General strike hits further austerity demands in Greece

[Hannah Bell]

On Tuesday, tram, bus, and train services were halted in Athens and the northern port city of Thessaloniki as transport workers struck against privatisation plans for a second day.

Bank workers and others joined the action, as parliament voted for the “labour reforms”, including cuts in wages in state-owned bus and railway companies and a weakening of collective bargaining, with company-level deals allowed to prevail.

Prime Minister George Papandreou’s Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) government agreed to the policies, following a trip to Athens last week by IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

After a full year in which cut after cut has been implemented, slashing billions of euros in public spending, the latest attacks include gutting collective contracts and the minimum wage...

These cuts are part of a massive retrenchment of the public sector, which will wipe out hundreds of thousands of jobs. Prior to the announcement, Interior Minister Yiannis Ragoussis said that public workers still enjoyed “scandalous benefits”. By the end of the government’s four-year term in office, he said, the number of civil servants’ jobs will have been reduced by 200,000.

A spate of partial and full privatisations, demanded by the IMF and the EU, is going ahead and is expected to raise an estimated €1.1 billion. Firms to be privatised include the Hellenic Railways Organisation, Trainose, which operates railway services, the Hellenic Post, Public Gas Corp, Athens International Airport and 33 other regional airports. Substantial real estate belonging to the state railway organisation is being sold off.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/gree-d15.shtml

[nc4bo]

1. How much longer before it's us instead of them?

Something I've been thinking really hard about lately.

[Hardrada]

2. It's that fucking evil IMF again. That thing should be dismantled.

[Starry Messenger]

3. k&r

"Scandalous benefits" my fucking arse.

[Kevin1a]

4. They should block the roads...

...so the bankers and politicians have to take public transit instead of riding in their limousines.

[saras]

5. Theft, not 'austerity'

It's theft, not austerity. It doesn't help anyone to fall into the trap of using the extremist's language for it.

[reggie the dog]

6. this is half the story

the greeks bloodied a member of the right wing as he left parliament, here is a link to see the photo, this is what needs to happen all over the place, there have been protests and riots in London, Rome and Athens this week alone, fuck yeah!!! http://www.liberation.fr/monde/11011202-violentes-manifestations-en-grece-et-greve-contre-l-austerite-en-europe
with the quote from the photo with the bloodied MP Un député, et ancien ministre conservateur, a été molesté par la foule mercredi à Athènes lors de manifestations émaillées d'incidents assez violents. (Reuters)i would love to see our politicians bloodied and running scared like this

look through these photos and you will notice flames, violence and a growing communist anarchist movement in greece and italy, you probably already saw the photos of london.....hey what's that sound??? everbody look what's goin down....