| SINKING DEEPER, FASTER |
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| Friday, 28 October 2011 18:17 |
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Today’s unprecedented protests -- their real extent and causes papered over by international media, as usual -- demonstrated beyond any doubt that the Greek people, desperate at their economic massacre by German-induced “stabilization and reform,” are moving to the next stage of resistance that has emerged from nonstop anti-austerity protests and demonstrations in the streets over the past two years. With the Papandreou regime sliding ever so fast down the chute toward purely police tactics aimed at suppressing the unstoppable swell of opposition to its collaborator policies, today’s protests delivered a keenly symbolic lesson: they demonstrated (and especially what happened in Thessaloniki) that the regime, beginning at the very top, is beyond the point of political survival and is kept standing only by the ever thinning lines of helmeted anti-riot police, whose officers, let us not forget, are also receiving the same paltry salaries as the vast majority of the rest of Greek workers, all part of the “accomplishments” of the Papandreou regime, the most reviled and hated of all post-war Greek governments. In Thessaloniki, the anti-riot squads prudently kept their batons hanging from the baton rings and their tear gas dispensers idle. They obviously understood that one small spark could have triggered an all-out street battle with thousands of “average citizens” and with unforeseen consequences for both the police and the beleaguered politicians rushing to board their limousines under the protection of the usual bevy of security men, shoulder holsters bulging, in a scene reminiscent of South American “republics.” The protests came as a painful jolt to the Papandreou regime, which is the only entity in the country celebrating Greece’s official bankruptcy, announced, sealed, and ratified on October 26 by Greece’s European “partners,” as a Godsend that will lead (eventually) to economic revival and plenty. Papandreou and other pro-austerity politicians sped to condemn the “minority” of thousands that chased the plumed officials from the parade stands as “besmirching” the country’s name and the memory of the fallen in defense of Greek liberty and honor. Few, if any, in Greece pay much attention to this dissonant crowing any longer, but the words emanating from the “leading elite” yet again proved how distant and disconnected the failed Greek political class is from the real trends in Greek society. Against this backdrop, Greece is already being put under a Kommandantur led by a German chief auditor in the role of a modernized and revamped Reichsprotektor who will be charged with overseeing the forced rehabilitation of the unruly, loafing Greeks. The Reichsprotektor will be surrounded by “inspectors” to install themselves at Greek government ministries as New Occupation commissars in charge of effective “discipline.” (Otherwise, the Papandreou regime insists, Greek sovereignty remains immune to outside interference). However, the German-led team of “technical experts” will hardly focus on the massive deterioration of Greek living standards or the plight of millions sunk to the depths of personal despair by vicious income cutting and hunger around the family table. The Reichsprotektor and his officers will be exclusively focused on collecting tribute from Greece in favor of (primarily) German coffers (with European ‘union’ blessing, especially after France received a decisive rebuff by Frau Merkel as the supposed alternate chief pylon of the rapidly deteriorating European ‘community’). Greece’s assets are on the block: from real estate to future tax proceeds, and from solar power to tourist receipts, the New Occupation will funnel the lion’s cut to foreign treasuries, the future of the wretched Greeks be damned. This “stabilization and rehabilitation” exercise of economic genocide is proceeding with the full collaboration of the Papandreou regime which has affixed its signature to every document surrendering Greece to the Reich. The messages of today’s protests, in conjunction with the promises of the New Occupation, create an entirely different potential for conflict. Already, the Papandreou regime faces widespread non-compliance within the public sector and society at large. This is largely passive protest. Steadily though, the regime is pushing the limits and taunting those worst hit by the New Occupation and its own collaboration with the lenders. Such turn will mathematically invite responses that Greek “democracy,” this increasingly deteriorating carcass, won’t be able to contain. As the graffiti on walls around Constitution square says: “We have nothing to lose but our chains.” Within months of the Nazi occupation of Greece a mass resistance movement was on the rise. Papandreou and his narrow regime circle will be best advised to heed the lessons of history, control their tongues and their thinly-veiled urge to serve foreign interests, and, ultimately, assess correctly the benefits of withdrawing their presence while pressure in the pressure cooker allows.
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On October 28, angry anti-austerity protesters across Greece interrupted parades meant to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the outbreak of the 
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