Greek riot police bring the light of civilisation to the masses

For the full story on how the riot police stormed the Acropolis click here.

Greek truckers' strike bites harder

Greek truckers' strike bites harder, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

The latest round of talks this morning between leaders of Greece's truck drivers associations and the government failed to find common ground and so the industrial action which is likely to see the country ground to a halt in the next few days is set to continue.

The dispute was the result of attempts by Athens to liberalise Greece's transport market by opening up the trucking profession to everyone with a heavy goods licence and so doing away with the existing permit system which has meant that like taxis, only those registered can operate.

On the one hand the opening up the profession is part of the IMF/EU/ECB process of making Greek products more competetive by reducing transport costs however, drivers associations argue that the sudden implementation of the system means that many of their members stand to lose hundreds of thousands of euros spent obtaining an operating licence.

Instead of petering out strike actions are set to escalate as Greek international truck drivers associations are also preparing to join the strike so threatening imports and exports to other EU countries.

The Greek media has been speculating on whether the government will be forced to bring in the army to make sure the country does not run out of fuel and other basic goods.

As austerity package is announced Greek workers plan industrial action

Wherever you turn you can't miss the growing tide of anger about the economic situation here in Greece. On TV, radio talk shows, bus queues etc people are besides themselves with indignation about how the economic situation has come to such a pass. Today's news that there are going to be widespread cuts in public services has just added to the shock while others are worried about being paid wages owed or getting their pensions.

Already there have been protests and strike, some in the most unlikely of places. Yesterday Greek airforce pilots announced that they are working to rule a "white strike" as it is termed in Greek over plans to tax flight pay. In addition members of the PAME tade union blocked Pireaus port denying entrance to the 950 passengers of the Zenith cruise ship, forcing the tourists to stay overnight in Athens.

Strike actions have also been announced by many other unions and the number of industrial actions are set to rise exponentially as the details of the spending cuts become known. Tonight there are protest marches palnned for Athens (6.30pm Syntagma Square) and Thessaloniki 7pm (Statute of Venizelou, Aristotelous Square).

The one exception to all this doom and gloom are the state run TV channels which seem to be have transformed themselves in the official media wing of the ruling PASOK party with enough spin on the week's events to make the casual observer dizzy. Reports from journalist covering the unfolding crisis are virtually indistinguishable from official government accounts, complete with appropriate upbeat annotations and flourishes.