March 16, 2011
For three months, the residents of this small town, 40 kilometers southeast of Athens, have been locked in a violent standoff with the police over the planned construction of a huge landfill that aims to solve the capital’s garbage problem.
The scenes broadcast on Greek television and on amateur videos on the Internet have been stark: middle-aged protesters hurling firebombs at the police, overturned cars in flames, Orthodox priests in black robes wailing amid clouds of tear gas.
Many residents and police officers have been hurt in the fighting. And though there have been dozens of arrests, the locals vow not to back down.
The Keratea campaign has been compared by some commentators to milder forms of civil disobedience appearing in a debt-stricken Greece, including a small movement of citizens who refuse to pay higher road toll charges and more for tickets for public transportation.
But fare-evasion is quite different than waging an armed standoff with the police, said Karolos Kavoulakos, a lecturer in social sciences at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
“This is about trash, and trash has been fueling violent protests for years,” he said. “The fact that this dispute coincides with the economic crisis makes it all the more explosive.“
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