Posted by Mike E on July 18, 2011
Photo credit: Eric Ribellarsi
Kasama has been sharing a number of reports on the crisis and resistance in Greece.
By Jim Weill and Eric Ribellarsi
The following are some quick notes taken during the plenary of the Resistance Festival. They are fragmented and without much summation, but they should give our readers an idea of the general conversation that took place.
One of the most interesting sessions at the 2011 Resistance Festival in Athens was called the “The squares of the world are speaking.” It featured representatives from Tahir Square in Cairo, Puerta del Sol in Madrid, the movement against austerity in Argentina, and Syntagma Square in Athens.
Behind the panelists was a large banner that said “The peoples come to the fore – The fear is changing sides.” It is now oppressive governments who are afraid and the people who are on the offensive.
All of these movements were learning from one another, across international lines. Many people are aware that Tunisia kicked off this current wave of revolt in North Africa and other Arab countries have learned from that rebellion. The same waves of revolt affected Spain and Portugal, which had an impact on what happened in Greece. And in a more abstract sense, Argentina’s experience of struggle against International Monetary Fund/World Bank austerity measures has greatly influenced the thinking of revolutionaries in Greece.
Greece: An experiment in democracy
The speaker from Greece was a member of dikaioma.gr, a mass organization built with significant support from KOE.
He gave a brief history of the movement in Greece’s squares. The movement started a month after the social-democratic government started passing regressive employment measures. He noted, that because of the disconnection between the trade unions and the parties from the people, that the fight would have to come from other organs of power.
Dikaioma began to put forth the idea to occupy Syntagma (a square or large plaza in the center of Athens) back in February. The movement in the square was an experiment in democracy, which included many different subjects, structures and people, including individuals from political parties, anarchists, unaffiliated people, some trade unions and professional associations of doctors.
He claimed that the movement gave an “expression to the anger of the people.”
Though he noted that the movement must bring in political parties and help curb the popular antipathy to the idea of parties in general, that Greece “cannot go back to the old ways” of bringing change exclusively through parliamentary means and the trade unions. The movement of the squares has ushered in something new that requires the left to join in and be transformed.
Egypt: Far from finished
The speaker from Egypt emphasized how the movement in Cairo’s Tahir square produced deep changes in the political and social dynamics between people. “I saw how men and women, veiled and unveiled, Christians and Muslims fought together and protected each other,” he noted. “ The struggle is still far from being finished…despite setbacks…”
He mentioned three key moments that led to the uprising. The first was the brutal murder of a young man, Khaled Said, in a Cairo internet café on 14 June 2010. He noted the public saw pictures of Said before and after he was beaten by police, and that this galvanized them in opposition to the state.
The second moment was that Facebook became a successful tool for organizing demonstrations. He said that the core of the demonstration on 25 January was done primarily through Facebook, and that afterward, resistance grew in a “spiral, rising manner.”
The third was the window of hope when the Tunisian revolution succeeded, which showed the Egyptian people that serious revolt was not only desirable, but possible. The Egyptian comrade noted that the most important outcomes of the Tahir square movement were the new peace established and the new consciousness arising from the revolts. “The people believe they can change things. This is why they won’t stop, no matter what the cost,” he told us.
Argentina: The lesson of an actual default
The speaker from Argentina discussed the peoples’ response to the debt crisis in 2001. First, he gave a brief history of the movement. The first protests that happened were against Kraft, who fired 162 people, including the speaker. The speaker was part of a trade union in the factories, working on employment issues. The union had a place for working mothers, a restaurant for working people. The first people who were fired were prominent members of the trade union.
Those who were fired decided to create a united front to fight what was happening. They started assemblies, much like those now meeting in Athens and Madrid, with 1000+ people every time. “All working people, with young people and women in front, decided to continue this battle,” he noted.
The Argentine government tried to break the strike but this only created more solidarity in Buenos Aires. The people then blocked 100 streets in the city. “The fight against Kraft became everyone’s fight,” he said. Eventually, however, the strike was repressed and the workers were forced to negotiate with the government.
He discussed some of the limitations of this movement, some of which could serve as lessons to the current wave of popular uprisings. He noted that there was a lack of coordination between different cities. Trade union leaders were bought off and corrupted. There was a significant amount of repression from the police, which limited many peoples’ ability to participate in the demonstrations. And, finally, he claimed that the consciously revolutionary force of the people wasn’t strong enough to carry the movement forward.
Spain
The speaker from Madrid discussed the decision-making process at Puerta del Sol. In particular, he emphasized the movement’s growth beyond the square and how the decision-making processes began to integrate other sections of the people.
Thanks to social networks, he said, 20,000 – 30,000 people were in the streets in May. But this was the ‘romantic’ stage of the movement, he said. The big question was, what to do next?
“We want to propose another system,” he noted. “We have a new proposal.” He called this a “new ecological method,” which emphasizes the relationships between different sectors of people. He noted that people at Puerta del sol participated in ‘war groups,’ in which they debated and brought ideas to the group assembly. Eventually these assemblies spread to the neighborhoods and other sectors.
“We want to give legitimacy to the assembly, to see how this form of organization moves from Puerta del Sol to the neighborhoods and the workers.”
The assemblies in Spain were actually the ones that young people in Greece were in touch with, and which advised their development.
Into the Night
The engagement ended with a standing ovation from the crowd. We trickled out and joined the dancing, debate, beer, and soulvaki on into the night.
