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Live, From Athens, It's Anti-Government Protest Live
Two words can describe yesterday's first anti-government protest organized by the far-left Antarsya party now that the Greek honeymoon with the new Syriza government is over: disorganized and violent, as the following video which captured the gist of yesterday's event - which can hardly be called a protest and if anything was just young angry people tossing Molotov cocktails, shows.
Which is why today's first truly official protest organized by the Greek communist party in front of the Greek parliament on the well-known Syntagma square, will get far more attention, especially since it was Syriza's own anti-bailout protests that filled the same venue as recently as a few weeks ago.
The Guardian reports:
"the chants of KKE communist party protesters are wafting through central Athens, reports Helena Smith, as they march through the city centre on their way up Syntagma square where tonight’s “anti-loan” rally is due to take place. It has been raining hard in the Greek capital and only the hardiest are expected to attend the demonstration called to denounce the leftist-led government’s climbdown in Brussels last week.
A statement by Greece’s celebrated composer Mikis Theodorakis denouncing the loan accord was to be read out at the rally. Theodorakis met with Alexis Tsipras earlier this week; clearly he’s not placated...."
It may be raining, but that has not stopped a few thousand Greeks from coming out and doing what they do best: demand an end to the austerity, only to realize such a demand is impossible in the confines of the Eurozone:
Lenin would have never sheltered under an umbrella: #Greece's Communist KKE leader rails against govt pic.twitter.com/iEsetjmMF5 via @miltostr
— Damian Mac Con Uladh (@damomac) February 27, 2015
Large turnout at Communist rally outside parliament
#Greece pic.twitter.com/pxVB976AO6
— Derek Gatopoulos (@dgatopoulos) February 27, 2015
The question now is: which party will pick up the baton from Syriza, which took just about a month to reneg on virtually all its electoral promises, an event Bloomberg described as follows: "In what’s turning that nightmare into reality, Greece’s month-old anti-austerity government led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had a rude awakening last Friday when German-led pressure forced it to pedal back on most election pledges in the face of national insolvency. On the streets of Athens, Greeks used to political flip-flops in the five years of their odyssey to financial health are taking what has been a capitulation in their stride."
“When you have your hand outstretched and they say there’s no money, that’s when you put your hands up in the air,” said Alexandra Dimopulos, 60, a retired civil servant. “You may have all the good intentions in the world but that means nothing when you have no money for them.”
Pretty much sums it up.
Live feed from the scene of the event:
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That's a lotta reds.
-_-;;; << MFW I have more in common with Communists than any "legitimate" government
Fack you malaka!
/mrpanos
is this an anti government protest or an anti austerity protest?
Yes
so your telling me blue and black? did i get that right?
Is all of Greece just a bunch of commies and nazis? Between these guys, Syriza, and Golden Dawn, that's what it looks like from here.
Idc what they do, im just rooting for them to break the EU and end up with self governance.
It's an anti-austerity protest, they want to leave the Euro so their government can provide all the free money they need again.
They will get their way eventually and have Greece exit the Euro and regain the ability to print free money, but will very soon discover that that free money will buy them less than they have today.
They want to become Venezuelan.
How do you say Viva la revolución and Viva la inflación in Greek ?
Bullish.
So do you think that Golden dawn will bide their time, allow the communist to withdraw from the Euro, wreck the country? Then Golden Dawn with more members will start marching down the streets saying they have the "solution".
If Golden Dawn campaigns on sending the zio gangbangkster cabal to the gallows they could pick up a lot of support.
I doubt it, Communists have a history of eliminating any opposition once they take power.
No matter what they do, Greece is screwed. Almost time for the standard military junta to step in a screw things up in a different direction.
By the time Greece is done electing governments and kicking them out the only thing left will be starving Greeks that don't care if they burn that bitch down because when you have nothing left but an empty stomach, a torch and a pitchfork, who gives a fuck...
It is anti new loans and anti calling Loans from IMF Bailouts when they are just new loans.
They want to default on the loans called bailouts since they just wanted to get out from under the loans all along.
Well who wouldn't...
- It is like if you live in the USA and want to go off the grid and live without the government in your hair and having to live with all of the millions of US Regulations and 77,000 pages of Federal Tax Code
- Greeks are everyman, just like US people, they like guns and independence
- Someone said they are characterized by the "Collective" Mind set, like a tribal orientation, where as Anglos are Individualists, the Greek Tribe has an identity and should not be part of the EU
Time to reinstall those iron barricades?
I think Greece should dump the Euro and use gold and silver for money.
The next 4 months might be longer and hotter than some people bargained for...
Springtime the world over is the start of riot and protest season but this year I expect them across the entire EU in massive quantities....
Good question, what are the percentages of Political Ideology?
-
- Communists 20%
- Fascists 30%
- Democrats 30%
- Anarchists a smattering
- Undecided or Socialist 25%
Political alignment doesn't really matter when everybody is pissed and the major argument comes down hanging or head removal by sharp blade.
But the Strongest Model is Fascism. So in the End Fascism will win since they have the guts to do whatever it takes.
Like Germans fighting in Beer Halls in the 1920s, the Greeks will find the strongest personalities will take over and dominate.
Whether Fascism chooses the EU or Independence I don't know.
Quite true but don't overlook the muslim factions in the process.....
You've got 105% there son. Must be the Democrats double voting. So what you're saying is 100% of them are statists.
No, I got 95% there.
no bankers were harmed, that's good
A 60 year old retired "civil servant?"
Can't see why they are fucked.
pods
he's probably been retired for ten years already
And ... he is probably receiving pension payments on the order of five to ten times what working and retired people in the private sector make.
Bbbbut there is this economist guy..some sort of expert in game theory and shit that was supposed to stick it to the man. What the fuck happened?
He lost the game ?
No, he won: he was playing origami.
The general impression is that Syriza doesn't do what they promised while campaigning. I would be tempted to say "duh ! what a big fucking surprise... " but I'll reserve my judgement for another 4 months. After that, they'll be out money (again) and, more importantly, out of excuses.
The Greek people are the one's who will be out of excuses. If there is no political solution to aleviate there plight in four months, they should be storming the gates of the Greek Oligarchy. If someone sells your family into poverty, forces your women into prostitution, destroys all hope for your future, etc, it's time to play for blood. I don't know what it takes to get the Greeks to that point, but an abject failure of what was left of their democratic process should be a significant nudge.
They are already doing it in a stellar manner by not paying their taxes. Ever heard of starving the beast ? It's the only way to destroy an oppressive system. That's what's happening in Greece. Good luck to any government trying to "extend and pretend" when most of the population is showing you the finger... Americans could really learn something here.
Going Galt is nice and all, but unless those withholding taxes are directly aiding the bottom 25% of Greeks being raped what does it solve? I sincerely doubt those evading the taxes are using that capital to expand the economy, there probably stashing it to cover there asses, as they should. But once again that still doesn't accomplish shit.
Greece is the perfect example of .gov as the legitimized mafia it is. The Greek oligarchy and those still prospering are using the military and .gov institutions to keep themselves afloat while throwing the rest of Greece under the bus. Whether the proles were stupid in embracing socialism is immaterial. Greek government was and is directly injurious to the Greek lower class as a default on this debt five years ago and a return to the drachma would have the Greek people better off as a whole. If the Troika stands, Syzira will be exposed as just the latest group of fascists masquerading as commies.
The whole idea of not paying taxes is to force the economy to grind to a halt. A dead economy is the only thing that can destroy an entrenched political system. Even if the system resorts at printing money, this would only hasten its demise. History is your friend...
I think you are suffering from an exaggerated sense of political awareness/motivation. People don't pay taxes because it's cheaper that way (assuming they can get away with it). Are you suggesting that major corporations avoid taxes to "force the economy to grind to a halt"? Anyway, "paying taxes" simply reduces your share of the pie. As I'm sure you are aware, the gov could redistribute wealth with or without your taxes.
What wealth are you talking about ? How can you redistribute something that is not created in the first place ? It doesn't really matter why people or companies decide not to pay taxes. Maybe they feel it's not worth it, or maybe because they can get away with it (most probably a combination of both). The result is the same: a dying economy unable to support its ruling institutions. The point is: you cannot force people into creating wealth, unless you are willing to transform them into slaves... at which point you'll notice that forced slavery is not a very effective engine for wealth creation.
The whole idea of not paying taxes is to force the economy to grind to a halt
Not in this case. They aren't paying taxes to save there own asses. If Greece truly went Anarchy, these biz people would be the FIRST to suffer loss of life and property. The proles would eat them for lunch. They are VERY happy to have the corrupt Greek .gov protecting their shit.
Any Rand was an evil old cunt with ZERO understanding of how real people work. Her books are full of absolutist caricatures. Real people exist in several shades of gray. Anyone who parrots absolute black/white bullshit is a naive as she was.
Ayn Rand was perfectly right. Don't speak badly about dead people or things you don't understand.
Nothing and no system in this world is "perfect". That's what the crabby old bitch and her syschophants couldn't/can't grasp. I'll continue to speak badly of her and her cultists. They are enemies of those who truly seek liberty. Objectivisim is as stupid as religion as the various faiths she herself shunned.
Whatever floats your boat, dude...
Philo: He did stick it to the man. Thing is he truely is such an expert in game theory and manipulation that the Greeks who supported him did not realize he actually sat on the other side of the table. They never realized they were the "man"(s) he had always intended to stick it to.
the current greek government will have to
either default on the debt and take the
hit of responsibility for not only debt/asset/liquidity
destruction and the derivative market shock wave
and all that corresponding destruction or continue
to feed the beast in further fraud and misappropriated
suffering. the third possibility
is that the current government investigate and prosecute
the pile of fraud that became the modern greek debt in the euro
arena with corresponding claw backs. no?
Greeks know how to party.
They know how to Civil War too.
"Shields up."
That Turkish military is the real deal.
They're still paying too many pensions to dead people.
I bet they have a lot of Illegal Immigrants and legal immigrants too.
Open borders don't you know.
Yep, nothing attracts immigrants like the prospect of being unemployed.
I looked at moving to different places overseas and Italy was one. It turns out that Southern Italy might have a lot of Immigrants and said to be kind of hot. But the housing prices might be afordable.
Greece is different. I always heard Greece is expensive so maybe there is no place for immigrants.
But who does the Labor on the Docks, in the fields, in the mines, and at the Rail Road Yards??
"conomy mainly comprises the service sector (85.0%) and industry (12.0%), while agriculture makes up 3.0% of the national economic output.[108] " "Greek banks open a new branch somewhere in the Balkans on an almost weekly basis.[114][115][116]"
The 2011 census recorded 9,903,268 Greek citizens (91,56%), 480,824 Albanian citizens (4,44%), 75,915 Bulgarian citizens (0,7%), 46,523 Romanian citizenship (0,43%), 34,177 Pakistani citizens (0,32%), 27,400 Georgian citizens (0,25%) and 247,090 people had other or unidentified citizenship (2,3%).[188]
Amstel Light, when you need a suitable molatov cocktail bottle, without all the calories to weigh you down running from the police.
Keep stamping your feet Greece, big momma Germany may let you suckle for a few minutes if you can throw a big enough tantrum to get her attention.
It's not my business, but he belongs behind bars.
- He's unemployed, Valentine.
- It's no excuse, Mortimer.
He's flat broke, obviously hungry.
But he has money to buy Molotov Cocktails, right?
You can't be soft on people like that. Take it from me, Randolph...
[/trading places, the greek tragedy version]
Greek Communists major hypocrites.
Outsiders are helping stir this up, Syriza rocked the boat too much
Yeah, what if US Flex in some ISIS Fascists to throw Molotov Cocktails?
Proxy, Black Block agents provocateurs.
If USA hasn't got agents on the Ground by now I would be very surprised.
I doubt it. I think this is the last thing the troika wants to see. At least the Greeks are awake. Unfortunately, in this day and age, mass revolt may be the only way they will throw off the yoke of a corrupt and incompetent govt. and the EU.
Hard to say if this is just self expression, blowing off steam, or if some Proxy agents provocateurs where turning up the Steam.
I guess Riots are mostly young people and must be ignored.
Greeks will end up with a Golden Dawn type of government to their regret.
Sure, it will tell the EU to go fish.
Wait till the GD tax collector show up at the door with a truncheon.
Tax collection solved!
(Corruptness and nepotism not so much)
Don't know what they're complaining about! They got a vote didn't they? What did they expect?
Oh well, maybe they'll try voting for the other side next time.
Protest signs & flaming cocktails ?
Didn't they do that before ?
The reason that people aren't free is they believe in illusions (false 'debt' & 'authority' etc ) and have zero imagination. They trade in one illusion for another and somehow think it'll all turn out differently.
Who knows, maybe in a thousand years people will decide to wake up.
But you have a larger than life King George on a horse slaying a Dragon for your ICON/Avatar.
The Gold Sovereign.
@TeethVillage - I have a few of them.
I don't 'believe' in them, however.
Do you like Swiss miss, Swiss Franc?
I was looking at guilders, French Rooster, Swiss Franc, and the Gold Sovereigns for a while. The denomination seems like it would be more useful if SHTF. They might be cheaper premium than the Gold Eagle.
TeethVillage - it's all good IMO. Whatever has the lowest premium.
That said, personally I really like the gold Swiss franc. I have a few older sovereigns because the premium was decent and because of historical interest. I don't own any with the current monarch on them.
"Who knows, maybe in a thousand years people will decide to wake up."
It appears you dont beleive in illusions, no, not at all.
Well, you never know.
Maybe with technology at a level that could take out all of us, there might be enough of a motivation to wise up.
Maybe not.
Call it a George Carlin view on the world.
Two Rothschilds are high-fiving right now.
Amen. Fistbump!
Greece is defaulting on IMF this coming week?
Or they get ECB to buy Bills so they can pay back IMF?
When does this charade end?
Perp walk a banker and all them folks go home happy. Hang one and start a trend.
Bankers assets are still performing... all you need to know greeks..
Is it just me, a typical North American, or do the guys with Molotov cocktails in the first clip sound Arabic??
Like how would I know if it is Greek or Arabic.
No they are plain Greek white Western native, just in case you try to blame Muslim for this mess because there is virtually no Muslim in Greece unlike let's say France.
White far left riots can do a lot of damage too and even terrorist attack for the more far left extremist group !
USA has little Riots all the time after concerts and sporting events.
Columbus Ohio used to have Riots all School year for the University after sport games and didn't matter if the home team won or lost. They were actually big too. They would burn old couches and maybe do things to cars. I remember this in the 1990s and they cracked down on underage alcohol on campus. They might have had a curfew as well for underage students. They never really got it under control.
And you never really saw it on the National News.
USA just has some people that have fun by starting riots or getting a crowd to break something or tear something down.
Wikipedia: Greece = The 2011 census recorded 34,177 Pakistani citizens (0,32%), and 247,090 people had other or unidentified citizenship (2,3%).[188]
Maybe Occupy Wall St would've gotten a bigger & more motivated turn out if they told people it was a sporting event and their favorite team lost.
Putting down the fork and hitting the tread mill may inspire a little more confidence, hell take a page from Varoufakis!
Where's riot dog? Has anyone been feeding riot dog? WTF?
The riot dog's condition has not improved: still dead, unfortunately.
This might be just what they wanted...proof that they DO have a mandate from the Greek people to stand firm. I can see this kind of thing going on for a few weeks, and Syriza throwing up its hands saying, "Well, this is what the people want after all."
I think the protests have to get larger though. And with all the German 'needling', they just might. If the streets fill with angry Greeks, then Syriza would feel secure telling the EU to fuck off. They might not have been willing to take such a step before, because of the hardships it would cause. If the people demonstrate their willingness by taking to the streets, that makes the decision much easier.
Syriza may have doubted the people's willingness to take it that far, and this whole thing may have been to see how far folks want them to go. Voting new blood into office because you are pissed is one thing...supporting that new blood when they start taking actions that cause you some pain is another.
Syriza would have to select new leaders and publicly spit upon the names of the current ones to regain credibility.
Oh yeah, ''new leaders'. That'll fix it. Just like everywhere else that turned perfect after doing that ?
'Hope & change'
'Throw the bums out! (most recent U.S. mid term elections)
That's the answer.
Or not.
If Syriza is a genuine extension of the political will of the Greek people, they will have to stand in front of these crowds and explain their intent to default and revert back to the Drachma with all the short term pain that may entail, sparing no details. They may get lynched or they may get applauded. Goldman bloody Sachs aka Mario Draghi may think Greece would be useful as a collapsed state to foment war or a poor yield cash cow for a good few more years of can kicking, but at this point Greece has no rational choices left but to declare itself insolvent and start afresh.
Syriza had a bloody good go at changing the euro system and failed. Now they can only change Greece itself. Varoufakis must acknowledge this failure to convert the european bankers to his vision and figure out a way for the Greek people to survive then thrive instead of going through this agony of slow death, wholesale looting and debt enslavement of his people.
Absolutely! It makes me crazy that these folks DON'T do that...it's as if they were too afraid to lay it all out for folks. They shouldn't be. How hard can it be to tell people that they are living under austerity RIGHT NOW, with worse to come and no end in sight? And explain the new (old) currency, and how it will work, and tell them that they will STILL have some austerity, but it will be for their OWN sakes, not the EU banks? And they will have a functioning economy, and history shows that once they ditch the debt, they recover pretty quickly and robustly after the initial hardship. What does the current deal get them? Their fucking grandchildren will still be paying that debt!
And how hard can it be to convince these folks of what the Euro DOES to their more laid-back economy, and that they NEED to ditch that bitch ASAP? Especially since they're LIVING it?
Someone out there is able to get the Greek people to that Eliza Doolittle moment where they suddenly GET it...where IS this person?
Right now the people may not even KNOW what their will is, just that life sucks and they're pissed. But someone who is able to organize that discontent and point it in the right direction would be able to fend off the fascists that always come out of the woodwork when people's worlds disintegrate around them. They always do.
Why is it that we never see huge angry mobs breaking shit and setting fires over derivatives or CDS's? How come the Greeks aren't rioting over Goldman Sachs? Why are so many people so blind to how ridiculously CRIMINAL this whole financial system IS? They're willing to riot and take heads for some stupid shit...you'd think they'd be mad at this. But they know NOTHING, and explanations make their eyes glaze over...it's not getting THROUGH, they aren't being REACHED. They end up being spoon-fed the ideology and used as a weapon by whatever side happens to get hold of them.
"Anti-government"..... Elects a Leftist statist party? Lmfao.
Oh goody ............now they want to go far far far left! Great idea!
If there problem is money then they should be protesting against the Euro in support of Q99X2's proposals of using cryptocurrency and dragging anyone or anything with more than 10,000,000 to the pyramids and get this replacing government with open source software.
It is always important to ensure those at the bottom have enough invested in the system so they don't rise up and over-throw it.
Government benefits are a pragmatic solution to this problem.
Unfortunately Greece has 60% youth unemployment and has scaled back its benefits system.
The youth always have the least invested in the system and are those you should be most wary of.
It is when the Left fail that the real problems start.
France swung to Hollande's Socialists who didn't deliver the goods, they are now backing Le Pen's Far Right.
Syriza seem to have failed in Greece and Golden Dawn are waiting in the wings.
We are following a well trodden path.
1920s/2000s - High inequality, high banker pay, globalisation phase
1929/2008 - Wall Street Crash
1930s/2010s - Currency wars, global recession, rising nationalism and extremism
1940s - Global war
Here is a novel idea, let the free shit army take care of the free shit army. Problem solved for everyone else.
Greece is a failed state, it must be expelled.
Under the Rumsfeld Doctrine, the USA can invade and take over Greece.
Something to think about.
Maybe that is the End Game for USA to take over:
1) Ukraine
2) Romania
3) Bulgaria
4) Greece
5) Iraq
6) Syria
7) Libya
8) Philippines
9) Argentina
10 Venezuela
11) Cuba
All newborns will have "There's no such thing as a free lunch..." tattooed on their foreheads. It will be removed when they get educated and begin working at a job.
This party just wants their share of the bribe money. Until these parties, and the Greeks themselves, are ready to leave the euro and take a few years of being shut out of the credit markets, these protests are nothing but noise.