Greeks remember dictatorship’s bloodshed

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Greece remembers students

Sunday 18 November 2012

by Our Foreign Desk

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through Athens on Saturday to commemorate the violent suppression of a student uprising against a US-backed military junta.

The blood-stained national flag that flew over Athens Polytechnic on November 17 1973 was carried at the head of the demonstration in memory of those who died.

Adding to tension this year, the far-right Golden Dawn party denied earlier this week that any students had been killed in 1973.

The annual protest often becomes a focal point for groups protesting against government policies and comes against a backdrop of rising public anger at a new round of wage and pension cuts.

Student associations, members of the radical left Syriza party and other groups were among those who took part in the march.

Earlier on Saturday, students, teachers, workers and pensioners had laid wreaths at the polytechnic to honour the dozens killed in the 1973 revolt.

“Most of us feel that now is like the junta,” said protester Apostolis Sabaziotis, a psychologist who has been working for four months without being paid.

“The situation can change only if we resist,” said Panagiotis Sarantidis, who went to pay tribute to the dead students, holding his daughter in his arms.

The Communist Party also held its own demonstration.

They marched to the US embassy, which supported the six-year military dictatorship, holding banners reading “we can topple this new junta,” “write off the debt” and “capitalists should pay for the crisis.”

See also here.

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• The Athens Polytechnic Uprsising (youcarnivore.me)
• Annual March Commemorates Student Uprising (abcnews.go.com)