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GreekReporter.comGreeceThe Protest of Nov. 17, 2011 Wasn't About 1973

The Protest of Nov. 17, 2011 Wasn't About 1973


 
ATHENS – It was supposed to be a day for labor unions and protesters against Greek austerity to mark the anniversary of a student-led uprising against a military junta in 1973 and simultaneously try to repulse the efforts of a coalition government to keep imposing pay cuts, tax hikes, slashed pensions and layoffs on workers as a condition of international aid to keep from going bankrupt. But this year’s Nov. 17 turned into a relatively peaceful march with only minor skirmishes between hooded anarchists and police as interim Prime Minister Lucas Papademos survived the first public test of his shaky unity government.
Greek riot police fired tear gas a day after Papademos got a vote of confidence from the Parliament he controls, overseeing holdovers from the former PASOK Socialist rulers, their conservative bitter rivals of New Democracy, and a fringe of the far Right-Wing LAOS party as he tries to push through support for a second bailout, this one for $175 billion, from the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Fund Troika, along with getting the release of an $11 billion installment from a first rescue package of $152 billion in loans that have failed to slow Greece’s slide into a deeper economic morass and, some analysts still insist, inevitable bankruptcy and default.
Apart from some quiet demonstrations inside the grounds of the Athens Polytechnic University where students in 1973 demanded “Bread, Education and Freedom,” and stared down a tank and got workers to join with them in a revolt that led to the fall of the junta in July of 1974, this year’s anniversary had little to do with the rebellion nor remember those who died, shot down by snipers in still unaccounted for numbers.
Labor leaders had hoped to galvanize public ire against the Papademos government and austerity measures, but while there was plenty of angst and anger, the anniversary was more of a steady march past the Parliament and toward the American Embassy, the U.S. a target still because of its support for the brutal military leadership that jailed, exiled and tortured Leftists and Communists for seven years.
Unlike some previous years, there was little anger left to be spent against the Americans and not nearly as much directed at the government as expected, although about 50,000 people marched past shuttered shops in central Athens beating drums, waving red flags and chanting “EU, IMF out!” under the eyes of some 7,000 police.
The annual November 17 march commemorates a bloody student uprising against Greece’s military junta in 1973 but often becomes a focal point for anti-government protesters who said the government has sent Greece into an irreversible “death spiral” that hits the working class, poor and pensioners the most while tax evaders who owe the country $60 billion have largely escaped, apart from a recent public crackdown on a few business leaders.
“They have cut my pension twice. This man Papademos is worse than the previous leader. He is a banker. If he dares to take any more austerity measures, we will throw them out,” said pensioner Xeni Kolen, 64. Youths hurled stones and petrol bombs at baton-wielding police. Schools, universities and many businesses stayed shut for the day and public transport was badly disrupted. A smaller protest rally took place in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city. Police detained dozens of protesters in Athens. Despite the clashes, police said the rally had passed relatively peacefully and protesters later dispersed without major incident. The coalition government will stay in power until elections are held, tentatively scheduled for Feb. 19, giving Papademos three months to try to reverse the effects of generations of misspending, corruption, tax evasion and the ruinous consequences of patronage.
(Sources: Kathimerini, Reuters)
 
 
 
 
 
 

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