Fault Lines Issue 2: Greece Wins the Gold in Repression

Greece Wins the Gold in Repression
Olympic preparations include building prisons, destroying forests and poisoning animals
By Antonis Vardis and IMC-Athens

With just a few weeks to go before the Olympic Games in Athens, preparations for the world’s biggest athletic competition are well under way. So far, international media have focused on the delayed construction of the Olympic venues, mostly ignoring the Greek government’s ecological destruction and trampling of human rights.

The first victims of the Olympics were 18 workers killed during the construction blitzkrieg of Olympic venues, but they will certainly not be the last. In the frenzied rush leading up to the Games, the Olympics have proven to be the perfect excuse for the Greek State to attack all the social groups that are in the margins and just about everyone refusing to participate in the corporate spectacle that is the Olympics.

The Cretan newspaper 'Patris' revealed in April that local authorities of Heraclion (one of the four cities hosting the Games) were planning to relocate all of the city's Roma (Gypsy) population to a military camp so that they wouldn't ruin the city's image. Thankfully, this plan caused fierce reaction and is now unlikely to materialize. However, stray animals (mainly dogs, cats and pigeons) in all four Olympic cities will not be as lucky- actions for their extermination by poisoning are already in progress.

A new 'Olympic' prison is being built at Aspropirgos, near Athens. This is perhaps the strongest evidence for the repressive wave that is expected to hit Greece in August. Local police will likely get help from the massive influx of international law enforcement converging in Greece in detaining junkies, Roma, refugee populations, and political activists under the guise of combating “terrorism.”

During and after the Olympics, Athens will have something Orwellian about it; over 1,000 surveillance cameras have been installed within Olympic venues and another 283 in other public spaces. This is an extraordinary measure for a country where such cameras have only been introduced within the last few years. The cameras were supposedly installed temporarily and for traffic coordination purposes only. This, however, would not explain why most of them are installed in areas where demonstrations are expected to take place.

The Greek Minister of Public Order, Y. Voulgarakis, recently confirmed fears that the cameras will stay after the Games. He stated that he would never order the removal of the cameras, adding that “any minister who did so would have to face the consequences, as this (surveillance) network has cost a vast amount of money to the country and therefore
has to be used in the post-Olympics era”.

Further adding to the whole surveillance paranoia, Voulgarakis announced that during the Games, citizens will be able to dial a four-digit number (1014) free of charge, in order to inform the authorities if they are aware of any “suspicious” activities.


It is estimated that the security personnel present in Athens during the Games will be 40,000 – 80,000 strong. The Greek police and army, domestic and international intelligence services and even NATO forces will be there. The first Olympic Games of the post-9/11 era will be the Games of surveillance, commercialism and state repression.

Finally, the environmental destruction caused by the construction of venues for the Games is massive. The Olympic Village is being constructed on the slope of the mountain of Parnitha, eliminating part of forest in one of Athens' last green resorts and the canoeing venue is being built in an area of global cultural and historical heritage in Marathon. The list is endless: the destruction of green to allow for the construction of the ping pong venue in Galatsi, cutting down of 8,500 trees to allow for the expansion of roads, and construction of an ultra-high voltage centre (400/150 ÊK.Vat, 1120 M.V.A.) at the mount of Immitos, 125 meters away from a local school.

Naturally, such repressive plans and actions have been fiercely opposed by leftist and anarchist groups and individuals across the country. Among others, the campaign “Anti2004” (http://www.anti2004.net) has organized conferences such as the anti-Olympics festival held in early July so journalists, lawyers, students, atheletes and anarchists could dicuss what the Games really stand for: steroids, bosses, multinationals, environmental destruction, and state repression. Opposition to the Games is strong and growing. One slogan that has been overheard increasingly is “Let the Olympics die in their birthplace.”

To learn more, visit: http://athens.indymedia.org/