Greeks Strike Against Austerity – Again

Striking Greek journalists caused a media blackout on Tuesday

Greeks Strike Against Austerity – Again

Stephen: It seems to me that the smaller the country, the more active the general populace is in showing that they want to to live in a world that works for everyone. Or maybe it’s just easier to bring everyone together in a smaller nation? Take Iceland, Ireland and Greece as examples…

Greeks in Fresh General Strike Against Austerity

From BBC News Europe – February 20, 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21515012

Greece is being hit by the first general strike of 2013 as workers renew their protest over austerity measures.

The 24-hour strike is forcing the closure of schools and state-run offices and leaving hospitals working with emergency staff.

The strike has been called by Greece’s two biggest labour unions, representing half the four million-strong workforce.

It comes days before international lenders are due in Athens to discuss the next instalment of a bailout.

The debt-ridden country is being kept afloat by billions of euros from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

In return, the government has imposed waves of unpopular spending cuts and tax rises, hitting pay and pensions and sending unemployment soaring to more than 26%.

Our struggle will continue for as long as these policies are implemented”

- Greek private sector union GSEE

Strikes and violent protests have become commonplace.

Greece’s coalition government managed to secure the latest tranche of bailout money at the end of last year, and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras told the BBC he believed the worst was over for his country.

However, the BBC’s Athens correspondent Mark Lowen says that Wednesday’s strike is a reminder that government confidence of a slowly improving economic situation is not shared by many on the streets.

Marches

Union leaders say they are angry at the job cuts and tax rises being demanded by Greece’s international lenders.

“The (strike) is our answer to the dead-end policies that have squeezed the life out of workers, impoverished society and plunged the economy into recession and crisis,” the private sector union GSEE said in a statement.

“Our struggle will continue for as long as these policies are implemented,” it said.

The union is organising the walkout with public sector union Adedy.

Several marches are due to culminate in protests outside parliament in Syntagma square, Athens, where violent clashes have broken out on previous occasions.

Our correspondent says the only difference between Wednesday’s strike and earlier protests is that public transport has been for the most part unaffected. Buses are still operating and air traffic controllers are not on strike, he says.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s eight-month-old government has taken a tough line on strikers, invoking emergency law twice this year to order seamen and metro staff back to work.

But despite such measures, strikes have recently picked up.

A one-day visit by French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday went largely unreported because Greek journalists downed tools.

Our correspondent says more than 20 general strikes since the crisis erupted have failed to halt austerity – and this one is unlikely to be any different.