Following an initiative on the social networks, an appeal was sent out to surfers to flock to the main squares of their cities in Greece this afternoon and protest over the repercussions of the government’s austerity drive on jobs and quality of life. Imitating a successful anti-austerity campaign by Spanish demonstrators - chiefly young people - that has filled Madrid’s main Puerta del Sol Square with crowds for more than a week, the Greek groups used social networking sites such as Facebook and Tweeter to drum up support for this move.
One of the groups, called “The Exasperated of Syntagma,” on Monday began to call out to Athenians to gather in central Syntagma Square outside Parliament between 18:00 and 23.30 tonight. In less than a few hours after they loaded the event, several thousands of citizens committed to take part, but then for unknown reasons the page was abruptly deleted from Facebook. Nonetheless the administrators apparently uploaded a new page and in less than 30 hours the group was able to amass more than 21,000 new attendees. The removal of the page made headlines on most morning news programs in Greece, and was even rumoured to have been reported on CNN as well.
Thousands are expected to attend the Athens gathering, but there are similar gatherings happening all over the country, in almost every major city, the largest being Athens, Thessaloniki and Patra.
The protest organizers said on their event page in Facebook that they want to rally peacefully and spontaneously.
“Let us start a peaceful revolution in our city, beyond political parties, without upheaval, masks and violence, following the footsteps of our Spanish brothers and sisters,” a statement by the group said.
The statement added that every person who has accepted the invitation to attend should only represent themselves and not committees and/or political parties.
“Our initial goal is to join the movement with our kids, to meet with each other, to see friends and familiar people. No flags, no placards, no political parties and organizations.”
Dearest friends, people are not puppets and slaves, who are programmed and/or obligated to play by dictatorial-style rules. When people come to the realization that they can set the rules of the game by themselves, then they begin to protest for the respect of freedom and autonomy of all human beings.
I support this peaceful initiative because I stand by the belief that our leaders in Greece cannot control our right to free will and thought. And even though I know beforehand, and after living in Greece for a few years, that provocations might occur in order to cast a shadow over this quiet initiative it cannot change the fact that in less than two days tens of thousands of people spread the word that they long and demand change. This alone is a loud message to our leaders that we demand change.
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