Violent protests as Greeks strike over austerity cuts

Huge crowds of protesters, upset about stringent Greek economic reforms, marched past the Greek Parliament in Athens Wednesday as police in white helmets tried to keep them from getting any closer.

The protest march entered Syntagma Square, which lies between the Parliament and Finance Ministry, and then left again just after midday.

Most of the marchers were peaceful, but a small number of violent protesters threw Molotov cocktails that burned two cars outside the upscale King George Palace hotel, which sits on one corner of the square. Police responded with stun grenades and tear gas, and the entire exchange left the square filled with smoke and an acrid smell.

The violent protesters left a trail of burning waste bins and lots of garbage and debris that they had thrown at police. At least one small fire burned briefly about a block away from the square. After the marchers moved through, however, the tension was mostly over. Police still formed a line around the front of Parliament, but there was no traffic and only small groups of people milled around the square.

Wednesday is the climax of a week full of strikes by the country’s unions against changes in labor laws and the introduction of wage cuts.

The new fiscal measures are required under the conditions of the massive bailout Greece received from the International Monetary Fund and European Union in May. The three-year, 110-billion-euro package saved Greece from financial default.

The country’s two largest umbrella unions, the GSEE and ADEDY, which represent both the public and private sector, are behind the day of protests, according to Greece’s Athens News Agency (ANA).

Public transportation, which came to a standstill in Athens on Tuesday because of a strike by mass transit employees, was expected to run a limited service Wednesday in order to ferry people to and from the protests, ANA reported.

There were no flights all day Wednesday at Athens International Airport, authorities there announced.

Wednesday’s strike was also expected to affect state hospitals and health services, airlines, coastal shipping, courts, banks, as well as national and suburban trains, ANA reported. Taxi drivers also called a four-hour work stoppage in the middle of the day.

There will also be a news blackout Wednesday because of a 24-hour strike called by journalists’ unions, ANA said. The unions have also called a 48-hour strike for Friday and Saturday. The ADEDY union says its main demand is for the government to recall the “socially unjust government-imposed measures leading workers and pensioners to poverty and misery”.

The financial measures were enacted by the “IMF-EU-ECB troika, the government, and the financially strong”, the union said, referring also to the European Central Bank.

“Employees must put an end to the blackmail conditions imposed by speculators”, the union said in a statement. “It is ‘those in the know’ and the rich that must pay for the crisis”.

Parliament adopted a law Tuesday diminishing the power of collective labor agreements, making it easier for employers to fire people. It also says hundreds of thousands of employees in the civil sector will be getting a pay cut of 10%.

The new round of austerity measures focuses on structural reforms, particularly in the public sector, which employs more than 20% of the Greek labor force.

Demonstrations are set to continue throughout the week.

The 2011 budget, scheduled to be voted on in parliament on December 22, foresees the deficit declining from 9.4% of GDP to 7.4%. Many of the cuts are focused on the public sector, including public enterprises such as the railways and other forms of public transportation.

Members of the militant left-wing PAME union were also on strike Wednesday. In a statement, they vowed “no sacrifice for the plutocracy” and said the problems facing the Greek economy were not created by the people, but by “greedy capitalists”.

“We strike because the EU, the International Monetary Fund, the government lead us to poverty, unemployment; they continuously load us with new burdens”, PAME said. “They abolish the collective agreements; they further reduce our salaries and day-wages”. (CNN)

Exercise 8. Make a summary of the news issue below and translate it into Ukrainian.

Weir Group fined further £3m for kickbacks to Saddam’s regime

The engineering firm Weir Group has been fined £3m after it admitted bribing allies of Saddam Hussein to win lucrative contracts in Iraq, in breach of tough UN sanctions against the Iraqi ruler’s regime.

The Glasgow-based company, one of Scotland’s best known engineering firms, pleaded guilty this week to two charges of deliberately paying kickbacks of more than £3m to win contracts to supply £35m worth of pumps under the UN-controlled oil for food programme.

The newly promoted FTSE 100 firm had already agreed to repay £13.9m, equivalent to the company’s profits from the Iraqi contracts, after it was exposed by the US defence contract audit agency in 2004 and later named formally in a UN investigation.

The UN inquiry found that Weir Group’s corruption had helped senior figures in Saddam’s regime to illegally divert $1.5bn (£960m) in aid intended for vital healthcare, food supplies and basic utilities, including clean water supplies. The bribes were worth 10% of the entire UN aid programme.

The company, which knew the kickbacks were essential to win the contracts, also set up a covert method of channelling its bribes through Switzerland to a front company used by its Iraqi agent. That agent paid the bribes and was reimbursed by Weir, who paid him a further £1.4m for handling the bribes.

Sitting at the high court in Edinburgh, Judge Carloway said that Weir Group had admitted its guilt at an early stage in the investigation and had since removed the employees involved, overhauled its corporate structures and board, and sold off the division linked directly to the illegal bribes. This had saved it from paying a full fine of £4.5m but the offence was still extremely serious, Carloway said. Other potential offenders needed to be deterred from similar corruption, which would damage the UK’s interests and those of the UN.

“Seen in that context, and having regard to the effect of the 10% on the amount of humanitarian products allowed into Iraq, a substantial financial penalty is undoubtedly merited”, the judge said.

“This is especially so given that the illegal payments were made after a meeting in September 2001 attended by a director of the Weir Group, a senior manager and the principal salesman together with directors and the manager of the principal subsidiary company involved in the deals.

“The payments were specifically authorised to be made at group director level and that in relation to a company which then as now is seen as an example of Scottish global achievement”.

Carloway is known for taking tough action against companies guilty of negligence or criminal behaviour: in 2005, he fined Transco a record sum of £15m over a fatal explosion in a gas main which killed a family of four in 1999. His fine for Weir Group outstrips the £2m fine last year against the bridge builders Mabey & Johnson, which paid a bribe of €422,264 (£357,446) to secure a contract of €4.2m in Iraq. Mabey & Johnson also paid £1.5m in reparations to the UN’s Iraq fund.

Lord Smith of Kelvin, Weir Group’s chairman, said today’s judgment “finally draws a line” under the prosecution investigation. “What happened back in 2001 was wrong and we accept full responsibility”. Smith added: “Since 2001 Weir has been transformed. We have a different board and a different management team all of whom are committed to doing business at all times in an ethical manner. Today we have in place robust ethical policies and procedures and operate a zero tolerance approach to any behaviour that contravenes them”.

The Crown Office, Scotland’s prosecution authority, said there were trials still to place against individuals linked to the Mabey & Johnston case in England as part of a Serious Fraud Office case. It added: “The SFO still have one investigation ongoing, which is understood to involve a number of individuals”.

Assistant chief constable George Hamilton, of Strathclyde police, which carried out the Weir Group investigation, added: “Just because this case involves a large company does not mean that they are above the law”.

“I sincerely hope that today’s result serves as a warning to other companies who may be tempted to think they can break the law and get away with it”. (Guardian)

Exercise 9. Make a summary of the news issue below and translate it into Ukrainian.

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