Greek students show solidarity

Over the past two years, the youth, students and workers (and waggy tailed comrades alike) of Greece have been inspirational in their struggle against both the police violence of the Greek state, and its huge austerity drive and IMF bail-outs.

We looked on as the mass demonstrations against police brutality, after the shooting of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos, escalated into an insurrection against the government in December 2008. In May of this year, we watched as the country became paralysed by consecutive general strikes, with again, hundreds of thousands demonstrating across every town and city. It was easy to think that such a movement was a Greek phenomenon, that would surely not, for years at least, ever come to the shores of the UK.

It’s a sign of how much things have changed here over the past month that, earlier today, thousands of Greek students were on the streets not just against the education “reform” of their own government, but marching in solidarity with the struggle against austerity in the UK. In Athens, two thousand students attempted to march on the British Embassy, and as the video below shows, they were soon set upon by riot cops, who blasted them with tear gas. Occupied London report that five students were arrested, and the march then headed towards the city’s police headquarters to demand their release.

Today’s demonstration marks the beginning of a month of demonstrations in Greece. The 6th is the two year anniversary of the police killing of Grigoropoulos, and large student demonstrations are expected. On the 15th, a general strike is to take place, and students are expected to join in huge numbers again. Like in Britain, the Greek government is currently trying to force through swathing neo-liberal education ‘reform’, with huge cutbacks in spending on education.

Meanwhile back home, the day of the House of Commons vote on the tuition fees rise has been announced as Thursday 9 December. It’s being labelled as ‘Day X’, and may well prove a key moment in the struggle not just for students, but for everyone else resisting Tory austerity. Huge demonstrations will be taking place, with walkouts from schools, unis and colleges. Details of events – in Scotland and elsewhere – are still being finalised, but we’ll be posting them up here as soon as we can.

students clash with riot cops at the British Embassy, Athens