Greek anti-austerity march turns violent; Three die as bank firebombed

http://www.timesofearth.com/Europe/?NT=&nid=21654 Athens - Three people have been killed in a petrol bomb attack on a bank in central Athens, as protests in the capital over the government's spending cuts turned violent.
Athens police were put on a "general state of alert" as firemen evacuated around 20 people still trapped inside the wreckage of a Marfin Bank branch, set on fire as protesters hurled firebombs and smashed shop windows.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Wednesday to protest against the government's so-called austerity measures, which are aimed at curbing the nation's crippling debt crisis.

Groups of protesters pelted police with rocks, chunks of marble and bottles, while officers responded with tear gas and water cannon, clouding the city streets.

Estimates of the number of demonstrators varied from 27,000 to 100,000, making it the biggest protest since Greece was first hit by economic disaster late last year.

Workers, led by members of a communist trade union, beat drums and chanted "don't mess with us" as they marched through the city on Wednesday.

Others chanted "thieves, thieves" as they attempted to storm parliament.

Phillips said the atmosphere was "heated".

"Over the last few days, I've felt that anger is growing in many sectors of Greek society," he said.

Protest leaders have said that although the austerity measures were needed to secure $143bn in loans from the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), poorer Greeks will suffer disproportionately.

"There are other things the [government] can do, before taking money from a retiree who earns 500 euros [$660] a month," Spyros Papaspyros, leader of the ADEDY civil servants' union, said.

The action came amid a 24-hour nationwide strike, that brought transport and public services, including schools, hospitals and tax offices to a standstill.

Aircraft have been grounded, ferries have remained in docks and public transport has been halted.

The general strike is the third to paralyse the country in as many months.

It comes a day before the Greek government plans to push through it austerity measures, imposed as a condition of bail out by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Barnaby Phillips said the government was likely to continue with its programme, despite Wednesday's violence.

"It's highly unusual within the Greek political context where violence is often quite ritualistic. Clearly things crossed the line at some stage today, and deaths like these are highly unusual.

"But I don't think the Socialist government feels that it has any choice ... it feels that Greece's debt crisis is such that it cannot back down," he said.

Earlier on Wednesday the European Commission said that Greece's economy is set to contract by three per cent in 2010, in a far gloomier estimate than they delivered in November.

The commission also forecast the country's deficit would be 9.3 per cent of GDP in 2010 and 9.9 per cent in 2011.

Greek stocks dropped over three per cent in early trades on Wednesday amid concerns over whether the government will be able to push through the unpopular austerity drive.

The cuts, some of which have already been implemented, will significantly affect civil servants' and pensioners' incomes.

Among the major measures announced on Sunday were a cut in bonus pay for civil servants and retirees; three years more for pension contributions; and the raising of the retirement age for women to 65, the same level as men.

Fears that the crisis could spread caused a fall in Asian markets on Wednesday, as well as European and US markets on Tuesday.

The euro also fell to a one-year low against the dollar during Asian trading.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Greek
• protests
• against
• austerity
• package
• turn
• violent

[Alba12349]

@mauricesioniste

"corrupted"? coming from an israeli!? hahaha!

The european union is shit so I understand why they are angry.

What do you know about the european union you are not even european.

[dakiler2028]

0:26 macedonia? nice way to respect us dickheads

[THmusic8]

@yang2enator HOLY SHIT MAN! WHAT DID U JUST SAY?? WOWWWWWW!! I DEFINITELY LOVE THIS QUOTE!

THANX FOR SHARING IT!! SHIIIIIIIT!!!!

[Netkiller3714]

They burnt a bank down? Fucking nice. Best way to fuck the system. Burn it.

[MrAugustus88]

Come on is Rothchild and Rockefeller so rich ? In Greece the population is aging so fewer people are contributing to the social insurance, many are unemployed, there are far too many civil servants. The Turks illegally occupy most of Ancient Greece including the resources, the Pasok and nea Dimokratia mps have stolen bags of gold. Greek foreign policy is ridiculous, how can the west trust Greece ? Plus the communist criminals are ruining the countries name

[TheTime4solutions]

@MrAugustus88 Democrats socialaists and Comunists are run by and controled by money. Why is it that the Greek Central Bank that issues the nations money, is owned by the zionist jew family Rothschild? Why dont the Greek Government create its own money. Why is it that fiat money created out of thin air, digitized into circulation at no cost is a compounding national debt that the people have to pay back to that Rothschild central bank? World wide false debt slavery time to End this system

[TheTime4solutions]

The True enemy of humanity the Rotshcild central bank creating false debt and running a immoral extorted theft debt slave tax system to control humanity. The agenda, genocide. Tear down that bank Mr Rothschild! Set humanity free.

[MrAugustus88]

 Sadly Greece is run by Democrats, Socilaists and Communists. Greece should have a monarchy and a board of generals.

[Blndrfist]

You greedy greek taxpayers; how dare you question the socialist state and union supremecy. Those union workers deserve to do little to no work all day while sitting around enjoying their socialist worker's paradise benefits.

[yang2enator]

@CornFedArmen "Talk sense to a fool and he will call you foolish."