Greeks strike over pain and anger at austerity

Greek workers staged a 24-hour strike on Thursday forcing the transport system to a standstill, protesting against the government's intensified austerity drive securing aid in order to save the debt-laden country from bankruptcy. About 1,000 members of Communist group MAS marched to parliament chanting "Resist" and "Plutocracy should pay for this crisis" as part of the first big nationwide rallies since June, when daily protests ended in bloody clashes with police.

Another 6,000 students, some carrying black flags and wearing gas masks, as well as teachers, joined them outside parliament, with union members expected to take part later.

There was a big riot police deployment. Striking taxi drivers and bus, metro and rail workers meant commuters had to use their own cars, triggering kilometres-long traffic jams and stranding tourists at hotels in Athens' ancient city centre. Unions said more strikes were planned.

"The situation is dramatic, all major streets are jammed," said one traffic police official, who declined to be named. An air traffic controller stoppage delayed 100 flights by up to four hours and dozens more in an out of Greece were cancelled. After the troika of EU and IMF inspectors made clear they were losing patience with the government's failure to meet the targets of a bailout and threatened to withhold aid, the cabinet agreed to front-load austerity measures. Greece must now confront the trickier issue of how to collect extra taxes and implement the painful measures. Commentators did note that the fiery opposition of the past amongst some protesters had given way to weary resignation.

Policy makers and economists fear a Greek default on its 340-billion-euro debt could set global markets tumbling and push other vulnerable euro zone members like Italy and Spain over the edge. The chairman of Goldman Sachs' overseas arm said on Thursday the Greek situation was a major threat to the euro. As well as cutting pensions and extending a real estate tax rise, the cabinet said it would put 30,000 civil servants in "labour reserve" this year.

"This is a policy we do not tolerate, we do not want. We are in continuous, total, permanent opposition to it," said Yannis Panagopoulos, president of private sector employees union GSEE, speaking on state NET TV. With the economy expected to contract by at least 5 per cent this year, after a 4.4 per cent slump in 2010, and unemployment at 16 per cent and rising, most Greeks hold little hope austerity measures will help the nation emerge from crisis. "We are living in terror that we may lose our jobs, our lives. Even if these lay-offs are necessary, we are not being treated like humans," said Costas Andrianopoulos, 32, who works at the National theatre. "They cut our wages and our pensions and we took it. But I don't believe any more that any of this is for the good of the country. We'll be sacrificed for nothing. We can't avoid default, We have no hope."

The conservative opposition, which has a slim lead over Prime Minister George Papandreou's Socialists in opinion polls and has called for snap elections, maintained its refusal to cooperate with the government, which has irked EU leaders. The country remains bitterly divided between private sector workers who say a bloated state bureaucracy is strangling Greeks and public servants who say the biggest problems are political corruption and tax evasion. Government officials expected the measures to be passed by parliament in the next two to three weeks after they have been discussed with the troika team which is expected to return to Athens early next week to complete their review.

Source: Kathimerini