ANARCHIST DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE EU MINISTERS OF LABOR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS SUMMIT IN NAFPLIO, JANUARY 24

More than 800 anarchists and antiauthoritarians, together with many people from the city of Nafplio, formed a black bloc and demonstrated against the summit of EU ministers of labor and social affairs that took place on January 24.

Despite the heavy rain, the strong police presence (2.500 cops) focusing on anarchist demonstration and the intense cooperation between the reformist greek social forum, the communist party & other leftist organizations and the local authorities to guarantee the safety of the red zone, which meant to help the police isolate the black bloc -the only uncontrolled factor-, the outcome was a passionate and dynamic anarchist demo.

The bloc started a separate demonstration in the streets of the city at 6 pm, with direction to the limits of the red zone. It was already dark when anarchists opened their banner "LABOR IS NOT A RIGHT, IT IS BLACKMAIL - LIFE NOT SURVIVAL", started waving red and black flags and shouting the slogan "Solidarity is the people's weapon - War to the war of the bosses. Hundreds of citizens left their apartments and came in the sidewalks to see the demonstration. Many young people and children got inside the black bloc to continue with the demo. In the walls comrades were spray-painting graffiti and people where chanting against the state and the capital, against waged slavery and working "accidents", against state terrorism and prisons and in solidarity with anarchist Vagelio Tzoutzia and all hostages of repression.

When the bloc reached a square where leftist organizations and political parties had their gathering, things got intense, as the leftists had that brilliant idea to form "human chains" to prevent anarchists from getting in the square, and at the same time they left the riot police squads to come from behind and surround the bloc. The bloc was very close to the red zone but surrounded everywhere by police and the leftists cooperating with repression, giving their consent to a possible attack at the bloc, comrades estimated that to continue walking forward was impossible.

At about 8pm, the four different political formations (communist party trade union, Forum, leftists and greek SWP) that so far had different gatherings, decided, in front of the danger of anarchists having stopped near the entrance of the red zone, to make a "common demonstration". This demonstration would begin from that square close to the red zone and take the opposite direction, towards the outskirts of the city!!! From the loudspeakers, they announced which bloc would go where, of course not including the anarchist one, and that at the end of their demo there would be common "human chains" as guards. This way they announced to the cops, that what was behind them, anarchists, were outside the "deal", foreign object to the rest of the demo (15.000 people).

The result was leftist chains formed in front of the black bloc at the back of the demo, and riot police squads on the left, right and behind the black bloc.

In all the way of that meaningless route going backwards, cops were coming near the bloc and provoking them so that they would make them panic, run and disperse them, but this didn't happen due to the calmness and solidarity of the comrades and especially of those who formed the back human chains. Some isolated actions during the route, such as breaking the Socialist Party (in government) and some objects thrown to the cops didn't end up in disaster because of that solidarity and calmness of comrades who continued to shout slogans and stood all that pressure from the police.

To finish with the words of a text written by anarchist comrades after the demo:

"When we finally reached the end, we had every reason to be satisfied. We couldn't have done anything more that what we did in Nafplio against the provoking EU summit, the suffocating police-state and the meaningless "party" that the political party bureaus of reformism and negotiation organized together with the local authorities and the police. But almost with no former organization, with only weapon our solidarity, passion, and class justice, we gathered many of us, we welcomed in our lines many youths of the city, we moved alone, based on our own forces, we developed our own dynamic, to the limits in that specific negative circumstances, sending the message of the struggle from below to all the young, unemployed and working people of the city. What we did is our offer to the struggle for that day, and a salutation to our comrades inside and outside prisons, who could not be with us. And those things that we wanted to do and we couldn't in Nafplio, continue to be our goals for the future..."