Greece’s New Austerity Cuts Cause Massive Strike and Protests

A 24 hour public strike is currently underway in Greece as a new round of austerity cuts lead to renewed protests.

Public trade union members burn emergency tax notices outside Greek finance ministry [Photo: Thanassis Stavrakis / AP]

In Greece, a 24 hour public strike has brought stoppages to the trains, buses, taxis, metros and trams. Teachers and other civil servants are not reporting to work, and even air traffic controllers are walking out on the job.

The strike comes after Greece made austerity cuts to prevent debt default and insure a fresh infusion of credit from the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by Germany, as well as other international creditors.

Antonis Stamatopoulos told state television, leader of Athens’ Subway employees union, told the state television NET, “We are obliged to resist, not even Greece’s German and Turkish conquerors imposed such taxes.”

The conservative newspaper Eleftheros Typos commented that it was “a merciless raid,” according to Al Jazeera.

A municipal worker named Theoni Valkou—one of approximately 2,000 protesters who marched through Athens—stated, “They have already cut two of our monthly wages, they’ve destroyed Greece… Entire families live off the salary of a civil servant.”

What the Greeks, in addition to many in the international community, are wondering is where will the Eurozone’s dictatorial financial powers end: in the complete obliteration of the working and lower classes by the powerful elite?