Spain: Thousands march in Madrid again. Camp set up at Puerta del Sol

Less than three years after the landmark takeover of the Puerta del Sol plaza in Madrid by the so-called "indignados" (outraged), thousands have taken again the iconic plaza in demand of bread, jobs and housing for all and the liberation of those arrested on Saturday. 

On Saturday, at least 2 million people, took over the city, arrived from all the corners of the residual empire known as Spain, being almost totally ignored by the mass media... but not at all by police forces, which charged brutally against them.

This photo is yet to be published by any bourgeois newspaper or TV station

Dozens were arrested and many others injured. At least part of the crowds were angry enough to attempt self-defense against police violence. 

On Sunday, the protests continued in smaller but still powerful numbers, under heavy police pressure (kettling, provocations) and also with some groups resorting to more direct action, blockading several times the main avenue Gran Vía. 

Some 20 people spent last night protesting in Sol, even if police did not allow them to set up camp. 

Today Monday, protests continue as way too many are determined to have a social and political impact after the huge effort of the march. 

In the morning people rallied around the tribunals, where the arrested were finally declaring before the judge. Again the cops pressed heavily against the protest.

In the afternoon the arrested were finally set free (under charges, I presume). The first reports denounce police abuse:

Seven hours against a wall with arms up, not allowed to go to the bathroom nor drink.

Around 16:30 some people had already managed to set up camp in Sol and the call became viral: everyone to Sol. 

Again, three years of outright misery and lies later. 

Popular assembly at Sol

The assembly ratifies the points of the march:

• No to paying the banksters' debt
• No more cuts
• Out with Troika governments
• Bread, jobs and shelter for all

They also call to set camp at the plaza.

In the evening another demonstration marches through the city under the slogan "Dignity".

Thousands join.

They chant: "it's not cuts, it's class war", "freedom for the arrested in struggle" or "Juan Carlos I is Franco's heir".

Attorney Doris Benegas announced that all but one of the arrested have been set free. One remains accused of "homicide attempt", an unusually severe accusation, and has been imprisoned. However it was later known that the accusation has been reduced to "lesions". 

The government decides to declare illegal the demonstration when this one was already about to reach its destination: Cibeles Plaza. The final act is held at Nuevos Ministerios and the march is peacefully dissolved.

Those camping at Puerta del Sol are surrounded by police forces who do not let anyone enter. In spite of that, the square seems pretty much populated, judging from the direct streams:

→ http://bambuser.com/v/4474133

→ http://www.wouzee.com/acampadadignidad-22h51

Sol tonight (credit: Danips)

Is this a second "Spanish Spring"? Where will it lead? Outrage, frustration and rage are much greater than three years ago. 

Sources[es]: La Haine and, in Twitter: @LaHaineInfo, @Acmp.Dignidad.Madrid y #AcampadaDignidad.

Almost 3 million people take Madrid demanding Dignity in spite of media silence and brutal police repression

The Marches for Dignity, which began weeks ago all around the state of Spain, after a call from the Andalusian Left, seconded by many other groups (unions, parties, social movements), have resulted in some 2.5 million people taking the capital of the realm this Saturday. That is about half the population of the city and about 7% of the total population walking out of their homes and marching into the capital.

Obviously all who are there are, but not all who are are there. So the actual figure of sympathizers can well be five or ten times greater. In other words: almost all Spain is very angry and demand immediate change. 

What did the protesters demand? Simple:

• Not to pay the public debt (mostly imposed to save the banksters)
  
• No more cuts (to public budget nor salaries)
• Out with the government and the Troika
• Food, jobs and housing for all

The full manifesto can be read in English HERE.

In any democratic country such a massive protest should cause the immediate fall of the government and snap elections. But democracy is more and more just a farce and Spain is not different in that but actually avant-guard in this devaluation and falsification of Democracy. 

Since 20:15 police began charging against the marchers near the conservative headquarters of Génova Street and those who attempted to set camp at various locations. They did not even allow for the final act to proceed. According to reports, those present faced them and set up barricades. They even forced the armed police forces to pull back several times just fighting back with whatever they had at had, such as pebbles from the fountain. 

The bourgeois media have reported 50 agents injured, what is rejected with outraged disbelief by the people who were there. What seems more certain is that from the popular side, some 29 citizens have been arrested and 33 injured by police weaponry, which they shot directly against the protesters, in clear breach of all legality. 

Clashes lasted until at least midnight, when protesters gradually pulled back. 

Sources and more info: 

• Webguerrillero[es]: massive demo, police charges against the protest before it even finishes, more on the clashes
• La Haine[es]: detailed chronological report, photos and audios of the southern column
• Marchas por la Dignidad[es/en/it]: police charges against the main meeting, generic info
• Bambuser: videos from the street
• Twitter: #22MTomaMadrid, #22MDignidad, #22mMarchasporlaDignidad, etc.

Update (Mar 23): some protests and meetings continue on Sunday

Hundreds met this morning at the Reina Sofía Theater in a popular assembly to decide what to do next. Some proposals included calling for a general strike but in the end a new protest was called in Puerta del Sol this evening (19:00), mostly to demand the immediate release of those arrested yesterday, and tomorrow at 10:00 in Plaza Castilla. 

They also called for rallies in all the government delegations across the territory of the state (19:00 also). 

The assembly was determined to proclaim the right to self-defense: "yesterday we exerted sefl-defense and we must say that proudly", what is a development in itself. 

The meeting was heavily watched by police forces, which tried to provoke the assistants to no avail. 

It was known that police had used tear gas CS (ATL-1) in the evening attacks, something that has no precedents in the Spanish capital (although it has been used in the periphery). 

Dozens also attempted to set camp near Recoletos train station but were violently evicted by police forces. 

Sources[es]: Webguerrillero, La Haine.

March 8th: maybe the most glorious day for the Working Class in history

March 8th was proclaimed International Working Women's Day in 1910 by the Second International and soon became a day of struggle against Capitalism and Patriarchy through the World. 

There is anyhow one particularly critical March 8th: that of 1917. On that day, the working women of Petrograd marched in troves through the streets of the Russian city demanding something as basic as bread. 

The day before the workers of Putilov had declared a strike and the demands of the women were central to mobilize the rest of the workers of the city. By March 10th there was a general strike and the city was paralyzed. The demand of bread had become a generalized cry of "down with the Tsar!" and "down with the war!". 

When on March 11th, the totalitarian regime sent the few "reliable" troops they had to repress the masses, these mutinied. The Russian Revolution had begun. 

Who is still alive don’t say “never”,
firmness is not firm,
not everything will continue the same,
when the dominating will have spoken
the dominated will speak.
Who dares to say “never”?
Who does it depend on that oppression continues? On us.
Who does it depend on that it ends? On us, too.
Let the one who’s defeated get up!
The one who’s lost, let him combat!
Who could stop the one who knows his situation?
Hence today´s losers will be the winners of tomorrow
and never will become today.

Bertolt Brecht.

Also a good one from historical Basque Punk band La Polla Records, "Iván":

Translation:

This story which was could well be true

seems a lie, we are going to tell it anyhow:

In the Russia of the beloved Tsar

lived a peasant known as Ivan.

Laboring the land without pause,

suffering much hunger, with no time to think.

Sowing, sowing, sowing and sowing

and Count Borrowich gets all the harvest.

The petty priest asks resignation, 

he invites himself to diner and eats the best food.

Ivan was there, Ivan was there, Ivan was there...

One good day he was with the hoe

came some men, told him: "komrade,

there are no masters anymore to be obeyed;

you are a free man, we've got the power!"

Thinking, thinking, thinking and thinking,

Ivan gradually gets used to the idea: 

nobility has been overthrown, 

there will be no more jerks living out of the rest.

Ivan was there, Ivan was there, Ivan was there...

Jumping on one leg, 

the sickle and the hammer on the red flag. 

With persistence and some attention, 

what kind of somersaults makes reality!

Yesterday I was involved in a conversation in which certain woman complained without much sense "as if we need one special day!" I had to protest: this is something that women have given themselves by choice and to the whole humankind. It is a holy day of the working class, of the people and, of course, of women in particular, no kidding!

Keep the struggle up, sisters!

Interview with Andalusian Workers Union leader Diego Cañamero (video in Spanish)

The repressed and censored Basque counter-information site Ateak Ireki (Open the Doors) is still available for those connecting from outside the Spanish legal prison of peoples and therefore I still get uncensored feeds even if I can't directly contact with the site. I can also reach to their YouTube account without problems.

Today they publish an interview with Diego Cañamero, leader of the combative Andalusian Workers Union (SAT), which has promoted supermarket and land expropriations in order to highlight the extreme social injustice that the Capitalist system provokes in Andalusia. Therefore he has dozens of legal cases open against him, as happens with many other activists of this union and sympathizers, but has declared himself total resister against trials, ignoring citations. He explains that he has been repressed with every single government, so let them do whatever they will.

Partly in an attempt to overcome neo-fascist censorship, I am translating below the text surrounding the video but I cannot translate the video-interview itself, which is in Spanish language.

From Ateak Ireki (censored in Spain):

[Video] Diego Cañamero (SAT): "We are legitimate to throw down governments who do not fulfill their word".

The speaker of the Andalusian Workers Union announces that they are preparing a great march to Madrid, to be participated by unions and social movements from all the state, including its nationalities.

Ateak Ireki has used the visit of Diego Cañamero to Iruñea [Pamplona] to speak in length with him on the economic, political and social situation in the State of Spain.

Cañamero assures that the land is "not any merchandise" but a good that must be "at the service of all human beings".

After recalling that he has been arrested in the dictatorship and under all and each governments of "democracy", he states that "the repression against the people who struggles has not changed" but that, nevertheless, this repression "never could defeat the justice of the peoples".

In this sense, the speaker of the Andalusian Workers Union underlines that "a society which does not rebel against injustice is accomplice" of it and that, right now, "unity is the great challenge of the transformer left". 

He reminds also that "people have not authorized with their vote the delay of retirement age, that [public] money is given to banks, that the baby check is removed, nor that public workers lose their extra pay nor that pensions get reduced", reason why he considers that "the people is legitimate to depose governments" who do not fulfill their word. 

In this line, he announces that they are preparing with unions and social movements "large marching columns to collapse Madrid".

Basque Country: giant banner and other activities against political repression in Navarre

As political repression against all those who dare to express their disagreement with the Christian Fundamentalist pro-Spanish regime in Navarre increases, so does rebellion.

Activists masked with fake beards, dark glasses and hats took to the roofs of the Old Quarter of Iruñea-Pamplona to raise a giant banner over Gaztelu Plaza, where Pompey (who gives name to the city) raised his camp more than 2000 years ago and the center of the city to this very day.

The triangular banner, resembling a festive neckerchief, read simply Askegunea badator, that is: the Freedom Zone (Askegunea) is coming. This refers to the activities in support of the victims of political persecution that will take place this weekend, with a march from Gares to Obanos[eu] on Saturday and a demonstration, followed by festive activities, in Iruñea-Pamplona on Sunday. 

In another video[eu], one of those persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition, Luis Goñi, explains that he will be around in Pamplona (but not in the march) this Sunday, openly risking arrest.

Source: Ateak Ireki[es]. 

Greece: antifascists march against Nazi headquarters, police protects the Nazis (again)

Greeks marched in great numbers (at least 50,000) against the Nazi headquarters in Athens. The march began in Syntagma Square at around 18:50 (GMT+2) after a column from Popylea joined the main bloc. In spite of rumors of arrests in Exarcheia, the march went undisturbed to just a few hundred meters from the Nazi see in Mesogeion, where, around 20:20 police blocked it, resulting in fierce clashes.

The main bloc of the march went back to Alexandras Av. while clashes continued around the Nazi headquarters. However police attacked them also around 20:55.

The latest update (21:00) said that clashes continued and many had been arrested. 

Source: From the Greek Streets.

Turkey: dozens arrested, many injured in yet another Taksim Square battle

According to Gara[es], at least 59 people have been arrested by police in Istanbul, including two journalists and one foreign citizen, as well as a physician and a student of medicine who were giving first aid to demonstrators. 

The battle between Erdogan's repression dogs and the popular march began at Taksim Square and Gazi Park, when the latter made the Nth attempt to liberate the public space from the hands of police and the corrupt authoritarian governmen, under the slogan "give back the park to the people", after a judge ruled that the commercial center project was illegal and null. 

The clashes continued in Istiklal Avenue, the main commercial artery of Northern Istanbul.

According to Webguerrillero[es], the march could not even reach Taksim Square, as police had blocked the end of Istiklal Av. with armored vehicles, quickly proceeding to repress with water cannons and tear gas. 

The march intended to symbolically bring the judicial sentence to the authorities in Gezi Park itself but the governor of Istanbul declared it illegal and proceeded to, once again, bring violence to the streets of the bicontinental metropolis.

Basque Country: hundreds commemorate the Battle of Noain (video)

Basques from Navarre and the other regions paid homage to the fallen in the Battle of Noain, one of the last stands of Navarrese resistance against the Castilian invasion of 1912-21, demanding once again the right to free self-determination. 

Source: Ateak Ireki.

Hundreds of thousands march against Monsanto across the World

The marches against the criminal Big Pharma mafia have walked through cities in 40 states: from South Africa to Japan, from Europe to America and Australia.

Tokyo:



Sydney:

Melbourne:

Nottingham:

Córdoba:

Etc.

Sources[es]: Webguerrillero, TeleSur.

Sicilians fight against planned US ultra-high frequency radar

From Struggles in Italy:

Ten thousand demonstrate against MUOS in Sicily

Posted on 2013/04/01 by Struggles in Italy

 

Around 10,000 people demonstrated on March 30 in Niscemi near Caltanissetta in Sicily against the proposed creation of the M.U.O.S. (Mobile User Objective System), a ultra-high-frequency satellite network to serve the US Navy.

The rally was opened by children from the local elementary school and their mothers, who formed a protest committee earlier this year. The Mothers Against MUOS, as they call themselves, have fiercely opposed the projects with pickets (including one at the City Hall of Niscemi), occupations and road blockades over the past three months. Their tenacity has earned them criminal charges (including resisting arrest and damage to property). Attempts at criminalizing the movement have resulted in alarm about “possible infiltration by vandals” and in the discovery of “vandalizing tools” on March 14, 2013. “We are not black blocs (anarchist protesters), we are concerned moms and we want our children to be safe,” responded the Mothers against MUOS committee.

(...)

Based on ultra-high frequency (UHF), MUOS was meant to replace the current system of communications (known as UFO) and to provide an enhanced communications service to mobile users, including drone pilots. Niscemi, 60 km south-east of the US base of Sigonella, is one of the system’s four strategic stations. The other three stations are located in Western Australia, Southeast Virgina and Hawaii. Lockheed Martin is the project’s developer and main contractor.

High power broadcast transmitters at mobile frequencies are the source of concern among the local residents, who fear cancer-inducing effects and other health hazards. The environmental impact of the station is also a source of concern. Niscemi is home to “la Sughereta”, a nature reserve containing one of the few wild cork oak woods still left in the country. Ironically, Sughereta is exactly the area where the MUOS station would be placed. With its satellite transmitters, MUOS would therefore violate the landscape protection act, which forbids the erection of high-voltage pylons, cables and other high-impact structures in the area. (As it happens, conveniently the boundaries of the reserve were moved in 2012 in order to make room for the project.)

... full story at Struggles in Italy. 

Honduras: March for Dignity and Sovereignty

The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) is 20 years old and is rather bitter birthday, as the situation of the Central American country is, as I put it days ago, worse than that of a banana republic and resembles more and more a fully failed state, largely thanks to the US-sponsored coup of 2009, which is selling the country off  to private corporations and landowners, local and foreigner.

For that reason the COPINH has begun the March for Dignity and Sovereignty, which demands: 

• Derogation of the Law of "Special Development Regimes, Areas of Employment and Economic Development", also known as "Model Towns" (but which would be best described as "Law of Extraterritorial Concessions to Foreign Slavers and Pirates").
• Derogation of the Mining Law
• Cancellation of all mining concessions
• Cancellation of environmental licenses for the building of reservoirs that privatize water and energy; rejection of the energy matrix, part of the enclave economy and predator of life. Immediate freedom for imprisoned comrade Chevo Morales.
• Stop to forester exploitation in the area.
• Reinstating the Program of Teacher Education for the Lenca People.
• Stop to violence against women and youths.
• Immediate registration of the Indigenous lands.
• True democratization of communication and the radio-electric spectrum.
• No more violations of Human Rights.
• No more criminalization of social struggles.
• Stop to violence and social insecurity.
• Respect to the application of Covenant 169 on the Indigenous Peoples.
• Cessation of the impunity and reparations to the victims of human rights' violations.

Source[es]: COPINH (via LINyM).

Thousands gather in Barakaldo against banksters' terrorism

Some 10,000 people (around 10% of the population) gathered this evening in the Basque town of Barakaldo, near Bilbao, to vent their anger for the bankster-induced suicide of a neighbor this morning, when her apartment was going to be foreclosured.

No to unemployment - No to foreclosures
For social protection

The protesters have marched through the industrial town crying slogans like Amaia, we remember you, Banker remember: we have a rope [implicit: to hang you with it] or No eviction without response!

Some protesters painted the offices of several banks with the wording: Assassins!

Culprits - Murderers

Similar protests are taking place today or along the weekend in other Basque towns and also in Spain, where the death, accumulating with the judicial challenges at European level, seem to have triggered some debate on the extremely abusive reality of the Spanish law on mortgages. 

Source: Elkartzen Bilbo[es], Naiz Info[es].

But mortgages are just the tip of the iceberg. While the "rights" of banks and other large companies (electric providers for example, employers in general) are defended with with the worst police brutality and judicial mercilessness, the true fundamental rights of people to the basics of life... those are simply destroyed. 

They hope that we just die silently in a corner without making much noise but, while many may do that, many others simply won't. And the anger is growing. Each of these abuses means more people ready to accept the guillotine working again against the new aristocrats.

And even to take justice in their own hands, as happened with some man from Sotopalacios who, after losing property to the banksters (well above the value of what was owed), decided to make them lose some as well, and burned the bank office (source[es]).

Bank burnt in Sotopalacios two days ago

Indian landless march on capital

As there is a land reform law under debate, some of the many many millions of landless peasants of all India have begun marching on the federal capital, New Delhi, demanding land for all. 

While politicians try to call them off, attempting to restrict the debate to Parliament and keeping it off the streets, the farmers undeterred are walking thousands of kilometers to demand a piece of land for everyone. 

After all, who can legitimately own land if he/she does not work it with his/her hands? Did they make land out of thin air as some sort of demigods? Or rather did they (or their forefathers) stole it from the community?

This is particularly a recent truth for the many tribes of India, which have collectively owned lands in parts of the union. As The Hindu recollects:

“Before the forest rangers came, my people have protected the forests for generations. How can they push us out now,” asks Manjanan, a 55-year-old from the Muduvar tribe who hails from a village near Valparai. 

The march is known as Jan Satyagraha, which could be translated as People's Struggle. Satyagraha, the central Gandhian concept of nonviolent struggle, is hard to translate to English, meaning something like insistence on truth, but I would translate is as truth-power, where power is undeterred determination, willpower. 

By the moment, in its 3rd day, the figures I have read speak of some 60,000 people but I can only imagine that the real figures are larger and will grow as the march looms on Delhi.

Dublin march for the freedom of political prisoner Marian Price

Marian Price has been arrested without charges for many months now in spite of her delicate health. Being a former IRA member, she was under freedom on license but in 2011 she was accused by the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Owen Paterson, and jailed without trial nor apparent evidence of any sort.

Another person imprisoned arbitrarily in a similar manner is Martin Corey but Price has become more of a rally point because of her health problems apparently.

The march was opened by the flute band Pride of Erin and had banners of the four historical Irish regions and the one of Ireland, as well as couple of anarchist ones carried independently. The march was called by much of Republican (Irish Nationalist) parties and movements in both administrative divisions, as well as the anarchist organization Workers' Solidarity Movement and Troskyist Workers' Socialist Party. At least 30 Irish MPs support the liberation of Price, some of them were in the march (Thomas Pringle, Dessie Ellis and Clare Daly).

The Garda (Irish police) filmed it all and collected names and addresses of some participants in a clear intimidation tactic.

Among the speakers, Paulin Mellon proclaimed repentance of having supported the Good Friday agreement, because it is only used today to justify persistent British occupation in her opinion.

Videos:

March:

Declarations:

Source: Borroka garaia da![es]

See also: Committee for the Liberation of Marian Price.

Basque Country: the pro-strike march continues through Navarre (video)

The March around Iruñerria (Pamplona district) continues under close watch of the Spanish military police. Video from Ateak Ireki[es/eu], including the participation of representatives of the Andalusian Workers' Union (SAT):

Also, an "anti-crisis social center" was occupied[es/eu] in Burlata, in the outskirts of Iruñea-Pamplona.

March through Navarre heats up for the General Strike of the 26th

The Patriotic Workers' Union (LAB) has organized a march through the district of Pamplona (Iruñerria) to prepare for the general strike called in the Southern Basque Country for the 26th. The neo-fascist forces of the Navarrese People's Union (UPN) are obstructing the mobilization by not allowing night camps in several towns.

There are also mobilizations in the other regions of the Southern Basque Country, for example in Araba:

(All media and links in Spanish and/or Basque language).


Update: another nice video of the March (first two minutes without speeches, then in Spanish):

Garoña March 2012: between hope and fear

Yet another September the March against Garoña Nuclear Power Plant (Northern Spain, near the Basque Country), designed with the same General Electric junk technology as the infamous Fukushima Daiichi NPP that so many problems is causing to Japan and all the Northern Pacific region, proceeded yesterday to walk the distance between Barcina del Barco and the perilous facility. 

Garoña NPP: the lack of security was evidenced by this action months ago

The thousands demonstrators had however a unusual illusion this day: Nuclenor, the owner of the plant, has not asked for a new extension and the period for doing it has already expired. In principle this would mean that a year from now the plant would have to close and be decommissioned. 

Garoña March 2012

In principle, legally... you know. That stuff only applies for common people like you and me not to the great bourgeois oligarchs. So while everybody is hopeful there is still much uncertainty, after all it is clear that the current reactionary government of Spain wants to keep all nuclear plants working even, as is the case with Garoña, beyond schedule. So the widespread rumor is that Nuclenor and its owners (Iberdrola, Endesa) are playing chicken with the government about the conditions of the lease and very specially about the new taxes and security demands for nuclear power, recently approved because of EU pressure.

Ideally they would both lose: Garoña will be closed as demanded by law and everyone would be happy... except the oligarchs and their pet politicians. And that is what has everybody worried: will they reach a last minute agreement and somehow cheat or even change the law?

Hopefully not. Hopefully this one will be the last year that the dangerous central, ritual sister of Fukushima Daiichi, is operating.

Major cities, roads and all the whole Basque Country are put at risk by Garoña NPP

News references[es]: Gara, EiTB (with video).

From Alburquerque to Madrid: march and hunger strike for solar energy

Alburquerque, with two Rs, it's not any typo but the correct spelling of the parent town of the better known Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is a town of Extremadura, Spain, which has some 40% unemployment and a solar energy project that may collapse if the Spanish government removes subsidies, as they have promised to, because they simply hate everything environmentally friendly that promises clean and real development independently from the oil and nuclear mafias. 

So the mayor of Alburquerque, Ángel Vadillo, 48, a rare specimen in the political class, initiated on June 11, a hunger strike that lasted 91 days, until yesterday. Prior to that, he marched all the way from Alburquerque to Madrid to demand the restoration of the solar energy subsidies.

Finally the government accepted to have a meeting with him. But that's all: Rajoy and his fascist camarilla continue on the way of rescuing their fellow banksters with the blood of the citizens and the hopes of reasonable development.

But Vadillo has already done more than enough, risking seriously his life, he has finally abandoned[es] the hunger strike. 

One person can lead the way but alone he can't bring change: thousands, millions are needed.

Merkel visit to Spain sparks protests

In Madrid thousands went out to reject cuts in the social budget and the destruction of workers' rights, in Dos Hermanas, Andalusia, a German supermarket (Lidl) was occupied, within the context of the Worker March, promoted by the Andalusian Nationalist Left union (SAT).

Madrid:

Photos from La Haine, more at C.S. Iskra.

Dos Hermanas:

Occupied Lidl (German) supermarket

Arrival of the Worker March to Dos Hermanas

Source: Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores (SAT).

Capitalists cheer EU's fascist impositions and demand faster bail out to be paid by the workers

Meanwhile the Spanish capitalist syndicate (CEOE) demanded that the European "bail out" to Spain happens already. Because they want the pretext to apply even more class violence against the working class within the administrative boundaries of the Spanish realm.

The extremist declarations[es] today of the vice president of the Spanish capitalist syndicate Arturo Fernández, demanding that Madrid begs for the European bailout as soon as possible and does not wait anymore, evidence who is directing all this operation of reorganizing public expenditure from minimal social welfare to the banks and corporations with the pretext of a crisis that not for being anymore real excuses all the class aggressions at all.

While the Spanish conservatives in power would seem to prefer to wait until November, after the Basque and Galician elections leave them without any more predictable electoral commitments for some years, the great bourgeoises are in a hurry to make sure that they can squeeze even more their workers and that they get more subsidies and tax benefits instead of the poor.

But for the workers it would be much better that the state declares bankruptcy (not that it's necessary: there's a lot to cut in military and police spending yet) that to be sacrificed to the moloch of the eternally growing debt, like Haiti was 200 years ago by a merciless France. 

The debt of Spain, not counting the Bankia scam, is not too high so it's still time to drop the banks, cut in NATO and move on, restoring investment in solar energy, research, etc. Not that they will do it, but it's the most reasonable option from the viewpoint of society as a whole.

The mismanagement of this crisis by the reactionary right will push the country to an implosion that can only culminate in a revolution, exactly as in Greece and Italy and maybe other European states in due time. For that reason the government is protecting the colonels and generals who, against the law, are making fascist proclamations and rattling sabers. 

Sabers that today are ultimately powerless however.

Andalusian Worker March VI: BBVA offices in Utrera occupied

As you may know the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) is the largest Basque bank and second largest one of the Spanish realm. Its offices in the Andalusian town of Utrera have been occupied today, as part of the mobilization and disobedience campaign that is the Worker March promoted by the Andalusian Workers' Union (SAT).

The nonviolent action, which mustered the comprehension and even support of bank workers and customers, took place simultaneously with the daily press release. This time police abstained from using violence in the eviction and nobody was arrested. 

In previous days other bank offices or corporate sees have been occupied as well: Zara-Inditex in Granada a few days ago or that of Banesto yesterday in Málaga. 

The march journey concluded at Los Palacios, whose mayor joined the protest before La Caixa, another big bankster, which has abused small savers with the scam of the "preferential stock", which was sold as equivalent to a long-term account, abusing the naivety of the people.

Sources[es]: Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores, Madriz Rebelde.