Showing posts with label US State Department. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US State Department. Show all posts

Monday 17 September 2012

EXARCHIA ATHENS.


From Anarchistnews.org

Exarchia — the Hell’s Kitchen of Athens

        Historical stronghold of anarchists in the heart of Athens, the square has become a thermometer of Greek society during the crisis. Among the artists’ squats and trendy youth dropping by to breathe the air of protest, trafficking and violence are growing.
      The Albanian is a legitimate businessman today, and the young girl from the wealthy neighborhood of Ekali has grown into a little troublemaker. The good old anarchist sending the pseudo-revolutionary neophytes back to their studies, the Cypriot hotelier who becomes the best friend of Japanese tourists, and the former prisoner now an organiser of cultural events can all be found around Exarchia Square, a rallying point for the capital’s youth come by to savour the myth of the square, which a PASOK [Greece’s socialist party] chief wants to turn into a parking lot.
       In the heart of Athens, by day the square, like a snake shedding its skin, turns into something else, a mix of races, of shops opening and closing (thanks to Molotov cocktails, of course), watching over its restaurants, the Rozalia tavern and the Floral, and even the Riviera cinema. Not to mention its two kiosks, the statue of the lovers and two or three other things. A visit late in the day can confirm that the crisis has left its marks, but it can also reveal what never changes about Exarchia, the most restive neighbourhood in Greece ever since the fall of the dictatorship and even warned of as such by the U.S. State Department.

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