I have never seen anything quite as menacing as this from a crowd here yet on such an obviously non-political occasion.

And it isn't just city feasts. Even football fields have become protest grounds with fans in four different matches around Greece raising political anti-government banners just this past weekend. And many of then were chased, found and arrested for some sort of illegal act that was never made clear:

"Politicians con-men, parliament of snugness, the rage of the insurgents will drown you"

"The people don't want you, take the troika and leave"

Down with the junta of PASOK (a pun with the Greek word for "cop")

"We will not become anybody's slaves"

Anti-german banner at Olympiakos - Dortmund champions league game

Yes to cop redundancies (a reference to mass redundancies in the public sector underway)

I sense that (in the already depressed before the crisis) city of Thessaloniki, today the two ministers were a stone's throw away from being lynched by people of both gendres, all ages and apparently political and class divides...

In tomorrow's big school parade (on the anniversary of Greece's entry into WWII, long story) the festivities are rumored to be sabotaged by students everywhere with various public acts of defiance and disrespect towards government officials.

Government buildings are under occupation, the whole country is striking, demos are being prepared, and are becoming more violent day by day...

I'm not sure what will emerge, if anything, tonight but if they think that they can impose a policy through a government with as little legitimacy as this one they are sorely mistaken. Any caretaker "committee" (already seen as colonial in essence by a majority) will have to face murderous hostility. It will soon find that most areas of Afghanistan would be more hospitable and less lethal than Greece right now. It might sound far-fetched but the only ingredient missing from the brew of revolt being unwittingly prepared by the troika and its local enablers, is a foreign figure of authority stationed in Greece. There are groups that run the spectrum for far right to anarchist that will be elbowing each other for a clear shot at the new "gauleiters".

They will all fail on the economic front tonight, as expected. But they have no clue as to what is going to happen on the political front. I think that although the left has a better chance than elsewhere of riding this tide to some sort of democratic haven, I would reckon that a far right solution is more likely.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

There is a massive crowd in Thessaloniki, demonstrating against the government, and to tell you the truth, I can't find a better way to honor the anti-fascist struggle than by dissolving a military parade organized by those that are delivering the country to the postmodern equivalent of foreign occupation and a new mass privation.

Protests are occurring in various ways in the Athens demonstration as well all parades are now demos and protests, and all over Greece (i.e. in Iraklion in Greece the parade is now a demo, people are throwing eggs against the officials, as the are in Kalamata in the Southern Peloponnese, in Volos in Thessaly and the reports are coming in as we speak...) one hears of schoolchildren defying the rules of the parade and generally the celebration has turned into a huge country-wide demo. As soon as I have images or more info I'll post them here...

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

(Reuters) - Greeks protesting against austerity measures Friday blocked a major national parade to commemorate Greece's resistance to Italy in World War Two, shouting "traitors" at President Karolos Papoulias and other officials and forcing them to leave.

The protest in Thessaloniki, echoed across Greece including in Athens where marchers held black ribbons, showed the depth of anger at the higher taxes and cuts to pay and pensions demanded by international lenders to help avert a debt default.The annual military parade in the northern city commemorates Greece's rejection of Italy's ultimatum to surrender in 1940. It was the first time it had been canceled.
...In Athens, students paraded in front of government officials with raised fists holding black ribbons as a sign of dissent at the austerity measures adopted by Prime Minister George Papandreou's government.
..."1940-2011: No to the Fourth Reich" read one poster in a demonstration in Cretan city of Heraklion, where protesters took to the streets during a parade.