Hundreds of thousands take Athens in second day of General Strike

Greece came to a halt again for two days as the Parliament debated the new Memorandum imposed by the colonial powers (namely Germany, France and the other rich EU states).

As the KOE statement at Kasama explains the three bourgeois parties supporting the Samaras coalition government duped voters with empty claims of renegotiation of the Memorandum which they never even attempted. Instead they are now approving and imposing Memorandum 3: more of the bitter poison that had Athens burning already last year.

While nearly everyone is falling into extreme misery, the only thing that the bourgeois regime offers is police and fascist gangs attempting to sow fear in the hearts of the brave Greek People.

Among the measures approved is the anti-constitutional extension of retirement age to 67. Also any person needing hospital attention will have to pay a €25 fee beforehand. These are just the more insulting of an array of new collective punishments that include salary, pensions and benefit cuts, being particularly damaged those with incapacities. The national agreement on labor will also be blown up retroactively (what is also unconstitutional).

Occupied London - From the Greek Streets has some good coverage of these two days, which I will try to synthesize here:

The first day of general strike (yesterday) was relatively quiet. The strike was, of course, a massive success but the demonstrations were relatively small and the incidents minor.

Today has been a much more active day in the streets of the Greek capital (which hosts 40% of the Greek population). Police presence has been ominous, with preemptive arrests at metro stations and arbitrary attacks against gatherings, but that has not impeded hundreds of thousands of citizens from fighting their ground at Syntagma Square. 

Since 18:50 local time clashes have been general at Syntagma, as people tried to open their way towards the Parliament. 

At 19:00 Parliament workers went on strike as well, making continuation of the debate impossible because nobody would write the acts for example. Parliament workers had been so far exempt from the salary cuts to public workers but not anymore, triggering their walk out.

Clashes continue in Athens as of this entry, for what I can appreciate in the live stream.