Workers Solidarity Movement

Months of intense resistance by ordinary people in Greece appear to have resulted in a partial victory. The EU crisis summit conceded that bond holders be forced to shoulder 50% of their losses. This did not come easy, Greek workers have staged several general strikes and Athens has seen day after day of large scale rioting.

The contrast with Ireland is clear. Here the union leadership called off token resistance in the first months of the crisis and workers passively marched, shrugged their shoulders and went home. As a result the ordinary Irish worker alone, the majority of 'the 99%', have shouldered all the costs. Bond holders will scontinue to have their failed gambles covered. Next week alone another 700 million will be handed over to the Irish & global 1% to cover their losses in Anglo. This is our ‘thanks’ for being the poster boys for austerity across Europe.

There is no doubt that the political history of Greece is full of oppression and political struggle - from dictatorships to political prosecutions, jailings, exiles, shootings, torture, civil war, and countless strikes, demonstrations, occupations and protests that are put down by extreme state violence.

Recently an American friend was over buying tatty gifts for the folks back home. She asked me how did the Leprechaun look come about.  Who decided that they were all going to be short arsed red haired people?  It was a good question.  "Does anyone look like that anyway?" she said. Immediately our present prime minister sprang to mind.  

The big bad ECB wolf is a-huffing and a-puffing but the first of the three little pigs is showing no signs of surrendering just yet. And behind the spectacle of the Greek populace standing up against its government and the core EU powers, lurks a recent historical shadow - a spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of Yugoslavia.

Today Greece is the target of pressure and brinkmanship by the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund who are holding back the next installment in the so-called "bailout" agreed last year. The payment of €12 billion was originally scheduled for this month and without it Greece will default on repaying its existing bonds due for redemption on Jul 15.

The population of Greece are in revolt again the IMF /ECB austerity plan that is being imposed on them.  WSM member Con who is a migrant to Ireland from Greece tells us what it is like to follow the struggle by home from Ireland and especially the extraordinary events yesterday when many police, who for months have been attacking demonstrators, instead joined the demonstrations.  Presumably they will soon be bought off and return to business as usual but all the same perhaps such an usual event is close to a miracle.

The insurrection in Greece is a violent manifestation of the flame of class war that is sweeping across the world.
The flame of rage against injustice is burning from sweatshops in China to the streets and campuses of Dublin; to the inner city areas of Belfast. From the thousands of pensioners, education workers who took to the streets recently, to the workers who occupied a factory in Derry, we all share a common desire for change.

A crowd of anarchists and activists picketed the Greek Embassy in Dublin on a cold winters evening whilst a young man who was killed by the state Special forces is buried in Greece.

"Toward the end of the demo however the riot police launched a major attack, forcing it to retreat toward the city’s historical university building (the so-called parartima). Soon thereafter, the most incredible attack began: Tens of fascists (that seem to had gathered in Patras from across the country, in a pre-planned joint operation with the police) attacked the demonstration with knives and stones."

The Workers Solidarity Movement, an Irish anarchist organisation, have organized a picket of the Greek Embassy in Dublin this Tuesday 9th December 2008, meeting at Stephen’s Green at 5pm. The picket is in response to the killing of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15 year old, who was shot and killed by Greek police in Athens on Saturday night. WSM spokesperson, Gavin Gleeson, says that “As fellow anarchists, we want to show our solidarity and support for the Greeks in opposing police brutality.”

Statement from Greek anarchists on the shooting of the 16-year-old boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos,  in Athens