Huge protest as Greek strike begins

Large areas of Greece ground to a halt today as an anti-cuts general strike disrupted public transport and shut down everything from shops to schools.

All sectors, from dentists, state hospital doctors and lawyers to shop owners, tax office workers, pharmacists, teachers and dock workers walked out ahead of a parliamentary vote Thursday on new austerity measures.

Flights were grounded in the morning but some resumed at noon after air traffic controllers scaled back their initial strike plan from 48 hours to 12.

Dozens of domestic and international flights were still cancelled throughout the day. Ferries remained tied up in port, while public transport workers staged work stoppages but were to keep buses, trolleys and the Athens metro running for most of the day.

About 3,000 police deployed in central Athens, shutting down two metro stations near parliament as protest marches began. Police estimated the crowd to be at least 70,000.

Protesters converged on the square in front of parliament chanting slogans against the government and Greece’s international creditors who have pressured the country to push through rounds of tax hikes and spending cuts.

At least 15,000 demonstrators also gathered in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city.

Demonstrations during a similar 48-hour strike in June left the centre of Athens convulsed by violence as rioters clashed with police on both days while parliament voted on another austerity package.

“We expect that the strike could be the largest” in decades, said Ilias Vrettakos, deputy president of the civil servants’ union ADEDY.

“The fact that other sections of society that are suffering from government policies are also participating gives a new dimension to the social resistance by workers and the people in general, and we hope that this mobilisation will have an impact on political developments.”

Piles of rubbish continued to fester on street corners despite a civil mobilisation order for workers to return after a 17-day strike.

Protesting civil servants have also staged rounds of sit-ins at government buildings, with some, including the Finance Ministry, being under occupation for days.

Most stores in the city centre, including bakeries and many of the ubiquitous kiosks which sell everything from newspapers, cigarettes and chewing gum to tourist trinkets and snacks, were shut. Several owners said they had received threats that their stores would be smashed if they attempted to open during the first day of the strike.

The measures to be voted on in parliament come after more than a year and a half of repeated spending cuts and tax increases, and include tax hikes, further pension and salary cuts, the suspension on reduced pay of 30,000 public servants out of a total of more than 750,000, and the suspension of collective labour contracts.

Meanwhile, European countries are trying to work out a broad solution to the continent’s deepening debt crisis, ahead of a weekend summit in Brussels.