Hundreds of Thousands of Greek and British Workers Stage Strikes As Governments Push Austerity Cuts

democracynow.org

More than 750,000 British public sector workers staged a 24-hour strike Thursday in a stand-off with the government’s plans to reform public sector pensions. The reforms come as the government tries to trim its deficit and would require public workers to work longer, pay more toward their pension and receive less upon retirement. Meanwhile in Greece, thousands of workers staged a 48-hour strike and many took to the streets after the Greek Parliament approved a raft of austerity measures that include spending cuts, tax increases and privatizations as a condition for a massive bailout to avert the Eurozone’s first default. 

“There is a common theme to the protests that are taking place across Europe, and that is not just the public sector workers defending their pension rights, but also a generation of young people for whom quite a stark picture is being painted of their future,” says our guest Paul Mason, an economics editor for BBC Newsnight who just returned from reporting in Greece. We also speak with David Graeber, author of "Debt: The First 5,000 Years." “Most revolutions in our history have been about debt,” says Graeber. “It is a perennial tool by those who are powerful to make the victims of structural inequalities feel that it is somehow their fault.” [Includes rush transcript]