Greek crisis intensifies

Papandreou Prevails in First Greek Vote on Austerity Package After Clashes

Bloomberg,

Oct 20, 2011 8:06 AM GMT+1300

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won a preliminary vote on a new round of austerity measures, sending a signal to euro-area leaders that Greece will hold to its bailout program amid social unrest.

Papandreou secured the support of 154 lawmakers in the 300- seat parliament in Athens today, setting up a final vote on the bill tomorrow. The package, the second in four months, comprises new tax rises, cuts to pensions and wages and plans to dismiss 30,000 state workers, plus a provision to break the collective pay-bargaining power of Greek unions.

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Greece erupts as police clash with thousands marching on parliament

Protests in Athens turn into crossfire of petrol bombs and tear gas as people vent rage over crucial austerity vote

the Guardian,

Wednesday 19 October 2011 20.57 BST

Greece's great economic crisis turned into a massive showdown between the little man on the street and lawmakers in Athens's 300-seat parliament when tens of thousands of protesters marched on parliament in a day marked by fury, defiance and ultimately violence.

A demonstration that will be remembered as one of the biggest in modern times – with around 100,000 Greeks taking to the streets ahead of a crucial vote on stinging austerity – ended in ferocious street fighting on Wednesday after riot police fired teargas into the crowd and youths responded with a volley of rocks and petrol bombs. A heavy security operation by a government that appears increasingly under siege did little to stop protesters pushing their way up to the great marble steps of the parliament building itself.

By nightfall, as the two main squares of Syntagma and Monastiraki went up in flames – black smoke billowing into the sky, the boom of stun grenades rending the air as police chased black-clad protesters past archaeological sites – there was a sense that two years into this "war", the battle lines had been finally drawn.

"The men and women whom we elected to power were not given a mandate to reduce us to poverty," said Giorgos Kamkeris, a municipal employee shouting himself hoarse outside parliament earlier in the day. "This is about people power. It is about the masses persuading politicians to think again," said the burly father of two whose wage has been slashed by a third as a result of relentless cutbacks.

"Our hope is that when they come to vote on these very unfair measures, they will be too scared to endorse the package knowing that we are here outside."

The clashes coincided with a 48-hour strike called by the debt-stricken country's two biggest unions.

Unlike other demonstrations that have rocked Greece following exposure of the nation's debt – at ?360bn not only the biggest in Europe but a source of concern for the entire global economy – this protest was different. Young, old, hip, staid, it attracted people from a broad cross-section of Greek society bonded by a burning rage at the prospect of enduring yet more wage cuts, job losses and tax hikes after repeated doses of austerity demanded in return for rescue loans from the EU and IMF.

Many came equipped with gas masks and swimming goggles – de rigueur in a city where riot police have increasingly resorted to teargas – and many had backpacks filled with rocks which they openly said they intended to lob at police.

"This is my first time at a rally and I am here because I have no other choice," said Petroula Gatziou, a 33-year-old nurse waving her manicured hands in the air. "For the last year I've been unemployed. All my dreams have been shattered. I belong to a generation without a future. I have to protest, I have to shout. I have to fight to defend my country from policies that have brought us to this point."

The majority of protesters decried the violence that at the end of the day eclipsed the demonstration, with scores being rushed to hospital after hundreds of self-styled anarchists went on the rampage setting fire to shops, banks and hotels.

But even as the beleaguered government appealed to Greeks to unite in the country's "greatest hour of need" – with the finance minister describing efforts to stave off bankruptcy as the "battle of all battles" – it is clear that the patience for the painful reforms most had at the beginning of the crisis has run out. The lack of hope in the future has fuelled a fury that for the first time since the collapse of military rule now threatens to take Greece to a dark place.

"Those who are really responsible for this crisis, the rich, the tax evaders, the 300 people who sit in that parliament, have never been made to pay," said a contract worker in the public sector who gave his name only as Giorgos. "Sadly I think the time has come for blood to be shed. Every time we protest peacefully more cuts are made and they are always at the expense of workers. As one of our great singers said, it's only with fire and knives that men progress. People will have to die if we are going to stop these dreadful policies."

The real drama, he said, would be seen on Thursday when communist militants have vowed to form a human chain around parliament come what may.

"Today is the practice run. The day of the vote will be the day we resist."