greece is unraveling

holy king

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Three dead as Greece protest turns violent

At least three people have been killed in the Greek capital as protesters set fire to a bank during a general strike over planned austerity measures.

The bodies were found inside the Marfin Bank in Athens. The Greek prime minister said it was a "murderous act".

The protest became violent, with petrol bombs thrown at police who responded with pepper spray and tear gas.

Protesters are angered by spending cuts and tax rises planned in return for a 110bn euro (£95bn) bail-out for Greece.

Parliament is to vote on the measures by the end of the week. They include wage freezes, pension cuts and tax rises. They aim to achieve fresh budget cuts of 30bn euros over three years, with the goal of cutting Greece's public deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2014. It currently stands at 13.6%.

As the demonstration gained momentum, a group of protesters rushed up a flight of steps at the parliament building in Syntagma Square, taunting MPs to come out and calling them "thieves".

Spoiler :
Riot police forced them back, but right next to parliament, other groups set buildings on fire - including a department of the finance ministry in charge of the the austerity programme as well as an office of the Athens prefecture.

A police spokesman said the three victims - two women and a man - were among 20 people working in the Marfin bank branch on Stadiou Avenue in central Athens when the petrol bomb was thrown.

Most of the employees managed to escape the fumes as the flames took hold, but the three found their way blocked as they tried to escape to the roof and they suffocated.

"We took 15 minutes to get to the site because it was very difficult to get there," fire brigade spokesman Panayiotis Falaras.

He said another five people were rescued from the building's balcony.

Prime Minister George Papandreou told MPs in parliament: "Nobody has the right to violence and particularly violence that leads to murder. Violence breeds violence."

But one of the protesters told the BBC it had been the fault of the police, whose "brutality" had led to the escalation.

"It's something tragic but I think that the responsibility in the last instance lies with the government because the government unleashed a tremendous amount of police violence against a huge demonstration," Panayotis Sotiris said.

The Greek protesters' ire is aimed against symbols of capitalism, says the BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens.

Our correspondent says it is not clear whether shock over the deaths will have the effect of diminishing the protests - but the fear is that the campaign to defeat the government will escalate.

World concern

The general strike is the third to hit Greece in as many months.

Flights in and out of Greece stopped at midnight, and trains and ferries were not running. Schools, hospitals, and many offices are shut.

The government has appealed to demoralised staff in the military, police, schools and hospitals not to retire, fearing the surge in demand for benefits could further drain treasury resources.

Meanwhile, the German parliament has begun considering the bail-out plan for Greece.Chancellor Angela Merkel urged MPs to back the emergency loan package agreed by European finance ministers at the weekend.

It requires Germany to pay the largest proportion of the loans.

"Quite simply, Europe's future is at stake," she said.

The EU has agreed to provide 80bn euros (£69bn) in funding - of which around 22bn euros would come from Germany - while the rest will come from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

European Council President Herman van Rompuy said the European Union was watching events in Greece.

"We are all concerned by the Greek economic and budgetary situation but at this moment our thoughts are with the human victims in Athens," Mr van Rompuy said

"A major programme has just been finalised. This programme is ambitious and credible in efforts that it represents towards the budgetary plan and competitiveness."

Chris Lowe of FTN Financial in New York told the BBC that the US financial community had been shocked by the violent protests.

"The [US] reaction is that [Greek] people will simply refuse to accept the austerity plan," he said.

"If the Greeks are this upset, then maybe we need to worry about the Portuguese and Spanish and Italians being upset with the cuts they're going to have to make."

The bail-out deal is designed to prevent Greece from defaulting on its massive debt.

However, it must first be approved by some parliaments in the 15 other eurozone countries.


discuss.
 
What's up with these unruly Greeks?

The sales tax hike seems a bit nuts, but then it seemed kinda high to begin with. The rest of the measures seem very reasonable.

If all they're complaining about are these changes then they're wayyyyy overreacting. Where were these sorts of protests in the U.S. this time last year? Would have loved to see Wall street up in flames :lol:

So yeah, chill out Greek dudes. Aside from your crazy-ass sales tax, you have it GOOD
 
But...but...gasoline bombs aren't dangerous. How dare police respond with violence!
 
The Greek people refuse to surrender to capitalist exploitation, this so called "bailout" would chain the Greek people in debt for decades, the intrest rates are insane, the austerity imposed outrageous, Greek is correct in resisting.

Greece should default, then it should withdraw from the Euro and then devalue its currency. Problem solved, inflation can be dealt with.
 
Why don't those selfish Greek teachers just roll over and accept that the IMF knows better than them?

http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2010/05/03/2255/ said:
“We are members of the Teachers’ with Limited Working Rights Coordination and the Pan-Hellenic Union of Unemployed Teachers. We decided to come hear today, in the studios of the government’s TV-station, for two reasons: The first one is that for six months now the Mass Media keep silent about the government’s economical measures. And the second one is that we want to break, in praxis the monologe of Education’s Ministry, the monologe of Mrs. Diamantopoulou who keeps silent about the multi-law agreement that wants to be voted and destroys the public and uncomercial education. We were “welcomed” inside and outside the studio by a team of MAT (Unions of Order Recovery) ready to beat us up. We condemn both the Education Ministry and the NET-channel Authorities for the certain event: You see that there is evidence of violence on us.

The government brings the “Stability Program” in reality by packing more than 30 students in each classroom and keeping out of schools some thousands of unemployed educators. The “New School” like the government wants to name it, in reality it is not new at all. It is really old and brings us back in time. It will be against the needs and the rights of the society in Greece. Against the workers, the parents, the students, the teachers. The government calls us to pay for the cost of Education. Calls you the parents, your children who study, us who teach. After the multi-law of Mrs. Diamantopoulou we get dismissed; she fires around 17.000 teachers who are paid by hour or are temporary employed! We thought that we were the minority, but as it seems we become the majority after they brought the IMF to us, which will result in increase of poverty and unemployment of thousands of workers. Everybody on the streets to block the economical measures, kick out IMF and all those who brought it here. Tomorow we demonstrate to block the economical measures that destroy the Education System. On Wednesday 5th of May everybody is striking, nobody works. We gather infront of the Archeological Museum at 11:00 to block the economical measures.

We take out to the streets, we rise up!”
 
It's Greece. Lots of people still have a chip on their shoulder because the Communist guerillas lost the civil war there. Really, it's one of these countries US presidents at times steer clear of, since serious left-wing assassination plots are entirely possible there.

Things like that — and how the Greeks are even more prone to street violence than the French — but apparently also that it hasn't quite dawned upon a large part of the Greek public how big a hole they find themselves in.

Not sure it's "unraveling" yet though. Things like these weren't entirely unexpected. As EU nations go, it's kind of a dangerous little country though.
 
They are trying that Fight Club-move - burn the banks and all registers for loans and you're debt-free. Brilliant!
 
The Greek people refuse to surrender to capitalist exploitation, this so called "bailout" would chain the Greek people in debt for decades, the intrest rates are insane, the austerity imposed outrageous, Greek is correct in resisting.

Greece should default, then it should withdraw from the Euro and then devalue its currency. Problem solved, inflation can be dealt with.

Don't be a fool, Greeks are massively avoiding taxes. According to the NY times, Greece is missing 20 billion euro's on a yearly basis because of it and this according to various studies.

There's about 17.000 swimmingpools in the backyards of people, but only 325 or so are registered. Try keeping that in mind when it comes to Greeks and paying taxes.
 
I suppose I would be a bit annoyed if it looked like I was paying for others tax evasion.

The measures are mild compared to here.
 
Greece obviously got too big to fail. It should be broken up into several smaller countries.
 
When it comes to those murders, I know EXACTLY who did it. We have lots of them in Norway too. They are young anarchists who have NEVER done anything worthwhile in their lifes. And now when people begin to demonstrate for reasons unknown to them(or rather above their comprehension), they simply follow and begin to throw homemade firebombs around. These far left wingers are just as bad as neo nazis.

And as far as I've heard there's 20 000 demonstrators. That's not much in such a big city. The way I see it, the average Greek is okay with the cuts, they just want to punish the politicians who got them in this mess. And they also want the rich to take bigger burdens.
 
The way I see it, the average Greek is okay with the cuts, they just want to punish the politicians who got them in this mess. And they also want the rich to take bigger burdens.
They already voted ND out, dude.
 
I cant wait to vacation there next year!

To bad for you they have the Euro. If they didn't, the Drachma would be so worthless you could almost buy the Acropolis by next year.
 
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