Greeks say "F**k It"

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Hundreds of thousands of Greeks are walking off their jobs at airports, schools, hospitals and even the Acropolis to protest Prime Minister George Papandreou’s 6.6 billion-euro ($8.7 billion) austerity plan, challenging a government seeking European bailout funds to stave off default.

Today’s 24-hour strike, the first this year that will shut the Athens International Airport for a full day, takes place after European Union ministers signaled they may renegotiate terms of Greece’s latest rescue, sending the nation’s stocks down the most in 17 months.

The country’s largest public-sector union, known as ADEDY and representing at least 400,000 state workers, called the walkout and a march on parliament to protest plans to put 30,000 public workers on reduced pay, raise property taxes and cut pensions and wages. The demonstration defies calls by the government to show unity in the struggle to avert a default.

“We are at the worst circumstances under the worst conditions,” Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said at a news conference in Athens yesterday. “We are dependent on the aid and loans of our institutional partners. That is the situation of the country. And we must make superhuman efforts to win this wager of history.” ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-04/greeks-strike-against-papandreou-job-cuts.html

[cyberpj]

1. Ruh-roh. "May you live in interesting times" indeed! nt

[Bloke 32]

3. Surely

We do, indeed, suffer from these most interesting times.

[cyberpj]

5. 'Allo! Welcome to DU Bloke 32!

:hi:

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Fuck the IMF and World Bank. Kick the damn slavers OUT!

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[girl gone mad]

7. They need to have a hard default and exit the failed Euro project.

[banned from Kos]

10. I agree 100%.

It would be good for Greece but hard on the Euro banks.

So what? They get austerity either way.

Strategic default works for sovereigns too. When they default the people will riot anyway.

[yawnmaster]

6. Sadly, I'm seeing nothing but a downward spiral for Greece. eom

[girl gone mad]

8. They will recover once they get out of the Maastricht straitjacket.

This is a positive development.

[in_cog_ni_to]

9. Whew. This is not going to end well.

:scared: I feel it in my bones. The world is imploding.

[underpants]

11. Did they hire JP Morgan to hide their debt?

Were they in the set that should have known (and probably did) that JP Morgan was hiding their debt AND betting (with insider knowledge) against their own clients?

[katsy]

13. That was the previous government.

Right wingers.

[tnlefty]

12. I say GOOD for the workers!!

Major hat tip. IIRC Goldman Sachs is a major factor in what's happening. :toast:

Financial terrorists get off free, while workers are expected to pick up the tab and austerity. Fuck that.

[truebrit71]

15. Yup, I have to agree....I wish Americans had had those sort of balls when the 'too big to fail'...

..ballon was floated...

It maddens me to no end that the average Joe has to pay off the gambling debts of Wall Street...without so much as one of the degenerate gamblers being perp walked and without a single piece of tougher legislation being enforced to prevent it from happening again..

[Starry Messenger]

14. k&r