Los Angeles Times
October 6, 2011
For 24 hours Wednesday, Greece's public sector lay in a coma.
Flights were grounded, state schools closed and government offices stopped services as tens of thousands of civil servants walked off their jobs to protest a fresh batch of brutal budget cuts and a debt crisis showing no signs of ending.
Organized by the country's two biggest labor unions, the strike was the first since Greece's beleaguered socialist government last month unveiled new controversial austerity measures that include more pension cuts and property tax and plans to terminate 30,000 public sector jobs by the end of the year in a desperate bid to stave off a dangerous default.
At least 15,000 protesters spilled into the streets of Athens, marching outside the nation's sprawling Parliament, banging drums, blowing whistles and chanting, "Thieves, robbers and crooks!" Tension rose and the mostly peaceful protest was marred when stone-throwing youths bolted through the crowds, clashing with riot police outside Greece's towering symbol of the austerity: the Finance Ministry.
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