Greek Protests – 4 Ways Greek Regime Is Crushing Resistance

1. Suppression of Information.

Any news coverage regarding the Greek government bail out is shrouded in secrecy.

Any news coverage of a default is full of word like “catastrophe” and”chaos” but quantifying their dramatic words with specific is sadly lacking.

This suppression of information makes it almost impossible for Greeks to form intelligent opinions about the reality of the situation.

Someone says a road accident was horrific but does not give you any details. How are you supposed to determine if the accident was actually horrific or if they are exaggerating?

Road traffic accidents get more in-depth analysis in Greece that the ramifications of  a Greek default.

This type of suppression of information is not unique to Greece. Libya is a recent example of information suppression on a global scale.

Politicians (and media echoes), worldwide, that the installation of democracy in a undemocratic country is a good thing. And that is it.

There is no mention of the thousands of people who were killed by NATO. If this news were given equal exposure then people would be in a better to position to assess for themselves whether it was a good idea to get rid of Gaddafi, rather than simply having to take the word of a politician or newspaper/media outlet.

2. Making resistance and protest socially unacceptable

The Papademos regime has iron fisted control over the Greek media and they use for their end at every opportunity.

The most obvious examples of the suppression of protest is the Athens protests.

Whenever there are mass demonstrations outside the parliament building in Syntagma it always descends into stone throwing between youths and police launching tear gas.

This is the most blatant attempt to alienate public opinion against the people who are protesting. When people see images of people in their forties, fifties and sixties getting attacked with tear gas by police, who can blame them for deciding not to protest in the future?

Another more covert physiological operation is the Greek media and Greek government turning people who protest through the non-payment of taxes into pariahs. They are branded as unpatriotic and parasites.

Non payment of taxes is one of the most important forms of passive, non violent resistance. The government knows this which is why the issue of tax evasion is front and centre in Greek newspapers while at the same time nothing is being done to improve audits of businesses.

Tax evasion is a physiological tool of the Greek government and has nothing to do with actually collecting taxes.

3. Denigrate Protesters

Whenever there are protests the Papademos regime do their utmost to denigrate them. Stating that protesters are unpatriotic or that protesters are in a minority and spoil it for everyone else.

4. The most blatant method of crushing resistance. intimidation and threats, Euro/Drachma, exit EU, pensions, army

The favourite tool of Papademos political/media  complex is to threaten Greek with a return to the Drachma. But not only a return to the Drachma, the Greek central bank has also said they will take the country back 50 years.

Even with outrageous statements like this, there is no dissent in the Greek media.

The other main ploy used to crush resistance is the threat to pensioners.

Like Obama said he would stop paying people social security before he cut a dollar in military spending, the Papademos regime has said the same thing.

The Papademos regime has made it clear that pension and benefits will be cut before anyone is laid off in the public sector. For a government to say they will cut off funding to pensioners who have already paid their pensions contributions is not immoral it could arguable be classified as theft it they were to go through with it.

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