Thursday, May 26, 2011

Greece's Los Indignados (Indignant) take to the streets


With an estimated 30,000 taking to Athens's central Syntagma Square and 8-10,000 massed in Thessaloniki, the country's second largest city Greeks has been protesting against the latest round of asuterity measures and the performance of the country's political caste in general.

Greece's Los Indignados (Indignant) take to the streets

"With slogans such as Let's burn that bourdello, the parliament" and "We are nobody's hotel maid" thousands took over central roads and squares in a mixture of serious protest and street party. Despite the level of anger and upset many feel the Aganaktismenoi (Indignant) as they call themselves staged peaceful protests with no reports of clashes with the police.

The campaign which takes inspiration from similar protests in Spain has used Facebook, Twitter and blogs as well as more traditional media to get people out onto the streets and has given a focus to growing discontent Greece's embattled population feels not only with its creditors but also the ruling PASOK party who have imposed round after round of public spending cuts,tax hikes and lay offs.

Greece's Los Indignados (Indignant) take to the streets

With VAT now being levied on even basic food items such as bread, milk and meat many household are worrying if they can make ends meets in an economy which is shedding jobs at an unprecedented rate and seems to offer little in the way of hope for people.

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