Today in the city of Athens, and all over Greece, one of the biggest popular mobilization since the fall of the dictatorship in 1974 took place. It was the first day of 48h general strike. Hundreds of thousands (500.000 was the trade unions estimation, police said 75.000) flooded the centre of Athens demonstrating against the new austerity plan imposed by the Greek government, IMF and EU.  The crowd (not only workers and youth, but also middle class self-employed) expressed its determination to fight against 30.000 job cuts, sell-off of public services, heavy taxations, up to 40% salary decreases, unemployment boom, destruction of public health and education systems.

During the demo, demonstrators attacked riot police with thousands of stones and some petrol bombs. Although the vast majority of the demonstrators adopted non-violent tactics, those who attacked the police were not just black block, but also other people par example taxi drivers.

Today our society expressed its will to survive and get rid of Papandreou and the “Troika” (IMF, EU, European Central Bank) as well. Tunisians kicked off Ben Ali, Egyptians put Mubarak to custody, and Greeks will make the start in the old continent.

Tomorrow, the parliament will vote for the new austerity bill. For us, it will be the second date of general strike. We will meet at Syntagma square. The tide is turning!

Yannis Almpanis Athens, 19/10/11

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by Mirek Prokes (through the ESF list)

On October 15th, about 400 people participated in the demonstration
called Real Democracy Now and demanded participatory democracy, social
justice, decent life and sustainable development. The meeting took place
in the very centre of Prague (Republic Sq.) and was followed with a
march to the buildings of the Government, Parliament and President
(Prague Castle).
A very broad range of people took part, including those from the civic
initiatives SDT (Real Democracy Now!), Alternative from Below, Humanist
Movement, No to Military Bases!, For Alternatives,
Socialist Solidarity, New Anticapitalist Left, anarchists and
individuals from the Communist, Social Democrat and Green parties.
They were chanting i.a.: "Your crisis, our poverty", "Cancel debts, they
are not ours", "System against the people, people against the system",
"People are not goods", "Life is not stock exchange", "Rule of money
damages the people", "We are not sheep".

Media report (in Czech) with a photo is available at
http://www.halonoviny.cz/articles/view/228052
A much bigger demonstration and a march, organized jointly by civic
initiatives and trade unions, will be organized in a similar way on the
next Saturday, Oct 22nd.

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About 7-8.000 people participated in the concert of protest at Syntagma square in the centre of Athens. The mobilization was organized by Syntagma Popular Assembly and was part of the wolrld-wide day of action. Evebody now is preparing the 48 hours general strike on October 19-20. Everyday there are strikes and occupations of public buildings. But October 19-20 will be real hot!

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