A-Infos (en) Greek Riots - An eyewitness's account of neonazis & police working side by side in Patras - Update.

To start with, I'd like to inform you that I'm a university student in Patras & 
what I report below is an eyewitness account of incidents I experienced & not 
somebody else's ---- narration/hearsay... ---- Unfortunately, Patras saw the 
resurrection of the "ghost" of '91, when Nikos Temponeras was murdered. In that 
case, the parakratikoi [the other-other hand of the greek state: the activist 
leg of the greek extreme right wing helping the greek state out in a time 
honored tradition going at least as far back as the '50s] counter-occupied [the 
already occupied schools] throughout greece after they had been incited to do 
exactly that by then-minister of education Vassilis Kontogianopoulos.

In one of those [counter-occupations], Nikos Temponeras - a teacher - was killed 
[with a crowbar...] by the leader of ONNED [the youth organization of Nea 
Dimokratia - which party is ruling the country today, by the way] Ioannis 
Kalampokas.

Today, December 9, saw 2 demos in Patras. One of them at 11 in the
morning with zero unrest. The other one at 3 in the afternoon. During
this latter demo, extensive unrest was notable. I'd like to remark
that no vandalism against small, privately-owned businesses took
place. The targets were the Germanos [electronics chain store] & WIND
[mobile telephony] stores. Nobody's property was damaged.

At some point, certain members of the well-known fascist organization
Hrisi Avgi (Golden Dawn), together with plainclothes agents - & not
infuriated citizens, as the mass media insist [on calling them] -
started throwing rocks & chasing remonstrators with their clubs. For
this reason, rudimentary barricades were put together in the streets
around the University of Patras department [located there]. These
barricades, though, were violated relatively soon with the help of the
Riot Squad which kept throwing teargas at large.

When the barricades were torn apart, the people started retreating
little by little. In the front, street fights between
antiauthoritarians & neonazis-ONNED members. Behind them, members of
student collectives formed an outer shell [typically called a "chain"
& made up by people holding on to each other & to banners, with the
rest inside it; much like a fence] in order to protect themselves. The
neonazis were running with clubs & knives towards the demonstrators,
while at the same time they were hurling rocks [at them].

When, eventually, the neonazis together with the ONNED members got way
too close to the people, those people started running panic-stricken.
The "infuriated citizens" were yelling slogans against immigrants,
anarchists, & leftists. Slogans such as "Anarchists, sons of whores"
etc., together with the fact that, later, they took to the direction
of the immigrant shanty town & took out knives (a well-documented way
of attack, as far as Golden Dawn members go) made it clear once & for
all who these "infuriated citizens," as they are called by mass media,
are.

There are even photos in indymedia patras proving that those damaging
stores are the same with those chasing after the demonstrators. Here,
I'd like to emphasize that those committing arson & causing damages
have no relation whatsoever with either the antiauthoritarian circles
or any left wing factions. They are mpahaloi [a specific subclass of
people subscribing to some vague nihilist ideology - if they subscribe
to any ideology at all - & in it for the excitement of wreaking
havoc], agents provocateurs, & hooligans...

According to certain information (I haven't crosschecked it), a
demonstrator was stabbed & carried to the hospital. As I'm writing
this (3 in the morning), the center of Patras is chokefull of armed
neonazis & plainclothes agents. Personally, I'm not sleeping at home
tonight, because I can't get there...

For one more time, the shadow state acts with the police's blessings.
Naturally, it's the government who's behind all this & who's the sole
one responsible for this parade of shadow state antics & violence.

The only way to crush terrorism is mas demos... The government's aim
is plain to see: to keep the people away from demonstrating by using
violence & terrorism. If they wanted to catch the "hooded ones" they'd
done it! The mass media play the role of the sycophant repeating
inaccuracies...

To the streets, then, to crush terror...

[A somewhat hasty but hopefully rather accurate translation from the original: 
http://indy.gr/newswire/ma3c7airmata-apo-fasistes-stin-patra-5]

-- Peace R. M.
To: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://ainfos.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en