EU ties up salaries to save budget, Belarus - other way round
Irishman has blocked the parliament with a cement truck, Spain has sunk into the mire of the first overall strike for the last 8 years (+ photo)
Strikes and manifestations seized the whole European Union on September 29. Teachers, traffic workers, officials in Spain, Belgium, Finland, Lithuania and other countries protested against the strict measures of budget economy - the way governments tried to solve financial difficulties. In Greece, even doctors of state hospitals went on strike for 24 hours.
According to the Secretary of the European Congress of Trade Unions it is the banks which should pay for the crisis, not common employees: "The voice of the workers say: don't do what your predecessors did in 30s. Don't cut off all the budget expenses. The Great Depression was the result of such actions then".
Irishman tries to enter the gate of the Parliament on the cement truck. Photo: cfnews13.com
In Spain, the policy of budget economy resulted in unemployment of half a million people. Salaries of teachers and pensions are tied up. Moreover, the government supports the idea of privatization of the state sector, including the sphere of education.
Participant of the strike: "We have struggled for the rights of the working class in this country for a hundred years. I don't think we can give these rights away so easily. Let the banks pay for the crisis".
The nation-wide Spanish strike sometimes turned into actions of protest and clashes with the police. The protestants threw eggs, blocked the roads before trucks which transported food to the markets. Some regional TV-stations stopped broadcasting, as their staff joined the strike.
Sometimes the planned strikes turned into protest actions. At the streets of Barcelona. Photo: Associated Press
50-thousand manifestation in Brussels coinsided with the suggestions of the European Commission to punish the EU countries which leaded themselves into the budget deficit through support of social programs. Jose Manuel Barroso to the foreign media:
"We all have learned the hard lessons of the financial crisis. Now the governments of the EU countries understand much better that it is necessary to take concrete steps to prevent big budget deficit and external debt".
Lithuanian trade unions appeal to citizens at the streets. Photo: R.Danisevičius
While the European Union is trying to suppress the budget deficit, Belarus is steering it up.
In order to gain the indice of average salary of 500 USD, the first class wage rate will be increased by 30% since November 1. The Chairperson of the IMF Office in Minsk Natallia Kaliadzina criticized such actions on behalf of the International Monetary Fund.
Natallia Kaliadzina: "It will lead to increase of internal demand for imported goods and services, thus, to the budget deficit and changes in the structure of budget expenses".
The economist Siarhej Chaly also underlines it contradicts the task of overcoming the budget deficit.
Siarhej Chaly: "We have a budget deficit so we need to lessen the expenses. However, the political task fully condradicts this. An enormous increase of the wage rate is economically unreasonable increase of incomes".
Strikes and manifestations seized the whole European Union on September 29. Teachers, traffic workers, officials in Spain, Belgium, Finland, Lithuania and other countries protested against the strict measures of budget economy - the way governments tried to solve financial difficulties. In Greece, even doctors of state hospitals went on strike for 24 hours.
According to the Secretary of the European Congress of Trade Unions it is the banks which should pay for the crisis, not common employees: "The voice of the workers say: don't do what your predecessors did in 30s. Don't cut off all the budget expenses. The Great Depression was the result of such actions then".
Irishman tries to enter the gate of the Parliament on the cement truck. Photo: cfnews13.com
In Spain, the policy of budget economy resulted in unemployment of half a million people. Salaries of teachers and pensions are tied up. Moreover, the government supports the idea of privatization of the state sector, including the sphere of education.
Participant of the strike: "We have struggled for the rights of the working class in this country for a hundred years. I don't think we can give these rights away so easily. Let the banks pay for the crisis".
The nation-wide Spanish strike sometimes turned into actions of protest and clashes with the police. The protestants threw eggs, blocked the roads before trucks which transported food to the markets. Some regional TV-stations stopped broadcasting, as their staff joined the strike.
Sometimes the planned strikes turned into protest actions. At the streets of Barcelona. Photo: Associated Press
50-thousand manifestation in Brussels coinsided with the suggestions of the European Commission to punish the EU countries which leaded themselves into the budget deficit through support of social programs. Jose Manuel Barroso to the foreign media:
"We all have learned the hard lessons of the financial crisis. Now the governments of the EU countries understand much better that it is necessary to take concrete steps to prevent big budget deficit and external debt".
Lithuanian trade unions appeal to citizens at the streets. Photo: R.Danisevičius
While the European Union is trying to suppress the budget deficit, Belarus is steering it up.
In order to gain the indice of average salary of 500 USD, the first class wage rate will be increased by 30% since November 1. The Chairperson of the IMF Office in Minsk Natallia Kaliadzina criticized such actions on behalf of the International Monetary Fund.
Natallia Kaliadzina: "It will lead to increase of internal demand for imported goods and services, thus, to the budget deficit and changes in the structure of budget expenses".
The economist Siarhej Chaly also underlines it contradicts the task of overcoming the budget deficit.
Siarhej Chaly: "We have a budget deficit so we need to lessen the expenses. However, the political task fully condradicts this. An enormous increase of the wage rate is economically unreasonable increase of incomes".
