Quick notes from Athens December 6, the fifteenth anniversary of police murdering 15-year-old anarchist Alexis Grigoropoulos:
– at the daytime marches by student groups, multiple riot cops had "skull bandanas" covering their faces. these guys look similar but they are two different police (with different masks). Left photo by Hibai Arbide Arza.
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– the night-time march was MASSIVE. many thousands. if not ten thousand, then not far off. there were 4,000 police in athens last night but they couldn't contain the demo. generally, the police try to stop people from the night march from getting back into exarcheia but this year they were overwhelmed. burning dumpters lit our path back into the neighborhood.
– in the early evening, musicians gather at the memorial where Alexis was shot. Below is footage from two years ago. This year, police attacked the musicians almost immediately.
– the tear gas seemed more intense and to have unusual properties. it moved and hung around differently, created different cloud shapes, seemed more opaque, felt stickier. maybe a new recipe is in use? Photo by Marc Lepson.
– on 6 December there are always lots of non-combatant photojournalists. while police attacking the media is not unheard of, this year there were multiple beatings and direct chemical sprayings of photographers.
– the numbers of police were overwhelming in exarcheia; there were relatively few molotovs this year but groups of people were throwing stones etc. from balconies and roofs and chanting to each other across the rooftops, as well as shouting warnings to the fighters in the streets about police movements.
– in recent years, i've noticed — and greek comrades have commented — that 6 December in exarcheia had begun to seem overwhelmed by european and other "anarcho-tourists" who come for the spectacle and don't have connection to the neighborhood or movement. that felt much less true this year.
– 100+ in athens were captured by police (some "preventatively," meaning they were just snatched from their homes early in the day) and 24 were arrested– which in the greek context means they were held and charged vs. being only detained at the station for some hours.
– five or six hours after everyone else had left the streets, one mixed-gender group of a dozen or so younger hooligans continued to fight the police from near koletti and mesolongiou. whole platoons of MAT and even DELTA/DRASI, the feared anti-anarchist motorcycle cops, tried and failed to suppress them long into the night. at one point when the police were staying away, the kids responded by traveling up benaki together to attack the cops stationed down metaxa. beyond their obvious courage, they showed unearthly levels of stamina and dedication. video by "Partizan Yunanistan"