Violence Continues Across Greece, Nearly Two Weeks After Police Shooting
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Related subjects: Diplomacy & Politics, Economy, European Union, Global, J.E. Robertson, Rights & Freedoms, Security & Surveillance Comments Off
A new round of demonstrations seemed to escalate tensions between student demonstrators and the government Thursday, as protesters hurled “paint bombs”, petrol bombs and even chunks of marble, at police, according to some reports. Police responded Thursday with tear gas and stun grenades. Banners unfurled by protesters featured the word “Resistance” in several language, including Greek, German, Spanish and English, and called for mass demonstrations across Europe. On Tuesday, demonstrators flooded a TV studio and took control of the live news broadcast.
Protests have also targeted prominent sites recognizable to people outside Greece. The New York Times is reporting:
Student protesters evaded security guards at the Acropolis on Wednesday and unfurled two giant pink banners, above, over a wall near the Parthenon to rally support for continued demonstrations against the government.
The atmosphere of political resistance seems to be growing, as demonstrators set up barricades and ready for clashes with armed, armored riot police. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports today that:
Masked youths set up burning barricades and threw fire bombs and chunks of marble at riot police yesterday after a protest march erupted into new fighting that sent Christmas shoppers and panicked parents fleeing.
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The government of conservative PM Costas Karamanlis has been unable to quell the unrest and seems to have few cards to play to negotiate with demonstrators, who are increasingly calling for his government to step down. According to the Baltimore Sun:
The students complain that their universities are overcrowded, their teachers overworked, and their employment prospects close to nil. They feel trapped in a system that cares not at all about their lives or prospects.
Mr. Grigoropoulos’ tragic death was the catalyst. As the protests have gained intensity, it has also become a metaphor for the state’s indifference to the neglect of its youth.
Across Europe, the declining prospects for continued expansion of rights and quality of life for young people seems to be a force driving discontentment with the governing political structures. Universities across the Union are understaffed and underfunded, while job prospects for highly educated young people seem to be limited by a number of factors, including near total freedom of mobility between the eastern and western EU nations, and by rising government debt in several countries.
The Greek protests have been noted as significant not only for the severity of the unrest, but for the longevity of the movement, which seems to be expanding. The protests are highly organized and are benefitting from the high level of language and communications skills among the students. They are calling on like-minded young people across Europe to start a broad resistance to top-down government dictates that they allege are robbing them of job-prospects, quality of education and standard of living.
The economic downturn is a significant contributing factor, with escalating fuel and transport costs hitting tourism-intensive and property-boom countries like Greece, Italy and Spain fairly hard. Agricultural exports have been hit as well, but food surplus states like France have managed to stay above the recession until recently. Small businesses are closing there however, as cost of living rises at rates far in excess of wage inflation. In Spain, a government program to create low-cost housing for young people has outraged many, who say the plan would relegate recent graduates to prison-like housing conditions, inspiring the intensification of the ‘vivienda digna’ (dignified housing) movement.
With Europe’s biggest universities entirely dependent on state aid, politicians are held directly responsible for a decline in quality of facilities or services. And the deepening recession and mounting public debt crisis —which is testing the EU’s cap on budget deficits— are putting the system at risk of falling further away from the standards students are demanding.
Perhaps most important to the Greek policy-makers looking to get a handle on the now student resistance movement taking root across the country, the protests have expanded to include broader political objectives and trade organizations intent on forcing the government to shift policy direction. The Times of India reports, for instance, that: “The country’s two largest umbrella trade union organizations planned an afternoon rally outside Parliament to protest the government’s 2009 budget, which lawmakers began debating late on Wednesday. University professors also planned a rally outside Parliament.”
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