By Ben O’Halloran and Elise Dalley

Reporting from Thessaloniki, Greece.

Riot police face off against protesters in Thessaloniki. Image: Ben O'Halloran

As stunned protesters fled a haze of tear gas, their comrades marched on in defiance of what the Greek people see as an attack on their rights.

Those caught in the unrest struggled for air, yet the words could still be heard from their mouths and the message was clear. IMF and eurozone, get out.

Tensions flared yesterday in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, after Sunday’s agreement between the Government and other eurozone members.

The deal will provide Greece with €110 Billion ($AU160 Billion) in emergency aid, in return for tax hikes and a severe cut to public sector spending.

Sotitirs Zarianopoulos, General Secretary of the Trade Unions of Thessaloniki and Secretary of the Pame Union, said interference by the IMF and eurozone will divide the country and believes the issue is one that should be managed domestically.

“The IMF is a catastrophe for the working class,” he said.

“The only thing we can say to the IMF and the EU is ‘get out of Greece’.

“We don’t want to have any relation with you, we’re against you, we can handle our own economy, society and political power.”

PHOTO GALLERY – Click to enlarge

Pame, a democratic trade union of civil servants and private sector workers, represents 22 unions in Thessaloniki and a total of 244 parties across Greece.

The union, which aims to defend the rights of the working class people, staged a rally in Aristotelous Square yesterday morning, before converging with other union groups across the city for a mass protest.

“We strike for the overthrow of this government, the overthrow of capitalism, to get the workers everything they produce,” Zarianopoulos said.

Heading the rally, he stressed the importance of the workers’ presence on the streets and praised their willingness to protect the rights of the working class.

People feel “angry and determined” to survive against what Zarianopoulos described as “the biggest attack from any government against workers since the Second World War”.

Maria Prevelianiki, Hospital Administration Assistant in Thessaloniki, expressed her concern yesterday at the loss of workers rights.

“We feel angry, cheated. We are going back 100 years, with no rights”.

“These people are taking advantage of us. We work, we produce and they take our money,” she said.

Prevelianiki currently earns €700 per month. Pame is fighting to increase the minimum monthly wage to €1400, to cover the rising cost of living and increased tax rates.

“We as the workers are united, we have the power. We should be on the road, to demonstrate for our rights.

“They are taking back rights people give their lives for,” she said.

Zarianopoulos shared this sentiment, “[We are] obliged for our lives and the lives of our children and the coming generations to protect what we have conquered for decades”.

Dimitroukas Fotis, a Greek resident who lived and worked in Melbourne in the 1960s, left Australia to avoid being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War.

Fotis returned to Greece and now, fifty years later, is facing a war of another kind.

“This is a big crisis. The banks take the money, the government takes the money and we have nothing in our pocket,” he said.

There is a consensus across the country that the IMF and eurozone have become too involved in policies that affect the lives of Greek people.

Manousaridis Babis, an organiser of yesterday’s rally, confirmed this.

“We don’t like them, we like to decide for ourselves.”

His message from the people of Greece to the IMF: “put your heads down”.

There is wide spread anger towards anyone supporting the new measures placed on the Greek Government and this is visible on the debris lined streets and squares of Thessaloniki.

What began as a peaceful protest soon turned violent yesterday as riot police, armed with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash grenades, clashed with anarchists in the third general strike of the year.

Following a stand off between the two groups, the day of solidarity turned into chaos as riot police, backed by a motorcade, stormed the crowd.

Confrontation continued throughout the city until anarchists retreated to Aristotle University and as they armed themselves for further attacks on waiting police, the unions reinforced a similar mindset.

“We are prepared for this war; we are determined to win this war,” Zarianopoulos said.

Elise Dalley is studying Journalism and Law at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
Ben O’Halloran is a Journalism student from Murdoch University, Perth, Australia