Quote of the day

Writing for In These Times, Michelle Chen reports:

Everyone knew it was a losing battle, but everyone showed up anyway. In an uprising virtually unprecedented in its size, scope and diversity, malcontents united across Greece to push back against the government’s assault on working people.

This week’s 48-hour strike drew workers from both public and private sectors, students, the unemployed — just about everyone about to get smacked with the austerity measures that the Parliament has approved under pressure from IMF and Eurozone officials. With tens of thousands of civil service jobs to be downsized, pensions and wages to be gutted, and labor and civil rights under siege, the people’s upheaval has proven as severe and persistent as the fiscal butchery that politicians keep ramming down their throats.

People took to the streets because they had nothing to lose. As one protester, civil engineer Vagelis Filezis, told CNN, “We have no hope. The only hope we have is the strength of the people.”

Greeks defend their society against the EU

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