While the government of Greece implements austerity measures following European Union and International Monetary Fund bailouts, large anti-austerity protests continue to spread across Greece.
You're dealing with what people have been very likely to describe as a financial nuclear bomb.
All these economic crises and all the austerity measures have an impact on every aspect and every person who lives in Greece.
In 2009, the unemployment rate was around 8%. A year after Greece began a tough austerity drive, the unemployment rate had risen to 13.9%, with youth unemployment at 35%.
On February 23, 2011, a general strike was called by the GSEE, an A-D-E-D-Y, Greece's two largest labor unions, affecting cities across the country.
What happened on February 23 demonstration is I think most people would agree one of the biggest demonstrations we've seen in Greece.
What was very big news was the determination of some people to go beyond this, to go beyond a single day of protest.
We had the slogan that we will go to the Constitution Square and we will remain in the Constitution Square and we managed to do it.
For five hours, despite the continuous attacks of the police, we remained on the Constitution Square.
For the first time, they were not able to disperse the people who are demonstrating.
People are very up for having a next time, for having another girl that's staying at the square and actually holding it.
And this is definitely directly influenced by what happened at the Tahrir Square in Egypt in Cairo and the rest of the revolts in the Middle East.
Of course the situation of Arab people and the situation of Greek people is not exactly the same, but the example of a revolt is an inspiring example.
So of course a lot of the youth here share a lot of the grievances with the people in North Africa.
And of course not to mention the fact that a lot of people who live here are actually migrants from these very regions.
Just in the past week, I guess the biggest news which many people might have heard about was the general strike that happened on February 23.
But at the same time of this has been a hunger strike by about 300 migrants, undocumented migrants, who have been struggling to get legalised.
Here we have a strike, a hunger strike of 300 immigrants who work and live in Greece.
They are asking for their legalisation, not just for 300 people who make hunger strikes, but also they are making this hunger strike for all of immigrants who work and live in Greece.
This is actually the biggest mobilisation that has ever happened in Greece from migrants.
So the political climate, it has an economic crisis which makes it much more difficult.
So to renew for migrants that are here for a long time, to renew permits.
The condition of the hunger striker now is so low condition, their health is in a difficult situation.
Now I think that's 38 in the hospital here in Athens and something like 15 hunger strikers in Tisalloniki.
This is the decision of the hunger striker themselves.
They said we will not stop making our hunger strike until the end.
When they say the end, they mean until they take their papers or they are ready to die for their demands.
On March 9, the migrants ended their six-week hunger strike.
The government agreed to give residency permits to those who could prove they had been living in Greece for eight years.
This was a key demand.
Migrants are fighting for their papers but also Greek people are fighting in several sectors of the economy.
A civil disobedience movement called I Won't Pay has spread throughout Greece as people refused to pay for public transport and highway taxes.
Three years ago the national highways have been privatised.
So we launched this movement that says I don't pay these illegal companies who have taken hold of our highways.
Gradually this movement has expanded and we arrived to the point at the end of 2010 where hundreds of thousands of people
were following this movement by pushing the bars in the toll stations and refusing to pay.
Two months ago we launched also the movement I Don't Pay in the public transport.
People have decided to try and block off the actual paying of transportation tickets
and encourage people not to pay the block off, the ticket vending machines or the validation machines
in any other way actively encourage people to not pay.
We see thousands of people following it independently of their political beliefs
because they realise that it is a just movement, it is a right movement, it is a movement that says to the government,
says to the European Union, to the IMF and to the private companies that we will not pay for your crisis.
This movement has panicked not only the companies but also the government.
The enemy feels the potential of this movement, that it can develop into something higher, into something more radical
and especially it can, as it has proved until now, it can regroup around this movement a broad range of popular masses.
Having someone like the IMF arrive somewhere cannot but affect absolutely everyone.
You see that a lot of people and institutions and groups do change in the way that they act
so you might have someone, for example the police have been very quick to adapt
and to act as what people have described them to be the IMF's army.
We cannot hope that someone else will come and save us, it is ourselves.
The Greek people are in the same mood, they have had enough and they are trying to find a way out
and we see that a popular revolt is the way out now.
The old world as we knew it is pretty much dying.
If this big struggle ends up with a victory, I think a lot of things will be different the next day.
No matter how much we struggle here and no matter how much we manage to win, if we are winning,
we would never be able to do it on our own.
This is an international movement, it's an international struggle
and we need to have victories and we need to have struggle everywhere
if we are going to have any chance of succeeding.
