ATHENS, Greece – Riots over harsh new austerity measures left three bank workers dead and engulfed the streets of Athens on Wednesday, as angry protesters tried to storm parliament, hurled Molotov cocktails at police and torched buildings. Police responded with barrages of tear gas.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in a nationwide strike to protest new taxes and government spending cuts demanded by the International Monetary Fund and other European nations before heavily indebted Greece gets a euro110 billion ($141 billion) loan package to keep it from defaulting.
The three bank workers — a man and two women — died after demonstrators set their bank on fire along the main demonstration route in central Athens. As their colleagues sobbed in the street, five other bank workers were rescued from the balcony of the burning building.
"A demonstration is one thing and murder is quite another!" Prime Minister George Papandreou thundered in Parliament during a session to discuss the spending cuts he announced Sunday — measures even the IMF has called draconian. Lawmakers held a minute of silence for the dead — the first deaths during a protest in Greece since 1991.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100505/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_greece_financial_crisis
Bank workers? Tellers? This is not anything to be celebrating. As usual, it's always the wrong people who end up taking the punishment. This is not "great news". Those people were probably terrified to come out of there. Burn the bank down? No problem. Bank employees, working class people? I've got a problem with that.
Andie is right. If these people were those ultimately responsible for foisting the ugly twins of the fiat monetary system and fractional reserve system on us, then I'd agree. However, they aren't those responsible. The criminals behind the banking fraud are still alive and free from any sort of retribution for their crimes. Those who died are ordinary people who happen to have lost their lives because of where they work.
Totally agreed w/andie. If it were someone ( i.e. L Blankenfien or his 666th cousin-ish) hmmm I wouldn't mind sipping some bubbly at daylight!