Friday, December 2, 2011

Calm reigns at Greek protest

Financial Times
December 2, 2011

Greece’s first big anti-austerity protest for almost a month, held as part of a 24-hour general strike, ended without a single canister of teargas being fired, according to police.

As 20,000 Greeks marched in central Athens against government cuts, one key element of most Greek protests was lacking: violence.

Apart from one thrown petrol bomb and a smashed car, calm reigned at two separate protests in the capital during the first general strike under Greece’s new technocratic coalition government. Also missing from an unusually low-key demonstration were the extremists who hurl cobblestones and chunks of marble at police.

Union officials said more walkouts were on the way, but some striking public sector workers sounded doubtful.

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