Just days before the UK is due to see it’s largest scale industrial action in decades, with approximately 800,000 workers going on strike on June 30th, Greece has erupted in a 48 hour general strike. Again!
The strike has been called in retaliation to the latest batch of massive austerity measures to be voted on my the government on Wednesday and Thursday. Despite the fact that previous measures of this kind have failed so solve the crisis (in fact, the previous round of cuts saw unemployment rise to over 16%), Greek PM George Papandreou is still willing to accept terms that punish the poor for being poor in order secure loans to prop up the economy.
Thousands have turned out in Athens and are attempting to encircle the parliament buildings to stop the vote going ahead. Of course, the state has reacted to this in it’s typical fashion – 5000 riot police armed with tear gas and truncheons. Given the Greek cops recent (brutal) handling of events in Syntagma Square (which even included agents provocateurs planted in the crowd), their presence was bound to cause a violent backlash – stones, bricks and molotov cocktails have all been flying through the air today.
If the UK can manage anything even half as militant as this on June 30th, then we could be in for something really special…
Keep checking this blog & future issues of The Spectre for more info on developments in Greece