The General Strike is taking place against the social and economical abuse by the infamous Troika (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) in the name of multinational bankster mafia (aka Capitalist International, Davos Club, Trilateral Commission, NATO, WTO, Bilderberg Group, Goldman Sachs old boys' club, etc.) The "agreement" imposed by this mafia is available here. Including:
- Drastic reduction of salaries, nowadays already the lowest of the Eurozone.
- Effective removal of the government from the economy.
- Public services' radical reduction
- Privatization of everything (sell off to foreign speculators)
- Reduction of public sector salaries
- Reduction of the number of public servants
- Suppression of social spending (pensions, healthcare...) but also reduction of social security payments by capitalists
- Flattening of the income taxes (the poor will pay more, the rich may pay even less)
- Vague promises of reforming the treasury and statistical agency over time to prevent tax evasion (a huge problem in Greece)
- Promise of bailing out of the Greek banks ("public support" blah blah - many paragraphs dedicated to this)
- In spite of all the cuts, they pretend to improve also the judicial system, removing the backlog and rewriting laws to be more and more "business-friendly" (anti Working Class).
The Faculty of Law of the University of Athens was occupied early in the day. The occupants issued this manifesto. Excerpt:
In order to liberate ourselves from debt we must destroy the economy
The political and financial spectacle has now lost its confidence. Its acts are entirely convulsive. The government of “emergency” that has taken over the maintenance of social cohesion is failing in conserving the labour, and at the same time the consumption power of the population. The new measures, with which the state aims to secure the survival of the greek nation in the international financial world, lead to a complete suspension of payments in the world of work. The lowering of the minimum wage, now also in paper, comes in harmony with the full suspension of every form of direct or social wage.
Every cost of our reproduction vanishes. The health structures, the educational spaces, the “welfare” benefits and anything making us productive in the dominant system are now a thing of the past. After squeezing everything out of us, they now throw us straight into hunger and impoverishment. (...)
Other reported popular occupations include: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor, Town Hall of Holargos (suburb of Athens), a government building in Veria (Macedonia), the Prefecture of Larissa (Thessaly), the Polytechnic (college) of Chania (Crete), Town Hall of Rethymno, Town Hall of Mytilini (Lesbos), Prefecture of the Ionian Islands at Corfu.
Many prisons (the prisoners, not the wards) have also joined the General Strike, with diverse mobilizations: Grevena, Trikala, Larissa, Koridallos, Nea Alikarnassos–Crete, Corfu, Malandrino, Patras, Domokos, Nafplion, Thebes (female prisons), Special Youth Detention Centre in Avlona (juvenile prisons), Chios, Nigrita–Serres, Komotini.
Report from the occupied Law School (at 20:00 local time) mentioned seven people arrested (and still under police custody), plus another one from yesterday. Two of them are minors.
Tens of thousands reported to have taken part in the several demos held in cities across the country.
In Athens clashes took place at Syntagma Square (Parliament) and surroundings.
The following of the strike was masive, according to Kaos en la Red[es]: 100% among harbor workers, 60-80% in other sectors.
Several ministers (PASOK and neofascists) have resigned today (BBC), pushing the Republic a step closer to governance chaos, effective bankruptcy and a possible revolutionary solution.
An influential police union (POASY) has demanded the arrest of Troika members Poul Thomsen (IMF), Servaz Deruz (European Comission) and Klaus Mazuch (ECB) for the crimes of blackmail, conspiration for the destruction of democracy and national sovereignty, among others, all of which are clearly specified in the Greek legal system.
One of several videos of the clashes in Athens today (more at Occupy London):
Another major source for this entry is Contra Info.
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