Greek Farmers Clash With Riot Police

Source: NYT


ATHENS — Two people were injured Monday when Greek riot police clashed with hundreds of farmers from the southern island of Crete who sailed to the Greek mainland and tried to drive tractors and farm vehicles to the capital to press demands for financial aid.

The clashes come at a time of growing social unrest in Greece, as the center-right government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis struggles to restore its credibility after students riots in December. Protests have spread across Europe — most recently in France and Britain — as the global economic crisis bites into jobs and incomes.

In the clashes on Monday, the farmers, who sailed into the port of Pireaus, made a convoy of some 300 tractors, trucks and other farming vehicles. Some of the vehicles tried to ram a police van that was blocking the port gates.

Live television broadcasts showed at least two people injured in the scuffle, including a female lawmaker who was knocked down by one of the tractors. Two protesters were arrested for pelting police with rocks, potatoes and tomatoes.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/world/europe/03greece.html

I haven't heard about this yet It's intense over there.

So it makes sense that the Greek authorities were waiting for them. I can't believe they sent all that equipment to the mainland. That's incredibly wasteful.

Wasteful? The bailout of billionaires is wasteful. The war in Iraq is wasteful. Funding Halliburton to fix New Orleans is wasteful. Protesters being well-organized, brave and determined is not wasteful. It seems to me that it was clever and pointed.