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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Despite the LA Times clear bias against protesters,
it shows what is happening internationally against budget cuts caused
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>by economic crisis. </FONT></DIV>
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<P>latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-0312-greece-strikes-20100312,0,7243344.story</P>
<H1>latimes.com</H1>
<H2>Greece hit by strikes, riots over austerity plan</H2>
<P>Associated Press</P>
<P>March 12, 2010</P>
<P>ATHENS, Greece</P>
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<P>Serious street clashes erupted between rioting youths and police in central
Athens Thursday as tens of thousands demonstrated during a nationwide strike
against the cash-strapped government's austerity measures.<BR><BR>Hundreds of
masked and hooded youths punched and kicked motorcycle police, knocking several
off their bikes, as riot police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun
grenades.<BR><BR>The violence spread after the end of the march to a nearby
square, where police faced off with stone-throwing anarchists and suffocating
clouds of tear gas sent patrons scurrying from open-air cafes.<BR><BR>Police say
16 suspected rioters were detained and two officers were injured.<BR><BR>Rioters
used sledge hammers to smash the glass fronts of more than a dozen shops, banks,
jewelers and a cinema. Youths also set fire to rubbish bins and a car, smashed
bus stops, and chopped blocks off marble balustrades and building facades to use
as projectiles.<BR><BR>Organizers said some 60,000 people took part in the
protest. But an unofficial police estimate set the crowd at around 20,000 —
including those that took part in a separate, peaceful march earlier Thursday.
Police do not issue official crowd estimates for
demonstrations.<BR><BR>Thursday's strike — the second in a week — brought the
country to a virtual standstill, grounding all flights and bringing public
transport to a halt. State hospitals were left with emergency staff only and all
news broadcasts were suspended as workers walked off the job for 24 hours to
protest spending cuts and tax hikes designed to tackle the country's debt
crisis.<BR><BR>Riot police made heavy use of tear gas during the start-and-stop
clashes throughout the demonstration, including outside Parliament. Strikers and
protesters banged drums and chanted slogans such as "no sacrifice for
plutocracy," and "real jobs, higher pay." People draped banners from apartment
buildings reading: "No more sacrifices, war against war."<BR><BR>The
demonstrators included hundreds of black-clad anarchists in crash helmets and
ski masks, who repeatedly taunted and attacked riot police with stones and
petrol bombs, at one point spraying officers with brown paint. Shopkeepers along
the demonstration route hastily rolled down their shutters, while a few blocks
away, people sat at outdoor restaurants, nonchalantly continuing their
meals.<BR><BR>Tear gas wafted through the city center's streets, sending
businessmen in suits scurrying for cover, their eyes streaming.<BR><BR>Minor
clashes also broke out in the northern city of Thessaloniki, where about 14,000
people marched through the center.<BR><BR>Fears of a Greek default have
undermined the euro for all 16 countries that share it, putting the Greek
government under intense European Union pressure to quickly show fiscal
improvement.<BR><BR><STRONG>It has announced an additional euro4,8 billion
($65.33 billion) in savings through public sector salary cuts, hiring and
pension freezes and consumer tax hikes to deal with its ballooning deficit, but
the measures have led to a new wave of labor
discontent.</STRONG><BR><BR><STRONG>The cutbacks, added to a previous euro11.2
billion ($15.24 billion) austerity plan, seek to reduce the country's budget
deficit from 12.7 percent of annual output to 8.7 percent this year. The
long-term target is to bring overspending below the EU ceiling of 3 percent of
GDP in 2012.</STRONG><BR><BR>The new plan sparked a wave of strikes and protests
from labor unions whose reaction to the initial austerity measures had been
muted. Thursday's strike shut down all public services and schools, leaving
ferries tied up at port and suspending all news broadcasts for the day. However,
some private bank branches were open despite calls from the bank employees'
union to participate in the strike.<BR><BR>While their colleagues clashed with
groups of protesters, some police joined the demonstration.<BR><BR>About 200
uniformed police, coast guard and fire brigade officers, who cannot go on strike
but can hold protests, gathered at a square in the center of the city shortly
before the marches got under way.<BR><BR>"The police and other security forces
have been particularly hard hit by the new measures because our salaries are
very low," said Yiannis Fanariotis, general secretary of one police association.
He said the average policeman made about euro1,000-euro1,200 ($1,360-$1,635) a
month if weekend and night shifts were included.<BR><BR>Joining the protest
"doesn't feel strange, because we are working people like everybody else and we
are all shouting out for our rights," he said.<BR><BR>The government says the
tough cuts are its only way to dig Greece out of a crisis that has hammered the
common European currency and alarmed international markets — inflating the
loan-dependent country's borrowing costs.<BR><BR>But unions say ordinary Greeks
are being called to pay a disproportionate price for past fiscal
mismanagement.<BR><BR>"They are trying to make workers pay the price for this
crisis," said Yiannis Panagopoulos, leader of Greece's largest union, the
GSEE.<BR><BR>"These measures will not be effective and will throw the economy
into deep freeze."<BR><BR>A general strike last Friday was marred by violence
during a large protest march. Riot police used tear gas and baton charges
against rock-throwing protesters, who smashed banks and storefronts, while
left-wing protesters roughed up Panagopoulos as he was addressing a
rally.<BR><BR><STRONG>The labor unrest could spark fears that the government
will have trouble in implementing its new measures.</STRONG><BR><BR>Greece
insists it doesn't need a bailout, and its European partners are reluctant to
fund one. But it has called for European and international support for its
program, saying that unless it receives that support and the cost for it to
borrow on the market falls, it might have to appeal to the International
Monetary Fund for help.<BR><BR>On Wednesday night, Deputy Prime Minister
Theodore Pangalos said Greece could bypass the costly process of borrowing from
edgy markets by urging international institutions to buy its bonds at a set
interest rate.<BR><BR>"We want, if there is an unjustified speculative attack
against Greek bonds, to know that one of these institutions that have the
substantial means to absorb such market products will come and say 'look here, I
am buying Greek bonds at this price, with this interest rate,"' Pangalos told
private Mega TV.<BR><BR>He did not say which institutions he was referring to,
or elaborate on the interest rate.<BR><BR>Markets think some kind of rescue
would be organized if default looms. Speculation has focused on possible
guarantees for Greek bonds or help from state-owned banks in other eurozone
countries.</P></DIV>
<P class=copyright>Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.</P><IMG
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