A victory was achieved by the anti-memorandum, anti-government movement on October 28.
It was commemoration day of the resistance to the German occupation of Greece, which started in 1940. Across the whole country, the traditional student and military march was turned into an event of protest against the new occupation of Greece being enforced by the “troika” of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central and and the European Union.
There were chants, banners, black ribbons signifying mourning etc. Many marching students turned their faces away from the government officials watching the march.
Unions joined the protests in many cities.
It was heartening to see officials forced to leave by the people’s anger in many cities, such as Thessaloniki and Iraklio. The protesters kept chanting that the politicians were unwelcome, calling them “traitors”.
Politicians being forced away from commemoration marches has never happened before.
In Thessaloniki, Greek President Karolos Papoulias, who had come all the way from Athens for the celebration, fled before the march along with the other officials.
The march took place afterwards.
It was quite a coincidence that the specific venue is right in front of the German Consulate.
The only thing the police could do was to block the way to the officials with big police vans.
There was a mix of adults and children who were there just to watch the march on the one hand and protesters on the other hand. Because of this, police did not provoke any clashes or use any chemicals on the protesters.
This goes to show that the riots so expertly used against the movement by the mass media are often caused by the police.
However, the people’s anger created a great deal of tension and some conflicts in many places.
Maybe October 28 marked the beginning of the long way to victory.
Video: Protesters disrupt a military parade in Thessaloniki to protest the anti-austerity policies forced on the Greek people by the troika of the EU, ECB and IMF.