Greek Protests

Greek protests - Al Jazeera.
Black-clad demonstrators have hurled stones and firebombs at police in front of the Greek parliament as tens of thousands rallied to mark the beginning of a two-day nationwide general strike to coincide with a vote on painful new austerity measures.
Protesters in Athens pushed up to the steps in front of the parliament building itself on Wednesday, setting fire to a sentry box occupied by ceremonial guards at the adjacent Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Police responded by firing rounds of tear gas into the crowd to calm the anger that is growing in Athens' Syntagma Square, the plaza next to the parliament which has become a focal point for anti-austerity protests.
More than 7,000 police had been assigned to Athens to deal with anticipated trouble with hundreds in riot gear stationed near the parliament building.
Several injuries were reported, mainly from minor burns and cuts to the head. There were also serious clashes away from the scene of the main rally, which attracted more than 100,000 people, according to police estimates.
Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from the Greek capital, said the two-day shutdown was being described as "the mother of all strikes" as it involved every facet of public life.
"The mood was one of anger, with a minority intent on clashing with riot police. But it was also one of utter frustration among those trying to make their voices heard above rounds of tear gas."
Simmons said the government was dismissive of further dialogue with unions to discuss alternative ways to promote growth."It is instead calling for unity saying there is no other solution but to do what it takes for a second financial bailout."
Public sector pay cuts, pension cuts and mass layoffs are being demanded by international lenders in exchange for more bailout funds.
George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister who trails badly in opinion polls, has appealed for support from Greeks before parliament votes later on Wednesday on the latest measures which include tax hikes, wage cuts and public sector layoffs.
'Who are they trying to fool?'
The latest strike by Greek workers has shut down government departments, businesses and public services, as well as shops and bakeries, while flights and public transport were cancelled or disrupted.
"Who are they trying to fool? They won't save us. With these measures the poor become poorer and the rich richer. Well I say: 'No, thank you. I don't want your rescue'," said 50-year public sector worker Akis Papadopoulos.

Wednesday's action comes as European Union leaders scramble to outline a new rescue package in time for a summit on Sunday that hopes to agree measures to protect the region's financial system from a potential Greek debt default.
"We are in an agonising but necessary struggle to avoid the final and harshest point of the crisis," Evangelos Venizelos, Greece's finance minister, told parliament. "From now and until Sunday were are fighting the battle of all battles."
Trapped in the third year of deep recession and strangled by a public debt amounting to 162 per cent of gross domestic product which few now believe can be paid back, Greece has sunk ever deeper into crisis.
Papandreou's narrow four-seat majority is expected to be enough to ensure the austerity bill goes through, especially given possible support from a smaller opposition group.
But his ruling Socialist party's discipline is increasingly strained with one deputy resigning his seat in protest and at least two others threatening to vote against part of the package dealing with collective wage bargaining agreements.
Unions have urged deputies not to pass the law. "If they have any humanity, decency, sense of pride and Greek soul left, they must reject the bill," Nikos Kioutsoukis, a top official in private sector union GSEE which is leading the strike with its public sector counterpart ADEDY.
A first vote takes place late on Wednesday on the overall bill, which mixes deep cuts to public sector pay and pensions, tax hikes, a suspension of sectoral pay accords and an end to the constitutional taboo against laying off civil servants.
A second vote on specific articles is expected sometime on Thursday and only after that the bill becomes law.

Link: Al Jazeera

Police raid Dale Farm in brutal eviction - Morning Star

Police raid Dale Farm in brutal eviction - by Rory MacKinnon in the Morning Star.

Riot Police defended their use of tasers on Dale Farm residents and supporters after a dramatic dawn raid today morning - the last stand of Britain's biggest Irish traveller community.
Up to 150 officers in riot gear broke through a back wall into the Cray's Hill community around 7am this morning, less than a day after the residents' final appeal against their eviction was rejected.
Protesters scrambled to regroup.
Some attached themselves to concrete blocks at the front gates, while others turned caravans into burning barricades and pelted police and bailiffs with rocks.
Yet at least one witness described an "air of resignation" among the travellers, with residents gathering on the legal part of the site to watch their supporters face off against police.
Police had arrested seven people by the time the Morning Star went to press, with four others taken away in ambulances.
Photographs posted on Twitter appeared to show police officers firing their taser guns at protesters and residents through gaps in the fence.
In one the target appeared to be a female legal observer standing a few feet away and holding only a notepad.
Official police policy states that officers must only use tasers in "incidents of violence or threats of violence of such severity that they will need to use force."
The Home Office told a Commons select committee last December that tasers "should not be used in terms of a crowd control measure in public order scenarios."
But Essex Police Superintendent Trevor Roe rejected accusations of unnecessary force, saying his officers had treated residents and protesters with "respect and dignity."
He confirmed officers had tasered two protesters but insisted it was an "isolated incident" where demonstrators were threatening "serious violence."
The officers' response was to protect themselves, he said.
"They carry personal protective equipment which includes the taser and they just naturally reacted as they are trained individuals to operate that device."
But Dale Farm Solidarity's Natalie Fox ridiculed the claim.
"Far from being the dignified eviction that Basildon council is claiming, this is set to be one of the most brutal evictions on record," she said.
"The council know that there are elderly and vulnerable people on site, as well as children, but they have gone in with a full frontal and brutal approach which is already resulting in injuries."
Resident Mary Sheridan agreed: "This is not how a community should be treated by its own council.
"It's illegal for us to travel, but illegal for us to settle down here. We're getting hit by the police but we've got nowhere else to go."
The settlement at Cray's Hill in Essex is one of Britain's biggest traveller camps.
Dale Farm is home to more than 1,000 people, with the disputed half of the site housing 80 families.
Travellers moved onto the site in 2001 and legally own the land - but Basildon council has repeatedly refused to permit housing on the site, saying the former scrapyard is protected green-belt land.
The residents say they have offered to move if the council agrees to new pitches, but the deal has fallen on deaf ears.

Link: Morning Star editorial on Dale Farm.