On Monday 28 September, thousands of people protested in Thessaloniki, Greece's largest city, against the visit of the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Workers, students, trade unionists, members of the anti-imperialist movement and the Committee for International Detente and Peace (EDYETH) marched in the city center, expressing their strong opposition to the deeper involvement of Greece in the dangerous U.S.-NATO plans in the region.
Shouting out slogans such as "Neither land, nor water for the killers of the people", "Thessaloniki is a port of the people and not a bastion of the imperialists", "EU and NATO, an alliance of war" and others, the protesters showed that the representative of the imperialist superpower is not welcome in the city. The demonstrations made a stop outside the U.S. Consulate where they shouted slogans and burned the U.S. flag, the symbol of imperialism. Despite the heavy police presence in the Consulate's entrance, the protesters nailed their resolution.The representatives of the demonstrators publicly denounced the presence of riot police forces. "We send a message to the government that no matter how many forces it will deploy, it cannot stop our people's movement. Today, there was an unprecedented utilization of the repressive forces by the government in order to show how subordinate it is to the big boss who tours the country. We will not accept the popular movement, the rallies, the demonstrations to be under the surveillance of police", said Nikos Zokas, President of EDYETH.
Earlier on Monday, the U.S. Secretary of State met with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias where they both reaffirmed their governments' mutual desire to deepen the collaboration in the imperialist plans in the broader region. Mike Pompeo's next stop is Crete where he will meet with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and inspect the notorious U.S. Souda Naval base.