Real Democracy Now: Greek Students Take The Square Fight Against Education Reform Syntagma Square Re-Occupied

Greece: Students fight against education reform/Syntagma square re-occupied

On August 24th the Greek parliament voted in favour of the education reform bill submitted by the Minister of Education, Anna Diamantopoulou, which includes some of the most sweeping changes in the country’s educational system. The law introduces a UK-style administration of universities, with external individuals and non-academics taking part in the running of institutions and assessment-based, industry-oriented funding. Diamantopoulou - supported by some members of the far right party LA.O.S (Popular Orthodox Rally) – announced the complete abolishment of the historic university asylum (which prevented police from entering academic grounds in the name of the freedom of expression) and the election of university vice-chancellors primarily from their academic community

Students responded with demonstrations and mass occupations. At least 222 departments across the country are now occupied. There seems to be a completely unprecedented agreement between students across almost the entire political spectrum for mobilisations against the voted law: this is rapidly becoming a stand-off between the Student community and the Parliament.

Below: a google map with departments under occupation (please note that it’s not quite up-to-date, as the number of departments increases rapidly, literally by the hour).

Syntagma square re-occupied

Yesterday, the indignants of Greece took back Syntagma square. Around 20.000 people protested against the IMF, police repression and lack of democracy. Many leftist groups participated, among with many anti-cuts and anti-racist organisations and a small group of Kurdish immigrants. Over 2000 joined the assembly. However in the upper Syntagma square the presence of flag wavers-nationalists, neo-fascists and anti-immigrant haters was strong [1]

Around 0:30, the riot police invaded the square and then a ruthless crackdown place. Many protesters tried to run away towards Stadiou and Filellinon streets. Later on, riot squads entered the “Everest” fast-food, beating up everybody on their way (not only protesters who were trying to escape but also people who were eating there). They threw tear gases and flash grenades and left one protester seriously injured.

Below is the statement of People’s assembly:

         On September 3rd, we are everywhere – we fill up Syntagma Square

The squares are us and we are everywhere. We are all. We started as indignant people, we have decided, and in a little while we will be revolting in masses until those who drove us here go away. Until we kick out the bankers and the market’s governments and system.

We all agree that we do not need any spokesmen in this movement, because by definition, but especially in the context of this political and economic system, they will be corrupted, cut off from the people, and will betray the people. We want to decide collectively for ourselves.  We demand to take our lives into our own hands.

The 3rd of September (the day when the first Greek constitution was drafted in 1843, and also when PASOK, the ruling party was created in 1974) is a date we can retake, by giving it back its original meaning, that of the people’s needs.

The 3rd of September is an important date for us. It is also the day that reminds us of the “cancellation” of the people’s aspirations for democracy, freedom and dignity. That reminds us of the lies told and the mockery made by our government.

We do not have any illusions: we understand that we cannot have direct democracy and people’s rule without overthrowing the government, the Troika, and the whole political and economic system.

We call all citizens to the big demonstration and people’s assembly in Syntagma Square and all the country’s squares on September 3, 2011 at 19:00

Bread – Education – Freedom

Equality – Justice – Liberty

The squares are we and we are everywhere

DIRECT DEMOCRACY

[1] The Blogger “The Irate Greek”describes the event of a racist attack:

         It was around 3pm on the corner of Ermou and Voulis Streets. A man selling corncobs in the street beat up an African who was selling counterfeit bags. The African was accusing the corn seller of stealing a bag from him and hiding it in his stand. The police let go the corn seller, trying isntead to disperse the people who had gathered. A man in civilian clothes was shouting that people should leave. When @mp_anana and @christina_la asked what authority he had to give orders to anyone, a policeman told them he held some position in the police and the municipality. The corn seller called activists from a far-right group and they started chatting with the police. @mp_anana and @christina_la later found out from kids from the neighbourhood that the corn seller is a member of Chrysi Avgi. A squad of riot police came and shouted again that people should leave, but people were staying to prevent them from beating up the African street sellers and were insisting that the police open the corn stand to see if the bag was inside. A lady told a policeman: “we are paying you to do your job.” He answered: “you are not paying me, mind your own business.” Shopkeepers came out and said that the Africans were ruining their business, that they should leave, etc. Ironically, at least one of them was not Greek herself. Meanwhile, the African man who had been beaten was bleeding in the street (he had to be taken to hospital, full details in Greek here).

(The names @mp_anana and @christina_la are the main display names of some tweeter users who were present at the event)

RealDemocracyNOW WorldRevolution: GreekRevolution Syntagma Square Press-Release To EuropeanRevolution Global Community Take The Square

Press-release from #Syntagma Square to Global Community #europeanrevolution #greekrevolution

Sent us by our dear fellows of http://real-democracy.gr/en .

Dear friends, brothers and sisters,

We are the ones that have fought for a month at Syntagma square in Athens. We organize ourselves with direct democracy excluding all political parties. Our voice is our everyday people´s assembly.

We are indignant because others decide for us without us and mortgage our future; they impose loans that do not benefit the people but the banks and governments’ interests. We are indignant because they terrify us using the deterrent of bankruptcy. Not only do they try to scare us but they also try to set people against each other.

*- We do not want any more support loans.*

*- We do not want public property *to be sold off.

*- We do not want the medium-term program *to pass.

*- We do not want the socialization of losses and privatization of gains.

*Unite your voice with ours.*

They are using our sacrifices and yours so that few acquire wealth.

We are here today, you will be here tomorrow.

We take to the streets everyday.

Every Sunday hundreds of thousands of citizens gather at the squares of all Greece, Syntagma being the core.

*The medium-term austerity *program will not pass.

Journalists hush, we do not.

We urge all the people of Europe and all trade unions to organize solidarity and mutual support actions on the day of the medium-term program vote.

*All together, so that we take our lives in our hands*

*A WARNING TO TROIKA, BANKS AND LOCAL OR FOREIGN PROSPECTIVE INVESTORS *

*WHO DREAM OF OBTAINING GREEK PUBLIC PROPERTY*

A revoked and dictatorial government that doesn’t represent the people of this country has just passed bills (Midterm Agreement, Implementation law) to sell up Greek public property and land, against the will of the vast majority of the people.

We inform those who look forward to an investing opportunity that we will, in a very short time, overthrow this government and all responsible will answer for their crimes against the people and the country. Their bills and signatures are not valid. They have not been validated by the Greek people and they will not be recognized by the people.

We warn any investor not to even think of coming near an auction or sale of our public property or land and furthermore not to purchase them. When we will regain the sovereignty of our country, they will lose whatever they purchased, and the money they paid in that illegal transaction will not be refunded.

Moreover we warn them that until we regain control of the country, in the process of defending our rights, as they are mentioned in the Greek Constitution and in the internationally recognized Peoples’ Rights, we will proceed to all necessary actions (through our self-organization) to annul and sabotage their investment

No prospective investor should, therefore, dare to go on with any bargain shopping of public property and land in Greece, unless they realize the high risk of their investment. In this case, their investment will be “welcomed” in the country where any time someone takes away the freedom of

the people, someone like Kanaris is born or a bridge is blown up, like that over Gorgopotamos river.



*The People’s Assembly Syntagma 3/7/2011*


Sent to our dear fellows of European Revolution

From our dear fellows of Real Democracy Greece

Also published by our dear fellows of Indignez Vous Belgique

EuropeanRevolution RealDemocracyNOW London Message to Syntagma GreekRevolution: Real Democracy Now London International Assembly WorldRevolution

London Message to Syntagma

In this time of great confusion, political apathy and misinformation we are compelled to respond dynamically to issues that affect us all as citizens of the world, as human beings.

We EXPRESS OUR SOLIDARITY to Syntagma Square and, together, we call for the RE-ENFORCEMENT of the network of the Real Democracy Now groups across Europe.

1) We CONDEMN the propaganda of the major mainstream media who do not tell the truth about Greece, claiming that the violence was started by the protesters while there are numerous sources confirming that the Greek police act oppressively against the crowd, use prohibited tear gases, punish and beat protesters without reason, attack stores and arrest even those who do not participate in the protests. The crackdown of June 29th was in fact a chemical warfare against protesters.

We CONDEMN the actions of the Greek government: 1) The introduction of the IMF-EU-ECB Troika’s demands against the wishes of the Greek people. 2) The stance of the vice president of the government Theodoros Pagalos for calling the majority of the Greek people “crooks” while he openly declared that if instability continues the army should be called to protect the banks from the people. We wonder who will protect the people from the cannibalistic power of the banks.

Spain and Greece have been trapped within cultural stereotypes, cultivated by the mainstream mass media and people are led to believe that this economic mess has to do with our cultural habits. Of course we recognise our failure to identify the warnings in time, as before now we chose to ignore the problems and refused to see that we were being led into a destructive financial death-trap for the sake of private banks and global speculators. Hence, we call for the people to RISE UP and despise apathy and consumerism. It is time to take the future in our hands, ending the power of capitalism over our lives, both economically and politically

What we are experiencing, is the vicious application of a disastrous economic model in the EU, in the most undemocratic and provocative way while the political leaders do their best to keep the people misinformed and therefore easily manipulated. The current socio-political system aims to maximize the profit and socialize the cost.

2) We stand by the side of the SPANISH INDIGNADOS who were and always are a great influence and inspiration, by the FRENCH people and all those who go through difficult times, by the people of IRAN who fight against their oppressive regime, by the TUNISIANS and EGYPTIANS who showed the way to freedom, by the people of SYRIA, BAHRAIN, YEMEN, MOROCCO… the struggle is common.

3) We send our solidarity, also, to the people of CHILE who are struggling against the privatisation of schools and universities. During 2011 numerous student protests took place across the country, but the media kept silent about it. The Chilean people have a long history of fights against exploitation, one of the most notable being the fight against the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Under neoliberal politics, only a few privileged will enjoy social benefits, the privatization of education will shatter the dreams of the entire youth and condemn future generations to illiteracy.

4) We believe in a global political system of EQUAL PARTICIPATION for all citizens in political life, which should be the dominant value of human society, instead of money, productivism and economism.

5) There is an English saying ‘to take the bull by both horns’. In response to the crisis, we now see both the politics of nationalism and European state-federalism rearing their ugly heads. Nationalism, however intended is divisive, racist, fascist even and therefore ultimately undemocratic. With global capital now dictating each country’s policies, the Treaty of Westphalia has run its course. At the same time, we REJECT any political union foisted on us by the European state as a solution to the crisis, which will only damage each country further by following the same FAILED neo-liberal / global capitalist-led model.

6) Instead, we will replace and transform these bankrupt institutions with democratic People’s Assemblies.

7) Let us now call for People’s Assemblies everywhere! To express our common, local sovereignty, the means to build a new society that supports people and planet, while ALSO forcing each nation to join as one, to take on the global hegemon. For only then, when global capital is superceded by people power will poverty, famine, war and planetary destruction come to an end.

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

I think I can change things.

I think I can help.

I know that together we can.

For peace, equality and freedom

Real Democracy Now – London International Assembly

Syntagma square People’s Assembly Press-Release To Athens Mayor World-Revolution European-Revolution Greek-Revolution

To the Mayor of Athens:

After a proposition of the thematic assembly of Direct Democracy, the People’s Assembly of Syntagma answers once more to the Mayor of Athens Mr Kaminis, regarding his statements, his intentions and all comments in the press that refer to a plan of “evacuation” of the square. The announcement is the following:

*To Mr Kaminis*

Following a government order, you have stated that you are going to empty Syntagma square, undertaking thus, the task of executing an unconstitutional act since in our Constitution the article 11 protects categorically the right of the citizens to gather and assemble. We remind to you that the public spaces belong to the citizens.

For 45 days the citizens of Athens, the city of which you are the mayor, are gathering and protesting peacefully at public spaces and squares. We fight for justice and dignity and we deny obedience to unconstitutional and unjust laws and memoranda that literally destroy our lives.

For 45 days now the people’s assemblies implementing democracy in action have caused worldwide interest, and touristic interest on top of that. Yet for 45 days now you ignore us, openly. Instead of taking your place with us in the movement of Syntagma square, you rush to comply with the governments orders against us. Still you claim, falsely, knowingly, that for any tourist cancellations and wilting of the commercial center of the city, those to blame are the “indignant”! But you know (only too well) that thousands who have passed by, are passing by, or stay at Syntagma, Greeks and foreigners, but not only do not decrease on the contrary, they reinforce tourism and commercial activity.

You have said no word as t the consequences on tourism cause by the state terrorism of the 15, nor of the chemical orgy, provocateurs and police violence the 28th and 29th, not ony in Syntagma square but also at Pagrati, Stadium, Monastiraki and Aeropageitou st.e.t.c. Nor have you said a word about the consequences of all this violence and terrorism to the commercial activity near Syntagma and downtown Athens.

You said nothing about the attack of hordes of DIAS against shops at Ermou, and the acts of violence even against tourists. You took no position against the violence of the forces of repression acted on the citizens of your city and you refused even to discuss the issue during the city council meeting. Not a word on the disasters caused by repression and the government’s MAT forces to the public space of the city and the Syntagma square in special. Nor about the thousands of chemicals that the praetorians of Mr. Papoutsis has spread at the expense of health and safety of the Athenians.

You have not proceeded to a single intervention to prevent the uncontrollable police violence that resulted in hundreds of injuries. It was out of luck and our solidarity that we had in the end of the day no dead people. You said nothing about the organized by the police plan of promoting drug addicted people towards Syntagma square. If some homeless or drug addicted find refuge there it is because nobody hunts them down. If their presence insults your aesthetics we remind you that they are the victims of the callous state and municipal politics, for which you are also responsible. Instead of chasing them therefore from street to street and square after square, it is your duty to resolve their problems, give them hope, find them refuge and provide them with medical care, so they can go regaining their lost dignity.

Let us not forget, that the majority of those in tents in Syntagma is composed by people who left their homes and their lives, to materialize in action the square slogan “We will not go unless they leave”.. It is these decisive people that the current status of power fears and insults. Mr Kaminis When the citizens were in danger you were conspicuous by your absence. Those critical days and hours Athens had no Mayor…

Let aside thus the pretexts and admit that you have an order to collaborate to the plan of dissolving the people’s assemblies. Will you comply to the suggestions of a violent and unjust government that you serve willingly till today, and finally turn openly against the citizens of your city? Will you instead of Mayor and People’s Advocate, abject to being their prosecutor and an accomplice to the violence forced on them?

We are not only the “ indignants” that the media sketch, we are active citizens, decided to struggle in every way we will co-decide, through our assemblies, till all those who brought us to this state leave: Government, Troika, memoranda and medium austerity programs, banks and their representatives, e.t.c

Till we get back our lives and install a real democracy of equality, justice and dignity. The people’s assembly concerns all citizens. You can come as a citizen yourself and express your views, as everyone else.

*People’s Assembly of Syntagma square the 10th of July 2011*