NAR: The memory of Alexis Grigoropoulos was honored with mobilizations throughout the country

 

The memory of Alexis Grigoropoulos was honored with mobilizations throughout the country

Orgy of violence and terrorism by the government and the Greek police

The 6th of December was again a day of remembrance for Alexis Grigoropoulos, murdered by the police officer Korkoneas and struggle for the rights of the youth, for health, education, work, democracy and popular freedoms. Rallies were organized in many neighborhoods of Attica as well as in many cities of Greece, breaking in practice the climate of policing and government-police bans. The message of the uprising was heard again this year, although in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, etc. the cities were flooded by police forces to carry out government and police chief decrees under the guise of a pandemic.

Although the government turned Athens into an occupied city swarmed with SWAT hordes, many people went to honour Alexis with a flower, only to sustain chemicals, flashbang grenades, beatings and dozens of arrests, especially of anti-capitalist left activists. In Attica alone, more than 100 people have been arrested, while Turkish political refugees have also been brought in. The police besieged the offices of political organizations. Journalists, photographers, lawyers, as well as ordinary passers-by were verbally attacked so as not to show the disgrace of the Hellenic Police who, today, set out to honour the murderer Korkoneas in their own way.

It is the third time in twenty days that the anti-democratic aspirations of the government for "cemetery silence" in Greek society and political silence do not pass, at the exact moment they unfold an attack on labour and democratic rights with one law after the other, abolishing the Constitution itself with bans of rallies and bear full responsibility for the already thousands killed by the pandemic. And that makes them more aggressive towards those who resist.

At the forefront of this battle, at this year's celebrations for the uprising of 17th November 1973, in the strike of November 26 and today's mobilizations was the fighting anti-capitalist left and that’s why today it faces dozens of arrests, fines and new prosecutions. Fighting health workers in the front line against Covid 19, such as the president of the union of the “Attica” hospital, the advocates of the civil lawsuit in the Golden Dawn trial, regional councillors and members of anti-capitalist left organizations are among those arrested.

The government is deeply deluded if they believe that in this way they will bend the militant spirit of the pioneer fighters and the thousands who, all over Greece, question their policies in effect and break the government «quarantine» of trade union - political rights and struggles. They seem to be afraid of the dynamics of the resistance today because they know well what the people will face after the lockdowns. Mass unemployment and economic downturn will follow the thousands killed in the pandemic. The government are trembling with a new outbreak of popular struggles and that is why they oppress the people who are already fighting, trying today to strike the vanguards of the struggle in advance, in order to cancel their union with the growing popular protest.

They are in vain! The struggle for the rights of the people to health, education, labour democracy will continue, to overthrow their policy and the system that breeds pandemics and crises.

They do not scare us. They infuriate us. They will reap storms.

NAR for the Communist Liberation, December 6, 2020