Social Conflict in Greece

Sit-ins and Street Protests

Education in Turmoil
30 Jan 2007 10:16:00 (Last updated: 30 Jan 2007 13:32:22)
news.ert.gr
By Christos Pagonis

Turmoil in the education sector is mounting. A new education rally has been scheduled for Wednesday, the very same day the competent Parliament committee will be having its last session on the revision of the Constitution. In the meantime, university lecturers are due to go on a three-day strike as of Wednesday, while primary and secondary school teachers have called two-hour stoppages in both the morning and evening shifts. At the same time, as many as a thousand academics have demanded the sit-ins in universities come to an end and the forwarded institutional changes in tertiary education take effect.

On the other hand, the wave of sit-ins is expanding, with the most unusual one having been reported at a church within the Zographou University Campus. A group of 20 rioters has taken over the church of Trion Ierarchon since. Furthermore, anarchists took over Tuesday morning the Mayoral Mansion of Chania, Crete, demanding the two hunger-strikers, who were arrested in Thessaloniki last May be released. The anarchists have hoisted a banner at the Mansion’s façade and do not allow access to the building.

In the meantime, the sit-in at the University of Crete will go on until February 5.



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Firebombs hurled at hotel in Exarchia

Athens News Agency
January 29, 2007

A hotel in the Athens district of Exarchia, where German neo-Nazis are staying and who will be attending events scheduled to take place in the afternoon, was attacked by about 20 hooded youths with firebombs at about 3:20 a.m. on Saturday.

According to the police, the hotel's occupants had placed a flag with a swastika on a balcony that apparently provoked the youths' attack.

The arsonists threw the firebombs at the entrance to the hotel and on the pavement, without causing any serious damage, and then fled the scene