Spain anti-politics protests

[Anudder Oik]

I am absolutely livid over the media circus put on today after yesterdays events around the park.

All the media have been going on all day in a disgusting rant about how the 15m movement has crossed the redline and is now officially violent.

No mention has been made about the video which shows the plain clothes police being pointed out by the real 15m protestors after they started trouble and gave the police the excuse to charge and fire riot rounds in the morning.

By the way, the video had 250,000 hits by lunchtime and was then suppressed. It's going up again all round.

Apparently for the politicians, some of whom were spat at and pushed, the events of yesterday were an outrage, unlike the near killing of a protestor and the mass beatings on the 27th of May in plaza Catalunya.

To make matters worse, the only progressive Intellectual to support the movement, university teacher, Arcadi Oliveres has been targetted by Felip Puig, the minister who set the dogs on the protestors and will possibly face charges for saying that plain clothes police were on the Mani, something confirmed by Politicians themselves but obviously they are not admitting to the stitch up.

After yesterday mornings events a few anarchists threw things at police during the day. This was met by chants from 99% of protestors to stop.

I don't know what is worse, Agent's Provocateurs or anarchist Mavericks. They've helped set in motion a massive media and political witch hunt and the orchestrated criminalization of the movement.

 

[Lo Siento.]

what were you expecting? The politicians and the press having gradually honing their rhetoric against the protesters over the past few weeks and were just waiting for a chance to denounce them. Taking their lead from Aguirre, Camps and Puig. Scum.

 

[Anudder Oik]

what were you expecting? The politicians and the press having gradually honing their rhetoric against the protesters over the past few weeks and were just waiting for a chance to denounce them. Taking their lead from Aguirre, Camps and Puig. Scum.

Actually, Aguirre started to talk about electoral reform, if I
am not mistaken. Open lists. I don't know why as she is a silly right wing cow.

 

[Lo Siento.]

Actually, Aguirre started to talk about electoral reform, if I
am not mistaken. Open lists. I don't know why as she is a silly right wing cow.

with her other face. She's been a non-stop source of pithy anti-protester soundbites. She was the one who came up with the whole "democracy with adjectives = totalitarianism" schtick

 

[Anudder Oik]

Barcelona bus drivers have handed out 30,000 leaflets to passengers calling for people to attend the demos on sunday 19th.

250 famous people/intellectuals have reacted to the witchunt and compared the politicians of Catalonia, in a manifesto, with dogs that become aggressive when frightened.

http://www.elperiodico.com/es/notic...contra-criminalizacion-los-indignados-1046987

People have not fallen for the lies, even though the left parliamentarians went along with it at first.

Chief of Police wants to censor Youtube.

 

[Brainaddict]

UK outpost of the protest movement is calling people to meet in Trafalgar Sq 6pm tonight. https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=190946090957542

I've met some of them and while most of the anarcho-activists I know moan they are a bunch of moderates/liberals/bourgeois/insert dismissive term of choice here, the politics of many of them really isn't as moderate as it might appear. Most of the people I talked to seem to agree that increased democracy will be worthless in the long run without people asserting economic control - so their focus on political rather than economic institutions is a strategic choice, not because they don't see the bigger problems of global capital etc.

 

[Brainaddict]

A question to those who've been in Spain or are there now. A friend of mine claims that some of the protest rhetoric has had an anti-immigration tone and that the corruption some protesters refer to is the corruption of allowing too many immigrant workers into the country. Has this been a noticeable theme there?

 

[Anudder Oik]

A question to those who've been in Spain or are there now. A friend of mine claims that some of the protest rhetoric has had an anti-immigration tone and that the corruption some protesters refer to is the corruption of allowing too many immigrant workers into the country. Has this been a noticeable theme there?

I'm in Spain and haven't seen any of that (it belongs to the right, maybe you are getting mixed up with the hated PP election campaign last month). It would be inconsistent for a political movement that blames politicians to also blame immigrants. Below is the list of demands of the Barcelona assemblies, one of which calls for end to raids on migrants and closure of detention centres. The PP conservative party used racism during the election campaign it must be that which you heard about.

I was at a magnificent demo today in Tarragona, down the coast from Barcelona. About 8000 people which isn't bad for a town the size of Eastbourne. A huge banner greeted everyone with the slogan. Stop Xenofobia.

The movement here is clearly dominated by the left although they are asked to leave their flags at home.

R Evolution in Spain today

Madrid and Barcelona were apparently collapsed today. There were demos in hundreds of cities and towns all over the country. Type 19j in youtube for videos.

After the demo in Tarragona people danced in the square with a Dj set up on the steps of the city hall..

Aerial view from Madrid



One of about 6 feeder marches in Madrid today


They're quoting 275,000 people in Barcelona


Valencia


Santander

 

[Anudder Oik]

Bilboa


If you're interested you can see more of todays massive demos by doing a search; 19j and the name of the city, ie, Malaga, Toledo, Alicante, Almeria, Girona, Lerida, Castellon, Palma, etc...

The demands, from the Barcelona assemblies;

1. End to priviliges for politicians.
Bringing their salaries and pensions in line with the average.

2. No more priviliges re banks.
No more bail outs and the return of public money

3. No more priviliges for the great fortunes.
Basically, raising tax on rich, controlling fiscal fraud, stopping flight of capital,
recuperation of patrimony tax, promotion of Tobin tax.

With the application of the last 3 points, the budget is raised for the following issues;

4. Decent wages and quality of life for everyone (5 million unemployed here and 2 million go hungry every day).
Recduction of working hours, withdrawal of pension reform, banning of collective dsimissal, or anywhere where profits are made. Steady work instead of temporary where possible...

5. Right to housing (the stop eviction campaigns has seen hundreds turning out on an organized basis to stand off the baillifs)
Appropriation of idle housing (In Catalonia we are talking more than 500,000 empty flats), more protected/council housing. Penalization for mobbing. Prohibition of speculation, etc...

6. Public services of quality
no cuts, reestablishment of all services that have been cut, increase in health staff to deal with waiting lists,
increase in numbers of teachers, public financing for research to guarantee its independence, prohibition of privatization of public services, Nato membership to be submitted to referendum. Affordable and ecological public transport.

7. Liberties and participative democracy.
No to control of internet, protection of investigative journalism, elimination of monopolies of airwaves?
Free software for schools,obligatory referendums for issues of importance. Elimination of police raids against immigrants and closure of internment centres, Electoral reform (still being debated by the assemblies)

8. Environment
The economic system cannot be based on continual growth. It is unsastainable, promotion of eco food against interests of multi nationals, no transgenics until sure of them, fair commerce, elimination of distribution monopolies, reduction of Co2 emmissions,

 

[Riklet]

Really inspiring stuff, thanks for the updates/vids... just read/struggled through the main article on El Pais in Spanish, which was interesting... seems like a bit of a debate over the turn out in Barca... somewhere between 50k (Mossos) and 275,000 (protesters) which is pretty amazing either way...

There was absolute sod all on the UK news about 19J so I thought i'd practise my Spanish instead. Pretty uplifting seeing the momentum building. The real test though surely is whether those demands can be continued and pushed forward, with the focus moving towards economic as well as political questions. Will be in southern Spain later in the month so will be interesting to see what;s going on then, especially in regards to people 'taking' freedom rather than 'demanding' it, if that makes any sense..

 

[Lo Siento.]

A question to those who've been in Spain or are there now. A friend of mine claims that some of the protest rhetoric has had an anti-immigration tone and that the corruption some protesters refer to is the corruption of allowing too many immigrant workers into the country. Has this been a noticeable theme there?

I'm in Madrid, and I've not heard that at all. Your friend is talking out of his arse.

 

[Anudder Oik]

Most media in Spain this morning has not been able to ignore the growth of the 15m movement. (We are talking massive mobilizations all over the country) All except La Razon, which resorted to photoshopping a picture for their cover which has become a laughing stock, with people making jokes like, "why can't people without heads go on demos? etc....

http://twitpic.com/5e1vzj

A RealDemocracy spokesman appeared on breakfast TV (Main State Channel) this morning and was interviewed for 20 minutes without censorship. The first thing he said was that Felip Puig, the interior minister (head of Mossos) in Catalonia must go.

Smaller long distance marches are setting off from various capitals to go to Madrid and more mobilizations are set for the summer.

The attempted criminalization of the 15m movement = FAIL...

 

[Anudder Oik]

As Barcelona is a creative city you get music in your protest videos. 260,000 people on the march.

 

[Lo Siento.]

the government are passing a reform of the collective bargaining legislation today, which 15-M has been protesting. I must confess that I've not looked into the details, beyond the obvious that any reform to labour law legislation during an economic crisis is unlikely to favour the workers.

Meanwhile the IMF pitched in today to tell the government that although their kicking the working-class quite hard, it'd be nice if they could kick them a bit harder from publico.es - the only national daily that's pro-protester

THe IMF is once again pressuring Spain, demanding more cuts: more flexibility in the labour law reform, abolish the link between salaries and inflation, reduce redundancy payments, reform the financial sector and austerity.

The same institution that failed to predict to economic crisis, is warning Spain that their economic recovery is in the balance and remains dependent on a wide range of reforms of the "harsh spending cuts" variety. The IMF, which until recently predicted Spanish economic growth, considers the risks confronting the country still to be "considerable" and that, therefore, Spain can't afford to slow the pace of the reforms now begun, which have helped in a gradual recovery, still incomplete.

The Spanish response to the economic challenges of the last year has been thorough and wide-ranging and has helped to reinforce the confidence of the markets" in the opinion of the Fund.

I mean, this kind of shit is outrageous. I know it's common knowledge, but it bears repeating, the IMF has a wide range of policies which have no direct relevance to debt reduction, that are their IDEOLOGY, pure and simple. It uses the state of the financial markets, and their influence over them, to push those policies to the detriment of the population of those countries, against their democratic wishes. It then praises that country for doing them, regardless of the actual outcome (which in Spain has been rising unemployment, failing small businesses, an absurdly unbalanced construction industry, evictions, junk contracts).

All of this horseshit based on their bet, their speculation, that making people easier to fire and lowering their salaries will encourage hiring. The former is nonsense, if companies want to hire workers temporarily, there already exist many ways of doing it (one of 15-M's major complaints in fact!), if they aren't hiring it's because they don't want to. That's not going to magically change because firing people get cheaper. In fact, some companies might even be waiting for the reform so they can fire people they currently employ! As to lowering salaries (through abolishing the link with inflation, which even now doesn't function), well, low salaries are already a complaint in Spain.

And even if Spain could out-compete the rest of Europe and have an export-lead recovery, logical that can't happen everywhere, otherwise who's buying the sodding imports?

 

[Anudder Oik]

Here in Catalonia there are even a couple of politicians who have given themselves pay rises this week.

The shit is going to hit the fan...

 

[Anudder Oik]

Adding to the pay rise scandal with some details.

The Mayor of a town called Mollet del Valles decided that "in order not to lose his personal spending power" he would designate himself a 32% increase in his salary over last years amount. A rise that would see him getting paid 75,000 euros a year. Expenses apart.

The shit hit the fan.

300 Indignados picketed the council meeting and the cunt was forced to back down although he will still get a 10% rise, at a time when local hospitals are losing up to 75 beds and closing down an average of 3 out of 4 operating theatres this summer. He was afraid for his personal safety, apparently.

He was followed down the road 2 kilometres by the angry crowd who chanted. "hands up, this is a robbery"

I'm loving it.

 

[Anudder Oik]

Someone has compiled a list of videos of the simultaneous demonstrations across Spain on the 19th june.

Check out the link (Scroll down for the vids below the texts)

http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/...on-cronicas-videos-19-j-mas-alla-madrid-barce

 

[butchersapron]

Documentary with subs - The Spanish Revolution

 

[butchersapron]

Potentially interesting attempt to get some cross-country debate rolling:

We have a dream: towards a Euro-Mediterranean social strike

Euro-Mediterranean Social Strike

Strike: Many questions confront us here and they represent major challenges. How might we construct the collective force necessary to interrupt the economy in the context we live in? Let’s forget those old images which have nothing to do with our lives. There are almost no big factories left. The assembly lines are gone. You don’t see many blue-overalls these days. In short, there’s no heavy industry. But there are public sector workers whose jobs grow more precarious every day; huge transnational service sector companies; networks of small sub-contracting enterprises; ‘freelance’ work with no security; hyper-exploited migrants; invisible workers in the home; the third sector; privatization; and a long etc.

Our social strike won’t be just about those we consider ‘traditional workers’ (although we hope they’ll join us), it will be about everyone. That’s what will make it a social strike.

Social: How can the unemployed go on strike? Or a community worker? Or a nurse? And what about a street-merchant in Cairo? How can we completely block production in a city or even in an international region? Fortunately, we have experiences which help to organize the phases of our dream (although these experiences don’t answer all our questions). Our experiences range from the road-blocking which shut down Buenos Aires in 2001 and the subsequent land occupations to the student mobilizations in Italy and the UK in 2010, from the hacker attacks against the Sinde Act [1] to imagined but-not-yet-realized care-worker strikes or mortgage and rent strikes.

This is a Euro-Mediterranean strike which would paralyze or permanently reduce consumption in strategic sectors (transport, energy, etc.); which would return to collective ownership all that is being stolen from us, defending health care and education; which fights for free access to common resources and for the collective management of those resources against privatization. This is a social strike that would disturb the markets with constant attacks against the financial system (withdrawal of deposits, actions against the stock market); that would undermine the corporate media; send a message to the political class; and which takes back land, buildings and housing for social uses. Not a bad panorama.

 

[teqniq]

Following on from these protests in Valencia (20/02/12)



there's this piece in the FT:

.....“There are schools where there is no money to pay the electricity bills and the students can’t study,” says Marta, a 14-year-old student standing outside the school, alongside hundreds of other young Valencians in protest against the violence.
She says her mother, a state school teacher, has not been paid since Christmas. “We are living on credit. Other people’s parents don’t even have jobs.”
Spain’s recession has entered a new phase where spending cuts risk compounding the effects of rising unemployment and weak domestic demand.....

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f1b46a22-5e40-11e1-85f6-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nEht3Til

 

[Riklet]

Yeah the battering that protesting students got in Valencia has been pretty big news here, been quite a lot of protests of support for them and against the actions of the police in Valencia and elsewhere. The chief of police referred to students as "the enemy" though and harped on about proportional response and not wanting to give away his tactical plans and manoeuvres. Utter twat.

The 15M movement thing seems to have died down a bit purely in terms of the public spectacle/action stuff, but there's still loads going on behind the scenes , regular protests and a big (general?) strike planned for several months time.

The new Rajoy PP government is entrenching the neo-liberal policies of the PSOE from before through cutting redundancy pay to 22 days (used to be 45) as well as numerous other 'progressive' labour reforms. I think they have pretty much stopped pretending that these policies are in any way going to (or designed to) improve the rather dire levels of unemployment in most of Spain, especially with the 16-25 sorta age range. The latest figures from a month or two back show that only 49% of people in this age bracket have a job, with things looking like they're going to get worse too. I would imagine there will be a big upsurge in protests and activity over the next few months as these new reforms start to be pushed through, and it approaches the anniversary of the 15M actions.

 

[Riklet]

Students in Seville marching against tuition fee increases, privatisation of education and austerity measures shutting down a main ring road t'other day. I think there were 5-10k people or so. The universities are closed in a two week strike, and there's been strikes and that across the rest of the school system, with more expected.