Los Angeles Times
October 20, 2011
Spasms of violence shook Greece's capital on Wednesday as demonstrators armed with gasoline bombs, stones and steel rods clashed with riot police, marring a massive protest against a new batch of proposed budget cuts that officials say are needed to stave off a devastating debt default.
Later in the day, lawmakers passed the measures on a first vote, 154 to 141. The 300-member Parliament must approve the measures a second time before they can become law, a move expected Thursday.
The clashes in the streets of Athens grew out of a protest march that had at least 70,000 crisis-fatigued workers swarming the grounds of Parliament, raising their fists, waving banners and chanting their defiance in the face of unyielding austerity efforts.
As crowds grew, chaos began to unfold.
Bands of black-clad youths — some wearing gas masks, others ski goggles — charged into the marching crowds, hurling Molotov cocktails at heavily armed riot police. Self-styled anarchists took crowbars to nearby banks, shop windows and luxury hotels. Dumpsters and street signs were uprooted from concrete pavements, and a presidential sentry post just feet from the entrance of the sprawling Parliament building was set ablaze.
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