International Workers day in Athens

A few weeks ago I read an article in The Guardian talking about the real possibility of Greece defaulting on its loans, and about how civil unrest is also on the rise. The article featured a photo of the riot cops up against the powerful and ongoing protest of activists, fighting against the building of a Euro-dump in the Athens suburb of Keratea as one of several examples of civil unrest right now. It suggested that the country was reaching boiling point and post article comments said this was the chance for the Greeks to sod the banks, sod the politicians, make the default and begin making their own destiny. My hopes were high that Mayday might be the day to galvanise all these dissenting voices and really make a play for a popular uprising and new possibilities.

So, this morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, me and Phil headed down to join the migrants rights block of the radical left demo (in another example of how "The Life of Brian" is the prophet of real life on film, there were 3 major meet ups put out, each by a different kind of leftist political group and each in different locations at different times). We got there late and I just assumed the heaps of crowds were behind us. But then we - the 5000 or so demonstrators - started marching. Through the city centre, up to the Parliament. Sombre drum beats, a few chants and speeches marking our way, our path pre-emptively walked by lines of riot cops. All was as a demo is. Still I had some expectation that something would happen.

And then the march disbanded. And everybody left. And that was the one thing I didn’t expect!

Of all the things, I really didn't predict that nothing would happen. On Mayday. In Athens. In the middle of the worst of financial times this country has seen for who knows how long. In a country that's like the European version of the mothership of public protest. Why was the turnout so small and so weak?

Talking to a guy from a Filipino migrants association, he said that their turnout had been low (around 20 or so) because despite the large Filipino community in Athens, many were afraid to demonstrate for fear of losing their jobs at a time when everyone is losing work, but migrants are being hit first and hardest. So, people are afraid and their looking to protect what's theirs in times when many are losing out.

Retreating back to a cafe in Exarchia afterwards, me and a friend - Alex - talked about it. He was really disappointed but had expected things to be small and uneventful in the end, because people were depressed. At the same time, all this political splitting (to reference "The Life of Brian" again) meant that the Mayday marches hadn't got the backing of the major unions, themselves in the pockets of the politicians and so untrusted, who have called for a separate general strike on May 11th. On the one hand people don't trust the unions, but what remains is fractured and uncoordinated. People have no faith in popular politics here, but they also have lost faith that taking to the streets will do anything either.

For sure, marches can be symbolic and hollow, simply demonstrating weight of opposition rather than actual ability to change that which they oppose. But, like the recent student demos in the UK, they can also be the culmination of lots of smaller, diverse actions and can mark a watershed when new things really are possible. 

If it is the case that civil unrest is growing in Greece in small and diverse ways (such as the huge support for Keratea, or the growing won't pay movement), then perhaps the poor turnout today is just a sign that people have lost their faith in marches, but not in creating alternatives. Perhaps it’s also a sign that the alternatives offered by the groups that organised the marches are themselves hollow.

I sat in the square, it slowly filling with returning protesters (and a little tear gas. Obviously something had happened somewhere), thinking that what I witnessed today was a disappointment, but that there still feels like the possibilities for dissent and change still exist here. Mayday so far has been disappointing but that in itself is not an accurate measure of things. And the day is also not over yet.