We Won't Pay - Civil disobedience in Thessaloniki, Greece

Over the last year a group of ordinary Greeks have embarked on a series of acts of civil disobedience by refusing to pay bus fares which have gone up 280% in some cases. Every weekend volunteers board buses and encourage fellow passengers not to buy tickets. Worrried by the movement the government has ordered a police crackdown on such acts, leading to the detention and harassment of activists.

Photographs and video from Greek anti-government march on 23rd February 2011 - Thessaloniki.

More pictures and video from the marches that accompanied the general strike last week. The person taking the video was also attacked by police officers who often employed batons and tear gas indiscriminately to break up the march. In addition to this the riot police also made extensive use of military grade ordinance which is intended for special forces anti-terrorist operations in the form of the N591 stun grenade. This is the third occasion (I've witnessed this in the last year alone. See here and here for the previous two instances).



At 8 mins 20 sec you can see footage of the police attacking the camera operator as they tried to film the arrest of a demonstrator. I also saw uniformed officers clubbing marchers on Tsimiski Street who had not been involved in any acts of violence and clearly posed them no threat.

The video was originally posted on the We Are Change Greece website which has a description of the events shown in Greek and English.

Another video from the Antipliroforisi (Anti-misinformation) site from the same demo showing police using tear gas, flash greandes and motorcycles to stampede demonstrators along the main street in Thessaloniki.

North Korea speaks out on the Jody Mcintyre case

Latest North Korean pronouncements on the activities of Jody Mcintyre.

Greek economic crisis in pictures

Fighting the IMF

Poster Activism - The Movie

More posters can be seen on Flickr here and here.

Life in A Day

Sometimes an idea just grabs your imagination and won't let it go. This happened to me when I heard about the Life in a Day project on Youtube in which people are invited to submit clips that show something of their lives during the course of one day, 24th July 2010. The videos will be made into a movie by Kevin MacDonald (director of the Last King of Scotland) and produced by Ridley Scott (of Bladerunner, Gladiator etc, etc fame).

Actually, this is not the first time that such a collaborative framerwork has been used to produce a video. Placebo's version of Running Up That Hill used clips from fans miming the lyrics of the song to produce a video (you can even see my EFL/ESL lesson plan based on it).

I'm looking forward to the 24th July though to tell you the truth I still don't know what I'm going to shot. Whatever happens, it's great to have a project to focus on during the dog days of summer. For details of the Life in a Day experiment check out their Youtube channel.

Between the wars

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Greek police caught on camera framing innocent by-stander last Sunday

Video from Zougla.gr

The police chase and apprehand a mask wearing man who is in possession of a bag full of petrol bombs ready to used against shops or fellow officers. Quickly he is subdued, detained and arrested, Mission accomplished. Job well done. Well, not quite. Fortunately for the 23 year old student involved this particular arrest was captured on video by a passer - by and photographed by Associated Press photographer Nikos Giakoumidis last Sunday.

Pictures by Nikos Giakoumidis on TVXS.gr

It now turns out that the person arrested was a resident of the area who had decided to take out his rubbish as the march in memory of Greek teen killed by a police bullet last year was in progress. When he saw half a dozen Delta motorcycle cops racing towards him he panicked and ran only to be quickly overtaken and captured.

The video then shows the officers hitting the man, fetching a gas mask and others bringing up a bag full of Molotov cocktails which would later be used as incriminating evidence against him when he was charged. The fact that the person was wearing pyjamas seems to have escaped the notice of the half a dozen motorcycle riding Delta group policemen present at the scene.

In the video which was posted on the Zougla.gr site another witness who gives his full name also says that his wife's mobile phone was smashed by officers in an effort to make sure no visual record of their actions would exist.

Today the Greek police made an official apology to the student and said that they would be carrying out an internal investigation.

But if this event had not been videoed there is a very good chance that the student would be behind bars at the moment and would be facing anything up to 12 months in prison awaiting trial. If he had been found guilty, and with such evidence against him that would have been a real possibility he could have faced over 15 years behind bars according to his lawyer Athanasios Tartis. All for no reason at all. You have to wonder what kind of twisted individuals would do such a thing and if this is their first attempt.



Despite the police and government's talk of "targetted arrests" during last Sunday's disturbances I saw nothing of the sort. Instead the police blindly corralled protesters and then made up the charges as they went along. I narrowly avoided such treatment myself, as being injured I managed to talk my way out of a group of 200 marchers who'd been herded into a side street and then surrounded. After repeatedly tear gassing us and beating those on the edge of the group, many were detained and some arrested, based on what criteria I do not know since the choice was made on the basis of random chance.

Greek protesters surrounded by riot police after being tear gassed - Thessaloniki, Greece 2009

After the police had repeatedly tear gassed us and beat those who tried to get away from the place they started forcing people to sit down and attacked those around the edges of the group using clubs and shields. Later on when the TV camera arrived in force the situation had calmed down enough for me to shot this. As you can see the people here were just students protesting not a bunch of hard core anarchists set of smashing everything in sight as the media reported over the weekend.

Greek protesters mark first anniversay of teen's killing by the police - Thessaloniki Greece

Taken during the march today in Thessaloniki, Greece.