Greek militants, riot police clash in Athens May Day protests

The violence signals growing social unrest as the Greek government prepares to announce additional austerity measures meant to win rescue loans from the EU and International Monetary Fund.

(PHOTO) Greek riot police clash with protesters during May Day protests in Athens. (Milos Bicanski, Getty Images / May 1, 2010)

By Anthee Carassava, Special to the Times
May 1, 2010 | 10:39 a.m.

Reporting from Athens
Wielding red flags and hurling crude gas bombs, dozens of militant youths clashed with Greek riot police in central Athens on Saturday, signaling swelling social unrest as the cash-strapped government here prepares to announce additional austerity measures required to win rescue loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

The clashes came during massive May Day protests unleashed by Greece's powerful trade unions and left-wing political parties in a desperate bid to block government designs to press ahead with additional wage cuts, tax hikes and pension reductions.

"The bill should go to those who looted this country for decades, not to the workers," blared Spiros Papasirou, head of Greece's powerful Adedy civil servants union. "This is the most savage, unjust and unprovoked attack workers have ever faced."

Saturday's protests drew nearly 20,000 workers to the streets of the capital, bringing traffic and trade to a standstill as demonstrators filed by the country's finance ministry chanting hostile slogans against the government, the EU and the IMF.

But fighting erupted when youths tried to punch through a police cordon blocking access to the nation's sprawling all-marble parliament. Riot police retaliated, firing at two least rounds of tear gas that sent militant protesters into a retreat, hurling rocks against authorities, setting dumpsters ablaze and targeting two television vans with petrol bombs.

No arrests were reported but authorities said riot squads remained on alert as large teams of black-clad anarchists were seen taking refuge at an Athens university where police are barred from entering.

Well into the throes of Greece's worst financial crisis in recent history, Greeks have grown increasingly angry and angst-ridden since Prime Minister George Papandreou announced last week that his debt-ridden country would make use of a multibillion-dollar bailout patched together by the two international organizations.

Due to yield around 23 billion euros, the sweeping new budget cuts are due to be announced Sunday before Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou takes to Brussels to meet with his euro-using counterparts and sign off on the final terms of a reported three-year, $160-billion rescue package.

The rapid rush to sign the bailout package follows a turbulent week that pushed Greece's sovereign debt into junk status, fanning fears that debt-strapped Athens would not have access to the EU's aid package ahead of an 8.5-billion euro bond redemption next month.

Anxiety also spread across the Atlantic with President Obama placing a call to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to take a stronger position in trying to calm markets and avoid contagion to other euro-using countries.

French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said she expected a final settlement of the Greek aid package by Sunday night.

Still, social unrest, coupled with Greece's slow-moving bureaucracy, could imperil the government's chances of implementing the new austerity measures.

"The socialists came to power promising [a] redistribution of wealth after years of corrupt center-right governance," says Alex Mally, a market analyst. "Now, the Greeks feel duped. The social justice part of this government has been dropped out and that has them mad."

Among the measures expected to be announced is the abolition of bonuses paid to both public and private sector workers each year. Other measures include raising the sales tax to between 23% and 25%, and cutting pension benefits.

Earlier this year and at the start of the financial crisis, Greeks seemed willing to back belt-tightening reforms. But in recent weeks, polls suggest a dramatic about-face.

In one survey, 61% said they were against the government's decision to ask for the aid package which allows the EU and IMF to dictate additional budget cuts. A separate poll showed 51.3% of Greeks would take to the streets if the new measures, due to be passed by parliament next week, were agreed to.

In other capitals across the world, hundreds of thousands of workers engaged in spirited but generally peaceful May Day rallies. In Turkey, about 140,000 people gathered in Istanbul's, Taksim Square, and hundreds of thousands marched through Havana's Revolution Square, most in red shirts and many waving red flags.

In Moscow, a rare protest by hundreds of opposition activists was held, with a crowd yelling slogans comparing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. And in Macao, at least eight people were injured when police employed water cannons and pepper spray on protesters.

Carassava is a special correspondent.

Times Wire services also contributed to this report.

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