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REPORT FROM THE ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATION IN ATHENS
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Feb. 15, 2003
Today was one of the best days of my life. The march was probably
the biggest I 've been to during my twenty-odd years of involvement
in the mass movement in Greece (actually, I couldn't see how big it
really was. I climbed at the sidewalk rails, and there were people
as far as I could see - but there were many, many more whom I
couldn't see). It 's been a while since I last felt really proud
of my people, but today I had this feeling, and I can tell you it
is a good one.
Anyway, I was, relatively speaking, at the front of the march.
After reaching the U.S. embassy, I returned home. It took me
around an hour to reach my car, and when I turned the radio on,
I learned that there were still contingents of the march passing
in front of the embassy. Another two hours passed, and people were
still passing in front of the embassy. In all, it must have taken
around 5 hours from the time head of the march reached it, till
it ended.
Police estimates put the number of participants at over 150.000.
The truth must have been at least 2 times that (sorry, no upper
limit).
I had been considering the idea of bringing my 6-year old son to
the march, but decided against it, in case there were violent
incidents. There were indeed some incidents - minor by greek
standards. Some demonstrators threw stones at the embassy,
whereupon police tear-gassed the entire area - which includes
some of the biggest hospitals in Athens. But those incidents
came after I had left, so I rather regretted not bringing my
son with me. It would have been a nice introduction to the
movement, and he would probably have remembered it for the
rest of his life.
I can tell you for sure that many things will be different
in Greece after today's march. Even at the height of the war
in Yugoslavia (to which Greek people were extremely sensitive),
or after the Greek government delivered Ocalan to Turkey, the
protest marches numbered around 100.000. Demonstrations against
the demolition of the social security system - which demonstrations
have been judged extremely successful - have numbered in the tens
of thousands. Also, usually after the police throws tear gas,
demonstrators disperse. Today they kept on for a further couple
of hours. Such a huge demonstration, coming at a time when the
mass movement is at its lowest ebb for decades, and against a
war that has not yet started, is something the government will
have to take notice of. Of course, Greece is not unique in this
aspect. In London close to a million marched, and in Barcelona
one and a half. Here in Greece, we are lucky enough to have a
government that is not as openly subservient to the U.S. as
the Spanish or British ones, so people were less offended.
But if you also consider the fact that the population of
Greece is around one fourth that of Spain, we did pretty well :-)
Another interesting thing was the composition of the demonstrators:
As the organised movement in Greece has been disintegrating for two
decades, we are used to seeing predominantly older people in political
demonstrations. When I first became politically active, around 20 years
ago, I was in the "youth" of the movement. Now, 20 years later, I still
feel this way, because the generations that came after mine grew up in
an atmosphere of disillusionment, and never became politically active.
But today, there were people from all ages, so I felt middle aged. Well,
there are some cases when it DOES feel good to suddenly grow older :-)
Another thing that was astonishing, was that this enormous crowd was
silent - very few slogans were heard, and very few people chanted
them. The reason, obviously, is that the organised forces formed
an infinitesimal part of the participants. Moreover, those organised
forces were so out of touch with reality, that they could not produce
a slogan that would mirror the public sentiment. They kept on recycling
old slogans - like the incomparable "Not one soldier in Asia / We are
not going to fight for U.S.-Germany": apparently nobody told those
folks that Germany opposes the war - that people with a normal I.Q.
could not possibly chant.
Oh, I forgot to say there were actually THREE, not one, marches.
The C.P. had organised one, the ruling "socialist" PASOK along
with the "social forum", the "coalition" (a split from the C.P.)
and the general confederations of labor and of public servants
had another, and a small group of "leftists" had a third one,
in between the two big ones. All three converged around the
parliament, and continued together to the embassy. My comrades
and I were in the C.P.-organised part of the march. Generally
speaking, the C.P.'s policy is better than that of the other
parties, but only marginally so. Before the march began, the
organisers read us a letter of "support" from the president
of the parliament - who said in so many words that war is not
the solution, but that Iraq must disarm peacefully. They also
invited on the podium a representative from the Iraqi C.P.
(whom they introduced as a member of the "democratic opposition"),
and who told us about the hardships of the Iraqi people under
the dual oppression of the U.S. and the brutal dictatorship.
Fortunately, the loudspeakers were not really loud, and most
people were not listening.
I believe today was a turning point of historic proportions.
Since yesterday, Bush can no longer claim to have "international
legitimacy" on his side. Since today's march, the governments
that support, whether openly or not, the U.S. can no longer
claim to represent their people's will. The cat is now out
of the bag, and everyone will have to admit that the coming
war - if a war can be fought under such circumstances - will
not be a war of "the world against Saddam", but a war of the
U.S. against humanity. Nobody really had any doubts before,
of course, but now humanity has let its voice be heard, and
this makes tons of difference.
As of today, Iraqis know that they are not alone. Not only
are the hearts of the Arab world on their side, but those
of decent people all over the world.
Abu Nicola al Yunani
P.S.
The above text was written on the evening of Feb 15. There are a couple of
things that should be added to my initial report, however:
First, the incident with Former goverment minister Laliotis:
Laliotis is one of the most prominent figures of the ruling party.
He is the secretary of its Central Commitee, and a former minister
of public works. The Greek government, for all its pretensions to
the contrary, is subservient to the U.S. It talks about peace, but
has sent a frigate to the Gulf, and has granted permission for the
U.S. to use a military base in the island of Crete. So Laliotis,
desiring to whitewash both the government and his own public image,
decided to participate in the anti-war march. Not only that, but he
wanted to be at its head.
There were some demonstrators who disagreed with this kind of
political manoeuvering. In order to show their appreciation to
the former minister, they approached him and threw around seven
bowls of yoghurt at him. It seems that Laliotis didn't expect
this, so at first he stared at them and at himself wide-eyed. Then,
realising that reporters would soon arrive and take pictures
to commemorate the happy event, he hastened to hide somewhere
and remove his coat. Then he returned to the place where the
incident had taken place. His bodyguards had "arrested" the
demonstrators, and were about to beat them - but Laliotis
intervened and had them released, in order to avoid the scandal.
Unfortunately for him, the story leaked in the internet that same night.
Second, it seems that the numbers I gave for other demonstrations
were highly inaccurate:
Apparently around 2 million people marched in London, a total of
4-5 million in several cities of Spain, around 3 million in Rome, etc.