Greece

Tell Channel 4: Violence against women is not a laughing matter

Last night (December 28th), Channel 4 broadcast a programme called The 50 Funniest Moments of 2012 which, bizarrely, included TV footage of Ilias Kasidiaris, a Greek Member of Parliament and spokesperson for the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, physically assaulting Communist politician Liana Kanelli.

There is clearly nothing funny about a woman being violently attacked by a man, let alone a man who is a fascist politician. Such incidents must be condemned and organised against. They should not be used as a pretext for comedy.

Greece: After the Tear Gas

The cowardly police murder of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Athens on December 6th was the catalyst for days of rioting, protests and occupations. Although these have now largely died down, the country remains on a knife edge.

Greece has a turbulent history, being ruled between 1967 and 1974 by a US-backed military dictatorship – a regime brought down by a mass rebellion inspired by students at Athens Polytechnic in 1973.

In the run up to the recent shooting, the country was rocked by a series of high-profile scandals implicating the government, church and judiciary. Wanton police brutality and racism are rife; unemployment levels have soared to 70% among the 18-25s; 1 in 5 Greeks live in poverty, and low pay and high prices run in parallel. To top it all, neo-liberal reforms and austerity measures have compounded a biting recession.