BBC News
October 19, 2011
Athens was expecting violence. The expectation of it hung in the air. It is all people have spoken of in recent days.
Even tourist hotels some distance from the parliament were boarding up. As a 48-hour general strike took hold shopkeepers were hammering in place steel shutters.
The fear that emerged in hushed conversations was that there could be serious casualties. Such is the rage, the frustration that has built over months.
Some shops tried to open for a few hours but certainly in the centre of the city most had closed by 11:00.
I joined some students heading for the parliament. They are outraged that schools have a shortage of books.
One young man said to me that he was not prepared to see decades of social progress sacrificed to satisfy the European Union and the IMF. Some waved banners with Che Guevara's picture.
Then the column stopped, and from the left marched builders, arms linked, carrying poles with red flags on top. They walked with purpose. They have seen the construction industry collapse.
Then metal workers and teachers. It seemed at times as if the whole city was on the move. In front of the parliament a new police chief had ordered the riot police pull back, and for a while the mood was calm.
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