Greek elections, international observers

This video says about itself:

Deregulation of labour relations in Greece – 595 cleaners fired by the Greek Ministry of Finance

16 September 2014

With the participation of 30 representatives of the cleaning ladies fired by the Greek Ministry of Finance.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Brits flock to Greece for vital election

Saturday 24th January 2015

BRITISH politicos are flocking to Greece, hoping to find inspiration from a predicted Syriza victory, writes Joana Ramiro in Athens.

Tania Sauma told the Star: “We came because we think is is going to be a historical moment and we want to be part of that historical change.”

The Manchester student added that she hoped to be “inspired” by the Greek labour movement.

“She wanted to see that there is an alternative to austerity and that people can actually vote for that.”

Scottish housing campaigner Mike Williamson echoed the sentiment, saying that he was very excited about the elections.

“In the bourgeois press you hear an awful lot about what is happening in Greece and I wanted to come down myself and find out what is actually happening,” he said.

They are not the only foreign delegation in Greece either — Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian activists have all come to show solidarity.

Syriza is widely expected to win Greece’s elections on a confused anti-austerity platform.

Greece: Joana Ramiro speaks to workers who have had enough of attacks on their living standards: here.

The upswell of support for Syriza emphasises the need for a change in direction across Europe as a whole, says KEVIN OVENDEN: here.

The Syriza chief is blissfully ignorant of the history of the euro. The horror of austerity is not the consequence of Greek profligacy – it was designed into the euro’s plan from the beginning, writes GREG PALAST: here.

AS GREEKS prepared to vote in this weekend’s elections, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned the country that any attempt to reject austerity would provoke EU vengeance: here.

Greece elections: Voters will choose the Syriza party – and send a defiant message to the EU: here.

ON Thursday the European Central Bank (ECB), after months of prevarication and splits within its ranks, finally took the decision to launch the eurozone’s own Quantitative Easing (QE) programme: here.

For the occasion of Democracy Day, the BBC commissioned a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) which warned that there is a growing risk to democracy … and it comes from the people themselves! The report states that the rise of populist anti-establishment parties is set to cause political “earthquakes” across Europe in 2015, with some winning elections and mainstream parties “forced into previously unthinkable alliances.” The “most immediate political challenge” is in Greece, where a snap general election on January 25 could lead to a “far left, populist” government: here.