The last hours of Pompeii (some thoughts from Syntagma today)
updates also here
01:05 AM (+2 GMT) It appears that the government reshuffle will be announced on June 16th and the vote of confidence will be held by Sunday, June 19th.
22:25 (+2 GMT) In a televised message, Greek PM Papandreou has just announced a government reshuffle and a vote of confidence in parliament for Thursday, June 16th – both in light of his government’s inability to handle reactions to his proposed new IMF/EU/ECB deal and the new round of cuts that would come with it, along with the fierce response on the street level in today’s general strike.
The Syntagma assembly is undergoing at the moment. Tens of thousands of people are at the Square now and the assembly’s existing decision holds – that is, that the mobilizations will continue until governments, banks and the IMF are ousted.
20:41 (+2 GMT) An estimated 20-30,000 people are at Syntagma at the moment and more are arriving by the minute. Tonight’s assembly is starting very soon, and it will most likely concern itself with the impeding announcements by Greek PM Papandreou, possibly about a ‘national unity’ government.
17:43 (+2 GMT) Slightly more calm the situation in Syntagma. Thousands on the streets around the square and in front of the parliament; more people are coming. Earlier the luxurious hotel Prince George and the Ministry of Economics have both been attacked by the protesters.
17:21 (+2 GMT) The med. doctors of the clinic-tent of the Syntagma Square make a plea for supplies. A lot of people are injured by the brutal attacks of the police. People can approach Syntagma from Amalias Street, from Propylaea and possibly from the metro station. People chant anti-cop slogans and clap ironically to the cops; battles still go on around the square; DIAS forces were hit in Fillelinon, while a few minutes ago they had attacked people in front of the national garden and in Stadiou Street. DIAS speed up and down on Amalias Street hitting the rally.
17:07 (+2 GMT) DIAS motorcycle police attacked to people on Amalias Street that chanted ‘Bread-Education-Freedom – The Junta did not end in 1973’ and ‘Cops, Pigs Murderers.’ Gas bombs and sound grenades again. Music is heard once more from the speakers of the square. The Syntagma Square Media Centre ten minutes ago circulated the following announcement:
NO PASSARAN! Now WE talk!
The Greek Parliament is under siege. Thousands of protesters have flooded the greek Bastille and the surroundings. Since 7 in the morning, the Greek ‘indignados,’ shouting ‘No more!’ and with only means of struggle their own bodies, have blocked the streets and have encircled the Parliament.
What if the police has risen irongated barriers in front of the Parliament (V.Sofias) bombarding with unprecedented tear-gas the gathered people…What if all the ‘sides and faces’ of police forces (DIAS, MAT, etc.) have tried to disperse the two blocks at V.Konstantinou & Rizari and V.Konstantinou & Rigillis; we are still here and we are continuing!
The Greek government along with the, always pront to help, Greek police has for some hours now tried to murder and destroy ethically the great movement of the Greek ‘indignados,’ the honest people who have taken to the squares and streets of the country.
To whoever tries to stop the peacefull siege of the ‘worthless and dangerous,’ the greatest protest of the post Junta era, we will say only this: We are here to stay! All the people’s assemblies, we will stay and no ethical or political provocator will stop us. There is no space for such a species in our future history!
16:53 (+2 GMT) A big group of demonstrators chased a group of DIAS/DELTA motorcycle police on Panepistimiou Street. The speakers of Syntagma Square call for demonstrators to go back but it is difficult to stay there due to the police gases. Nevertheless, people are still there.
16:49 (+2 GMT) People tried gradually to return to Syntagma, music sounded again from the speakers. But just now cops are attacking again en mass, trapping groups of people on the lower part and trying to evacuate the entire Square with tear gas and profound violence.
16:41 (+2 GMT) Syntagma Square: Four injured demonstrators have been transferred to the hospital. Reports from the medical center of the Square speak of many people with breathing problems.
16:33 (+2 GMT) Volos, central Greece: 3,000 people demo occupies the city hall, and demonstrators assembly takes place inside. The mayor of Volos remains blocked inside the building.
16:30 (+2 GMT) War-like conditions all around Syntagma Square while the cops continue to throw tear and asphyxiate gas bombs. Two demonstrators have been arrested until now. Remarkable is the fighting spirit of the people that keep resisting even with bare hands.
16:20 (+2 GMT) Urgent plea from the medical team at Syntagma Square for antacid medicine.
16:00 (+2 GMT) The police forces continue their murderous attack against thousands of demonstrators that remain fighting at Syntagma Square. The situation is very critical since the riot police squads besiege thousands of demonstrators of all ages. The cops have managed to block the street at the height of Fillelinon Street.
15:56 (+2 GMT) Major clashes on Filellinon Street, at least one arrest in Syntagma. People do not leave the Square; cops attack against everyone. Shock grenade and tear gas bombs sound everywhere. People defend themselves and the Square, kicking out the cops in various parts of the area. Cops attacked twice to ambulances which came to pick up injured demonstrators, while a tear gas bomb was thrown in the clinic-tent of the Square.
15:30 (+2 GMT) A large group of furious demonstrators is attacking against 3 riot police squads on Filellinon Street. Reports speak of about 4,000 people fighting the cops on the same street.
14:45 (+2 GMT) Clashes all around Syntagma and on the Square. Demonstrators respond with stones to the police attack, the square is covered with the white powder that gas bombs leave behind, but people are still there, while others are re-concentrating on the streets around the Square and are trying to move back on it.
14:41 (+2 GMT) Chania, Crete: After the end of the demo of the almost 3,000 strikers, the open popular assembly has decided to occupy the premises of the prefecture. The building has been occupied for the last hour in solidarity with the demonstrators in Athens. At 15.00 a new assembly has been called so as to decide further actions.
14:29 (+2 GMT) Police attacks en mass in Athens; tear gas and stand grenade everywhere in Syntagma. Stones against the police and against the hotel Grande Bretagne.
14:28 (+2 GMT) Thousands of people remain around the parliament. The plexiglass wall is not there any more, but the cops have moved lower near the Syntagma Square; they’re forming cordon with 4 lines. But many new demonstrators people are coming into the parliament’s area to participate into the blockade. Fascists, undercover police officers and uniformed cops are around, but people seem not to be afraid and they still concentrate. In Thessaloniki, despite the rain, thousands of people have surrounded the venue of the sub-ministry of Northern Greece.
14:15 (+2 GMT) Tension at Syntagma Square continues. At Akadimias Street police threw a lot of tear gas a few minutes ago. Clashes between riot cops and demonstrators in front of the Ministry of Economics; a lot of petrol bombs and tear gas were thrown. People are back outside parliament and they’re preparing for a stand-off. In front of the parliament anarchists and fascists are next to each other chanting slogans; the situation was really tense, and after some clashes fascists were kicked out of the area.
14:00 (+2 GMT) More prefecture premises have been occupied so far the HQ of the prefecture of Central Greece (Lamia), Crete, Corfu and Syros. Earlier in Athens anarchists located amongst them a hooded cop with Molotov cocktails, while other demonstrators (incl.) fascists start blaming anarchists as undercover cops and attacked to some of them. A Molotov cocktail was thrown in the police lines in front of the parliament.
13:50 (+2 GMT) Athens: Clashes between the police and demonstrators in Rigilis and Amalias streets. Hundreds of demonstrators clash with each other in front of parliament; at least one demonstrator seriously injured in front of the hotel Grande Bretagne.
13:34 (+2 GMT) Syros island: In the town of Ermoupolis demonstrators have occupied the premises of the Prefecture.
13:15 (+2 GMT) Syntagma Square: Some of the demonstrators threw stones to the police forces in front of the parliament and a group of fascists who were in front of the parliament tried to prevent the stone throwing. Clashes erupted then between anarchists and the fascists in front of the parliament. The anarchists alongside with other demonstrators managed to push back the neo-Nazi scums. Extended use of gas bombs against the demonstrators by the cops.
[Around 13:00 (+2 GMT)] Ioannina: Around 70 demonstrators attempted to occupy the building of the prefecture; 15 of them finally managed to enter and small-scale fights erupted inside the building. Police forces surrounded the building but a group of 150 demonstrators in solidarity with the ones that had managed to enter fought against the police squads pushing them back.
12:46 (+2 GMT) Athens: The large-scale march of the General Strike started from Museum and now is marching towards the parliament through Stadiou Street.
12:44 (+2 GMT) Lamia, central Greece: Workers’ unions have occupied the premises of the Prefecture, the same thing happened in the Prefecture of Crete.
12:36 (+2 GMT) Serres, northern Greece: After the end of the demo the Open Popular Assembly of Eleftherias square has unanimously decide to occupied the Town Hall. The Town Hall will remain occupied until 17.00 when a new assembly will take place.
12:16 (+2 GMT) Athens: Tension in front of the plexiglass-iron wall in Vasilisis Sofias Avenue. Demonstrators start pushing the wall and the police used tear gas.
11:56 (+2 GMT) Trikala: The demonstration of almost 150 leftists, ‘indignants’ and anarchists have just ended. The demo started from the Labor Center of the city and ended at the building of the Prefecture blockading it for an hour.
11:30 (+2 GMT) Thessaloniki: The rank’n’file unions have started their demo from Kamara moving towards the Labor Center of Thessaloniki. More than 1,000 people participate in the demo.
11:25 (+2 GMT) Egio, Achaea: More than 400 demonstrators at the central square of the town of Egio, in Achaea (western Greece) are about to start a march in the streets of the city.
11:12 (+2 GMT) A group of demonstrators coming from Zografou neighborhood has been blocked and immobilized by large forces of DELTA/DIAS team at the height of Evangelismos. The 10 demonstrators detained earlier have been released.
10:20 (+2 GMT) Reports of 10 people detained until now and two injured on the blockade of Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue and Rizari Street. Hundreds of police thugs of DELTA/DIAS teams (cops on motorcycles) at the place. The demonstrators tried to block some parliamentarians in their way to the parliament. There is a need for reinforcement of the gathering/blockade at the Panathenaic Stadium.
10:08 (+2 GMT) A part of the crowd in front of the parliament is shouting fascist slogans. At the same time, police is arresting people on Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue.
10:03 (+2 GMT) Around 300 demonstrators at the pre-gathering of the general strike at the [National Archaeological] Museum [Athens].
09:35 (+2 GMT) Tension in front of the monument of the unknown soldier on Syntagma Square. The riot police forces (MAT) are provocative. The demonstrators are shouting anti-cop slogans.
08:52 (+2 GMT) A human chain has been created in front of the parliament. The people gathered at Evangelismos blockade point are in need of reinforcements while 150 demonstrators are gathered at the Panathenaic stadium (on Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue).
07:53 (+2 GMT) People gathering outside parliament at Syntagma Square and by parliament’s side entrance on Vasilisis Sofias Avenue. A huge police plexiglass-iron wall (2,5 meters high) blocks the street.
00:32 (+2 GMT) The Evangelismos metro stop will be closed today, day of general strike. Evangelismos metro station is one of the three blockade points.
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