GREEK TRAGEDY

After the tumultuous insurrectionary events in Athens last December (see SchNEWS 659), one arrested protester – Thodoros Iliopoulos - remains in jail, and is now a month into a hunger strike. He was one of many people rounded up and arrested more or less at random in retaliatory police sweep-up operations during the riots. All except Thodoros have since been bailed, and he remains inside on charges he insists are fictitious and politically motivated. On July 9th the court of appeals made explicit, in rejecting his application, that it did so on the grounds that Thodoros is an ‘anarchist’ and therefore a “danger for democracy”.

Since then, Thodoros has been on hunger strike in protest. He has now not eaten in over a month and his health is extremely poor. Despite the recommendations of doctors, the prison management delayed permission to transport Thodoris to a hospital until day 34 and his life is now in danger, as his protest is continuing.

Six days of solid rioting – which kicked off after police shot dead a 15 year old punk - saw banks and government buildings burned to the ground, police stations besieged by thousands of angry demonstrators chucking molotovs, universities occupied and a general strike called. The Greek cops are notorious for their brutality and racism, and links to far right groups. Since the riots the state has regained control and things have since settled down into their previous repression groove. In July, 3000+ protesters in Omonoia Square, central Athens, clashed with heavily armoured riot police who deployed tear gas and stun grenades – and molotov-hurling nazis working within the police front line.

To read Thodoros impassioned protest statement and keep up with Greece ‘after the riots’, see www.occupiedlondon.org/blog