From New Worker Online
November 19, 1999
Special Report by Steve Lawton
MASSIVE security measures have been taken in Athens for the visit today and tomorrow of US President Clinton amid an outcry of popular opposition to US-led NATO intervention in the Balkans and what the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) called its divide and rule in the region.
Preparing for days of demonstrations and marches, a total exclusion zone has been created by the ruling PASOK Government, where neither vehicles or people can move anywhere near the President's route through Athens. Mobs of security personnel will comb streets for booby-trapped cars.
An FBI posse is said to have minutely searched every inch of the Intercontinental Hotel at which he will stay. And a USAF C-17 transport plane was reported to have arrived at Athens airport last Monday, carrying a helicopter which will hover over the US leader throughout his trip.
The world's mightiest imperialist power was stopped in its tracks when fierce opposition to President Clinton's expected visit to Greece last weekend, was aborted, shortened, and rescheduled for today, amid fears for his safety.
Mass-scale demonstrations and protests led by communists, workers and anti-imperialists, proved highly effective during the US-led Nato bombing of Yugoslavia. The latest protests were planned to dog the US leaders' every move right from the moment of Air Force One's touchdown, and including marches to the US embassy.
The US Administration, according to Press and Media Minister Dimitris Reppas, was advised by the Greek Parliament on 10 November to postpone the visit to this weekend, which follows the summit of the OSCE -- Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe -- in Istanbul, Turkey.
The visit had originally been set for 22-24 November and was then changed to 13-15 November. Reppas denied there was any connection between the next change and the impending anti-US actions, dismissing them as unrepresentative of the majority of Greek people. President Clinton, questioned about 'security concerns", said he felt the Greek government thought it more useful to hold the meeting after the OSCE.
Athens News Agency reported that he was "not concerned at all" and the US leader explained Greece has "a tradition of large demonstrations. And the communists [and] others in Greece, want to demonstrate in large measure, I understand, because they strongly disagree with my policy in Kosovo and presumably before that in Bosnia." He added: "And you know, I think we were right, and I disagree with them. But the fact that they have the right to free speech doesn't concern me."
But the supposed minority opposition to the US role in the region, not surprisingly, is inaccurate.
The KKE said last weekend that the postponement would benefit rather than harm the interests of Greece, and it gave the Greek people an opportunity to step up their protests. The Party said that both Greek and Turkish people would be harmed if the aims of imperialism were not stopped.
Youth movements of the KKE, Coalition of the Left (Synaspisrnos) and Democratic Social Movement (DHKKI) are supporting a march to the US embassy today as President Clinton arrives. Even PASOK youth are taking action, but have said they are not prepared to attempt a march to the US embassy.
In a statement from the core grouping, they explained that they are protesting against US intervention in the Balkans and in other areas of the world. And it called on the Greek government to bring to a halt the use of Creek territory as a springboard for US acts against other countries.
Coalition of the Left leader Nikos Constantopoulos believed the government had hidden the truth of the change from the public. He said 'developments constitute clear pressure and blackmail against our country by the US."
Dimitris Tsovolas, head of the Democratic Social Movement, said: "President Clinton's visit to Greece is part of the US attempt to impose a 'new order' in the region, including upgrading Turkey's role, dropping Greece's right to veto and pressuring Greece and Cyprus over legitimising the results of the invasion and occupation of the island."
Leader of the main right wing opposition party, New Democracy's (ND) Costas Karamanlis, criticised PASOK Premier Kostas Simitis's handling of the visit, but added nonetheless that the US "must realise that the policy of maintaining an equal distance vis-a-vis Greece and Turkey encourages Turkish aggressiveness and provocativeness."
He said that Turkey remains expansionist in the Aegean, and intransigent over Cyprus "which in addition to being unjust for Greece, primarily hurts stability in the region."
The widespread criticism, groundswell of popular opposition and incidents of anti-US bombings that have been linked to the visit, represent an overwhelming dissatisfaction with US relations in the region. Last week, a device went off outside a Levi's jeans store; before that on 5 November a bomb was defused outside Nike's sports shop and on 15 November a bomb was defused outside the Ford car showroom in Athens.
The Government is accused by the KKE of attempting to create an atmosphere of anti-communism in response to the opposition. The KKE branch office in central Athens was attacked last week. Six masked men armed with clubs and pipes broke in and beat up three men, aged 81, 47 and 23 who were hospitalised. The Government condemned that act, but the KKE said it was ultimately responsible for fostering the conditions in which such acts could occur due to its anti-communist propaganda.
In a defiant statement quoted in the daily Kathimerini, the KKE said that "the communists and other fighters are not cowed and are not frightened by these attacks. They will reply with their participation in mass demonstrations, strengthening the fight for the protection of democratic rights and the country's national independence." Another KKE office in the northwest suburb of Halandri was set alight last Tuesday -damage, no injuries. Anarchist and anti-communist graffiti was daubed on the walls.
The rescheduling of the 'warm' reception planned for Clinton, described by Kathimerini as "unprecedented in recent US history", will now occur in a tense atmosphere in which the US leader is likely to appear completely ostracised.
That atmosphere will be heightened by the Athens Polytechnic uprising of 17 November 1973 against the bloody military dictatorship is commemorated with protests, demonstrations and marches, as well as wreath laying.
Riot police detachments are on hand to protect the US President whose hotel is opposite the Pandeion University. That has been shut down for the week and is sealed off from students. Police are also to be deployed to other central university buildings to prevent sit-ins.
And the daily Kathimerini said "the government seems determined this time to accede to US pressure on keeping demonstrators far from the embassy." The Government is quite practised at this, having often used anti-terrorist police to prevent pensioners from petitioning Prime Minister.
The daily had, before last weekend, said that Washington was "greatly displeased" at the way the government had dealt with the matter. It said that three times the government had told US officials that demonstrators would be kept at a safe distance, but that the KKE's unwavering intention to march to the US embassy last Saturday forced the government to change tack. Senior PASOK officials were also reported to have said that the Clinton visit came within a whisker of being cancelled altogether.
President Clinton may note that Harry Truman"s statue, after several months absence, is back up on its pedestal in Vassileous Constantinou Avenue in Athens, following repairs. On 28 May anti-Nato demonstrators used sledgehammers and a rope to bring it down.
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