FOR the fourth successive night, tens of thousands of youth and workers congregated in the main square of Athens outside the Vouli (Greek parliament) as part of the growing revolution in many European capitals.
Since last Wednesday night, thousands have been protesting against the government’s savage austerity measures in all the main Greek cities. In the capital Athens and in the northern city of Thessaloniki, committees have been organised while every night a large open meeting takes place, ‘the popular assembly’, open to all who want to either speak or just listen.
The most prominent slogan shouted every night at the Vouli square in Athens is ‘Take the Accord and get out of here!’ addressed to the Prime Minister Papandreou.
The Accord is the agreement between the Greek government and the International Monetary Fund and European Commission on the bail-out loan through which the austerity measures are imposed, now including the complete annihilation of the public sector in Greece, including mergers and closures of hospitals, schools and services which will result in literally hundreds of thousands more unemployed.
But in the square there are some groups who want to impose an ‘apolitical’ character on the demonstration and aggressively confront trade unionists and left-wing political parties’ contingents.
Last Friday the ‘popular assembly’ at the Athens Vouli square adopted the following resolution:
‘For some time, decisions have been taken about us but no-one consulted us.
‘We are workers, unemployed, pensioners, youth who have come to the Vouli square to fight for our lives and our future.
‘We are here because we know that the solution to our problens can only come from us.
‘We call upon all people of Athens, workers, unemployed and youth to come to the Vouli square, and the whole of society to fill up the squares and take life into their own hands.
‘There in the squares we will formulate all our demands and our claims.
‘We call on the workers who will strike in the next period to march to the square and remain here.
‘We will not leave the squares until those who have led us here are gone: governments, troika, banks, accords and all those who exploit us. We say to them that the debt is not ours. Direct democracy now! Equality – Justice – Dignity!’