A cocktail of anger erupts at European Social Forum

A double anger erupted out of the European Social Forum on to the streets of Athens on May 6. Anti-globalization protesters attacked police and multinational targets, alongside local groups protesting injustice to immigrants. The two came together naturally at the European Social Forum (ESF) that began on May 4. ESF participants had planned a large demonstration through Athens for May 6. The police were expecting trouble, but were still caught off guard. The center of Athens was cordoned off all afternoon by heavy police contingents. Government buildings and the embassies of the United States and Britain were under visibly heavy protection. Nevertheless, some 30,000 people marched in an anti-war and anti-globalization demonstration that also saw anarchist attacks on banks, shops and police vehicles. Police said groups of hooded anarchists torched at least four banks, smashed shop windows, and threw Molotov cocktails at police buses outside the capital's police headquarters before running off down side streets. Officers used tear gas to disperse a small group of anarchists near the US Embassy just north of the city center, and in central Syntagma Square, where rioters threw stones and chairs at a McDonald's restaurant. One policeman and two demonstrators were injured, and 30 suspected rioters were detained, authorities said. The clashes erupted as a larger group of 30,000 people marched peacefully through the city center. The demonstrators' anger was clearly fueled by the government's anti-immigration policies that keep close to a million people in a population of 10 million without rights and without status. The majority of migrants who live in Greece without status are Albanians and Pakistanis. The demonstrators included large numbers of Albanians and clearly thousands of Pakistanis. Under Greek law–or the lack of it"almost no migrant is given citizenship, or even residence rights. Migrants have in effect become a cheap and vulnerable labor force for jobs that Greeks are either unable or unwilling to do. "This economy cannot function without us," a Pakistani youth said. "But what are they giving us? Nothing." The illegality issue had been waiting to surface at the European Social Forum. According to local reports, Italian Member of the European Parliament Giusto Catania, Synaspismos Left Coalition MP Panayiotis Lafazanis and prominent human rights lawyer Ioanna Kourtovik were detained when they led a group of ESF supporters into a police station to protest against inhuman conditions in which illegal immigrants are detained. At the European Social Forum center, it emerged as the dominant issue. Several civil society and left groups not directly involved with immigration issues have been coming together to back demands by migrant groups for justice at last for migrants who have lived without status for a generation, and for a new generation that has grown up without status. The heavy Albanian and Pakistani presence among the demonstrators brought immediacy to calls for justice under the slogan "Another Europe is Possible." "We have to get justice for migrants because none of the political parties are taking this up," said a young demonstrator. She held up a banner which she said meant "It's late enough already; time for justice now." Other demonstrators carried banners against US President George W. Bush. Several demonstrators raised slogans against the Iraq War. The anti-war sentiment also found natural support among the Pakistanis and Albanians among the demonstrators, both Muslim groups. Several among the demonstrators threw stones at the British embassy building in central Athens.