THE BEST DAYS ARE WHEN IT RAINS…
The rallies of February 28th have left a resounding impression behind them. Everyone (government, think tanks, parties, media) sees the crowd gathered in terms of statistics and votes, “national mourning”, “indignation” and “expectation of a better state”. It is a convenient reading: it is wise to homogenize the widespread social dissatisfaction and anger – not only for the Tempi – under pandemic “national needs” because it is dangerous. To fit it into molds of loyalty and “peaceful protest” . To give “presence” to the Constitution – as if it were not a strike – but a social media event. To make the Tempi case a riddle to be solved by “experts” and “uneducated judges”. The people who took to the streets had somehow to conform to a savoir vivre defined by some abstract “common mourning”, to define themselves permanent victims (a favorite role of the left) who are only seeking a little state care and affection and not to express their anger at the oppression they receive on many fronts. To be indignant about the “cover-up” while forgetting something basic, that there is a permanent and concrete “cover-up”: in the world of the state, the bosses and the patriarchy, “accidents” happen to disposable lives. So it’s not just trains, but all of everyday life: from accidents in the workplace (45 dead already in 2025), the “deflected” police bullets on the bodies of “undesirables”, to the murders of immigrants at the borders…
The crowd that took to the streets on 28/2 was not uniform. Some were there because they recognized parts of their own lives, their anger and sadness in the case. Others exploited the mourning: the small and large bosses who made sure to show cheap sensitivity and close their businesses that day, a day of general strike. Some of the demonstrators participated in the strike by declaring it from the previous days, creating a wave, an oscillation that was successively transferred to others who were encouraged and made the decision to participate. Thus, a large part of the businesses were forced to “join” the strike, on the one hand so that the large participation of their employees would not be revealed and would function as a legacy, on the other hand it was a way to sell sensitivity and “solidarity” to the victims and their relatives.
February 28th in Athens, however, was a rendezvous: for all those social segments from below that have experienced multifaceted suffocation over the last 5 years , from health quarantines to the “inflationary crisis”. Those segments that experience daily what it means to be expendable and how cheap their lives are. And of course those segments that have been experiencing their own suffocation for some time, with the broader targeting, criminalisation and control in streets, squares and stadiums: youth and supporters. And it was all of them who clashed for hours with the forces of repression. Of course, those segments of the oppressed, the immigrants, who especially in recent years have been experiencing a generalised regime of confinement, “accidents” and mass deaths, were missing. The “crime of Pylos” with the hundreds of people drowned by the port police, only reached the scale of the “value of human life” and “cover-up”as an echo.
The left of the state and its parties (along with the rest of the media and far-right cesspool) made sure to play their familiar role once again: to anoint the icon of holy legitimacy before and after the strike rally. At the same time, of course, they talked about “the fall of governments” and “popular anger that will take to the streets on 2/28” and other such pomp. Could someone not so naive ask “how do governments really fall?” and how is anger expressed on the streets? With grimaces of dissatisfaction towards parliament? With angry stories on social media? In reality, the provocation about “police-set incidents” is the reflection of the fear of the left and the police’s friends everywhere for the mass of subordinates, their capabilities, their experience and their anger. All things that, when they appear in the historical foreground, sweep away normality.
… STONES ON THE ROADS
Thersitis (Anarchist, a place of intrigue & subversion in Athens
Nestor & Evangelistrias, Ilion
PDF poster here:
Translated by Act for freedom now!