ATHENS (AFP) -- Tens of thousands of Greeks demonstrated in Athens and other cities on Thursday in the second general strike this month against a debt-dictated pension reform and government spending cuts.

About 17,000 people demonstrated in the capital and around 5,000 more marched in second city Thessaloniki, according to police estimates, calling on the Socialist government to take back a controversial pension reform and pay cuts.
The demonstrations called by Greece's main unions and the communist workers' syndicate shut down the center of Athens for the second time this month in a movement against tough fiscal measures imposed to clinch a vital EU-IMF loan.
“These measures take us 150 years back,” read a banner borne by protesters.
“We want the government to take back these measures which freeze our pay rises and force us to stay longer in the workforce,” said Maria Grigoropoulou, a cosmetics store employee.
“We will continue our struggle and we will not back down,” she told AFP.
More than 1,700 extra police were ordered into central Athens as authorities sought to avoid a repeat of troubles that have erupted during the last strikes, including a May 5 petrol bomb attack on a bank that killed three employees.
Police on Thursday preventively detained nearly 100 people on the sidelines of the Athens protest, which brought all public transport to a halt.
“We are here to send a strong message to the government, the Brussels directorate, the IMF and all those pencil-pushers who are targeting the social, labor, pension and economic rights of employees,” Stathis Anestis, a leading member of the General Confederation of Workers (GSEE), said in a speech to protesters.
The strike is the fourth called by unions since February and the second this month against wage and pension cuts and higher indirect taxes ordered by the government.
Business lobby groups have appealed to labor organizations to hold back on workforce disruptions to let the recession-hit economy get back on its feet.
Greek stocks on Thursday closed with a 3.32-percent loss with the Athens stock exchange general index dropping to 1,582.22 points, its lowest since March 2009, during another poor day for European markets.
Prime Minister George Papandreou, who was in Beirut, appealed to Arab nations to invest in his cash-strapped country, touting it as “investment friendly” with a dynamic business environment.
“Greece is changing rapidly and... we invite you all to join us, whether it is visiting Greece, whether it is investing in Greece, or whether it is working with Greece on common projects in the region for a better future for all of our countries,” Papandreou said at the opening of a two-day Arab Economic Forum.
The country's biggest lender National Bank on Thursday said the government stood to gain nine billion euros alone with stricter tax break rules and a clampdown on chronic tax evasion.
The Athens subway, bus and trolleybus system all came to a halt Thursday, producing giant traffic jams in the city. In the main port of Piraeus, ferries and other boats were all tied up in the harbor.
International flights were not affected as air traffic controllers decided not to strike, so as not to worsen the impact on the key tourism industry.
But Olympic Air cancelled at least 15 internal flights because civil aviation workers joined the stoppage at smaller local airports.
And three cruise ships carrying a combined 7,280 passengers were shut out of Piraeus and forced to use other harbors because of the strike, the semi-state Athens News Agency reported.
Some schools were open and the education ministry maintained national examinations for high school students. Some private banks in Athens opened as well despite a call by the main bank workers' union, OTOE, to join the strike.