Riots on the Streets of Athens

You may or may not be aware of the riots and general strike currently occurring in Greece due to the murder of a fifteen year-old man by police.

I would like to use this resource of a blog to express my full solidarity with the general strike, and with the anger of the people that are taking their society to the streets.

An internet acquaintance of mine who lives in Athens put me on to this blog post by bollybutton, who like him, is also a foreigner living in Athens. She describes the situation very succinctly and rationally, and if you are at all interested in why the Greeks are burning their own cities, here is why:

"Despite throwing my hands up in frustration at the hot headedness of the Greeks who like nothing better than having a strike or a riot, this time I am completely backing the young people who have taken to the streets in anger."

[...]

"I am in full favour of them [the riots], believing that it's healthy for a government to be scared of its people when it really fucks up. And this time the government deserves everything it gets."

[...]

"In my opinion only a small section of the crowds are trouble makers. The rest are just plain angry and are venting this anger through violence. And really, when you consider all the facts, why the hell should they not be angry? As so many news commentators have said, this is a generation without hope. The youngsters waiting outside at Alexandros's funeral were crying not only for the waste of a life, but also for themselves and their wasted lives in a country where the government is not the least bit bothered about their futures. They were tears of anger, sadness and frustration.

If this government has any brains at all, they will take a serious look at cracking down on the grievances of the young people who see no future instead of the rioters themselves.

Glass can be fixed, shops are insured. If they wipe out the hope of an entire generation, they are sowing the seeds for their own demise and if that's the road they want to go down, we haven't seen anything yet."

Beautifully written, and well said. Property destruction is anger, murder of a citizen by the state is violence.




I'll just end with one thing. My pal Sam recalled a quote to me, I believe from the G8 protests in Genoa. A Greek Anarchist is confronted by a counter-protester, who shouts:

"Who do you think you are, coming and burning down my city?"

The Anarchist responds:

"You come to my city and I'll burn it down with you!"

Labor Day

Happy Labor Day everyone!

The list of holidays that I make the occasion of celebrating is relatively short. However, one that I think of as particularly important is Labor Day. That is, the real Labor Day.

On May 1st, 1886 a general-strike began nationwide in support of the 8-hour day. Violence broke out in Chicago on May 3rd when strikers were murdered by police. On May 4th a rally was held at Haymarket Square. When police tried to break up the rally, a bomb was thrown, and the ensuing riot killed four workers and seven policemen.

Eight men, August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden and Oscar Neebe were tried and convicted for murder, all but Neebe with death sentences.

Labor groups celebrate Labor Day on May 1st to commemorate the struggle for labor rights around the world, and the remember the martyrs of the riot.

But here in this country, on May 1st we celebrate Loyalty Day, a holiday specifically started to dissuade the leftist influence of May Day and to reaffirm loyalty to the state. Also, the day is Law Day, an equally nationalist, statist, and patriotic holiday.

Our Labor Day, as we all know, is in the beginning of September. This was started as a continuation of the Knights of Labor's annual parade: a group with affiliations with the Ku Klux Klan. Now it is official as another way of having us forget the history of labor struggles in this country.

Take this day as an opportunity to remember what this country used to be like and to be thankful that things are somewhat better now. Or, think about whether they really are. Where is the 8-hour day now? What are unions like now? Who are the workers now?