By Malcolm Brabant
BBC News, Athens
**Thousands of police will be deployed in Athens during a demonstration to commemorate those who died during a student uprising 36 years ago.**The annual march from the Greek capital’s Polytechnic to the American embassy frequently ends in trouble.
Tensions between left-wingers and the police have been heightened since riots last December.
This demonstration is a crucial test of the public order skills of Greece’s new Socialist government.
The date of 17 November is a solemn anniversary for modern democratic Greece.
Every Greek pupil is taught that the freedom they enjoy today would be impossible without the sacrifice of the Polytechnic students, who died when the dictatorship’s tanks crushed a rebellion in 1973.
But the annual march from the Polytechnic’s twisted gates to the American embassy frequently disintegrates into pitched battles between demonstrators and riot police.
Crash test
Hostility towards the police has been intense ever since last December, when a guard shot dead 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos and triggered three weeks of riots.
Greece’s new citizens’ protection minister has admitted that the police have lost the confidence of the public.
Since assuming office six weeks ago, he has installed a new chief of police, who has the difficult task of regaining public trust by stamping out a culture of occasional brutality at the same time as inspiring a force that has become jittery after suffering serious casualties in reprisal attacks.
There will be 6,000 officers on the streets of Athens, 1,500 fewer than last year.
They have to tread a delicate balance between allowing aggressive anti-establishment protests while ensuring that central Athens is not subjected to wanton vandalism.
Tuesday’s demonstration is a crash test - a dry run for angry protests expected early next month when young Greeks commemorate Alexis Grigoropoulos’ alleged murder.