BUCHAREST — The Romanian government was in an uproar yesterday over austerity protests, with the nation’s interior minister resigning, the opposition demanding the prime minister go as well, and top police officials holding emergency talks with the president.
The chaos reflected social fallout from the sharp wage cuts, tax hikes, and other austerity measures the government has taken to fight its budget deficit amid a deep recession.
President Traian Basescu’s government had been unable to pay wages and pensions without a $26 billion bailout loan last year from the International Monetary Fund and other lenders, and the IMF is now demanding strong action to trim Romania’s national debt.
The government was shocked on Friday, when 6,000 police officers, angry over a 25 percent wage cut, marched to the presidential palace and threw eggs at it....
--more--"
"Workers plan protest march in Belgium, strike in Spain" by Raf Casert, Associated Press | September 29, 2010
BRUSSELS — Labor unions hope to organize a march of 100,000 workers on European Union institutions in Brussels today, as well as a general strike in Spain to protest the budget-slashing plans and austerity measures of governments seeking to control debt.
The march could be one of the biggest in Brussels in years. It will coincide with the EU Commission making proposals to punish member states that have run up deficits, often by funding social and employment programs.
It's okay to fund wars and banks.
The unions fear workers will become the biggest victims of a crisis set off by bankers and traders, many of whom had to be rescued by massive government intervention.
That's a nice way to describing looting.
Several governments were pushed to the brink of financial collapse and have been forced to impose punishing cuts in wages, pensions, and employment — cuts that have brought workers out by the tens of thousands over the past months....
Yeah, somehow those protests rarely reached my paper -- or if they did, it is in the BUSINESS section.
--more--"
"Protesters take to Europe’s streets as anger grows over austerity measures" by Raf Casert, Associated Press | September 30, 2010
BRUSSELS — Tens of thousands of workers marched through the streets of Europe yesterday, decrying the loss of jobs and benefits they fear will come with stinging austerity measures.
So bankers can get paid.
Police fired shots into the air to disperse protesters during a general strike in Spain. Greek bus and trolley drivers walked off the job, joined by doctors who staged a 24-hour strike at state hospitals. Unions claimed 100,000 marched on the European Union’s headquarters in Brussels.
Readers, they are talking about the ENTIRE POPULATION!
From Ireland to Greece, workers united around the theme that they are victims of a debt crisis caused by reckless high-spending bankers undermining Europe’s cherished welfare state. They complained of higher taxes, job cuts, soaring unemployment, and smaller pensions.
“We are protesting mainly for our children, because they’re not here — they are out looking for jobs,’’ said Emilio Martella, a 62-year-old retiree who demonstrated with 2,000 others in Rome.
Like Italy, several nations are raising or are considering raising the pension age, fearing there won’t be any money left to pay retirees in the future.
France’s conservative government is moving to increase the retirement age from 65 to 67.
That's a lie right there (keep reading).
To rein in public debt, countries including Greece and Spain have cut workers’ pay, and across the continent governments have trimmed benefits that have long been generous by US standards....
--more--"
Related: European protests, profit worries dog market
"Workers resume pension protests
PARIS — Hundreds of thousands of protesters young and old demonstrated in France yesterday, pressing conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy to drop plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.
Just a typo, right?
Can you ever really trust or believe anything you see in an AmeriKan newspaper?
It was the third day of protests in a month. Unions tried scheduling the protest for a Saturday instead of a weekday. The government casts the pension changes as the only responsible course of action and insists people need to work longer because they are living longer (AP)."
And so that the government can shovel tax loot to bankers.
PARIS — It’s showdown time for President Nicolas Sarkozy and France’s labor unions as they try to stop his government from raising the retirement age by two years to save money.
Train drivers launched an open-ended strike last night.
That is what you need to do, Americans.
They will be joined by workers from throughout the French economy today. Both groups are angry at a pension reform the Senate is expected to pass by week’s end.
Street protests also are being planned by labor unions today and Saturday. Last month, such action brought 1 million people to the streets of France.
After months of battle over the retirement age, this could be the decisive week, and some unions upped the stakes by declaring open-ended strikes this time, meaning they could last for days. Past walkouts lasted only one day.
For Sarkozy, this contest is about principle. His conservative allies say that, faced with gaping budget deficits and sluggish growth, France must get its finances in better order. Even with the two-year change, France would still have among the lowest retirement ages in the developed world.
Unions fear the erosion of the cherished benefit, and say the cost-cutting ax is coming down too hard on workers.
Sarkozy’s government is all but staking its chances for victory in presidential and legislative elections in 2012 on the pension reform, which the president has called the last major goal of his term. France’s European Union partners are keeping watch, as they face their own budget cutbacks and debt woes.
Early forecasts suggested that railway services, schools, oil refinery production, and public transport could be curtailed....
--more--"
PARIS — A nationwide strike by major French unions canceled flights and trains and shut the Eiffel Tower yesterday, disrupting daily life for many and putting new pressure on the government to drop a plan to raise the retirement age by two years.
Unionized train and Paris public transport workers vowed to stay off the job for at least another day, and police said at least 1.2 million people marched in protests against the plan, the largest turnout in four nationwide demonstrations over the last five weeks.
That could be a signal of rising momentum for the movement....
The government has refused to back down, saying the plan is the only way to save the money-draining pension system.
Didn't you guys invent that thing?
Some unions upped the ante by declaring open-ended strikes starting yesterday, meaning walkouts could drag on for days or even weeks...
Some oil workers pledged to keep up a protest at refineries, and one union warned of looming gasoline shortages.
Hit 'em where it hurts.
--more--"
PARIS — French commuters elbowed their way onto packed subways and buses yesterday on day two of an open-ended strike against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to raise the retirement age to 62. The government held firm despite the walkouts....
Railway workers voted to carry their strike to a third day, hoping to keep up the momentum of a movement that brought at least 1.2 million people to the streets for nationwide protests Tuesday. Strikers continued blocking oil refineries, raising concerns of gasoline shortages.
Elsewhere, however, the strike appeared to diminish, from airports to the Eiffel Tower to student pickets....
Keep that in mind as you read what is below.
The Eiffel Tower was taking in tourists as usual yesterday after Tuesday’s early closure, which forced hundreds of visitors to leave the iconic steel monument....
Workers at oil giant Total’s six French refineries kept up their protest, and in a statement yesterday union leaders said “not one drop of oil’’ has been produced at the plants since Tuesday morning.
The strike action that began on Tuesday was the fifth since May — but this time unions upped the stakes by making them open-ended, meaning walkouts could drag on for weeks. Previous walkouts only lasted one day.
Another round of nationwide demonstrations is scheduled for Saturday.
--more--"
French students blockaded more high schools and universities yesterday as the third straight day of nationwide strikes over the government’s proposed pension changes snarled train travel and sent a renewed challenge to President Nicolas Sarkozy.
You're kidding.
See that, AmeriKan kids?
France’s BFM TV showed students toppling trash cans in southeast France and erecting barricades in the middle of a Paris avenue.
Several labor unions also announced another round of nationwide demonstrations scheduled for Tuesday — in addition to the planned street protests throughout the country expected tomorrow.
The students and labor unions see Sarkozy’s pension changes — raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 — as an attack on their social protections.
Thursday’s protests were mostly peaceful, but a 16-year-old was hospitalized in a Paris suburb after he was hit by a rubber projectile from a flash-ball gun fired by police. A police official said officers responded after students blockading a high school pelted them with projectiles.
Police in the Val-de-Marne region detained about 15 students for hurling projectiles at police and vandalizing property. Another 22 young people were detained in Lyon following clashes with police.
In Toulouse, police estimated that 7,000 people joined a protest march, though unions insisted that nearly three times as many took part.
Meanwhile, workers at oil giant Total’s six refineries in France kept protesting, and union leaders said “not one drop of oil’’ has been produced since Tuesday.
But the strikes are diminishing, sigh. What liars!
Ten of France’s 12 refineries are on strike. “A fuel shortage can be expected in the coming days,’’ a union spokesman said....
In Greece, riot police clashed with protesting Culture Ministry workers barricading the Acropolis in Athens and used tear gas to clear the landmark’s entrance.
Greece is in the midst of a tough austerity program that has cut public workers’ salaries and pensions. The plan has led to strikes and demonstrations.
--more--"
What has the Globe been telling me about Greece lately?
ATHENS — A police officer was convicted of murder and sentenced yesterday to life imprisonment for the shooting of a teenager in central Athens that sparked nationwide riots in 2008.
In a 4-to-3 verdict, a panel of judges and jurors found Epaminondas Korkoneas guilty of intentionally shooting 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Dec. 6, 2008, in the central Athens district of Exarchia, an area of bars and cafes popular with self-styled anarchists.
A second police officer, Vassilis Saraliotis, was convicted of complicity and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Both are expected to appeal.
Grigoropoulos’s death led to the worst civil unrest Greece had seen in decades, with youths rampaging through cities almost nightly for two weeks, torching cars and buildings, smashing windows, looting stores, and clashing with riot police.
The dead youth’s mother, Gina Tsalikian, speaking outside the court in central Greece, welcomed the verdict.
“I feel completely vindicated by the court’s decision that was the result of a painful procedure for me during which light was shed on many aspects of this crime,’’ she said. “What was proven is that a cold blooded murder was carried out for no reason against an innocent 15-year-old boy, Alexis Grigoropoulos — my son.’’
***************
Korkoneas had insisted the boy was killed inadvertently by a ricochet when the policeman fired a warning shot following an altercation with youths during a night patrol in Exarchia.
Police are the same everywhere, aren't they?
The trial was held in Amfissa, about 120 miles west of Athens, because of fears the proceedings could lead to more rioting.
--more--"
Also see: Greek Truckers Idling
PARIS — French oil workers defied the government’s demand yesterday to get back to work and end fuel shortages, stepping up the fight against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s retirement reforms.
Related: "al Qaeda" hired as French strike buster?
Yeah, amazing how those guys show up when western leaders need them the most.
Truckers and students joined in, facing off against riot police and creating chaos on the roads.
Translation: It's the whole of society against a government that works for banks.
Airlines flying into France were ordered to slash schedules — and to bring enough fuel for the trip out. Gas stations ran short or dry, while truckers jammed highway traffic by driving at a snail’s pace, a tactic known in French as “operation escargot.’’
Remember, these are diminishing strikes.
****************
Teenagers, who usually don’t worry about retirement, blocked or disrupted at least 261 high schools yesterday.
Good kids!
Some of the school protests turned violent and 290 youths were arrested, the Interior Ministry said.
Students set cars and tires on fire, toppled a telephone booth, and hurled debris at police in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, as well as in Lyon and elsewhere. At least five police officers were injured.
Isn't provocateur a word of French origin?
Street demonstrations were planned in more than 200 cities across France today, the sixth nationwide day of protest marches since early September.
Today was also expected to bring more severe disruptions to air travel, trains, schools, and beyond.
Many in France consider retiring at 60 a pillar of France’s hard-won social contract, and fear this is just the first step in eroding their often-envied quality of life. Critics say Sarkozy wants to adopt an “American-style capitalist’’ system and claim the government could find pension savings elsewhere, such as by raising contributions from employers.
Or GETTING OUT of Afghanistan, right?
At the same time, countries across Europe are cutting spending and raising taxes to bring down record deficits and debts from the worst recession in 70 years....
Like I said: so BANKSTERS can GET PAID!
A poll published yesterday in Le Parisien newspaper showed 71 percent of French people support or sympathize with the strikers....
Because THEY ARE the STRIKERS!
The strike by oil workers has been the most disruptive tactic yet, and in response, the Interior Ministry opened a crisis coordination center yesterday just to focus on the conflict....
Yes, Frenchie, YOUR GOVERNMENT is AT WAR with YOU!
Prime Minister Francois Fillon has pledged to do whatever is necessary to prevent fuel shortages, and French Industry Minister Christian Estrosi said yesterday there were enough backup stocks to last several weeks.
Yeah, sure.
Still, motorists flocked to gas stations in panic and found many empty, while aviation authorities told airlines flying in to France to make sure to bring enough fuel for the trip out.
I wonder how much fuel the French are using in Afghanistan.
Air France said four long-haul flights, including one from Seattle and another from Mumbai, made stops to fuel up yesterday before reaching France to ensure they could leave again.
Bigger problems were coming today: The government ordered airlines to drastically cut back flights into France as labor unions plan new nationwide strikes across the public sector.
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Yeah, she looks like a real threat.
So which cop beat her?
Time to roll out the agent provocateurs to give the protesters a bad name:
PARIS — Masked youths clashed with police and set fires in cities across France yesterday as protests against a proposed increase in the retirement age took an increasingly radical turn. Hundreds of flights were canceled, long lines formed at gas stations, and train service in many regions was cut in half.
President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to crack down on “troublemakers’’ and guarantee public order, raising the possibility of more confrontations with young rioters after a week of disruptive but largely nonviolent demonstrations.
I think protesters should call out those being violent by shouting "Assholes, assholes, assholes" at them. Let them know they are NOT with YOU!
Sarkozy also vowed to ensure that fuel was available to everyone. Some 4,000 gas stations were out of gas yesterday afternoon, the environment minister said. The prime minister said oil companies agreed to pool gasoline stocks to try to get the dry gas stations filled again.
I thought they had stocks for weeks. Lying government again!
The protesters are trying to prevent parliament from approving a bill that would raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 to help prevent the pension system from going bankrupt. Many workers feel the change would erode France’s social benefits — which include long vacations and a state-subsidized health care system — in favor of “American-style capitalism.’’
And they object to their tax loot being shoveled at bankers.
Sarkozy’s government points out that 62 is among the lowest retirement ages in the world, the French are living much longer than they used to and the pension system is losing money. The workers say the government could find pension savings elsewhere, such as by raising contributions from employers.
Wow, deja vu.
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"Protests, violence continue in France; 1,423 detained in the past week" by Greg Keller, Associated Press | October 21, 2010
But they are diminishing.
PARIS — Workers opposed to a higher retirement age blocked roads to airports around France yesterday, leaving passengers dragging suitcases on foot along a breakdown lane in Paris.
:-)
Outside the capital, hooded youths smashed store windows amid clouds of tear gas. Riot officers in Nanterre and Lyon sprayed tear gas but appeared unable to stop the violence.
Police forced striking workers away from blocked fuel depots in western France, however, restoring gasoline to areas where pumps were dry after weeks of protests....
After months of largely peaceful disruptions, some protests erupted into scattered violence this week. President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed that his conservative party would prevail in a Senate vote expected Thursday.
Many workers say the change would erode France’s social benefits — which include long vacations, contracts that make it hard for employers to lay off workers, and a state-subsidized health care system — in favor of “American-style capitalism.’’
Despite France’s tolerance for a long tradition of strikes and protest, official patience appeared to be waning after weeks of snarled traffic, canceled flights, dwindling gasoline supplies, and urban violence....
Who gives a f*** what the officials feel?
What are they going to do, start shooting people down in the streets?
Over the past week, 1,423 people have been detained for protest-related violence and 62 police officers injured, he said.
Students plan new protests for today.
Bless those good kids.
--more--"
Oh, another French cop beating someone. How nice.
"Clashes, protests in French tensions over pensions" by Angela Charlton, Associated Press Writer | October 21, 2010
PARIS --Police used tear gas and water cannon against rampaging youth in Lyon on Thursday while the French government showed its muscle in parliament, short-circuiting tense Senate debate on a bill raising the retirement age to 62.
Despite growing pressure, President Nicolas Sarkozy held firm on a measure he says is crucial to the future of France, heightening the standoff with labor unions that see retirement at 60 as a hard-earned right.
Defiant unions announced two more days of protest, one on Nov. 6 -- long after the bill is likely to become law. The bold action suggested that opponents believe they have the power to force the government's hand.
"The government bears full and complete responsibility for the continued mobilization, given its intransigent attitude, its failure to listen and its repeated provocations," said the statement signed by six unions.
That's government for you.
Weeks of protests have left at least a quarter of the nation's gas stations on empty, blocked hundreds of ships at the Mediterranean port of Marseille and even forced Lady Gaga to cancel Paris concerts.
I thought they had stocks for weeks, sigh.
And who is Lady Gaga and why does the Globe care so much?
See: The Two-Headed War Party
Violence on the margins of student protests have added a new dimension to the volatile mix.
Just when the government needed it, too! What a coincidence!
A march in Paris by at least 4,000 students was peaceful, but new violence broke out in Lyon, where police used water cannon and tear gas....
The French government -- like many heavily indebted governments around Europe -- says raising the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62 and overhauling the money-losing pension system are vital to ensuring that future generations receive any pensions at all.
Trying to scare the s*** out of you so bankers can loot.
Un-f***ing-real!
It's a MONEY-LOSING SYSTEM because they ALL INVESTED in the CRAP MORTGAGE SECURITIES Wall Street was selling!
French unions say the working class is unfairly punished by the pension reform and the government should find money for the pension system elsewhere. They fear this reform will herald the end of an entire network of welfare benefits that makes France an enviable place to work and live....
Not anymore.
Unions have held several rounds of one-day strikes in recent months, but scattered actions have turned increasingly radical as the bill has made its way through parliament....
Students barricaded high schools and took to the streets nationwide Thursday afternoon. Hundreds filled the port of Marseille -- where dozens of ships waited in the Mediterranean after days of strikes have blocked access to a key oil terminal.
Student protests have forced the government to its knees in the past, and in recent days some have degenerated into violence.
Shopping streets stood nearly empty Thursday in central Lyon. The Bistrot de Lyon didn't put tables outside as usual, out of fear of clashes....
The U.S. Embassy in Paris warned Americans "to avoid demonstrations currently taking place in France." The warning said peaceful demonstrations can escalate into violence, and urged visitors to check with their airlines in case of airport disruptions, and check with rental car agencies about the availability of gasoline.
That is where my printed paper ends.
Wildcat protests blocked train lines around Paris. Protesters in cars and trucks blocked several highways around the country, from near Calais in the north to the Pyrenees in the south, according to the national road traffic center.
Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said 1,901 people have been detained since early last week.
Hortefeux insisted that the country has several weeks of gasoline reserves and that "the trend is toward improvement" in supplies.....
You and your friends sitting on them for yourselves, huh?
Families around the country are on edge over the gasoline shortages because school vacations start Friday.
Authorities, however, are hoping the vacations cool off student tempers.
On Thursday morning, students shut down the Turgot High School near the Place de la Republique in eastern Paris after a student union vote. Teens sat in the middle of the street, barring traffic. Some sang songs and chanted slogans under eye of the police.
Workers for Airbus and Hewlett Packard marched through the streets of the southern city of Toulouse, where the city university is closed because of student protests. Ten other universities were also blocked Thursday.
In Strasburg in the east, protesters blocked a sluice on the Rhine.
The strikes are hitting the entertainment industry, too. Lady Gaga's website says the singer postponed two Paris concerts scheduled for Friday and Saturday "as there is no certainty the trucks can make it" to the show.
Just wondering why we should care about that.
--more--"
Related: Violence flares in French protests over pension (By Steven Erlanger and Alan Cowell, New York Times)
I'm sorry, readers; I do not read New York Times web updates from the Boston Globe.
Update: French Senate OKs retirement reform in tense vote
And when all else fails you can always call out the New York Times to heap insults:
NANTERRE, France — In normal times, students on this campus west of Paris would probably be thinking about their next paper, perhaps a party on the weekend or even the government’s shrinking education budget.
But the number one subject for teenagers and twentysomethings in France these days seems to be their retirement....
“It is surreal when you see 17-, 18-, and 20-year-olds seize on pension rights as their cause,’’ said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, one of the main student leaders of the 1968 revolt at Nanterre University and today a member of the European parliament. “But their frustration and their fears as young people facing the future today are far from surreal.’’
So what is it that makes French students so passionate about something that will not affect them for decades?
As if we are all supposed to be self-interested slobs like the elite s*** who write for the paper.
Maybe the KIDS just CARE ABOUT THIS WORLD, NYT!
Yeah, it sure is a BANKERS PAPER!
They can NOT IMAGINE ANYONE not being SELFISH in the extreme because THAT IS HOW THEY THINK!
The short answer is that retirement is not what this is really about.
“This is the first movement I am 100 percent involved in,’’ said a beaming Alex Aubrier, 16, sporting an orange-colored Palestinian scarf and half a dozen stickers a he marched on Paris’s Left Bank yesterday. He had been to two demonstrations before this, he says — one against the deportation of illegal immigrants and one against the recent clearing of Roma camps....
I think you see where this is all going, readers.
And the way the paper covers pro-illegal protests here you would think they would be proud of the kid.
More than 300 high schools across France remained blockaded yesterday and several universities suffered further disruptions.
Of course, invading a country over unholy lies isn't disruption; it's liberation.
As Twitter feeds and Facebook appeals called for “resistance,’’ thousands of fresh-faced students marched in Paris, demanding that the government withdraw its pension overhaul plan.
France’s tradition of youthful rebellion has its roots not just in the now almost mythical student movement of 1968 but ultimately the French Revolution itself.
Yeah, you know, when they use that contraption I put above. I say roll it on out!
These bankers and their mouthpieces in government and media are the most evil slime I have ever seen in my entire existence.
It has practically become a rite of passage for a generation to be initiated into political life through protesting.
Meanwhile, the AmeriKan kid is on the video games, eating s*** food, and tuning out the world with their cellphones and ipods.
Congratulations, AmeriKan media. The endless agenda-pushing and dumbing-down of the populace (the drugs in the water have helped) is a resounding success.
Many of the young people marching yesterday said they have often been told nostalgic tales by their parents and teachers who had taken to the street before them. And some of those parents and teachers marched again yesterday....
In AmeriKa parents are too afraid to speak out.
Related: Monday Memory Hole: The Face of the Peace Movement in Massachusetts
Back when I was going to the protests I always wondered where the youth was -- especially since we were out there for them.
With that tradition come rituals that have barely changed over time. Leaders shout slogans into bullhorns, and a delirious mass of students responds in rehearsed unison.
Isn't that the pot AmeriKan media hollering kettle again?
They are the LAST ONES to be complaining about SCRIPTS!
Yeah, the KIDS can't think for themselves and are being led around by the nose.
YUP, You French kids are MENTALLY ILL or INTOXICATED according to the New York Times.
What a SICKENING PIECE of RUBBISH this "story" is.
High schools and universities call “general assemblies,’’ where students vote on whether to continue the movement.
In AmeriKa they DO NOT CARE what the KID THINKS!
It is ALL CONTROLLED by the SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION!
Sig heil!
Perhaps most importantly, the mood is powerfully convivial, accompanied by music, tasty food and, often, bottles of red wine.
Oh, I see, they were drunk. Just an excuse to party, right? That's what the NYT is implying.
But what is much different today compared with the 1960s, Cohn-Bendit said, is that youths now, faced with high unemployment rates, are much more pessimistic about the future.
Translation: The French kids care about the future.
What is not so different is that French students, like their parents and teachers, still subscribe to economic concepts that no longer make sense to people in most other Western countries....
Translation: If you are NOT GIVING MONEY to BANKERS and LETTING THEM SWINDLE YOU then your economic ideals don't make sense.
Un-flipping-real.
--more--"
Yup, that is the IMPUDENT New York Times, and now you know why I never visit their website or read their articles.
Looks like Italians are sick of the garbage, too:
"Protesters injure 20 officers over plans for dump near Italian park" by Associated Press | October 22, 2010
ROME — Demonstrators set vehicles ablaze and hurled stones and firecrackers at police yesterday over plans to build a garbage dump at a national park, authorities said. Twenty officers were reported injured.
The clashes highlighted the latest garbage crisis around the Naples area in southern Italy. Two years ago, Premier Silvio Berlusconi intervened to resolve an emergency caused when collectors stopped picking up trash because dumps were full and residents protested new ones.
Berlusconi called an emergency meeting to be held in Rome, probably today, a statement from the premier’s office said. The meeting will gather the ministers of interior, environment, and economics and the head of the Civil Protection Department.
The protests have been going on for days, but they escalated as protesters clashed with police after officials confirmed a decision to open a dump in the Vesuvio National Park.
The Europeans really don't take any shit, do they?
AmeriKans, on the other hand, consume gobs of it thanks to the agenda-pushing corporate media.
Police were escorting more than 30 garbage trucks to a dump in the municipality of Terzigno.
To serve and pro.... tect?
The protesters blocked the garbage trucks from unloading at an existing site, and police charged and used tear gas to disperse them.
By sundown, 20 police officers had been injured, said Antonella Calvanese, a spokeswoman for the Naples police.
And protesters? F*** the fascist cops.
Some garbage trucks and two police cars were set on fire, she said.
I'm not for that stuff.
As the Beatles sang, "But when you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out!"
Naples and surrounding areas have suffered garbage crises for years, the result of corruption, poor management, and infiltration by the local mob.
All governments are the same.
After a flare-up in late 2007 and 2008, the Berlusconi government reopened some dumps, started shipping garbage to Germany, and ordered the construction of dumps and incinerators.
Since when did Germany become a garbage dump?
Critics said the latest crisis shows Berlusconi had failed to find a long-term solution.
That's government all over.
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