Bulletins and News Discussion from March 3rd to March 9th, 2025 - Austerity And Its Consequences - COTW: Greece

Image is of a crowd protesting in Athens.

Last week, on Friday, hundreds of thousands of Greeks poured into the streets to strike and protest on the second anniversary of the deadliest train crash in Greek history, in which 57 people died when a passenger train collided with a freight train. On this February 28th, public transportation was virtually halted, with train drivers, air traffic controllers, and seafarers taking part in a 24 hour strike - alongside other professions like lawyers, teachers, and doctors.

The train crash is emblematic of the decay of state institutions brought about from austerity being forced on Greece in the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession, in which the IMF and the EU (particularly Germany) plundered the country and forced privatization. While Greece has somewhat recovered from the dire straits it was in during the early 2010s, the consequences of neoliberalism are very clearly ongoing. Mitsotakis' right-wing government has still not even successfully implemented the necessary safety procedures two years on, and so far, nobody has been convicted nor punished for their role in the accident. The austerity measures were deeply unpopular inside Greece and yet the government did not respond to, or ignored, democratic outcry.

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1.1K comments

Western press calling those protesting HTS "Assad loyalists".
HTS are killing Alawite civilains.
- More massacre aftermath and active executions with the same cw. Hopefully we can stop playing the “alleged” game now
  https://t.me/DarEQuds/9534
  https://t.me/voiceof_syria/2322
  https://t.me/thecradlemedia/31235
  https://t.me/FotrosResistance/12021
  https://t.me/thecradlemedia/31238
  https://t.me/DarEQuds/9574
  https://t.me/khalill82/5433
  Rania Khalek’s alleged conversation with a Syrian citizen with a mother in Latakia
  “HTS fighters are going door to door. The husband of my friend’s cousin went to open the door, they shot him outside. He died in front of his wife and two daughters yesterday night and nobody dares to even move his body. There’s tens of bodies in the streets and HTS has forbidden people from burying their dead.”
  https://t.me/DarEQuds/9568
  Also they’ve moved on to burning down homes of suspected alawites
  https://t.me/arabiasocialism/20541
  HTS throwing bombs out of a helicopter (barrel bombs, anyone?)
  https://t.me/thecradlemedia/31224
  https://t.me/voiceof_syria/2340
  Targeted killing of farm workers
  https://t.me/thecradlemedia/31225
  90-year old Alawite community leader Sheikh Shabban Mansour was executed with his son, are these the “regime affiliates” I’ve heard so much about?
  https://t.me/voiceof_syria/2349
  
  HTS throwing bombs out of a helicopter (barrel bombs, anyone?)
  I don't think those are barrel bombs, I think that they're throwing depth charges near Russian military sites, where the footage was geolocated to. They're usually rocket powered and launched out of Smerch-2 rocket launchers. Obviously here it's just in free fall. As for why that is, I have no idea. I can't imagine that they're targeting Russian submarines, HTS lack the sophistication to pull off such an attack. I'd guess this is just terrorism and bombing civilians along the highway, given that civilians went to the Russian base in Latakia for safety.
  
  To be clear, I was merely calling attention to the hypocrisy of those who decry unguided bombing of civilian areas when it’s done by Assad, not implying these were barrel bombs. I assumed these were above the land despite the sea in the background
  
  Yeah I also think they're bombing the land and not the sea, I don't think HTS is the kind of organisation that can carry out anti submarine operations. I just recognised the bomb because it's also used widely in the war in Ukraine as short range rocket artillery. But yes, there are many hypocrites amongst HTS supporters. These people are just Al-Nusra Front with a rebrand, it's crazy how they got so much support. Al Jolani was a member of AQ at one point.
  Your contributions in continuing to cover this horror show in Syria are very important, it's hardly covered on mainstream news. Please don't take my previous comment the wrong way, I'm not meaning to insult or fight with anyone. Apologies if that was unclear.
  
  No worries, definitely didn’t take it the wrong way. Just wanted to draw parallels between one of the most publicized crimes of the Assad government and an everyday act under HTS, because of how much support they have abroad.
  
  Also thank you for your technical and material expertise, I know nothing about things like the shape of bombs or depth charges, so you provide invaluable knowledge when it comes to the finer details of weapons
- : “Pro-democracy government bravely resists authoritarian civilians”

1143 comments