edinburgh, Reykjavík, Barcelona, Lisboa, New York, Coimbra and Porto...to name a few. If you wish to check each city's meeting point, please click here. 

For twitter updates follow #weareallgreeks  #18fgr and #rbnews hashtags. 
This post will be updated with pics and videos