No Money? Fight the Government: The Athens Recession Protests

• Protests in Athens, Greece turned violent on February 23 2011.
• Protesters and the police were raging outside many squares and important buildings throughout the city.
• Reports said that heavy battles between youths and the Greek riot police units took place with both police officers and protesters being hit with Molotov cocktails.
• Stones, bottles, tear gas and stung grenades were flying throughout central Athens.
• The unions organizing the strikes are the civil servants union ADEDY and GSEE, which represents the private sector

STRIKE

Their debt and deficits, our debt struggle.

We are witnessing the most brutal attack on the rights and lives.

The government and the Troika, on the pretext of economic crisis and debt problems, through the memorandum, remove - if these rights and achievements of employees and society to meet the interests of lenders, speculators, the bankers and employers.

The attack that we all respect our rights. Our incomes are reduced by cuts in the 13th and 14th salary and allowances, with increases in the prices of popular consumer products, with increases in ticket prices, tolls, the accuracy and the irresponsibility of the market. The insurance and pension rights we abolished the anti-insurance laws.

Merge, remove, degrade public services and public companies with the sole criterion to reduce costs and find funds for lenders. Restructured public transport, Public Education, Public Health Service with deletions and carrying costs on the backs of workers and society.

Abolish collective agreements and collective rights to ensure greater profits for employers.

• This excerpt is directly from the ADEDY Website(translated in Google Translator) and briefly explains the union’s reason for the strike.
• Riots have been common, violent, and deadly. In May 2010, three people were killed in blaze at a bank after demonstrators pelted the building with petrol bombs and set it on fire.
• Salary cuts have pushed Greece into a deepening recession with many analysts doubting whether its ailing economy can keep up with its loan obligations.

Interrelated

Political	Economic	Social/Cultural
Greek Government introduced severe cuts in spending and in the benefits and public services. Investors have lost confidence in the Greek government's ability to pay back the borrow money.	The austerity was to try and receive financial aid from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Greece secured a 110 billion euro bail-out from the EU and IMF in May 2010. In Greece, tax evasion is commonplace and pension rights are unusually generous	Opposite the Greek Parliament buildings is the ‘arena’ of often violent protest rallies in Athens. Rallies have become to turn violent, causing injuries. Tension is growing between citizens of Athens as the protests continue

The protets on the 23rd became especially dangerous when a police officer was hit with a Molotov cocktail which burnt his uniform.

Controversial

How did this issue start?

How should it be resolved?

Like many countries, the Greek government relies on borrowed money to balance its books. The recession has made this harder to achieve, because tax revenues are falling just as welfare payments start to rise. Using public spending to even out the bumps of the global downturn is what most large developed economies are trying to do right now. Investors have been demanding higher rates of interest to compensate for the risk that they might not get their money back.

Greece has already tried to get out with huge spending cuts coupled by big tax increases. The Greek citizens should try and wait it out, while their government gets control over their ever plummeting economy. "Greece owns buildings, companies and uninhabited islands, which could all be used for debt redemption," said politician Josef Schlarmann. Greece could also put what little they have into travel, because much of the countries income is from the tourism industry.

Complex

This mind map shows in some detail my thoughts and knowldge of the protests in Athens.

My Opinion

I believe that the protests in Athens are acceptable, to an extent. I believe that many of the Greek citizens that participated were over-reacting and foolish. It was also mainly the younger Greeks that were throwing the Molotov cocktails at the police and causing the protests to become riots. I also think that the government should get better control over their money so they have a better change of being able to get out of the current slump.