Düsseldorf von Gabor Steingart Greece has to take the responsibility for his debts, but the real depression comes from Brussel, Berlin and Paris. When you were invited by friends, you would like to say afterwards: It was nice. You felt at ease and you were impressed by the things you’ve heard and seen. Unfortunately, looking back in such a pleasant way has turned out to be impossible in the case of the rese ...

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 countr ...

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was interrupted during a speech at a university in Berlin today and booed by people in the audience. A woman began shouting as Trichet spoke in an auditorium at the Humboldt University, causing him to stop speaking briefly before resuming. Banners were held up by students in the audience reading “no more money for the banks” and “say ...

EUobserver/ Brussels (23 October) - While heads of states discuss the second Greek bailout over marathon talks in Brussels, members of the local Greek solidarity movement stage a protest calling on Prime Minister George Papandreou to resign. "Greek people don't want any more loans", says Yiorgos Vassalos from the Greek solidarity movement in Brussels who is joined by some of the Spanish "indignants". Belgia ...

Greek austerity measures result in cuts of public sectors services with one exception - the police force. Nikolas Kosmatopoulos for aljazeera.net Greece increased its police force with 2,000 policemen and recently bought new anti-riot equipment [EPA] In the old days of the European colonial expansion eastwards, the Great Powers (England, France, Russia, and Austria) would rack their heads over the fate of w ...

El Pais asked me to write a piece on the ‘fiscal disobedience’ movement that seems to be shaping up in Greece. Here is what I wrote. (I shall post the Spanish version, off El Pais’ site, when available):  “Can’t pay won’t pay”, was Dario Fo’s boisterous satirical play by which the playwright incited his audience to rethink their political responsibilities. During the past two years, here in Greece, a sponta ...

In his final dispatch from breadline Europe, Jon Henley finds nepotism, bribery and systemic low-level corruption are as much to blame for southern Europe's crisis as anything else.           Jon Henley in Thessaloniki for   guardian.co.uk It's the system, they say. It sucks you in, makes you complicit. You really have very little choice. It's everywhere, in every corner of your lif ...

Costas Douzinas for guardian.co.uk The workers in a small bakery in central Athens announced this week that, while they would not close because they serve many vulnerable people, they were joining the two-day general strike by charging all products at cost. An unexpected surprise in these hard times for their customers, but an ordinary story of the life of resistance and kindness in the Greek capital. At th ...

Photo report from General strike on 19th of October in Athens. . 1343861 . by http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1343855 ...

The past two years the Greek population is witnessing the harshest austerity measures since the introduction of the Euro. Greece became the ‘black sheep’-member of the European Union and had to be punished hard. In 2010 the first austerity package was imposed by the Greek government under the commands of the Troika (the IMF, the EU and the ECB). As a result, last month unemployment reached 18% and 40% among ...