(6 Nov 2014) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBERS: 2031360, 2031340, 2031332
One of Belgium's biggest postwar labor demonstrations brought about 100,000 workers to the capital on Thursday to protest government free-market reforms and austerity measures that they claim undermine Belgium's vaunted welfare state.
Protesters and police clashed at the end of the march through central Brussels, leaving at least 14 people injured. A car was overturned, a police motorcycle was set on fire and officers were pelted with cobblestones and fireworks. Police used tear gas and water cannons to break up the disturbances.
The violent end overshadowed a raucous but largely peaceful march for better protection of workers during the economic crisis. The workers were protesting government policies that will raise the pension age, freeze wages and cut into public services.
The unexpectedly big march opens a monthlong campaign by the trade unions against the business-friendly governing coalition and is to be capped with a nationwide strike on Dec. 15.
Belgium has a long postwar tradition of collective bargaining between employers and workers, and successive coalition governments representing a full scale of public opinion often have been able to contain social disagreements.
The government says it has been forced to push through stringent austerity measures to keep the budget deficit within European Union constraints and insists that businesses need more lenient tax policies to become more competitive in the global market.
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