WARS, RUMORS OF WAR, VIOLENCE, RIOTS, PRISONS, WORLD UNREAST

Greek austerity protests turn ugly as strike begins

By the CNN Wire Staff

June 28, 2011 -- Updated 2155 GMT (0555 HKT)

Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Greek riot police fired tear gas to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators Tuesday, as thousands rallied to protest proposed austerity measures on the first day of a two-day strike.

Twenty-one police officers and one demonstrator were hurt, and at least five people have been arrested, police said. About 3,000 officers are deployed on the streets of Athens.

The protesters are rallying outside the Greek Parliament building in the center of the country's capital, where lawmakers are set to vote Wednesday on a tough five-year package of tax increases and spending cuts.

The newly appointed head of the International Monetary Fund, France's Christine Lagarde, used one of her first media interviews to appeal to the Greek opposition to overcome their political differences and join a national consensus on the reforms.
Greece goes on selling spree
Tear gas clouds cover Athens
Small Athens protests extremely violent
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* Athens (Greece)
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Speaking to French network TF1, she urged Greece's lenders to come to its aid and said Greece must take charge of its affairs in a responsible way, while looking after those people who had the least.

Her words came hours after European Council President Herman van Rompuy also urged lawmakers to pass the measures, for the sake of Greece and the wider economy.

"There are decisive moments and the coming hours will be decisive, crucial for the Greek people, but also for the Eurozone and the stability of the world economy," he told the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday.

As the demonstration continued into the evening, thousands of protesters -- some newly arrived -- faced police in riot gear manning barricades outside the Greek Parliament, but the mood had quieted.

Earlier Tuesday, live television footage showed clouds of tear gas as police and protesters clashed, and black smoke from small fires billowing through the streets. A truck belonging to a mobile telecom company was also set alight.

Police appeared to be trying to force protesters out of Constitution Square, CNN reporters said, but some were returning and others gathered in side streets ready to move back in.

Drumming and music reverberated around the square, as well as shouted slogans.

One group of protesters chanted "Bread, education, freedom," an old rallying cry from 1973, when thousands of students clashed violently with police during protests against the military government.

The 48-hour general strike kicked off in the early morning hours of Tuesday, hobbling most of Greece's transportation systems but freeing workers to participate in demonstrations.

Members of the Communist PAME labor union took to the streets first, waving socialist signs in front of the Greek Parliament. The main rally, a cooperative effort between two much larger, mainstream unions, launched later.

Cloth banners reading "No sacrifices for plutocracy" flapped in chorus with chants of "Workers, you can live without a boss," and "We want workers' rights, not profits for the boss!"
Tensions rise as Greek vote nears
Greek protests turn violent

Government offices, schools and courts had closed, the unions said. Hospitals were operating on skeleton staffs, according to Greek state television broadcaster ERT.

Transportation disruptions took place on land, on sea and in the air.

Air traffic controllers periodically stopped work and flight traffic, according to their union. Stoppages also disrupted sea travel in the maritime nation, which encompasses many islands.

Trains and municipal transportation also shut down, but Athens metro workers abstained from the strike, according to the country's transportation union.

Train operators provided continuous service to demonstrators headed for central Athens. Bus drivers were on strike, keeping city buses off Athens' streets.

Greece must pass the austerity measures if it is to win the last $17 billion portion of a $156 billion bailout package from other European nations that was granted in 2010 -- and also to clear the way for an additional potential bailout package to keep Greece afloat going forward.

Greece needs the bailout funds to avert a default on debt repayments that are due as soon as mid-July.

Such a default would send shock waves through the European banking sector and potentially dent global economic confidence.

European Union Commissioner Olli Rehn, the bloc's lead negotiator on the bailout, warned Tuesday that Greece faced "a critical juncture," as he pressed Parliament to pass the austerity measures.

"Both the future of the country and financial stability in Europe are at stake," Rehn said in Brussels. "I trust that the Greek political leaders are fully aware of the responsibility that lies on their shoulders to avoid default."

He warned that there was "no Plan B" to avert default, and insisted that economic reforms -- although challenging -- were a better alternative for the Greek people.

"The European Union continues to be ready to support Greece. But Europe can only help Greece if Greece helps itself," he added.

Protesters lament that the cuts are being carried out on the backs of those who can afford it least.

"With the policy followed since the bailout, we have seen people's living standards going down. It is the workers and the pensioners who are paying the debt," said electrical engineer Ioanna Lagonika.

Lagonika, who marched in PAME's demonstration, said, "The PM (prime minister) has said that this is a new start for Greece, but to us it feels like this is our end."

Accountant Pericles Panagakis, who also participated in the Communists' march, would rather see Greece go through bankruptcy. The austerity programs mean "even tougher measures for the people and just for the people," he said.

Panagakis would also like to see Greece's wealthiest make up for the government shortfalls. "The solution is to take the money from people who have money, not from the workers," he said.

The parliamentary vote, which comes a day later than originally planned, will be followed by a meeting of European Union finance ministers on Sunday to approve the final part of funding from last year's bailout.

The head of Deutsche Bank warned politicians Monday against taking steps that might lead the crisis to spread beyond Greece.

"If it is Greece alone, that's already big. But if other countries are drawn in through contagion, it could be bigger than Lehman," Josef Ackermann said, referring to the financial meltdown that followed the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment firm in the U.S. in 2008.

International lenders have insisted Greece cut spending, lay off public workers, raise taxes and raise 50 billion euros ($71 billion) through selling off state-owned enterprises in exchange for a further bailout of the cash-strapped nation.

The latest demands follow austerity measures imposed last year that included pension cuts; a sales tax boost; excise taxes on fuel, cigarettes, alcohol and luxury goods; and a rise in the average retirement age to 65 from 61.

The economic crisis has inspired rioting in the streets of Athens in recent weeks, where protesters have thrown firebombs and clashed with armored police.

The Parliament plans to vote on the austerity package sometime after 1 p.m. Wednesday. All three unions that marched Tuesday have also planned rallies for Wednesday evening.



http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/06/28/greece.strike/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Things aren't going well in the world

By Jeffrey S. Spofford

Jun 17, 2011 12:00 am

(jump headline: Should we draw a line in the sand before the rest of the world does it for us?)

Things are quickly deteriorating around the world despite the mainstream media’s contention that the major concern facing our country is the future of a horny New York congressman’s tenure in a governmental body that over the last 20 years have performed acts against us more corrupt and heinous than a few pictures of Weiner’s underpants.

What started as a neatly packaged uprising in North Africa amongst people marketed to us as radical Muslims, but are really just people on the same planet as you and I who happen to pray to a different god, has now jumped north across the Mediterranean Sea to countries with people who have a lot more in common with us in appearance and lifestyle.

People in Greece have taken to the streets to oppose vast austerity measures the Greek government needs to implement in order to satisfy their debt to the European Central Bank, the EU’s equivalent to our privately owned Federal Reserve Bank. The people there are angry at the prospect of their government’s having to pay back, at interest, money irresponsibly loaned to it to inflate their economy and lifestyles beyond their natural means. The movement is being billed to us here as a simple uprising. In Greek newspapers, blogs, twitter feeds and on the streets it is being discussed among the people as a revolution.

The collapse of the European Union doesn’t stop in Greece. Just yesterday, the Irish government, in response to people demonstrating there, rebuked the European Central Bank’s demand that instead of default they accept loans to prop up their banks and insure their investor’s large monetary position in them. The money troubles in Spain and Portugal continue with protests in the streets there as well. In Germany and France, the countries that have been propping them all up, people have begun to protest any additional monetary assistance for the “PIIGS.” With the continuing unrest, which will only grow when this spring’s worldwide drought starts to interrupt food supply and energy shortages there continue to crimp growth, the disintegration of the European Union is now less theory and more realistic outcome.

Across the globe in China, even with the information barriers set up to keep internal affairs under wraps, news is starting to trickle out from Reuters and other international news agencies that huge protests and “serious rioting” is beginning to break out in large Chinese metropolitan areas. People involved in these protests aren’t holding placards; they’re bombing government buildings and fighting police. China supplies all our plastic pumpkins. Get yours now before supplies run out.

Japan’s troubles continue unabated. Three reactors at the Fukushima plant are still in a state of meltdown. Even in the most civil society on earth, people there have protested the continued use of nuclear power, resulting in the shutdown of not only Fukushima but other nuclear reactors in the country. Enough power capacity has been permanently lost to stifle, if not stop, production of most products that support everything technology-based in the world. Simply put, I wouldn’t expect to see an IPad 3 anytime soon, if ever.

Here at home, we’re told everything is fine. Sure, there are some problems, but people in government are working on it and certainly will have them fixed and the country back on the road to prosperity in no time. But are we still believing the same government that brought us to Iraq to extinguish WMDs; told us the bailouts would jump-start things for us when they simply preserved the wealth of others; insisted in the early 2000s that the best investment a family could make was in real estate because values could go nowhere but up; implied that we would return to due process for captured enemies by closing military detention camps, ending torture, and bringing supposed combatants to trial in an open court of law?

I’m not.

We would be in the same predicament as the rest of the world right now if it wasn’t for the wars we manufactured under false pretenses but under the reality that we needed to send our men and women in to Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya for oil to fuel our economy. We would be in a hole deeper than all the “PIIGS” combined if it weren’t for the private bank that issues our currency propping up markets and raiding our treasury to throw money at the big banks. How long is the rest of the world, equally starved of energy and suffering financial turmoil, going to allow us to continue to wreck sovereignty in the name of the American way of life? How long are other countries going to allow us to “take it all” for ourselves killing whoever and destroying whatever lay in our path?

Our leaders know what’s going on, but they’ve decided not to let us in on it. Instead, we’re treated to diversionary stories of Arnold, unicorns and roasting Weiners. Tensions are building everywhere, and the civil unrest that is spreading around the globe will find its way here when the people of the world, including the American people, take a stand against the corrupt federal government. We’ve all allowed it to go on too long and now it’s beyond repair.

It’s time to prepare for that reality.

(Jeffrey S. Spofford is the circulation manager for The Portland Daily Sun. His column appears Fridays.)

http://portlanddailysun.me/node/26068/

Greek protests turn violent, with petrol bombs and tear gas

From Elinda Labropoulou, For CNN
June 15, 2011 -- Updated 1358 GMT (2158 HKT)

Greek riot police officers confront a protester during a strike against government austerity plans in Athens on Wednesday.

Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Greek anti-government protests turned violent Wednesday, as protesters threw petrol bombs at the Ministry of Finance and police fired tear gas at protesters, police said.

Tens of thousands of protesters had vowed to form a human shield around the Greek Parliament to prevent lawmakers from debating new austerity measures Wednesday afternoon.

"This is a joke. It is all a joke," protester Christos Miliadakis, 35, said of the government plans.

"When will we be able to get out of this vicious circle? My wife lost her job. I had a 12% pay cut as a result of the first bailout. The new measures want to cut another 20% of jobs in the public sector," he said. "So if no one has money and we are just more in debt, who is going to drive the economy? We will live like slaves paying all our lives."

Architecture student Maria Iliadi, 23, said that for people like her, "the future in this country has been erased. There will be no big public projects and no one will be building for a long time. Some times finishing my degree seems totally pointless."

Between 25,000 and 27,000 demonstrators were on the streets of the capital by the middle of the day, police said. Two policemen and four civilians were mildly injured and 12 people were arrested, they said.

Prime Minister George Papandreou is due to address the nation on television later Wednesday, prompting speculation that he will announce a Cabinet reshuffle.

Labor unions are holding a 24-hour strike to protest the measures and will be marching to Parliament to join forces with the protesters.

The strike has brought public services to a grinding halt and kept most transport networks at a standstill, although flights have not been affected.

Rallies have also been scheduled to take place in other Greek cities.

On June 9, the Cabinet approved a tough five-year plan for 2011-2015 and introduced a bill in Parliament to put the measures into effect.

The government has said that the passage of these additional measures is essential to Greece's securing the fifth tranche of a 110 billion euro ($158 billion) bailout package that Greece signed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to prevent the country from defaulting on its debts.

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou has said the country hopes to secure a second bailout deal this month.

The search for a second bailout comes after it became evident that Greece is extremely unlikely to raise capital from private markets in 2012 due to the prohibitively high interest rates it would face.

Papaconstantinou has also indicated that European Union members may support calls to get the private sector involved.

Despite the harsh austerity measures that the Greek government has imposed, it is failing to close its budget deficit as quickly as hoped. The country is in recession amid its fiscal restructuring program.

The finance minister has defended the five-year austerity plan, saying it is needed to keep Greece solvent. The new measures will include a number of additional taxes and job cuts in the public sector by a further 20%.

Protesters have been gathering outside Parliament for more than three weeks as part of an ongoing peaceful demonstration against austerity measures, with some camping in the square facing Parliament.

They call themselves "The Indignants," a grass-roots movement which takes its name from the Spanish campaign of "Los Indignados" who have been holding similar mobilizations against austerity across Spain.

In a statement the group has said it would keep going until the politicians and technocrats it blames for what is happening in Greece "go away."

The credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Monday cut Greece's rating to just two notches above default, among the lowest in the world. The agency has said a default on some debt appears "increasingly likely."

Unemployment in Greece has skyrocketed to above 16 percent in May, a 40% rise since last year.

The European Commission has said Greece's economy was expected to shrink by 3.5% this year.

Papandreou has pledged to continue with reforms no matter what the political cost. He has said that the alternative, a default, "would be a catastrophe."

The five-year austerity plan is expected to face a vote in Parliament in before the end of the month.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/06/15/greece.protests/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

What are the chances the U.S. economy could eventually trigger violence in our country?

June 8, 2011
Posted: 05:00 PM ET

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

For the first time maybe since the Vietnam War or certainly since the civil rights movement, there are some darkening storm clouds on the civility horizon. A growing number of voices are continuing to suggest that if this economy doesn't turn around, and people can't start feeling optimistic about their futures again, we could be headed for some ugly scenarios. A new CNN poll says 48 percent of Americans think the country is headed for another Great Depression in the next twelve months. That is a stunning number.

James Carville, who in 1992 told Bill Clinton, "It's the economy stupid," says the current economy is so bad, there is a heightened risk of civil unrest. And unless things start changing for the better, it's a distinct possibility.

Our country is bankrupt and our government refuses to do anything about it. Unemployment is stuck above 9 percent. Millions of Americans are out of work, some for a number of years now. The value of peoples' homes is sinking below the break-even line. In the most recent jobs report, more than half of the private sector jobs that were added were at McDonald's.

For young people coming out of the nation's colleges and universities, their families having invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their education, the outlook is grim.

Add in the early record breaking heat in the cities in the East and we might not even have to wait until 2012. It could become a long, hot, ugly summer.

Here’s my question to you: What are the chances the U.S. economy could eventually trigger violence in our country?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?


John:
The chances are getting better everyday. Deficit spending, uncontrolled illegal immigration, sky high unemployment, billions being sent to countries that hate us, out of touch government and the list goes on. It won't be long, Jack, and We the People will revolt.

Obama better forget about that money pit called Iraq-Afghanistan and start focusing on getting those public works jobs that Mark in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma:
he promised, or he will need those troops over here to maintain order in the streets. People are only going to put up with his economic incompetence for just so long.

Wilhelm:
Did the concentration of wealth among the aristocracy trigger violence during the French Revolution, Jack? How about the Russian Revolution or Germany in the 1930's? So yes, if it gets to the point where average working Americans feel totally hopeless and can't feed their families, it could lead to violence. It happened more than people know during the "Great Depression".

Michelle in Dover, Delaware:
If prices of gas, groceries and necessary items don't come down soon and if people can't get jobs to support their families then violence is definitely a possibility. We are a crumbling nation. Our politicians need to spend a month living on our wages and have to pay for groceries and gas and pay bills on OUR salaries and not theirs. They have NO idea what we working class citizens have to go through on a daily basis. I am surprised that American's haven't converged on Capitol Hill in protest already. It’s coming.

Ralph in Corpus Christi, Texas:
It already has triggered violence. I curse out loud and pound the dashboard every time I see gas prices go up.

Bull:
Jack, I'm 70 yrs. old and I fully believe that I will see violence in this country before I'm gone and it will not only be the economy that causes it. Just look what is going on along our borders. The American people have had enough. Mark my words.

Filed under: Economy

http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/08/what-are-the-chances-the-u-s-economy-could-eventually-trigger-violence-in-our-country/?hpt=hp_t2

Mutiny On The Acropolis: Greek Protesters Seize Finance Ministry

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/03/2011 15:16 -0400

Someone keep an eye on Waddell and Reed at all times. Repeat: all times. Because once they, and the market, and the Troica realize that the passage of Bailout 2 will lead to a revolution, it will get very, very interesting.

From Press TV:

Protesters belonging to the left-wing The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) union unfolded a giant banner from the roof of the finance ministry building on the central Syntagma square, calling for a nationwide strike against the new austerity measures that the government agreed to take in return for the new bailout package.

"From dawn today forces of PAME have symbolically occupied the finance ministry, calling on workers to rise, organize their struggle and prevent the government's barbarous and anti-popular measures from passing," the front said, AFP reported.

Angry citizens in the country have now, for a tenth consecutive day, held anti-government demonstrations against the austerity measures.

Protesters have set up a camp in the central square of the capital, in a move modeled after the Spanish M-15 movement and the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.

The new bailout plan will mean harsher austerity measures, as it is aimed at reducing the 2011 budget deficit by EUR 6.5 billion. PAME said the new plan would “turn workers into slaves.”

The plan, however, is set to be approved by EU finance ministers on June 20. Additionally, the government will also commence its EUR 50 billion privatization program.

Greece received a EUR 110 billion EU-IMF bailout loan last year, as it faced a massive debt crisis, but did not manage to resolve its financial problems.

Since last year, Greece has witnessed massive anti-government protests which turned violent at times and left scores of protesters and security forces dead or injured.

A poll conducted recently found that the majority of Greeks no longer have confidence their government can pull the country out of its national debt.

h/t Econometrist

U. S. troops in Afghanistan have a withdraw-by date that President Obama intends to stick by, no matter what compromises must be made.

America Willing to Give In to the Taliban to Get Out of Afghanistan

May 23, 2011 | From theTrumpet.com

Washington doesn’t seem to care who it has to negotiate with to get out.

America will begin withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan this July, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a speech on May 19. Yet judging by the men the American and Afghan governments are negotiating with, the United States may be a bit too keen to retreat.

The Washington Post reports that the U.S. has “accelerated direct talks with the Taliban.” It says that a senior Afghan official told the paper that an American representative has met with a Taliban official at least three times. It writes that this Taliban official is considered close to Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and that the meetings took place in Qatar and Germany.

The Taliban wants a guarantee that it will have a substantive role in the Afghan government, writes the Post. The Taliban, however, denies that it is in direct negotiations with the U.S.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid calls reports that America and the Taliban are in direct negotiations “baseless rumors.”

The Afghan government, however, definitely has negotiated with the Taliban. Around 1,740 Taliban militants have joined a reintegration program begun by the Afghan government nearly a year ago, according to British Maj. Gen. Phil Johns.

“On top of this, the High Peace Council has at least another 40 to 45 groups in negotiations across the country,” he said. “That may be as much as 2,000 fighters.”

The program may be convincing Taliban fighters to lay down their arms, but some are concerned about whom the Afghan government is working with.

Maulavi Isfandar, for example, has been granted amnesty under the program. Isfandar oversaw the execution of Bibi Sanubar, an Afghan woman accused of having an affair, who was imprisoned, given 200 lashes and then shot, while a crowd looked on.

“It’s very disturbing,” said a commissioner with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Nader Nadery. “It seems that whatever it takes, the important point is just to get these people to come over.”

nato’s deadline for withdrawing from Afghanistan is 2014. Both Washington and Kabul seem willing to compromise with their former enemies in order to meet that deadline. But if America leaves behind an Afghanistan with a powerful Taliban and where the terrorists walk free, it will not have won the Afghan war.

Instead the nation will still be under the sway of radical Islam. •