Scores of protesting high school students have clashed with police during a rally to mark the third anniversary of the fatal police shooting of a teenager in central Athens. On Tuesday, youth hurled rocks, bottles and oranges at police outside Parliament and smashed a nearby store front. Earlier, another group of teenagers attacked a suburban police station with rocks and bottles.
At least 10 people were slightly injured, police said.
The turnout was lower than similar protests in previous years and other more recent demonstrations that drew tens of thousands of people on to the streets.
Many of the marchers chanted slogans against austerity measures prescribed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund — the debt-choked country’s international lenders — and held up banners like “Social Revolution Now” as they marched to parliament.
Minor clashes also broke out between protesters and police in other parts of Athens and in the northern city of Thessaloniki.
On the night of Saturday, December 6th, 2008 two Special Guards of the Greek police clashed with a small group of young men. One of the Guards fired three shots, and one of those bullets caused the death of 15-year-old Alexander Grigoropoulos .
This incident sparked an immediate and widespread response in the form of angry demonstrations and riots in many Greek cities. In the two weeks after Grigoropulos’ murder, Greece saw the worst rioting in decades. It left Athens in shards belongs, above all, to the young. It was a revolt of schoolchildren and students, most on the streets for the first time. There were reports of children as young as 12 battling riot police, shouting “Cops! Pigs! Murderers!”.
Many of the protesters were sons and daughters of the middle classes, shocked at the killing of one of their own, disgusted with the government’s incompetence and corruption, enraged by the broken promises of the education system, scared at the prospect of having to work still harder than their exhausted parents.
Some called themselves the “€700 generation” in recognition of the wage they expected their degrees to get them. Three-almost four years later, €700 is considered a pretty decent salary, if you are ever able to get a job as the unemployment rate is now around 20%. Now, the “€700 generation” has turned to a “€500 generation” and thousands of young people want to immigrate and look for a better future elsewhere.
Alexander’s death appears to have been a catalyst, unleashing widespread Greek anger towards many issues – police mistreatment of protesters, unwelcome education reforms, economic stagnation, government corruption and more. The problems facing Greece are profound and the recession will pull tensions tighter. Greece has a long tradition of protest and resistance – some of those occupying Athens University claim descent from the students who fell before the junta’s tanks in 1973.
(Foto: Reuters)
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