General strikes and the struggle against austerity in Spain

El Pais has a couple of short English language reports on the Valencia protests:

Valencia police clash with students protesting social cutbacks

Police clash with students once more as Valencia protests swell

There are photos going round on facebook of the police attacking a blind man on one of the protests

[youtube]1hf2MhNx-Q0[/youtube]

Report and photos on alasbarricadas

http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/node/19736

Also

videos

http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23Valencia

Spain budget cuts spawn 'Valencian Spring' protests (AFP)

Spanish police brutalize student protesters in Valencia (Roarmag)

alasbarricadas thread (machine translation)

[youtube]npV0CeQUxVc[/youtube]

CNT condemns police and institutional violence against students and workers in Valencia

With the intensification in indiscriminate violence on the part of the State police against students in Valencia who were protesting against education cuts, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo publicly condemns these attacks and demands the immediate resignation of the Government Delegate for Valencia, Paula Sánchez de León.

Furthermore, as anarcho-syndicalists, we send our greetings and solidarity to all those who were injured, and to their families and everyone who came onto the streets over recent days to defend the public education system. We admire the courage of all those who, despite the repression, put aside their fears and demonstrated in order to defend a decent future for the sons and daughters of the working classes. Their struggle is our struggle.

We should also point out the hypocrisy of the Socialist Party (PSOE), which is now requesting an explanation of the police behaviour after years in which its government adopted the very same policy of repression against any social protest movement.

Finally, the CNT encourages everyone involved in the public education system to continue the struggle against spending cuts, and oppose the wild policy dictated by the market to put an end to our future with the power of assemblies and mutual aid.

Let the rich pay for the crisis!

No more repression! No more education cuts!

Social Action Secretary

Social Movements Working Group

Permanent Secretariat of the Confederal Committee

Sometimes I truly confused why people don't prepare to such an actions of the police. It's fucking plain and simple: the filth must be stopped, disarmed, and paralyzed. Fuck the police!

soc

Sometimes I truly confused why people don't prepare to such an actions of the police. It's fucking plain and simple: the filth must be stopped, disarmed, and paralyzed. Fuck the police!

Really? IDK, I've been out on a few demos and the majority of them were not attacked by the police. I imagine most non-anarchos don't expect to be assaulted when they go to a protest. The first time I was attacked by a police officer, it rocked my world in a serious way and I hated the cops at that point.

Another general strike call

CNT Galiza

Given the scenario created by the latest labour reforms by the government and employers, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo-Galiza (CNT) is calling a general strike for 29 March along with the Confederación Intersindical Galega (CIG), Confederación Xeral do Traballo de Galicia (CGT) and Central Unitaria de Traballadores/as (CUT), coinciding with the general strike in Euskal Herria.

We call on the working class not to go to their jobs on that day, and to participate in the pickets and demonstrations that will be going on, both in the days leading up to the 29th and on the day itself.

The strike call will be formalized at the Regional Department of Labour next week, along with the other unions.

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/22056

Maybe part of the subtext here is that Galicia and the Basque country have significant nationalist/regionalist unions and it can make sense to call a general strike, even without the participation of the mainstream UGT and CC.OO.

So today was a European general strike or something right?

Either way it's kicking off in Barcelona right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-2vUjmvOIM

#vaga29f says that the Universitat de Barcelona rectory's been occupied too...

CNT call a general strike for the 29th: http://www.cnt.es/noticias/la-cnt-convoca-huelga-general-el-pr%C3%B3ximo-29-de-marzo

EDIT: OK looks like call is coming from main two unions feds, but CNT are also calling one: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17315961

General strike is on for the 29th looks like.

CGT just held a special congress to discuss the general strike and that congress issued a call for a general strike on March 29.

v quick before I go to work

updates from the south:

at midnight.
MercaSevilla shut by more than a thousand pickets, some trouble with the police
100% strike by the rubbish collectors in Cadiz
pickets going round closing bars at midnight
Jaen- 100 pickets make sure the post service is closed. Police search and arrest pickets.
1 am seville 70% of the night shift at Renault is on strike
2 am three arrests in Malaga of young pickets trying to close down bars
Pickets from the 15-M movement in Seville go round Triana closing bars
4:45 am Cordoba MercaCordoba not a single lorry enters. Three arrests.
8 am University of Seville 100% on strike

will translate more in the afternoon

electricity consumption is down 26% which means a lot of industry is not running.

Students blocked the main road into Madrid this morning causing a massive fuck-off traffic jam..

Also big transport and airline strikes by the sound of things..

Osuna (small town in Andalucia) 300 pickets have closed down all the supermarkets which were open and now are headed for the mercadona in Estepa.

Madrid- lot of police charges, people injured and arrested.

According to Soli Obrera the strike in the transport sector has been very strong.

There was a "bicipicket" of 200 cyclists going round the M30 motorway at nine in the morning blocking the motorway!

In the bus stations pickets "sabotaging" (don't know if breaking, painting over or what) windscreens of buses, these buses have had to stop running.

Electricity consumption lower than the last strike which means less industry running.

Police charges in the bus depots with horses, pickets arrested.

12 people arrested last night on pickets in Madrid

Protesters blocking Madrid motorway..

Uni students march down main road in Barcelona, also blocking traffic..

translations from Solidaridad Obrera

Young picket badly injured by police in Vitoria

Union lawyers say they don't know how many people have been arrested as the police are not letting them speak to people but that it is a lot more than last time.

La Rioja- strike is much stronger than last time. Only two newspapers for sale and pickets trying to stop distribution of those.

Madrid- very few people have gone to work in RTVE (buses) hardly any buses are running. A security guard threatened pickets with an iron bar.

(I think these are towns near Madrid or barrios of Madrid)
Carabanchel- two pickets arrested at Mercadona

Alcorcon- police threaten pickets at gunpoint. At midnight about 150 people picketing bus depot and stopping servicios minimos from leaving. Someone was filming pickets, they demanded to see some identification, this person refused, police then started shoving elderly pickets and arrested a younger picket who tried to defend them. The pickets gathered round and the police pulled out their guns. The police continued harrasing the pickets violently throughout the morning. Later pickets went to ALcampo where they had heard that the company was threatening workers if they went on strike. There were a lot of police waiting at ALcampo.
People said they couldn't ever remember such a strong strike in Alcorcon and they also remarked on the aggression of the police which was much worse that 2010 (which was no picnic either, translator's note)

Madrid- strike "massive" in industrial sector, much bigger than last time.
Ports shut down in Valencia, Algeciras, Vigo, Barcelona.
Burning barricades in Seville.

dp

Sounds promising, seems much more widespread and militant than the last couple of one day affairs.

Thanks to fingers for all the translations, and others for posting photos/updates

The Guardian reports that Greek unions have been watching the situation in Spain:

Greek unions are watching events in Spain closely today, says Helena Smith, our correspondent in Athens.

Greek unionists from both the public and private sector have told her they see today's general strike as the beginning of a Pan-European revolt against the self-defeating policies of austerity
Helena

Trade unionists representing civil servants in Greece, who have been hardest hit by repeated rounds of austerity over the past two years, said they were in "constant touch" with comrades in Spain and were monitoring the situation closely.

"Today's strike shows that it's not just us Greeks, there's a groundswell of aggression against policies whose ultimate aim is to turn Europe into a place of exploitation," said Ilias Iliopoulos general secretary of ADEDY which represents public sector employees. "Together we are determined to stop policies that are being enforced on us by a very small group of people."

Preparations for a major international conference in Athens of trade unionists from the EU and Mediterranean countries were underway, he told me.
"It will take place a few weeks after the [general elections] in May and everyone will be there, the Spanish, the English, the Belgians, the Germans. They all want to come to discuss ways of fighting these totally unjust, totally counter-productive policies. Greece is small and it can't do things alone but from the beginning we've been the laboratory for these measures and are seen as the country on the front-line. "

That looks fucking wicked.

Thanks for the translations Malone.

In the end, who was this strike endorsed by? Any of the major union federations?

The strike was convoked by all of the unions, though not necessarily together. The CNT for example convoked a general strike on its own account rather than seconding the call by the major trade unions.

CNT, CGT, Solidaridad Obrera and a few smaller groups called for a joint march this evening, separate from the one called by CCOO and UGT, which I just got back from. I can barely estimate how many thousands were there, but I'd say at the end at least 10,000.

All the reports say it's much more militant than last time, more people out on strike, more picketing.
Interesting that the 15-M assemblies have been involved in pickets.
Everybody says that there are more police out than ever before and that they are more violent.

Strike report Catalunya:

"Passeig de Gracia" in Barcelona may now be renamed in "Passeig de Grecia".

Placa Catalunya was teargassed and there were heavy charges with generous use of rubber bullets all around the city center. Police charged against young and old, militant or peaceful. Many injured, one victim might loose eye due to rubber bullet.
Quite a few detentions already and new ones are still being reported.

http://agencia29.net

In my small town, there was a mobilization of ccoo and ugt at the town square, whereas CGT, COS and l’Assemblea pels Drets Socials called for a seperate march. Most people (some 2000) choose to participate in the march. : )
Speeches emphasized the need to continue with the mobilization of workers, students and unemployed.
Atm I don't know how many people were on strike, most shops and bars were open as usual though.

Further reports on the Barcelona strike and riots should be available in English soon, so I leave it at that.

Nice one, thanks.
Someone lost an eye, fucking hell.

Some pictures off the Guardian site.. my favourite..

.. raised fist, never goes out of fashion.. :oops:

Also a video here of people going all out (can't get the fucking thing to embed on the page for some reason)..

Thanks for the updates everybody. The on the ground reports have been especially interesting.

I edited it to "might loose an eye" because new information stated that he is still in the operation...

best wishes from us to that picket.

More videos (all in Spanish but you get the idea):

Barricades in the centre of Barcelona
Demonstration of the general strike
Aggression against two La Vanguardia journos
Shops smashed up during strike

Also..

Demonstration in Valencia.

Demonstration in Madrid.

Numbers might have been amazing for all anticapitalist blocs by all accounts. In many places that official main unions didn't call for a demo, popular and social movements did taking thousands to the streets. That's the case for Mollet (close to Barcelona) in where there were 3000 people in the streets called by CGT as CCOO and UGT didn't do anything.

In fact, pickets in this strike have been much more widespread than in sept. 2010. Social movements and anticapitalits have learned that lesson. So, we had in every town a convergence between traditional unionism and social movements.

Afaik, in Zaragoza the numbers of the 'critic' bloc has been about 15,000-20,000; the biggest demo of this kind since 70s. The demo was called by CGT, CNT, SOA and intersindical, and backed by many popular collectives in the city.

But in Madrid and Barcelona the anticapitalists blocs brought together around 10-15-20,000 each. it's difficult to calculate. In Madrid a separate CNT demo was joined by more than 2000 people. A demo in Salamanca called by CNT had the same number (which is amazing for Salamanca).

This numbers come not for the support to determined union (be it radical or anarchosyndicalist) but for the will of people to express their anger against government and the rejection to mainstream unions. That's why the 15M people choose to join anticapitalist demos instead of been a bloc in the official demos.

Anyway, in some cities cnt have won dozens of members in just a few days.

and everybody talks that this is the first step, the first strike. Thought, this strike have been far away from paralizing the economy.

A few further thoughts:

In Madrid I'd say about half of the retail shops that I saw were closed, even outside of the center. Even some international chains like Pizza Hut were closed, but all of the Starbucks, McDonald's etc that I saw were open. For most of the day Sol was filled with 15-M type people, and they were going around and picketing shops until they closed.

At least in the center, businesses that stayed open got their windows covered with stickers, and quite a few were spray-painted, etc. - businesses that closed were relatively untouched. I mention this not to fetishize damaging windows or anything like that, but because the sheer number of stickers implies that this was a popular and spontaneous activity (perhaps some of the Spanish posters can say whether this is already a tradition in Spain).

Coverage in Italy:

Video of pretty heavy fighting in Barcelona from La Repubblica

Video report from Corriere della Sera with some nice footage of cyclists blockading motorway..

Some photos from La Repubblica.

Photos from Corriere.. one of my favourites:

I want a bicipicket on my next strike.

Are the firemen doing CPR on someone in the Barcelona video?

This is really funny, they are talking about your "rights" as people always go on about their "rights" and freedom to choose when they are crossing the picket line. So the subtitles go on about your right to get laid off with 4 days warning under the new agreement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=RZeoTEgxNYg

http://www.kaosenlared.net/especiales/e2/huelga-general-29m.html

http://info.nodo50.org/29-de-marzo-de-2012-HUELGA-GENERAL.html

edit: redundant response to earlier post

The contra-info's article and gallery is worth to check:

http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2012/03/30/spain-general-strike-demonstrations-on-march-29th/?show=gallery&pageid=8885

Excellent pictures. But let's be honest, anyone who doesn't enjoy seeing pictures of red and black CNT flags being waved around in Spain probably doesn't belong on this website...!

Bob Savage

Excellent pictures. But let's be honest, anyone who doesn't enjoy seeing pictures of red and black CNT flags being waved around in Spain probably doesn't belong on this website...!

I've never seen so much red and black flags than on those photos from yesterday. I say, we should make an international competition... ;)

A curious incident took place early in the morning in Barcelona (maybe at 1 AM) in a Bingo. A group of hooded pickets took advantage that the whole police was busy with pickets at the factories, and stole about 2300€ in cash from it. They were wearing stickers from CGT. Of course, CGT says they have nothing to do with that pickets. :)

[youtube]K0rmH1C7NKw[/youtube]

What is a Bingo?

Report probably from insurrectionaries
http://anarchistnews.org/content/barcelona-engulfed-flames

I'll try to work on this some more tomorrow, but for now the CNT are claiming that the march that they called jointly with CGT, Solidaridad Obrera, and 15M type groups in Madrid had 50,000 people. Having been there, I can believe it.

Actually, it was not the whole CNT of Madrid, but just CNT-Villaverde (Villaverde is a worker neighbourhood from the south of Madrid) which, despite, being neighbourhood of Madrid (it has not a different city council) it constitutes a different 'local federation'. CNT-Madrid called a different March in another neighbourhood of the south of Madrid (about 2000 people, I have read somewhere). I think this is mainly due to the heavy political differences inside CNT, one of its main issues is if to call joint demos-actions with CGT and Solidaridad Obrera.

Reports from the beginning of the demo CGT-Soli-CNT (villaverde) said it was 10.000. This web page says it was 72.000 people at the end (I think this probably is an overstimation). The main newspaper (El pais = The Guardian, I think) says the official demo was about 169.000.

http://www.madridmemata.es/2012/03/las-cifras-del-29-m-en-madrid-una-manifestacion-de-35-kilometros-de-largo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MadridMeMata+%28Madrid+me+Mata%29

This video is from the official union demo when some Uni studentes spread out a banner saying 'Traidores' (traitors). As you can hear there were both applauses and whistles...

http://www.twitvid.com/DQBDV

By the way, a Bingo is a place where people (mainly old people) play the game called bingo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bingo_(U.S.)

This is shit though...

Barcelona train station worker beaten by extreme-left demonstrators during general strike

Should have a proper disciplined bloc and NEVER attack people who aren't cops.

Couldn't see the start of the incident, so no idea who got punched by who and why. Shit if it was unprovoked. This made me chuckle though: "syndicalist general strike in Spain has received low support from workers except by their own affiliates, around 1 million."

Well, CCOO has about 1.200.000 affiliates, and UGT more or less the same, so clearly that is incorrect.

Union density is around 16% (surprisingly low, actually)

I'm really curious how well the strike was followed by those who don't have the legal right to strike.

In Spain, as far as I understand it, only workers with a legal work contract have the right to strike when a union calls one. Workers who aren't in this category don't. This includes workers who are paid by "scholarship" (including myself and thousands of other Americans and anglophone English teachers) and presumably "sumergidos", or "illegally employed" workers.

Many of the teachers I work with were surprised that I wanted to strike, even the ones who have followed the majority of strikes this year - and counseled me not to, since I don't have the "right". Several even told me that I was not a "worker".

I mention this because I think most Americans tend to assume that labor law is "better" in Europe. Staughton Lynd for example has suggested that the union pluralism one finds in Europe would be a step forward. Yet there are also some parts of European labor laws that are incredibly reactionary when compared with the American laws. At least in America, anyone who is employed theoretically has a right to strike.

Obviously, this aspect of Spanish law creates a "hole" in workers solidarity - many workers will be for supporting the strike, but not for supporting those who are not "workers" according to Spanish law.

The CNT has fought many times to support "scholarship" workers and at certain points groups of these workers have even struck (illegally) with the support of the CNT, with one of their demands to be made into "real workers".

ETA: Obviously in practice there are many ways that striking is limited in the US, and there are certain industries where it is legally much harder. But in the general legal ideology it's clear that stopping work is a natural right of employees, even if for example they are undocumented immigrants, or students.

I mention this because I think most Americans tend to assume that labor law is "better" in Europe. Staughton Lynd for example has suggested that the union pluralism one finds in Europe would be a step forward. Yet there are also some parts of European labor laws that are incredibly reactionary when compared with the American laws. At least in America, anyone who is employed theoretically has a right to strike.

I think this is a really important point and one that I tried to make a while back in this thread.

The other thing--and this is something I see in the writings of Staughton Lynd as well--I think there's a propensity to fetishise European union arrangement. Having been in unions on both sides of the Atlantic, it's been my experience that having competing unions doesn't make unions any more militant. It's true the militants will tend to join one particular union in a workplace, but that just creates a grouping of militants who try to push things. But the exact same grouping occurs in single-union shops. And in both cases you're fighting the boss as much as you're fighting the national union.

Oddly enough, "concerted activity", which includes strikes, is legally protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act. Having a union contract in the US--which almost inevitably includes a no-strike clause--undermines this right which belongs to all workers!

Of course, what any of this means in practice...

Salvoechea

Afaik, in Zaragoza the numbers of the 'critic' bloc has been about 15,000-20,000; the biggest demo of this kind since 70s. The demo was called by CGT, CNT, SOA and intersindical, and backed by many popular collectives in the city.

That's right. More 15000 than 20000 tho but it was equally the biggest demo under our flags in Z. It's equally true the thing about "non workers". Labour reform ain't gonna be abolish tho and we still should wait until the announcements about the regional cuts cos they weren't specified and have to be announced on monday or tuesday, they will probably be savage. But the mood of the people towards fighting was quite amazing. In fact i was quite surprised of how succesful the strike has been considering the fear campaign that has been taking place in the last year. we have ten turmoil years ahead imo.

I'm amazed by the numbers of Madrid. 70k!! (organisers claimed 50,000! ). That's the biggest anticapitalist demo since 70s for sure. In barcelona we only managed to gather 10000 before demo was attacked by police.

For lack of better English language sources, I link the following:

"Spain accused of 'draconian' plans to clamp down on protests
Spain has been accused of planning “draconian” new laws against street protests by curbing the use of social networking."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9198496/Spain-accused-of-draconian-plans-to-clamp-down-on-protests.html

"Police negligence admitted in soccer fan death"

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/04/11/inenglish/1334169741_539903.html

"Police murder of Iñigo Cabacas: witness declaration"

http://forwhatwearetheywillbe.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/police-murder-of-inigo-cabacas-witness.html

Yesterday, police arrested 6 persons who are now being accused of participating in the criminal acts that took place on 29M in Barcelona and Tarragona.

David Piqué's (comisario general de coordinación territorial de los Mossos d'Esquadra statement is downright disgusting. Guerillas urbanas = rats that hide in sewers and caves...

A campaign to denounce participants in the riots has been part of media reports and will be set forth with the launch of a webpage that is to help identify more "rats" with the help of the citizen.

"Se pueden esconder donde quieran, porque les vamos a encontrar. Ya sea en una cueva o en una cloaca, que es donde se esconden las ratas, o en una asamblea, que no representa a nadie, o detrás de una silla de una universidad", ha exclamado.

You cannot see in this mainstream news report video a single red and black flag, they focus only on UGT and CCOO, whereas in all the other youtube strike footage there is loads of red and black not to mention the fact that libertarians called the general strike.

I think they are scared... of the fact that libertarian organisations led a successful general strike in 2012 in a country that is pretty important to the european (and even global) economy. (ok, they did rely on local CCOO / UGT sections joining the call, but still it was an initiative called by them).

For me this signifies a lot - spanish libertarians can still even today exercise industrial leverage on a national level, and anarcho-syndicalists are still capable of playing a powerful role in the class struggle.

Also from watching youtube footage of the rioting, the union marches are 100% comfortable with the property damage which is going on around them, even cheering. For me this recalls milbank and the student demos in England, except these aren't kids and weedy undergrads, but adult union militants going up against tear gas and rubber bullets. Clearly, you don't fuck with the spanish workers.

Harrison

Also from watching youtube footage of the rioting, the union marches are 100% comfortable with the property damage which is going on around them

Everyone, that is, apart from CGT Barcelona, it would seem, whose first instinct was to release a communique distancing themselves from the violence: http://www.rojoynegro.info/articulo/accion-sindical/cgt-barcelona-antes-los-hechos-del-29-m#.T3mN8gMSb3c.twitter

Caiman del Barrio

Everyone, that is, apart from CGT Barcelona, it would seem, whose first instinct was to release a communique distancing themselves from the violence: http://www.rojoynegro.info/articulo/accion-sindical/cgt-barcelona-antes-los-hechos-del-29-m#.T3mN8gMSb3c.twitter

that really is like an anarchist TUC ...

about CGT Barcelona, i remember reading this post, i wonder if its trot antics behind that piece, or just creeping reformism
Salvoechea

In Barcelona CGT is so big (about 10,000 members in the city) that have a few political tendencies inside. The most important ones are the anarcho-syndicalists sector, (the blacks) and the trotskists (called the "reds"). Buy those trots are quite ultra-revolutionary and make CGT to take part in things doomed to a big fiasco, like that strike of january.

Full Report [From Crimethinc]: General Strike in Barcelona

Awesome Riot Pron:

Text of an anarchist poster put up before the strike

What is a general strike?

It’s the interruption of the normal functioning of the system. It’s blocking the flows of people and merchandise. It’s sabotaging the gears necessary for the system’s functioning. It’s attacking those responsible for our oppression. It’s confronting the defenders and false critics of the current paradigm. It’s struggling in our daily spaces (neighborhood, work, school, etc.). It’s going out into the streets and sharing what little we have left: rage, bread, and dreams. It’s using the entire arsenal of tools that the history of the oppressed has put at our disposal.

A general strike can only be wild, all the rest is self-parody. We’ll see each other on the 29th of March in the streets!

[youtube]tIhw6JXYow4[/youtube]

I think they are scared... of the fact that libertarian organisations led a successful general strike in 2012 in a country that is pretty important to the european (and even global) economy. (ok, they did rely on local CCOO / UGT sections joining the call, but still it was an initiative called by them).

For me this signifies a lot - spanish libertarians can still even today exercise industrial leverage on a national level, and anarcho-syndicalists are still capable of playing a powerful role in the class struggle.

That is completely innacurate. The strike was not called by any libertarian organisation and then by the official unions, it was called in that day because nationalist unions from Basque Country had called a "regional" general strike that day (and these unions really can call for a partially succesful general strike without CCOO-UGT in Basque Country). However, although CGT and CNT seems to be increasing their figures (especially CGT, which is absorbing a lot of former CCOO militants dissapointed with their organizations), nowadays they do not have strenght enough to call a succesfull general strike (and they now), maybe not even a relevant one.

"Also from watching youtube footage of the rioting, the union marches are 100% comfortable with the property damage which is going on around them, even cheering."

Well, this seems to be a little bit excessive. In anarchist forums (alasbarricadas.org) a lot of people from of close to CNT is quite upset with the degree of destruction in the Barcelona demo. Althought some people may be comfortable with breaking the windows of the banks, the burning of the starbucks and the bin seems to be excessive to most of them. On one hand, the riots have been used by the local goverment of Catanlunya to discredit not only the strike but all the social movements (which is not quite surprising). On the other side, the goverment is going to trying to impute CGT and CGT with part of the responsability of the riots (as they happened at the end of their demo). Moreover and a forthcoming legislative reform is going to impute the organizations with the damages made by their affiliates (which is not only directed to CNT and CGT but to CCOO and UGT too, as their pickets not always are "peaceful").

[youtube]_cN5QTFGzo0[/youtube]

a few clarifications, but thanks for correcting my assertions: i thought it was CGT, CNT, SO put out the call? Thats how I remember it advertised on all of their websites... I know they don't have the strength on their own, just thought they pushed the initiative and successfully attracted other union locals to join the call. I thought March 29th was a result of their campaign of "toward a general strike"?

re. people on alasbarricadas, i didn't know that. sounds a lot like the libcom threads after March 26th union march in central london.

just to clarify, i don't really have a defined opinion any more on property damage and how far it should go at a given time, although i don't personally like doing it as it reminds me of bad times when i was learning the anarchy.

As far as I know, the call from Basque Country came first. Then CNT / CGT (don't remember if it was cnt only and the united call came later) made the official call in Barcelona. The main unions joined afterwards.

I think Vaga is right. But the point is that, in my opinion, the call for general strike of March 29 had little or nothing to do with the campaign "toward a general strike" that anarchosyndicalists, base unions and the some sectors of the May-15 have made, but more with the need of unions to keep their image, the pressure of their own base militants and to give a public answer to goverment measures (the "left"-wing socialdemocrat party PSOE is completely discredited and the "communist" party, IU, still has not capitalised the collapse of PSOE). Obviously they have taken into account that there are "other social actors" (specially the May-15) that should not be allowed to take the lead of their demos and actions (there is an official doccument of CCOO and UGT) saying more or less this, but I think that the decission to call for a general strike was not conditioned by these groups, and that the 29M was chosen because of the decision of the basque unions. Finally, what is most important is that, discredited as they are between a lot of people, the official Unions CCOO and UGT are the only social actors with muscle to put enough people and pressure in the streets. Well, they and, probably, the may-15 movement but only in special days, as the next 12 of May, that probably will be a huge demo (at least in Madrid and Barcelona)

Obviously, alasbarricadas is just a forum, but I think that usually reflects well the different tendencies inside the anarchist movements in Spain. Anyway, it was just to provide a reference, but I think the mood in most sectors of the CNT is probably the one I told.

Oh,

seems I got it wrong.

crimethinc:

Finally, CCOO and UGT called a general strike for March 29. Smaller regional unions in Galicia and Euskadi had already called a strike for that day, and the two major unions signed on to make the strike general and countrywide. CNT and CGT, unwilling to strike on their own after the experience of January 27, quickly followed suit.

nice text btw

The Barcelona secretary of the CGT has been arrested in the wake of the strike, on trumped up arson charges:
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/22628

Steven.

The Barcelona secretary of the CGT has been arrested in the wake of the strike, on trumped up arson charges:
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/22628

While I'm no fan of the CGT, this is messed up. W.S.A. will prolly send solidarity message to the CGT.

I'm curious if this sort of thing is happening to members of the CNT, members of the libertarian movement and some of the milder "red & black" independent unions? Anyone know?

syndicalist

Steven.

The Barcelona secretary of the CGT has been arrested in the wake of the strike, on trumped up arson charges:
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/22628

While I'm no fan of the CGT, this is messed up. W.S.A. will prolly send solidarity message to the CGT.

I'm curious if this sort of thing is happening to members of the CNT, members of the libertarian movement and some of the milder "red & black" independent unions? Anyone know?

several unions to the left of UGT/CCO are suffering repression at the moment, e.g. the leftwing Basque LAB and the Andaluzian SAT

meanwhile, Pedro Duarte, director for new medias at the Real Madrid football club has twittered 10 days ago that he would like UGT and CCOO members to be exterminated, see e.g. http://www.diariodenavarra.es/noticias/deportes/futbol/2012/04/20/un_alto_cargo_del_real_madrid_quot_mete_pata_quot_twitter_77700_1022.html ... unlike Jeremy Clarkson, he got dismissed

according to http://www.anarchismus.at/anarchistischer-blog/7104-franquismus-reloaded-repression-in-spanien (in German), even some members of the UGT and the CCOO got arrested or harassed during the last days

There is a general clime of repression in Spain against social movements. Yesterday, a group of activists made a protest against the rise of the Undergound in Madird. They activate the emergency brake of 13 trains simultaneoulsy while the train were stopped in the station. Two people have been arrested this morning.

A few days ago, the "Departmente of Interior" of Catalunya upload this web in which you can identify and report people supposedly involved in the 29-M riots

Finally, the assembly of the 15-M which is organizing the events which would conmemorate the first year of the movement (the 12th of may) decided to camp in Puerta del Sol square from 12th to 15th of May. The ministry of Interior said that "it was illegal" and that the camping will not be allowed. It seems it's gonna be a massive demo and a very tense days.

The judge has sent the Barcelona secretary of the CGT to preventive prison with no bail. The two other arrested (two union delegates from SEAT, one from UGT, the other from CCOO) have been released (they were arrested for confronting a security guard in a picket, not with the secretary of CGT).

fuck thats terrible about the CGT sec

For those who can read Spanish (or have a good translation app in their browser) here are the websites to a couple of groups, collectives that have sprung up that are very critique of the unions and call for autonomous action by the class on the 29thM.
http://proletariosinternacionalistas.wordpress.com/
http://www.valladolorentodaspartes.blogspot.co.uk/
http://nohabiafuturo.blogspot.co.uk/
This movement of a minority within the class which is calling for autonomous class question has not got a lot of coverage on this thread, which I find surprising. In Valencia, Barcelona, Palencia,
Here is the call out by the Alicante Critical Bloc and Assembly

A CALL-OUT AND PROPOSAL by the ALICANTE CRITICAL BLOC AND ASSEMBLY faced with the general strike.

Workers, unemployed, young people, students, retired, service users, EVERYONE who is participating in initiatives, assemblies and struggles.

We want to propose the formation of a participatory, critical, unitary space, based on self-organisation through assemblies, aimed at the repeal of the Labour Reform and against all forms of exploitation.

We want to take advantage of the “general strike” in order to put forward actions that go beyond what we consider to be an inadequate form of mobilisation.

WHETHER STRIKING OR NOT, LET’S GET TOGETHER ON THE 29-M

- in the morning: GENERAL ASSEMBLY at 11.00 in the Plaza de la Montanyeta Alicante. To think about and propose alternative actions for the 29th

- Midday: EAT TOGETHER in order to create a space for reflection and discussion.

- In the afternoon: TO PARTICIPATE AS A BLOC ON THE DEMONSTRATION at 18.00. We will be at the back of the demo.

- At night AN OPEN ASSEMBLY of workers, unemployed...after the demonstration in the Plaza de San Cristobal, around the theme: how to continue the struggle after the 29th?

Participate in the assemblies, no one should decide for you!

We need to go from indignation to action!

Together we can change everything!

And a leaflet by the Workers' Group of Palencia

FOR A STRIKE WITHOUT INTERMEDIARIES

(Workers’ group of Palencia)

Once again the ruling class has reminded us who is in charge; this time with the Labour Reform which leave workers even more at the mercy of the employer. From now on, whether you keep your job or not will depend exclusively upon the boss’s need to maximise profits. This is not due to this or that government but rather expresses the fact that for Capital we are nothing more than commodities. Faced with this prospect we have no other option than to struggle: What should this struggle be? How to carry it out?

The majority unions offer us their model: they command, we obey. They make a lot of fuss about the Labour Reform, but at the same time they cut deals that make things worse for the workers. In reality, our rights are of no importance to them. For them we are nothing more than a number that justifies their existence and their subsidies. What is important to them is that we are exploited and enslaved while they continue their charade! They are nothing more than puppets in the service of the capitalists. Their real function, which is why they continue to exist, is to absorb, divert and subdue the real struggle of the working class; to stop it becoming a real danger to the system and its ruling class.

... we cannot follow the majority unions nor their strategies. In order to nullify all revolutionary struggle, they have agreed to hold a strike with conditions, the so-called “minimum services”. When have we ever seen a war where a pact has been signed with the enemy in order to “not cause too many problems”? The aim of a strike is to cause harm, to oblige the employers to bend before our interests. To strike where it hurts them most: the economy. This will not be done with an agreed strike and only on one day: it will be achieved through indefinite wildcat strikes.

We cannot give the traitorous unions and the opportunists on the Left of Capital more time. We must organise ourselves and without intermediaries in assemblies, in workers’ councils. Only through determined action and without conditions can we defeat the exploiters and their servants in all areas: from the stopping of the Labour Reform to the destruction of the capitalist system.

AGAINST THE CUTS

ORGANISE OURSELVES WITHOUT INTERMEDIARIES!

There are also growing links between these groups.

http://laurallibertat.wordpress.com/

In general, I agree with the analysis of grupo_Ruptura, is well informed and realistic.

About the breaking of windows during the cgt-cnt demo, probably the problem are not the actions themselves, but the moment. In the morning, usual actions of pickets are well received. But in the evening's demo, the unions wanted to gather lots of people (and they succeessed, comparing with the usual numbers this union's demos have), also the ones that didn't picketed in the morning (families with children, old people,...), the social base of this unions.
So they think that it was not the moment for rioting and provoking the police charge.

They claim that in Basque Country, with a huge tradition of fight, the left-nationalist movement knows how to combine riots with pacific demos. And every militant knows what is the moment for each thing.

The debate is open but I'm afraid that most part of the autonomous/insurrectional movement will claim that the unions are weak and democratic and will not respect the terms of the union's demos.

ernie

For those who can read Spanish (or have a good translation app in their browser) here are the websites to a couple of groups, collectives that have sprung up that are very critique of the unions and call for autonomous action by the class on the 29thM.
http://proletariosinternacionalistas.wordpress.com/
http://www.valladolorentodaspartes.blogspot.co.uk/
http://nohabiafuturo.blogspot.co.uk/
This movement of a minority within the class which is calling for autonomous class question has not got a lot of coverage on this thread, which I find surprising. In Valencia, Barcelona, Palencia,
Here is the call out by the Alicante Critical Bloc and Assembly

I think that there no exist autonomous organizations at the work place.
Most of autonomous people are not very interested in organizing at they work place (in the case they are not students or unemployed), although they have called for a wild-cat strike and picketing. The ones that are interested in haven't succeeded in it, they form pro-worker autonomy groups. You've mixed both of them in your links, in fact there isn't a clear line between them, but we have to be aware that most of the ones that called to a wild-cat strike doesn't have a workerist approach.

Example of pro-worker autonomy collective: http://asambleaautonomazonasur.blogspot.com.es/

Of course, it's not a critic, also most of people that belongs to cnt don't develop his union work at his work place.

Maybe in Madrid in the public educational sector have been a kind of autonomous movement against the cuts (green tide - marea verde), but I haven't see any article of any of this groups about it.

The three guys sent to prison in the 29M are free now. The Audiencia of Barcelona (a higher tribunal than the one that sent them to prison) have overturned the bail ordered by the judge. By the way, some days ago, the ministry of Interior of Spain recognized that they had to "force the law" to sent the guys in prison (remeber they were sent to prison not because of the riots of the afternoon but because the picktes in the morning).

More info (in catalan) http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/445738/index.php

Laura is still in preventive prison.

In Barcelona the mood is still quite defiant againts state repression. People was not caught in the mediatic fear-mongering campaing and instead every major blow against the movement has rised more determination.

As for the mayday demonstration, we've seen one of the biggest specifically anticapitalist demonstrations ever. About 22.000 people joined a huge demo called by radical unions (CNT, CGT, COS-catalan left independentists, anarchists, communists, trotskists, etc.). We have to cross up to 3 different police checkpoints to get the demonstration. However, this time demo was quite peaceful, as unions didn't let anything to be out of their control.

Numbers are similar to those of the 29-M general strike.

edit: sorry I'm trying to post a picture from the miners' strike in Asturias but I can't work out how to do it.

Imagine there is a picture of a big burning barricade on a motorway above this post.

Admin: fixed. if you press 'quote' on this post you'll see how the image works.

edit: thank you, the story is hundreds of miners are striking in Asturias and Leon over threats to close mines, and have been blocking several motorways.

Spain’s Coal Miners’ Strike to Block State Aid Cuts to Industry
30 May 2012 ICEM InBrief
Spain

Strikes, road blockades, and mine sit-ins will continue through tomorrow, 31 May, as 8,000 mineworkers at over 40 coal mines in northern Spain continue their protests against government action to cut coal subsidies.

Backed by mining unions within both of Spain’s major labour federations -- Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) – strikes that began last week will re-start today and tomorrow following the break-off of tripartite talks yesterday, 29 May.

The unions had hoped those negotiations would at least partially rescind the 64% subsidy cuts contained in the government’s budget.

Spanish Coal Miners on Strike Last Week

The strikes began last week, 23-24 May, and saw 100% participation by coal miners. They were halted in order to give a tripartite monitoring committee on coal an opportunity to scale back the subsidies. But after six hours of futile negotiations that lasted into yesterday evening, mineworkers’ unions of both federations announced resumption of strikes today and tomorrow in and around the cities of Aragon, Asturias, and Castilla y León, with a major demonstration planed in Madrid.

Even before talks started yesterday, miners began blocking major road arteries linking northern cities, and ten miners began sit-ins late Monday evening after their shifts ended at the Candín mine in Oviedo. The premature strikes were spontaneous and not authorised by the unions, but the protests depicted the deep frustration felt by Spanish miners to the proposed subsidy curtailments.

The Spanish government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is adamant to enforce the 64% subsidy reduction in order to reduce the public deficit. But miners and their unions feel such a drastic cutback will be the death knell to coal-mining in Spain, a country that has shed 40,000 jobs over the past 20 year due to pit closures.

With interesting picture of the direct action:

This ICEM release is also available on the ICEM Web-site

Antonio Campón, a pensioner and activist of the CCOO from Málaga has been sentenced to one year in prison by a court which followed the allegations of the cops who accused him of having thrown a plastic bottle at them during the last general strike while he was on a picket line

http://syndikalismus.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/spanien-1-jahr-gefangnis-fur-streikbeteiligung/ (in German)

:( That's rough. Is he serving the sentence or is it suspended?

Miners vs Police:

[youtube]l4HIzW-YcdE[/youtube]

Photos from the clashes in Madrid

Nosotros no estamos indignados… estamos hasta los cojones

-----

http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23ResistenciaMinera

More miners vs police

http://videos.lne.es/cuencas/20120604/nuevo-choque-entre-antidisturbios-mineros-34623.shtml

Huelga en la minería del carbón

http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2012/05/30/album/1338387578_288308.html#1338387578_288308_1338389112

Heard it off my flatmate last night, Spain has had a bailout. We watched the news in Spanish so I'm not clear about all of it(also I don't understand economics). It's a bailout to a central bank rather than directly to the state, right? I'm assuming this comes with conditions for more austerity, but how does that work if the bailout isn't directly to the state?

The miners protest is getting a lot of popular support as far as I can tell. I'm wondering what will happen regarding this and other popular opposition to austerity. Is the government in a position to give any ground even if it wants to, due to the bailout? Does this mean repression of popular movements could get much more serious? (It's pretty serious already)

Añready there is nothing clear about the conditions of the bail-out.

First of all, it seems that it is not a bail-out as those of Greece, Ireland and Portugal. It is a loan to bail-out "just" the financial system, i.e. the banks with problems (a 30% of the system according to the Economy ministry).

However, it is the Spanish government who receives the money, but trough an instrument called FROB, which was initiated in 2009 to "clean" the banking system. The spanish banking system was not affected by the toxics assets from US subprime mortgages, so it needed not bail-out after the Lehmann Brothers collapse, as other european or US banking systems. However, it is very affected by their own toxic assets from the huge spanish real state bubble (mainly mortgages and credits to buliding firms and real state agencies). They have been trying not to show this in their balances and accounting, but finally, with the nationalization of Bankia (the fourth biggest bank of the country) the cat let out the bag, and the whole system needs to be bailed-out.

It seems that no Troika "technicians" (the Men In Black, as the Budget ministry called them last week, what a moron....) and no austeriry plan is going to be imposed to Spanish Goverment, at least by the moment.

The problem is the Spanish goverment is trying to sell us that it is not exactly a bail-out but a kind of "financial help" so they are being not very clear about which are going to be the consequences in the medium-term. According to some leftist analysts, the European Commision and Germany are going to supervise the whole process and maybe they are going to demand some "structural reforms": increasing the VAT, decrease the retiring pensions, decrease the unemployment benefits (with more than 5 million unemployed in the country) and enlarge the retirement age.

Sorry about the English...

The English is fine as is the analysis. The bourgeoisie admit - to some extent - that it's already imposed enough austerity on the Spanish population and the working class particularly, for the time being. The social question is a consideration for the ruling class. But there's more grief to come for the population of Spain and for Europe generally.
The workers of Europe are being hammered with those of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland suffering the worse blows. This can only widen because there is not even a glimmer of a recovery on the distant horizon. Not even with the massive amounts of funny money printed. There is no foreseeable basis for an economic recovery that will pull capitalism out of the mire.
As the numbers become astronomical, and the financial manipulations become more and more complex and conditional, the capitalist economy shows itself as a tragic farce. Austerity is all it has to offer to the working class.

The terms of the bailout, as I understand it from the patchy details released so far, is that the money will go to the FROB, but it will be put onto the national deficit. The difference between this and the Portugal-Ireland-Greece bailouts, is that the Spanish state will still be trying to fund the rest of it's current spending deficit from the bond market - i.e. it is not a bailout of the state's full funding needs for the next 2-3 years, as was the case with the "3 little pigs" bailouts. I haven't yet put a figure on what the cost of a full state deficit-covering bailout for 2 years (including rolling over existing debt) would be for Spain, but it would be far in excess of 100bn. In fact I'd be surprised if there was much change left of the putative 500 bn in the ESM.

The fact is that the Spanish economy is more than twice the size of Portugal, Ireland & Greece put together. For that reason it's definitely a case of "big boys games, big boys rules" particularly from an Irish perspective where the source of our financial woes is a property bubble and insolvent banks in a close parallel to Spain.

The reasoning on this seems to have flipped around over the last week. Originally the powers that be were desperate to avoid a "bailout-lite" for Spain that could only add to the arguments of SYRIZA, etc in Greece that the terms of the Memorandum were mainifestly unfair. But as the fear gauge went up last week and politicians policy wonks finally got around to reviewing the "worst case scenarios" their economic people had done for them, the priority became to forget Greece and worry about shoring up Spain from the risks of contagion before the Greek election.

The problem is this bailout-lite option relies on Spanish bond yields coming down to more sustainable levels, now that the deal is announced and once we get past next Sunday. Whether than will happen, is not at all clear. This time next Monday we could still potentially looking at another eurocrisis meeting process to try and get a full bailout for Spain, if they end up frozen out of the sovereign capital markets.

Thanks everyone, appreciate it.

What do people think it means for the social struggle?

Dunno. Today for the first time I saw propaganda from a far-right group called "Falange Autentica". Visually it could have been leftist, it was an old woman wearing boxing gloves and talked about defending "social rights" and taking back what was "stolen".

(Well, for a big game between Bilbao and Barcelona a few weeks ago there was some anti-regionalist stickers but :hat wasn't so directly related to the crisis and the bailouts...)

What it means for the social struggle? Given the current direction of Italian bonds (the next domino), I'm tempted to reply "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think...".

But if only one thing is clear, it's that standing back and gawping at the spectacle of the eurocar-crash is definitely not going to get us anywhere. To get sucked into that, would guarantee defeat.

I wouldn't say "ignore the spectacle of the eurocrisis" exactly. But we should approach it instrumentally, to make use of it only for our own purposes, to delegitimise the local state and boss discourse, even to challenge passivity motivated by "things could be worse" type of thinking.

But the main thing is our power to make a difference is through building our own contestationary movements and struggles. The only response to the crisis (and n.b. I reject the "no es una crisis, es una estafa" - it's not a crisis, it's a scam - line of the M15) is to make sure that the crisis caused by our resistance is the biggest crisis of all. Unlike the autonomist slogan of the 70s, saying "we are the crisis" would be both premature and manifestly incorrect as to origins. Yet it is still often the case that just because you didn't start the fight doesn't mean you aren't going to have to finish it on your terms, if you want to avoid a beating. So if we are not yet it, we must aim to become the crisis.

Report of the Spanish miners night time demo (in Spanish):

http://puertoreal.cnt.es/es/denuncias/2103-todo-leon-se-vuelve-minero.html

Click on the link at the end of the report for some great images.

fingers malone

Thanks everyone, appreciate it.

What do people think it means for the social struggle?

Well, I think that the bail-out itself will not affect social struggle beyond increasing a little bit more the "indignación" of the people, who are seeing that there is money to save the banks but to expend in health and education.

However, according to some analysts the bail-out could be a new stone in the economy, worsening even more the austerity plans. Altought the EU is not going to count the whole bail-out as deficit, it still not clear what will happen with the interests of the credit. If the EU counts them as budgey deficit, a new cut of 3000 million euros will be needed (or maybe a VAT increase). On the other side, it seems that the lending conditions will be limited to the financial system, but the EuroGroup press release insituated that budget deficit would be controled too. Moreover, it seems that "the markets" are not very confident in the effects of the bail-out, so the interest rate of spanish debt has increase since the bail-out.

I think the point is that the EU is pressing the Spanish goverment to make new structural reforms that the goverment does not want to implement because of future electoral costs. Now, with the bail-out the pressure will be higher.

The M-15 movement showed muscle during its anniversary, but currently it is in a kind of political impasse. They are developing a lot of local initiatives: squatted social centres, banks of time, urban gardens and thinks like that, but their actions and demos on more general issues as the whole Bankia affair are not being very followed.

On the other side, the mainstream trade-unions (CCOO and UGT) have completely dissapeared from the political map since the general strike. The labour reform has been approved in the congress with minor modifications, it has caused a lot of new dismissals, and no new general strike has been called for. CGT decided last week to begin a process to launch a new general strike before the end of the year, but they know perfectly that withouth CCOO-UGT it will be a complete failure, so I think they are going to press the trade-unions grass-roots to put pressure on the union leadership.

It should also be said that one of the reasons the exact meaning of the bailout is hard to assess at the moment, is because the PP and EU heads are deliberately being vague at the moment - this from yesterday's Guardian live blog

Over in Spain, there is growing frustration about the government's refusal to answer questions on the country's banking bailout. Giles Tremlett from Madrid reports:

Spain's prime minister Mariano Rajoy is in no hurry to explain the up to €100bn bailout of his country's banks to the Spanish parliament in Madrid.

His People's party (PP) today blocked attempts to bring him to parliament soon. It now seems that it will be a full month after the bailout was announced before he explains to parliament - where he has an absolute majority - what the deal really means.

The PP is arguing that the full bailout details will not be available until after two independent audits of the banking sector (due by June 21) are done and a European summit is held at the end of this month.

His party has also blocked attempts to set up a special parliamentary committee to investigate Bankia, which was part-nationalised last month and now needs an extra €23bn - even though it persuaded 350,000 small investors to buy shares last year.

That leaves Spain's courts in charge of the investigation

The downside of this studied vagueness is that the markets aren't buying it either (there are questions over whether the money will come from EFSF or the new ESM - if the latter, all existing bondholders would be downgraded as ESM funds will have super-seniority). Worse, the contagion factor is now lifting Italian bonds up into the red-zone as well.

Firemen in Spain occupy the stock exchange, facebook photo so can't post it properly

[edit- thanks admins]

[youtube]64KuUUGB5po[/youtube]

video going round of the police in Lavapies the night of July 19th saying "porque no reventamos los bares?" which translates roughly "Why don't we smash up the bars?"

[youtube]9fkU38YVDZY[/youtube]

RT report on anti-austerity protests in Spain

-----

El País: Outrage on the streets of Spain after latest austerity measures

Roarmag: Millions take streets as Spain unites against austerity

On Saturday, the 15-M movement is organizing another series of marches that will be arriving in Madrid from around the country. This time the key actors are not the miners, but another key constituency that has been heavily hit by Spain’s social and economic crisis: the unemployed. As activists have emphatically repeated, “if we get every unemployed Spaniard on the streets we would be millions.” The first attempt starts this Saturday, #21J. A general strike is projected for the 25th of September.

[edit] Photos from yesterday's march

Has anyone seen the photos going around that purport to be demonstrators applauding riot police who've removed their helmets, attached to a piece saying that there have also been dessertions from the police? Any comrades in Spain know anything about this?

I don't know of any photos but the RT report from Mark above talks of police fighting police on the Madrid demonstration.

I saw some talk of that after the Madrid demo but not anything really confirmable.

There's loads of stuff going round with photos of the police beating people up in various strikes, tenants' mobilisations etc and saying more or less "now they say they are on our side? Bollocks"

And this one is just gratuitously funny, the fireman's placard says "Rajoy, let me make a cut." And the other fireman says "Now WE'LL make the cuts."

I miss Spain. If that was England you wouldn't see that with a fireman carrying an ACTUAL chainsaw.... bet he wished he wasn't after the first couple of hours though, must weigh a tonne.

Thanks baboon, I find it difficult to watch videos on this machine so haven't checked that out yet.

I've heard other sources claiming that the photo of the police with no helmets on was because their helmets didn't fit very well - apparently they're issued as 'one size fits all' so they spend most of the time wearing their caps which are more comfortable, is what this other source said, and an hour after the photo was taken those same police attacked the demonstrators with tear-gas.

So perhaps not a strong indicator of support for the demonstrators among the police. There do seem to be tensions inside the police force more generally, though perhaps these have more to do with the cops being unhappy that they're not properly equipped to deal with the situation, rather than because there's significant support for the miners and the indignados.

EDIT: thanks for that too, Fingers, it wasn't there when I started posting.

while the police are protesting about their pay cut they have been kicking people's heads in at the same time, so I personally I don't think their protest means they will start to refuse to police the protests. Their union has been telling the government to make the cut to everybody else in the public sector but not to them, which I could imagine happening.

Slothjabber, here is an example of what you were asking about,

Los 546 nuevos agentes de la Policía Nacional que se han incorporado al Cuerpo han dado la espalda a las autoridades al romper filas para aplaudir a una veintena de sindicalistas que protestaban a las puertas del complejo policial de la Zona Franca donde este viernes se ha celebrado el acto de presentación.
Tras los parlamentos de la delegada del Gobierno en Catalunya, Llanos de Luna, y del director general de la Policía Nacional, Ignacio Cosidó, los 546 agentes se han girado y han aplaudido a los sindicalistas de CEP y SUP cuando las autoridades estaban dando la mano a los agentes en un gesto espontáneo e inédito apoyando las reivindicaciones contra los recortes.
El acto, que estaba fijado para las 13.00 horas, no ha empezado hasta las 14.00 horas, con lo que los nuevos agentes han tenido que estar formando y expuestos al sol durante muchos minutos, lo que ha provocado que al menos dos de ellos se hayan desmayado, han explicado fuentes policiales.
Antes de empezar la ceremonia, los sindicalistas han protestado a una distancia prudente del complejo al grito de 'No a la dictadura del PP' y, cuando ha empezado el acto, han incrementado el volumen con silbatos, que han hecho de banda sonora a los discursos de De Luna y Cosidó.
Durante su protesta, también han cargado contra el director general de la Policía y la subdelegada del Gobierno en Catalunya, identificándose con los integrantes del 15M, al manifestar reiteradamente: "Policías indignados, policías indignados".

Can't be bothered to translate it properly (it's not even nine o'clock in the morning yet) but it says the newly joined police, in their graduation ceremony, turned their backs on the authorities and applauded some trade unionists who were having a counter demo. CEP and SUP are the police unions.
I'm highly sceptical that the police will take the side of the protests, the government will probably exempt them from the cuts as they know they are going to need them and they are happily breaking heads at the same time as protesting about their pay cut.

A woman in Spain phoned the radio on Monday to say that her husband had committed suicide 20 days before because he couldn't find a job and the family was in serious financial problems. She asked for everyone to keep on fighting.

http://www.sindicatoandaluz.org/?q=node/1004

Alrededor de 1.000 sindicalistas han ocupado esta mañana la Finca "Las Turquillas" donde se ubica la Yeguada Militar del Ejército. La finca, dependiente del Ministerio de Defensa, tiene 1.200 hectáreas, la inmensa mayoría en baldío, dado que el Ejército sólo utiliza 20 hectáreas para la Yeguada.

Tras recorrer el kilómetro que separa la carretera de la Finca se penetró en Zona Militar -advertida por grandes cartelones- y se alcanzó el recinto militar donde una comisión del SAT se entrevistó con los mandos militares. Dentro del recinto militar esperaba una compañía de antidisturbios de la Guardia Civil y tropas militares por lo que en asamblea se decidió no forzar la entrada al recinto y permanecer en la zona militar de la finca, iniciando los trabajos de infraestructura y logística para permanecer en la misma.

Esta tarde ya se está habilitando una zona donde esta misma noche más de 100 compañeros y compañeras se quedarán a pasar la primera noche en "La Turquilla" ocupada.

El Portavoz Nacional del SAT, Diego Cañamero, ha señalado que el objetivo de la ocupación es "que la tierra pase a manos de los trabajadores" y que la finca, dedicada a la cría de caballos, pase a ser utilizada por cooperativas de trabajadores y trabajadoras.

"No queremos la propiedad de la tierra, queremos su uso", enfatiza Cañamero, "que la tierra sirva para dar trabajo y crear riqueza, y no para recibir subvenciones de Europa".

El dirigente sindical ha destacado que la comarca sevillana donde se ubica la finca sufre "un 40% de paro" y, ante esa situación, "no puede ser que tierras públicas o privadas puedan estar ajenas a la realidad de un pueblo que ya no sabe qué hacer con el paro". Queremos demostrar que, en manos de cooperativas, la finca tendrá otro uso, pensando en la creación de trabajo y en sacar productividad a la tierra y no sólo en subvenciones de la UE", ha explicado Diego Cañamero.

Sobre el trato con los militares que trabajan en el centro de reproducción equina de la finca ocupada, Diego Cañamero ha dicho que el trato ha sido cortés y que "no tenemos nada en contra de ellos".

Ante la vigilancia de las fuerzas de seguridad que ha acompañado la ocupación, que se ha desarrollado sin incidentes, el dirigente sindical ha declarado que "hemos venido a quedarnos, no es una ocupación simbólica. Somos conscientes, creemos en lo que hacemos y lo hacemos pacíficamente", ha declarado Cañamero, que ha asegurado que "si nos expulsan, volveremos y lo haremos hasta que el gobierno ceda esas tierras a los trabajadores".

That's great Ent.
Very briefly about 1000 people from the SAT fieldworkers union have occupied land in Seville owned by the military, which is mostly wasteland. They say they will stay there, it is not a symbolic occupation. Unemployment in the area is at 40% and that the land has to be used for productive purposes as people are so desperate. There are 1,200 hectares of land and the military only use 20 hectares of it, for rearing foals. The union spokesman says that the empty land should be put into the hands of the workers and used for workers co-operatives.

fingers malone

Can't be bothered to translate it properly (it's not even nine o'clock in the morning yet) but it says the newly joined police, in their graduation ceremony, turned their backs on the authorities and applauded some trade unionists who were having a counter demo. CEP and SUP are the police unions.

[youtube]oHu7GctrCHg[/youtube]

Supportive reactions to this on a thread on a guardia civil forum (link broken):
http:/ /www.forodelguardiacivil.com/web/viewtopic.php?t=60753

fingers malone

I'm highly sceptical that the police will take the side of the protests, the government will probably exempt them from the cuts as they know they are going to need them and they are happily breaking heads at the same time as protesting about their pay cut.

I think in Greece the police got a pay rise while everyone else was facing cuts - though I can't remember the details.

fingers malone

Very briefly about 1000 people from the SAT fieldworkers union have occupied land in Seville owned by the military, which is mostly wasteland. They say they will stay there, it is not a symbolic occupation. Unemployment in the area is at 40% and that the land has to be used for productive purposes as people are so desperate. There are 1,200 hectares of land and the military only use 20 hectares of it, for rearing foals. The union spokesman says that the empty land should be put into the hands of the workers and used for workers co-operatives.

[youtube]t8Zd9JcwEcQ[/youtube]

The music on the video is from ex-CNT flamenco singer El Cabrero (more here)

I was in the demo in Madrid this weekend. Actually in my case there's been protests non-stop since april, one of the reasons i don't post here often. The huge and more violent demo was on last thursday where three people were severely injured; two men, one of them had a cop standing on his chest for hours, the other one handcuffed near an exhaust for a long time got severly suffocated, while a girl was hit by rubber balls or bullets in the mouth and her legs, collapsed, fell on the floor and nearly broke her head, no sanctions against the cops as you can expect. The violence of this demo plus the heat on saturday, the exhaustion of the people and the bad organization, all were detrimental for saturday's demo. Not many people attended, more than in any other july tho, and there were no casualties and/or endurable detentions as far as i know. The police were nowhere to be seen in Sol, they were hidden as usual in the nearby streets. In Lavapies (an area in Madrid filled with inmigrants) the tension could be cut with a knife and down there riots break out constantly because of the cops' harashment of anyone with black or brown skin.
Right now there is a stand-by situation, still quite colourful tho. Probably we'll see a wave of strikes from september on and the greatest stuff will happen in october: there are a lot of collective bargain agreements in loads of companies that will be negotiated on that month. The management's proposal will be obviously double work for half the pay (which they can implement thanks to the new labour regulations) and there are going to start the serious riots imo. Besides these cunts that pretend to be ruling us haven't got the slightest fucking clue what to do except to keep impovering us, unfortunately most of my fellow spaniards haven't got a clue either about the capitalist tsunami the immediate future is going to bring us and besides there is no organization able to unify struggles so we'll see.

About the occupations and police: Land occupations are gonna be more i'm sure about that. Success will depend on the attitude of the neighbours and the passivity of the cops. It's true that there is unrest among them but mainly due to the cuts in wages. Once they are sure they are gonna get a rise (and i'm sure they will) they'll wave their battons once again no doubt about that. Cops joining the protests? my arse. In madrid on thursday in a video someone could be seen saying. "look at that bastard hitting the boys, in the previous demo he was the one telling us he was with us" No remarkable defections indeed, nor now neither in the near future. I wouldn't say the cops here are as fascists as the greek ones but their mentality is too absolutely passive and authoritarian.

@Valeriano:

is the "unrest" among members of the Guardia Civil or among the "normal cops"?

Entdinglichung

@Valeriano:

is the "unrest" among members of the Guardia Civil or among the "normal cops"?

I haven't gathered anything about GC, more about policía nacional i think. The deslegitimation of parliamentary democracy is huge here. No important rise of any explicitely fascist party here tho even if the PP is filled with exfascists and authoritarian manners and politics, however just like psoe. I think the reluctance of some tiny part of the police here facing the govment would have more to do with loathing the sky high level of corruption that plages the conservatives than with anything else (that's the cops that aren't part of this corruption themselves, of course) The only thing that could be taken advantage off would be their passivity facing some moves sometimes. We'll see.

ELA, LAB, ESK, STEE-EILAS, EHNE, Hiru, CGT-LKN, CNT y más de un centenar de organizaciones sociales han convocado una huelga general para el próximo 26 de setiembre en Hego Euskal Herria en contra de recortes del Gobierno español.

General strike in the Basque country 26th September called by the unions listed and by more than a hundred social organisations against the cuts.

Occupations of over twenty dole offices in Andalucia started yesterday.

sorry, can someone fix this? It's twitter I think. It's a good photo.

These 70 workers have been working in an old people's home in Seville and haven't received their wages for the last six months, they are surviving on help from their families. They went on strike on the sixth of July. They say they can't just leave firstly because that counts as absenteeism and they lose entitlement to redundancy and so on, and secondly because they are worried about what will happen to the old people if they do.

Just got this text message from my workmate on holiday, straight up:

"Hey. We're sat on a train from Barcelona to Valencia & pickets have blockaded the line. We're stuck at Tarragona. Lots of CNT flags."

@fingers - something to do with this at a guess: http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/node/21664

Highlights translation:

Train strike 3rd August
6am Madrid: some lines with four hour delays
6am Barcelona: R2 sur and R2 norte blocked for 20 minutes by barricades.
10 am Seville: success in the 24 hour strike of Renfe-Adif. 92% of workers on strike. Abusive high level of “servicios minimos”.
2nd August: Atocha (Madrid). 500 workers demonstrated in the arrivals area of the AVE. Without incidents until the police decided to charge the workers. Various train workers injured, one with a broken nose.

The blockade my mate is talking about is much later than this, so there must be blockades going on all day.

[youtube]vUjuJB3q18s[/youtube]
Today the SAT fieldworkers union have tried a "Can't Pay Won't Pay" with some success. 200 unemployed field workers and members of the SAT union went into two Carrefour supermarkets, in Ecija and in Arcos de la Frontera, and tried to take out trolleys full of food, saying that they intended to expropriate basic foodstuffs to take to the people. They said "In this crisis, when they are expropriating the people, we want to expropriate the expropriators." In Arcos (Cadiz) they were stopped by the police who blockaded the doors but in Ecija other demonstrators created a distraction and they managed to take out twenty trolleys, filled with milk, eggs, sugar, oil, vegetables, chickpeas, pasta and rice. The food will be given to services which distribute free food. Unemployment in the Sierra de Cadiz is now at 40%.

[youtube]rKqNWJPGgFI[/youtube]
bit more lively this video

CNT member starts a hunger strike in Fuerteventure, Canary Islands: https://www.facebook.com/HuelgaDeHambreEnFuerteventura

Occupied land "La Turquilla" in Mark's post at the top of this page, was evicted at 5am by the riot police.

Link: http://ecijaweb.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2602:sindicalistas-del-sat-se-concentran-en-ecija-tras-el-desalojo-de-las-turquillas&catid=39:ecija&Itemid=296

Mentions that 50 satistas (do you call them that? heh) are demonstrating in Ecija town square againt the autoreduzione arrests & the eviction.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=451728658192800&set=a.446777692021230.101463.446324155399917&type=1&ref=nf

photo of eviction

Yeah flatmate just came and said that

following an interview with a SAT-member in the german "Jungle World" there semms to be the concrete idea of calling for a simultaneous strike in italy, greece and spain in october: http://jungle-world.com/artikel/2012/34/46112.html also there would be a day of action on september 15th.

Didn't put this up when it happened but a few days ago the SAT occupied the Placio de Moratalla, an empty estate owned by the Duke of Segorbe. Think they've left now.

Really regreattable and something to reflect about the way large parts of the anarchist milieu in Spain are completly and blindly going hand by hand with the Left:

- Being simply the left wing of the state-unions in their protests (we saw it clearly the last general strike the 29 th of march; we've seen again in the last miners dispute; we are seeing today with the new call for a general strike in some regions together with reactionary nationalist unions like ELA or LAB). See a debate on libcom about that:
http://libcom.org/news/account-march-29-spanish-general-strike-barcelona-01042012

- Cheering the actions of the alternative Left (the last case: the stalinist tv star and MP Gordillo and his performances in supermarkets) with a completly lack of revolutionary critics.

An article in spanish about the real meaning behind the televized campaing of the supermarkets lead by the SAT union:
http://es.internationalism.org/node/3447

Espectáculo del SAT y apoyo de la izquierda: la clase dominante en España, enfrentada a la crisis y al creciente descontento, trata de darle una capa de pintura a su desgastado aparato político y sindical

La crisis capitalista, en su paso por España, está haciendo que las contradicciones y antagonismos sociales que recorren la sociedad capitalista se muestren de una forma mucho más descarnada y clara, y que el Estado capitalista, tras su fachada democrática, aparezca de forma cada vez más evidente como lo que es: la máquina encargada de mantener las relaciones sociales y de producción capitalista que requiere la burguesía para su dominio sobre la población en general y sobre la clase proletaria en particular.

La situación se acerca a lo insostenible: aumento brutal de la pobreza y el hambre, paro masivo, miles de desahucios, aumento de la precariedad y la explotación, drásticas reducciones salariales, recortes o eliminación de servicios básicos (sanidad, educación, lucha contra incendios, etc).

En este contexto, la función principal de la mal llamada “clase política”, que no es otra que mentir, sembrar ilusiones y dar legitimidad “democrática” a la dominación capitalista, obviamente sufre un gran desgaste, por lo que es importante para la clase burguesa el preparar piezas de recambio, tanto en lo referente a los partidos e individuos que directamente asumen la función de gestión y aplicación de las medidas que el capital manda, como en los encargados de contener y canalizar el malestar social.

Y algo similar sucede con los sindicatos. Ante la gravedad de la situación, el capital y su Estado debe contar en la reserva con aparatos sindicales capaces de controlar y canalizar hacia puntos muertos las luchas y protestas cuando los “oficiales” CC.OO. , UGT u otros se muestren incapaces.

El caso es que el pasado 7 de agosto el SAT (Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores), previa llamada a los medios, organizó “asaltos” simbólicos a varios supermercados en la región andaluza “para denunciar la situación de miseria de muchas familias en Andalucía”. Los medios burgueses han situado estas acciones en portada durante varias días con dos objetivos, aparentemente contradictorios pero perfectamente complementarios: primero, el intento de criminalizar y asociar toda lucha y movilización con violencia hacia personas y trabajadores, utilizando de forma hipócrita y cínica las lágrimas de una cajera nerviosa a raíz de un pequeño rifi-rafe durante la acción, y así sembrar dudas en aquellos proletarios que sientan el impulso de lanzarse a la lucha en el futuro; y segundo, darle una inestimable publicidad al SAT, de paso a Izquierda Unida, y de forma general a toda la izquierda del capital.

Es bien conocida la férrea censura y blackout imperante en los medios “democráticos”: lo que no interesa a sus dueños es ocultado, o si es imposible por su amplitud, convenientemente tergiversado y manipulado. Desde luego las acciones simbólicas podrían haber sido, como tantas otras veces en casos similares, ocultadas o minimizadas por los medios; si no lo fueron es por las razones arriba señaladas. Y como decíamos, la publicidad al SAT y a IU ha sido enorme, con presencia de miembros del sindicato en múltiples platós televisivos (con la vedette y diputado andaluz por IU Sánchez Gordillo a la cabeza) soltando libremente todo su discurso, junto con sectores de IU que han tenido la oportunidad de mostrar su apoyo a la acción, con el respetable parlamentario Gaspar Llamazares como elemento mediático destacado, y así ponerse por un momento el disfraz de “combativos”.

Pero la cuestión fundamental que subyace de estos “eventos mediáticos” va más allá del SAT, o de tal o cual sigla o personaje; la clase dominante busca a corto y medio plazo el alimentar 3 elementos fundamentales para dificultar la reaparición histórica de la lucha de clase del proletariado a nivel masivo y mantener su poder: alimentar ilusiones sobre el parlamentarismo y las farsas electorales; fomentar la idea de que el sindicalismo (en sus distintas versiones, “oficial” o “de base”) sería una herramienta eficaz de protesta y lucha para los explotados; y espolvorear todo el arsenal de confusión con posiciones políticas y reivindicaciones reaccionarias y ajenas a la lucha proletaria.

La burguesía ha tratado de transmitir que, pese a todo, el parlamento representaría al pueblo, y que hay parlamentarios que sí se preocupan de “los ciudadanos” (su distinguida señoría Llamazares ha aprovechado bien la ocasión para hacerse la foto y se ha erigido en defensor de los pobres). En definitiva, que existiría alguna esperanza de lucha transformadora en el seno de ese cascarón vacío y podrido, lleno de cotorras mentirosas a sueldo del capital, sin otro fin que legitimar la dominación capitalista y alimentar ilusiones “democráticas” y electorales de cambio, que es el parlamento burgués.

De la misma forma, la clase dominante ha pretendido dar oxígeno al sindicalismo, y más concretamente al sindicalismo “de base” o “alternativo” (cuyas diferencias con el sindicalismo “oficial” serían más de forma que de fondo, siendo en general los “alternativos” meros apéndices críticos de los “oficiales”, como pudimos comprobar una vez más en la última “huelga general” del 29-M). ¿Los métodos de estos sindicatos “alternativos”?: acciones simbólicas para llamar la atención de los medios, marchas a pié, aislar y centrar los conflictos en una empresa o zona geográfica, acciones espectaculares (ocupaciones, bloqueos de carreteras, etc), movilizaciones a toque de corneta de los sindicatos grandes, suplicar en la puerta del político de turno, etc. Lejos de lo mínimo que la clase proletaria requiere hoy día: espacios de encuentro, solidaridad, reflexión y debate donde romper el aislamiento; la extensión de los conflictos y las protestas más allá de la empresa o área geográfica particular; el uso de las movilizaciones desmovilizadoras de los sindicatos “oficiales” para contactar y debatir con compañeros y no para ser una mera comparsa chillona.

A la vez, dándole publicidad al SAT, lo que la burguesía ha pretendido es difundir lo máximo posible el arsenal de confusionismo y posiciones reaccionarias que este sindicato comparte con la mayoría de la izquierda y extrema izquierda [1] (y con gran parte del aparato político e ideológico burgués). Este sindicato tiene sus propias peculiaridades ideológicas (entre las más reaccionarias estarían su extravagante nacionalismo andaluz, que identifica la solución a todos los problemas “de Andalucía” -así, en general- con su independencia de España; la caduca y estéril reivindicación de “reforma agraria” para el problema del paro jornalero en Andalucía, como si fuera un problema separado del conjunto del proletariado; o sus reivindicaciones especialmente humillantes y más propias de Cáritas como la de que los supermercados entreguen comida a punto de caducar a la gente necesitada...) pero, como decimos, estas son algunas posiciones de la izquierda en general que es necesario denunciar:

- La utilización del aparato político burgués (la “clase política”) como taparrabo del sistema al que culpar de la crisis (“malas políticas”, casos de corrupción, los sueldos y privilegios de los políticos, etc), y así no señalar al sistema capitalista como un todo, y al aparato político y su corrupción como expresión de este. Mientras la indignación se dirija y limite a los políticos la burguesía puede estar tranquila.

- La utilización de los bancos y el sector financiero también como chivos expiatorios “culpables de la crisis” como si estos no fueran organismos estrechamente ligados al Estado capitalista y al sistema como un todo, y como si el hundimiento del sector financiero no fuera otra cosa que la expresión del derrumbe de una parte de la economía capitalista. Vuelta a la vieja cantinela antiglobalización, hoy retomada por los restos del 15M y la izquierda de que “el poder financiero se está cargando la democracia” (¡!).

- La utilización de sus acciones dirigidas a “llamar la atención del gobierno” y evitar la “helenización de España”, y a que este “haga políticas a favor del pueblo”. Por supuesto sus acciones no van dirigidas al conjunto de explotados, a que el proletariado gane en fuerza, autoorganización, unidad, solidaridad y capacidad política para el combate contra la burguesía.

- Denuncia de que “Bruselas” y “Merkel” estarían acabando con “nuestra soberanía”, discurso que exime a la clase capitalista española (y andaluza) y a su sistema de toda culpa en los ataques a las condiciones de vida. Como se vé, el reaccionario y antiproletario nacionalismo andaluz (que reivindica para crear empleo, entre otras cosas, que no se lleven la industria a Cataluña...) es perfectamente compatible con el reaccionario y antiproletario nacionalismo español (que se esfuerza en señalar a “Alemania” y “Bruselas” como los ladrones de “nuestra soberanía”...).

- Soluciones mágicas para la crisis: que el BCE preste dinero barato (¡cuando precisamente el crédito excesivo para crear una demanda ficticia que diera salida a las mercancías ha sido la causa inmediata de la crisis!), que se hagan inversiones productivas, que se genere empleo, etc... Por lo visto aquí no hay lucha de clases, no hay antagonismos sociales, la burguesía y su Estado no mirarían por su propio beneficio sino por “el bien del pueblo”, no hay contradicciones en el sistema que lo llevan a crisis y convulsiones cada vez más profundas, sólo “buenas o malas políticas” en las que habría que acertar por el “bien del país”... ¿y la crisis?, sería mentira, “una estafa”.

La gravedad de la situación, los múltiples y sofisticados métodos y aparatos de confusión y canalización que posee la clase dominante y su Estado, la descomposición social y la atomización creciente, hacen absolutamente indispensable un mínimo de claridad política para luchar contra el capitalismo. No puede haber práctica revolucionaria sin teoría revolucionaria, sin conocer el terreno que pisamos, la portería que defendemos y en la que nos toca marcar, a nuestros enemigos y a nuestros falsos amigos.

Los compañeros que honestamente tratan de luchar contra este sistema bajo la influencia de la izquierda y la extrema izquierda del capital tienen que hacer un esfuerzo y reflexionar acerca de la actividad y discurso de esas organizaciones e ideologías, cuyo fin (más allá de los honestos y combativos militantes que pudiera haber en sus filas) en la sociedad burguesa es el de contener, canalizar y debilitar la capacidad, teórica y práctica, del proletariado para luchar contra el capitalismo.

CGT comunica el acuerdo de la convocatoria de una Huelga General de 24 horas en todo el estado para el 31 de octubre 2012

http://www.cgt.org.es/noticias-cgt/comunicados/cgt-comunica-el-acuerdo-de-la-convocatoria-de-una-huelga-general-de-24-hora

thanks for that

Empty luxury flats in Seville occupied by homeless families

I'm posting updates on the occupations in Seville here http://www.libcom.org/news/evicted-families-occupy-building-seville-call-others-do-so-08062012

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article26573

And that’s not all. The Spanish Military Association (AME), composed of former members of the army, has threatened Catalan president Artur Mas with a Council of War and has warned those who promote “the breaking-up of Spain” that they will have to answer before a military court on charges of “high treason”. Nothing more than that! It speaks volumes about the present situation when a conservative politician such as Artur Mas, enmeshed to the marrow of his bones with the powers of finance, especially with the La Caixa and Aberti banks, who is leader of a party as un-subversive as the CiU elicits such reactions. What will happen then when it comes to someone on the left, who is opposed to the interests of the employers and is a sincere defender of the right to self-determination?

Infantry lieutenant-colonel Francisco Alaman Castro said that "the current situation resembles that of 1936”. That is quite a declaration of intent. Today, as then, our democracy, our rights and our future are threatened. What is at stake is important. When will we see tanks in the streets of Barcelona? It would not be the first time. But there is one thing I am sure of: the people will not remain silent. The most important thing will be not to make any mistake about who the enemy is, and while we fight against the badly recycled Francoists, we should remember that the interests of the majority of the Catalan people have very little to do with those of the Messiah Artur Mas.

[youtube]7O6ZMdj8-sg[/youtube]

ReelNews

The hot autumn has started. On October 7 2012, La Cumbre Social, (The Social Summit), made up of 150 trade unions and social movements, stage huge demonstrations in 57 cities in Spain with only 5 days notice. 72,000 march in Madrid. They’re demanding a referendum on austerity measures, or they’ll call a general strike. They’re also calling for a general strike throughout Europe, to be discussed at the next European TUC meeting in Brussels on 18/19 October – most likely date at the moment being November 14, the date already called for a general strike in Portugal.

If any of the Spanish people want to correct me on this please do because I mostly got this from hearsay and from a few spanish articles. But the CGT has convened a national general strike on the 31st of October, the reformist unions of the so called "cumbre social" on the other hand convened a general strike in November, and besides that the CNT said it wanted to have a general strike based on the unions to the left of the cumbre social (such as the CGT and the SAT) but they dont think that the 31st is gonna allow enough time to prepare for such a general strike.

I can explain it further. Yes CGT called for a general strike (GS) on 31th october hoping to help create a bigger coalition of the left centrals (CNT included) However the preparation has been quite poor and careless. On the other hand the order unions (UGT and CCOO mainly) are going to call in november for a GS if they can't avoid it and CGT apparently will join this call instead of the one in october for the sake of unity. Anyway the main unions are there obviously to sabotage any apparent scalation of the conflict and the call of a general strike aims at asking for a referendum on the government cuts (ie economical policy) instead of plainly demanding the end of such measures. The problem is that they are at the moment the only ones able to achieve a succesful GS. I'm afraid the radical unions are far from reaching a good stable coordination against the cuts.

The CNT has agreed to try to work with the CGT and other unions to organize a strike outside of the CCOO and UGT for mid-November.

in barcelona the CNT is joining the strike call for october 31th: http://internationalworkersassociation.blogspot.de/2012/10/la-cnt-convoca-huelga-general-en-la.html

a lot discussions related to o31 can be found here:
http://www.alasbarricadas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=54043&start=120
http://www.alasbarricadas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=53427
http://www.alasbarricadas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=54227

The unions in Spain appear to have been particularly successful in keeping the workers and their demonstrations divided up into corporate prisons. The ICC's Spanish publication, Accion Proletaria, reports that around the July 19 demos, the CCOO and the UGT had secret meetings with Chanellor Merket and this was followed by secret meetings between the unions and Rajoy in the Mondoa Palace. Before the strikes of late March, Rajoy met each union leader seperately and the vice president admitted to 33 "technical" meetings with the unions.

From previous "secret" meetings between government and unions we can guess that the meetings were about how to to demobilise the workers and this would have been done, from the unions point of view also, as the defence of the national interests of capitalism, which all the major unions are committed to. Spain is a "good" example of this.

Student demo in Madrid today:

[youtube]8TgHbkxBUNA[/youtube]

[quote=El País]

Spain’s main labor unions, CCOO and UGT, plan to call a general strike for November 14 to protest the government’s austerity drive, just eight months after the last country-wide stoppage.

The stoppage will be formally called at a top level meeting on Friday. This will be the first time two general strikes have been held in the same year. A meeting will also be held of the so-called Social Summit, which groups together some 200 social organizations opposed to the government’s economic policies.

The decision to go ahead with the stoppage came just hours after the European Trade Union Confederation called for strikes and demonstrations against the belt-tightening movement in Europe on November 14.

The Portuguese union CGTP has called for a national strike on November 14, while stoppages are also expected in Cyprus and Greece…[/quote]

alasbarricadas thread

Yeah, cheers mate..
Many thanks for your kind information.

Thought I'd resurect this thread after coming across this interesting article..
Protest becomes way of life

Judges, garbage workers, doctors and bus drivers are among those involved in a wave of disruptive strikes and demonstrations as workers lose patience with the centre-right government's spending cuts after four years of economic crisis.

Demonstrations have become a daily event in the capital and other major cities in the biggest social upheaval Spain has seen since the transition to democracy in the 1970s.

Oh yeah, also this..

Thirty families have occupied six blocks of empty flats in Barcelona. The flats, which belong to banks, are recently built and have never been lived in. Catalonia has the highest numbers of evictions in Europe, according to PAH (Plataforma Afectados por Hipoteca- Platform for those affected by mortgages)..
http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/1709115/0/barcelona/vivienda/banca-okupa/

Is Spain the new hotspot for fighting austerity?

This has popped up in my facebook page.

Dunno if I did that right or not, it's a poster for 23 Feb 'Toma la calle' (take to the streets), and most importantly: "no mas golpes de estado" (no more coups), referring to the fact that 23 Feb is the anniversary of the 1981 coup attempt, the most memorable aspect of which was Col Tejero leading Guardia Civil into the Cortes (Parliament) and holding it at gunpoint for a day or so until reading that the coup had failed in the following day's paper.

Firefighters fighting police in Spain today..

[youtube]6rFEFG0yicI[/youtube]

Some videos of it kicking off last night in Spain. First video is some of the most heavy fighting I've seen since probably when things started kicking off in Greece a few years ago..

[youtube]LWTnN0EEUhI[/youtube]

This is from the Global Uprisings website and it's also pretty cool..

22M: Madrid Protests on March 22, 2014 from brandon jourdan on Vimeo.

Anyone else got any updates from people on the ground?

CNT doing their thing.. could easily have been a decent enough demo by themselves!
[youtube]KXoX0ac7JfY[/youtube]

It's actually a compilation of demos. Part of it is in Madrid but some of the signs are written in Catalan. Some of the signs show which the locality

I was going to comment on the implications that this has for the CNT's organizational level - able to pull together a demo like this, with visible and well-made propaganda and signs, a speaker truck, as well as quickly edit together a video. The fact that it is a compilation of marches in multiple areas is more impressive. All of it together I think speaks to what a revolutionary union should be doing in a context like Spain's, in addition to the mostly invisible task of workplace organizing.

By the way on monday morning, around 200 people went to claim the freedom of the arrested people.

http://www.lahaine.org/index.php?p=76346
http://www.publico.es/actualidad/509922/cientos-de-personas-piden-la-libertad-de-los-detenidos-en-el-22m-frente-a-los-juzgados

Cops are quite angry about being cannon fodder. Apparently there were 1000 rioters (a record in Madrid) and some anti-riots units were overrun. Many cops resulted injured.

The point is that the youth of working class areas in Madrid like Vallekas, Carabanchel, Vicálvaro, Villaverde, Leganés, Tetuán, Lavapiés... are getting radicalised. Left wing parties and unions (and squats and social movements) are gaining ground in those areas while in other parts of Spain working class youngsters are becoming nazis. That's the point: only a true working class struggle can avoid the rise of fascism.

CNT is getting bigger quite fast in the last year. And it is obvious out of its workplace conflicts. However it is still a small union. In mass mobilisations it get to gather thousands people, but most of it is not a member of CNT. This is a paradox, while the marches of other unions things are at the opposite way.

15M in Spain is being capitalised by lots of new social movements, as well as by CNT, and all the radical left. Communists are increasing their number and structure, as you may see in las Marchas de la Dignidad.

By the way, tomorrow and on wednesday there is a student strike in Madrid:
http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/node/28742

And on next saturday another mobilisation against monarchy:
http://coordinadora25s.wordpress.com/

The most positive result of 22M has been that 1 million people has come to the streets without CCOO and UGT. We don't need institutional left anymore to be loads in the streets. The new challenge is to call a general strike without them.

Mass media are increasingly seen as a part of the problem by a growing part of population. This weekend news from the 22M marches were silenced and ignored. Instead all the media attention has been focused in the death of the former president Adolfo Suarez.

Left wing parties and unions are gaining ground in those areas

Is this a positive thing though, what implications does it have?

Salvoechea

Mass media are increasingly seen as a part of the problem by a growing part of population. This weekend news from the 22M marches were silenced and ignored. Instead all the media attention has been focused in the death of the former president Adolfo Suarez.

Yeah that was pretty blatant. El Intermedio tonight had a couple of fun things about that - comparing 2 photos of mass gatherings (this and the Pope) at Colón with their reported numbers. And international news coverage, which countries report the big demo and which the violence (guess...)
(plus riot porn, about 8-10 mins into the show, which you don't need to speak Spanish to appreciate)

Thanks for your support.

Pics from CGT Block:
http://www.rojoynegro.info/galeria/agitaci%C3%B3n/las-marchas-llenan-dignidad-madrid

from CNT:
http://www.cnt.es/noticias/fotos-22m-un-antes-y-un-despu%C3%A9s

Libertarian Youth from Madrid:
http://juventudeslibertariasmadrid.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/mata-a-tu-alcalde-o-liberado-sindical-antes-de-que-lleve-escolta/

Anarchist student bloc
http://feszgz.blogspot.com.es/

info from 23 and 24 march. Protestors and activitsts tried to set up a camp. however, this time it was swept by police
http://www.lahaine.org/index.php?p=76346

Of all the arrested only one goes to prision.

------

As for the implications of a new militant generation in working class areas, is only positive. You must take into account that past generations got politisized in universities and in workplaces. However nowadays Uni is not much active and youth is out of wokrplace with an unemployment rate of 50%. So, youngsters study until 25-30. And work in shit-jobs, in which they don't care about the conditions as they believe they'd quit as soon as possible.

Spanish youth has not future with capitalism. That's the point. Some will emigrate to other countries (ie. Britain, Germany, North and Southamerica), but the most part of it will stay at home. It's good to see people getting politisized. as an example:

http://www.lahaine.org/index.php?p=76353
http://juventudeslibertariasmadrid.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/extendamos-la-lucha-carabanchel-barrio-obrero-y-solidario/

A couple of more photos from inside the CNT block, it was almost not possible to take a pic from all of it.

http://i.imgur.com/PajgKYi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/BhcsxT6.jpg

From inside CNT has mobilized thousands of people, we are back to our home towns with new energies.

The king has abdicated today. Since march 22 and the last turn in the european elections things are speeding up around here. In this deep crisis of legitimacy a change of regime looks possible: the dynastic parties are in unstoppable decay, the press is systematically ignored or despised except for the far right and a bunch of scared socialdemocrats, justice is seen as corrupt, strikes and protest are breaking out weekly tho many not being reported on the media, the far right in the european election has been totally irrelevant: not a single mp. The new party capitalizing discontent - Podemos -, looks like a combination of oportunists of all sorts and disenchanted leftists which nevertheless would be essential in a change of scenery. However, people won't leave the streets easily cos all representatives look suspicious. Serious changes may happen in the months ahead.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/02/spanish-unions-campaign-criminalisation-strikes

With nearly 300 workers in court over their participation in strikes, Spain's major unions are fighting back, launching a campaign against what they call the increasing "criminalisation" of strikes and other labour activities.

At least 260 workers across Spain are facing cumulative jail time of 120 years over their participation in recent labour activities, said Cándido Méndez of the UGT general workers' union.

Threatened sentences range from fines to three years in jail. The moves is set against a backdrop of a recent labour law reform that made it cheaper and easier for companies to lay off people, reduce wages and modify the conditions of employment. "It's creating a dynamic in which the clear aim is to discourage workers from mobilising," Méndez said.

Prosecutors are exploiting an obscure article in the criminal code meant to prevent workers from being pressured into striking, said Ignacio Fernández Toxo, who heads the Workers' Commission trade union. The article is being increasingly relied on to justify fines and time in jail for those who strike.

The result, he said, was chilling. "They're trying to make examples of a few, instil fear and discourage people from participating in mobilisations and strikes. We're talking about a fundamental right that's enshrined in the Spanish constitution."

As part of the campaign, letters are being sent out and meetings planned with prosecutors and government officials. Rallies are also being organised across Spain next week.

The issue takes on particular importance, said Toxo, when Spain's recent history is factored in. It was not that long ago that Spanish workers lacked the freedoms to claim their rights as workers, he pointed out.

"We thought we had clearly overcome this phase in Spain. But it seems like maybe not."