Vol. 73/No. 1      January 12, 2009

Banners held by the students had slogans such as “Down with the government of blood, poverty, and privatizations!” In a display of force, riot police met the march with massive amounts of tear gas and stun grenades.

The protest was given further impetus by the shooting of a high school student in the hand the previous day by an unknown assailant. Another demonstration of 3,000 was held December 18 in the working-class suburb of Peristeri, where the latest incident occurred.

As of December 19, the number of high school occupations across the country has reached 800, while 200 universities have also been occupied. Thousands of high school and university students, teachers, and others marched to Parliament on December 12.

Among the most prominent demands of the protesters are that the cop who killed Grigoropoulos be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and that the police patrolling the streets be disarmed and the government resign.

Fueling the protests is discontent over the country’s educational system and the specter of unemployment that many feel awaits them at the end of their school years. “Money to the banks, bullets to young people, our time has come” was one of the main slogans chanted by youth in the December 12 march, referring to the 28 billion euros to be given by the government to banks facing crisis.

The daily protests have included a general national strike called by the two union federations and a march of tens of thousands of workers and youth on December 10. The following day thousands of high school students participated in marches on 25 police stations.

Anger over police brutality was fueled further when the cop responsible for shooting Grigoropoulos claimed the youth was “a troublemaker.” The officer also claimed that he was attacked by a group of young people. Fearing for his life, he said, he shot his gun in the air and the bullet ricocheted before hitting Grigoropoulos. About a dozen eyewitnesses have stated that they saw the cop shoot the youth cold-bloodedly in the chest and that there was no group of youth attacking the police.

On December 15, upwards of 3,000 high school students demonstrated at the main headquarters of the Athens police against the detention of 200 protesters.  
 
 
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