Protests on the Greek National day (#oxi)

Posted by: disorderisti Posted date: October 28, 2011 In: Movement, News | comment : 0

The 28 October parade in Syntagma 28 October is celebrated on Greece as “ohi day” (“no day”) in reference to 28 October 1940, when dictator Metaxas following the Greek people’s demand rejected the ultimatum by Benito Mussolini to allow the armies of fascist Italy to invade Greece. The celebrations are normally marked by a large military parade in Thessaloniki and schoolchildren parades throughout the country.

Today 28 October 2011, the parades throughout Greece were marked by protests by various groups of citizens who chose to express a new “no” in the context of the economic, social and political crisis Greece is currently undergoing. A man was hurling abuse at the parliament as early as 9:30am this morning. The police presence was extremely heavy from early in the day, even though the crowd gathered in Syntagma was very small and composed for the most part by parents who wanted to see their children parade. It was before 10am when the police pushed down the fences on Vasileos Georgiou and Othonos streets to keep the audience away from Amalias avenue where the parade would be passing. A group of angry parents went off to collect their children, saying “we won’t let our children participate in a parade with the riot police as the only audience.” Once the officials arrived, including the minister of education Anna Diamantopoulou, and the parade was under way, anti-government chants, slogans, boos and catcalls became louder and louder. The parade was extremely brief, and several witnesses reported scuffles and even tear gas being sprayed at the crowd on the corner of Vas. Georgiou street and Panepistimiou avenue.

Today was one of the most brilliant days of the genuine resistance of the Greek people. Today, we celebrate the ‘no’ against the fascist Italian invaders in October 1940 (don’t ask why we celebrate the beginning of the war! There was no real end of the war in Greece..). There are military and civilian parades around the country. In the civilian parades, high-school students take part. Of course, the latter is a remainant of the 1936-1940 dictatorship. However, the Greek people took the opportunity to express their anger. The pictures you see are from the cancelled military parade of Thessaloniki. There, thousands of people took over the avenue where the parade was supposed to take place and started shouting slogans against the government and the Troika. The people forced the president of the republic and the representatives of the national and local authorities to leave. Finally, the parade was cancelled. In Athens, a parade of students took place at the presence of the minister of Education. Hundreds of students turned their face to the other side when they reached the minister (according to the rules they had to turn their face towards the minister.). The students of one school raised their fists with black handkerchiefs. The municipality band members had a black strip around their arms although they were threatened by the Mayor of Athens that they will be fired if they do so. In another city, Xanthi, students joined the protesting crowd and faced an attack of the riot police. Similar protests took place in numerous cities. In many of them, the parades were cancelled due to the people’s protests. All politicians that tried to attend the paraded faced the protests of the people and had to be evacuated by the police.

A young student makes a gesture at the “VIPs”

Several groups in the square had banners and distributed flyers saying “no” with different slogans underneath. These include Spitha as well as a spontaneous Facebook group called “leme ohi” (www.facebook.com/lemeoxi).

The end of the parade/protest was marred by a group of extreme-right nationalists who assaulted immigrant workers and passers-by who tried to protect them. At least one “ohi” activist and 4 immigrants were taken to hospital for medical care, with further reports of more people wounded later in other areas of downtown Athens.

Videos:

At Thessaloniki:

27/10/2011