A general strike paralysed Greece today in the first major test of the socialist government's resolve to push through unprecedented austerity cuts needed to avert a fiscal meltdown.
Protest fever swept the country with public transport paralysed, ferries holding at docks and air traffic grounded as unions went on the warpath against the latest wave of spending cuts and tax hikes.
Financial markets worldwide suffered heavy losses as fresh fears spread overnight from Europe and Wall Street to Asia today that a massive Greek bailout will not be enough to stop its debt crisis from hitting Spain and Portugal.
Hundreds of thousands of civil servants kicked off the protests yesterday and a group of about 200 communists also stormed Athens Acropolis, unfurling banners reading "Peoples of Europe, Rise Up."
"The Greek people have been called to make sacrifices while the rich pay nothing," said the head of the million-member strong GSEE private sector union, Giannis Panagopoulos.
Today's walkout, the third general strike in as many months, came as the government raced to push the austerity drive through parliament, looking to its comfortable majority there to pass the package on Thursday.
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