DISQUS

An_American_Karol · 11 months ago

Good god, that's some serious anger. I haven't seen that since the Watt's riots in LA.

justadood · 11 months ago

which Watts riots? The race riots of the '60's, or the Rodney King riots of the '90's?
Both were pretty bad.
I flipped through a few of the comments on the photo spread's page, and was struck at the ignorance of some, but at teh same time the anger. Anger at teh system, but no apparent thought as to what would happen to them once they removed that system.

Jay Randal · 11 months ago

The citizenry of Greece are in rebellion against their corrupt government. This could eventually take place in US, if Congress continues to give away billions of dollars to Wall Street banksters. Revolutions are never pretty events to see.

dula · 11 months ago

You are absolutely correct. When you back people with nothing to lose against a wall...watch out!
The elite are raiding the US Treasury. What are we going to do about it?????

LeftCoastOracle · 11 months ago

Whoa. These photos are really scary. They remind me of Watts. I'm so happy we elected Barack Obama last month and hope he has a chance to change the way our government works. It will take time and I hope people can wait.

smallhandff · 11 months ago

I was starting to think of the SexPistols when, to my suprise, I saw the pic of "the martyr" on his God Save The Queen t-shirt. I wonder if, in the name of Harvey Milk, someone will be inspired to burn the national xmas tree.

An Other Greek · 11 months ago

I gotta tell you, I thought similar things when I saw the photo... Maybe punk is not dead?

The picture of the youths offering flowers to the police was also very touching, if retro...

The issues live past style,

now style lives on with the unresolved issues...

in a way it's hopeful:
The Hippy Revolution was not a "trend" as the MSM always likes to tell us, and the punks are still out there, evidently...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

paulbe · 11 months ago

This will very likely be you lot twelve months from now. Maybe us here too. Wherever you live Governments and elites have brought this on.

Jungle Jil · 11 months ago

Impressive. Though I cringe at calling photos of destruction, violence, and mayhem "the best" photos, I appreciate the sentiment.

Older_Wiser · 11 months ago

Of course, there are underlying reasons for all of this, but the Greek govt's reaction seems to be, "Let them eat baklava."

Isn't it so in every country now, with corrupt leadership and capitalism gone wild raping ordinary citizens economically? People will take only so much, and when leaders do not listen, we see the same reaction time and again when people awaken from their slumber.

No one is happy with any of this, and it only takes a small spark to light huge fires. It has happened before Greece, with different actors, but the root causes are the same. When people start linking the causes of their various miseries, you no longer can call them mere "rioters" but revolutionaries.

I'm sure the Boston Tea Party was called a "riot" by the British...

SCLiberal · 11 months ago

I was struck by photo #29. On the back of the protester's jacket is the Nike swoop—Nike, who's slogan is "Just Do It".

BusyTimmy · 11 months ago

The police officer engulfed in a molotov cocktail was shocking. Thanks for the link.

Laura_in_CC · 11 months ago

Whoa! Totally awesome photos -- disturbing though they may be. Imagine the photos we'd have if digital cameras had been around at other revolutions...ours included. Photojournalism is perhaps even more powerful than the traditional form.

Indigo · 11 months ago

Excellent photo-journalism!

from the New York Times, 12/1/2:
"For most Greeks, raised in a culture with a high tolerance for protest and disarray, it was the Olympics that were the anomaly, not the violence and government inertia on display here this week.

“The Olympics were a utopia,” said Paraskevas Golfis, who was having coffee in an upscale shopping mall that opened two weeks ago in a former Olympic venue here. “Greek reality is what we’re living today.”

That reality — economic stagnation, widespread corruption, a troubled education system, rising poverty, precarious security — was thrust to the fore this week as thousands of Greeks spilled onto the streets to protest against the government."

Oh, I see. That makes sense. The Anarchy [A inside O] sign is often seen. More surprizing was the EZLN t-shirt. [Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional]. The 1990s Maya insurgency in Chiapas, Mexico doesn't have a whole lot to do with Athenean democracy but it fits the larger picture of insurgency.

¡Hacia la victoria siempre!

Gary SF · 11 months ago

The problem is that the anarchists do not want any solution. They are parasitic in that they latch onto any cause in order to inflict their methods upon everyone else. It is just like the Communists or Socialist Worker's Party here - they show up at EVERY demonstration here, regardless of their interests in the 'cause' - pushing their ideals on everyone. When they called themselves Communists, I would always ask them why every example of communism we have seen in the world has had no tolerance for dissenting voices and gays. Being consistent in not tolerating dissenting voices, they always blow me off. On the other hand, I was VERY disappointed that we didn't see widespread civil disobedience against the Bush administration. We're too comfortable or too lazy.

Indigo · 11 months ago

It's a mixed bag at best.  The "Anarchists" don't have a program because they're logically consistent. Anarchy is the program.  Others, like the "communists" don't have a program either because they haven't actually read Marx or, more likely, they don't look past expressing dissatisfaction because they don't expect to win politically.  Coming up with the blueprint isn't necessarily the first step  Tthe first step is sometimes just to take down the offending structure, then see what there is.

Gary SF · 11 months ago

Excellent photos. As usual, it is a group of anarchists who are exacerbating the problem They do the same stuff here. And speaking of SF, we had a 'mini riot' here over the weekend to show solidarity (or stupidity) with the Greek riots:

Protesters wreak havoc at S.F. mall

A band of demonstrators, many wearing black masks, stormed a bustling San Francisco mall Saturday evening, upending garbage cans and foliage and damaging crystal merchandise at one kiosk.
An estimated 50 to 75 people were involved in the disruption at Westfield San Francisco Centre, police said.

"It felt like random, vague anarchy," said Sam Cantrell, who sells sunglasses at a kiosk near the escalators on the street level where the protesters gathered.

"Everyone's yelling," he said. "Some people started running up the escalator the wrong way. People were grabbing their babies and running away in fear."

The disruption began around 6:30 p.m. as holiday shoppers crowded the mall on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Some protesters threw food, police said. Others tried to toss a large planter onto the food court below.

According to mall management, the protesters were part of a "Solidarity with Greek Uprising" demonstration, which began in the Mission District earlier in the afternoon. An international day of action was called on Saturday to protest the death of a young man in Greece in early December.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/...