Two Greek anarchist groups - Wild Freedom and Instigators of Social Explosion - apparently took responsibility for the explosion at "The Mall" last Sunday which injured two security guards. The two anarchist groups said they staged the bomb attack in protest to wealthy “capitalists” and the recent raids against anarchist squats (The squats that they are referring to include Villa Amalias, and the Villa Maria Calas, etc. which were illegally occupied by extreme leftist and anarchist groups and apparently used to house materials used for weapons such as Molotov bombs, clubs, slabs of cement, etc, and then used in protests against the riot police).
“For us, the mall and every mall is a cemetery for people and real values. That’s why we hit it,” the groups said in a joint statement on a Leftist website often used by groups to claim responsibility for attacks. “Those murdered by capitalism are buried in the foundations of malls,” it added.
The text also refers to a police state and occupations, and there is an indirect critique of SYRIZA and the Greek Communist Party (KKE) as well as the role of the Golden Dawn party.
At the same time, their statement expresses its solidarity to the imprisoned anarchists in Greece and abroad, to the members of the terrorist organization "the Cells of Fire", to the "unrepentant activists -and members of the notorious November 17 terrorist organization- Dimitris Koufodinas and Savvas Xiros". At the same time the anarchists also call on others to "exchange ideas and know-how", and (quite shockingly) to also arm each other with Kalashnikov guns and bullets and reclaim (or reconquer) the streets and neighborhoods. They also say that they have to commit robberies as well as seize buildings.
"We are anarchists, and enemies of democracy. And if our action is condemned by the political system we have long condemned the political system in its own disaster," noted the text, and then concludes by saying "long live anarchy!".
The government said on Thursday that it is going to issue civil mobilization orders to make Athens metro staff, who have been on strike for eight days, return to their jobs. Press reports said that Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis announced the decision after a four-hour emergency meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on the issue. He said that unionists have decided to take the path of blind confrontation and not to respect the decisions of Greece's courts and that the country could not be held ransom to vested interests.
The measure of civil mobilization – used against seamen, truckers and street cleaners in 2010 and 2011 – means that employees are obligated to return to work or face the prospect of going directly to jail.
On their part, workers, who are protesting their inclusion in a new unified wage structure for civil servants that will see a reduction in their incomes, slammed the decision. “Over our dead bodies,” Antonis Stamatopoulos, head of the Athens metro workers union, told SKAI radio. Bus workers, as well as those at the Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway (ISAP), said the would extend their work stoppage after 5 p.m. in solidarity with the metro staff.
Earlier representatives said that they would suspend their action if the government committed to maintaining the collective labor agreement, which expires on April 30, before negotiating a new deal.
On Wednesday, government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou warned that "if the instigators of the strike do not comply with the court's decisions by tomorrow (Thursday), they will have to face the legal consequences." Before his statement, and while responding to the possibility they might be ordered to return to work by the government, employees said that they are adamant in their position and will respond "with war to government's war". "A black-out will exist in public transport if the government orders us to return to work, and this is not a threat" said STASY president Christos Koukis.
A prosecutor is investigating the continuing strike ordered a preliminary investigation following reports that only a small percentage of staff is involved. First Instance Court chief prosecutor Panagiota Fakou will be verifying whether metro employees are still being paid normally for the days they have gone on strike, by using vacation time or calling in sick. She is also responsible for reviewing a court decision terming the strike illegal, to decide whether continuing the strike contravenes a court decision.
The board of rail transport organization STASY says it is determined to use its powers under the law to take action against transport employees, should they go ahead with their planned industrial action, in spite of such action being declared illegal by a fresh court ruling.
The STASY board said in an announcement that it "has exhausted all options for dialogue" with employees, and since the strike action has been judged illegal, it will take all legitimate action. It added the law stipulates conscription and even layoffs for staff continuing to strike.
In Greece the easiest thing in the world is to strike, taking part and organizing demonstrations and/or closing roads is simple because the land of democracy -unlike other areas in the world- still respects freedom of expression. But... When roudy unionists get involved your best bet is that it is politically motivated and doesn't really have a base for argument.
Political parties have educated these public sector unionists well.
The transport workers, for instance, who are now reacting negatively to a new wage payroll system should not really be complaining about getting the bitter end of the stick. For years, this sector enjoyed backdoor hirings, and most of the people that were employed here were totally unqualified.
Indeed those few were fired, but there are still many employees in this sector, as well as the wider public sector that were employed in the very same way thanks to the clientilism system that was set up by all of Greece's political parties with the PASOK party leading the pack. And in case HellasFrappe gets criticised for stigmatizing the socialists, we would just like to remind our readers that the majority of the unions have PASOK leadership. So if it quacks like a duck... bla bla bla its a duck!
All these people enjoyed unbelievable benefits all these years. Aside from their fixed salaries, who can forget the "sending a fax" benefit that some employees at the Public Power Corporation (DEH) used to receive, or how they used to calculate their time of work from the moment they left their house (in other words, if they were caught in traffic for two hours, or had a doctors appointment for three or four hours, this would be added to their payroll or counted as work time).
The transport workers were not an exception. They too enjoyed many benefits and the cutbacks that occurred over the last few years were not really on their direct salaries but rather on the benefits they received. This is the reason they are reacting strongly against the cutbacks today.
According to the General Accounting Office, the average monthly salary of a metro worker was 4,080 Euros, 3,080 Euros in the metro and tram workers were receiving 2,500 Euros. The workers on their part deny these figures and claim that their wages ranged between 1,800-2,500 Euros.
And what is more... they also want to "trick" the State into paying them for striking as well. Get a load of these figures as released by the government.
On the first day of their strike (Thursday 17/1) out of 1,300 employees only 33% or 430 employees declared that they were striking, while the remaining 790 suddenly fell ill. Obviously this was done so that they can get paid while striking, and believe us folks... there is no other place in the world where this could happen but Greece.
And it gets better. Only 20 or 3.94 percent of the tram workers who were striking on 18/1 out of a total 507 actually declared they were striking! About 467 phoned in sick, and the rest declared that they were taking time off.
On 19/1: Out of 1,300 metro strikers, 210 phoned in sick and 1,010 massively decided to take a day off!
On the fourth day, or on 20/1, 1,030 appeared sick again.
And all this of course because these public sector workers want to be paid while striking!
One of the unionists, Mr. Stamatopoulos (formerly part of the PASOK party and now a member of ANTARSYA) said earlier in the week that commuters might have some difficulties until this issue is solved, but in the long-term people will thank him and the other workers for this. That indeed is a laugh.
The truth is that commuters would be happy if these people realized that all of Greek society has been victim to wage and pension cuts and that the industry which he represents is not an exception from the rest of society. Similar rhetoric has been echoed by other unionists. For example - "we strike to reduce the ticket to 1 Euro." but at the same time they don't want the State to reduce their salaries to maintain that ticket at less than 1 Euro. Which kind of doesn't make sense.
Our opinion here at HellasFrappe is simple. We pay taxes to have health care, public sector services and reliable transportation, but are forced to go to private doctors and use taxi cabs in order to go about our daily business because of all these obviously politically driven strikes which are totally unnecessary. No one is saying that these pay cuts are pleasant, but no one can be excluded from doing his and her part in Greece's recovery.
And finally, if they are so unhappy with the conditions at their work, then why not quit and try their luck in the private sector? Do they actually have the b***lls to even try? Not on your life when they can have it so good!
Former PASOK party minister Giannos Papantoniou would have to appear before ordinary courts, indicted by deputies of the Parliamentary Committee on Party and MPs Finances, for untruthful statement of assets. Papantoniou is being probed on concealing - in his "origin of income" statement - his wife Stavroula Kourakou's Swiss deposits of 1.3 million euros, shown in the so-called "Lagarde list" containing details of just over 2,000 HSBC Swiss bank accounts held by Greek citizens. The committee was not convinced by the former minister's explanations that he was not informed about his wife's move. In addition, a finance public prosecutor has ordered that all of his bank accounts be investigated.
The committee says it also scrutinized New Democracy former minister Petros Dukas' "origin of income" (pothen esches) statement, as his 2010 bank deposits appear to have shrunk by one million euros without adequate clarification. Dukas insists that the amount has been re-deposited into an investment account, declared in his income statement. Although the committee appears to have been convinced by his explanation, his file will be sent to a public prosecutor for final judgment. (AMNA)
What kind of deals is the leader of Greece's main opposition party SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras making in Washington in regards to Greece's EEZ? No one knows, but the only thing one hopes is that these talks were aimed to benefit Greece, and not foreign interests (as some other progressive former leaders -mostly green socialists- have done in the past). Following his speech at the controversial (and Soros funded) Brookings Institute earlier this week, Alexis Tsipras also apparently held an extensive discussion on a series of issues concerning Greece and the wider region in a meeting at the State Department officials with officials such as the US Assistant Secretary of State, responsible for European affairs, Erik Rubin, the Deputy Finance Minister, responsible for Europe and Eurasia issues, Christopher Smart, as well as other American officials.
Athens reports quoting SYRIZA officials maintain that there were "points of agreement and disagreement", during the discussions and that a "substantive exchange" of views took place on matters relating to the Greek and European economy, Greek foreign policy and (Surprise Surprise) the Exclusive Economic Zone.
On his part, Tsipras outlined his positions on issues such as the spreading of violence in Greece, the ultra-right Golden Dawn party and anti-Semitism. Parallel to this he also presented his views on Greek-Turkish relations, the Cyprus issue and Greece FYROM differences.
The only thing we don't know is what the "other side" outlined.
On Thursday Tsipras would meet with leading IMF officials in New York as well as leading officials in the Greek Omogeneia.
Luckily for Greeks, the Greek police is continuing the Xenios Zeus operation which is aimed at curbing illegal immigration and human trafficking. Here are the latest developments:
In the area of Promahonas, in the prefecture of Serres, police authorities apparently arrested three illegal immigrant traffickers as they attempted to smuggle illegal immigrants from Greece into other countries. According to reports, the three suspects in custody are a 43-year-old Bulgarian man, a 28-year-old Bulgarian woman and a 49-year-old German woman. All three were carrying the two illegal migrants in their car and attempting to cross the border into another country. An inquiry has been launched by the Promahonas police station and the suspects are now going to be led before a Serres public prosecutor.
In Evros, a 16-year-old illegal immigrant lost his life when a boat he was using to illegally cross the Evros River capsized mid-stream, in the region of Mandra in Didimotiho. The teenager was apparently attempting to illegally enter Greece along with another eight immigrants.
In Patras, police officials temporarily detained about 100 illegal immigrants who did not possess proper residence papers. The illegal immigrants who were arrested at the old factories and along the city's coastline, are now expected to be taken to a detention center in the port of city of Corinth.
In Thessaloniki, authorities began cracking down on the case regarding "fake or virtual" marriages. Reports claim that authorities in the northern city is now focusing on a fake marriage ring operating in Thessalnoniki which apparently organizes marriages of convenience between illegal immigrants holding temporary residence permits and Greek nationals.
Roughly Over 1,124 people have already been arrested for debts totalling 1.5 billion Euros, as well as unpaid taxes from January-September 2012 to the Greek State, according to Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias. The Greek police, which is now responsible for financial and electronic crime, especially if it has the features of organised crime, has also handled another 202 cases of debtors who apparently settled their debts to the State that amounted to more than 60 million Euros. Replying to a deputy's question in parliament recently Dendias also stated that the department of tax supervision has also been incorporated in the police. The inspecting body is responsible for tax or customs duties evasion, concealment or distortion of taxable material or data, and the non-issuing of receipts for services, sales and distribution of products.
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