*“I live in Athens. For almost two years and a half, as millions of people in Greece we are confronting one of the most cruel faces of fear: Bankruptcy. But what is a State to bankrupt? Is it maybe a cloth making corporation?” – Isabella Konstantinidou, City Uncovered mag. July 2011.*
Political situation
After September 2011 the elected Prime Minister, George Papandreou, understood that in every serious vote inside Parliament his government grew weaker and weaker, loosing several MPs who refused to vote in favour of the measures against the people. The Prime Minister himself after long talks with German and French politicians was almost forced to ask for broad support for the measures that had to be taken by other political parties. This was a key period. The troika had a very clear plan: to form a broad government in Greece supported by as many political forces as possible in order to be able to vote in favour of any law accompanying the second Memorandum of Understanding.
Papandreou resigned and 3 political leaders (himself as president of the “socialists”, PASOK, Antonis Samaras from the neoliberal party, Nea Dimokratia, in government till 2009 and George Karatzaferis from the extreme right party, LAOS) decided on the new Prime Minister and the composition of the new Government. So from 11.11.2011 and on, a new government was formed. Loukas Papadimos is our Prime Minister. Although reforming a government by political leaders with elected MPs is not against the Greek constitution it’s very clear that we are talking about a Prime Minister who is not elected by Greek citizens. He is a former Executive Director of the Bank of Greece, involved several years ago in the presentation of false evidence regarding the state of the Greek economy to the European Community in order to have Greece included in the Euro.
What are the people doing?
After the first chemical attack that police launched on June 29 the Greek people took some time to think about their possible next actions. From September and on it was also clear that the occupation of Syntagma square was not the solution as the movement was falling apart, loosing faith after the chemical attack we experienced. So people decided to follow the examples of Spain and work in their neighbourhoods but this didn’t work so well. Small political forces of the left tried to manipulate those gatherings that, week by week, lost energy and also the clear profile of the “outraged” that moved thousand of citizens in May and June.
At the same time we tried to find other ways of civil disobedience. A very unfair and big tax that was added to the National Energy bill in every house twice during Autumn under the threat of cutting the electricity in case that the bill was not paid struck like lightning at every family. In several municipalities (Athens was not included) the local authorities managed to build a team of lawyers in order to examine case by case and see if there was any possibility to make massive appeals and have this tax repealed. Almost by mistake at the end of January came data informing us that more than 50% of families haven’t ended up paying this tax. This is one interesting example of what civil disobedience is and that it is still in process. It seems that our new field of action is to resist cooperating with the new and unfair government measures. Of course big gatherings are very important too as they show our massive opposition but the police have become really hard on protesters as happened last Sunday, 12th February. Maybe a combination of the two ways of action is, for the moment, the most effective proposal.
Greece – Europe and the world
Today, as we speak, massive demonstrations are taking place in many central cities in Europe under the slogan “We are all Greeks”. Many posters from common people appeared outside of Greek Embassies and in some central squares asking for apologies from their politicians and the way Greece is been treated. It’s really very hopeful. As I understand this is a general struggle against antihumanist values expressed by the majority of our politicians. This system seems about to collapse. We need to understand that, extend our solidarity, disregard the mass media and the way they manipulate information, follow social media and meet each other in the squares. Every step of the way it’s important to feel the energy of the protesters, wherever they are, and believe finally that we are not alone.
