Hundreds of healthcare workers gathered at the ministries of Labor and Health, as part of a strike called for by POEDIN (Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees), demanding more money to help deal with the pandemic instead of for funding the army and police with more and more unnecessary and repressive gear.
Strikes
Around 100 protesters gathered at the Ministry of Macedonia - Thrace in Thessaloniki during a nationwide hospital workers' strike in Greece, demanding more money for containing the COVID pandemic instead of emptying the budget into police repression and militarization. Demonstrators hung banners and sang chants, then dispersing to join the student demonstration taking place that day.
Dozens of servers, baristas, and other service workers blocked Highway 85 in Bogota to demand subsidies for their new unemployment from the Colombian government, requesting negotiations with the government for either a reopening of such spaces or a stimulus to keep workers on their feet. ESMAD (riot police units) attacked the demonstrators, beating several of them and deploying tear gas.
Over 100,000 Indian farmers gathered in Barnala, Punjab State, to protest against the 3 neoliberal farm bills passed by the BJP government led by Narendra Modi, which would liberalize the market and remove a price guarantee that farmers require in order to survive on the little they make from agriculture.
Dozens of students at the National Pedagogical University in Bogota took to the streets to demand a return to campus for students and free tuition for all to be provided by the government. Demonstrators dropped banners and blocked roads to cause as much disruption as possible, also flying anarchist flags.
Several protesters were killed in Islamabad after Pakistani police opened fire on striking government workers with expired tear gas bought from India. Many died in hospitals after the thousands pouring in caused a critical lack of oxygen and basic first aid for those injured by the expired tear gas which causes much more combustion and harm to the lungs.
Hundreds gathered in Athens in opposition to the ban on demonstrations imposed by the Greek government, with organizations ranging from anarchist collectives to the Communist Party demanding the repeal of the law making it illegal to participate in protests.
Over a thousand protesters gathered in Tunis on the 8th anniversary of the assassination of left-wing political figure Chokri Belaid, demanding the end of police in Tunisia and the release of over 1000 protesters and youth arrested since the beginning of the unrest in the country in mid-January.
Dozens of students at the Industrial University of Santander protested on and shut down a road in front of the school, demanding the reopening of the school in order to continue to pursue their diplomas in an orderly manner with health measures in place to stop as many infections as possible.
Turkish political exiles in Athens gathered in Protomagias Square and dropped a banner in solidarity with the student uprising at Boğaziçi university, demanding the resignation of the conservative-Islamist AKP-appointed university rector installed in January.
Colombian riot police brutally attacked dozens of street vendors protesting in Bogota for a stimulus in order to stay home and not have to work in unsafe conditions in a pandemic. Tear gas and rubber bullets were deployed against peaceful demonstrators, with police armed in near military gear.
A group of protesters gathered at the ancient theater in Larissa and hanged a banner in solidarity with Dimitris Koufontinas, a former member of the revolutionary November 17 group who entered a hunger strike on the 8th of January to demand his transfer to the more humane Korydallos prison in Athens.
Dozens of protesters in Patras gathered at Georgiou Square in solidarity with hunger striker Dimitris Koufontinas, a former member of the revolutionary November 17 militant group that carried out attacks on American, British, and military assets in Greece; Koufontinas entered a hunger strike on 8 January to demand his transfer to the Korydallos prison in Athens.
Dozens of protesters in Athens gathered for demonstrations in solidarity with the November 17 hunger striker Dimitris Koufontinas, demanding his transfer to the Korydallos Prison of Athens. Despite gathering at the separate areas of Omonia, the Propalyaea, and Syntagma Square, police assaulted protesters at all 3 locations, making brutal arrests and attacking the press.
Around 50 anarchists gathered in Thessaloniki to demand the acceptance of requests of N17 hunger striker Dimitris Koufontinas, who entered a hunger strike on 8 January to be moved to the Korydallos prison in Athens. November 17 was a revolutionary socialist organization in 20th-century Greece that carried out attacks on American, British, and military targets, before being disbanded in early 2000.