Spanish Political News

[JuanTwoThree]

¡Lame knot!

 

[tim]

Saw this - and some other similar bollocks - months ago Stanley Edwards but was not posting. cba searching for the one where you actually caalled for him to be banned, but I'm pretty sure I read it.



Who is this 'we' of which you speak? Dunno how many times I, and several others, have stepped in when you were being unfairly gang-banged. Turns out you are just another gang-banger who has finally found a gang.

I met Anudder Oik in person for the first time last October. I know a number of old comrades who knew - and rated - him.

You ask who the fuck is he? I'll tell you what I experienced/observed.

AO (in sharp contrast to his somewhat ridiculous labelling on here as some kind of right-wing, Nationalist nut-job) is a softly-spoken, tri-lingual, english leftist. He has a 30 year track record as a political and cultural activist, both in Britain and (latterly) in Catalonia, including the sharp end of anti-Fascist activity in Barcelona some years back. His mum was also a lifetime left-wing political activist right back to the early 70's.

He now lives in a small Catalan town with his Catalan wife and daughter, where he seems exceptionally well got with the wider community, both Catalan and Spanish. He contributes to that community, tirelessly and consistently, in all sorts of ways.

You, on the other hand, have been dossing, begging and harrassing and harranging your way around the Iberian peninsula for an apparently similar number of years. Settling only for as long as it takes you to be run out of town by irate locals and contributing sweet fuck all - except reinforcing negative stereotypes about drunken brits.

Frankly, your behaviour disgusts me.

All I know of Anudder Oik is his online persona the same is true of Stanley Edwards, both are the prone to making politically or socially suspect comments. They both have defenders on here saying how genial they are in real life. Whilst that may be true, it's irrelevant to those of us who only encounter them on these boards. If they post objectionable comments they should be challenged for doing so. It is them who choose the face they show us

 

[Riklet]

Will be interesting what "stability" Sanchez can pull out of the bag. His main moves will be to boost popularity for the PSOE, and to avoid total wipe-out in an inevitable election in the next year or so.

I don't know if they will aim to nick some of Ciudadanos' votes, win back votes from the nationalists or muscle in on being the main left force. WIll be interesting to see. Either way, Cs are unhappy, which is great. And Podemos and various other smaller parties will inevitably have to be consulted heavily on any future issues and votes.

Who knows what will happen with reforma laboral, ley mordanza, Catalunya, the EU and public debt etc though.

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

Iglesias of Podemos has visited the Catalan political prisoners in jail and called for their release:

 

[yield]

The Run on Banks in Catalonia after the Independence Vote was Fomented by Madrid
09/10/18

But what is only now becoming clear is just how central a role the Spanish government in Madrid was playing in fomenting this massive exodus of funds. The Catalan newspaper Ara has revealed that large state-owned companies such as public broadcaster RTVE, rail infrastructure manager Adif, freight and passenger train operator RENFE and Spanish ports, on the behest of Spain’s central government, raided their own accounts in Catalonia during the frenzied days immediately after the referendum.

In one day alone, the state-owned companies withdrew €2 billion from Banco Sabadell. The presidents of these state-owned companies apparently told the bank’s CEO, Jaume Guardiola, that they had received orders to trigger a run on deposits. As much as a third of all the money that left Catalonia during those first days of October belonged to institutions or companies controlled by the State.

The covert ploy worked like a charm. In the short space of just a few days Banco Sabadell suffered a deposit outflow of €12 billion, while Caixabank lost almost double that, according to Ara.

Another senior executive at Banco Sabadell allegedly asked Spain’s then-Economy Minister Luis de Guindos about the apparent cause of the bank run, to which he received the response: “Have you changed your company address yet?” When the executive answered in the affirmative, the minister said there was no longer any reason to worry. Within hours, the deposits of the state-owned firms were back in their accounts.

 

[LiamO]

Dunno if you will see this Anudder Oik , but we are heading for Catalunya again in a couple of weeks. 39 of us this time.

 

[butchersapron]

Tonight's the night I hear of the Vitoria uprising for the first time, so I need to go away and better inform myself. Thanks.

You may be interested in this recently translated piece as well :

Origins and Development of Workers Autonomy in Spain (1970-1976) – Miguel Amorós


A chronicle of the rise and fall of the fortunes of the assembly movement in Spain during the early 1970s, with brief accounts of strike movements all over Spain, the rise of assemblies as forms of autonomous organization of the struggle, and the subsequent repression and police violence, highlighting the nefarious role played by the Communist Party and its trade union front organization at a time when it seemed that Spain was on the verge of a social revolution and that only the Communist Party and its allies could effectively prevent the workers’ assemblies from associating, organizing their self-defense, and becoming a system of workers councils.

 

[Favelado]

You may be interested in this recently translated piece as well :

Origins and Development of Workers Autonomy in Spain (1970-1976) – Miguel Amorós


A chronicle of the rise and fall of the fortunes of the assembly movement in Spain during the early 1970s, with brief accounts of strike movements all over Spain, the rise of assemblies as forms of autonomous organization of the struggle, and the subsequent repression and police violence, highlighting the nefarious role played by the Communist Party and its trade union front organization at a time when it seemed that Spain was on the verge of a social revolution and that only the Communist Party and its allies could effectively prevent the workers’ assemblies from associating, organizing their self-defense, and becoming a system of workers councils.

If I recall correctly, my mate Pepe was the ideologue of the Communist League, not the Communist Party. I don't know if this Judean People's Front were less, equally, or yet more nefarious than the CP, but I'll endeavour to find out. He is fascinating to talk to when it comes to the transition. If I recall correctly, when this first came up he had a different take on things to yours.

 

[poului]

Vox get 12 seats in Andalucia and could form a majority in coalition with Cs and PP.

 

[Riklet]

Yeah Vox is big news on facebook with all my Spanish friends. Big result for them, they were completely marginal and nowhere even 3 years ago. So much for the "there's no far-right in Spain because PP absorbs all those votes". Big far-right successes in Almeria in particular, not sure if that's due to immigration scaremongering there. Shit either way.

Critically what is happening now is the tactic of shifting the mainstream in political discourse far far to the right of what it has traditionally been. I was in Madrid a week ago and arrived to hordes of flags and banderitas and military families all cheering returning soldiers. It was absolutely packed in the aiport and absolute chaos, but they were determined to dominate the space, to wave their flags, to be as visible as possible. I feel like since the Catalunya crisis this has become more of the norm.

Of course, the success of Vox has to be partly due to economic resentment and rising inequality - thanks to PPSOE with their widespread corruption and failure to address any of the systemic issues in Andalucia. But it also says a lot about the failure of Podemos/IU/Unidos Podemos/whatever to fully capitalise on the anger and frustrations that have been building over the past 7 years in particular.

 

[Riklet]

Good speech here in forrin regarding the contested rise in minimum wage to 900€, highlighting the shitty hypocrisy of those opposing it such as other Spanish politicians, bank of Spain officials, european comission bureucrats and grubby bankers.

Depressing but also inspiring.

 

[tim]

Clearly not news, but nevertheless an interesting Thames T.V. documentary from 1969 about Spain towards the end of the Franco period: including ETA guerrillas treating plastic explosives in a worryingly casual way. Lots of talking heads all male. The man from the Dommech family was a particularly sinister piece..

 

[JuanTwoThree]

Spanish far-right party to back rightwing coalition in Andalucía

For fuck's sake.

 

[sim667]

Pro independence figures and journalists have been rounded up and arrested today, despite no warrants issued.

 

[yield]

How a rural Spanish village has resisted capitalism – until now
January 06, 2019

A black and white portrait of Che Guevara casts a watchful eye over a room adorned with socialist memorabilia from all over the world. A sculpture of two giant marble fists bound by a broken metal chain inscribed with the name “Marinaleda” has pride of place on a grand wooden desk. Behind it sits a small, bearded man wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf and a multicoloured shirt. His name is Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, mayor of the last communist town in Spain.

“Capitalism is like King Midas,” he tells me, “everything it touches turns to gold, commodity, trade and death. I think the capitalist system is necrophilous.”

 

[redsquirrel]

Spanish far-right party to back rightwing coalition in Andalucía

For fuck's sake.

Looks very possible that the same situation could play out nationally.

 

[JuanTwoThree]

So much for the "there's no far-right in Spain because PP absorbs all those votes".

That was the conventional wisdom of both Spain and the UK, that the PP and the Tories had a right hand 'end' that was far-right enough for most people. That may be changing.

Will Vox drag the other rightist parties towards them or will they be forced into being more reasonable? They did withdraw some of their more extreme demands in Andalucia.

 

[JuanTwoThree]

Spain’s Watergate: inside the corruption scandal that changed a nation

A 'long read' about Spanish corruption.

 

[DotCommunist]

Spain’s Watergate: inside the corruption scandal that changed a nation

A 'long read' about Spanish corruption.

interesting stuff, it appears that around the same sort of time frame in a hell of a lot of countries the business and political elites had been bang at it, 1MDB, Petrobras, etc.

note at the start when the article is taling about current spanish political parties and fails to mention who buddied up with vox to keep pod out in adalusia

 

[cantsin]

interesting stuff, it appears that around the same sort of time frame in a hell of a lot of countries the business and political elites had been bang at it, 1MDB, Petrobras, etc.

note at the start when the article is taling about current spanish political parties and fails to mention who buddied up with vox to keep pod out in adalusia[/QUOTE]

PP / or PSOE ?

 

[DotCommunist]

PP and Ciudadanos

 

[ska invita]

Yeah Vox is big news on facebook with all my Spanish friends. Big result for them, they were completely marginal and nowhere even 3 years ago. So much for the "there's no far-right in Spain because PP absorbs all those votes". Big far-right successes in Almeria in particular, not sure if that's due to immigration scaremongering there. Shit either way.

Critically what is happening now is the tactic of shifting the mainstream in political discourse far far to the right of what it has traditionally been. I was in Madrid a week ago and arrived to hordes of flags and banderitas and military families all cheering returning soldiers. It was absolutely packed in the aiport and absolute chaos, but they were determined to dominate the space, to wave their flags, to be as visible as possible. I feel like since the Catalunya crisis this has become more of the norm.

Of course, the success of Vox has to be partly due to economic resentment and rising inequality - thanks to PPSOE with their widespread corruption and failure to address any of the systemic issues in Andalucia. But it also says a lot about the failure of Podemos/IU/Unidos Podemos/whatever to fully capitalise on the anger and frustrations that have been building over the past 7 years in particular.

Was speaking to someone from Spain today who echoed what you say there - basically she thought that the main drive to the right has been a wave of extreme nationalism that was a counteraction to recent Catalan independence acts, and once that nationalist genie is out of the bottle it likes to stay out. She said the scale of flag waving has been something shes never seen in her life

 

[Riklet]

Whats gonna happen then? High turn out or peeps too fed up?

 

[treelover]

Package on Vox last night on Newsnight, very large rally in Valencia.

Seemed(the rally) to be all about culture, and especially Catalan Independence, nothing about economics.

 

[planetgeli]

Whats gonna happen then? High turn out or peeps too fed up?

Vox to get around 10% and become possible Kingmakers. So I heard in Barcelona last week.

 

[JuanTwoThree]

Who'd have thought a year or two ago that there'd be three right wing parties and two leftish ones?

I'd like to think that PSOE wil be able to govern with the help of if not in coalition with Unidas Podemos.

I'd like to think that the Xtian Democrat end of the PP will baulk at any kind of deal with Vox, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Riklet]

Vox to get around 10% and become possible Kingmakers. So I heard in Barcelona last week.

And ironically it'd be very much partly the moaning Catalan nationalists' fault (they voted against one of the most progressive budgets in recent years in an attempt to wrangle for more political power for themselves).

If Vox does well and are kingmakers, will be a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire for the regional nationalists.

However, I think Sanchez will win an outright victory. Unidas Podemos will do poorly but might end up backing him anyway.

 

[planetgeli]

And ironically it'd be very much partly the moaning Catalan nationalists' fault (they voted against one of the most progressive budgets in recent years in an attempt to wrangle for more political power for themselves).

If Vox does well and are kingmakers, will be a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire for the regional nationalists.

However, I think Sanchez will win an outright victory. Unidas Podemos will do poorly but might end up backing him anyway.

Just to emphasise, the people I heard this from are Catalans, but not nationalists.

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

Looks like the Socialist Party (PSOE) will still be in the driving seat as Far right Vox surge balanced by conservative PP slump. Socialists may still have to get support from Podemos and some of separatists to have majority though. Graun selling it that it is now more likely Catalan parties will play ball as Junqueras’ Catalan Republican Left now have more seats than Puigdemont’s Catalan separatist group and are allegedly “more conciliatory” to their fellow Social Democrats.
Spain election: socialists to win most seats with far right resurgent

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

On a side note, interesting how Change UK/TIGs in UK have similarities to “Centre Right” Citizens Party in Spain in tone, politics and composition.