The struggle against austerity steps up a notch as on November 14 an international general strike takes place across several European countries, with demonstrations and solidarity actions across the world. Please post live reports from the area in the comments below.
There will be official general strikes supported by most major trade unions in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. Rail workers in Belgium will join the strike, as will some unions in Cyprus and Malta. Solidarity demonstrations are planned across the rest of Europe, including France, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey and across Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. The European trade union federation ETUC has an action map of the biggest events planned: http://www.etuc.org/r/1897
Pictured above, French workers fired the first salvo in advance of the general strike as striking firefighters block tramlines in Le Mans.
In the comments below, please post personal reports if you were involved in any of the strikes solidarity actions, or if not please post updates from social media or new sources as the day progresses so we can build a good cross-section of the events.
Comments
Portugal Pickets have started
Portugal
Pickets have started in Portugal - updates on Twitter at
https://twitter.com/Igualitarista and https://twitter.com/mdbergfeld
More comprehensive coverage in Portuguese at
https://twitter.com/DLaoVivo
Greece
[youtube]3T8KwbZIPN4[/youtube]
http://www.eldiario.es/politi
http://www.eldiario.es/politica/Varios-actores-toman-teatro-espanol_EDIIMA20121113_0533_13.jpg
Actors occupy the Teatro Espanol at midnight.
Occupied Times: Pan-European
Occupied Times: Pan-European general strike - live blog
14N Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/search?q=%2314nRiseUp
urban75 thread
Spain Updates on Twitter at
Spain
Updates on Twitter at https://twitter.com/acampadabcn_int
Some stuff pulled from
Some stuff pulled from Occupied Times:
Puerta del Sol, Madrid, around midnight last night..
Barricades in Vigo..
[youtube]lrJhHEq5a5k[/youtube]
Police vs. pickets in Zaragoza
In Portugal, they're reporting 90% adherence to the strike by health workers and a massive drop in electricity consumption in Spain (which I think means that there are loads of people out on strike/workplaces closed)..
Greece http://livingingreece.
Greece
http://livingingreece.gr/strikes/
A website which lists the strikes in Greece(in English). A three hour walk out has been planned for 12:00-15:00 but it's uncertain how many workers will take part and what will be affected.
A protest rally has been called by the unions for 13:00 in central Athens and the police have already ordered the metro station in Syntagma Square, in front of the Parilament, to be closed.
the Graun:
the Graun: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/nov/14/eurozone-crisis-general-strikes-protest-day-of-action
In Malaga the port had a
In Malaga the port had a decent sized picket at the port offices this morning at about 8.30am local time- the doors of the port office which were locked and covered in posters and union flags. The entrance to the port for cars was padlocked but the entrance for lorries was open- none seemed to be arriving but I saw lots of tankers leaving and no strikers were at that entrance (though they may have been moved on by the police or army by the time I arrived). There are soldiers all over town- most of them seem to be shopping now. There are also a lot of private security guards at the train and bus stations and shopping malls. Almost all the trains are cancelled and buses are on a much reduced service. I may have missed some action and the early pickets as I had to trek into town from the outskirts and arrived later than I'd intended.
I will upload some photos later.
Spain 600 flights cancelled
Spain
600 flights cancelled so far (Simon Nixon, Wall Street journal journalist complaining on Twitter that there is no breakfast at Madrid airport, nor even anyone to make coffee!)
80% of train services not running
clashes between strikers and police, 32 arrested so far in Madrid
Portugal
160 flights cancelled
Lisbon underground railway shut down
90% of train services not running
Italy
5000 strikers March in Florence
Belgium
Belgium's rail network, including international lines seems to be completely shut down
Just saw this from these
Just saw this from these folks:
Communications Blockade – Francis Maude
Posted on November 14, 2012
Rank & file civil servants are taking part in a day of action against attacks on their terms and conditions on today (Wednesday 14 November).
As part of this action, there will be a communications blockade of Francis Maude – minister for the Cabinet Office and architect of the attacks on government workers.
We ask all who support the struggle of workers against this government’s attacks to join us in this action. The aim is to disrupt the smooth running of his office by jamming up telephone and fax lines as well as his email inbox for the day.
Westminster Office
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 2494
Fax: 020 7219 2990
Email: [email protected]
Constituency Office
Gough House, Madeira Avenue, Horsham, RH12 1RL
Tel: 01403 242000
Fax: 01403 210600
Send Free faxes via http://www.freepopfax.com/
From popfax, input number as +44 (leave out 0)
#14N European Strike -
#14N European Strike - Storify by acampadabcn_int
Updates in Spanish from the CNT
Updates in Spanish from Rojo y Negro
Updates in Spanish from alasbarricadas
RT: live updates ----- live feed
AJE: Anti-austerity strikes erupt across Europe
BBC: European workers stage austerity protests
Guardian video: Austerity protests in Spain and Portugal
[youtube]V0AngZ-sfZE[/youtube]
Stopping the buses in Lisbon
[youtube]7R2U01z6ots[/youtube]
Salamanca
[youtube]12L-wqdvDSY[/youtube]
Granada
[youtube]1ptjt-8jAoM[/youtube]
Milan
Great blog by Dan Hancox
Great blog by Dan Hancox reporting on the flying pickets which shut retail outlets across Madrid from midnight: http://dan-hancox.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/flying-pickets-at-midnight-general.html
Just been on a march through
Just been on a march through Malaga coming from the north then heading west via the port and train station. a few CNT flags (appx 5) and a few more CGT- the majority seemed to be public sector workers with home-made banners. From what little I could gather in my very limited Spanish they are mainly further education workers, some medical workers and many students- we blocked a number of major roads en route. There was a great moment when we were on a bridge over a river and saw a different march (UGT I believe- but they only had 1 flag so not positive on that) on the next bridge along going in the opposite direction and we made a lot of noise and they came to join us and swell our ranks- to much cheering and applause. We called out a few retail and service workers en route- and shut a few stores and cafes. For a while we blocked the General Medical Centre entrance- we then made our way to the train station where there was a (majority) CCOO picket (supported by a good number of CGT and UGT members) who joined us to march to a nearby shopping mall- the entrance of which (like the train station) was blocked by riot police (carrying their helmets but not yet wearing them). We stood about and chanted for a bit then the transport workers returned to their picket, a few non-aligned anarcho-types stayed there to shout at shoppers and police and the education/ public service march carried on up the road northwards. No sign of any soldiers anymore but lots of police on motorbikes and now a helicopter. People generally seem in good spirits. I haven't seen any violence or property damage.
Scotland Protests 6pm
Scotland
Protests 6pm this evening:
Edinburgh, Royal Mile: https://www.facebook.com/events/160466714095983/
Glasgow, Buchanan St: https://www.facebook.com/events/457168841002360/
Greece A group of thousands
Greece
A group of thousands of striking workers has just held thier protest in Athens. Striking workers, students and the unemployed gathered during the afternoon work stoppage. The protesters marched through central Athens to reach Syntagma Sq carrying the flags of Spain, Portugal, France and Ireland. The Parilament building on Syntagma Sq was surrounded by it's customary police guard and fences but no clashes occurred.
Damn, that Milan shit looks
Damn, that Milan shit looks alright!
I got down after the demos had finished. Talking to people, it seems that the CGIL-organised one had about 3,000 people on it; the students' one about 5,000. There was another demonstration in the north of the city, organised mostly by workers from San Raffaele Hospital, but I haven't been able to find any more info on that.
Will have a little look around now!
some photos from my day so
some photos from my day so far in Malaga posted at
http://www.facebook.com/armadillo.wotsit
I tried to delete the pics of people who looked displeased at having their photo taken- but this was a public march so hope it's OK that some of those pictured will be identifiable...? No one did anything naughty anyways.
Another video from
Another video from Milan:
[youtube]FpPHUTVhCoI[/youtube]
And fighting between protesters and police in Turin..
[youtube]WmU63KRvHsA[/youtube]
In this article, it also says that protesters occupied the skyscraper of Turin headquarters of Intesa San Paolo, one of the big banks in Italy.
It also says that protesters blocked the tracks of the central station in Palermo and that there was fighting in Rome, where police fired teargas. Napoles and Pisa also saw brief occupations and one policeman sounds like he was badly hurt in Padua.
Union demonstration in Rome.
Union demonstration in Rome. Reports saying there were 50,000 on the streets there..
And in this video from Corriere della Sera, it seems like the fascists had a demonstration today as well (from the video it looks like they were on their own though).
Edit: more stuff from Rome, this time without fascists.. ;)
High school occupied in
High school occupied in Milan:
More videos from Milan.. just as a quick comment, these seem a bit more heavy-going then what normally happens. Fighting is pretty common in Rome or Turin, but Milan is usually a bit more tame than this..
Tilburg, Netherlands: small
Tilburg, Netherlands: small solidarity action (between 10 and 15 people, mostly Occupy-related folks). Brabants Dagblad, in Dutch but with two pics.
Cop van breaks down in Turin,
Cop van breaks down in Turin, coppers have to push it down the street! :)
No TAV protesters in Piemonte blocked the A32 motorway from early in the morning until about 10am.. there are some photos here from La Repubblica.. and a video below..
In the interests of not
In the interests of not making this just about Italy, here's what's going on in Spain.. people saying there were 100,000 people in Seville..
More from Seville
[youtube]NT3c5fRLjI[/youtube]
Valencia
[youtube]nAdFWTM2t0E[/youtube]
[youtube]eE8-a8KEFYk[/youtube]
Back to Italy, it looks like
Back to Italy, it looks like at least 10,000 protesters marched through Bologna today..
There was also tension when one of the demonstrations marched past the building of the CISL union. CISL are one of the most/possibly the most scabby of the big unions in Italy, and weren't striking today.. as the demonstration went past their building, people threw eggs and then pushed their way in! Some great photos from La Repubblica for anyone who hates scabby unions.. :)
Nice picture of Port workers
Nice picture of Port workers on strike in Lisbon..
I'm off out now, but if anyone has any other updates then share!
There's a big student demo
There's a big student demo against austerity later today in my town (midwest U.S.). I plan on being there so I'll post a report if it's anything interesting.
Thanks for all the Italy
Thanks for all the Italy updates Ed.
NLSF write up on some action here in London:
[There are some worthwhile links if you go to the SF site, but I'm too lazy to hyperlink here on libcom...]
http://solfed.org.uk/?q=north-london/nlsf-members-out-to-support-civil-service-rank-and-file
NLSF Members Out to Support Civil Service Rank-and-File
Today saw members of the North London Solidarity Federation join civil service workers, lay reps, and members of the newly formed Civil Service Rank-and-File Network (CSRF) in a two hour informational picket outside the London passport office.
Officially called as part of a series of lunchtime protests against government attacks on civil service terms and conditions, the demonstrations have been timed to coincide with the European general strike happening today in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy and a number of other southern European countries.
It should be noted that SolFed has established contact with this particular group of workers in two ways. One, SF is very close to one of the founding members of the CSRF. Indeed, the network calls for many of the same tactics advocated by SF including workplace committees, communications blockades, and independent rank-and-file action. Two, some of the same PCS members we stood alongside today have taken time from their lunch breaks to attend the Pret a Manger pickets which happen down the road and which have been supported and promoted by SF.
It seems solidarity is more than just a word to these civil service militants and North London SolFed look forward to further coordination, support, and mutual aid.
The timing is coincidental,
The timing is coincidental, but MP for Hove and sponsor of the recent law criminalising squatting was reportedly attacked (variously by rocks and punches according to Twitter rumours), before the police arrived and physically bundled him into a van.
[youtube]Pjks2ib00So[/youtube]
Argus report
Just back from CNT march in
Just back from CNT march in Granada. We stayed separate from other marches, didn't even see the main UGT/CCOO march and couldn't see any evidence of it anywhere. CNT turnout mainly students, some local govt workers and agricultural, got rowdy towards the end when went through the city centre to bars/shops etc that have either been in conflict with the CNT before or were being told to shut because of the general strike. In Plaza Trinidad kicked off a bit, Nacionales got their gas/rubber bullets out and did a charge but nothing much more than that. Shoppers alarmed to see rowdy anarchists approaching, but Granada seems to be a very conservative town, loads of people out shopping during a general strike, seemingly oblivious to the issues. Glad to see CNT sticking to its guns, refusing to compromise on the state funding/participation in Works Councils issue and therefore marching separately from the CGT, even if the latter is bigger. It's gonna be a long hard struggle.
Cops in Spain push a woman
Cops in Spain push a woman down a flight of stairs earlier today:
more police brutality in Italy:
and an amazing photo from Barcelona just now:
Holy Fuck! All those
Holy Fuck! All those pictures are amazing (although the first two in an obviously far different way than the third.)
Now obligatory shot of people
Now obligatory shot of people kissing in front of riot police line, from Italy:
The third demonstration that
The third demonstration that took place in Milan today, of workers from San Raffaele Hospital.. check out USI-AIT front and centre of the video! :)
Will try and find out how that demo went as its part of a live dispute, so arguably the most important of the day..
Just to say, there are some
Just to say, there are some amazing videos on the Occupied Times updates. Here's some picks:
Barcelona
[youtube]vEux08N5hPI[/youtube]
[youtube]vboxzGyBrQc[/youtube]
Vigo
In a town of about 300,000 it's estimated that between 125,000 (by police) and 150,000 (by unions) turned out for the demo.
[youtube]TOZCD3p5PWw[/youtube]
Lisbon
[youtube]75QsP-UNgJU[/youtube]
Some pics as
Some pics as well..
Lisbon
Madrid
Solfed's write-up on
Solfed's write-up on Spain..
Solfed
Right, so leaving the
Right, so leaving the students rucking with the cops to one side, a quick round-up of the strikes in Milan (from the bits and bobs I've been able to pick up so far):
A lot of people were out for the 4-hour CGIL strike; teachers, airport workers, university staff, rail and some local public transport workers. To be honest though, even if transport felt a bit slower around the city this afternoon, there wasn't the mad rush you usually get when the local transport workers strike. Trains might have been different though.
San Raffaele workers also went on strike today. The CGIL staff followed the 4-hour one; not sure what USI-AIT and the other base unions there did.
As for the base unions generally, from what I could pick up, COBAS struck as did as did Unicobas. USB were definitely at the San Raff demo, I imagine they struck at the hospital as well. CUB didn't (though some were at the San Raffaele demo). I think CUB and COBAS are the two biggest of the base unions, and there's loads of inter-base union rivalry that apparently fucks up a lot of stuff.
Excellent report on Bologna
Excellent report on Bologna from the Struggles in Italy blog..
14N European strike: Bologna
Lisbon Outside parliament
Lisbon
[youtube]yA5s__ahkFA[/youtube]
Outside parliament
Excellent photo gallery here.
Excellent photo gallery here. Well worth checking out..
Also, this article was quite an interesting, if business-eye-view, Europe-wide round-up..
Madrid this evening:
Madrid this evening:
Police violence in
[youtube]zW2BMVBxc08[/youtube]
Police violence in Tarragona
-----
More photos from Spain
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The day's updates in Spanish on kaoenlared and La Haine
Some solidarity marches in
Some solidarity marches in Germany. Mostly limited to a couple of hundred protestors from alternative unions, leftist groups and a few members of the mayor trade unions. There were a couple of marches with FAU syndicates presence, such as in Cologne, Berlin, Frankfurt, Münster, Düsseldorf. More coverage in German language at the FAU website.
Here we have no left to speak
Here we have no left to speak of, but there was some small solidarity from the mainstream union and also from ZSP. http://www.zsp.net.pl/solidarity-november-14-strikes
Just one thing I'd like to point out, because yesterday I was doing the coverage in Poland, where there was essentially a media blackout and thus our anarchist portal was it as far as news. I especially liked the coverage they gave on the CNT page because you can see that they organized lots of decentralized actions and a lot of them related to ongoing work conflicts. (Like the protest in the hospital in Milan as well.) So for me this showed a different face of the labour movement: not some mass crowd of people following behind some bureaucrat union leaders, or even making their presence in such a crowd, but actually going to workplaces in conflict with some smaller group and directly shutting them down for example. From my perspective I found those types of actions to be really encouraging and to have some more direct effect on people, since in some cases people even went home or joined the strike because of them.
Roarmag: #14N: millions join
Roarmag: #14N: millions join largest European strike ever
Guardian: Europe unites in austerity protests against cuts and job losses
There was a trade union
There was a trade union organised A-B march in Malaga last night- it must have been quite large as I never saw the front and it took ages for the back of the march to get moving after the front set off. There was a good mix of people and a good atmosphere as we gathered with a CGT soundsystem playing revolutionary and class struggle songs.
I was bringing up the rear marching with the CNT local- at a guess there were 30-40+ of them and their supporters (not sure if all of those behind the CNT banner were members or not). They had a good banner which seemed to be getting a good response, and lots of photos from other marchers which roughly translated as "Now is the time to fight, without subsidies, without representatives"- they said that many union members were getting fed up with their reps and bureaucrats and they were confident their message would resonate. They also wanted to distinguish themselves from the CGT who apparently get much more media coverage and many of CGT's newer members aren't aware that CNT has a very different approach (ie not taking government money or using union reps). The CGT group were larger and clearly better funded (they had a van and a soundsystem, plastic flags and tabard thingys while CNT had fewer flags- but much nicer looking ones).
The CNT group were a very vocal bunch- making speeches through the megaphone- which I couldn't really follow -and some good chants which I got the gist of (e.g. "the system is the problem, revolution is the solution"... "a-a-a-anti-capitalist"...better in Spanish- other's I've forgotten). They also sang 'a las barricadas'. A very diverse group in terms of ages and gender and very friendly and welcoming.
I never made it to the end of the march as I went looking for a toilet and got lost- decided to head back to sleep as I'd been walking round town all day carrying loads of luggage and was totally knackered- it wasn't looking likely that anything was going to kick off once we got to the end of the route anyways. The police kept their distance and didn't seem likely to interfere and no one was there with the intention of causing damage to property (which I think was a good thing as the other marchers were probably more inclined to be supportive of logical argument than propaganda of the deed).
Thanks to all the CNT Malaga crew who took time to speak to me about their struggles, and ask questions about what SolFed and the other unions get up to in the UK.
There were things going on in Malaga when the strike started that I missed- informal pickets and so on.
I gave out the link to libcom so hopefully we'll hear from some of the CNT Malaga group in future.
Just seen that CNT Malaga
Just seen that CNT Malaga have posted their report of the events earlier in the day (before the big March of the evening)- sorry I can't translate.
http://malaga.cnt.es/spip.php?article693
Crónica de la primera parte de la jornada de huelga 14-N en Málaga
Desde las 11 de la noche, el local de cnt Málaga está abierto para orientar la acción de los piquetes y ofrecer un sitio donde descansar a todes aquelles que han querido hacerlo. A las 12 los primeros piquetes han salido hacia el centro, cerrando todos los bares. En uno de los pubs hay problemas con los dueños del local, acude la policía y realizan una detención. A las 5 ha salido otro grupo a reunirse con compañeres de otros colectivos, dirigiéndose hacia la Estación de Autobuses, que ya estaba cercada por la policía, y la estación de Renfe Vialia. En el trayecto se han ido cerrando los pocos locales que habían abierto, sin mayores incidentes. Sólo destacar el hecho de que cuatro policías locales han decidido desayunar justo en el momento que echaba el cierre un bar a solicitud del piquete. Cercados por la policía nacional, el piquete ha permanecido en la puerta del local hasta que los cuatro policías locales han terminado su consumición, que dicho sea de paso, no han abonado.
Una vez en Vialia, el gerente del centro comercial ha hecho uso de un nutrido grupo de policía nacional para expulsar al piquete del lugar; a pesar de ser suelo privado y de contar con seguridad privada también, la policía nacional se pone al servicio de la empresa privada para impedir la labor de los piquetes. A las 10 de la mañana, un nuevo grupo ha salido en apoyo de la paralización de un desahucio en el barrio de la Palmilla. El desahucio no se ha producido, en este su segundo intento: un administrador ha comunicado la paralización a les allí reunidos. Se ha continuado entonces cortando la Avda. Valle Inclán (circunvalación) en los 2 sentidos con una barricada. La gente ha continuado en manifestación espontánea desde allí hasta el centro, y en su recorrido han conseguido presionar pare cerrar un Mercadona, al que se ha entrado durante casi una hora.. Antes de ésto habían accedido al Centro Comercial Rosaleda.
También a las 10 salía otro grupo hacia la Delegación de Educación, respondiendo a la convocatoria de la Marea Verde de Málaga, en protesta por los recortes en la escuela pública. Sin embargo, la gran cantidad de personas que se han dado cita ha hecho posible una manifestación improvisada que ha circulado por Avda de Andalucia, cortando varias de las principales vías de la capital malagueña. Entre 500 y 700 personas han cruzado el río Guadalmedina hasta la Alameda de Colón. A este grupo se ha unido un piquete informativo, por lo que la acción de la manifestación ha sido doble, consiguiendo que los pocos locales que se encontraban abiertos a su paso cerraran. Sin embargo, tanto Vialia como el Centro Comercial Larios estaban absolutamente tomados por los antidisturbios, haciendo imposible entrar a informar en los mismos. A las 14 horas tiene lugar una performance llamada “Subasta de esclavxs”, a cargo de integrantes de este sindicato.
CNT-AIT Málaga
http://communismeouvrier.word
http://communismeouvrier.wordpress.com/tag/14-novembre/
As for Spain, we've probably
As for Spain, we've probably lived the biggests explicitly anticapitalist marches ever. If in the other general strike (29th march) the total number of people of the 80-odd towns in anticapitalist marches were between 150 - 200,000 people, this time the range has been of 200 to 250,000 (or even 300,000).
I'm not counting CCOO-UGT marches that, for instance in Madrid, took around 800,000 people to the streets, half a million in Andalusia, half a million in Galicia, half a million in Barcelona, 300,000 in Valencia, 100,000 in Alicante, etc... The official syndicalism have managed to gather around 3 million people in their demos. They tend to exaggerate the numbers a lot, but it's true that the turn out has been huge.
However, CNT + CGT + communist unions + neighborhood assemblies + social movements + occupiers (indignados of the 15M) took around 60,000 people in Madrid streets. In Barcelona the figure is between 50,000 and 80,000 (organisers tend to exaggerate the numbers; but CCOO and UGT exaggerate even more). In Gijón, 20,000, in Tarragona 25,000, in Zaragoza 25,000, 20,000 in Valladolid, in Vigo 10,000, in Granada 10,000 and so forth. Those people went to anticapitalist (also called critic, alternative) demos or blocs.
Here there is the count of CGT in Catalonia. They might be exaggerating in Barcelona, but the figures in the rest of the catalan towns seems to be realistic.
http://www.cgtcatalunya.cat/spip.php?article8212
CNT numbers are also surprising:
http://cnt.es/noticias/cobertura-informativa-huelga-general-14n
For instance cnt alone: Salamanca, 7000; Cartagena, 3000; 2000 in Valencia...
We are still in moving in a rate of 1/10 of the force of the bureaucratic unions, but the growth is impressing.
CNT update pickets around the
CNT update pickets around the state. The general trend: fairly quiet day in many cities and fulfilling the goal of stopping the activity in the industrial areas and major markets. Widespread impact of the pickets also in the city centers. Massive demonstrations followed in the afternoon. Anti-repressive alert in Logroño and Granada!
Translation of CNT web coverage: CNT, Cobertura informativa: Huelga General 14N
http://tarcoteca.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/cnt-informative-coverage-general-strike.html
General strike in
General strike in Lisbon:
Massive participation. Many thousands at the demonstrations.
Police charge demonstrators at the Parliament originating riots.
Dozens detained (some talk of 120). Many more injured.
[youtube]bzodV6ogQwE[/youtube]
USI-AIT block on the health
USI-AIT block on the health workers demo in Milan..
Edit: video of the health workers' demo..
[youtube]huCR-V8cs3o[/youtube]
The Guardian: Photos from Spain and Portugal
Thanks very much for the
Thanks very much for the reports everyone, especially the first-hand ones!
Sheffield - Civil Service
Sheffield - Civil Service Rank & File Network picket - more photos from the pickets here.
14N really deserves its own photo gallery but for now Demotix has photos from across Europe including London, Paris, Padua etc.
Infoaut: #Italy #14N: the
Infoaut: #Italy #14N: the rage is growing
A video worth watching from
A video worth watching from the Portugal thread
Malaquias