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Trolleys, buses, the underground, trams, taxis, municipal officials, doctors, journalists in national media, customs officers and Ministry of Defence employees were on strike today in Greece. This is only a small part of the strikers, who will wave the flag of discontent next week. It promises to be extremely difficult for the citizens and guests mainly of Athens as the public chaos apotheosis is expected to be on Wednesday, October 19 when there will be a nationwide strike by the union of state administration employees and the union of private sector employees.

Lawyers, teachers, port workers, attending medical staff in public hospitals, employees of the Ministry of Finance, banking and tax officials will not work from Monday to Wednesday in protest against the changing socio-economic system.

Amid all the chaos, when the state will be absent and will not function, Athens public transport employees in Athens will most probably also join the protests and will againg paralyze the capital. The final decision is expected to be taken during the weekend, but the mood in transport unions is quite extreme. Their representatives stated firmly, "Our strikes are no longer aimed at maintaining labour rights or the level of wages. Our strikes are political. We want the government to fall." Meanwhile, employees in the local government organizations continue their own rebellion against the labour reserve measure and the possible redundancie, while in the meantime the capital is now literally buried under tons of waste in the streets.

Members of the union of Greek merchants and those of small producers and craftsmen will join the nationwide protest on October 19. They will leave their shops closed in protest against the five new extra taxes - on freelancing, on property (two in number), on annual profit and on turnover.

Another front, which will be active from next week, is that of the fuel market. Greek customs officials began active strikes this week and announced that they will continue for 10 consecutive days. About 30 per cent of the fuels in Greece are imported from abroad, which has immediately worried traders as to what will happen to their stock. Inflated prices have been noticed in many places and the government has had to put a ceiling on the prices of transport fuels to protect consumers.  Athens court ruled the 10-day strike by customs officers illegal, but close sources of the union, in their comments to GRReporter, stated that the employees could find another form of protest and once again block the cross-border transition of goods.

"This ruins my business," said the manager of an import company that serves a large chain of stores for women's accessories. He stressed that the 10-day strike by customs officers would cost thousands of euros of penalties to his company. At the same time, reduced turnover and the ower consumer power of the people have a negative impact on the business, and the staff was reduced by half in a year and half.