Anarchosyndicalist unions of many countries are coordinating global protests against Banco Santander because of their labor policies caused by outsourcing.
The conflict began in August at the Santander subsidiary ISBAN (computer services), when CNT-AIT denounced the illegal traffic of workers between companies. ISBAN quickly fired the union delegate, sending him to another company, Panel Sistemas.
In response anarchosyndicalist unions from around the World replied with protests wherever Banco Santander has offices.
The protests took place in Brazil, Poland, Uruguay, Portugal, Norway, Spain and other places.
The farewell of a laid out union delegate
In Brazil, the protests have been going on for weeks already.
Picket in Brazil
In Warsaw, Poland, the pickets were violently repressed. But the denounce could not be silenced.
Bilingual posters in Warsaw
In Montevideo, Lisbon, Porto and Oslo there have also been informative actions. Even in countries where Banco Santander keeps no visible offices, like Russia or France, unions have issued communications of solidarity.
But naturally one of the states where most protests have taken place was Spain. Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, León, Salamanca, Ciudad Rodrigo, Villaverde... are some of the towns where workers have protested, not without police repression.
In some places, there have also been sabotages:
ISBAN controls many "meat suppliers" companies, which provides them with a cheap and precarious force of more than 10,000 workers, which are leant to Banco Santander and its subsidiaries at whim, and fired equally at whim, with no cost for the bank, because they are not formally their workers.
This situation of quasi-slavery, where workers fear to be laid out at the smallest grudge, allows for brutal work journeys, lots of extra hours, compulsory displacements, ranks and salaries well under their real functions and many other abuses.
Hundreds of irregular redundancies have already been denounced by CNT-AIT. These redundancies have affected the worse off workers: those illegally ceded between companies, mothers with reduced journey and workers sent overseas.
Banco Santander is the largest financier entity of Spain and one in the global list of so-called "too big to fall". Its top bosses, Emilio Botín, Alfredo Saénz, Jose María Amusategui, etc. have been often denounced for illegal practices, and sometimes even indicted but they have never been actually punished. Recently they hired the infamous Rodrigo Rato, former economy minister under Aznar, former IMF Director in the days of the 2007 collapse and former CEO of rotten privatized savings bank Bankia, whose loses have been "socialized" by means of a EU-sponsored rescue of € 40 billion.
These "businessmen" are known by mafioso practices like the irregular purchase of banks such as Banesto or Totta, millionaire compensations to top managers, money laundering in Switzerland, junk mortgages, home evictions, usury, dirty business with universities, participation in weapon industries and financial mismanagement of the Spanish prison system.
The group got € 2.26 billion as profit in the first half of 2013, almost 30% more than a year ago.
A large demo gathered today in Lisbon to demand the conservative government to call for elections.
However the two conservative parties that make up the current government announced an arrangement to extend their rule for some more time. Polls suggest that the social-liberals of the PS would win new elections but, unlike what happens in Greece or Spain, Portugal seems still far away from the total collapse of the Twin Party System.
In the most scandalous diplomatic incident since there is any sort of international law, the Presidential airplane of Evo Morales was forced to land in Vienna yesterday night.
The versions so far contradict each other in the details but it seems that:
France, Italy and Portugal did not allow the airplane to cross their air space.
Spain allowed the transit only on the condition that it stopped in Canary Islands to be subject to military registry. Later it also forbade the transit altogether.
It is unclear by now if the landing in Austria was a mere emergency landing for lack of other options or if it was forced by the military of that country. What is clear is that the Austrian authorities searched the airplane thoroughly in clear violation of international law.
By this time France and Portugal first and Spain later on have already lifted the flight ban, obviously after getting the approval of Washington.
The only comparable (actually worse) violations of International Law in recent times have been the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq by the USA (and vassals), in which no declaration of war was ever made. Excluding undeclared wars, we really have to dig in examples of very ancient times like the imprisonment of Richard Lionheart in Germany or the kidnapping, deceit and murder of Atahualpa by Pizarro.
And which is the pretext, the trigger of this unbelievable violation of sovereignty? The mere suspicion that whistleblower Edward J. Snowden might have traveled in that aircraft.
The Empire of Terror versus Chaos and Freedom
Gladio ensign
Why is the Empire, not just the USA but also its boot-licking European vassals, so extremely overreacting, not even doubting to show their darkest Gestapo sewers' reality as a few individuals like Julian Assange or Edward Snowden challenge their secretive core in demand of transparency, of freedom of information, of democracy?
As I see it, the reason is that the secrets that have surfaced are just the tip of the iceberg: there is much more to hide like, for example, all the Gladio network of terrorist-spies that acts as underground government through NATO and some other associated countries, the fact that the Al Qaeda is nothing but an imperial sockpuppet or the truth of 9-11 (and many other "terror attacks") being actually false-flag self-attacks.
Most people even today refuse to believe, in spite of all the evidence, that the 9-11 attacks were performed by the USA itself, as a self-coup to impel the imperial totalitarianism both inside and outside its borders, serving as pretext for military invasions outside and emergency rule inside. But what if papers demonstrating this or other similarly outraging maneuvers would come to light? What if internal evidence shows beyond any doubts that we do not live in "democracies" but in fascist regimes with a mere formal varnish, that we are ruled by a terrorist mafia?
The Empire is therefore most nervous and is sending a clear signal to all would-be whistleblowers and researchers of the "deep state" to cower in fear: we will persecute you everywhere in the World, just like Rome did with Hannibal.
Of course many others are just silently killed in "accidents", "suicide" in jail by hanging with their hands tied to their back, or, as happened to Petra Kelly and her husband (former NATO general Gert Bastian) are shot in the most mysterious circumstances and police decrees it was "domestic violence". Other less important ones may lose their jobs, as happened to a CNT research journalist and librarian when she researched the Gladio network in the context of Spain, or, many years before her, Interviú journalists who dared to do the same.
The shadow of Gladio, the "deep empire" is long and merciless. But then there are billions living precarious short lives on Earth, and many feel the need to do better than being cowardly accomplices of this machinery of terror... and the Empire cannot silence them all. This is surely the case of Snowden, who in spite of all, must feel he is for the first time in his life doing what he must, filling his existence with a wider meaning.
No, Chaos science does not allow for a perfect order in which everything is under totalitarian control forever, as in '1984': one gap after another will tear the dark curtain to rags. Such nightmare can only be a provisional situation, much more in the extremely complex and information-rich society we live in.
Thousands demonstrated in Lisbon rallied by the labor union CGTP and the Fuck the Troika movement crying "out with the government", "no to exploitation and impoverishment".
Protests against the austerity for the poor impositions by the Capitalist Regime have soared these days in Portugal. Among them a group of citizens song from the tribune of Parliament the revolutionary song "Grândola, Vila Morena", which was broadcast in the radio in 1974 as signal to initiate the Carnation Revolution that ousted the fascist regime.
Polity of Spain: Major impact of the general strike, at least 80 citizens arrested and several injured.
A deaf Congress passed an ultra-capitalist budget full of cuts and austerity for the poor but no effects for the rich and their mercenaries (police, military). While Spaniards fall into pits of misery, the Spanish army waste their money in Afghanistan, for example.
Today's struggle should continue in Madrid until late in the night as yet another attempt to surround Congress has been called for this evening.
More than 80 people arrested only by noon (many injured also) in a general strike that was a massive success of 80% or a massive failure of just 5% depending who you lend credit to.
A rather reliable source, Economists Against the Crisis[es], estimated that the electrical consumption that can be attributed to productive activities was down c. 60% (with minor variations 58-64% depending on the hour). So at least 60% following is a quite scientific estimate (notice however that compulsory minimal services, very important in transport and other public services, are not discounted here).
I can assure you that 5% or even 10%, as many have claimed is an insult to intelligence and only shows the kind of shameless liars those sources and journalists are. Galicia was 100% closed by all accounts and this country alone makes up some 7% of the population of the state. And they were not the only ones, of course.
Full detailed following of the events can be found at Kaos or La Haine, for example, but in Spanish language (also at Agència 29 in Catalan). So I will try to synthesize here some of the most important news and data.
General:
90% of mail workers walked out.
Many trials could not proceed, including some high profile ones, because attorneys or other personnel did not show up.
30 deputies (United Left, Amaiur, ERC, PSC...) decided not to take part in the debates and votes in Congress in solidarity with the general strike.
Massive participation in demos around the state (Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Málaga, Valencia, Zaragoza, Granaza, Córdoba, A Coruña, Vigo, Cádiz, Murcia, and a long etcetera).
Core Spain (Neo-Castile):
Mercamadrid empty tonight
Madrid:
Unified anarchist and communist pickets forced closure of taverns since midnight (police retreated after an initial confrontation).
Mercamadrid 100% closed. Trucks enter but are not allowed to load or unload.
Iveco (trucks factory) 100% closed.
Telemadrid regional TV station could not broadcast at all. Ironically, some of its most fascist opinion commenters had already recorded their baseless proclamations about the failure of the strike.
15 arrested already before 5:30 am in clashes between police mercenaries and popular pickets (only 8 in the rest of the state). At least two injured.
Streets cut all night by fire barricades in the popular neighborhood of Vallecas.
Actors occupied a centric theater for the day. Many artists also took part in the protests including oscarized director Pedro Almodóvar.
Evening "surround the Congress" protest charged by police before 20:00.
Police harassed pickets, injuring some (first injured by police violence in Xixon). Buses could not leave the hangar. Fire barricades in the harbor.
Trash collecting service blocked tonight in Uvieu (Oviedo).
The industrial and port city of Avilés reports all closed.
Bank offices and commercial centers closed by pickets.
Major road cuts in the miner districts, which report all closed (Mieres, Langreo, etc.)
Anticapitalist unions (CSI, CNT, CGT and SUATEA) complain that the mainstream yellow unions (CC.OO. and UGT) try to steal their demo by calling themselves with the same time
Cantabria: 90% stopped in the industrial night turn. Among the industries stopped are: Global Steel Wire, Saint Gobain Canalización, Draka, Trenzas y Cables (TYCSA) and Gamesa.
Zaragoza:
General Motors, Jonson Controls Alagón, Valeo Térmico, Exide, Tata Hispano Carrocera, Android Industries, Ronal Ibérica, Arcelor Mittal and Ti Group 100% stopped, among others. BSH-Balay, Lear, Mann Hummel, Ronal Ibérica, Johnson Controls and HP more than 80% workers walked out.
Large picket of 2000 closed bank offices. Two arrested.
At least two faculties closed. Clashes between pickets and private security mercenaries.
Some 10,000 people in the morning demo.
Huesca: Three arrested in the bike-picket.
Seville: Canal Sur could not broadcast at all.
Several regional TV stations were completely stopped
Córdoba
Córdoba: Some 45,000 people in the morning march.
Cádiz: A large demo of some 25,000 people heavily pressed by police.
Puerto Real: Airbus factory 100% stopped.
Granada:
A Mercadona supermarket was expropriated.
Several arrested in Pinos Puente.
More than 70,000 people in the evening demo (the city has just 237,000 inhabitants, what means that one of every three Granadinos (30%) was there).
Extremadura: major companies nearly completely stopped in the night turn at least.
Murcia: Violent clashes between a very intolerant police force, who attacked every picket on sight. People arrested for helping an injured victim of police brutality. Very large demo in spite of all.
Salamanca: Some 6000 people in the demo of the CNT alone. Major commercial center closed.
Toledo: a car went over two members of a picket at the entrance to the Arms Factory.
Ceuta: Nearly all closed. Large demo for the size of the sleepy colonial enclave, heavily affected by uneployment.
Catalan Countries:
Catalonia:
Barricades impeded any activity in Mercabarna (central fresh food distribution market) since 3:00 am.
SEAT and Nissan factories (cars) 100% closed.
TV3 completely blocked from broadcasting.
University's Biology Faculty occupied since the day before. An infiltrated police agent was kicked out causing massive police deployment in the surroundings.
Road and railroad cuts widespread at dawn in and around Barcelona.
A Consum supermarket expropriated by a feminist picket.
Huge "tide" of people reported at the afternoon demo in Barcelona.
At least 100,000 people in the alternative demo in Barcelona, the one called by the anticapitalist unions and social movements.
Mataró dawned with not a single petrol station working.
Tarragona: chemical industry area was totally stopped, as well as Pirelli (wheels), Mercadona logistic facilities, Codorniú (wines), Puleva (major food industry) and Makro. 30,000 marched in the afternoon.
(Update) Barcelona gathered such brutally high numbers of protesters that they can compare with the recent independentist demos (of one and 1.5 million) or seem to overshadow the huge figures seen in the last years in Cairo or Athens:
One of the most commented incidents is the police brutality against a young boy aged 13 and those people who protected him or protested the charge, as can be seen in this video:
Pickets could only delay the activity of Mercavalencia.
100% closed: Ford, buses and railroads (save minimal services), RTVV (regional TV, aka Canal 9), harbors. More than 80% closed: industry in general, university, mail. More than 50% closed: distribution, health, education, administration, justice.
Industry in general: 80% closed, distribution: 70%,
Very repressive environment, with police attacking almost everyone active on the strike. At least on journalist injured by police.
Violent clashes and barricades therefore.
At least 22 arrested and two injured by 16:00.
Majorca: several arrested in Palma at least.
Galicia:
All closed everywhere according to even the less sympathetic media reports. At least 100,000 demonstrators in A Coruña. Four arrested in the protest.
Among other industries General Dynamics, Navantia and Arcelor-Mittal closed 100%.
Vigo demo
At least 8 people arrested in this country.
Estimated in 500,000 the number of demonstrators in all Galicia (with 2.8 million inhabitants, that is almost 20% of the citizenry marching against austerity just today).
Basque Country:
Majority unions (Basque nationalist ones) did not call for this strike, what caused irregular following with most people just ignoring the call the occasional heated argument with the Spanish nationalist pickets.
But anyhow...
In Navarre, where there was maybe some more support but mostly independent from the mainstream Spanish nationalist yellow unions:
Volkswagen 100% closed.
Pickets of the radical left unions ESK, CNT, CGT and Solidari in Pamplona today, emphasizing banks and the murder-suicides that their financial terrorism is causing:
From Ateak Ireki.
Demo in Iruñea (Pamplona):
Source: Ateak Ireki.
Huge alternative demo in the evening in Pamplona as well:
There were also protests in Baiona, in the Northern Basque Country:
Portugal:
The other major center of class struggle today was Portugal, where also a full fledged general strike was called.
I don't have much info as of now on Portugal but it seems that the following has also been massive, nearing 100%.
Police has brutally charged against the demo in Lisbon with ambulances coming and going for more injured. The aggressiveness of the mercenaries of the bourgeois oligarchy can easily be inferred by the fact that not less than three journalists have been injured, so imagine among commoners!
General strikes are illegal in Germany (German laws are very fascist in general, a legacy of the Cold War, when Germany and Japan were established by NATO as model states at the ideological and physical "front" with the Socialist bloc, recycling to some extent at least the fascist cadres of the previous decades).
However demonstrations have been reported at least in Berlin.
Thousands protested against before the Portuguese Parliament as it passed a new anti-social budget that keeps the wasteful military expenditure under NATO, cuts pensions and raises direct taxes a lot.
In Portugal as in Spain there will be another journey of general strike on November 14th.
The budget has been challenged before the Supreme Court.
Hundreds of thousands protested today in both Iberian capitals against the brutality of the austerity measures designed to feed the banksters at the expense of the very lives of the people.
Top: Lisbon, bottom: Madrid
Lisbon
In Lisbon some 100,000 people marched through the city crying against the so-called "troika" (EC, ECB and IMF) that dictates the politics in the European Union with zero democratic legitimacy these days and against the Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, whose resignation demanded.
The main union CGTP has called for another protest this Tuesday and will probably call for a general strike soon.
Unlike in Madrid, police did not attack the protesters, so the demonstration remained peaceful.
Police violence again in Madrid
In Madrid, the neo-fascist regime attempted again to quell the protests in blood and shackles by releasing the dogs, the police, without any leash.
It was the third journey of protest in a single week in the Spanish capital and it was again full of people, as you can see in the images:
In order to prevent a complete understanding of the dimension of the protest, the regime forbade air coverage by the media. Later on the rectified, probably realizing that they would be throwing away their last remnants of legitimacy
Through the evening there were many actions of repression, including the arrest of a protester who dared to address the police as "comrades" (take note: they are not your "comrades" but dangerous mercenaries of the banksters), but the real violence began already in the night, with violent charges against those who attempted to stay in Neptuno Plaza. They obviously fear a repetition of the Plazas movement but whatever the shape it takes, they are obviously reaching the limit in their contention capability and I truly expect a most hot Autumn, Winter and Spring...
Hateful debt: referendum
Large protests also elsewhere
In Valencia, Zaragoza, Sevilla and many other cities of the Spanish state but also in the continent: in Brussels, Warsaw, Berlin, Paris or London there have been protests of greater or smaller size. The current "troika" regime is clearly less and less legitimate in the streets of Europe.
Côa Valley is not just a fantastic natural park in the NE of Portugal but also one of the key areas of European Prehistory, hosting the famous mural engravings the Upper Paleolithic.
The Portuguese government decided on Tuesday (Sep. 25) to suspend its existence and is considering its complete dismantling, as part of the austerity efforts imposed by the IMF and the EU.
The cost of the park is 1.4 million euros yearly.
No cuts are known to affect the Armed Forces for example, even if Portugal has not known enemies anymore and could do with just some patrol ships.
The Association of Officers of the Armed Forces of Portugal (AOFA) has issued a communication denouncing the manipulative attitude of the authorities and stating that they will not allow that the Army may be used to repress the citizenry.
The original document in Portuguese can be read here, translations to Spanish and English can be found here.
Unlike in Spain, where the Armed Forces' officialdom are an extremely reactionary and closed caste, consolidated as such under the Fascist regime, in Portugal, after many sufferings in the colonial independence wars in Africa, the Army took part in the Carnation Revolution, which deposed the military fascist regime, re-established the Republic and accepted the self-determination of the former Portuguese colonies of Africa.
A 24-hour union strike against austerity measures has brought public services to a stand-still in Portugal.
Thursday's strike, the second in four months, is in protest against the broad cost-cutting measures agreed to by the government of President Aníbal Cavaco Silva in return for an international bailout of the recession-hit economy.
"The participation rate is strong in the public transport sector, among garbage collectors and the health sector," Armenio Carlos, secretary general of the Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), the group organising the strike, told reporters on Thursday.
The union is opposed to government austerity measures such as the elimination of public employees' Christmas and vacation bonuses - each roughly equivalent to a month's pay - in an effort to rein in the public deficit.
Public transportation in the capital, Lisbon, and Oporto - Portugal's second-largest city - were closed, forcing tens of thousands of commuters to find an alternative way to get to work or school. The majority of ports, including those in Lisbon and Viana do Castelo in the north, were also closed.
Portuguese citizens demonstrated in Lisbon under the slogan 'Basta!' (Enough!):
They invited Prime Minister Coello to emigrate himself to Germany, as he seems unable to think of any other alternative to fix the Portuguese economy.
In Germany the people protested against genetically modified organisms and other food scandals that have shattered the social fabric under the slogan: 'We are fed up!':
As mentioned yesterday, police intervened to defend the Nazi scum, however what was not obvious then is that the Nazis used gas grenades and the fact that there was not a single organized clash group in the Indignad@s' demo, to get away unharmed even if they were barely a dozen and half.
More details at Contra Info, including photo gallery of some of these Nazis' faces.
I got reports of violent repression in Romania, the island of Sicily stopped by a general strike, antifascist clashes in Lisbon and arrests of antifascists in Galicia.
Protestation.org echoes with two videos the police violence against demonstrators (who seem to be resisting nonviolently):
Another longer video in Romanian can be found here.
The same site reports of a general strike in Sicily brining the island to a total halt. Video:
Meanwhile in Lisbon, Portugal, indignados (outraged), who were marching in big numbers, clashed with fascists who were defended by police, as reports Sare Antifaxista[es] (there is a video but I don't seem able to embed it, sorry).
In Compostela (aka Santiago), Galicia, four people were arrested after the demonstration against the recently deceased fascist leader Manuel Fraga. There does not seem to have been reason for those arrests other than police wanted to arrest someone. Source: Galiza Livre[gal].
Update:
Another video (RT) reporting on Romania protests: we want jobs!
Several thousand people demonstrated in the historical Basque capital, Pamplona, (right) against loss of jobs: no more firings in Navarre, share the jobs, share the crisis ··> Gara[es].
Portugal: state spends €2.4 billion in bank and sells it for only €40 million
The Banco Portugués de Negócios (BPN) has sucked 1.4% of Portuguese GNP in this criminal "saving" operation. The bank was finally sold to Angolan corporation Banco Internacional de Crédito (BIC).
30% of all offices will be closed, with the corresponding job losses.
The sale of this toxic bank is part of the deal agreed with Brussels in exchange of a toxic credit of €78 billion, credit that Portugal will never be able to pay anyhow.
In other words: Portugal is giving away assets, even if toxic, in exchange of toxic credits that only serve to delay the fall of the creditors of Portugal, largely private banks in other European states.
Let them fall! Declare bankruptcy now!
Spain: national football team and banners
You can wear on your shoulder the fascist banner imposed by dictator Franco in the 1930s but you cannot carry the one of your forcibly annexed country. This happened to a player who chose to carry the flag of Asturias:
Lithuania: Vilnius mayor takes out the tanks in defense of bicycles
Not sure what to think but it's jaw dropping in any case: in a crazy stunt to dissuade drivers from parking in bicycle lanes, the mayor of the Lithuanian capital had himself filmed on a heavy armored vehicle smashing an ill-parked car. The owner shows up by the end and the crazy mayor shakes his hand and says: next time park in the right place.
Morocco: thousands march against absolute theocratic monarchy
Last sunday, on the day of the Be'ya, the yearly feudal ceremony of wowing loyalty to the king, 4000 marched in Casablanca and at least 5000 in Tangier demanding full democracy.
South Africa: worker strikes reach a record this year.
200,000 gold miners, 150,000 coal and diamond miners... Diamond production halted... The only thing that prevents the struggles from joining into one single unstoppable revolutionary movement is COSATU, the once fierce South African union confederation now does lip service to polygamous machista (and probably rapist) Jacob Zuma and his neoliberal plans for South Africa.
Related: Chile miners' strike continues after 10 days ··> WSWS.
Japan: deadly areas in Fukushima Dai Ichi
Two particularly deadly hotspots of radiation have been admitted to exist in Fukushima I NPP. They were pictured thanks to gamma ray imaging techniques (left).
The red spots are above all measuring devices: above 10 Sieverts per hour, which is a deadly dose.
Palestine: Israel recognizes that they took organs from army-murdered Palestinians as war trophies. ··> Protestation.org.
Science: bubble multiverse may be for real
The gamma ray background may have the prints of several inter-universe interactions. These marks have been located by a computer program, what essentially eliminates the chances of subjective evaluation.
The highly suspicious US "rating agency" Moody's (a scorpions' nest of the worst speculators as far as I can tell) has decreed that Portuguese debt must be degraded to junk status (Ba2).
This basically means, I understand that, after the relatively successful pillage of Greece, the Capitalist International has decided to externalize the costs of this crisis against the Portuguese people, which can expect to suffer almost exactly as Greece.
Portuguese workers are already migrating here (and have been for many decades) to work in conditions and with salaries that are plainly illegal, displacing local workers and allowing for greater levels of exploitation to spread around.
In this sense, and not just out of sympathy, that also, we cannot want neither Portugal nor any other country on Earth being exploited abusively by the global Capitalist mafia: it is bad for all. We need decent salaries, decent working conditions and human and labor rights all around the World.
Capitalists are pitting us workers against each other: we need to dismantle Capitalism now.
There are reports that the Portuguese police charged against the protest camp at O Rossio in the center of Lisbon, destroying the tents and charging against maybe a hundred people who were there.
In Catalonia also, autonomous police attacked again the camp at Barcelona and the one at Lleida as well, as denounces Antikapitalistak.
Police violence against a citizen in Barcelona (source)
These days there is also a state-wide meeting of delegates from the various camps.
Where there is no faltering is in Greece, where the people is basically living in the streets these days, while the government, which has lost all legitimacy in few months, has signed a sell-off pact with the Capitalist International (EU, IMF). It is unclear whether this sell-off will pass the vote in Parliament: the ruling PASOK has a narrow majority and there is a real risk that some of their members will vote against the pact, forcing anticipated elections and probably plain bankruptcy.
In the current circumstances elections may well mean that the Left (three different parties at the left of the PASOK) would take over Parliament. It is unlikely that the Right, widely perceived as the main culprit and a nest of corruption, can benefit from this situation.
I was not aware at all but the Portuguese people joined the protest movement initiated (in Europe) in Spain on May 15. They did so more than a week ago, as reported by Esquerda.net[pt], taking the Praça do Rossio (Dew Square, formally Praça de D. Pedro IV) at the center of Lisbon.
Follows video of the camp (interviews in Portuguese):
And Lisbon is just one of several Portuguese cities in this movement.
At this moment there are at least four states in the Euro-Mediterranean region with people taking some of their central squares: Egypt, Greece, Spain and Portugal. Who's next?
For my latest review on other occupations and revolutionary processes, see here.
Some activity also in France
Esquerra.net also reports on the assemblies' movement in France that is trying to emulate the Spanish takeovers of public space. At the moment what they are doing is to debate in open assemblies, notably (but not only) at La Bastille Plaza but have not yet made any permanent camp, as far as I can tell.
From that little big mine of info, I just got this image of Syntagma Square (Athens) tonight:
Let's not forget that Democracy is a Greek word that means People's Power.
And also this one for the assembly at La Bastille, where the People more than two hundred years ago destroyed an emblematic prison of the Ancien Régime, signaling its collapse. It was not easy to complete that process but our World began then:
It's time to get used to the new European red banner...
I'd change the yellow by black but otherwise is ok.
The caretaker conservative government of Portugal is accepting a bailout from EU that includes a plan for severe budget cuts (rejected by Parliament already, mind you) and deficit reduction (already failed) but that does not touch the salaries of the politicians, the military budget (Portuguese ships may be needed to bomb Libya or even Portugal itself) nor the taxes collected from the wealthy and imports.
The Portuguese economy has been severely damaged by, specially, Chinese imports, which are heavily undertaxed. This underlines how the EU and its globalist policies is being very harmful for local European producers, which have to compete with remote countries where labor rights and environmental regulations do not exist (or are extremely poor) and where currency value is comparatively low.
I do not blame China or the USA for this but EU, which is keeping the euro artificially high (it's about 40-50% higher than it should, what is awful for the European economy, specially that of peripheral countries, which are pitted against remote hyper-cheap producers like said China).
This crisis should not be addressed by punishing with loans and more loans the affected economies but by devaluing the euro. However the stand of peripheral governments is so pathetically sold out that I see no dignified exit ahead.
Soon, as it has been planned in some dark halls of global power and has been announced by the media all year long, Spain will be forced to a bailout by the plotting of Moody's and its Machiavellian sisters, EU will reject such a bailout, Spain will declare bankruptcy...
This would be good in fact but it will cause that, instead of devaluing the euro, as would be logical, a struggle will ensue on whether Spain must be kicked out of the euro for declaring a bankruptcy or not.
But this is not the real important matter: German and other speculator banks of core Europe (the liability of Spain is very much scattered around) will have to face the fact that they cannot get back all those loans and they will have to declare bankruptcy themselves.
This will cause major upheaval, not just in EU but through the World. A new recession will be formally declared (even if we have never really got out of the previous one) and we can expect authoritarian governments taking over in several countries (notably Spain, where Rato's boys, which are the same as Franco's boys but with a civilian tie instead of military cap, are leading in the polls). However one can also expect increase in social struggle as soon as the right takes power (because the social-democrats play with that with an electoral aim).
I cannot see farther. What I know is that a lot of problems would have been avoided is the euro would be devalued some 40% or even just 20% maybe.
Who gains with this controlled demolition however? Beats me. Of course that some speculators are making millions and even billions out of this but it's just printed paper... what is being gained in the plane of true power? Who gains with a dismantled EU?
