Provoked.

           Usually after a large protest the media report what happened as "violence broke out and x number of police were injured". However, practically everybody that goes on a protest march or rally is aware that in most of the cases, trouble usually starts after police provocation. This pattern is repeated across the globe, all in an attempt to intimidate the protestors and put other people off joining any protest movements with the aim of creating a intimidated and subservient population. Making population control so much easier for the established power structure to get on with plundering the public purse and depleting the Earth's resources, all for the benefit of the privileged few who hold the reins of power.

     The following is from Athens, but can be witnessed in cities, towns and villages across the planet. Anywhere when the people challenge the established power structure.

 
 

          Suddenly 6 police bikes provocatively pass from Exarcheia Square attempting to intimidate and scare those that have already gathered there. Apart from the shouts against them, warning the cops about the response they will receive the next time they may try to provoke the people about to protest the police repression in the neighborhood, there is no aggressive action against the police.
          What do the cops do following that? They leave and return with greater reinforcements, about 15-20 bikes, 2 cops on each bike. The result is what has been recorded in the video.
           Despite the chaos created in the area by the police with asphyxiating gas grenades and flash bang grenades, the protest in Exarchia took place dynamically, with the participation of approximately 1.000 protesters.

The call for the protest follows:

JUNE 25 – DAY OF GREEK AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF EXARCHIA.

      To defend the neighborhood of the world that fits many worlds.

A neighborhood where people of all genders, ages and backgrounds can coexist with respect.

Where the history of yesterday’s struggles meets the resistances of today.

Against gentrification, evictions, political annihilation, State repression.

To fight for the Exarcheia of social self-organization, of class solidarity, of insurrection

– No Metro station in Exarcheia Square

– No to the handing over of Strefi hill to private companies

– The Polytechnic School of Athens should remain a place of meeting and struggle

– Reduction in rental prices

– No evictions

Visit ann arky's home at http://strugglepedia.co.uk  

No Art!!

          In Greece it is now illegal apparently, to be standing still while socially distancing in a public square. Art students decided to act as a display of various paintings and artworks, standing in Syntagma Square hoping to interact with passers by, however their only contact was with riot police shields.

 

      See about: Police violence again in silent protest of artists in the Constitution [Video] Attack on artists in Syntagma: What really happened and Chrysochoidis' cameras did not show

        

March 24, 2021, Athens, Syntagma Square.

        While "the new National Gallery is brilliantly performed", students of the drama schools of Athens gathered at Syntagma and built our own National Gallery of the Square. Disguised as well-known paintings and sculptures, we asked the Ministry of Education and Science "If the theater could fit in the gallery, would you give it more importance?"
        By creating a living gallery, we exposed ourselves to passers-by trying to communicate what we have been experiencing absurdly for almost 5 months. Eventually, for its part, the state only sent the police to "contact" us, resulting in our violent repulsion with their shields and tear gas, as the Deputy Minister of Culture, Mr. Giatromanolakis, was busy with the inauguration.
      We answered, we answer and we will answer with Art, with our Art. If we want Greece to be more than a theme park of past cultures and greatness, if we want it to be a fertile ground that creates and continues to produce culture, the State owes the practical and direct support of the artistic community. We demand the state care that is owed to us. We demand immediate and clear answers to the questions we have repeatedly asked the leadership of the Ministry.
         Culture is not inherited, culture is conquered by each generation again. The students of Drama Schools ”

From: alerta.gr **********

Poor translation from the Greek, but the best I could get. 

Original Greek text HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk    

Rioting & Looting.

 

      With conditions for the ordinary people growing more drastic by the day and the powerful movement of Black Lives Matter, it is obvious that we will see more protests on the streets of countries across the globe. Often these protest morph into riots and looting, sometimes the rioting and looting is provoked deliberately by the police. There will always be those moralists who sit in the wings who preach, "why don't you just hold a peaceful protest, sing your chants, wave you banner and placards, then just go home?"

       No matter whether the police provoke the violence or not, there has to be a deep rooted anger and feeling of injustice, underlying these actions of "rioting" and "looting".

       This position is eloquently explained with passion and sincerity by Kimberly Jones. Listen and think about what she is saying. She may be talking about Afro Americans, but the same principles apply to  the ordinary people of this world and the pampered, privileged parasite class, that hold the reins in this economic system of exploitation. Thanks Loam for the link.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk