love, love, love general strikes.
today 30,000 people in greece demonstrated during a general strike against the government's newly announced austerity measures.
the general strike, which is the second this week, has completely brought the country to a stop--no flights are taking off, public transport isn't running, hospitals only have emergency staff, and all of the news broadcasts have been suspended because workers are walking off the job for 24 hours to protest spending cuts and tax hikes.
the measures were announced as part of the plan to combat the countries debt, but many are criticizing the europoean union's role in pressuring the greek government to improve their fiscal situation right away(and we all know how well that generally works).
a greek default would undermine the euro for all 16 countries in the EU, which is why the EU is putting so much pressure on the government.
the greek government has already announced cuts, but just announced an addition 65.33 BILLION dollars in saving--by cutting public sector salaries, freezing hiring and pension, and increasing consumer taxes.
everyone from anarchists to regular greek employees are protesting today including about two hundred uniformed police, coast guard and fire bigade officers.
even the police are protesting!!
like i said: i love, love, love general strikes.
you can read about the economic "crisis" HERE
see some really great pictures HERE
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