MUCH OF Greece ground to a standstill yesterday as hundreds of thousands of citizens poured out onto the streets of the capital and cities across the country for the first day of a 48-hour general strike in protest at a new wave of austerity measures.
Ministries were shut, classrooms empty and, for the third day running, boats remained docked on a day of protest that the General Confederation of Greek Labour described as one of the biggest to take place in the Greek capital since the restoration of democracy in 1974.
On a scale unprecedented for Greek general strikes, private sector involvement was extremely high. Under the slogan “Close for one day rather than shut forever”, kiosks, small shops and businesses and even petrol stations remained closed for the day. In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, the General Confederation of Greek Trade claimed more than 90 per cent of small businesses had followed the call to shut for the day.
Taxi drivers, incensed at a plan to completely deregulate the sector at the end of the year, were also on strike.
By yesterday evening there were widely diverging estimates on the number of protesters, with police speaking of 75,000, unions 200,000 and some sections of the media putting the number at 500,000.
Attendance at the union demonstrations, which began at 11am, was boosted after Athens public transport workers voted to keep services running for most of the day.
Shortly after 1pm, violence flared as angry demonstrators – many of them middle-aged and unmasked – attempted to break through a steel barrier at the entrance to the parliament. Some time later, hooded black-clad youths set alight one of two sentry boxes manned by the ceremonial presidential guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the foot of the parliament building.
Police responded with volleys of tear gas as they were showered with pieces of marble and petrol bombs. At one stage there were extensive clashes between riot police and protesters in front of the finance ministry, which since Monday has been under occupation by its staff, who have pledged to continue the sit-in until the end of the month.
Elsewhere, in the labyrinth of streets off Syntagma, rioters trashed property and set mounds of accumulated rubbish alight – refuse collectors have been on strike since the start of the month.
As black smoke wafted through the streets, office workers not on strike had to be evacuated from buildings.
“I think the violence which took place on Syntagma to be totally in order,” said one protester, Manos.
“It is the only way how we as Greeks can protect ourselves from the government. The prime minister must resign,” the 29-year old business administration graduate said, predicting even larger protests if parliament approves the new measures today.
The omnibus Bill, which is likely to be passed, foresees slashing public sector pay and pensions by up to a quarter, along with tax hikes, a suspension of collective wage bargaining in the private sector, and the laying off of thousands of civil servants.
A second attempt in as many days by prime minister George Papandreou to secure the support of main opposition party New Democracy failed yesterday when conservative leader Antonis Samaras rejected his proposal that they travel together to Sunday’s European summit. A government spokesman later described Mr Samaras’s party as the “only opposition party in Europe that refuses to assume even its most rudimentary responsibility to help its country”.