Riot police clashed with protesters outside the Greek parliament in Athens last night after the government passed a new austerity bill to secure international rescue loans worth €110 billion.
Tens of thousands demonstrated outside the building in mostly peaceful protests yesterday, but the mood turned ugly as police tried to drive off smaller numbers of violent protesters who tried to light fires around the building late last night.
There was a heavy security presence in the city all day because of fears of a repeat of Wednesday's violence in which three bank employees were killed during riots.
Many banks remained closed as a mark of respect to the three bank employees from the Marfin Bank who were killed in the violence, while dozens of people gathered to place lighted candles and floral tributes outside the burnt-out branch.
The country's two biggest unions draped a large banner opposite lines of riot police guarding the parliament, urging the government not to agree to IMF and EU measures.
Athenians were shocked and sobered by the deaths from asphyxiation of the three people who were in their 30s, one of whom was four months pregnant.
Earlier in the day a throng of about 1,500 clustered around parliament, mainly from left-wing parties, but there was none of the amplified music, drum-beating and sloganeering that usually attends these rallies.
Even anarchists professed remorse for the deaths. "No one knew there were people inside the bank," said a self-professed anarchist handing out flyers. "The tragedy was that they were made to work on a strike day, and were locked in."
The 37-year-old man, who refused to give his name, said the dead were "victims of a social war" and worse is to come. "Millions of people around the world are waiting for Greece to give the signal for a global uprising . . . there are thousands of young people who see no future, but feel more intelligent than their leaders."
"Every citizen has the right to protest, but no one has the right to violence – particularly the violence that leads to the murder of our fellow men," said prime minister Yiorgos Papandreou in an address to parliament late on Wednesday. He pledged to track down the perpetrators.
While he did not blame unions and the Communist Party for the deaths, he did blame them for creating an inflammable environment. "You know well that the statements made in the last few days did not help – that the country is under a dictatorship or that the constitution is somehow in doubt. You know how much these words legitimise violence."
The Communist Party said the killings were deliberate acts of provocation aimed at marginalising it politically.
Non-anarchists at yesterday's deflated rally were not expecting a spontaneous uprising, but expressed anger at the unaccountability of the Greek political system. "Working people are the only ones not to blame for Greece's state. It is a matter of management and a crisis of capitalism," said Penelope (50), a university administrative employee. University staff have been among the hardest hit by three waves of austerity measures this year aiming to reduce the cost of the public sector.
"There were alternatives," to the EU-IMF financing package that comes with austerity conditions, she insists. "The European Central Bank was lending to Greek commercial banks at 1 per cent during the crisis, and they were relending to the government at 7 per cent. If we want a Europe that is true to the spirit of Maastricht, the ECB should lend directly to states, as happens in America."