Greece is expected to grind to a halt for the second time in a month as hundreds of thousands of state and private workers stage a general strike.

希腊数十万国企和私营企业职工举行大罢工，希腊将有可能第二次在一个月之内逐渐瘫痪。

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Greece has already been hit by a wave of public sector strikes

The stoppage（堵塞，停止） is in protest at the country's austerity（朴素，紧缩） measures.

The head of the employers' federation² has accused the strikers of trying to make Greece into a charity case.

More groups of workers are staging industrial action and officers from the police, fire and customs services are planning to join the street protests.

Greece's links to the outside world have been severed³（断绝） .

Air traffic controllers have closed the country's airspace for 24 hours and ferries are stuck in harbours as maritime⁴（海事的） unions join the strike.

The government says it sympathises（同情，共鸣） with public anger over the tax rises and wage cuts, but it is refusing to water down（淡化，冲淡） the measures.

Belt tightening⁵

Potential rebels within the governing socialist⁶ party who have objected to the belt tightening（勒紧裤腰带，紧缩预算） have been forced to toe the official line.

In his first major public pronouncement（声明，公告） , the head of Greece's employers' association has denounced（谴责，揭发） the street protests.

Dimitris Daskalopoulos said the government had no alternative but to start again and reform the country.

He condemned⁷ what he called the perpetrators（作恶者，行凶者） of demonstrations⁸, agitation⁹（煽动，搅乱） and violence.

He said they wanted to maintain the deplorable（悲惨的） conditions that had forced Greece to look for charity from foreign markets.