More than 30,000 people took to the streets of Athens on Thursday as part of the second nationwide strike in Greece against the austerity measures announced by the Papandreou government.

The protesters held banners blasting the government and the European Union which is pressing for even tougher measures.

“Even if they terrorise us, the measures will not pass through,” one banner proclaimed. Another said: “We are men, not numbers.”

The strikers shouted slogans such as “No sacrifice for plutocracy,” and “Real jobs, higher pay”.

Thursday’s strike was called by Greece’s main private sector union, GSEE, and its public sector sister union, ADEDY, which together represent half of the country’s five million workers.

The walkout by public and private sector workers, the second nationwide action to have taken place in the past two weeks, grounded flights, shut schools, hospitals and governemnt offices and halted public transport.

The strike also affected news broadcasts on broadcast media and newspapers as journalists went on a 24 hour strike.

Earlier, air traffic controllers closed the country’s airspace for 24 hours and ferries were left in harbours as maritime unions joined the strike.

Officers from the police, fire and customs services also walked out.

The nationwide strike was organised by the private sector union, GSEE, and its public sector sister union, ADEDY, who together represent half of the country’s five million workers.

Unions say the European Union-backed austerity plan will only hurt the the Greek economy.

“They are trying to make workers pay the price for this crisis,” GSEE leader Yiannis Panagopoulos said. “These measures will not be effective and will throw the economy into deep freeze.”

However Dimitris Daskalopoulos, the head of Greece’s employers’ association, denounced the street protests in his first major public pronouncement.

He said the government had no alternative but to reform the country and accused strikers of wanting to maintain the deplorable conditions that had forced Greece to look for charity from foreign markets.

“Between bankruptcy and recession, between the devil and the deep blue sea, there is no other alternative to the abyss,” he told reporters.
“It is necessary to start again and to reform the country.”

Howeve the nationwide stike action was marred by clashes between the police and hooded youth  on the sidelines of the rallies.

Violence broke out around a union demonstration in the capital with riot police firing tear gas at hooded youths who hurled firebombs and vandalised stores near parliament and other areas of the city centre.

Police said they had detained 16 people, of whom nine were later arrested, and that 13 officers were hurt after being hit by objects thrown by protesters.

Damage was caused to six shops, four hotel entrances, three banks and two cars in vandalism incidents across the city centre, the police said.

In the northern city of Thessaloniki, where another 10,000 people marched in two separate demonstrations, protesters threw eggs and yoghurt cartons stolen from a supermarket at a government building, police said.