Police have fired tear gas in running battles with stone-throwing youths in Athens, where a 48-hour general strike is being held against a parliamentary vote on tough austerity measures.
Thousands of protesters have gathered outside parliament in the capital where public transport has ground to a halt.PM George Papandreou has said that only his 28bn-euro (£25bn) austerity plan would get Greece back on its feet.
If the package is not approved, Greece could run out of money within weeks.
Without a new plan in place, the EU and IMF say they will withhold 12bn euros of loans which Greece needs to repay debts due in mid-July.
'Declared war' More than 5,000 police officers were deployed in the centre of Athens as the protesters marched towards parliament.
The rally started peacefully, but escalated into running skirmishes on the fringes of the main demonstration.
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What went wrong in Greece?
- Greece's economic reforms, which led to it abandoning the drachma as its currency in favour of the euro in 2002, made it easier for the country to borrow money.
Hundreds of protesters with faces covered by scarves or gas-masks started throwing stones, debris and bottles at the police in one corner of the central Syntagma Square.
Police fired tear gas and stun grenades to keep them back. Two communications vans with mobile telecoms transmitters were daubed with graffiti condemning the media and banks before being set alight by protesters who had apparently mistaken them for satellite TV trucks.
Four police officers and four demonstrators were injured in the scuffles, police said, while a number of demonstrators were treated for breathing difficulties.
Some 18 people were detained by police, Reuters reported.
There were also skirmishes as trade unionists tried to persuade anarchists to leave the square, saying their violent protests were only harming the aims of the demonstrations, says the BBC's Jon Sopel in Athens.
Airports are shutting for hours at a time, with air traffic controllers walking out between 0800 and 1200 (0500-0900 GMT) and 1800 and 2200 (1500-1900 GMT).
A number of flights were also cancelled at Athens international airport.
Trains, buses and ferries are also affected.
In Athens, the metro is the only form of public transport which will work "so as to allow Athenians to join the planned protests in the capital", metro drivers said.
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It was a very Greek riot, complete with an angry, Orthodox cassock-clad priest in among the anarchists.
Impervious to clouds of tear gas and flying chunks of marble, smashed by sledgehammer-wielding youths from the walls of a fountain, the priest went face to face with riot police, telling them to leave the square.
He seemed to be preaching to the converted. Although 5,000 police were supposedly deployed in Athens to protect the city centre, they surrendered Syntagma Square to the anarchists, moving back to form defensive lines around the parliament.
The promises of the Socialist government to never again allow a repeat of the riots of 2008 went up in flames.
At the scene
Impervious to clouds of tear gas and flying chunks of marble, smashed by sledgehammer-wielding youths from the walls of a fountain, the priest went face to face with riot police, telling them to leave the square.
He seemed to be preaching to the converted. Although 5,000 police were supposedly deployed in Athens to protect the city centre, they surrendered Syntagma Square to the anarchists, moving back to form defensive lines around the parliament.
The promises of the Socialist government to never again allow a repeat of the riots of 2008 went up in flames.
Protesters blockaded the port of Piraeus, near Athens, which links most Greek islands with the mainland.
"The situation that the workers are undergoing is tragic and we are near poverty levels," said Spyros Linardopoulos, a protester with the PAME union at the blockade."The government has declared war and to this war we will answer back with war."
The unions are angry that the government's austerity programme will impose taxes on those earning the minimum wage, following months of other cuts which have seen unemployment rise to more than 16%.
Polls suggest that between 70% and 80% of Greek people oppose the austerity plan.
"We're opposed to what they're trying to do to us," said bank worker Kali Patouna.
"We know very well that these measures will be our tombstone. They will have extreme consequences for workers and for everyone on---bbc
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