Protests in Spain

Rockets R' Us · May 18, 2011

Widely under reported by mainsteam media. Saw youtube footage the other day and it was insane. Wish the sheeple here would be more vigilant to respond to the lack of action by government officials to help rectify gov't created problem. I hope it doesn't take numbers as high as 21% unemployment like in this situation to compel outcries, but unfortunately I know it will.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/05/18/spain.protests/

Thousands protest economic crisis, high unemployment in Spain

Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- Protests against Spain's economic crisis took a new turn Wednesday as social media networks fueled calls for demonstrators to take to the streets before local elections a few days away.
Thousands returned late Tuesday to Madrid's central Puerta del Sol plaza -- where the main protests began Sunday.
A few hundred demonstrators camped out there overnight, while similar but smaller protests were held in Barcelona and other Spanish cities, a protest organizer said.
"The economy and unemployment are key to the protest because that binds all of us together," said Jon Aguirre Such, a spokesman for the Real Democracy Now, one of many groups convening the demonstrations.
"In this crisis, while some have gotten rich, most people have less income," Aguirre said.
Demonstrators are protesting Spain's 21% unemployment rate and a record 4.9 million jobless.
Protesters say a plethora of temporary labor contracts offer few or no job benefits. In addition, some are protesting against the political and financial establishment that they say is to blame.
The protests come in the closing days of the campaign for local elections set for Sunday. Spain's 8,000 cities and towns will elect mayors, along with 13 (out of 17) regional presidents and parliaments.
Opinion polls in Spanish media predict major gains for the opposition conservatives over Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's ruling Socialist party.
Zapatero, squeezed by the nation's prolonged economic crisis, announced last month he won't seek a third term in national elections due by March 2012.
For the past few years, as Spain's rate of unemployment remained tenaciously high, most of the protests were organized by major trade unions.
But the latest protests appear to be grass-roots movements fueled by social networks, sparking more attention.
Elena Ortega, who says she's managed to find only a part-time secretarial job, helped spread the word on Facebook about the protests on Wednesday.
"If this is happening, it's because the unions weren't doing what was needed, when it was needed. They haven't delivered," she said.
She said she's worried about her 20-year-old son, who has only found temporary jobs in the past four years.
"Forty percent of our young people are unemployed and don't have a chance," Ortega said.
The movement does not appear to be linked to the unions or political parties, the traditional protest heavyweights in Spain, said Economist Fernando Fernandez of the IE Business School in Madrid.
"I think we really don't know what we're seeing," Fernandez said. "This is the very beginning of a new movement. I don't expect it to become a very large social response or protest against the unemployment perspective in Spain."
But hours later, on Tuesday night, several thousand protesters returned to Madrid's central plaza. By Wednesday morning, dozens remained in their overnight encampment.
The social media networks call for renewed protests on Wednesday evening in Madrid and three dozen other Spanish cities. The aim is to continue the protests at least through the elections on Sunday, Aguirre said.
But Wednesday afternoon, Madrid's elections board banned the planned demonstration at 8 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) at the Puerta del Sol plaza. The board said there were not "extraordinary and serious reasons" to allow the demonstration on short notice, according to the central government's main regional office in Madrid.
The election board vetoed the demonstration -- which would have come during the final days of the election campaign -- on the grounds it could affect the right of citizens to vote freely, a regional office spokesman said.
Organizers of many large demonstrations in Madrid seek and receive prior authorization, usually days or weeks ahead of the event. But the economic protests since Sunday have sprung up on short notice.
Spain's El Pais newspaper reported that authorities planned to have sufficient police officers on hand to prevent the demonstration.
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Qball · May 18, 2011

A couple more non-muslim countries to join the fray and we finally can say what the real reason of the protests are......money......NOT religion.

And by money, I mean income disparity.

rhadamanthus · May 18, 2011

Qball said: ↑

And by money, I mean income disparity.
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And by income disparity you mean capitalism.

It's the late 1800s all over again! Round and round and round and round...

Northside Storm · May 18, 2011

Austerity measures for bailouts are a crock of s***. Just restructure your debt and go bankrupt and be done with it.

glynch · May 18, 2011

I have fond memories of the largest demonstration I ever attended. Roughly 10 years ago we were in Barcelona. The central government in Madrid did something very universally unpopular-- especially in Barcelona. Iirc they lowered the minimum wage or failed to adjust it for inflation.

There was a general strike and all Museums, tourist spots, transport, including cabs, major restaurants, stores etc were closed for the day. There was nothing to do but walk the streets or go to the demonstration when they opened the metro briefly to go to the demonstration. It was a great feeling walking with over 800,000 people to the central meeting place. As we walked to the square we saw other hundreds of thousands entering from other grand streets which fed into the plaza like the spokes on a wheel. At the end of the day it was back to business as usual.

Zion · May 20, 2011

Even CNN international hasn't been reporting this. Strange

rhadamanthus · May 20, 2011

There is no populist anti-capitalism demonstration in Spain.

pgabriel · May 20, 2011

rhadamanthus said: ↑

There is no populist anti-capitalism demonstration in Spain.
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is that what it is? i thought it was just kids frustrated with unemployment

AroundTheWorld · May 20, 2011

Zion said: ↑

Even CNN international hasn't been reporting this. Strange
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That's because it is not nearly as big as those who try to equate it with the demonstrations in the Middle East are trying to make you believe.

langal · May 20, 2011

Here's a link to some sort of manifesto :

http://democraciarealya.es/?page_id=814

"These are inalienable truths that we should abide by in our society: the right to housing, employment, culture, health, education, political participation, free personal development, and consumer rights for a healthy and happy life."

Rockets R' Us · May 20, 2011

Apparently the Spanish Electoral Committee has forbidden protests on Saturday....here's a live video of Spain right now, with (I think) 2 hrs to go til' Saturday in Spain.

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This comes along with news that more protests are planned across Spain and now also Italy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/19/protest-med-cuts-corruption-spain

Protest in the Med: rallies against cuts and corruption spread
Sit-ins planned at parks and squares across Madrid, Rome, Barcelona, Milan and Florence

Giles Tremlett in Madrid and John Hooper in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 May 2011 17.24 BST
Article history

Demonstrators in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, on 19 May 2011, protest at spending cuts and mismanagement of the economy. Photograph: Andrea Comas/Reuters
A youth-led rebellion is spreading across southern Europe as a new generation of protesters takes possession of squares and parks in cities around Spain, united by a rejection of mainstream politicians and fury over spending cuts.

Protests are also planned in Italy, where the tag #italianrevolution is a trend on Twitter. Plans have been announced for a piazza occupation in Florenceon Thursday night, and for further protests in Italian cities, including Rome and Milan, on Friday.

In Madrid demonstrators have refused to budge from the central Puerta del Sol despite a police charge that dislodged them temporarily on Tuesday night.

Now they have occupied a quarter of the square, covering it with tarpaulins and tents, setting up kitchens, tapping at laptops and settling down to sleep on sofas and armchairs.

Similar scenes were being played out in Barcelona, where protesters held a midday Argentinian-style pan-bashing protest in the Plaza de Catalunya, and in numerous other cities where protesters raised the banner of what they call "the Spanish revolution".

The protests come as Spain prepares to vote for municipal and regional governments, which jointly account for half of spending and most of the welfare state. Town halls and regional governments are expected to increase the pace of spending cuts after Sunday's election as the country battles to rein in its budget deficit and avoid the fate of other eurozone countries such as Portugal, Greece and Ireland that have needed bailouts.

"Everyone is here for their own reasons and with their own proposals," said Luis de Pinedo, 20, an anthropology student who was handing out flyers in the Puerta del Sol explaining that the protesters did not represent any political party. "We are having to pay for an economic crisis that we didn't cause but which was provoked by the banks," he said.

Groups were gathered in debate. About the only demand most could agree on was a change in the electoral law to end the two-party system that shifts power between the socialists of the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and the conservative People's party.

"Mostly people are tired of the two-party system," said De Pinedo. "But I am also angry about corruption."

Javier de Coca, a 32-year-old protester in Barcelona, said: "Some people are trying to turn this into a leftwing or Marxist thing, but that is not what it is about. The really important thing for the moment is that we are raising our voices. No one should think we are just sitting around and taking this."

All age groups were present in the protests but the emerging leaders were mostly under 30, part of a generation suffering 45% unemployment. Protesters said they were inspired more by the protests that followed the recent banking crisis in Iceland than by those that have swept through north Africa.

"Spain is not a business. We are not slaves," read one of the hundreds of protest posters glued to the Pueta del Sol's metro station walls.

Demonstrations have been arranged for outside the Spanish embassy in London and in other European cities. "A lot of people have left the country precisely because of the situation we are in," said De Coca. "And they want to protest too."

Police have been instructed to leave the protesters alone.

. Political demonstrations and campaigns are banned on Saturday because of the elections. Zapatero's socialists are facing severe setbacks across the country amid popular anger over 20% unemployment and the spending cuts. There is a general election next March.

Italy so far has not been forced into the sort of austerity measures imposed on Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland. But its economy has barely grown in the past 10 years and there is increasing evidence of exasperation with its billionaire prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

Over the past two years the Italian government's time has been increasingly devoted to finding ways of dealing with Berlusconi's legal problems. He is a defendant in three trials in which he faces vice charges and a range of accusations relating to his business conduct.

Frustration was evident in the results of partial local and provincial elections held last Sunday and Monday. Berlusconi's candidate for mayor in his home city of Milan, Letizia Moratti, was outstripped by a centre-left contender in the first round of voting, forcing her into a run-off on 29 and 30 May.
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langal · May 20, 2011

so 2 trains of thought here?

1. economic crisis is the fault of capitalism and corruption. unregulated finance led to housing bubble which led to unsustainable revenue projections.

2. crisis is the fault of the welfare state and unsustainable deficit spending. aging demographic leads to high medical costs -> budget crisis, etc.

So is it the capitalists' fault or the socialists' fault?

this being political means that there is no middle ground.

Dubious · May 20, 2011

3. The crisis is the result of a demand for an unsustainable lifestyle.

The rate of consumption portrayed in popular culture is a pipe dream. There will never be enough energy, water, food, or housing for six billion people to live up to the western standard. The rich are "rich" because they have what the masses of people can't have.

There is a serious disconnect from the Star Trek ideal and the subsistence farming reality.

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