Furious Greeks Pack Streets to Protest Austerity Proposals

Greek government plans for yet more austerity to satisfy its international lenders brought at least 80,000 protesters on to a central Athens square on Sunday to vent their fury at the nation's plight.

With Athens struggling to avoid a debt default, the cabinet will discuss a medium-term economic plan on Monday which promises several years at least of extra budget cuts and faster privatisations, its side of a deal to get a second financial bailout in a year from the European Union and IMF....

Greeks are showing signs of reaching the limits of their endurance as budget cuts imposed under Greece's first bailout a year ago have helped to push unemployment close to 16 percent.

Police said more than 80,000 people packed the main Syntagma square outside parliament on Sunday, although protesters accuse the authorities regularly of underestimating their numbers.

Protesters have gathered on the square every night for 12 days but Sunday's was by far the biggest rally so far in the series that draws inspiration from similar protests in Spain.

On Sunday, some banners also evoked the Arab Spring movement to oust authoritarian rule in the Middle East and North Africa.

"From Tahrir Square to Syntagma Square, we support you!" read one banner raised above a sea of splayed hands waved at the parliament building—a highly offensive gesture for Greeks.

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Some interesting information here and the obvious, namely the reaction to the proposed austerity measures which anyone following Euro developments could see is forthcoming. People are not going to roll over and get hammered by budget cuts and fiscal policies that further deteriorate living standards and conditions. Also note the support from Greeks to protests in the MENA countries, the implication there being a far wider, increasingly globalised protest, which given time and further tightening of fiscal policy and harsher austerity, will spread and possibly develop into a more revolutionary remonstration against governments and their proposals around the world. Are all these protests and uprisings around the world heading toward a crisis of such proportion that a forthcoming collapse of the current system is in sight? Upon which a New World Order will be ushered in to restore stability and rebuild the world economy? These developments certainly show no signs of abating. I personally see this as a possibility.