The Athens' Heat

The summer in Athens is in full-swing! The temperature rises, the days are longer, sweat paints your t-shirt to your body, and most Greek natives escape to one of the countries 227 islands. With the heat in the city reaching new heights, theres no harm in adding a few more degrees to the thermometer. With that being said, a tax office was bombed in the central district of Ambelokipi. The bomb that exploded at 1:30 am on Friday was placed under the office's disability ramp and the blast found its merry way to a McDonalds nearby. Before the 4.4 lbs dynamite bomb was denotated, police say an anonymous call was phoned into newspapers to warn about the coming attack.



To add more flames to the fire, a gas canister bomb was left in the car of newly appointed chairman of the Council of States, Judge Panagiotis Pikrammenos as a congratulations gift. The attack occurred yesterday afternoon in the parking lot of Greece's highest administrative court in the heavily trafficked city center. As Prodigy of Mobb Deep once said, "in broad day light get right." What a splendid welcoming for a new judge!

The journalist strike in solidarity with the closure of Eftheros Typos, which has been publishing since 1983, disrupted the production of newspapers, television, and radio transmissions but is now over. Journalist occupied newspaper offices and took shifts guarding the building from police eviction. Also, the electrical facilities of the fascist newspaper Stohos was sabotaged by anti-fa. This week Stohos was unable to print its anti-immigrant and anti-semetic garbage. In other labor news, Emporiki Bank workers are ready to strike after the bank announced that it is cutting the jobs of 1,500 workers. Emporiki bank, one of the 500 largest in the world, has 370 branches across Greece.

Four people were detained yesterday for the January kidnapping of magnate Pericles Panagopoulos, who was then released after his family paid a multi-million-euro ransom. Panagopoulos, one of Greece’s richest men and a key player in the country’s ferry business, was snatched in broad daylight on Jan. 12 by three men wielding assault rifles as he was being driven to work near Athens. Last week, the 73-year-old wife of shipowner Aris Theodorides was abducted after her car was ambushed by armed men in Paleo Faliro. The chauffeur was immediately released but Theodoride's wife was only released only after her family paid a ransom of 1.8 million.

As the Greek state continues to mass arrest immigrants in the city center, the police are complaining that their facilities are overcrowded with those captured. It is now an all too common site to see police stopping, beating, and arresting anyone with dark skin in the squares of the city center. It is estimated that over 1,551 immigrants were arrested in the last month. Huge demonstrations are scheduled for next week to protest the recent xenophobic State policies and fascist and police collaboration to terrorize immigrants. Let the street fights begin!