On the 9th of October 2012 Angela Merkel was visiting greece so, whoever considered the greek crisis as something that those foreigners have invoked – that is, the greek patriots – was expected to try to bring chaos in the city of Athens. GSEE and ADEDY, the major labor unions of the country, as long as the leftist parliamentary opposition (SYRIZA and KKE, the communist party), were calling the people to participate in the big demo in Syntagma square. Tsipras, head of SYRIZA, and Rixinger, head of Die Linke, also got some pictures together, having at the background of the photo… the ‘struggling people’. The great happening of the day was the parade of the unemployed commandos of the greek army with their uniforms and flags. Their slogans like “Merkel get out of Greece!” and other nationalist slogans were clapped cheerfully even by the left-wing blocks of the demo, as journalists of ‘Ethnos’ newspaper observed.
However, even a small ride near Syntagma square, it would make visible even to the more ignorant that leftists and right-wings were moving inseparably in these very herds of people, united against the ‘common enemy’. Even worse, some demonstrators have been dressed up in nazi-like uniforms, parading with military jeeps, like those of the ’40-’45 Occupation and they have been burning swastika flags. Of course, if anyone called those people as ‘the thousands greek antifascists’, that would be the shortest greek joke. Because, someone would have to try really hard to find those antifascists when they are needed, in cases of the hundreds of attacks against immigrants and refuggees in greece, while in other cases, for example when the greeks’ allowances are cut by the government, all of them suddenly curse hitler (= merkel) with the worst names and become “antifascists” (well, in other cases, these same people might say while they drink their coffee in a cafe: “we need a hitler right now!”).
Nevertheless, the right-wing opposition to the government was divided in the big demo, because the party of ‘independent greeks’ (anexartitoi ellines) called the people to block the german embassy, while voters and members of the golden dawn (neonazis) were seen mingling with the Left in Syntagma square. The mob was estimated to 50.000 people. At some point, after frustration in front of the embassy and some riots in front of the parliament, the police used teargas, a move that resulted to a heart-attack of a right-wing of the “independent greeks” party.
The greek politicians, being aware of the mental state of the greek mob, just 2-3 days before this text was sent to TransMITTER, threw on the table the card of antisemitism that is always relevant with the context of a crisis. While exposing some information over the 1.991 greeks that transferred their money in Switzerland during the greek crisis and are now investigated for possible tax-evasion, Evangelos Venizelos, one of the three leaders of today’s government, revealed the … scandalous information that three of the names of the list are Jews. Indeed, a fact dangerous for the greek economy. However, it is still unexplained how could mr Venizelos know that three of the them were Jews, when he could not – for an one year period, while he had at his possession the “list of the 1.991 tax evaders” – know any information about the rest 1.988? And how the hell does he know that they are Jews? Did he try a DNA test on the 1.991? Does he know from the way their names sound? Was that distinction between Jews and non-Jews a instinctive, spontaneous reaction of mr Venizelos or a result of an exhaustive research on behalf of the “socialist movement”? Things have turned so bad in greece, that even with this, nobody reacts to such bullshit.
Nevertheless, apart from the greeks that smash immgrants’ stores during the nights in the neigborhood of Patisia, the majority of the greek people will shut up, at least till the first 15 days of November, when the next demos against the next economical measures of the greek government take place. Till then, greeks could amuse themselves by putting pressure to the government through polls in the media, asking for harsher measures against the immigrants and the refuggees of the country. According to a poll of the last month, published in ‘Pontiki’ newspaper, “only 16% of the voters is pleased with the deeds and measures of the government in the issue of dealing with illegal immigrants, because the majority (55%) believes that they need stricter measures! In voters from all parties – even the SYRIZA voters – this opinion is dominant“. The only thing that worries us is – apart from the fearless 22% of the citizens that openly sympathizes with the neonazis (‘Public Issue’ poll in September) – if the rest 78% that likes knifes too, is hesitating for some political reasons or just a bit ashamed for their sympathy towards the neonazis.
On the 12th of October, some political minorities of the scene organized and took part in two more demos in the center of Athens, not so revolutionary as the big demo of the 9th October. The first one (with 250 demonstrators) took place in solidarity with those being prosecuted for the case of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire. The other demo, an antifascist one, took place in neigborhoods where fascists attack immigrants’s small shops (that one had 500 demonstrators, with half of them being immigrants residing in the area).
Antifa Negative, October 15 2012
forTRANSMITTER FSK HAMBURG
(Our first intervention in the autonomous radio of Hamburg, FSK, begins with a correspondence of the anti-Merkel protest in Athens on 09/10/2012 that our comrades in Hamburg asked us to contribute)