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After a very hot summer, a trembling autumn followed.
The movement transformed from central to local inspiring all kinds of resistance.
Neighborhood popular assemblies spur self-organization and participation in
solidarity networks, public buildings occupation,
community grocery stores, exchanging services and products without money
Scores of working people and unemployed refuse to pay a debt that they had not run up.
The «we can't pay, we won't pay» movement refuses to pay motorway tolls, bus fares,
electricity bills that include now a new property tax and bank debts.
Workers start to take on more elaborate and more radical forms of struggle.
At Eleftherotypia newspaper the workers publish their own issues.
At Alter TV, after five months under job retention of the empoloyees, people watch for the first
time ever from a mainstream media a supporting point of view of their struggle.
Hospital workers in Kilkis hospital, northern Greece, occupy the premises and provide free
services to people, defending the public's right to free healthcare.
Workers at the Hellenic Steel, in strike for more than seven months now, witness unprecedented
solidarity from the people: food, clothing, money, daily necessities flow in from unions,
workers, students, soldiers... At the same time the government's MPs, in
the country and abroad, receive their share of disaproval, some times in the form of yoghourts
from people in a sign of protest. In October 19th, more than 500.000 people
demonstrated against austerity measures. The demonstration was once again restrained in
cruelty with extreme use of teargas and police brutality. October 19th was in fact the turning
point at which the Greek people lost their fear.
Ten days later, during the national anniversary on October 28th, spontaneous, country-wide,
popular demonstrations erupted which led to the downfall of Papandreou government, a month
later, who was replaced by a technocrat prime minister supported by a coalition of three
parties. The two ruling ones, that succeeded one another to power and a third one belonging
to the extreme right.
In little more than two years people have witnessed over 50% of loss in income, with
an unemployment rate of 54% for young people. A new massive demonstration takes place in
February 12th, which for once more was violently suppressed by the police. The corporate media
blamed the protesters for the burning of buildings and banks while at the same time supported
state violence and legitimacy.
This very same day the second, more cruel Memorandum is signed by this government despite
peoples' resistance and the already made sacrifices and rising poverty.
On February 18th the peoples of Europe reply to a european call of action for solidarity
to Greece: «We are all Greeks», they say. The May 6th elections signaled a thunderous
change to the country's political landscape. People voted against the two for-the-last-40-years-ruling
parties, against the troika and the memorandum, against austerity.
The legacy of Syntagma square and all the people's struggles and the rise of the Left
in Greece is now shaking the foundations of the neoliberal EU.
People have risen.
Everything is possible now.