Greece, Athens 4-7 May: An anarchist forum, a demo and a riot (Photos)

Chomsky in a recent article argues that contemporary US ruling class propaganda is based more on the omission of critical info than on lies. And this tactic is concistently followed by the "reporter" above who avoids to mention what the "anarchists" did during the march, as well as many other details, consequently distorting the truth. Let's take his/her arguments one by one.
1."During all that time the ESF people did what it was unconceivable even for leftists. They managed the rally as if it was their own".
I have to inform you that the rally was their own because the same day three different rallies took place in Athens, each one organised by different social/political groups. Apart from ESF's , there were also demonstrations organised by the "Anticapitalist/Anti-imperialist International meeting" ( http://www.iaam-athens2006.gr) and the "Libertarian Anarchist Forum" ( http://www.libertariananarchistforum.com/en/main.htm). So, why ESF organisers didn't have the right to claim that it was their own march and they could manage it as they at their sake? Furthermore, you don't pose the question ""Why did the anarchists choose to be peaceful in their own rally"? I assume that in their course they didn't bump into any symbols of capitalism and State, which unfortunatelly were all concentrated in ESF's rally... Why after the end of their own rally they did they go to the ESF's one?

2."(ESF) eagerly played the part of the police or used the Police for their purposes".
What you are saying here is a very serious accusation against the ESF, which is still unconfirmed. The last week a sharp debate has broken out on Athens Indymedia, where both sides (ESF, Anarchists) accuse each other for what happened. he truth was eventually revealed when one of the anarchists arrested after the march (his name is Kalaremas) stated that it is far from being true that ESF cooperated with the police, saying that his arrest was a result of "his own" and not "ESF's" action. ( http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=503337#503767)

3. "They attempted to arrest people (sometimes just on the grounds of being hooded or wearing black clothes) and hand them over to the police, while in other occasions they attacked passers-by based on the same aforementioned criteria which resulted to dozens of arrests and 17 prosecutions including minors and immigrants"
What you say here is a blatant lie, already proved in Greece. Athens ESF never handed over anyone to the police and you should be ashamed to claim this. But I see that it's very convenient to spread rumours and lies in UK where the most people can't read Greek and thus not being able to learn the truth. If anyone doubts what I'm saying, I can translate Kalarema's statement to English, so that you can see from first hand that what "zxc " is bullshits.
P.S. Sorry for my English.

The Greeks huh? Dontcha just love em? It's war on all sides, and riot porn and interesting arguments are the result.

That is exactly what springs into mind when someone that witnessed the events and the perfect co-operation of the ESF people with the riot police.

It’s this kind of propaganda that these mediators between the state and its subjects in Europe are struggling to impose on people so as to persuade everyone that the rally was a success. The key point in their non-admittance of handing people over to the police is the coming municipality election during this fall. It’s amazing to what lengths one might go in order to erase from the collective memory of those who witnessed the attacks of the ESF people against innocent bystanders with wooden sticks from the flags they were carrying. A typical smear propaganda.

So let’s add some incidents to the list of fascist’s attitude against other demonstrators. Before they attacked innocent bystanders and turning them over to the police just for wearing black clothes many ESF thugs attacked and seriously injured several women from SEK (an organization that incidentally participates in the ESF) just for arguing about who’s going to lead the rally. This can be backed up by photos and witness accounts as well as several public denouncements by those injured that were recently published in the Greek Press.

In relation to the Kalaremas statement he was referring only to his case and of course he couldn’t have been able to comment about anyone else’s case because he was arrested early during the rally. Thus, he was not able to witness the ESF thugs beating up passers-by and bystanders and trying to push them towards the riot police. In any case Kalaremas is not a credible source since his lawyer is a known official member of the ESF. In any case Kalaremas does not even admit of being an anarchist so why are you trying to categorize him amongst anarchists just to back up your smear propaganda?

The point is that more and more witness accounts appear every day so unless they try to threaten or bribe all of them day by day the truth becomes stronger.

You are implying that you witnessed the cooperation of the ESF with the police, something that I didn't see anywhere, neither can I imagine. Just to let you know, every ESF has a special character, shaped basically by the characteristics of the movement of the hosting country. For example, I've been at 3 ESFs the last years, and each of them had different social/political characteristics from the other. At the first ESF that took place in Florence PRC's dominance was apparent, while the previous ESF in London resembled a SWP/Livingston gathering, with all the implications of this fact.
However, in Athens the dominant group of ESF was the Greek Social forum, comprised mainly by Synaspismos, a reformist left party, and many groups coming from the revolutionary left, with some of them being considerably big (KOE). Just to let you know, in Greece there is a long record of conflicts between these political forces and KKE, the Communist party of Greece, over the issue you're referring to; handing over anarchist groups to the police. KKE has a long standing tradition of handing over "troublemakers" to the police, this is something that all the anarchist comrades can verify. In contrast, the Greek Social Forum over the last years has built respect and, on some occasions, solidarity relationships with various anarchist groups, and for this reason we never had problems with each other. I have many friends coming from an anti-authoritarian, anarchist "space", and although our political views differ, at least there is the acknowledgment that we have a common enemy; capitalism and its state. Consequently, there is a mutual "tolerance", or even cooperation developed all these years, with the sailors strike at Pireus the most recent event of this cooperation.
I mention all these because I want to point out that there was never hostility between GSF and anarchists groups, let alone hatred. What happened at the rally is that when some anarchist groups approached ESF some comrades from Cobas (Italian workers federation) started yelling "fascists" to the anarchists, and tried to push them out of the demo. I disagree with what happened, because it was authoritarian to call them fascists, let alone to try expel them from the march. (The old Athens Indymedia doesn' exist at the time, so I can't post any link proving what I'm saying)
However, you have omitted two critical points. First, you didn't say that dozens of these "anarchists" attacked a 60 old man at Cobas block, throwing him stones relentlessly, resulting to his heavy injury and his transfer to hospital. Wasn't such an attitude disgusting or was it friendly? I find that it was rather brutal and barbaric. Second, you don't say anything about the anarchists rally that took place earlier that morning at Monastiraki. Why? Why did the "Anti-authoritarian movement", a particular anarchist group, choose to be dispersed after the end of their demonstration, while other groups went to ESF rally? Why were they peaceful at their own rally, while they destroyed banks, police cars, shops etc at ESF demo? I don't give a shit about banks, police cars and shops that were destroyed, honestly, but all these attacks offered the police the "justification" for throwing hundreds of tear gases, and putting in danger the rally itself.
You also refer to the attack on the IS affiliate in Greece, SEK, and you are right to criticise it. But again, you don't say anything about the reasons of this conflict. If you knew Greek I could post you the links to SEK webpage, where you can find their article about this incident. Do you know what Garganas (the equivalent to Callinicos) says there? After denouncing Greek Social Forum for their attack on their block, he's arguing that Genoa 2001 and Stop the War Coalition (SEK's front groups) should be the first groups to lead the rally, as a recognition of their "contribution to the anti-war and anti-capitalist movement". That's what they tried to do before the rally started, violating previous agreements about the groups order, and GSF's team of safeguard responded so violently.
Anyway, this is a very very long discussion, but someone should provide evidence from "both" sides and not just being so one-dimmensional and subjective. Below I put two links, the fist as an evidence of ESF's cooperation with the police, and the second is CPGB's account on the conflict between GSF and SEK.

PS2. Smear propaganda means arguing something and presenting it as true without evidence, something that you do, supporting your arguments merely on the fact of your "witnessing".
P.S2. I'm not a supporter of CPGB, but I find their analysis very accurate.

 http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=503983
 http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/624/esf%20demo.htm

All I care as a visitor to your country is that I am extremely upset for the violence that was used by what appeared to be members of the European Social Forum. In any case the people that attacked us were currying red flags with something like Cobas written on it. I searched on the internet and found out that they were taking part in the proceeding of the European Social Forum and that's all I care really. When somebody attempts to attack you and beat you up while the place is packed full of policemen in riot gear aresting people around, you the least you care is about their politics.

I am a Norwegian living and working in London. Me and some friends went down to Greece to combine holidays and attending some of the esf proceedings but mainly some interesting workshops taking place at the Autonomous Spaces festival. We were just visitors, nothing more, nothing less. I never did expect that I might be reliving the violence and the use of the police by the esf people. We hold responsible the Greek Committee who have managed the rally like a bull in a china shop attacking people left and right and pushing them towards the cops. It's outrageous and a disgrace to see what happened in London taking place in Athens too.

Apart from being injured by some guys currying red flags, two Americans that we met in Greece and were with us at the time of the incident were later arrested and interrogated by the Greek police for more than 8 hours on the grounds of taking part in the riots just because some policemen in plain clothes witnessed the incident I told you. I don't know about them although we're in touch but we're contempalting filling lawsuits against the ESF organizers in Athens for the unprovoked attacks against us. Please if anyone knows how the Greek legal system works or knows any good lawyers in Greece that can handle our case please contact me at  Eric_Saure@hotmail.co.uk

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Verbal attacks and physical violence for no apparent reason won't be tolerated.