Monday, June 6, 2011

Athens sees its biggest gathering in years, more than 150,000 at Syntagma square as the build-up for the General Strike of June 15th begins



333 300x200 #611 | Athens sees its biggest gathering in years, more than 150,000 at Syntagma square as the build up for the General Strike of June 15th begins
6666 300x201 #611 | Athens sees its biggest gathering in years, more than 150,000 at Syntagma square as the build up for the General Strike of June 15th beginsA crowd whose size is difficult to even estimate gathered in central Athens to protest against the crisis and the Memorandum tonight. The call to a pan-european call of action saw more than 100,000 (some estimates give much higher numbers) flooding Syntagma square and many central nearby avenues. In contrast to previous gatherings, police presence was much higher, with fencing erected around the parliament building and double, or triple rows of riot police around it.
The city is now building up for the General Strike of June 15th, which is also the next date of action announced at Syntagma square. Both mobilisations are aimed against the new agreement between the government and the troika (IMF/EU/ECB) which is planned to be voted at parliament on the morning of the 15th. The general assembly of Syntagma square has already called for a blocking of the parliament from the night of the 14th. In addition to the fencing installed around the parliament (see below), a police water canon has also appeared nearby.
444 300x210 #611 | Athens sees its biggest gathering in years, more than 150,000 at Syntagma square as the build up for the General Strike of June 15th begins
Similar demonstrations took place in Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion, Larisa, Volos and many other Greek cities. In the Cretan city of Chania, fascists bearing arms appeared in the gathering, in a failed attempt to provoke the gathered crowd.
Source: From the Greek Streets
http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/

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