Alex Nunns reports from Athens on the human consequences of the austerity measures, and how they are being resisted. ‘Although Athens is not São Paulo, it is not any more a normal European capital,’ warns Yannis Almpanis, one of the organisers of a ‘solidarity mission’ of European social movements visiting Greece in late February. And he’s right. The consequences of the austerity programme can be felt on th ...

Hard Times Lift Greece’s Anti-Immigrant Fringe Nikos Michaloliakos, the leader of Golden Dawn, greeted voters this month in Megara, Greece. By RACHEL DONADIO and DIMITRIS BOUNIAS ATHENS — On a recent morning in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Papagou here, members of the Greek ultranationalist group Golden Dawn stood at an outdoor vegetable market campaigning for the coming national elections. “This ...

Ross Domoney guardian.co.uk   Thousands of people attended the funeral on Saturday of Dimitris Christoulas, who shot himself outside the Greek parliament last week. Afterwards, anti-austerity protesters marched to Syntagma Square, where they clashed with police. A first-aid medic, who did not want to be named, said police were 'losing the monopoly on violence'     Seen at : http://www.alethei ...

On Thursday, 5th April 2012, Marios Lolos, a photojournalist, was hit on the head by a police truncheon while covering a peaceful protest in response to the recent suicide of a 77 year-old  man in protest to austerity measures. Marios Lolos sustained a brain injury and had to have surgery yesterday. We extend our best wishes to him and everyone else who has been injured and wish them the best for their reco ...

ANNOUNCEMENT – INDICTMENT FOR THE BRUTAL ATTACK OF THE POLICE FORCES ON OUR COLLEAGUES AND THE INJURY OF THE PRESIDENT OF EFE  Athens  4/5/2012   The Union of Greek Photojournalists denounces the new brutal and unprovoked attack by the special police forces of MAT against colleagues who were covering yesterday’s rally in Syntagma square, as well as today’s demonstration.  This time victim was the Presi ...

In a sharp political  -and for some even “shocking” -  tone the man who committed suicidejust a couple of meters away from the Greek Parliament in the heart of Athens on Wednesday morning explained the motives for his desperate act. In a hand-written note, retired pharmacist D.X., 77, spoke of loss of dignity due to harsh austerity and wished that some day the youth of the country would take the arms and ha ...

An elderly man shot himself in the head on Wednesday in Athens central Syntagma Square, a focal point of anti-austerity protests, reportedly crying out that he did not want to leave his children in debt. Police said the 77-year-old, whose identity was not revealed, killed himself outside the Syntagma metro station, around a hundred metres (yards) from parliament, which for two years has been the main rallyi ...

A plan to round up and detain irregular migrants and asylum-seekers in Greece, including those suspected of carrying infectious diseases such as HIV, has been called “deeply alarming” by Amnesty International. Those considered vulnerable to such diseases, based on their country of origin, poor living conditions, occupation as sex workers or their drug use, will be targeted. “These deeply alarming measures s ...

Michalis Sallas is for the last 12 years in the heart of banking business. (Reuters) - He is the former economics professor behind an upstart bank that rode the Greek boom to become a publicly listed heavyweight with a loan book of over 35 billion euros. She is his devoted wife, who oversees the bank's sponsorship of museums and the arts, and advised it on corporate social responsibility. Michalis Sallas, e ...

News is starting to emerge now about an attack on anti-mining/ water justice activists in the municipality of Megali Panagia on the Chalkidiki peninsula in northern Greece. A media release issued by Initiative 136 notes, “Several hundred men on the payroll of ‘Greek Gold S.A.’, a subsidiary of Canadian company ‘European Goldfields’, attacked a group of local activists that are defending the virgin forests o ...