Spain 2011

Dick Nichols, from the Green Left Weekly European bureau, reports from the scene at Plaza Catalonia.

* * *

Somewhere in this city lives a group of brutal numbskulls called the “government of Catalonia”.

On Thursday, May 26, these people decide that it is time to “clean up” Plaza Catalonia, the big square in the centre of Barcelona where the “indignants” of the #spanishrevolution and Real Democracy Now movement have pitched tents, installed webcams and planted veggie patches.

Early the next day, we awake to the thump-thump of the police helicopter as their operations begin.

It is 6.45am, and 100 police have entered the camp to explain to the disconcerted “indignants” that they had come to clean up the area “for reasons of public health”: the protestors have to leave the area. The protestors refuse, but offer nicely to help with any clean-up.

The police then surround the camp with a double cordon to prevent the support that the protestors had called from entering.

At this point there are 300 campers inside the square, who watch on while council workers started to dismantle the entire camp, taking away everything.

As support arrives it began to surround the outer police cordon, which tries to force people back to the outer edges of the square. When people link arms to oppose passive resistance to this operation, the police begin to attack with truncheons.

The passive resistance continues, and the police attacks intensify, even as the protestors keep up the chant: “We won’t move from Plaza Catalonia.”

The police next try to open space for the council trucks to leave the square, but it keeps filling up with protestors sitting down before the trucks.

The police attacks intensify, especially after 10.15am, when reinforcements arrive to force a way out for the trucks. All this is televised live.

The council trucks finally manage to get out around 11am, and a tense calm returns.

Mission accomplished, so it would seem. Felip Puig, the Catalan interior minister appears before the media to explain that he had reluctantly to bring in 300 riot police to protect Barcelona’s decent garbos from assault by violent weirdo protestors.

For a short time, the square seems to re-open to normal business (tourists taking photos and buying schlock).

Slight hiccup, however. No-one in the Catalan government seems to have heard of things called “Facebook” or “Twitter” (or maybe they think such things only work in Cairo).

Over the next hour supporters of the camp pour in from around Barcelona, so that by 1pm the police can no longer hold the square. They begin to retreat before a crowd now numbered at over 2000 and finally abandon the square.

Next, at 2.30pm, in solidarity with Plaza Catalonia, students from the University of Barcelona block off the Diagonal, the big avenue that runs across the whole city, generating traffic chaos.

At the same time everyone even vaguely connected with the #spanishrevolution movement starts receiving messages to go to Plaza Catalonia by 7pm --with saucepans and spoons for a cacerolazo (pot banging protest).

Result? By 8.30pm the square is full of up to 10,000 people and the “indignants” are re-establishing their camp. Enormous enthusiasm for victory over the idiots!

Protest gatherings and marches in solidarity with Barcelona (and Lleida, where a similar “clean up” took place) now explode in towns across Catalonia and Spain.

A petition demanding Puig’s resignation has already gathered 10,000 signatures. All the other parties start to criticise the government’s action.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47731

Spaniards force French Embassy closure

Mon May 30, 2011 6:17PM

The French consulate in Barcelona has been forced to close its doors after about 20 protesters of the M-15 movement prevented the staff from entering the building.

The protesters said on Monday they were acting in solidarity with the French protesters people who called for an end to corruption and unemployment, and were dispersed by police from Place de la Bastille in Paris over the weekend.

Quote:

Spain's M-15 movement has inspired other European countries as well.

Hundreds of Parisians on Sunday took part in a protest rally at the Bastille Square, calling for a popular democratic uprising among Europeans, while some 20,000 Greek protesters gathered near the parliament building in Athens with the same call....

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/182472.html

(..edit to add what was happening at the bastille)

Video report on the forceful evacuation of peaceful gathering at the Bastille:

http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/the-education-of-the-french-citizens-movem...

Aristotleded24 wrote:

Is the current left-wing government in Spain particularly unpopular, or is it simply a result of the backlash that a governing party inevitably feels when a country's economy tanks?

..this is why or at least it's my understanding of why. the cost of bank bailouts and shock doctrine.

Spain austerity plan scrapes through parliament

By Sonya Dowsett

Reuters) - Spain's governing Socialists won approval for a 15 billion euro ($18.4 billion) austerity package by a single vote on Thursday, but the narrowness of the victory raised doubts over the government's ability to steer the country through an economic crisis.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/05/27/us-spain-idUSTRE64Q54T20100527

..for an analysis there's this:

http://michael-hudson.com/2011/05/eu-politics-financialized-economies-pr...

..spain election happened on may 25th and the conservatives are now in power. it's not that the conservative vote increased but that people did not vote for the so called socialist. they voted for smaller parties. in fact the voter turnout increased. i can't remember where i read this but will find it again and post it.

..the outcome of all this is no way clear as the eu is now talking about easing up on it's demands because of the spanish resistance. it's not going to help though as fight back is both building and linking up all across europe with the demand for democracy front and center.

..txs ken, i stand corrected.

The police brutally attempt to dislodge the peaceful occupaton of plaze Cataluna in Barcelona, on May 27th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiW-NesA-YM&feature=player_embedded#at=321

ALERT:

..this site is well worth sorting through to quickly understand that there really is a revolution going on. You can see this by the photos alone. narry a word about it in msm.

Protests planned worldwide for the next days (updated):

•  
  •  
    • Thursday, June 2nd

PERUGIA:  20:00, Piazza IV Novembre

•  
  •  
    • Friday, June 3rd

BRESCIA: 20.00, Piazza Loggia

•  
  •  
    •  
      • Barcelona. Catalunya Square occupation continues.
      • Madrid. Sol Square occupation continues.
      • P A R I S. Bastille Square occupation continues.
      • London. Trafalgar Square occupation continues.
      • Athens.  Syntagma Square occupation continues.
      • Lisbon, Oporto and Coimbra square occupations continue.

http://15mayrevolution.wordpress.com/

..check out this awesome video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKAxOHnuk-I&feature=player_embedded

Ken Burch wrote:

I realize they chose to post it.  Perhaps, culturally, that's the way parents and grandparents speak to kids in Spain(is it recognizable to you?-I ask that because I've been assuming you're a Spaniard).

What's happening in Spain is new, and it's an outgrowth of the Arab Spring and the general rising tide of revolt.  It will create models we haven't seen yet.

..i understood you to realize it ken. i was prosessing which i do out loud quite often and came up with the permission thingy. i am french canadian actually though i have lost most of my french. i did spend 8 months in the south of spain around alicante in 2007-08. i do miss it. there was a market every sat around 10 blocks square.

..it is new and i've already adopted it as "the" way forward. i've got some thoughts that i will share once i get them together.

..you'll get no argument from me re the de socalizing the party. to be honest though i don't care what they call themselves. i haven't looked past behaviours for a long time now. i saw the tread you started and when i have more time i'll run through it. but i'll stop rambling now. luego.

Secret police accused of violence in #Barcelona, evidence surfaces on the Web #europeanrevolution #joambelparlament #15m15j #aturemparlament

The following video is coming up repeatedly throughout social media networks and other channels:

In it is the alleged evidence proving that the violence against politicians outside of the Catalan Parliament in Barcelona was started by undercover police. This is not an uncommon tactic for police or government services, as it was proved true in several of the Arab countries that carried out their own revolts. The video shows the start of the incidents, and the cameraman is heard to be saying “those are the ones that started it, over there”. Various people in the video can be seen pointing towards a group calling them out as the agitators. A young man can be seen angrily reprimanding them for their actions and then the camera realizes that one of them is seen to be wearing a earphone. A small group of them gather together away from the protestors and are surrounded by cries that signaled them out as policemen. Shortly afterward the riot police escorted them away, proving their status. This coincides with various tweets, whose user´s stated that they had asked the police to intervene against the violent ones and received no response. There is also a photo that proves the same fact.

http://www.europeanrevolution.net/?p=556

Photo gallery: historic 19-J protests shake Spain

by Jérôme E. Roos on June 20, 2011

http://roarmag.org/2011/06/photo-gallery-historic-19-j-protests-shake-sp...

Indignados start epic march to Brussels

by Jérôme E. Roos on July 27, 2011

Protesters walk to the heart of Europe to rally support and collect proposals in preparation of a major European-wide rally on October 15th.

“Vamos despacio porque vamos lejos” — we’re going slow because we’re going far. With that slogan, a few hundred indignados left Puerta del Sol yesterday afternoon to embark upon an epic 1,000 mile march to the heart of Europe.....

http://roarmag.org/2011/07/indignados-start-epic-march-to-brussels/

Spain’s ‘Indignados’ at the Vanguard of a Global Nonviolent Revolt

by Pablo Ouziel / August 6th, 2011

Quote: The indignation on Spanish streets has not risen out of ignorance, when newspapers announced last week that the airport of Ciudad Real had joined the growing list of airports in Spain closing because of lack of flights, the ‘indignados’ understood that it had only been constructed during the building boom so that speculators could receive huge sums of public subsidies which will never be returned to the Spanish people. That is why they were not surprised a few days ago when the IMF recommended that the country cut salaries of public servants and raise VAT, or when Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado suggested that the nation might need to endure even deeper spending cuts than those approved by Parliament. Nor was there a sense of surprise when the Catalan Government announced yesterday that it would sell-off 37 of its government buildings at a loss of 42,4 million Euros. Nothing shocks the ‘indignados,’ they just hope that one day they will have enough critical mass to stop these incessant attacks from the financial and political elite, on the country’s citizenry....

http://www.pabloouziel.com/spain%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98indignados%E2%80%99-...

Andrés Jaque: 15M & YES WE CAMP! Controversy As Urbanism

August 9th, 2011

Quote:

“In order to understand what happened at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, it is important to take into account facts that have not been sufficiently considered. From the very first day, the camp has been carefully kept neat and well-ordered. Infrastructure, communication strategies, and victualling committees were created. Within them, protocols to both discuss and decide were openly negotiated. The work was administered through self-organized shifts. Protection from sun and rain were mounted and installed on site. Protesters managed the borrowing of temporary toilets and regulated the use of showers at supporting neighboring apartments. When sanitary inspectors from the municipality visited the camp, they concluded its hygienic conditions were adequate, stating: “it is swept and no waste has been found.”

Soon, the assemblies became redoubts for inclusion. If someone stated that bankers behave like “hijos de puta,” many of the participants would silently cross their arms, reproving the exclusion operated by means of language on a sex workers’ offspring. First day jeers to the banner “THE REVOLUTION WILL BE FEMINIST OR IT WON’T BE,” were responded with the programming of seminars on feminism, detailing the discussion on gender equity at the camp. Sol has not been an action, but more like a re-institutional process of daily life. A collective effort to bring ordinary urban life into politics; in which social capitals, associations, and good manners have extensively benefited from a precedent corpus of experiences and social constructions vital to make the movement possible, and that needs to be taken into account....

Cleaning up City Squares in Democratic Spain

By Pablo Ouziel

Friday, May 27, 2011

On Friday the 27th of May, five days after an overwhelming victory by centre-right political parties in the local and regional elections across Spain, the country woke up to the bitter reality of how nonviolent movements calling for economic democracy, political justice and peace are going to be dealt with by the country’s police forces in this new era of right-wing political dominance.

Just twenty-four hours after Spain’s largest telecom company, Telefonica, announced a new round of layoffs affecting 8500 people, 25% of the work force, and as the G8 is meeting in Deauville, France, to discuss amongst other things the discontent sweeping across Europe, the Catalan police force – the Mossos d’Esquadra – following orders from the Town Hall’s new Catalan Nationalist Party (CiU) government, surrounded the nonviolent citizens camped at the Plaza Cataluña in Barcelona’s city centre. Armed with full riot gear, batons and machine-guns with rubber bullets, the police kettled in the protestors, making it impossible for them to leave or others to enter.

Quote:

As soon as the police surrounded the crowds and the news aired on local television stations and radios, citizens from across the city began to leave their work places and made their way to the square in order to show their solidarity with those being harassed by the police. The scene they encountered resembled one of Gandhi’s legendary acts of civil disobedience – the demonstrators sitting on the floor, in silence, with their legs crossed and hands up in the air; symbolizing their defiance to the oppressive and brutal nature of this unannounced police action.

http://www.zcommunications.org/cleaning-up-city-squares-in-democratic-sp...

We have broken the silence: Fresh from Madrid, an interview with a member of the Communications team of Real Democracy NOW!

Anthony Barnett and Beatriz Pérez, 30 May 2011

This interview with Beatriz Pérez took place in the early morning of Thursday 26 May in English with additions from an interview she gave to radio Una linea sobre el mar (thanks to simultaneous translation by Mayte Carrasco). It was checked and finalised by Beatriz on Saturday 28 May.

How are you feeling?

Tired but happy. I feel I am living in history, that I am part of something really important: that is bringing hope to people, that gives you a real feeling of doing something worthy that you need to fight for. I want to explain how I have been very moved, it is like a collective act of love, as if the universe has given me a present.

Everyone wants change from what we have. It is in the nature of being human that we should. I had been worried about the silence of Spanish society. But what could anyone do?  We needed to express ourselves as citizens, but how? To assume our proper nature we had to break the silence....

http://www.opendemocracy.net/anthony-barnett-beatriz-p%C3%A9rez/we-have-...