People's Democracy

Greece Seethes With Rage Over Police Firing

R Arun Kumar

FOR five days, from December 7-11, 2008, the entire country of Greece shook with what many termed as the worst 'riots' in decades. Terming all the protest events in Greece during these five days as 'riots', is gross injustice to the popular anger of the hundreds and thousands of people. The immediate spark that burst the people's anger against the government is the killing of a fifteen-year old boy Alexandros Grigoropoulos by the police.

The murder of this young boy is a continuation of police violence and arbitrariness, which has grown during the last few years. This is the latest in a chain of incidents that are directed against workers at workplaces, where constant extortion and intimidation takes place; against immigrants, who are victims of exploitation; against students, for demanding public education for free.

The successive governments of the erstwhile PASOK (socialists) and the current New Democracy had armed the police with many draconian laws and powers. The police and the armed forces are trained to consider struggling people and youth as their enemies and suppress popular struggles. This is also due to adhering to European Union's anti-terror regulations (the Prum Convention).

This incident triggered a wave of protests in Greece as people are already seething with anger over the government's economic policies. Corruption, scandals, cronyism resulted in the people losing faith in their government. The spectre of economic crisis and the government's failure to protect the interests of working class, common people and its open bias to the capitalist class further accentuated the discontent. On the pretext of the economic crisis, labour rights and social benefits to the workers were curtailed. Lay-offs were increasing by the day and there were no jobs on offer for the youth creating lots of dissatisfaction.

On hearing the news of the police firing that killed the youth, people had spontaneously come out on the streets to protest. Students boycotted classes and all the major four universities in the country remained closed for all these days. Professors too struck work. Civil servants too joined them on the day of the funeral of the boy. The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Young Communist League (KNE) took an active part in mobilising the people and led these demonstrations. The entire week had witnessed strong mobilisations by small farmers in mass rallies and blockades of national highways, as well as protests by self-employed youth, craftsmen and tradesmen.

The trade unions, youth and peasant organisations that were in the thick of struggles against these policies had in fact called for a general strike on December 10, much earlier before the incident had taken place. This was called over the issue of pensions, salaries, against lay-offs, for the right to education and healthcare. After the incident, the issue of police cruelties too was added to these issues. On the day of general strike, factories were shut and workers mobilised in huge numbers in picket lines. The entire transport system - air, water and ground - was severely affected bringing the entire country to a standstill. Most significant aspect is that this is the second successful general strike observed in a space of two months and this itself shows the discontent among the people.

Anarchists tried to utilise this discontent among the people and set fire to shops, garbage bins, pelted stones and rioted in many parts of the country. It is these incidents that had attracted the media attention rather than the spontaneous public protest. The KKE had rightly pointed out that these riots �will be used as an excuse for the further intensification of anti-democratic and repressive measures� by the government and help those who are �trying to prevent the emergence of an organised and mighty mass movement�. In fact the government had tried to break the huge protest demonstrations organised by the KKE under this pretext. That it had failed shows the strong popular urge among the people. Many people taking part in the protest demonstrations unequivocally stated that they were against violence and were there because of the economic situation and against police atrocities.

The KKE saluted the fighting spirit of the people and called for further intensification of protest demonstrations by involving all those who have not yet joined them in the coming days. It had asked the organised popular movement to �take the matter into its own hands starting from the workplaces, the places of residence, and coordinate its action among sectors, municipalities and neighbourhoods�. It called upon the workers to �rally and coordinate their forces throughout the country and put forward economical, social and political demands against the repression laws�. With news of early elections doing rounds, the KKE had called upon all its members to gear up to the task and ensure that both the PASOK and ND are defeated.