Is Greece having a 1968?

Young people in the streets.  The government forced into an early election and saying that it can’t control the country.  Years of simmering discontent apparently coalescing into serious civil unrest.   Perhaps things look worse than they are because of the police tactic of avoiding direct confrontations with rioters where possible: sacrifice property to safe life.  But is there any other European country this close to boiling point?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Political issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. Oliver Says:
   December 10th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

   France, but masked by the racial component.

   It seems to me that contrary to 1968 we are seeing not a political movement but true generational struggle.

2. Tom Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 9:47 am

   Not sure this is either; pretty much goovernmental incompetence(the police takes orders and doe snot decide on confrontation or nonconfrontation tactics on its own) and lack of guts. A good captain is one who will steer the ship to its destination, not whichever way the wind is blowing. This means sometimes having to stand against the wind. If you do that
   you may find out that the wind is not that strong or that there will be a strong wind blowing as you wish too.
   The only thing that saves the government is even greater opposition incompetence.
   Some of the worrying signs can be seen everywhere:
   1)Abolition of due process and going back to the days of lynch first, let them defend themselves later. In this case the prosecutor charged the police officer with voluntary manslaughter BEFORE the results of the investigation(for instance ballistics)
   Although in a criminal case it may be the first instance, in general it is not. In the UK for instance there was a case some years ago where a Cambridge(I believe) student was accused of rape and pressured by the university to admit it to satisfy the so-called bloodthirsty public sentiment; the guy stood his ground and the university was embarassed. Similar is the EU idiotic “sexual harassment” laws where the accused has to prove innocence. The point is that there is a tendency to sacrifice justice
   and the old principles of the liberal democracy that generations have fought and died for.
   2)Americans have learned the hard way that they need to stand by the police except in a clear-cut case. You cannot expect people of high quality joining a force(police) where they will be spat upon, thrown rocks and bottled or even molotoff cocktails and are expected to do nothing about it. Generations have fought for the right to demonstrate peacefully, to strike, but not for the right to swear and throw things at the police.
   3) The problem is Greece is different from France or other countries. In this case you have
   a well-organized group of criminals who like to destory things. By not breaking the back of such groups, the government has allowed them to be glorified, more like Robin Hood or the Jesse james.
   4) The generation gap is real and a problem for many countries because the new generation grows up with no jobs, no hope and no future and on the other hand has not been prepared adequately to scrap and fight for it like previous generations.

3. Bob R Says:
   December 11th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

   A friend in Athens, whose care was torched over the weekend, sent a few pics from the street. Here, in interested:
   http://pirancafe.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/athens-ashes/