FRIDAY JANUARY 28, 2011
- Τhe 50 migrant workers continue the hunger strike with determination.
- We changed our plan for an evening demo in the Western neighborhoods of the town, as soon as it was made known that the deputy minister of Labor and Social Security would indeed attend the conference on migration organized by NGOs and other groups in Thessaloniki. Hundreds of demonstrators hurriedly moved towards the French Institute, where the conference was underway. Four riot police vans were stationed across the road leading to the Institute, while several riot police units and plainclothes policemen were blocking all access to the area. At some point, riot police units started moving with the intention to surround the crowd. At the successful attempt of some demonstrators to avoid this, a confrontation began, which was immediately responded to with teargas and sound grenades from all over. The crowd did not scatter and the demo moved towards Aggelaki street. There, the demo stopped and waited for a group of its people, while they occupied the State Radio ET3 and the radio station105.5FM, hijacked the emission and read out the hunger strikersʼ demands on air.
- It must be noted that certain co-organizers as well as participants at the conference on migration left the conference to express their disapproval and protest against what happened in Athens yesterday and in Thessaloniki today.
- We end this announcement with an excerpt from the deputy ministerʼs talk at the conference on migration: One day she was cruising on her inflatable boat, and she met with a boat full of illegal immigrants trying to get to the shore.