15 May 2011: Spain awakens (?)

[vanlose kid]

Extra post: #spanishrevolution - A quick Guide to What's Happening in Spain Right Now
A special report by Pau Garcia Valladolid, May, 2011

Hello everyone, and thanks for coming to read my second installment. I am preparing my announced explanation about the insights of the unemployment in Spain as promised, but the events happening in Spain since May 15th and developing until right now as i'm writing deserves to put away that article for some hours and make a quick recap to satisfy the questions several readers and friends outside Spain are asking.


The Five W's


Madrid has been literally invaded.
Who is it about?

A huge amalgam of groups and civil associations, the bigger ones "Democracia Real Ya" (Real Democracy Now) "No les Votes" (Don't Vote Them) moving TENS OF THOUSANDS of people from every politic side, and ranging from 16 to 70 years old. More youngsters, of course, but in the late twenties and young families. Some traditional "alternative" dress codes but TONS of high university degrees between the groups. Smart people, and using social networks like crazy. they refuse to be from any political party, and specifically ask for removal of any sign related to parties, nationalisms, religions, or the old Kingdom vs. Republic discussion.

What happened?
On May 15th sixty different marchs were convoked using exclusively twitter, facebook, blogs and such. Not a single traditional media element echoed, neither any political party organized anything.



Is not a map of nice tourism cities, but centers of the marches.

Where did it take place? and When did it take place?
In each and every province in Spain, and once finished the march on 15th, every day in the different plazas in each capital of province, random numbers from 100 to 5000 people are CAMPING following with protests. Today as well. Tomorrow as well.

Why did it happen?
Finally it seems the "civil society" as we say here are starting to awake. The slogans are incredibly varied , most of them very catchy, and covers dozens of topics, asking for fundamental changes in Elections Law (asking for open candidate lists, instead the current closed lists that made that even politicians currently waiting for corruption trials are elegible in this weekend Municipal Elections), to threats à là Icelandic : To haunt and trial the bankers and politicians responsible for the biggest scandals in the recent years, ranging from the sale of millions of ounces of gold to appeals to a fundamental switch in the way of thinking: "Apaga la TV, ponte a pensar" (Turn off TV, start to Think).

How did it happen?

No flags, no funny party colors. Just people tired and angry.
The Social Networks, namely facebook, twitter, and prominent independent forums as burbuja.info have been working for weeks now, trying to convince everyone that a) It was not a movement instrumentalized by any political party and b) It was time to go out. If with 5 million of official unemployment (21% of active population, more on that on my next article), a huge real state bust product of massively weak credit politics, encouraged by stablishment, and uncertainity about the inmediate future watching how other countries at our side are getting more and more social cuts to pay the crisis generated by the elites, don't go out, then when?


The Stakes Have Been Laid Down
From the complete blackout that the biggest march on 15th was given by all newspapers, TV and in general, official media, to the several debate programs that today are running in every TV channel, this four days have seen a true meaning for everyone. This is not a kid's game, the Powers That Be are using everything on it: From only showing the typical dawn quarrels between 5 "professional rioters" and the police, in order to make a 20,000 people march appears like an anti-system battle, to mutual accusations from the biggest parties of being the source of the movement to, of course, mine and disgrace "the other". The significant other, i must say.

The first part is done. People is awake now. the second part is going to be harshest: If the upcoming elections see a raise in the number of voters, but a decline in the two biggest political parties (Out own republican and democrat parties) , the social movement will go further, and probably some key changes will start to evolve. But if less people vote, or in uncertainity the fear moves people to the biggest parties, as strong as the tide arrived, it will go back to the traditional and sadly famous spanish lack of interest on anything beyond food, R&R and soccer.

Thats it for now, thanks a lot to the people that is encouraging me to follow this series of writings, im really excited to debate and study different point of views. As always, feel free to contact me at paugarciawall@gmail.com.

Don't get too busy,

Pau Garcia


Next Week Topic (if we don't burn the Senate this weekend):
20% unemployment in Spain: Is it really a 30%? Or it's a 10%?

http://pauagainstthewall.blogspot.com/2 ... quick.html

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[vanlose kid]

Live Webcast From Biggest Spanish Protest Yet
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/19/2011 16:37 -0400

CDOCollateralized Debt ObligationsUnemployment


Last year video of Greek protests turning violent was enough to force Waddell & Reed to sell several thousand ES contracts which crashed the market. Will this year's catalyst be Spain (which may just be too big for the CDO known as the EFSF to bail out)? While the gatherings in Spain have been getting bigger (and judging by this live feed, the one tonight is the biggest yet), they have so far been peaceful. Yet with 21% unemployment, and according to some over half of youth without a job, just how long until someone decides to send a flaming Molotov cocktail at the riot police? Watch a live webcast from Spain below.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/live-w ... rotest-yet

webcast at link. couldn't figure out how to embed ustream.

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[vanlose kid]

Pau's first "rant":

Against the Wall – Spain and the ultimate Wall of Worry

A special report by Pau Garcia Valladolid, May, 2011




Hello everyone, and welcome to my first installment of “Against the Wall” , a podcast and newsletter covering several economic topics from a perspective based in Spain.

My name is Pau Garcia and I am a small business owner, specialized on collectibles, coins and antiquities, but i always had a knack for Macroeconomics and their influence in the average joe's life. My job allows me to travel quite a lot through most parts of Spain, Europe and the world, and I have decided to summarize all my experiences and thoughts related to the ongoing crisis that is defying our current economic system.

I believe that sovereign debt, in particular US and European debt , is one of the key factors that will mark the outcome of this crisis. And we in Spain are in the frontline of that battle, as probably everyone is aware by now.

Speaking of Frontline, I would like to stop for a second to acknowledge one of my inspirations to start this venture: The respected investor and long time analyst John Mauldin, and his “Thoughts from the Frontline” newsletter, which is a weekly source of amazing information and insight. In no way I can dream of be close to that quality of work and value, but I think that everyone must have a role model, and mine is Mr. Mauldin.




The role of Spain in the financial markets: A tool or a player?


Today I would like to take a closer look of the role of Spain in the Euro financial market. During several years, we have come across two very different ideas:


On the expansion years, the stock market and the big capital movements inside Spain have been dictated through the traditional financial markets, specifically London. There has been a feeling that, whatever the good or bad news were, you needed to convince the City and, in some cases Wall Street, in order to get a decent move in the capital directed to Spain.


However, with the recession years now installed on the distressed balance of the country, either at political, private or state level, we are becoming aware that suddenly Spain is not a toy that Forex traders, ETFs, sovereign funds and the like can move at their will.


Suddenly, Spain is becoming our own European “Too Big To Fail” country, with several declarations of EU top economists about the “sterilization” of the debt problems that ravages the smaller countries, in order to stop a bigger, unable to be handled, problem: Us.
The inability of Spain, like any other country in the Euro area, for create its own currency and therefore helping to ease their balance problems, is becoming a dual-cut blade.




The two faces of the same coin

In one hand, that special agreement of the common currency hurts even more the economies of Spain and the other Mediterranean countries (I will refuse to treat them as PIIGS, as stills amazes me how a financial commentator can coin that term and feel fine using it when referring to almost one hundred million people)

But in the other hand, in Spain and as I see in Greece and Portugal as well, its blossoming a very dangerous thought: Whatever will be the problem, the ECB must fix it. No politician or national economist head is going to admit this, of course, but somehow, when we are not the one in charge, we usually tend to soft our mindset and behavior .

At the end, the members of this game are going to face the harsh reality: They need to take full responsibility and make the appropriate decisions to get the train back to the rail. This can only be achieved through a new step forward in the common political and administrative union. Spain must push supra-national legislation that will ultimately allow European Commission to administrate every country as a whole.

The backdrop is the loss of autonomy, in a country that has a King, a Prime Minister, 17 autonomic Regions and more than 50 provinces, each struggling to get some part of the power, budget and attention. But the other solution is a huge step back: The exit from the Euro area, an option that no one in Europe, less the Spaniards which are mostly pro-european, think of.




Choosing the place in the chess table

In this current state of things, is the Spanish Government which must choose which road want to take: To wait for the other members of the Euro Area to take decisions for them, with the urges of a growing debt that every month is more expensive to repay, or make a step forward and show their fellow countries that, despite the hard adjustments that we have taken, and the ones that are still yet to come, Spain is willing to move more power from Madrid to Brussels in order to be an active participant of the policies and decisions of the Union.

This movement will make the Spanish market far more resilient to the capital movements of foreign capital, and at the same time will minimize the current concerns about the “checkmate” that , because of the present balance problems and the perceived lack of future growth, Spain is in.

So here we are, in this Wall, with nowhere to go, waiting for the politicians and regulators to make their move. I’m sure that we will see the unfolding of the match in the upcoming months, as we are really close of the coming of a new Prime Minister that can turn the way things are seen from Moncloa, our particular White House.


Thanks for your reading, and I really look forward to any discussion on this or other topics at my email address paugarciawall@gmail.com


Don’t get too busy,
Pau Garcia.
http://pauagainstthewall.blogspot.com/2 ... ll-of.html

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[vanlose kid]

Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Protests in Madrid against Spanish politicians grow

The social movement protesting against the political class in Spain has decided to continue its demonstrations and a protest camp has been set up in the ‘Puerta del Sol’ in the centre of the Spanish capital, Madrid. The organizers of the protest have suggested that protests continue 24 hours a day and that the protest camp should be maintained until at least next Sunday. In addition they are calling for a mass protest on either Friday or Saturday this week.

Following several hours of debate the organizers of the event said that they would continue their protests and discussed the idea of drawing up a list of demands to be presented to the government before concluding their protest at the end of this week.

The assembly which consists of the spokesperson for seven groups made it clear that they did not represent any political party or association. They are demanding a new society where human dignity is more important than economic interests. They also said that it was an absolute priority that the social movement for political change should remain peaceful.

The organizers of the event have agreed to create a united front in the ‘Puerta del Sol’ while their demands, which will become public in a few hours, are being discussed.


Tomás Muñoz, one of the spokespersons for the protest camp said that both the protesters and the media should be patient while discussions of this ‘new collective’ were taking place.

According to the organizers of the protest in the ‘Puerta del Sol’ a similar protest in Granada has been broken up by the police.

The number of police at the protest in Madrid has been considerably reduced and just around 20 policemen and women are guarding the headquarters of the regional government of Madrid.

http://news-spain.euroresidentes.com/20 ... anish.html

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[vanlose kid]

reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comme ... s_keep_on/

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[vanlose kid]

Protest camps grow and spread across Spain claiming for “real democracy” during the last days of the electoral campaign
CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll


Barcelona / Madrid (ACN).- Many people in Spain are “angry” and disappointed with the political class and system due to the economic slowdown and the political class. Some are said to be fed up and started protesting last Sunday May 15th with demonstrations on the streets of Madrid and Barcelona. They are individual citizens, they want to change the system in a peaceful way, and they are organising themselves via social networks. The protest is coinciding with the last days of the campaign for the May 22nd local elections. Politicians have given their reaction from this Wednesday, combining an open attitude where they have been asking for an understanding of the protests but also asking for the people to protest with their vote next Sunday. They have also asked for those involved not to interfere with the elections.

The demonstration had been organised via Twitter, Facebook and other social media. Their motto was “real democracy now”, a motto that became the name of the civil society platform behind the protest. Actually, no political parties or trade unions are part of the protests, at least in an official and open way. They are protesting against “the system”, a system that has created an unemployment rate of around 20% in Spain, which increases to more than 40% among young people. Some of the hashtags used are #spanishrevolution or #yeswecamp.

The protest’s first days
Several individuals decided to camp after Sunday’s demonstration in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and the action was repeated on Monday night in Madrid and also in Barcelona’s Catalunya Square. On Monday, 500 people spent the night in the improvised camp in Madrid and about 200 did so in Barcelona’s Plaça Catalunya, a square full of doves and tourists on a regular day. Almost all of them were young and many had an alternative look or had participated in previous anti-system protests.

However, the turning point was Tuesday, when the number of people increased both in Barcelona and Madrid, and it gained more support. Tuesday saw older people, professionals, students, from very different backgrounds join the protest. During the day around 5,000 people congregated in Madrid and around 2,000 gathered together in Barcelona. The camp had already started organising itself in committees and assemblies on Monday though, and on Tuesday the first tents and chairs could be seen in Barcelona. The police intervened on Monday night in Barcelona and detained some people, who were afterwards released. However, Tuesday night was the final turning point, as police did not intervene and many stayed after midnight.

The intervention of Madrid’s Electoral Board
This Wednesday, the protest carried on in both Madrid and Barcelona, and spread to other cities across Spain. During the day, fewer people were congregated, but at peak hours more than 5,000 were gathering in Madrid, occupying the entire Puerta del Sol Square, and more than 2,000 people were doing the same in Barcelona’s Catalunya Square. People are coming and leaving, but the squares are always very crowded.

Today politicians started to talk about the protests. In a generalised way, all of them asked people to understand and respect the protesters. However, they reminded everybody that the electoral process cannot be interfered. The Vice President of the Catalan Government, Joana Ortega, announced that the Catalan Police may intervene and stop demonstrations during the reflection day (the day just before the election day) as she said the law bans public protests on that day. Ortega announced that the Catalan Government is now waiting for the final decision from Barcelona’s Electoral Board. It appears that protests in Barcelona would be tolerated by the authorities until Friday midnight but not during Saturday or the election day.

This is not the case in Madrid. This Wednesday afternoon, Madrid’s Electoral Board banned a scheduled demonstration for 8pm. However, the Puerta del Sol protesters decided at an assembly to maintain their camp and the demonstration. Police occupied the surrounding streets and protesters said they were trying to impede people transporting sleeping bags or other materials to the square. Finally, the protest is carrying on and campers are getting ready to spend another night, in Madrid, in Barcelona, and from today on, in other cities in Spain.


http://www.catalannewsagency.com/news/p ... last-days-

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[vanlose kid]

Spain-politics/demos/ Spanish protests begin spreading elsewhere in Europe
May 19, 2011, 11:26 GMT


Madrid/Berlin - Spanish pre-election protests demanding an overhaul of the country's political system were Thursday spreading elsewhere in Europe, with Spanish demonstrators organizing a rally outside the German embassy in Berlin.

Young disenchanted Spaniards organized the protest via social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, and summoned people to take part in a mass protest in front of Berlin's iconic Brandenburg gate on Friday evening.

The organizers demanded a 'real democracy,' and improved living conditions following the economic crisis.

Many young Spaniards left for Germany in the wake of the economic crisis and the huge unemployment it caused in their home country.

'We have been contacted by people in Hamburg, Leipzig, Dusseldorf etc, who want to come. Everybody is invited,' protest organizers posted on Facebook.

Calls for similar rallies were also being launched in London, Paris, Rome and Dublin ahead of the Spanish local and regional elections on Sunday.

Thousands of youths demonstrated overnight in Madrid, Barcelona and other Spanish cities, demanding a better future in the country with nearly 5 million unemployed - 20 per cent of the workforce. Among young people, the jobless rate exceeds 40 per cent.

The Madrid demonstrators defied a ban on the rally by the local elections board, which said it interfered with the electoral campaign. The city authorities deployed 500 police, who carried out security checks, but did not try to disperse the protestors.

Hundreds of people spent the night at the central Puerta del Sol square, defying rainy weather. Similar sit-ins were staged in several other cities.

'Some politician has said we cannot stay here on Saturday (pre-election reflection day), but we consider this square as belonging to us, and we will stay at least until Sunday,' a protestor named Roger said at Barcelona's Catalonia Square.

Growing numbers of older people joined the young protestors, who say the current political parties do not represent them.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists and the opposition conservatives were 'just the same crap,' said Victoria Espadas, 78.

The Socialists, who have come under criticism over their handling of Spain's economic crisis, are expected to suffer a heavy defeat to the conservatives on Sunday. However, it was unclear how the growing protest movement would affect the election results.

Protestors were becoming increasingly organized at the Puerta del Sol, where seats and even computers were available, while many citizens came to discuss politics with the activists.

Placards displayed at the square spoke of a 'defrauded generation.'

'Capitalism cannot be reformed, but it destroys itself,' one slogan read, while another urged politicians to: 'Tell us the truth.'

The movement began making headlines on Sunday after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in more than 50 Spanish cities.

The activists are demanding a thorough overhaul of the political system which they say favours the two large parties, obeys the interests of banks and powerful companies, and is mired in corruption.

'Why do we put up with the dictatorship of sinister markets, whose only goal is to make most of us scrape along or live on nothing at all,' while members of the elite can afford to spend thousands of euros a night on a hotel room, novelist Benjamin Prado asked.

The rallies are backed by hundreds of different groups representing the unemployed, people with precarious working conditions, those unable to pay mortgages, critics of internet copyright laws and neo-liberalism, and others.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/ ... -in-Europe

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[vanlose kid]

A Democratic Revolution in Spain

Barcelona, Wednesday night: "Aquí comença la revolució!"

The revolution begins here, shouts the crowd on Plaça Catalunya. There's maybe five thousand people, ten thousand people, mostly unknowns, mostly young, many older folks as well, no single aesthetic or political line. The plaça is full. They're calling it "our Tahrir square," and so far, they're not entirely wrong in this claim. In 60 other cities throughout the Spanish state, people are gathering in their central squares, with easily over a hundred thousand people participating in total, and it's only the third night.

In Madrid the police evicted the crowd from Plaza del Sol on Tuesday. They thought they were learning something from the recent general strikes, of September and January, by not letting a public area remain occupied to serve as a base for struggle. But somehow, the science of control always breaks down, it only ever works in retrospect. This time, they threw a torch in the powder keg, and the crowd came back 30,000 strong, also manifesting outside the prison, with anarchist banners, demanding freedom for those arrested. Since then, the police have been unable to control the situation.

All this started when a Twitter protest broke out all across the Spanish state on Sunday, 15 May, demanding "¡democracia real ya!" I didn't go because there was a debate, because democratic discourse makes my stomach turn. The protest in itself wasn't anything amazing, but the fact that it happened simultaneously all across the state made people hunger for more. Central encampments were suggested, and on Monday night a small group of people started camping out in Barcelona's Plaça Catalunya and in a few other cities. It struck me as the wrong idea at the exact right time. I told a friend, "90% chance it's a misguided social critique based in self-recuperating liberal values that won't go anywhere. 10% chance it's a misguided social critique based in self-recuperating liberal values that will explode into a revolution."

In the last half year, Barcelona has been rocked by two general strikes, one of which bloomed into a day-long insurrection, and the most combative, vengeful May Day protest in over a decade. The elections, state-wide as well as municipal, are on Sunday. It is strictly forbidden to have any political rally on election Sunday or the prior Saturday. The protestors in Plaça Catalunya are already calling for the camp-out to last "at least" until Sunday, and for a protest march to take place during the elections.

The police have already been indicating that the encampment is illegal, but to uphold the constitutional order of the country they are practically obliged to evict before Saturday.

Pacifism has made creeping gains in the Spanish state since the arrival of democracy, and it already proved itself capable of defeating the equally massive anti-Bolonya student movement in 2009, which the police easily and brutally evicted from the occupied universities and subsequently from the streets. But since the last half of 2010, people seem to be more fed-up, a little too indignant and indignified for pacifism, and mass situations have been tending towards violence.

The encampments have not been organized by Democracia Real Ya, nor is the latter a permanent organization, but the gathering has a decidedly democratic character, and an organizational structure based on separate commissions whose proposals are rubber stamped by a nightly central assembly where someone--often a crypto-Trotskyist living out his wildest fantasies--reads them via microphone and periodically remembers to ask the crowd to cheer and wave their hands as a sort of vote of approval.

During the Wednesday night meeting, an anarchist stood up and starting shouting a criticism of the centralized form of organization, at which point the Trot quickly snatched the mike away from the woman who had been reading her commission's proposals to explain to, and drown out, the benighted anarchist that it "wasn't a perfect system" but it's the best we had, and it was "absolutely necessary to organize ourselves." (An article that appeared shortly thereafter on http://lahaine.org spoke of the need for organization to achieve a long term "accumulation of forces," the tried and true Marxist strategy).

Several anarchists subsequently left the assembly but stayed in the square, talking and debating.

It seems that our place, as always, is in the margins, subverting the center, ignoring the unified assembly, multiplying conversations and meetings, assuring that the margins stay more interesting and more creative than the One Big Meeting. While most people did not seem to understand the critique that was shouted during the meeting (or even able to hear it), it was plain that most people felt more empowered and happy in the chaotic moments of the crowd than in the general assembly, when they were just listening and passively approving. Before the meeting, anarchists who were handing out literature--including critiques of democracy--were often swamped by people who wanted more, who were looking for new ideas and directions they hadn't considered before.

Self-organization in the plaça and a multiplication of conversations and debates will continue, and it remains to be seen if the central organizers will achieve the establishment of their real democracy and attempt to kick us out if we don't pass through their commissions, or if the police will evict us first before the conflict is able to ripen.

What's important is that we are here, on the fault line of social conflict, we've clearly taken sides, and we're looking for allies, while not being (too) arrogant with those we consider enemies. Because at this stage there is still a difference between those who are reproducing what they know but still acting from their passion, and those who get paid to do it; a difference between the politicians (or voters) of tomorrow, and those of today.

Social war is society against the State, not us against society. We're here, in our revolution, and it's a shitty, unromantic thing, but we already knew this was the world we lived in. At the very least it constitutes a definitive rupture with the daily isolation, and that's more than a starting point. The important thing is that we are here, ready to fight and ready to learn, struggling for total freedom, and unmasking recuperation wherever it rears its head.

Link to two anarchist texts distributed in the plaça, for those who can read Catalan: http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire ... /index.php

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?st ... 9102850883

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[vanlose kid]

Spain reveals pain over cuts and unemployment

Young protesters in Madrid and beyond have many different demands, but they are united in opposing the government

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 21 May 2011 12.59 BST


Protesters in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square, where around 25,000 defied a ban on demonstrations before elections on 21 May. Photograph: Pedro Armestre/AFP/Getty

The arrival of the table, a battered piece of formica bashed on top of four rough, oversized legs raised a cry of joy. Never mind that anyone on a normal chair would barely be able to see over the top – here was another small triumph of the new Spanish revolution, the gathering of angry Spaniards of all colours, ages and persuasions that is sweeping across the country and beyond its borders.

The table that arrived in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square was part of the swirl of creative chaos, naive enthusiasm and pent-up frustration that has transformed it into a makeshift camp for thousand of protesters who call themselves los indignados, the indignant ones.

Tents and mattresses, armchairs and sofas, a canteen, portaloos and solar panels have sprung up in a remarkable display of organisational prowess. And the mass of people jostling around, each pursuing their own dream or demand, or just watching others doing the same, seemed more like something transported from the Arab spring in North Africa than from Europe.

As the protests continued to swell on Friday, with 60,000 people defying authorities to obey the campaign's "Take over the square!" slogan in dozens of Spanish cities, and with copycat demonstrations across Europe, the question was whether this was the new May 1968 – a youth-led popular revolt against an establishment deemed to have failed an entire generation.

Esther Gutierréz, an elfin 26-year-old, wandered through the crowd with a battered shopping cart full of fruit.

"We've got so much food we don't know what to do with it. People just bring it to us for free and it's wonderful stuff," she said. "We want real democracy. Not just freedom for bankers. You're not from the Spanish press, are you? We don't speak to them."

Cynical and ingenuous by turns, the Madrid protesters and those who last week refused to obey orders to budge from the occupied city squares have torn up the rule book of Spanish public politics. The heavyweights of old – political parties, trade unions and media commentators – are not wanted here.

"I was sacked when the Madrid regional government closed down a women's centre last year when it imposed cuts," explained Beatriz García as she bashed a small frying pan with a wooden spoon. "The unions didn't even bother to turn up."

The political parties were worse, she said. "There is no renovation. There is nothing new or different, just two parties who take it in turn to govern because our electoral laws favour them."

Just a week ago Spain was known for the passivity of its citizens as they put up with one of the most depressing eras in recent history. Despite unemployment hitting 21%, widespread spending cuts and a socialist government bound to obey the diktats of Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the financial markets, they had refused to show their pain. Marches, sit-ins or riots were for the French – or British students. The real drama, anyway, was in North Africa. Spaniards stayed at home.

All that changed this week as demonstrations organised via Facebook and Twitter became static protests in city squares, mushrooming into something that caught politicians, unions and the media by surprise.

While journalists were following the dull routine of campaigning for Sunday's municipal and regional elections, the steam was beginning to escape from a pressure cooker of discontent.

Many Spaniards had told pollsters they were tired of the same, well-known political faces – especially those who are due to be re-elected despite being mired in corruption scandals. Politicians have rarely been held in such disregard, with the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, of the conservative People's party, rating lowest. Rajoy seems set to take over after a general election next March.

When police forcibly evicted the Madrid demonstrators on Tuesday morning, they came back in even greater numbers later that day. By Friday night authorities had lost the battle to impose rules banning public politics on the day before elections. Police could only look on. "Join us, police officers!" the demonstrators shouted.

By the early hours of Friday, it was already elbow-room only in the Puerta del Sol – the square which prides itself on being Spain's "kilometre zero", the spot from which all other distances are measured.

On the statue of King Carlos III, somebody had pinned a sign that read: "We are anti-idiots, not anti-politicians." Other placards read: "We aren't against the system, we want to change it", "Democracy, a daily fight", and "Take your money out of the bank!"

"We've brought tents, food and even Trivial Pursuit to keep us entertained," said Pablo Cantó, a fresh-faced 23-year-old journalism student. Like many younger protesters, and the movement as a whole, he had trouble expressing exactly why he was here. "We want change," he said. "Things just can't carry on as they are."

The heavy clouds of cannabis smoke suggested others had brought their own form of entertainment.

"I've been protesting for decades," said 60-year-old school teacher Rosa Marín. "I'm glad to see so many young people here. The questions is this: Is this another May 1968, or are they just here for the party?"

A gang of drunken skinheads, mindlessly chanting football terrace slogans, were there for the latter.

But a neat, disciplined circle of people intently debating social reform showed many were here in earnest. They took turns to stand up and make their proposals, the audience listening and using the sign language applause of the deaf – by shaking their hands above their heads – to show approval without drowning the speakers out.

The proposals, due to make their way through a laborious process of committees, working parties and general assemblies, varied from calls for less spending on the military to helping businesses. "Because it is not just money for the owners. They are the ones who give people like us jobs," said one young man.

For some younger protesters, it was a political baptism. "I don't know what will come out of this, but it is enough just to show everyone how upset we are," explained Javier de Coca by phone from the protest camp in Barcelona's Plaza de Catalunya, where there was a surprising absence of the nationalist or separatist symbols of protest movements in recent years.

"It's as if they've realised they have more serious problems to deal with," said one protester. One of those problems is 45% youth unemployment.

On a wall beside the tarpaulin-covered command centre in what some were calling Madrid's "Republic of Sol" – home to a press office, an infirmary and a legal centre – a list of needs had been pinned up. Toilet paper and food were scratched off the list. Bookshelves, wood, rubber gloves and bottles of cooking gas were on it. Volunteers were needed for a creche.

"We process the proposals and try to turn them into something that makes legal sense," explained a volunteer at the legal centre.

However, the open assemblies are painfully slow. Some last for hours, as everybody is given their turn to speak. After almost a week of protests, the demonstrators have failed to come up with a coherent set of demands.

Electoral reform to end the two-party system and action to both punish corrupt politicians and limit their luxuries and privileges were the main areas of agreement.

So is the Arab spring spreading to southern Europe? "You can't really compare us to people who were risking their lives by protesting," said 23-year-old computer engineer Jaime Viyuela. "But yes, you can say that we are inspired by the courage of the Arab spring."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ma ... employment

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[vanlose kid]

at least the media seems to be waking up.

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[vanlose kid]

Thursday, May 19, 2011
Spain's Tahrir Square

By Pablo Ouziel

Spain’s people’s movement has finally awoken, la Puerta del Sol in Madrid is now the country’s Tahrir Square, and the ‘Arab Spring’ has been joined by what is now bracing to become a long ‘European Summer’. As people across the Arab world continue their popular struggle for justice, peace and democracy, Spain’s disillusioned citizens have finally caught on with full force. Slow at first, hopeful that Spain’s dire economic conditions would magically correct themselves, the Spanish street has finally understood that democratic and economic justice and peace will not come from the pulpits of the country’s corrupt political elite.

Amidst local and regional election campaigns, with the banners of the different political parties plastered across the country’s streets, people are saying ‘enough!’ Disillusioned youth, unemployed, pensioners, students, immigrants and other disenfranchised groups have emulated their brothers in the Arab world and are now demanding a voice—demanding an opportunity to live with dignity.

As the country continues to explode economically, with unemployment growing incessantly—one in two young people unemployed across many of the country’s regions. With many in the crumbling middle class on the verge of losing their homes while bankers profit from their loss and the government uses citizen taxes to expand the military industrial complex by going off to war; the people have grasped that they only have each other if they are to rise from the debris of the militarized political and economic nightmare in which they have found themselves.

Spain is finally re-embracing its radical past, its popular movements, its anarcho-syndicalist traditions and its republican dreams. Crushed by Generalissimo Francisco Franco seventy years ago, it seemed that Spanish popular culture would never recover from the void left by a rightwing dictatorship, which exterminated anyone with a dissenting voice; but the 15th of May 2011, is the reminder to those in power that Spanish direct democracy is still alive and has finally awaken.

In the 1970s a transition through pact, transformed Spain’s totalitarian structures into a representative democracy in which all the economic structures remained intact. For the highly illiterate generations of the time, marred in the reality of a poverty-stricken country, the concessions made by the country’s elite seemed something worth celebrating. Nevertheless, as the decades passed, the state-owned corporations were privatized robbing the nation of its collective wealth, and the political scene crystallized into a pseudo-democracy in which two large parties PP and PSOE marginalized truly democratic alternatives. As this neoliberal political project materialized, the discontent begun to resurface, but the fear mongers, Spain’s baby-boomers who had once fought for democracy, were quick to remind the youth of the dangers of rebellion. For many decades in Spain, the mantra was, “it is better to live as we are than to go back to the totalitarianism of the past, and if you shake the system too much, it will take away our hard-earned rights.” So the youth remained silent, fearful of what could happen if they spoke, and the baby-boomers in their content blamed the youth for their indifference. According to them, it was the youth unwilling to work, which were bringing the country to its knees. But the youth have stopped this blame game, and aware of the true risks to their future are finally enticing the whole country to mobilize.

A failed European project, with its borders quickly being reinstated, a collapsing Euro currency, and the examples of Greece, Portugal and Ireland are the reminders to those on the streets of what it is they are fighting to disassociate themselves from, and of the freedoms they are working towards. The economic and political project of the country’s elite has destroyed the economic dreams of whole generations of naïve and apathetic Spaniards; it has left the country in the hands of bond speculators and central bankers, and Spaniards will have to pay that price. Nevertheless, the debt accumulated by the Spanish family, has also earned it the education with which it can understand what is going on, and through it Spanish people will liberate themselves from the tyranny of their government.

What has begun in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and has been echoed in fifty-two cities across the country is the crystallization of a popular movement for freedom, which has no intention of fading away. The people have no choice, either they take city squares as symbols of their struggle, or their message is never heard. The government knows this and that is why it has quickly responded by trying to disperse the crowds with its repressive police force, but following some arrests, the people are back with more strength.

A silent revolution has begun in Spain, a nonviolent revolution which seeks democracy through democratic means, justice through just means, and peace through peaceful means has finally captivated the imagination of the Spanish people, and now there is no turning back. The challenge ahead will be in keeping the collective spirit nonviolent as the police force does everything in its power to disintegrate the movement into a violent chaos that can justify its repression. The popular movement will also have to be alert as the bond speculators threaten the country with economic sanctions in order to scare the population into submission, and a constructive program will have to be articulated so that the movement can continue to function whilst providing sustainable alternatives for a different Spain.

Hopefully an articulate steering committee will flourish soon from amongst the crowds, which is capable of making clear and viable demands that grab the imagination of the country and force the political elite to comply. These are delicate times in Spain, if this spontaneous nonviolent movement succeeds, Spain may welcome a brighter future, if it fails, I fear violence will become the only option for those in pain. What those outside of the country can do for Spain is to echo the shouts of indignation coming from the country’s streets. So far both mainstream and progressive international media channels have opted for silence. Let us hope this silence breaks.

http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/ ... l05192011/

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"Uploaded by MCLyteNyng on May 19, 2011
Take an internet journey across Spain to hear directly from those in the country what their struggle is all about. No mainstream media reports, no "experts" and no politicians. Just the words and images of Spanish citizens hoping to make a difference."

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Democracia Real Ya! Revolution comes to Spain.

The party's just getting started on Plaza del Sol

Christy Colcord

I've been lucky on my current travels through Portugal and Spain with my niece to be in the right place at the right time for a number of noteworthy events. The most fun was had at a massive victory parade in Porto on Thursday (more on that in another post), but the most important event was the protest we stumbled upon in Madrid's Plaza del Sol on May 15th.

That day, a Sunday, had already been memorable for us as it's the festival day for Madrid's patron saint - San Isidro. We'd admired the special San Isidro cakes, chuckled at the children in their festival clothing, watched music & performances in Madrid's many public squares and seen a traditional religious procession along the main drag, Calle Mayor. It felt like all of Madrid was out enjoying the beautiful spring weather. As we strolled toward Plaza del Sol, we couldn't believe the masses converging into what seemed to be a sort of angry party. People draped themselves across every bus stop and fast food stand and spread upward along the many streets that converge in the plaza. Police later estimated the crowd at 20,000 plus.

Spain has a major election this Sunday the 22nd and the gathering was designed as a protest against the meager choices represented among the slate of candidates. Most carried signs that said, "Democracia Real Ya!" ("Real Democracy Now!) or various slogans representing the current batch of Spanish politicians and bankers as at best incompetent and at worst corrupt. There were speakers and music, though the crowds were so large we were never able to even catch a glimpse of the stage. It was an eclectic mix of ordinary people - not the usual band of squatters and anarchists I'm used to from European protests in the 90s. There was no obvious support for any particular party and it was the one place in town that I didn't see the ubiquitous PP/PSOE campaign materials. Mostly, it seemed that people were just there to express their displeasure at the way democracy has evolved in their country.

Spain essentially has a two party system like our own. There's the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers Party, represented by current Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the more conservative Popular Party. Newspapers generally seem to predict major losses for the Socialists, not unlike the losses suffered by the Democrats in our last election. Nobody likes the guys in charge when there's a recession on. Zapatero's government was popular when times were good and government coffers were full, as they were able to enact big social welfare reforms. Now that the money's gone and government belts have tightened, people are feeling the pinch. It's a not unfamiliar tune for us back home. Because we never seem to save for a rainy day or mismanage even when we do, social services get cut when the economy turns bad and people need them the most.

So everyone's mad at the Socialists for their handling of the crisis, but their competition, the Popular Party, are currently embroiled in a messy corruption scandal. Apparently, the PP politicians in Valencia were selling government contracts to unqualified companies for campaign contributions. So here's your choice, gente amable de Espana, corrupt or incompetent, incompetent or corrupt. Hence, the outpouring of support on May 15th at the Plaza del Sol for better options.

The Real Democracy Now Movement, or the "May 15th Movement" as it's now being called, was started by two ordinary guys fed up with the situation, Fabio Gandara and Jon Aguirre. They're not even calling for a boycott of the election - in fact they're encouraging people to vote for whichever candidates in either party they like - they just want a reinvigoration of Spanish democracy. They want more voter/civic participation and for officials on both sides to better represent the population that elects them. They were inspired by the internet spawned democracy movements in neighboring North Africa and used social media as the sole tool to draw the tens of thousands that have come to their rally. They felt that this passion for democracy in autocratic states should inspire those who already have democracy to ensure it lives up to its potential. I tend to agree.
A different kind of party on the other end of Calle Mayor - the festival of San Isidro.

Christy Colcord

A different kind of party on the other end of Calle Mayor - the festival of San Isidro.

As of the time I write this, the May 15th protest that we stumbled upon has inspired similar gatherings in at least 50 other cities in Spain. Protesters have remained in Plaza del Sol around the clock ever since. Police and local government officials have attempted to displace the protesters and the big showdown will come on early Saturday morning. Spain, like many reasonable places other than the US, holds their elections on a Sunday (when the most people will be free to vote) and campaigning is strictly prohibited for 24 hours before Election Day. The government is trying to argue that the protest is essentially a big campaign rally and should be forcibly ended Friday at midnight. The organizers quite reasonably point out that they're not officially supporting either party, so it can't be considered campaigning. The court is making its decision today, so by the time you read this the Square may be empty or there may be rioting going on. My niece received an email from the US Embassy telling us to stay away from Plaza del Sol and the major squares in other Spanish cities at least until Monday.

For now, the protest goes on and the crowd is growing. 'El Pais' today printed words of encouragement for the protesters from both Penelope Cruz and Pedro Almodovar. Apparently, May 15th support rallies are under way or are being planned by expats in front of Spanish embassies around the world, including in Chicago and DC. Maybe San Francisco should be next ? Let me know if anything interesting happens. I'll be in Barcelona on Election Day and look forward to seeing what Catalan Real Democracy supporters have to say.

(I must give the caveat that I am no expert on Spanish politics and am relying heavily on the Spanish daily 'El Pais', comments from Spaniards and my meager Spanish language ability to convey the details of the May 15th Movement and the upcoming election. Please forgive any errors or misrepresentations. I encourage those of you who are interested in the subject to do your own research through more reliable sources.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cco ... z1N0CAtw7k

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Ghost Manifesto – Spain’s Real Democracy Now

Author: Democracia Real YA! (!Real Democracy NOW!)* Translator: Hugh Green

Items of agreement for the plural manifesto prepared during the morning of the 18th of May in Puerta del Sol.

Those assembled in Puerta del Sol, aware that this is an action in progress and of resistance, have agreed to declare the following:

1. After many years of apathy, a group of citizens of different ages and social backgrounds (students, teachers, librarians, unemployed, workers…) ENRAGED by their lack of representation and by the betrayals that are being conducted in the name of democracy, have met at Puerta del Sol with regard to the idea of Real Democracy.

2. Real Democracy is opposed to the gradual discrediting of institutions that claim to represent them, which have become mere agents of administration and management, in the service of the forces of international financial power.

3. The democracy that is promoted from corrupt bureaucratic apparatuses is simply a collection of sterile electoral exercises, in which the participation of citizens has no effect.

4. The discrediting of politics has brought with it the capture of words by those who cling on to power. We must recover words, restore their meaning so that language cannot be manipulated with the end of leaving the citizenry defenceless and incapable of cohesive action.

5. But the examples of manipulation and the capture of language are numerous and constitute a tool of control and disinformation.

6. Real Democracy means putting proper names to the infamy we are living through: International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank, NATO, European Union, ratings agencies such as Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, Partido Popular, PSOE, but there are many others and our obligation is to name them.

7. It is necessary to build a political discourse capable of rebuilding the social fabric, systematically rendered vulnerable through years of lies and corruption. We citizens have lost respect for the majoritarian political parties, but this is not the same as losing our critical faculties. On the contrary, we do not fear POLITICS. To stand up and speak is POLITICS. To seek alternatives of citizen participation is POLITICS.

8. One of our principal premises is a Reform of the Electoral Law that restores Democracy its true meaning: a government of citizens. A participative democracy.

9. We insist that we citizens united here make up a TRANSGENERATIONAL movement because we belong to various generations condemned to an intolerable loss of participation in the political decisions that shape their daily lives and their future.

10. We do not call for abstention, we demand the necessity that our vote has a real influence in our lives.

11. We are not here today to simply demand access to mortgages or because of shortages in the labour market. THIS IS AN EVENT. And as such, a moment capable of giving new meanings to our actions and our speeches. This is born out of RAGE. But our RAGE is imagination, strength, citizen power.

*For further information and discussion of Real Democracy NOW! see here, here, here, here, here and here. Original text of the manifesto here.

http://www.criticallegalthinking.com/?p=3343

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