Third successive day of struggle in the Greek streets - Athens is burning in rage

As mentioned yesterday, it was likely that the people was rather resting on Saturday after a hard week for a renewed mobilization today in Greece, even if formally the General Strike ended yesterday.

A picture is worth a thousand words: Syntagma Square was again packed with angry Greeks today

There is extensive coverage at Occupied London and Contra Info. Just some notes here:

By noon there were reports of illegal arrests at homes, including a member of the Ship to Gaza initiative.

Police attacked the occupied Law School until, by 17:00 only 200 occupiers remained inside surrounded by a large police siege. At 19:00 they evacuated the occupation but clashes continued around the building for the rest of the evening.

The occupation at of the Chania Prefecture continued as well for all the day. Other ongoing occupations seem to be: Ministry of Health in Athens, Cinema-Theatre Olympion in Thessaloniki, Building of the Regional government of Western Greece in Patras, Building of the Regional Government of Ionian islands in Corfu, Building of the Regional Government of Crete in Rethymnon, Building of the Regional Government of Thessaly in Larisa, Rethymno City Hall, Holargos City Hall, Regional Union of Imathia in Veroia.

In the night clashes seem to have continued, specially in Athens, where one of every three Greeks live. OL says:

It is entirely impossible to estimate the number of people who have taken to the streets in Athens tonight. They are definitely in the hundreds of thousands – there are simply people everywhere.

Last news is that many corporate buildings are burning:

According to Occupy London these are: Euro-Bank branch in Korai st., Costa coffee shop, and the first floor of the State’s Accounts Office (the lights in the background are the Parthenon, I think, not a fire in any case).

See also the picture gallery of OL-FTGS.

Previously in this blog: Greek General Strike reports: Day 1 and Day 2.




Update at 10:40 GMT(same source):

• City Hall of Athens was occupied only to be evicted by police minutes later
• A gun shop has been looted in Omonia, Athens
• Marfin Bank has been burnt to the ground
• The infamous mounted Delta unit of Greek police has been finally dealt with: people extended ropes and cables across the streets throwing down some of them
• The Exarcheia police station (scene of a violent riot years ago) has been attacked by the people
• A huge demo is roaming through Athens (25 mins ago) with police unable to do anything
• The City Hall of Volos (Thessaly) is burning, earlier the tax office had been attacked as well
• In Corfu, the offices of local "socialist" MPs were destroyed

Gara[es] mentions that the clashes in Athens began as popular musician Mikos Theodorakis, who is very vocal against the sell-out of Greece, attempted to enter Parliament. Then, without any provocation,  police charged against the tens of thousands or more people gathered at Syntagma Square.

A rather impacting video of some of the early clashes by the Parliament that I found at Kaos[es]:

Update (Feb 13):

Hundreds injured (including at least 100 cops), more than 150 arrested (some 'preventively' as they left their homes), at least according to Aris, who commented at NC. Occupy London mentions smaller figures but it can be an underestimate.

Similarly Aris' estimates for the crowd taking the streets of Athens yesterday evening are of 1.2-1.7 million, while OL is more conservative and suggests 500,000.

OL also mentions that the iconic occupation of the Law School in Athens continues (apparently they could reoccupy after yesterday's eviction). They proclaimed:

It was decided by the assembly of the Law School occupation that the occupation continues. We call everyone on the streets to continue the struggle. Nothing ended, everything now starts, the Law School is a centre of the struggle and as such it will remain.

Update (Feb 13 by night):

Occupied London - From the Greek Streets mentions today that:

Marches in Patras and Agrinio this Monday. In Agrinio banks and fascist offices were attacked, in Patras the protesters attacked the offices of local PASOK MP Spiliopoulos, who voted for the Troika package, as well as luxury hotel Astir, where the conservative coalition partner New Democracy had organized an event.

In Komotini the regional government of Thrace and Eastern Macedonia has been occupied. The subsequent popular assembly decided to march tomorrow.

Also police bullets were found at Athens Law School and a video was released on how police attacked with tear gas by the rear the Antiauthoritarian march.


Update (Feb 14 at dawn): Volos, Thessaly:

Contra Info has two impressive videos and a short chronicle of the clashes in Volos yesterday, where the Eurobank was burnt to the ground and the offices of PASOK were attacked. More than a thousand people fought against police that night....