This was posted by ATHENSNEWS last week. You can read the full article and other stories at www.athensnews.gr! I would like the foreigners who visit my blog to get an idea how life in Greece is.
Living in Athens means learning to live with street demonstrations. You either plan your daily activities around them or prepare to sit in traffic jams.
Demonstrations are so common in Athens that radio stations in the city alert motorists to roadblocks almost every morning.
"It wasn't this bad last year," said Nikos, a bus driver with 10 years' experience. "It's the students who just won't call it quits."
Nikos is referring to weekly mass demonstrations organised by university students and professors to protest new legislation aimed at reforming higher education.
While the most common types of protesters these days are the university students and their professors, there is a growing number of Greeks who are taking their grievances to the streets, blocking traffic and highways. They include pensioners and contract workers who claim they are barely making ends meet, farmers demanding additional state aid and immigrant workers who want to secure a legal status or citizenship rights for their children.
According to the All Workers Militant Front (PAME), which was created by the Greek Communist Party in 1999, the growing number of demonstrations is a sign of how serious things have become in Greece.
"The problems are many and they are big and getting bigger," said Dimos Koubouris, PAME executive committee member. "The living conditions of the working class are getting worse. The situation with public education is getting worse. And in general the problems concerning wages, pensions and other social issues are getting worse. This is why so many demonstrations are justified and, certainly, the demonstrations will continue. We are now preparing for the nationwide May 1 (International Labour Day) demonstration - it will be the biggest."
PAME, which represents more than 200 Greek unions and about a half million unionists across the country, is one of the biggest march organisers along with the trade unions - the General Confederation of Workers in Greece (GSEE) and the civil servants' union (ADEDY).
As for those who complain about the problems caused by demonstrations, Koubouris says they are exaggerated in the media.
Public Order Minister Vyronas Polydoras disagrees. He wants to change the rules governing street marches and rallies so that these activities no longer stop traffic.
Polydoras has proposed that one lane should always be reserved for traffic. Demonstrations in Athens heading towards parliament or the US embassy traditionally take all six traffic lanes.
Leftist lawmakers and unionists have accused Polydoras of trying to curb protest rallies altogether.
Shopowners in the downtown Athens area, however, are in favour of the minister's proposal. Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis agrees. "Athens cannot be held hostage several days of the week," he told reporters.
According to Dimitris Armenakis, president of the National Confederation of Greek Traders, local sales drop by a whopping 92 percent on the days that there is a big demonstration in Athens. He estimates that shops in Athens and Piraeus have suffered more than 500 million euros in damages between October and March due to more than three dozen demonstrations.
According to Athens Deputy Mayor George Dimopoulos, the city spends as much as 20,000 euros in order to clean up after a big demonstration. He said this includes the cost of street-sweeping, fixing broken pavement and other repairs, as well as painting over graffiti.
A five-month demo timeline
March 22 Students demonstrate in Athens and Thessaloniki
March 21 Students demonstrate in Thessaloniki
March 18 Human rights advocates demonstrate against poor prison conditions in Nafplio
March 17 Antiwar demonstration in Athens
March 16 PAME demonstrates in Thessaloniki against imperialistic wars
March 15 Students demonstrate in Athens
March 14 Pensioners demonstrate in Athens and Thessaloniki
March 12 Students demonstrate in Thessaloniki
March 9 Students demonstrate in Athens
March 9 Iraklis football club fans demonstrate in Thessaloniki
March 8 Iraklis football club fans demonstrate in Thessaloniki
March 8 PAME demonstrates in Athens and Thessaloniki
March 8 Students demonstrate in Athens
March 7 Students demonstrate in Thessaloniki
March 7 Livestock farmers and milk producers demonstrate in Mesolongi
March 6 Workers in the shipbuilding zone of Perama, outside Piraeus, demonstrate outside the merchant marine ministry
March 5 Students demonstrate in Athens
March 4 Football club Iraklis fans demonstrate in Thessaloniki
March 3 Farmers demonstrate in Fthiotida
March 2 Staff of so-called Help At Home programmes demonstrate in Athens
March 1 Students demonstrate in Athens
February 22 Students demonstrate in Athens and Thessaloniki
February 22 PAME demonstrates in Athens and Thessaloniki against the privatisation of education
February 15 Students demonstrate in Athens
February 15 Contract workers in the public sector demonstrate outside the interior ministry in Athens
February 14 Students demonstrate in Athens
February 10 Immigrant workers demonstrate in Athens
February 9 Pensioners demonstrate in Thessaloniki
February 8 Students demonstrate in Athens
February 7 Students demonstrate in Athens' northern suburb of Kastri
February 4 Students demonstrate in Athens' northern suburb of Kastri
February 3 Students demonstrate in Athens and Thessaloniki
February 1 Anarchists demonstrate in Athens
January 31 Students demonstrate in Athens and Thessaloniki
January 27 Palestinian community in Athens demonstrates outside the Israeli embassy
January 26 Students demonstrate in Athens
January 24 Students demonstrate in Athens and Thessaloniki
January 17 Students demonstrate in Thessaloniki
January 13 Local Pakistani community demonstrates against the expulsion of Pakistani community leader Javid Aslam
January 10 PAME demonstrates in Thessaloniki against privatisation of higher education
January 10 Students demonstrate against revising Article 16 of the constitution
December 19 Pensioners demonstrate in Athens
December 14 Employees at Hellenic Telecommunications (OTE) demonstrate in Athens
December 13 The country's two biggest trade unions (GSEE and ADEDY) demonstrate in Athens
December 12 Police officers, firefighters and coastguard demonstrate in Athens
December 8 Students demonstrate in Athens
November 30 Students demonstrate in Athens
November 19 Social insurance foundation (IKA) employees demonstrate in Athens
November 17 Mass demonstration organised in Athens and Thessaloniki to commemorate the 1973 Polytechnic uprising
November 16 Municipal contract workers demonstrate in Athens
November 16 Dock workers demonstrate in Piraeus
November 12 Pakistani immigrants demonstrate against the arrest of their community leader Javid Aslam
November 8 Pensioners demonstrate in Thessaloniki
November 6 Ambulance workers demonstrate outside the health ministry in Athens
November 3 Students demonstrate in Athens
November 1 Forest rangers and firefighters demonstrate outside the interior ministry
