Greek-inspired demonstrations spread- The Violence of Capitalism

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Greek-inspired demonstrations spread

By PAUL HAVEN – 2 hours ago

MADRID, Spain (AP) — As Greece suffered through its sixth day of violence Thursday, there were troubling signs of unrest spreading across Europe.

Angry youths smashed shop windows, attacked banks and hurled bottles at police in small but violent protests in Spain and Denmark, while cars were set alight outside a consulate in France.

Authorities say the incidents have been isolated so far, but acknowledge concern that the Greek riots — which started over the police killing of a 15-year-old on Saturday — could be a trigger for anti-globalization groups and others outraged by economic turmoil and a lack of job opportunities.

<snip>

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hOJuFJaHKzesQ2L6lRnfBKvHouiAD950J0VG0

[JNelson6563]

1. Uh-oh.

Trouble ahead.

[tekisui]

2. Global Capitalism Growing the Ranks of the Proletariat.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to those paying attention. In fact, it is inevitable. When generations are denied the right to work, their anger is to be expected.

This will spread as the economic fallout continues.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. Spain is anticipated to have 15% unemployment before this is over.

And there are plenty of far left and far right groups all over Europe who will take any available excuse to cause trouble.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. Like grinding poverty?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

5. I'd hardly call the situation in Denmark, Spain, and Greece "grinding poverty."

It's tough right now for young people, yes. Spain in particular has basically been in a recession for two years already. The situation in Greece is a bit more complicated. The problems there go all the way back to the dictatorship, and are exacerbated by the current right-wing government of Greece, which has done little to make things better - hence the exodus of intelligent, affluent, or skilled young people from Greece. But the biggest problem by far in Greece is the utter corruption of its government and security forces, not its economy.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

7. Oh I think we can go back a little further...

http://www.us-uk-interventions.org/Greece.html

1942-1944:

Fierce resistance to the occupation by communist and royalist factions alike. <1>

1944:

British and Greek forces combine to force Nazi withdrawal. With backing from Britain, Georgios Papandreou becomes prime minister. Communists protest. Tensions rise and there is sporadic violence. <1>

1946-1949:

Royalist parties win elections, restore monarchy. Civil war ensues. <1>

U.S. intervenes in the civil war, taking the side of the neo-fascists against the Greek left which had fought the Nazis courageously. The neo-fascists win and instituted a highly brutal regime, for which the CIA create a new internal security agency, KYP. Before long, KYP is carrying out all the endearing practices of secret police everywhere, including systematic torture. <2> <3>

1952:

New constitution declares Greece a parliamentary democracy with a monarch as head of state. Greece joins Nato. <1>

1955:

Konstantinos Karamanlis becomes prime minister. <1>

1964:

King Constantine II succeeds his father, Paul. <1>

Papandreou is elected in February with the only outright majority in the history of modern Greek elections. Machinations to unseat him begin immediately, a joint effort of the Royal Court, the Greek military, and the American military and CIA stationed in Greece. <2>

1965:

July - George Papandreou is finally maneuvered out of office by royal prerogative. The king had a coalition of breakaway Center Union Deputies (Papandreou's party) and rightists waiting in the wings to form a new government. It is later revealed by a State Department official that the CIA Chief-of-Station in Athens, John Maury, had "worked in behalf of the palace in 1965. He helped King Constantine buy Center Union Deputies so that the George Papandreou Government was toppled. For nearly two years thereafter, various short-lived cabinets ruled until it was no longer possible to avoid holding the elections prescribed by the constitution. <5>

1967-1974:

A military coup takes place in April 1967, just two days before the campaign for national elections are to begin, elections which appeared certain to bring the veteran liberal leader George Papandreou back as prime minister. The coup is followed immediately by the traditional martial law, censorship, arrests, beatings, torture, and killings, the victims totaling some 8,000 in the first month. This is accompanied by the equally traditional declaration that this was all being done to save the nation from a "Communist takeover." Corrupting and subversive influences in Greek life are to be removed. Among these are miniskirts, long hair, and foreign newspapers; church attendance for the young will be compulsory. <2> <3> <4> <5>

It is torture, however, which most indelibly marks the seven-year Greek nightmare. James Becket, an American attorney sent to Greece by Amnesty International, writes in December 1969 that "a conservative estimate would place at not less than two thousand" the number of people tortured, usually in the most gruesome of ways, often with equipment supplied by the United States. <2>

Becket reports the following: Hundreds of prisoners have listened to the little speech given by Inspector Basil Lambrou, who sits behind his desk which displays the red, white, and blue clasped-hand symbol of American aid. He tries to show the prisoner the absolute futility of resistance: "You make yourself ridiculous by thinking you can do anything. The world is divided in two. There are the communists on that side and on this side the free world. The Russians and the Americans, no one else. What are we? Americans. Behind me there is the government, behind the government is NATO, behind NATO is the U.S. You can't fight us, we are Americans." <2>

George Papandreou was not any kind of radical. He was a liberal anti-Communist type. But his son Andreas, the heir-apparent, while only a little to the left of his father had not disguised his wish to take Greece out of the Cold War, and had questioned remaining in NATO, or at least as a satellite of the United States. <2>

1973:

November - A falling-out within the Greek inner circle culminates in the ousting of Papadopoulos and his replacement by Col. Demetrios loannidis, Commander of the Military Police, torturer, graduate of American training in anti-subversive techniques, confidant of the CIA. loannidis names as prime minister a Greek-American, A. Androutsopoulos, who came to Greece after the Second World War as an official employee of the CIA, a fact of which Mr. Androutsopoulos has often boasted. <5>

1974:

July - The loannidis regime overthrows the government of Cyprus. It is a fatal miscalculation. Turkey invade Cyprus and the reverberations in Athens result in the military giving way to a civilian government. <5>

Exiled Karamanlis recalled and sworn in as prime minister. Referendum rejects restoration of monarchy. <1>

1975:

New constitution declares Greece a parliamentary republic with some executive powers vested in a president. <1>

and so on...

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

8. Indeed.

Then we agree that capitalism and poverty aren't the fundamental problems driving the situation in Greece right now.

[leftstreet]

6. WOOT! "Organized over the Internet"

{snip}

At least some of the protests appear to have been organized over the Internet, showing how quickly a message can be spread, particularly among tech-savvy youth. One Web site that Greek protesters have been using to update each other claims there have been sympathy protests in nearly 20 countries.

"We're encouraging nonviolent action here and abroad," said Konstantinos Sakkas, a 23-year-old protester at the Athens Polytechnic, where many of the demonstrators are based. "What these are abroad are spontaneous expressions of solidarity with what's going on here."

Denmark, Spain, France.
Solidarity.

Imagine using the innertubes for something other than bitching and moaning about the PTB.