Start of 2-day general strike shuts down Greece

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By ELENA BECATOROS

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - A two-day general strike that unions vow will be the largest in years grounded flights, disrupted public transport and shut down everything from shops to schools in Greece on Wednesday, as at least 70,000 protesters converged in central Athens.

All sectors, from dentists, state hospital doctors and lawyers to shop owners, tax office workers, pharmacists, teachers and dock workers walked off the job ahead of a Parliamentary vote Thursday on new austerity measures which include new taxes and the suspension of tens of thousands of civil servants.

Flights were grounded in the morning but some resumed at noon after air traffic controllers scaled back their initial strike plan from 48 hours to 12. Dozens of domestic and international flights were still cancelled throughout the day. Ferries remained tied up in port, while public transport workers staged work stoppages but were to keep buses, trolleys and the Athens metro running for most of the day.

About 3,000 police deployed in central Athens, shutting down two metro stations near Parliament as protest marches began. Police estimated the crowd at least 70,000, and more people were streaming into the downtown area. A small group of protesters briefly pelted police with garbage, but the rallies were mostly peaceful.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20111019/D9QFAKS80.html

---

Tourists check the departure board during a 12-hour work stoppage by air traffic controllers at the Athens International Airport, Eleftherios Venizelos, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. Private and public sectors shut down across Greece Wednesday at the start of a 48-hour general strike that unions vowed would be the largest in years, to protest a new round of austerity measures designed to avoid a potentially catastrophic default. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

[dipsydoodle]

1. Well at least

they won't need to withhold any income tax due for those 48 hours.

[dkf]

2. When do the Greeks realize they are broke?

They have been living on other peoples dime for so long that they have put the world's economy in jeopardy and here they are striking and insisting that they keep being subsidized. Honestly.

Moreover the Slovakians who have a worse standard of living are having to bail them out? Where is the shame?

[Cal Carpenter]

5. LOL

Literally. Thanks for the morning laugh.

Which part of this don't you understand? The ruling class of Greece and the EU as a whole have sold the Greek people out for years. The striking people are the WORKERS.

They didn't ask for this situation they are in, they didn't ask to lose control over their livelihoods, their economy.

The Greeks are doing something we should pay close attention to. This is how you make change - you stop working. You stop working so the people who glide through life on the profits of your labor realize the power that the people really have.

The shame belongs to Papendrou and his patsies, to Germany and the EU and the IMF for treating Greece like a colony and taking away their ability to make a living.

35% wage cuts? NOT OKAY. 'Austerity' on the backs of the workers so the rich keep getting richer? NOT OKAY.

[Freddie Stubbs]

3. How many of these strikes have the Greeks had in the last year or two?

The government considers austerity measures. There is a big strike. The government implements austerity measures. Repeat.

[AngryAmish]

4. They listen to the music for a long time, now it is time to pay the fiddler.

[Cal Carpenter]

6. All together in the 48-hour strike October 19-20.

All together in the 48-hour strike October 19-20. Nobody should go to work.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Working women and men, young women and men,


We must cancel the new crime, now.

We must overthrow the voting of the multi-aspect bill “guillotine”.

We must cancel the even worse situation that they prepare for us for 2012, 2013, 2014.

All together in the 48-hour strike October 19-20. Nobody should go to work.

No more sacrifices in order for capital and E.U. to be saved.

All together in the streets.

All together with PAME at the head, to counterattack through our soul and strength the antilabor storm.

The government of PASOK (social-democrats) in accordance with the demand of industrialists, ship-owners, bankers, large-scale tradesmen, big hotel-owners and their partners in E.U., organizes a new, even more brutal and inhumane crime.

Through the multi-aspect bill which is brought in the Parliament for voting, the government buries the fundamental rights of the Greek people.

The government tries to abolish the Collective Labor Agreements and whatever is left from the labor relations and the rights in social-security, pension, social benefits, unemployment benefits etc. They condemn our children to unemployment, poverty; they want our children not to be educated. They sell-out public property.

The government of PASOK (social-democrats) together with the parties of N.D. (conservatives), LAOS (nationalists), Democratic Coalition (liberals) want to impose wages like in Bulgaria, new mass dismissals, new heavy head taxes, work without rights, job rotation and without insurance. They want slaves at the service of the monopolies.

Working women and men, young women and men,


PAME calls all of you on Wednesday October 19 at Omonoia sq. 11a.m. and in the rally to the Parliament and we continue on Thursday October 20 through encirclement of the Parliament from all the sides. We have the power to stop the massacre of the workers’ rights for the profits of plutocracy.

All together in the struggle at every factory, company, office, school, shop.

To make Athens, Syndagma sq., all the streets around the Parliament sink with people, in an organized and coordinated way. The people must take their life in their own hands, they must stand upright.

Struggle now to overthrow the antilabor planning of the government. Down with the government of plutocracy. Struggle now for the release from the “wolf-alliance” of the E.U. Struggle to change the correlation of forces; the people must elevate their own power.



October 2011

http://www.pamehellas.gr/fullstory.php?lang=2&wid=2003

[Cal Carpenter]

7. "No, thank you. I don't want your rescue."

--snip---

For the first time since the outbreak of the crisis
two years ago, protesters pushed up to the steps of the parliament building itself, setting fire to a sentry box occupied by the ceremonial guards who stand watch over the main symbols of the Greek state.

Prime Minister George Papandreou, trailing badly in opinion polls, has appealed for support from Greeks before parliament votes on the latest measures which include tax hikes, wage cuts and public sector layoffs.

The mood was furious among demonstrators, fed up after repeated doses of austerity and increasingly hostile to both their own political leaders and international lenders demanding ever tougher measures to cut Greece's towering public debt.

"Who are they trying to fool? They won't save us. With these measures the poor become poorer and the rich richer. Well I say: 'No, thank you. I don't want your rescue'," said 50-year public sector worker Akis Papadopoulos.

---snip---

more

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Greek-protesters-clash-with-police-at-austerity-strike/Article1-759159.aspx

[Celefin]

8. Why all the gloating on here?

It wasn't the garbage collectors, nurses, teachers, firemen, etc. who bankrupted Greece and threaten the Euro.
But now they are being told they'll have to pay for it and people ridicule them for not rolling over and taking it?
The majority of Greeks wouldn't qualify as 'middle class' in most of Europe or the US and their infrastructure is shoddy.

The current austerity madness will only further cripple their economy and increase the welfare payments if they
aren't planning on actually letting people starve. It doesn't solve anything as you can't cut your way out of a recession.
What Greece really needs is a massive anti-corruption drive and a well-funded IRS that is adequately staffed by well-paid workers.
All austerity in the world will not have any positive effect if they don't become effective in collecting taxes from -everybody-.
And effective at putting corrupt officials behind bars.

But that would be directly against the interests of corrupt politicians and mega-rich businesspeople.
Of course they are protesting and going on strike. I would if I were living in Athens.
What are they supposed to do?

In other news, Bank of America's holding company is about to move $75 trillion in derivatives from uninsured Merrill Lynch to publicly insured BofA.
Somehow I don't think the majority of people in the US will be happy to have their social security and everything else shredded to fund that upcoming black hole.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5031149

[Cal Carpenter]

9. It seems that a shocking number of people

seem to default (no pun intended) to defending the ruling class. I can't speak to whether or not it is deliberate or just a result of the way we are educated here in the US and the illusions we have about capitalism.

Regardless, it never ceases to amaze me.

Here's a news video about the strikes from RT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1clq1yVlIS4

[Celefin]

11. Thank you.

I guess it's the same all over and yes it is amazing.

Even in Greece it took 2 years of slashing public services and 30-40% cuts in wages before people wouldn't take it any longer.
A lot of the people on the packed streets face the very real possibility of total poverty.
The elite has quite literally sold their future - which is what is about to happen in the US and the UK and probably in central Europe as well,
albeit a bit further down the road.

This week is make or break, as a lot of Greeks won't feel any difference AT ALL between Greece defaulting and Greece going forward with the austerity package.
It's really not funny.

[PETRUS]

10. Go Greece!

The illegitimacy of the plutocracy is being exposed.

[harvey007]

12. Thousands in Greece Protest Austerity Bill

Source: New York Times

The police estimated the crowd size at 80,000 people; some news Web sites put the number at more than 100,000. The authorities said 38 police officers and three demonstrators were hurt in Wednesday’s clashes. The Greek news media said at least six demonstrators were injured. The police said five people were arrested and 28 others detained briefly for questioning.

Shops, bakeries and gas stations closed, while public transportation was scaled back. Tax offices, courts and schools shut down, hospitals were operating with only emergency staff and customs officials walked off the job. Civil servants, who have been the most vociferous in their protests, continued sit-ins at ministries and state agencies.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/world/europe/greek-workers-start-two-day-anti-austerity-strike.html

[harvey007]

13. Thousands in Greece Protest Austerity Bill

This thread has been combined with another thread.

Click here to read this message in its new location.