Showing posts with label anarchy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anarchy. Show all posts
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Monday, December 07, 2015
Greece: Kerry's Visit Sees Violent Clashes in Athens' Anarchist Stronghold
The clashes followed a demonstration held by leftists and anarchists who mobilised in opposition against the US State Secretary John Kerry, who is in an official visit the Greek capital. Skirmishes started soon after the rally ended, with roughly 300 anarchists trying to enter the premises of the Athens Polytechnic University, where they were repelled by police officers, only to continue the battle on the streets nearby.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
The Rt Rev Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham, says the sector must be rebuilt “from the ruins” of the financial crisis to become something that “helps people rather than being there for people to help it”.
Bishop Welby, who is a member of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, called for the introduction of formal banking qualifications, for the Government only to only support financial institutions that have a “clear and explicit social value”, and to offer an easier tax regime and lighter regulation for banks that demonstrate a “social purpose”.
Speaking at a conference in Zurich, Switzerland, Bishop Welby said: “At the moment clearly these are merely ideas in the mist.
"But one principle seems to me to be clear, we cannot repair what was destroyed in 2008, we can only replace it with something that is dedicated to the support of human society, to the common good and to solidarity.
"Financial services are crucial to human development, but they only do their job when the work they carry out is done in a way that is truly a service." » | Graham Ruddick | Saturday, October 27, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
The soup kitchen opens at noon but long before then the queues start to form in the hot Athens sun. A couple of streets away from where sardines, red mullet and squid are piled high in the fish market, those down on their luck line up. While elsewhere life goes on seemingly as normal, students, jobless people, single parents and pensioners swallow their pride and wait patiently. They get two meals a day, at midday and 5pm. This is what a depression looks like.
At first blush, Greece seems no different from any other developed country. People sit in the city centre cafes sipping their iced coffees; yellow taxis cruise the streets; the shops are open for business. But different it is, and it is not hard to spot the signs that this is an economy that has contracted by 20% since the downturn began three years ago and that it is still falling.
You don't need to know that spending in the shops is down by a sixth over the past year; it is obvious from the empty cabs and those shops open but with no customers. You don't need to know that the official unemployment rate is well above 20% and youth unemployment is nudging 50%: it's obvious from the young men idling on street corners and openly dealing drugs.
Greece is broke and close to being broken. It is a country where children are fainting in school because they are hungry, where 20,000 Athenians are scavenging through waste tips for food, and where the lifeblood of a modern economy – credit – is fast drying up.
It is a country where the fascists and the anarchists battle for control of the streets, where immigrants fear to go out at night and where a woman whispers "it's like the Weimar republic [sic]" as a motorcycle cavalcade from the Golden Dawn party, devotees of Adolf Hitler, cruises past the parliament building. Graffiti says: "Foreigners get out of Greece. Greece is for the Greeks. I will vote for Golden Dawn to remove the filth from the country." » | Larry Elliott, economics editor | Thursday, May 31, 2012
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Friday, May 18, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Authorities are warning that rage could tip over into serious unrest and are concerned at the knock-on effect on tourism
Europe's debt-mired southern rim is becoming increasingly concerned by the prospect of anarchy on the streets this summer, as seething anti-austerity threatens to boil over into something more sinister.
Protests, strikes and sit-ins have long since become the norm for Greece, Italy and Spain. But some authorities are warning that rage is on the verge of tipping over into serious violence, and concerns are mounting over the knock-on effect on tourism, a vital source of income for southern Europe.
In Italy, military, police and intelligence officials are hammering out an emergency security plan for combating violent anarchy in the wake of a recent spate of violent attacks on individuals and institutions.
"The risk of escalation exists," said interior minister Annamaria Cancellieri, adding that the government was prepared to send out the armed forces to protect sensitive targets if necessary.
The Equitalia tax offices in charge of collecting unpaid debts seems to be taking the brunt of public anger. Laid-off Fiat factory workers recently occupied a tax office in Sicily, and protests outside the Naples office turned violent. Several petrol bombs were thrown against a tax office in Tuscany last week. » | Andrea Vogt in Rome, Helena Smith in Athens and Giles Tremlett in Madrid | Friday, May 18, 2012
Sunday, March 27, 2011
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Anarchists went on the rampage in central London as hundreds of thousands of people marched in protest at government cuts.
Police fought mobs of masked thugs who pelted officers with ammonia and fireworks loaded with coins.
The anti-capitalists started fires and smashed their way into banks, hotels and shops, bringing chaos to Britain’s busiest shopping street.
The violence began as Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, addressed a TUC rally of at least 250,000 peaceful protesters in Hyde Park who had marched from Westminster to demonstrate against government spending cuts.
As he spoke, an apparently co-ordinated attack began on shops and police in Oxford Street as a mob tried to storm into shops including Topshop, BHS and John Lewis.
MPs and retailers said the scenes damaged Britain’s reputation around the world. » | Patrick Sawer, and David Barrett | Saturday, March 26, 2011
My comment on this:
It would appear that this country is becoming ungovernable. But much of the blame for this lies with the people at the top, because they have forgotten one simple thing: fairness.
It’s all very well to talk about the ‘anti-capitalists,’ but we should ask ourselves why these people are ‘anti-capitalists.’ And I’m pretty sure they feel that the system is unfair.
And it is unfair. Very unfair, in fact, because the people that have the least are being asked to shoulder the greatest burden of the spending cuts, whilst the people at the top are not being asked to make any sacrifices at all. How can it be a fair society when bankers, for example, are being paid monopoly sums as bonuses when people at the bottom are barely scratching a living?
This is not the capitalism that I remember. It has always been so that the people at the top made a lot more money than the people at the bottom, but it is a question of degree. It is also a question about how much effort the people at the top have to make in order to earn those far bigger sums of money. Who, for example, would begrudge Bill Gates his fortune? He made his money by effort and ability and creativity. He has also made a very big contribution to the world in terms of technology. But bankers? What have they contributed? In what way have they made life better? And how much effort have they got to make to collect these vast sums of money?
It seems to me that bankers have a great deal to answer for. They have almost single-handedly destroyed the capitalist system (with the aid of the nincompoops in the Labour Party, of course – Blair, Brown et al.). But very importantly, thay have not been asked to join in and do their bit in these times of austerity. In short, the government expects the people who have the least to tighten their belts the most. Now that can’t be fair!
In my opinion, we cannot hope to understand the appalling behaviour of that anarchic mob yesterday in London without taking into consideration the points I have mentioned.
And by the way, it was Labour that fostered the benefits culture. Over the years they have given hand-outs to people who should not have been given them. The welfare state should never have been allowed to grow into the monster it has become. Alas it is human nature to be unwilling to give up that which was once a ‘right.’ In many ways, the welfare state, whilst a noble concept, has been allowed to become the scourge of the modern Western economy.
What we observed in London yesterday is the result of these failed policies: failed policies by Labour; failed policies by the Coalition to correct the unfairness.
I predict that the summer of 2011 will be long and hot! The heatwave has only just begun! – © Mark
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SKY NEWS: London's Cuts March Tainted By Violence » | Sunday, March 27, 2011
MAIL ON SUNDAY: Police struggle to control hard-core anarchist rioters after 500,000-strong London march against government cuts ends in violence: Hooded anarchists attack London landmarks linked to luxury and wealth » | Daily Mail Reporter, Ian Gallagher and George Arbuthnott | Sunday, March 27, 2011
REUTERS: Rioters battle UK police after anti-cuts rally: Black-clad, masked youths battled riot police and attacked banks and luxury stores in central London on Saturday, overshadowing a protest by more than a quarter of a million Britons against government spending cuts. » | Stefano Ambrogi and Tim Castle | LONDON | Saturday, March 26, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
BBC: More than 250,000 people have attended a march and rally in central London against public spending cuts.
Labour leader Ed Miliband addressed crowds in Hyde Park and the main march organised by the Trades Union Congress passed off peacefully.
But splinter groups have attacked shops and banks, and a stand-off with police is taking place in Piccadilly. There have been 16 arrests.
Ministers say the cuts are necessary to get the public finances in order.
In the largest public protest since the Iraq war rally in 2003, marchers from across the UK set off from Victoria Embankment to Hyde Park, where Trades Union Congress general secretary Brendan Barber was first in a line of speakers.
"We are here to send a message to the government that we are strong and united," he said.
"We will fight the savage cuts and we will not let them destroy peoples' services, jobs and lives."
Mr Barber was followed by Mr Miliband, who said: "The Tories said I should not come and speak today. But I am proud to stand with you. There is an alternative."
The march began at 1200 GMT and it took more than four hours for the protesters to file past the Houses of Parliament on their way to the park. (+ video) » | Saturday, March 26, 2011
MAIL ONLINE: Anarchist groups are threatening to ‘release all hell’ today at a trade unions march to be addressed by Labour leader Ed Miliband.Police fear scores of violent anti-capitalist demonstrators could hijack the anti-cuts demonstration and cause chaos in London’s West End.
Up to 250,000 people are expected to join the march, with organisers saying it will be the largest since up to a million took to the streets in 2003 to oppose the war in Iraq.
Mr Miliband has hailed it as a ‘march of the mainstream’ and urged people to take to the streets to demand ‘an alternative, to save our services, to show the cuts are going too deep and too fast’.
The Labour leader is expected to address crowds in Hyde Park at the end of the rally. His appearance is risky, because he will be blamed by opponents if the event ends in violence. As Miliband prepares to address massive anti-cuts protest, anarchists vow: 'We'll unleash hell' » | Jack Doyle and James Chapman | Saturday, March 26, 2011
Thursday, November 04, 2010
BBC: Wearing white bulletproof vests, the two young bearded men manhandled into Athens' main court spat and snarled at reporters and photographers in a calculated pique of defiance.
When quizzed by prosecutors, they refused to give their names or answer questions, claiming they were political prisoners.
But as they emerged from the court in the grip of masked, muscular, machine gun-carrying anti-terrorist police, the two suspects, Gerasimos Tsakalos, 24, and Panagiotis Argyros, 22, looked small and not particularly terrifying.
Perhaps bravado was better than quivering at the prospect of 25 years in jail for their alleged part in sending booby-trapped parcel bombs to President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy as well as assorted embassies and EU institutions.
Terrorism experts are convinced that the two belong to a left-wing organisation called the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire.
The group has been active since the Greek riots of December 2008, ignited by the fatal shooting of schoolboy Alexis Grigoropoulos by a policeman.
So just how dangerous are they?
Brady Kiesling, a former US diplomat in Athens and author of a book about November 17, Greece's most deadly guerrillas, could not be more contemptuous.
"They are politically irrelevant," he said. "Their message is smash the system. Basically, they are soft-hearted suburban kids who aren't really going to hurt anyone in the process, if they can help it."
Mr Kiesling dismissed their cluster of booby traps as "firecrackers".
But while the group may have caused little more than inconvenience and raised blood pressure across Europe, they have highlighted serious flaws in the air freight system by demonstrating how easy it is to smuggle explosive materials into the cargo holds of aircraft. >>> Malcolm Brabant, BBC News, Athens | Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Thailand's anti-government protesters brought anarchy to a swath of Bangkok last night in defiance of a government deadline to disband mass demonstrations at the heart of the capital.
Mobs set fire to office towers and expensive blocks of flats across a three-mile zone of chaos in one of south-east Asia's richest cities.
Army reinforcements established road blocks and checkpoints but failed to deter the spread of the Red Shirt movement, which is loyal to exiled billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra.
An afternoon deadline for the clearance of Ratchaprasong, the main demonstration site, passed with a 5,000 strong crowd defying a warning that it was "no longer safe".
The deadline, set by Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand's Eton-educated prime minister, was dropped after encountering the opposition of the country's military high command. >>> Damien McElroy and Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok | Monday, May 17, 2010
THE BOSTON GLOBE: Leadership rejects protesters’ call for UN mediation
BANGKOK — Antigovernment unrest boiling over in downtown Bangkok spread to other areas of the capital and Thailand as the military defended its use of force in a crackdown that has left 36 people dead in four days. Thai leaders flatly rejected protesters’ demands that the United Nations intercede to end the chaos.
Rapid gunfire and explosions echoed before dawn today outside the luxury hotels bordering the barricaded protest zone, where the military has attempted to seal in thousands of demonstrators camping in the downtown streets. Guests at the upscale Dusit Thani hotel were rushed to the basement for safety.
Yesterday, plumes of black smoke hung over city streets where protesters set fire to tires, fired homemade rockets, and threw gasoline bombs at soldiers who used rubber bullets and live ammunition to pick off rioters who approached their lines. Army sharpshooters crouched behind sandbags and fired to keep attackers at bay.
Leaders of the protesters, who have dubbed themselves Red Shirts, said they wanted talks mediated by the UN, provided the government agreed to an immediate cease-fire and pulled its troops back. >>> Chriss Blake | Monday, May 17, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: Cameron's former leadership rival Davis leads chorus of dissent ? / Blunkett: 'This is profoundly undemocratic'
David Cameron's plan to bring in fixed-term parliaments was condemned as a 'recipe for anarchy' today as Tories broke ranks to openly attack the move.
Senior Conservative Party figures rounded on the new PM as they argued the proposal to bring in legislation allowing him to govern for five years undermines the 'primacy' of Parliament.
They angrily condemned the idea, laid out in the coalition deal agreed by the two parties which they said had been 'cobbled together' with only the approval of Mr Cameron's closest aides.
The change in law would mean Mr Cameron could be removed only if 55 per cent of MPs voted for the dissolution of Parliament and an early election.
A number of MPs want to retain the right to kick out a government by a simple majority of one, by way of a no-confidence vote.
David Davis - once Mr Cameron's leadership rival - is understood to be among the growing number of politicians opposed to the 'stitch-up'.
Senior Tory backbencher Christopher Chope said today: 'I think it is unsustainable as a proposition.
'If the present Government was to lose its majority in Parliament and wasn't able to operate as a minority government because it didn't enjoy the confidence of a sufficient number of MPs, then what is being suggested is that it would be able to carry on. That would be, basically, a recipe for anarchy. >>> Gerri Peev | Friday, May 14, 2010
Friday, March 27, 2009
MAIL Online: The university professor masterminding mayhem at the G20 summit in London was suspended from his job yesterday.
The dramatic move came after anarchist Chris Knight threatened violence against the police in a series of inflammatory declarations.
The 66-year-old former member of Labour's extreme left-wing Militant Tendency warned that 'all hell will break loose' if demonstrators meet police aggression.
Knight, a lecturer in anthropology at the University of East London, confirmed that an effigy of disgraced former RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin would be among those strung up at the protests and warned bankers to stay away.
He said of Sir Fred, whose house was attacked earlier this week: 'To be honest, if he winds us up any more I'm afraid there will be real bankers hanging from lampposts.'
Last night, his employers said in a statement: 'Professor Chris Knight has been suspended from his duties at the University of East London, pending investigation. In order not to prejudice this process we cannot make any further comment.'
In recent days, Knight has given media interviews warning of his plans to ignite a revolution in the capital to coincide with the G20 meeting. >>> By Michael Seamark | Friday, March 27, 2009
MAIL Online: 'White, Blue-eyed Bankers Have Brought World Economy to Its Knees': What the Brazilian President Told Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown’s efforts to broker an £80billion bailout for world trade on a trip to Brazil hit a stumbling block tonight when the country’s president lashed out at ‘white, blue-eyed’ bankers for bringing the world economy to its knees.
Mr Brown watched on uneasily as his host, President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, launched a bizarre tirade in which he warned that next week’s G20 summit in London would be a ‘spicy’ affair.
President Lula said it was completely unfair that the poorest people in the world were suffering most for the mistakes of wealthy, Western financiers.
‘This was a crisis that was fostered and boosted by irrational behaviour of people that are white, blue-eyed, that before the crisis looked like they knew everything about economics,’ he declared.
‘Now they have demonstrated that they don’t know anything about economics.’
President Lula, head of Brazil’s main left-wing party, said that ‘no black man or woman, no indigenous person, no poor person’ had been in any way culpable for the global banking crisis.
‘I’m not acquainted with any black banker,’ he said. ‘The part of humanity that’s responsible should pay for the crisis.’ >>> By James Chapman | Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, December 11, 2008
BBC: Greek students have attacked police in the capital, Athens, in the latest outbreak of protests over the killing of a teenaged boy last Saturday.
The authorities say at least one person was injured as protesters threw stones and firebombs at a police station, near the city's main university.
Students are also reported to have set up road blocks in some parts of Athens.
A policeman has been charged over the youth's death. His lawyer says the bullet that killed him was a ricochet.
But the ballistics report has not yet been officially published.
An unnamed police official said that an elderly bystander had been taken to hospital after being struck by a rock in the latest violence.
A further incident was reported outside a university and one of Greece's biggest prisons in the Athens suburb of Koyrdallos.
There were also reports of unrest in Thessaloniki, Greece's second city.
Hundreds of buildings and businesses across the country have been damaged in the five days of rioting. >>> | December 11, 2008
Watch BBC video: Police defend themselves from attack >>>
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SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: As Greece entered its sixth day of unrest sparked by the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy, violence spread to other parts of Europe on Thursday. Solidarity protests in cities including Rome, Madrid and Copenhagen turned into skirmishes between demonstrators and police.
The unrest that has gripped Greece for days has started to spill over into other European capitals, with arrests made in Rome, Copenhagen and Madrid on Wednesday night after solidarity demonstrations descended into violence.
The situation in Greece itself had calmed somewhat by mid-morning Thursday following pre-dawn violence which saw students clash with police. Youth threw stones and fire bombs at police in the early hours of the morning in the sixth day of protests since the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos ingited anger over police brutality. The events have also stoked public anger with the government -- resentment that was already widespread following a series of financial scandals and unpopular reforms.
Much of the worst violence has been perpetrated by young anarchists, the so-called Black Bloc. But there is growing anger among the wider public about the inability of the government to control the situation and restore calm. On Wednesday a general strike across Greece halted flights and closed banks, schools and some hospital services.
Meanwhile, flourishes of violence spread to other parts of Europe. In Istanbul about a dozen Turkish left-wing protestors daubed red paint over the front of the Greek consulate, while the country's embassies in Rome and Moscow were attacked by fire bombers and stone throwers. In the Italian university town of Bologna, five police officers were reported injured after clashing with demonstrators outside the Greek consulate. >>> smd -- with wire reports | December 11, 2008
GLOBEANDMAIL: Ugly Tactics of the Rioters Now Coming Under Attack
Watching television and video coverage of the riots that have swept through Greece this week, it is hard not to notice something curious: The police, for the most part, do not seem to be fighting back.
Except when stoned or pelted with Molotov cocktails themselves, they often left the rioters alone to smash store windows and set fire to buildings.
That apparent restraint springs from a November night in 1973 when the forces of a six-year-old dictatorship battered their way onto the campus of the Athens Polytechnic. No one knows the exact toll, but something like 40 people were killed, and the anger over their deaths helped bring down the military government.
Ever since, student protesters have enjoyed a special status in Greece. Lionized for bringing down the regime of the colonels, they take to the streets with a frequency and a ferocity that is unusual even in Europe. >>> Marcus Gee | December 10, 2008
TIMESONLINE: Greek Violence Spreads across Europe
Suspected anarchist protests which have dogged Greece for the last week spread outside the country today, with mobs causing violent scenes in Italy, Spain, Russia, Denmark and Turkey.
Greek diplomatic missions were vandalised in the attacks, while police, local authority and media representatives were also targeted in what appeared a co-ordinated escalation.
The upsurge took place as protests continued in Greece following the killing last Saturday of Alexandros Grigoropoulos.
Today, mobs pelted 20 police stations with rocks and bottles, overturned cars and blocked streets in central Athens. Police responded with tear gas as sporadic violence persisted amid Greece’s worst rioting in decades.
Four people were detained and at least one man was hospitalised with injuries, authorities said. In a gesture which appeared designed to ease the violence, MPs held a minute of silence for Mr Grigoropoulos.
Yet what were originally relatively localised protests over the killing have since been hijacked by mobs of self-styled anarchists who authorities say are looking for trouble, and today they spread out of Greece for the first time.
In Denmark, a total of 32 people were arrested in Copenhagen after protests turned violent while, in Madrid and Barcelona, several police officers were injured and 11 people were arrested following clashes.
The violence also spread to Turkey, where a dozen protesters were reported to have painted the Turkish-flag red on the Greek consulate. In Moscow and Rome, meanwhile, petrol bombs were reported to have been aimed at Greek Embassies.
Meanwhile, a crew of television journalists from Russia were attacked by 50 youths as they filmed clashes in Exarchia, Greece, a known hotbed of student radicalism. One correspondent from the NTV television station was injured. >>> David Byers | December 11, 2008
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Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Greece came to a standstill today as a nationwide strike piled pressure on the government as it struggled to deal with the worst rioting in decades.
Banks, schools and public transport were shut and hundreds of flights in and out of the country were cancelled as air traffic controllers also went on strike.
Stathis Anestis, spokesman for a federation of private sector unions, said: "Participation in the strike is total, the country has come to a standstill."
The opposition Socialist party repeated calls for the centre-right government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to resign and call early elections.
"He and his government are responsible for the widespread crisis that the country, that Greek society is experiencing," said Socialist party spokesman George Papakonstantinou.
Newspapers added to the pressure on Mr Karamanlis's beleaguered administration, with the headline in the popular daily Ta Nea warning: "Government and police on the brink of collapse".
The paralysis came as police clashed with demonstrators in Athens, Thessaloniki, Ioaninna and on the Aegean island of Rhodes for the fourth night in a row. At least seven officers were injured.
In the capital, students hurled petrol bombs and riot police responded with tear gas a few blocks from where 15-year-old schoolboy Alexis Grigoropoulos was shot dead by a police officer on Saturday night, plunging Greece into its worst civil unrest for decades.
"The winds of destruction are blowing through our city," said Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis. >>> By Nick Squires In Athens | December 10, 2008
leJDD.fr: Tension maximale à Athènes
Pour la quatrième nuit d'affilé, Athènes et les grandes villes grecques ont connu une nuit de violence, après qu'un adolescent a été tué samedi par un policier. La capitale est sous haute surveillance mercredi car un grand rassemblement s'y tient dans la matinée, marquant le début de la grande grève générale de 24 heures. Mais des affrontements ont déjà eu lieu.
C'est la journée de tous les dangers pour les forces de l'ordre grecques. La grande grève générale de 24 heures débute ce mercredi matin, par un grand rassemblement dans la ville d'Athènes. L'ambiance est électrique dans la capitale. Depuis quatre nuits, une vague de violences urbaines secoue le pays, animée par des étudiants, des anarchistes, ou de simples citoyens, qui protestent contre le gouvernement après qu'un jeune adolescent a été tué samedi par un policier.
Cette grande manifestation avait été annoncée avant samedi, lancée par les syndicats du public et du privé, qui entendent dénoncer la politique économique et sociale du gouvernement conservateur. Dans le contexte tendu, le Premier ministre Costas Caramanlis a demandé aux organisateurs d'annuler le mouvement, en vain. Des milliers de personnes ont commencé à se rassembler devant le Parlement, là même où les émeutiers se réunissent la nuit. D'ailleurs très vite, des affrontements ont eu lieu entre des émeutiers et les forces de l'ordre. Les premiers, armés de pierres, de bouteilles et de bâtons se sont opposés aux policiers qui ont répliqué avec des tirs de gaz lacrymogène. Les syndicalistes ont toutefois lancé un appel au calme pour que la manifestation se déroule sans incidents. La Grèce fonctionne au ralenti, les services publics, les transports et de nombreuses entreprises sont affectés par l'appel à la grève lancé par les deux grandes centrales. "La participation à la grève est totale, le pays est à l'arrêt", se réjouissait Stathis Anestis, porte-parole de la GSEE, fédération syndicale du secteur privé. >>> Par Maud Pierron (avec Reuters) | Mercredi 10 Décembre 2008
NZZ Online: Folgen eines versäumten Strukturwandels: Griechenland wird von seinen zivilen Unterlassungen eingeholt
Seit Tagen ist Hellas in Aufruhr. Auf die Krawalle und Plünderungen in einigen Städten folgte das politische Stimmengewirr, in dem die gegenseitige Schuldzuweisung der politischen Kräfte Urständ feiert. Die Gründe für die missliche Lage der Nation liegen tiefer.
«Europa sind die anderen», lautet ein geflügeltes Wort in Griechenland. Es hat seine Gültigkeit auch nach dem EWG-Beitritt des Landes (1981) behalten und gilt ohne weiteres bis in die heutigen Tage der EU.
Was mit diesem gerade hier etwas eigensinnig anmutenden Satz zum Ausdruck gebracht wird, ist ein tiefer Argwohn gegenüber dem Lebensstil in «Westeuropa», den modernistischen Überzeugungen im westlichen Zentrum, mithin den Verheissungen der offenen Gesellschaft.
Die zivilgesellschaftlichen Institutionen haben es auch seit dem Untergang der Diktatur (1974) schwer in Griechenland. Tiefe Gräben durchziehen die griechische Gesellschaft. So folgen etwa die politischen Akteure einer längst überkommenen Interessenstruktur: Kapital vs. Staat vs. Agrarbevölkerung vs. Gewerkschaften usw.
Was darüber versäumt wurde, ist der bewusste Aufbau einer Zivilgesellschaft. Die Misere des Bildungswesens etwa ist nicht nur an den griechischen Universitäten zu erkennen, an denen ein Studium nach europäischen Kriterien durch monatelange Streiks wechselweise der Professoren und der Studenten seit Jahren unmöglich geworden ist. Vor allem der sekundäre Bildungsbereich und die Berufsausbildung (das anderswo längst bewährte duale System) stecken in den Kinderschuhen, falls sie die Fusswickel je abgestreift haben. >>> Von Perikles Monioudis | 10. Dezember 2008
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Sunday, November 23, 2008
THE GUARDIAN / OBSERVER: Millions have fled their homes in terror; a raped 13-year-old has been stoned to death for 'adultery'; aid workers have been murdered by Islamist militias. While the world's attention is on the pirates off its coast, the failed African state is being ripped apart by violence.
Zam Zam Abdi fled Mogadishu after being threatened with death by the hardline Islamist militia - the Shabab. The message from the armed group once allied to the Union of Islamic Courts, the coalition that briefly seized power in 2006, was simple: if she continued working for her women's rights organisation in the Somali capital, she would be killed. The warning was posted on her office gates. But it is what happened to a friend and colleague, working for another organisation, that persuaded her to escape. He was shot dead and the same note left on his body.
'Most of us had to leave,' she said. 'We had emails and phone calls telling us to stop working. They used an expression famous in Somalia: Falka aad ku jirtid maka baxeeysa. May ama haa? It means - "Stop what you are doing or we will act. Yes or no?" Then someone spoke on the radio - a local leader called Sheikh Mahmoud - delivering the same warning.'
Zam Zam, 28, separates the chaos and violence that has pervaded her country since the overthrow of President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 into 'ordinary Mogadishu' and 'not ordinary'. 'Ordinary', in Zam Zam's definition, describes her country's persistent clan warfare, even the heavy fighting in the city that drove her to leave before with her daughter when Ethiopian troops - supporting the internationally recognised government - shelled her neighbourhood in 2006 to drive the Islamic Courts out after six months in power.
In the ordinary violence and chaos, Zam Zam and her colleagues could still work, negotiating with the clan warlords. In common with the UN, Zam Zam believes that what is happening now is something else. Something terrible, exceeding perhaps even the bloodsoaked chaotic days of the early 1990s when Somalia was last plunged into anarchy.
It is Mogadishu that symbolises what is happening. A large proportion of its population - already jobless, hungry and surviving on aid - has fled the fighting in the city between the Shabab and the forces of the country's weak and rapidly imploding government, backed by its Ethiopian allies. The streets are stalked by assassins, kidnappers and suicide bombers. And the Shabab is threatening to overrun the country's south and centre. >>> Peter Beaumont | November 23, 2008
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