The rallies and demos of Friday 28.02.2025, were the most massive mobilizations that at least two generations have experienced, since the 1970s and 1980s. Syntagma Square was overflowing, even before the official rally time. The streets were packed with people throughout the city center. Ermou Street was packed all the way down to Monastiraki and Thisio. Stadiou Street was packed all the way to Omonia, as was Panepistimiou street. Athinas street was also packed with people, as were all the narrow streets connecting Athinas street to Syntagma square. The crowd overflowed towards Patision street, filled Dionysiou Areopagitou and reached Evangelismos at Vasilissis Sofias street and Frantzis at Syggrou street.
The size is awe-inspiring. The gathering surpasses even the grandest gatherings of the era of the Memoranda – although the consciousness at that time, on a political and class level, was of a very different kind. The American CNN had estimated at the time that the largest demonstrations (in Athens) had gathered 800,000. On Friday the crowd was bigger!
Some mathematical calculations, using computer applications, indicate that the crowd was around half a million. However, this concerns a static picture of the demonstrators. The reality is that at 1:00 pm, i.e. two hours after the official starting time of the rally, there was still a river of incalculable numbers on their way towards Syntagma square at the same time as another river, those who had come much earlier, was leaving. In Thessaloniki the numbers are estimated at 300,000, an unimaginable number. Exactly the same picture in all Greek cities – gatherings that have never happened before!
Finally, let’s look at the number of protest rallies: According to the calculations of https://tempi2023.jodi.graphics/ (which did the most diligent work) we had rallies in 264 Greek cities and towns and another 125 abroad, a total of 389! And this too is something unprecedented.
***
The government has been in a state of panic since January 26, the previous earth-shaking mobilization. The arch-mafia prime minister and the scoundrels who surround him, swindlers-liars-hypocrites, sold-out skins of the worst kind, have turned… into mourning. All of Greece is mourning the tragedy – they inform us… But some (“bad people” according to the inexorable vice-president Adonis Georgiadis) are trying to exploit the pain of the parents who lost their children, for their own benefit – they explain to us. Isolate all those who are trying to divide us – they tell us.
They forget a small detail.
On Friday February 28, we didn’t have a day of mourning declared by the sad mafioso posing as the sad prime minister.
We had a general strike!
And what a general strike!
***
First, the city is dead from end to end, everything is closed down. Hundreds of thousands went on strike for the first time in their lives. The Metro, after a decision of the Metro workers’ union, is at the service of the demonstrators, transporting them free of charge to the demonstration. The entire city center is in the hands of the workers, the youth, the popular classes, who are rhythmically shouting “Murderers” and “Fuck Mitsotakis.”
This is the power of the working-class movement, when it decides to move.
Second, and even more importantly, it was a general strike that started from below. Purely, completely, absolutely.
The issue of transforming the anniversary of the 28th had begun to be discussed soon after the January 26 march – i.e., not to just have a rally but also a strike. Grassroots unions began to adopt resolutions calling for a strike. The momentum was becoming uncontrollable, PAME (the KKE trade union faction) and ADEDY (the civil servants’ Union) adopted it, the Parents’ Association put its stamp on it and finally the depraved bureaucrats of the GSEE (the Greek Confederation of Unions) were dragged into calling for one too. Not that anyone really took notice of their call… the general strike would have happened anyway (as it did on March 8, 2023, despite the GSEE’s refusal to call it then).
***
The Tempi movement is ground breaking and shows the determination and stubbornness of an entire people to fight back at the criminals in the ministerial offices. At Tempi, 57 youth lost their lives, quite a number of them having been burned alive – there was a crime there and those responsible must pay. The government, clearly, and officially, now, after the conclusions of the EODASAAM report were publicized on Thursday (27.02.2025), tried to hide the facts, by messing up the area using bulldozers to remove the soil and cover up the evidence so as to hide the real facts of the crime – and those responsible. That was another crime, on top of the first crime.
It’s not a surprise then that disapproval not only of the government but also of judiciary ranges around 80% in the various recent opinion polls.
The mass of the population is well aware of what kind of people are ruling the country – only because of the electoral system which gives Mitsotakis an easy majority while only getting 41% of the vote (with about 50% abstaining at the last elections of 2023). The workers and the youth, are not “of the couch” as various left and anarchist petit bourgeois circles denounce them. Nor is society “conservatizing” and “fascistizing” (without this meaning underestimating the dangers of the Far Right). Workers and young people are watching and, when they see a reason, when it makes sense for them, they mobilize and fight back.
***
The Tempi movement not only exposes the government, it also exposes the (parliamentary) opposition. What did the various PASOK, SYRIZA, New Left, etc. do, to expose the crime? Nothing!
It is a fact that the KKE (Greek communist party) mobilized for the 28th (after a number of grass roots unions took decisions in favor of a strike) but it is also a fact that it did not take the initiative to investigate the accident and to inform society of what really happened at Tempi. Nor did it take any initiatives or make any proposals for the continuation and escalation of the movement.
All the work was done by the Association of parents of the dead youth, which the establishment fought with fury, especially the president of the Association, Maria Karystianou. They placed their bets against Karystianou and they lost it all! The mass of the population supports the Association – and have expectations only from it! One motto of the Association, inspires more than anything else: “Fight until the very end”!
***
Once upon a time, such movements were created by the Left. Not anymore, unfortunately. The existing mass parties of the Left, and this applies to the huge majority of left parties, all over Europe and globally, have been tested and have failed. They can neither provide perspective nor inspiration. The workers and the popular classes, in the present epoch, prefer to give their confidence to people who have proven that they have the courage and determination to fight. It is no coincidence that such people are mothers, like Maria Karystianou and Magda Fyssa, who lost their children due to the actions of those who are protected by the rulers.
Through such movements, hope and perspective are reborn. Maria Karystianou, Magda Fyssa and many others beside them and with them, will not shy away, they will not back down, they will go far in this battle they have begun. But they cannot overthrow the system that creates those who murder their children – because such a thing requires the existence of organized forces with a goal and a plan to overthrow and manage the new power. To do this, another kind of a Left needs to be built – new, militant, uncompromising, with a clear goal and plan for the overthrow of capitalism, for a socialist society in the true sense of the word. A revolutionary mass Left is needed, to fight for a society where profits will not be above people, a society that will not constantly produce “Tempi” on the altar of the interests of a parasitic elite.
***
In the meantime, we need to see how the movement will continue. This means:
- Fight to the end, to expose the cover-up.
- An Independent Research Committee, consisting of bodies that are not connected with the establishment – scientific bodies, representatives of the relatives of the victims, representatives of the train workers’ union and of the broader trade union movement, etc.
- Exemplary punishment of the guilty, whoever they are, no matter how high they are.
- Kicking out Hellenic Train from the country’s railways without compensation – like all capitalists, all it cares about is its profits.
- Nationalization of the railways (OSE) with the goal and sole criterion of serving society and not the profits of the capitalists.
- Workers’ (and society’s) control and management of OSE, in conditions of full transparency, because only in this way can we have safe transportation at the service of society.
- Democratization and control of the Judiciary – let’s end the fairy tale of the “independent Judiciary”. It is part of the establishment, and it serves it faithfully and unquestioningly. We need elected judges accountable to society and to strengthen the institution of the jury so that they have the decisive say in every important trial.
- It is necessary, in parallel with the initiatives of the Association, to look at the issue of connecting local and social movements with the national Tempi movement. The panspermia of associations, movements and organizations that were present at the rallies shows the dynamics – Tempi must be embraced by every active collective at a local and national level. Discussions, actions, events, mobilizations should be organized in every region and space.
- Last but not least, we need to set a next milestone date, which will signal a serious escalation. Not in a hasty, spasmodic way, but with sufficient time to develop it and give a new dynamic. Such an escalation could be a 48-hour general strike. Time is needed for its proper preparation, with discussions in the workplaces and neighborhoods, and with the formation of committees and initiatives at the grassroots level. Local action committees need to have a mass appeal – this is possible if they are made up of local representatives of transport workers, associations of parents, teachers’ unions, pupils elected representatives, University students, social movements, left organisations etc.
The ruling mafia is on the ropes. Let there be no illusions that it will “correct its mistakes.” We have a responsibility not to let it catch its breath, not to let it strike back.
