Protesters defiant as Jordanians strike over tax bill

Doctors, lawyers and teachers staged a strike across Jordan today in protest over IMF-backed austerity measures including a proposed income tax law that have sparked a week of angry demonstrations.

Lawyers in black robes were among more than 1,000 protesters who gathered outside the headquarters of the country's trade union federation in the capital Amman to demand the government drop the reforms.

Some demonstrators waved Jordanian flags or carried placards reading "I'm afraid for my future" while others held up loaves of flatbread with "corruption = hunger" written on them.

After a week of rallies against reforms backed by the International Monetary Fund, there were few signs that public anger was abating, despite Prime Minister Hani Mulki stepping down and King Abdullah II calling for a full review of the proposed tax law.

If passed, the bill would raise taxes on employees by at least five per cent and on companies by between 20 and 40 per cent.

A majority of deputies have said they will vote against it, but protesters have staged repeated night-time demonstrations after breaking the Ramadan fast to demand the bill be withdrawn altogether.

Tarek, a 45-year-old lawyer, said the law would imperil "what remains of the middle class". "This bill is a disaster," he said. Linda, a 35-year-old English teacher at a private school, said it was the first time in her life that she had attended a protest.

Ali al-Abous, head of Jordan's doctors' union and trade union federation, told AFP this morning that the strike aimed "to send a message to the new government (to) drop the income tax draft law and hold a national dialogue on it."