COLLECTING INFO, IMAGES OF GREEK (WORLD ?) SITUATION
par RussiaToday le 28 juin 2011
Violent clashes have broken out in Greece during massive nationwide strikes. Hundreds of thousands of workers are protesting ahead of a parliamentary vote on a harsh set of tax hikes and spending cuts. 28 billion euro worth of cuts are needed before the EU agrees to hand Greece another cash bailout. It's considered to be the country's last resort to avoid becoming the first Eurozone nation to default. But both the cuts, and the high-interest bailout, are deeply unpopular. More than 5 thousand police have been deployed for the march on Parliament. RT talks to Yanis Varoufakis, lecturer at Athens University, for more on what's happening.
A 48-hour general strike is under way in Greece as the country's parliament debates a new round of austerity reforms that will help the bankruptcy-threatened government secure rescue loans.
The strike, which began on Tuesday, is set to disrupt or halt most public services.
The strike has been called by unions angry at a new €28bn ($40bn) austerity programme that would slap taxes on minimum wage earners and other struggling Greeks, following months of other cuts that have seen unemployment surge to more than 16 per cent.
"These measures are a massacre for workers' rights. It will truly be hell for the working man," said Thanassis Pafilis, a lawmaker with the Greek Communist Party that will lead one of Tuesday's main rallies.
"The strike must bring everything to a standstill."
Protesters will be joined by doctors, ambulance drivers, journalists and even actors at a state-funded theatre.
Public administration offices and banks will close their doors, hospitals will have reduced staffing and Greek media will down tools for five hours on each of the two days.
Trams and buses will not run in Athens, but metro drivers joined other employees on the subway system who decided not to strike "so as to allow Athenians to join the planned protests in the capital."
Flights will be grounded on both days during stoppages by air traffic controllers between 8am and midday and between 6pm and 10pm (0500-0900 GMT and 1500-1900 GMT).
The strike by air traffic controllers has already caused travel disruption with airlines Olympic Air and Aegean cancelling dozens of mainly internal flights, and rescheduling a series of international departures.
The move comes a day after French banks reached an outline agreement to roll over holdings of maturing Greek bonds as part of a wider European plan to avoid sovereign default.
George Papandreou, the prime minister, begged the Greek parliament late on Monday to do its "patriotic duty" and vote to keep the country "on its feet".
par KnewWorldNoing le 28 juin 2011
Riot police fired tear gas at youths hurling rocks near the Greek finance ministry in Athens on Tuesday, as anger bubbled over on the first day of a general strike, and parliament debated new cost-cutting measures. Hooded youths ripped up paving stones and set rubbish bins on fire in central Athens as police gave chase and fired tear gas and stun grenades. Peaceful protesters nearby braved thick clouds of tear gas to stage an outdoor street party, banging pots and pans in time to music on loudspeakers. Some of them made human chains to protect the peaceful crowd from the rioters and the riot police battles, pushing back the police lines out of Syntagma Square, outside of the Greek parliament. Staff at upscale hotels handed out surgical masks to tourists and helped them with rolling luggage past the rioting, over ground strewn with smashed-up marble and cement paving stones. Youths torched a satellite truck parked near parliament. The fire caused a freezer at a neighbouring kiosk to explode, and hooded youths ducked behind the burning truck to help themselves to ice-cream cones. Marbles were smashed by rioters to use as projectiles while popular McDonald's fast food restaurant was vandalized by protesters.Riot police fired tear gas at youths hurling rocks near the Greek finance ministry in Athens on Tuesday, as anger bubbled over on the first day of a general strike, and parliament debated new cost-cutting measures. Hooded youths ripped up paving stones and set rubbish bins on fire in central Athens as police gave chase and fired tear gas and stun grenades. Peaceful protesters nearby braved thick clouds of tear gas to stage an outdoor street party, banging pots and pans in time to music on loudspeakers. Some of them made human chains to protect the peaceful crowd from the rioters and the riot police battles, pushing back the police lines out of Syntagma Square, outside of the Greek parliament. Staff at up scale hotels handed out surgical masks to tourists and helped them with rolling luggage past the rioting, over ground strewn with smashed-up marble and cement paving stones. Youths torched a satellite truck parked near parliament. The fire caused a freezer at a neighboring kiosk to explode, and hooded youths ducked behind the burning truck to help themselves to ice-cream cones. Marbles were smashed by rioters to use as projectiles while popular McDonald's fast food restaurant was vandalized by protesters.
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