The sudden decision of Greece's government to shut down the state run broadcaster, ERT has provoked a nationwide wave of protest, with employees and their supporters taking over studios, despite repeated attempts to close down transmission.
Monday's decision to close down the entire public broadcasting network in Greece at midnight took the entire country by surprise. Even political insiders were unprepared for the swiftness of the closure nor the reaction of the staff of ERT who quickly occupied their own studios and transmission facilities through Greece.
However, the Greek government was in mood for compromise and even before the midnight deadline, riot police units gradually shut down transmitters across the nation. attempts by other stations to re-broadcast ERT signals were also thwarted by the private agency that controls digital broadcasting.
While transmission from both Athens continuing via the internet the ET3 studio based in the northern city of Thessaloniki is facing severe difficulties after authorities cut off telephone and internet connections to the studio. In addition hundreds of riot police units have taken up position in the area and man fear that they will be used to seize the ET3 building.
Since the announcement of the closure of ERT thousands of supporters have gathered in Athens and Thessaloniki to thwart a possible attempt by police to raid the facilities.
As of last Friday I no longer contribute to the Demotix website. For those who do not know them, Demotix bills itself as an;
"award-winning newswire where YOU tell the stories. We put photos and video from ordinary people and freelance photographers into the international news media."
When I started to upload photographs and news stories I was hoping that the site would be a serious replacement for other citizen journalism news hubs I had previously worked with. I was hoping that unlike these others Demotix would not degenerate into a centre for crack pot ideas and conspiracy theorists desperately trying to convince us that Hitler's brain was living on Mars.
In that respect Demotix has suceeded by retaining editorial control over content and judicious choice of what stories it promotes. So why am I leaving? The first and most obvious reason is the seemingly endless list of technical difficulties that mean uploading photographs (forget video,where problems grew exponentially) and stories can take hours and many repeated attempts.
If you're sitting in the comfort of your own home, an hour of two wasted now and then may not mean much but when uploading more often or you're outside in difficult conditions, such delays are infuriating.I remember cursing the site with every swear word I possess in both English and Greek when trying to upload a story from the Athens riots which was written on a rapidly dying laptop in an arcade filling up with tear gas.
Despite recent attempts to improve. every upgrade simply changes the nature of the bugs rather than their frequency, it seems. The last straw was on Friday when an entire story just disappeared from before my very eyes never to be seen again. With my main job about to start again I do not have the time to spend two, three hours nursing a story through defective software.
The other problem I have with Demotix is over payment or rather the lack of transparency over what is being sold, where and for how much. By chance I happened to come across some of my images that had been licenced to the Wall Street Journal and some Danish news sites yet no mention was made of this either via my account on Demotix or email. Later a member of the Demotix staff assured me that all the details of these transaction would be made available to me within the following days. That was over a month ago and still no update of my sales has appeared in my account data in Demotix.
As you can imagine this lack of feedback is both disappointing and frustrating and has confirmed my decision that Demotix is not the place for me.
Despite the onset of Summer Greek protests show no sign of dying down despite the witheringly high temperatures of a Mediterranean heatwave. In Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki members of the local anti-government "Indignant" movement this afternoon picketed the city's German consulate, shouting anti-German and anti EU slogans and spraying swasitikas on the pavement outside the main entrance.
Demands including the repayment of unpaid war reparation from Germany for the destruction caused by the Nazi occupation of Greece from 1941-1945. In addition German insistence of tough austerity measures has seen a massive upswing in anti-German feeling from across the political spectrum, a sentiment flamed by the repeated acusations that German corporations such as Siemens and HDW systematically bribed leading Greek politicians in order to win lucrative arms and security contracts
Occasionally, things happen that takes time to process or require distance to filter them through memory till they start to take on the contours of anything that can be explained in a meaningful way.
It has been over two weeks since I went to Athens to take part in the anti-government rally on the 29th June. Tagging along with a group of 400 "indignant" as the Greek protesters call themselves I found myself waiting at midnight outside the White Tower in the centre of Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki with a bunch of people who resembled less a group of serious demonstrators than over aged participants in a school trip. The joking and jostling for position, who sits next to whom, brought back memories of similiar journeys as a kid.
Arriving in Athens the next morning we wasted no time and no sooner had we clambered off the coaches than a banner was unfurled and people took to the road to march and shout out chants, announcing to all who cared to listen that the northern contingent was in town and looking to join their big city counterparts in Syntagma Square. The Square which faces the houses of parliament has, for much of modern Greek history been the focal point of clashes between disgruntled citizens and their rulers.
As soon as we entered the square than many of us were overwhelmed with tears, though this was less to do with any emotion than the residue of tear gas that had been used the previous day and which still coated much of the area. Luckily for us, one of the leaders knew exactly where we could equip ourselves with gas masks and goggles that later would prove so vital for anyone who wanted to stay in Syntagma.
In the crowd that was massed in front of the parliament the atmosphere was a strange mix of carnival and demo, on the one hand people were in a upbeat mood with some present dancing to music played by drummers yet the underlying feeling of tension and anger was apparent to anyone familiar with Greeks and Greek culture.
Another interesting point was the "ideological" composition of the rally, which seemed to embrace a wide, if not contradictory range of political opinions. In the centre where trouble would later start were the "patriots" as I termed them, who were convinced that the entire Greek debt crisis was the result of American born prime minister, Giorgos Papandreou's collusion with the Jewish banking nexus, with a measure of masonic conspiracy theory thrown in for good measure.
On the other hand every shade of left wing opinion including the anarchists also had their own blocks. In the middle, a mass of others who identified with none of the available political choices but were convinced that the austerity law being debated was a disaster for the country and wanted send a message to those inside parliament.
The real panic began at 1.30pm when news that the austerity vote had passed became known, leading to a group of about 100-200 next to the barriers outside parliament to rush the police. The charge was quickly stopped when riot police units started firing tear gas and the demonstrators quickly retreated. Taking this as a cue a group of about 50-100 youths started pelting police lines from nearby the Grand Bretagne hotel and and the police intervened effectively the violence would have probably been over within a few minutes.
However, riot police units then took the attack as an excuse to lauch a concerted assault on the rally from five different directions, using thousands of tear gas cannisters, flash grenades and other weapons. The result was a generalised onslaught on anyone still remaining in Syntagma who were all perceived by the police as rioters, even though the vast majority were protesting peacefully and had nowhere to flee to.
Assualts by the police continued inside Syntagma and throughout much of the centre of Athens for the rest of the day, with hundreds being hospitalised with breathing problems or the result of beatings by the police who in many situations acted more like football hooligans than the agents of law and order.
How to describe the horror of seeing a pack of 10 officers kick and beat a man in front of my eyes, or the anger generated when a protesters who talked back to a policeman was repeatedly punched in the face by a another cop. It was scenes like these that infuriated many present and created a much wider circle of people, many older men and women willing to throw stones and other objects at the police.
I repeatedly saw demonstators plead with riot squad units to stop attacks and who intervened to calm down fellow protesters but often their attempts to play peacemaker were thwarted by the police themselves who lashed out at anyone who approached them or grabbed people, seemingly at random.Each time this happend yet another wave of anger rippled through those nearby.
This pattern of violence and over reaction repeated itself through the day and lead me to the conclusion that the violence of the police was not simply a lack of self control but part of a plan by the authorities to empty the square and put down the Indignant movement at all costs. I doubt if anyone in government uttered those words but I'm pretty sure that the police leadership was left with no illusion about what their political masters wanted done about the situation.
Another infuriating aspect of the day's events was the foreign coverage of the rally which seemed to misunderstand the gravity of the situation, For most of the foreign press crews the story as yet another clash between Greek "anarchists" and the police so ignoring the wider implications of a massive police surpression of a mainly peaceful protest movement.
I'm not sure if this was simply journalistic laziness or the result an agenda that much of the mainstream media often bring to news stories.I remember arguing with some smug US TV anchorman next to me who was waffling on about how futile the protests were as if it was a tired theatrical show that has outstayed its welcome rather than the desperate fight by ordinary Greeks for a viable future. This unwillingness or inability to look beyond the dramatic images to get to a deeper truth has marked much ofthe reporting from Syntagma and the Greek crisis in general.
Later as the day wore on my nerves and stamina dwindled the constant threat of attack by the police or injury by flying objects from both sides plus the experience of being tear gassed took its toll and even the adenaline jolt of being in a highly charged conflict wasn't enough to keep me going . So I went to a cafe to send off pictures and comment to Demotix. yet even there the atmosphere was heavy with tear gas and I ended up sitting at a table in a mall wearing a mask while tapping out my story.
Towards midnight I carefully made my way back to Syntagma Square which now resembled a war zone with fires burning and the much of the surrounding area looking as if it had been used for target practice to get to the subway station to meet up with the other protesters from Thessaloniki who were going back by coach from Monestiraki.Even inside the station the regular thud of flash grenades going off near the entrance gave the impression that we were in an air raid.
Even though I have seen lots of upheaval in Greeece, including the violent uprising in December 2008 the level of violence I witnessed in Syntagma was of a new order of magnitude and it seemed that it was ushering in a violently different relationship between the Greek government and the people they are supposed to represent.
Following a series of clashes between riot police protecting a far right rally and anti-racist groups, several platoons of riot police also attacked the encampment of Greece's Los indignados movement in the northern port city of Thessaloniki. Using pepper spray and flash grenades to disperse those present the police were eventually forced to retreat after camp organisers formed a human shield between themselves and angry demonstrators.
Defying torrential rain and the siren call of the country's beaches thousands of indignant Greeks massed once more for the third Sunday in a row to show their anger over the latest austerity mesures which the ruling PASOK government aims to get through parliament this week.
With the imposition of poll tax on those earning 8,000 euros and more combined with yet further increases in VAT (sales tax) and extra indirect taxation via power bills prime minister Giorgos Papandreou is attempting to staunch Greece's hemorraghing public finances and satisfy demands for action by the troika of creditors made up of the IMF, EU and European Central Bank.
On the other side of the equation stands a sizeable chunk of Greek public opinion, with according to some polls 90% of the electorate opposed to further measures. In the latest poll carried out by the Greek public opinion research company Public Issue found that over two million Greeks have taken part in some form of anti-government protest. Even within the ruling PASOK party 16 MPs have broken ranks and called upon their leader to allow more debate on the latest legislation which threatens to unleash further social unrest.
For the 19th day running protesters gathered in streets and square nationwide with calls for the government to leave power and the country to stop all payments on debt owed. In the northern port city of Thessaloniki around 5,000 marched through the city despite repeated downpours.
More mass demonstrations have been called for Wednesday to coincided with the national strike called by public and private sector trade unions with plans to encircle parliament and other government buildings across the country.
With hand outstretched and palm facing skwards, thousands of Greeks direct the "montza", a gesture of deepest loathing and disrespect in the direction of the nation's parliament, the most visible outward sign of the anger and sense of betrayal many people feel towards the ruling PASOK party and the current political system in general.
They call themslves ,"The indignant" and for twelve days crowds have gathered in the centre of cities and towns across Greece to show their dissatisfaction with the current economic crisis caused by the imposition of austerity measures designed to rein in Athens massive public spending deficit. The package designed by the IMF, European Commission and the European Central Bank was intended to put the country's financial house in order and allow it to repay the massive debt load acquired over decades of unchecked public spending. However, the economic recipe of wage reductions, public spending cuts and privatisations has seen a sudden leap in unemployment, business closures on an unprecedented scale and consumer spending drop precipiticiously.
Despite lowering pay and pensions Greek prime minister, Giorgos Papandreou has been unable to stop the Greek eonomy from going into free fall and is now faced with the unenviable task of persuading his own party, parliamentary opposition and the population in general that even more drastic measures need to be taken if the country is not to default on its obligations to creditors.
On the one hand fellow European political and financial leaders have repeatedly emphasised the fact that Greece cannot expect further bailout packages without structural reforms whilst at home Papandreou faces growing pressure from within his own socialist PASOK party to reject such changes. Outside parliament the growing wave of anger with a political caste who, following decades of corruption scandals, have retained little credibility amongst the electorate, means that few can appear in public without creating tense scenes that require the intervention of the police. Over the past weeks MPs and members of the cabinet have been repeatedly booed, jeered and become the target of angry crowds when seen in public,
Most unsettling for the administration is the spontaneous appearance of a natiowide protest movement modelled on previous demonstrations in the Arab world and Spain. Using Facebook and other social media sites the "Aganaktismeni"or Indignant have repeatedly been able to use the internet to muster crowds of hundreds of thousands in Athens, Thessaloniki and other Greek cities, However, in contrast to previous mass demonstrations the peaceful nature of the rallies has flummoxed the authorities more used to using riot police and tear gas to deal with popular dissent.
With protests growing in size day the options available for Giorgos Papandeou seem to shrinking day by day.
From late afternoon hundreds of cyclists congregated in the centre of the northern port city of Thessaloniki to strip down and get painted up in prepration for the city's fourth annual Naked Bike Ride. However, following clashes with the authorities on previous occasions over the issue of public nudity the vast majority of those taking place choose to avoid causing possible embarassment by donning beach wear and copius body paint.
The Naked Bike Ride, which has now become a landmark on Thessaloniki's cultural agenda, is part of an ongoing effort by local Green groups to promote alternatives to the internal combustion engine in Greece's polluted cities.
After parading through the city the participants ended the evening with a massive street party which lastd into the small hours of the morning,
With Greek protest rallies entering their ninth day the country's Facebook revolution is adding to government's headaches ahead of a controversial vote on new austerity measures. Thessaloniki, Greece. 2nd June 2011
Gathering in cities across the nation Greeks have once more gathered in peaceful protest to show their disatisfacation not only with the current ruling PASOk party but also the Greek political system in general. In a campaign organised via Facebook and inspired by similiar Spanish protests thousands shouted anti-government and ant- IMF slogans.
In Athens more than 15,000 remain in front of the country's parliament despite rain. In the northern port city of Thessaloniki thousands rallied outside the town's White Tower in symbolic protest, while several hundred took part in impromptu open air political debates, sharing views and personal stories of how the economic crisis has affected them.
With an estimated 30,000 taking to Athens's central Syntagma Square and 8-10,000 massed in Thessaloniki, the country's second largest city Greeks has been protesting against the latest round of asuterity measures and the performance of the country's political caste in general.
"With slogans such as Let's burn that bourdello, the parliament" and "We are nobody's hotel maid" thousands took over central roads and squares in a mixture of serious protest and street party. Despite the level of anger and upset many feel the Aganaktismenoi (Indignant) as they call themselves staged peaceful protests with no reports of clashes with the police.
The campaign which takes inspiration from similar protests in Spain has used Facebook, Twitter and blogs as well as more traditional media to get people out onto the streets and has given a focus to growing discontent Greece's embattled population feels not only with its creditors but also the ruling PASOK party who have imposed round after round of public spending cuts,tax hikes and lay offs.
With VAT now being levied on even basic food items such as bread, milk and meat many household are worrying if they can make ends meets in an economy which is shedding jobs at an unprecedented rate and seems to offer little in the way of hope for people.
As conservative leader Antonis Samaras enters the lecture hall in the Aristotelion university of Thessaloniki, students who've have working themselves up into a frenzy fill the room with the kind of enthusiasm and passion that Greeks usually reserve for the victory of their favourite soccer team. However, beyond the yells and chants the reality of the situation is the the country's main opposition party is in crisis, unable to rid itself of accusations that it, along with the ruling left wing PASOK party has helped bring the nation to its knees through a toxic mix of incompetent governance, corruption and deceit.
Following his victory last year Samaras inherited from his predecessor, prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis a party riddled with dissatisfation and dissent which can barely garner 20% in opinion polls with much of its policy platform usurped by Giorgos Papandreou's PASOK which has implemented a reform policy that includes a massive privatisation program, public spending cuts and a sharp reduction in the size of Greek state.
However, New Democracy is on the horns of a dilemma, torn between endorsing an austerity package which includes many of the policies it tried to implement when in power while not being associated with a series of deeply unpopular policies which are opposed by the majority of the electorate.
Samaras's position has not been helped by the divisive leadership battle which lead to the defection of New Democracy heavy weight (and daughter of party founder Constantinos Bakoyianni) who her formed Democratic Alliance (Dimokratiki Symmaxia) party in the wake of a failed leadership bid.
The drop in support for New Democracy is part of a deeper problem of credibility which the Greek political system is facing. In the wake of a seemingly endless list of bribery scandals and flagrant abuses of office many Greeks are turning their backs on the existing parties which seem unwilling or unable to fight corruption within their own ranks.
Over the last three days two stories have dominated much of Greece's domestic news coverage and especially the TV news. The first concerns the tragic death of a 44 year old Athens resident who was murdered as he was getting ready to take his wife to hospital to give birth to their second child. According to newspaper reports the man was accosted by three assailents in the parking area of his apartment and when he refused to hand over a video camera he was carrying stabbed fatally.
The second story concerns savage attacks by riot police in Athens on participants in yesterday's protest marchers held in support of the country's general strike. As the video above shows the police beat and kicked repeatedly marchers leading to the hospitalisation of over 20 including two who are still in intensive care.
In both cases we are witnessing the failure of Greece's police force to deal with the challenges being wrought by wrenching economic changes and a rising crime wave. For too long the police have operated with impunity able to ignore short comings in both its ability to deal with day to day crime and an evermore restive population that is angry with the role of the government in the current financial crisis. On the other hand the lessons learnt following the month long wave of unrest that accompanied the death of a 15 year old at the hands of police officers in the Exarchia district of central Athens in 2008 have already appear to have been forgotten.
In the wake the December shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos riots and street fighting broke across Greece and lead to billions of euros worth of damage. Yet, less than three years later the lack of control both by the police authorities and the legal system over the conduct of officers has once more come to the fore.
It is the same lack of accountability that has seen the police fail to deal with a growing crime wave which has turned some areas of Athens in no-go zones and allowed local far right to gain ground politically by setting itself up as the saviours of the locally born Greek population against a supposedly criminal immigrant element. Aided by media eager to scape goat foreigners for Greece's present economic woes extremists are filling the vacuum created by lack of effective, professional policing.
However, the police authorities, despite the suspension of some officers following the Athens incident ares no mood to change their ways. Indeed with the ruling PASOK party's popularity at an all-time low the government needs the police more than ever as it battles to impose deeply unpopular austerity measures on a angry electorate. In a country where no member of the government can appear in public without causing a near riot PM, Giorgos Papandreou's cabinet knows that it dare not push the police too far since it is next to helpless without them.
Thursday night's demonstration against the savage attacks by riot police on marchers taking part in the protests in support of the Greek general strike on Wednesday. After a result 67 people needed medical treatment including a 30 year old who is in critical condition in a central Athens hospital. See here for photographs of the victims.
Taking advantage of the unusually warm weather cyclists across Greece took part in the country's fourth annual cycle ride. The event which took place in 30 venues is designed to promote the adption of bicycles in the country's cities and raise awareness of environmentally friendly alternatives to the use cars and buses for urban tranport.
In the northern port city of Thessaloniki nearly 2000 riders took to the streets with participation by cyclists of all ages. The good weather combined with the relaxed Sunday atmosphere gave the ride a carnival atmosphere.
Despite Greeks love affair with the internal combustion engine the current economic crisis in conjunction with sky high petrol prices (currently approaching 2 euros a litre / $10 dollars a gallon) means that many are digging out bicycles from storage in an effort to cut transport costs.
Figures recently announced by the Greek government show that unemployment nationwide at the record high of 15.1% and set to go even higher as nearly 1000 jobs are lost per day in the worst economic crisis the country has seeen since the end of the Second World War..
As the effects of the austerity package implemented at the behest of its creditors bite even deeper the Greek economy has contracted by over 6% in the last year alone. With cuts in the public sector and wages in general the average household has seen a drop in spending power of 40% which has led in turn to job losses in the private sector.
However, according to recent studies carried out by the GSEE (Greece's equivalent of the British TUC) the unemployment rate is likely to top 20 - 22% in 2012, meaning that 1,2000,000 will be looking for work in a nation of 11 million inhabitants..
In protesters outside a local unemployment office in the Northern Greek city of Thessaloniki today demanded the extention of benefit payments to all jobless for the entire period of their time out of work. At present jobless Greek can only claim dole if they have had collected 250 national insurance stamps in the previous two years, so ruling out hundreds of thousands who were previously employed in the country's extensive black economy. In addition once benefit payments run out after 12 months those without work can only claim again after two years of full unemployment leaving a question mark over the future of millions of families who may be faced with a future without any tangible source of income
Protesters unhappy with with austerity measures and Greece's involvement in Nato's Libyan campaign demonstrated during the annual independence day parades leading to the intervention of riot police .
As the hunger strike by 300 immigrants in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece enters a critical phases dozens of supporters chained themselves to government buildings in the country's second largest city, Thessaloniki in a show of solidarity.
With the protest in its second month more than 78 of the participants have already been hospitalised and doctors treating the remainder warn that unless the strike ends immediately those taking part run the risk of permanent damage to vital organs. As of Sunday hunger strikers also decided to stop taking the salt and sugar solutions. Protesters also hung banners saying "The Papandreou government kills" from the balcony of the ex-Ministry of Northern Greece.
In Athens where 250 of the 300 immigrants are based Greek riot police broke up a press conference organised by human rights groups supporting the demands of the immigrants for legal residence papers.which was due to be held outside parliament.
In Athens more than 15,000 remain in front of the country's parliament despite rain. In the northern port city of Thessaloniki thousands rallied outside the town's White Tower in symbolic protest, while several hundred took part in impromptu open air political debates, sharing views and personal stories of how the economic crisis has affected them.
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