1 Dead in Athens Demonstration Clashes


ATHENS, Greece October 20, 2011 (AP)
A protester died during an anti-austerity demonstration that turned violent in the Greek capital Thursday, authorities said, hours before lawmakers were to vote on deeply unpopular new cutbacks demanded by creditors to keep Greece afloat.

Violent rioters attacked peaceful demonstrators with firebombs and stones as tens of thousands turned out in Athens. As the second day of a general strike paralyzed the country, more than 50,000 peaceful demonstrators flooded downtown Syntagma Square outside parliament, the scene of violent protests on Wednesday.

Creditors have demanded that Greece pass the extra austerity measures before they give the country more funds from a euro110 billion ($152 billion) bailout loan from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. Greece says it will run out of money in mid-November without the next euro8 billion ($11 billion) installment.

Greek lawmakers on Thursday were voting on details of the proposals, which include putting 30,000 public servants on reduced pay and suspending collective labor contracts.

Parliament deputy speaker Anastasios Kourakis announced the death during a debate on the new bill ahead of the final vote later in the evening.

A Communist-backed union participating in the demonstration and guarding the rally identified the casualty as a 53-year-old construction worker and member of the union. It said it did not have the exact details of his death.

Initial reports indicated the man felt unwell during the protest and was taken to hospital, where he died of a suspected heart attack. An official announcement from the hospital was expected later in the afternoon.

Communist party supporters taking part in the Thursday's rally set up a cordon in front of parliament to prevent hard-liners from starting fights with police. But they came under repeated attacks by hundreds of masked protesters in motorcycle helmets who threw gasoline bombs and chunks of marble into the crowd.

Fights broke out as the Communist party supporters retaliated. Chaos ensued as protesters and masked youths armed with clubs charged each other, and riot police fired volleys of tear gas to separate the two sides.

Running battles between protesters continued well into the afternoon. Groups of youths set mounds of trash on fire, while clouds of acrid tear gas sent protesters scurrying.

Stavros Flegas, a doctor, told Skai TV about 30 people had been treated for injuries and breathing problems since the morning.

The violence came a day after a massive Athens demonstration by more than 100,000 people also degenerated into a riot, with masked, black-clad protesters attacking riot police, who responded with volleys of stun grenades and tear gas.

The next installment of the bailout for Greece has yet to be authorized and there's growing unease in the markets about whether a summit of eurozone leaders this Sunday in Brussels will yield a comprehensive solution to the continent's debt crisis. Finance ministers from the 17 countries that use the euro will Friday, meet ahead of the summit.

The Greek government's latest round of austerity measures are expected to pass, although dissent from governing Socialist party deputies could further weaken Prime Minister George Papandreou's slim majority in Parliament, where he holds 154 of the 300 seats.

Greece's international creditors, meanwhile, warned that a second rescue package tentatively agreed upon in July may not be enough to save the country from bankruptcy, according to a draft of a debt inspectors' report obtained Thursday by The Associated Press in Berlin.

The inspectors said Greece has missed its deficit-cutting targets and called the pace of its reforms insufficient, but still said Athens should get euro8 billion ($11 billion) in bailout loans as soon as possible so it does not default on its debts next month.

Greece has depended on the rescue loans since May last year. In July, eurozone leaders tentatively agreed in a second euro109 billion ($150 billion) bailout, that would also see banks and other private bondholders give Greece easier terms on its debt.

However, the inspectors from the European Commission and the European Central Bank said Greece's debt dynamics remain "extremely worrying."

Their conclusions pile pressure on European leaders to make private creditors like banks take more losses on the Greek bonds they hold.

In Athens, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos issued an impassioned appeal to Socialist and opposition lawmakers alike Thursday, warning that failure to approve the measures would be disastrous.

"If the law is not approved, including every single article it contains — particularly those that (Greece's creditors) and eurozone members regard a symbolic and political necessity — there is no need for me even to go to the eurogroup meeting on Friday, or the prime minister to Sunday's summit," he said.

"The country will be exposed to the danger of a non-rational development, and will once again serve as the scapegoat on which Europe's historic, political and institutional shortcomings will be dumped," Venizelos said.

Unions seemed resigned to the law being passed, but warned that the whole country virulently opposed it.

"Our European friends must know that our prime minister will go to the European summit naked, because the promises he will make have no backing in his country," said Ilias Iliopoulos, secretary general of the Adedy civil servants' union.

The general strike Thursday disrupted public transport and left ships docked at ports. Schools and customs offices closed and state hospitals were running on emergency staff. All public services were shut, and even lawyers and prison guards were among those staying away from work.

Page 2: 1 Dead in Athens Demonstration Clashes - ABC News

Greece's lines now are clear
The Greek elite that tried to push through policies on the back of a deficit it fuelled stands alone and accused


Costas Douzinas
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 20 October 2011 21.30 BST


The workers in a small bakery in central Athens announced this week that, while they would not close because they serve many vulnerable people, they were joining the two-day general strike by charging all products at cost. An unexpected surprise in these hard times for their customers, but an ordinary story of the life of resistance and kindness in the Greek capital. At the same time, no minister or MP can appear in public without being heckled or "yoghurted" (the Greek-style "pieing").

Greece is split in two. On one side are politicians, bankers, tax evaders and media barons supporting the most class-driven, violent social and cultural restructuring western Europe has seen. The "other" Greece includes the overwhelming majority of the population. It was in evidence yesterday when up to 500,000 people took to the streets; the largest demonstration in living memory. The attempt to divide civil servants (ritually presented as lazy and corrupt) from private sector employees (the "tax evading" plumbers) has misfired. The only success the Papandreou government can boast is the abolition of the old right-left division – replaced by a divide between the elites and the people.

Europe will soon decide how to deal with the debt, with the Greek government a sad observer. But once the only business Europe cares for has been settled, the political endgame will start in Athens. At that point, the "other" Greece will formulate history's indictment.

The political elites will stand accused of fostering the lawlessness – the term freely used against those who resist. Two dynastic parties have alternately ruled the country over the last 40 years, creating the inflated, ineffective public sector they now attack. They turned a blind eye to tax evasion and created a generous system of tax avoidance. They ran up debt even after the problems became clear, eventually leading to the European intervention. Yet a representative of that "troika" of lenders – the IMF, EU and European Central Bank – told a Greek newspaper that they did not demand the abolition of collective bargaining in the private sector, the one measure that has led to some opposition in the ruling party. Nor did the troika demand the wholesale change in university law. It is as if the Greek elites desired the debt to orchestrate the wholesale destruction of the welfare state and transfer of public assets to private hands.

The Papandreou government will stand accused of incompetence and moral cynicism. Every authoritarian regime dreams of radically changing society. This government's mission was to replace care for others with indifference, hospitality with exploitation. They failed, and now only a thick blue line separates the elite from the outraged people.

Youth unemployment is soaring towards 50%; Greece will pay for decades for the destruction of a whole generation. The troika will stand accused of neocolonial arrogance. It is not necessary to know the Sisyphus myth to see that measures leading to -7% growth do not reduce the deficit. You don't need to have read Plato to understand that halving salaries and pensions means people will not be able to pay exorbitant new taxes. You don't need to know Greek history to understand that if you keep saying the sovereignty of a country is reduced, people will react furiously.

Thursday's demonstration ended tragically with the death of a trade-unionist. The last vestiges of governmental legitimacy are gone and the government will follow soon. The democratic deficit from which political systems suffer everywhere is irreversible in Greece. The responsibility of the "other" Greece is to devise a constitution of social justice and democracy for the 21st century. This is what Greece can offer to the world.

Greece's lines now are clear | Comment is free | The Guardian

Originally Posted by contracycle

Greece is split in two. On one side are politicians, bankers, tax evaders and media barons supporting the most class-driven, violent social and cultural restructuring western Europe has seen. The "other" Greece includes the overwhelming majority of the population. It was in evidence yesterday when up to 500,000 people took to the streets; the largest demonstration in living memory. The attempt to divide civil servants (ritually presented as lazy and corrupt) from private sector employees (the "tax evading" plumbers) has misfired. The only success the Papandreou government can boast is the abolition of the old right-left division – replaced by a divide between the elites and the people.

Greek plumbers didn't evade taxes? I'd be surprised... Basically, I'd bet my last $ that, in this 500K demo, there was a fair number of tax dodgers.

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The political elites will stand accused of fostering the lawlessness – the term freely used against those who resist. Two dynastic parties have alternately ruled the country over the last 40 years, creating the inflated, ineffective public sector they now attack.

So, is "lazy and corrupt" a false, ritualistic, accusation or is there some truth in it? Because I don't get the difference between "inflated, ineffective" and "lazy and corrupt"...

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They turned a blind eye to tax evasion and created a generous system of tax avoidance. They ran up debt even after the problems became clear, eventually leading to the European intervention.

And at which point during that time did the Greek voters protest against a bloated public sector and a system of ineffective tax collection?

Quote:

It is as if the Greek elites desired the debt to orchestrate the wholesale destruction of the welfare state and transfer of public assets to private hands. The Papandreou government will stand accused of incompetence and moral cynicism. Every authoritarian regime dreams of radically changing society. This government's mission was to replace care for others with indifference, hospitality with exploitation.

Pure delusion. Again and again. How is this crisis benefiting the elites?

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You don't need to know Greek history to understand that if you keep saying the sovereignty of a country is reduced, people will react furiously.

Maybe they should have thought of that before joining a union? Which is based on countries giving up sovereignty?

__________________
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Originally Posted by Gilles de Rais

And at which point during that time did the Greek voters protest against a bloated public sector and a system of ineffective tax collection?

they had many, including fatalities at the hands of poliuce. Which is undoubtedly why the anarchists are so motivated and hostile.

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Pure delusion. Again and again. How is this crisis benefiting the elites?

Measures that destroy unions and lower wages will clearly do so. This is the Shock Doctrine in action - the crisis provides the opportunity ti impose neoliberal measures by force.