[Campaignforrealdemocracy] Fwd: [Radical-europe] Grassroots politics flourish in Greek turmoil

Sat Jun 18 18:23:07 UTC 2011

 Al Jazeera Editorial “Solidarity demonstrations outside the Spanish Embassy
in Athens were quickly relocated to Syntagma, the main square overlooked by
the Parliament building. And suddenly, that was it: a Pandora’s box of
discontent had opened…
In the days and weeks that followed, a series of occupations of town squares
across the country’s major cities saw a huge cross-section of Greek society
come out to vent anger about the deterioration of living conditions – for
which they felt they were not to blame and which they could not control. The
thousands of people coming together daily at Syntagma square to participate
in assemblies and joint activities have demanded nothing specific, but
represent something entirely different and overwhelming. Everyone at these
gathering is allowed equal time to speak, and issues range from
organisational matters to resistance politics and international solidarity.
Debates take place over the economy, education, and alternative commerce –
and nothing is beyond proposal or dispute. People from different strands of
life, political affiliations and ages are rushing to squares across the
country to hear – and to be heard – without mediation, external supervision
or internal force.”
In full below and reposted with other Greek reports at
http://www.peoplesassemblies.org/2011/06/assemblies-and-mass-protests-in-greece/

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/06/2011617112541750476.html
*

Grassroots politics flourish in Greek turmoil * *
*
*As politicians become embroiled in massively unpopular "austerity
measures", protesters find creative avenues of change.

*

*Few people would want to be in the shoes of Greek Prime Minister
George Papandreou these days. Faced with an ostensible mutiny in the ruling
social-democrat PASOK party, his worries have been exacerbated by the
appearance of an unprecedented, continuous wave of protests in the streets
of Athens by thousands of people - who had never demonstrated until a few
weeks ago.*

*Since May 25, 2011, Greece has entered a period of spectacular turmoil,
with thousands of people taking over the central squares of its major
cities. What happened?*

*The €110 billion ($157 billion) Memorandum of Agreement signed between the
Greek government and the troika of the IMF, the EU and the ECB in May 2010
was met by much weaker dissent than many had expected. This is, after all,
the country that, as recently as December 2008, saw a spectacular youth
uprising in reaction to the police killing of 15-year old Alexandros
Grigoropoulos<http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/12/200812981956434927.html>
.*

*Greece's rich past of political conflict, from its Civil War (1946-1949) to
the Colonels' Junta (1967-1974) and the often turbulent years of the
Metapolitefsi
("regime transition", the period succeeding the junta) prepared the distant
observer for a much fiercer reaction to the country's bailout agreement and
the tight "austerity measures" accompanying it. The first general strike
called in response to the Memorandum on May 5, 2010 was interrupted by the
death of three bank workers from the fumes of their burning bank, a tragedy
which numbed reaction to the bailout agreement.*

*Fast-forward to early June 2011, when the Papandreou government announced a
proposed new round of public spending cuts and a colossal privatisation
program as part of a fresh agreement with the troika, in a last-ditch
attempt to avoid default. It seems that the government had failed to sense
the spreading despair and anger over the original Memorandum: in a country
that had seen public sector wage cuts in the range of 20 per cent, VAT
increase to 23 per cent - and mass lay-offs, redundancies and cuts in the
private sector, an ever-growing proportion of the population was rapidly
approaching poverty.*

*By the end of this year, unemployment will have reached 20 per cent,
including 40 per cent of those aged 18-25. In addition, pensions will be cut
by up to 20 per cent, and the minimum wage reduced to €600 ($850) a month.
The atmosphere is sizzling, and the occupations of town squares across Spain
this spring found more sympathisers in Greece than many would have expected.
*

*Solidarity demonstrations outside the Spanish Embassy in Athens were
quickly relocated to Syntagma, the main square overlooked by the Parliament
building. And suddenly, that was it: a Pandora's box of discontent had
opened.*

*Explosion of opposition*

*In the days and weeks that followed, a series of occupations of town
squares across the country's major cities saw a huge cross-section of Greek
society come out to vent anger about the deterioration of living conditions
- for which they felt they were not to blame and which they could
not control. The thousands of people coming together daily at Syntagma
square to participate in assemblies and joint activities have demanded
nothing specific, but represent something entirely different and
overwhelming.*

*Everyone at these gathering is allowed equal time to speak, and issues
range from organisational matters to resistance politics and international
solidarity. Debates take place over the economy, education, and alternative
commerce - and nothing is beyond proposal or dispute. People from different
strands of life, political affiliations and ages are rushing to squares
across the country to hear - and to be heard - without mediation, external
supervision or internal force.*

*After the terms of the new troika agreement were published, the country's
mainstream trade unions announced a General Strike on June 15, the day when
the new financial agreement was to be debated in parliament. The Open
Assembly of Syntagma called a day of action with parliament's grounds.*

*On both sides, the dice had been rolled.*

*It is difficult to predict the long-term legacy of the June 15 events, but
it is already evident that what happened will hold serious significance for
some time to come. In Athens, not only was this one of the most massively
attended protests of recent times, it also seems to have been the one with
the most immediate effects: the city saw battlefield-like scenes with the
existing hostility toward the police quickly developing into vivid hatred -
fuelled by oft-reported cases of police brutality against demonstrators in
recent years and against people on the day who had never previously
demonstrated.*

*Corporate media 'also to blame'*

*Equal or more fierce hostility has been shown towards corporate media in
recent weeks, with a strong popular belief that the country's highly
powerful media conglomerates have held a significant stake and, arguably, a
role in running the country over the past few decades. With verbal and
physical attacks against representatives of Greece's political elites
becoming a near-daily occurrence, a new political understanding and culture
seems to have emerged from the country's occupied squares: a culture that
sees  political and corporate media representation as part of the plexus of
power that has misruled Greece.*

*On June 15, in the immediate aftermath of the violent General Strike
demonstration, and following days of negotiations with his parliamentary
opposition, Prime Minister Papandreou threw in the towel by announcing a
government reshuffle. Snap elections and perhaps a swift round of
short-lived governments are now likely; the prime ministerial seat has
become unenviable, if not near-untenable.*

*For the people gathered in Syntagma, the intense political manoeuvring in
the corridors of parliament seems to matter little. Theirs is a mass
mobilisation that draws a distinction between representational and
grassroots politics. Political parties seem unlikely to come to a halt over
developments in the upper echelons of power. For them, the Memorandum is not
just a sum of persons or abhorrent policies, but a system of power that has
misruled the country for 30 years, bringing it to the edge of collapse. It
is a system of beliefs, values, expectations and political roles and
identities that cannot be abolished simply by replacing the head or members
of the government.*

*The people in the squares have started, again, to believe that they have
the freedom and the responsibility to act; they are urging radical change
through the creation of different personal and social relations.*

*By now, the distance between the people and their representatives might
seem unbridgeable; as the old system of government crumbles under the burden
of sovereign debt, a new, grassroots system of politics is starting to make
itself heard from the ground.*

*Hara Kouki is a historian and a doctoral candidate at Birkbeck College,
London, and Antonis Vradis is a geographer, a doctoral candidate at the
London School of Economics and Alternatives Editor of
CITY<http://www.city-analysis.net/>.
They are both members of the Occupied London collective
<http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/>and are based in Athens, Greece.*
*
*

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