Three-way war
Jun. 15th, 2011 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularThere was another general strike called today, and this one got kind of ugly.
Not as bad as last year or other years gone by, with tons of property damage and people being burned to death in firebombed banks, but bad enough.
The background: apparently in response to similar protests in Spain, some people in Greece called for a protest at Syntagma - Constitution Square, in front of the Parliament building. Calling themselves "the Indignant", they didn't act as proxies of the labor unions, but sort of took it viral, through the social networks, and soon enough, there were fairly large gatherings in Constitution Square. Mostly after hours - the people who'd gotten the word initially were probably people who worked for a living, or were trying to work, so during the day on working days, the square would sport lots of banners and some tents, but no pressing crowds.
And there was a big distinction from the other protests that have been in the news: it wasn't violent. Sure, on weekends, you'd find huge crowds, but the energy level was about equivalent to a midsummer baseball game at Yankee Stadium, no worse. The atmosphere was less like a riot, more like a county fair, complete with food vendors. All that was missing were the zeppole.
Apparently, the folks who'd organized the Indignant protest wanted no part of the anarcho-hooligan vibe that crops up whenever there's a big enough march plowing through central Athens. With good reason, as it turned out.
Today (June 15) was different. The labor unions had called a general strike, so big marches were planned, big gatherings at Parliament. Marchers whipped up into a frenzy by chanting sloganeers, with hooded hooligans in the mix ready to throw rocks at cops and smash windows and set fires ... and they kind of slammed into the Indignant crowd that was already in front of the Parliament.
The Indignant tried running off the hooligans; the hooligans were throwing rocks not just at the cops, but into the Indignant crowd as well, and infuriated people were shoving at police barricades.
(As a note, for the last couple of weeks, the cops had been basically ready for trouble but not looking for it; there had been almost no police action other than guarding while the Indignant were gathered at the square.)
Anyway, stones started flying, protestors were scuffling with protestors, then came the tear gas, then came the fire bombs. And it kind of degenerated from there.
Smashed windows, smoldering piles of rubbish left on the street, resentment all around, and a country depending on tourism has delivered a crippling blow to its own kneecaps.
Again.
Not as bad as last year or other years gone by, with tons of property damage and people being burned to death in firebombed banks, but bad enough.
The background: apparently in response to similar protests in Spain, some people in Greece called for a protest at Syntagma - Constitution Square, in front of the Parliament building. Calling themselves "the Indignant", they didn't act as proxies of the labor unions, but sort of took it viral, through the social networks, and soon enough, there were fairly large gatherings in Constitution Square. Mostly after hours - the people who'd gotten the word initially were probably people who worked for a living, or were trying to work, so during the day on working days, the square would sport lots of banners and some tents, but no pressing crowds.
And there was a big distinction from the other protests that have been in the news: it wasn't violent. Sure, on weekends, you'd find huge crowds, but the energy level was about equivalent to a midsummer baseball game at Yankee Stadium, no worse. The atmosphere was less like a riot, more like a county fair, complete with food vendors. All that was missing were the zeppole.
Apparently, the folks who'd organized the Indignant protest wanted no part of the anarcho-hooligan vibe that crops up whenever there's a big enough march plowing through central Athens. With good reason, as it turned out.
Today (June 15) was different. The labor unions had called a general strike, so big marches were planned, big gatherings at Parliament. Marchers whipped up into a frenzy by chanting sloganeers, with hooded hooligans in the mix ready to throw rocks at cops and smash windows and set fires ... and they kind of slammed into the Indignant crowd that was already in front of the Parliament.
The Indignant tried running off the hooligans; the hooligans were throwing rocks not just at the cops, but into the Indignant crowd as well, and infuriated people were shoving at police barricades.
(As a note, for the last couple of weeks, the cops had been basically ready for trouble but not looking for it; there had been almost no police action other than guarding while the Indignant were gathered at the square.)
Anyway, stones started flying, protestors were scuffling with protestors, then came the tear gas, then came the fire bombs. And it kind of degenerated from there.
Smashed windows, smoldering piles of rubbish left on the street, resentment all around, and a country depending on tourism has delivered a crippling blow to its own kneecaps.
Again.
