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Greek police fired tear gas to repel stone-throwing protesters after parliament approved drastic austerity cuts needed to secure international rescue loans worth 110 billion euro (£96 billion).
The new clashes came a day after violent protests left three people dead after a bank was firebombed.
Greek politicians voted 172-121 to approve the austerity measures - worth about 30 billion euro (£26 billion) to 2012 - that will slash pensions and civil servants' pay and further hike consumer taxes.
The rescue loans are aimed at containing the debt crisis and keeping Greece's troubles from spreading to other countries with vulnerable state finances such as Portugal and Spain. The money will come from the International Monetary Fund and the 15 other governments whose countries use the euro.
Clashes in Athens broke out at the end of a main protest that drew tens of thousands of people as police pushed back a few thousand demonstrators outside parliament. The violence was quickly contained with riot police firing tear gas at the protesters, who had earlier pelted them with stones, oranges and bottles. Several small fires burned in surrounding streets. No injuries or arrests were reported.
Demonstrators banging drums and shouting anti-government slogans earlier unfurled a giant black banner outside parliament. More than 30,000 demonstrators filled city centre streets, chanting "They declared war. Now fight back."
Prime Minister George Papandreou expelled three Socialist deputies who dissented in the vote, reducing the party's number of seats to 157 in the 300-member parliament. "We have done what was necessary, not what was easy," Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said after the vote. "Without these measures, we'd be thrown into the deepest recession this country has ever known."
The bulk of Thursday's protest - organised by the Greek Communist Party - quickly dispersed, leaving about 5,000 demonstrators outside parliament before police pushed them back.
But the protest remained peaceful, in contrast with Wednesday's rioting that left three people dead, 59 injured and 25 people arrested. Police said 50 stores, banks and offices were damaged and seven vehicles damaged or burned.
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Papaconstantinou said Greece would default on debt payments this month unless it received the bail-out loans from the International Monetary Fund and 15 euro-zone countries that had remained divided for months on how to aid Athens.