ATHENS, Greece - Some 50,000 Greek workers took to the streets Wednesday and a few protesters threw rocks and red paint in clashes with police during the widest strike yet against the government's austerity plan aimed at easing the country's debt crisis.
The unrest flared amid a looming deadline for demonstrating tough cuts demanded by the European Union and fresh revelations over faulty Greek data reporting that triggered the financial turmoil.
Athens is battling to calm the crisis and European fears it could spread to other countries with troubled finances such as Portugal, Spain and Italy.
Strikes grounded flights, idled cargo ships and ferries, and left commuters in Athens without most public transportation. State-run schools, tax offices and municipalities all shut down and public hospitals limped by using emergency staff.
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In the capital, some 50,000 people marched through central Athens to protest spending cuts already imposed. The march itself was peaceful, with clashes taking place after it ended, and comes after public opinion polls suggest many Greeks actually recognize the necessity of painful measures.
But Wednesday was the day for the unions to push back.
"We're all here for the same reason: the measures the government is taking. They have to listen to us," said musician Dimitris Petridis, who marched banging a snare drum to a funereal rhythm.
"The rise in joblessness has really hurt us. The daily wage for working at a nightclub, for many of us, is the same as it was 20 years ago," he added.
As the march ended, riot police clashed and fired tear gas at scores of anarchist youths in the latest sign of unrest in recession-hit European countries. Groups of youths vandalized banks and storefronts near parliament. Three people were arrested.
Windows were also smashed at the Finance Ministry's General Accounting Office.
Greece is considering tougher austerity measures to ward off a financial crisis that has undermined the euro currency used by 16 European nations. Its troubles have raised fears that financial market contagion will spread to other weak eurozone economies.
The pressure on the Greek government to deliver on its promise to rein in the country's borrowing levels ratcheted up further Wednesday with the news that Standard & Poor's, one of the three leading credit ratings agencies, could downgrade its rating on the country within a month.
