From Docklands to Greece...

from occupied london, 3 April 2009:

(for those asking: IMC Athens is down and the announcement on its front page says this is due to technical problems, giving links to G20 coverage)

"What’s the plan for tomorrow?" asked a comment on imc-uk yesterday. "What do you mean what’s the plan", came a reply - "the police have caused a man’s death - go out there and cause havoc, like Greece".

Two of the best places to follow the action in London seem to be Last Hours’ tweeter and of course IMC London. Strasburg (newswires) seems to be the next place on the rioting map. But meanwhile, back in Greece...

Today (Thursday) is the day of the general strike. On Wednesday, PM Karamanlis called a meeting of the Government Council of Foreign Affairs and Defence. The rarely-meeting council met specifically in order to deal with the increase in "criminality and violence" - and some of the announced plans include:

- Activation and widespread use of CCTV installed in main thoroughfares in Athens (trans: most of the CCTV in Athens was installed just before or during the 2004 Olympics; around 50% of cameras were destroyed by activists, while legally speaking, the use of the rest for anything other than traffic control had been deemed unlawful so far).

- The council wants a stronger police presence on the streets and in the neighbourhoods and a change in the law to allow police to use their guns to prevent crimes (trans. current laws only allow the police to use their weapons for self-protection, not for some abrupt crime prevention).

- Ways are sought to assist attorney generals in ordering "fast track" raids of political activists and other targets.

The announced measures, combined with the recent order by newly-installed attorney general of the country’s high court, Y. Sanidas, for a swoop on occupations across the country, show that the government is chosing to go head-to-head with the ever-increasing movement that sprang up in the country after December (2008).

Will the state’s attack succeed? The widespread belief here is that this will depend, solely, on the people’s reaction. They can write up as many new laws as they wish - what is to be decided will be decided on the streets - as always...

[original article]

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