Thinking About Options

I've been reading lately about the fiscal crises in Europe: Greece, Ireland, Portugal. I've also been reading about the austerity packages that the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been putting together for these counties. Dean Baker, an economist, gives a great explanation of what is happening to Ireland here. The short version is: bankers fucked things up and now regular working people have to pay.
Sound familiar? The Irish, like the Greeks, have mounted tremendous protests. The thing I'm thinking about, though, is that street protests aren't going to change anything. At this point, I'm not sure that even a new election in Ireland will change things since the agreement will be in force before a new government can come to power. Although one can hope that they would do something like refuse to pay high interest rates on IMF loans.
The thing is, these multilateral financial institutions have tremendous power. In the US we don't see it so much because we have our own private banking sector that runs everything. And so the question on my mind is: what can be done to really effectively protest and create change?
Sure, creating more credit unions is one thing. Real strikes would be another. When the Sarkozy government recently proposed an increase in the retirement age, people of all ages across France shut the country down for days putting a real wrench into the economic machine. Could something like that happen here in the US? I'd like to see it, but I'm not holding my breath. Much as it disappoints me, I'm not sure how far people are willing to go even when it comes to being groped by TSA officers at airports. Yet, really, it is only through organized action and civil disobedience, as well as implementing real alternatives, that we can expect any change here in the US.