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The three-day celebration of the 42nd anniversary of the rebellion at the Polytechnic University of Athens, which symbolizes the beginning of the fall of the military dictatorship in Greece ended with the traditional march to the US Embassy.

As every year, the procession is led by the bloodied Greek national flag, and its participants are supporters of the Left, and especially of its most extreme wing. The march is being held under draconian law enforcement measures, with the centre of the Greek capital being secured by 6,000-strong antiriot police force. At 14.30 h, police closed the Syntagma, Evangelismos and Megaro Mousikis metro stations. Before it started, police arrested two people on whom they found firecrackers.

Photo: athensvoice.gr

Paying tribute to those who died during the events on the night of 17 November, 1973, began on Sunday in the historic building of the Polytechnic on Patission Street. Among the dozens of citizens who laid flowers at the monument and the gate broken by the tanks, there were those who openly expressed anti-American sentiments by burning an American flag.

Clashes related to the celebrations began on Monday, when members of the two far left groups kicked up a fight because one group thought the others were members of the Communist Party's youth organisation.

This morning saw some more unrest and tension, when Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras arrived at the Polytechnic, accompanied by a sizeable security detail, to lay a wreath. Some of the students around the place tried to jam the prime minister's way into the entrance, but to no avail.

Photo: iefimerida.gr

Once he laid his wreath, Alexis Tsipras said that "the message of the Polytechnic will be hijacked neither by anarchists, nor by the junta nostalgic ones, nor by the extreme right." Immediately after the official event, the PM's official Twitter account popped a message: "The state of supervision, hanging over the country, gives new life to the messages of the three days at the Polytechnic in 1973".

It is worth noting that the "revolutionary" comment came on hours after an agreement between the government and the creditors was struck. On its basis, the government aims to receive the first €2 billion tranche of financial assistance.

Photos: skai.gr

Nonetheless, the commemorative march is taking place under vociferous leftist slogans against the United States, the West and Greece's creditors. There are also participants condemning SYRIZA's political line as well as messages geared to current realities such as: "The Aegean - Paris - Syria - Beirut, capitalism cannot be humane."

While passing by the French Embassy, the youths, who carried the flag, stood still for several minutes in tribute to the victims of terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday. They arrived at the US Embassy, where they sang the Greek national anthem, folded up the flag and left the march.

Police say the march involved more than 15,000 people, 8,000 of them rallied by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME), the trade union of the Communist Party of Greece. At the same time, it transpired that a group of anarchists had not allowed former ministers of the first SYRIZA government and current members of the National Unity party, Panagiotis Lafazanis and Dimitris Stratoulis, to join the march. The party leader and his associate became subject to verbal attacks by the anarchists and temporarily withdrew from the march.

Expect further details.