Helena Smith, who has reported from Athens for more than 20 years, says the country is on the edge of a precipice Helena Smith in Athens     Despair has enveloped Greece. This weekend the bankrupt nation, for that is what it is, began negotiating the latest act of a drama that many fear will end in catastrophe – financially, socially and politically. In an electric atmosphere, with thousands demon ...

Ian Traynor and Helena Smith in Athens The Guardian   MPs in Athens approve severe budget cuts imposed by the EU after rallies against the bill erupt in street violence. Greece enacted billions of euros in spending cuts and fresh austerity measures last night in a volatile parliamentary vote aimed at avoiding default on its national debt and keeping the eurozone intact, despite some of the worst riotin ...

“In order to liberate ourselves from debt we must destroy the economy” greek original February 9 Statement by the Occupied Athens Law School In order to liberate ourselves from debt we must destroy the economy The political and financial spectacle has now lost its confidence. Its acts are entirely convulsive. The government of “emergency” that has taken over the maintenance of social cohesion is failing in ...

The past 2,5 years the Greek population is witnessing the harshest austerity measures since the introduction of the Euro. Greece became the ‘black sheep’-EU-member state and had to be punished hard. In 2010, the first austerity package was imposed by the Greek government under the supervision of the Troika (the IMF, the EU and the ECB). As a result, in November 2011, unemployment reached 18% and 40% among t ...

Furious cleaners occupy the area of negotiations after a ridiculous employers’ proposal – International actions in 10 cities. Hundreds cleaners are on strike for 30 days now. They ask for self-evident things as to be paid while they are sick and to have a normal work-pressure. They also ask a small pay rise. After 4 months of discussions, 7 rounds of negotiations, hundreds of small actions, 6 big demos of r ...

By Ioana Patran and Sam Cage BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc resigned on Monday, giving way to mass protests against IMF-backed austerity measures and joining leaders of other European Union states felled by soaring debts. President Traian Basescu named Boc's justice minister, Catalin Predoiu, to replace him at the head of a government whose popularity is languishing in opinion polls ...

* by Yiannis Kaplanis greekleftreview.wordpress.com/ On 1st February homeless people together with solidarity activists occupied an empty unused building belonging to the Athens Local Authority in order to use it as a shelter for homeless people. This was one of the coldest days in Athens with freezing temperatures. The Mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis, called the police that arrested eleven homeless and fo ...

Posted at http://takethesquare.net This release comes from the hands of 50 assaulted, threatened and enraged people. After the call of February 1st, we decided to transmit the brutal, fierce and disproportionate repression that we lived in this I don’t pay action. We can only show 6 out of the 9 arrests that took place (we were not around in the others); we cannot show either the countless aggressions (the ...

On bbc.co.uk Blogger sites can now be blocked on a "per country" basis after a change to its web address system. Google will now be able to block access in individual countries following a legal removal request. The new system means blocking will not require restricting world-wide access to a blog. The changes apply in Australia, New Zealand and India, but the BBC understands Google plans to roll it out glo ...

thedailybeast.com A homeless man sleeping sleeping in the entrance of an office complex in central Athens, Greece, 09 December 2011. Having a room and a bed where to spend the night is not a matter of course any more to a growing number of people in Greece. According to Greek social workers, more than 20,000 homeless people live in the streets of Athens, a dramatic increase linked with the last two years of ...