Athens, Greece: The Sparagmos (1)
Greece is in the midst of a violent economical crisis.
For the last two years, nationwide general labor strikes in Greece called by the country’s largest labor federations, representing the private and public sector respectively. The violence erupted between thousands of angry workers , students and the police, in front of the Greek parliament, in Athens. In the same Parliament Square also named ‘Syntagma’ the Greek ‘Indignant Citizens’ movement was born in June 2011. They object to the government’s far-reaching budget cuts. Riot police fired tear gas on the demonstrators who threw molotov cocktail bomb and marble stones.
In Greece, the percentage of the population at risk of poverty is 20% with EU funding, rising to 23% without it. 33% of poor people in Greece are over 65, as pensioners are one of the social groups (along with single-parent families, the unemployed, immigrants and young people), which suffer most from low income and high cost of living. Another movement named “I do not pay “, fights against the high prices and the extra taxes that Greek government puts on basic commodities, electricity, public traffic and tolls in order to earn support and loan from the IMF. Every day there are Extremely violent clashes in the centre of Athens, meanwhile parliament approves the austerity measures for Greece to receive its next installment of billion euros by the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank
(1)Sparagmos : lit. “Tearing, rending.”
