[Onthebarricades] GREECE: Clashes between police and anarchists

Sat Sep 22 01:09:19 PDT 2007

Police targeted after attacking autonomy - they go storming onto campus when they aren't allowed and get a much-deserved response from local anarchists.

See articles below for earlier incidents in the struggle over higher education.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=83054

Greek police attacked in Salonika after PM's keynote speech 
Monday, September 10, 2007
SALONIKA, Greece - Agence France-Presse

  Police in the northern Greek city of Salonika arrested a woman yesterday after an officer was injured in a clash with suspected anarchists, local police said. 

  The incident occurred inside the city's Aristotelio University grounds a few hours after a keynote address in Salonika by Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis ahead of next Sunday's legislative elections. 

  Karamanlis' visit to the city met with demonstrations by unions and leftist groups protesting against the government's economic policies. 

  Around 5,000 people marched in Salonika ahead of the prime minister's speech, in which he highlighted Greece's economic growth and appealed for a fresh four-year mandate. 

  The demonstrations passed without incident, but police stationed outside the university were later attacked with firebombs by a group of 30 youths hidden inside the grounds. 

  A group of officers entered the grounds in pursuit, and one of them was hit in the head by a slingshot bullet. Riot police reinforcements were subsequently sent in and arrested a woman. 

  Police are technically barred from entering Greek university grounds without permission from the institutions themselves, but the city's top prosecutor had previously authorized a crackdown against the use of homemade explosives. 

  Opinion polls published before an August 31 embargo had shown the ruling conservatives with a slim lead ahead of the September 16 vote. 

  But fallout from recent devastating fires that killed dozens, as well as dissatisfaction with government fiscal and education policies that prompted large protests in recent months, could see voters turn to other parties. 

http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/1118

Greek police clash with anarchists in Thessaloniki
Submitted by worker on Thu, 2007-02-22 18:34.

Tags: 

  a.. Anarchist Practice 
  b.. Movement 
      THESSALONIKI, Greece: Anarchist youths clashed with riot police for more than three hours in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on Wednesday, hurling rocks and dozens of petrol bombs outside a university building, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

      The youths were protesting plans to relax a law that prohibits police from entering university grounds. The ban is often exploited during violent public protests.

      One man was arrested and minor damage was caused to nearby buildings.

      Police used tear gas against some 250 youths, who had entered the grounds of Thessaloniki University and later confronted riot police guarding a nearby conference center.

It was the latest act of violence involving anarchist groups, which have stepped up a campaign of arson and other attacks in Athens and Thessaloniki.

On Tuesday, anarchist youths attacked the Athens headquarters of Greece's largest labor union, the GSEE, using rocks, sledgehammers and petrol bombs to damage the building's entrance.

GSEE leader Yiannis Panagopoulos, who was leaving the building at the time, escaped unharmed.

Something of a precursor.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/20/europe/EU-GEN-Greece-Education.php

Greek government approves university shake-up despite protests

The Associated Press

Published: February 20, 2007

ATHENS, Greece: Greece's conservative government Tuesday approved draft legislation designed to give state universities greater independence - bolstering plans to allow private universities for the first time.

The bill was tabled in parliament as students protested against the reforms in Athens and in Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city. University staff are holding a five-day work stoppage while students continue to occupy more than 300 university departments nationwide.

Greece is the latest European Union country to introduce reforms - including tuition fee schemes and privatization - to help fund universities and to make them more competitive with higher education institutions in Asia and North America.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis introduced the draft law which would reduce Education Ministry oversight at state universities and grant them greater autonomy to run their own financial and organizational affairs.

The law would cap the number of years for students to complete their degrees, and reduce transfers from provincial to urban universities. It would also relax asylum rules banning police from all campus grounds, a provision often exploited during violent public protests.

"Greek universities cannot afford to be left behind ... now is the time to make decisions," Karamanlis said in a televised address.

The draft law, expected to receive parliamentary approval in the next two weeks, would prepare ground for a proposed constitutional amendment to end a state monopoly on university education next year.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Rallies_in_Greece_as_Universities'_strike_continues

Rallies in Greece as Universities' strike continues
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June 15, 2006

University students continue their opposition to a new law, proposed by the Greek government, through organizing new rallies in Athens and Thessaloniki as well as through the persistent occupancy of many departments in the two biggest Universities of Greece, the University of Athens and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Students are opposing the law-proposed by the Minister of Education Marietta Yannakou-which has to do with the foundation of private universities in Greece as well as other aspects of the academic organization.

The strike of the students has been backed by the Greek General Confederation of Labour(GSEE), the Synaspismos and KKE-Communist parties, as well as by various Professors who oppose the specific governmental law. Today, students organize demonstrations in the two biggest cities of Greece. More specifically, students and University professors have gathered at Propylea in central Athens and march towards the Ministry of Education while in Thessalonika the demonstration has been focused outside the Ministry of Macedonia-Thrace.

During the previous week and more specifically during the demonstrations of last Thursday, the rallies had resulted to fights between anarchists and police in the centre of Athens; for that the Minister of Public Order had been accused for the violence that police forces exercised. However Greek police officials answered that anarchists who took part in the rallies caused heavy damages and provoked the police forces. Yesterday, a specific statement by Thanos Veremis, professor and Ministry of Education official, in which he characterized the protesters as roughs and eternal students(sic), caused much of irritation and agitation within the university students' movement.

Sources
Net "Education Rallies in Greece". Elliniki Radiophonia Tileorassi, June 15, 2006
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