ktlight
26th June 2011, 07:20
FYI:
June 25, 2011
The revolutionary movement that began in Tunisia at the end of last year has now sparked mass movements in Europe; principally, to date, in Greece and Spain. On the surface, these movements have little in common. In Tunisia and Egypt, the people came out in vast numbers to overthrow the hated dictators who, for decades, had strangled their economies and presided over police states, whereas in Greece and Spain, the protestors are not seeking the overthrow of dictators, and are not rebelling against a police state (although both countries can draw on their relatively recent experience of dictatorship).
Beneath the surface discrepancies, however, the revolutionary movements of 2011 share noticeable similarities — not just because they are all, to some extent, popular uprisings involving word-of-mouth and social networking, without the kind of fixed organisational leadership that has been behind previous revolutionary movements, but also because they are all, fundamentally, attacking the malevolent impact of unfettered 21st century capitalism on entire populations, whether these involve dictators enriching themselves by facilitating Western exploitation at the expense of their people, or the populations of European countries being told that they have to pay for the excesses of their leaders and the banks. Everywhere, bankers, corporations and major shareholders continue to make profits, while everyone else loses, and is supposed to go quietly to the abattoir of their hopes and dreams.
In Spain, where the unemployment rate is over 20 percent — and the youth unemployment rate is a staggering 45 percent — protestors, identifying themselves as "los indignados" (the indignant), first followed the lead established in Tunisia and Egypt on May 15, when tens of thousands of people undertook what the BBC described as "a spontaneous sit-in" in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square. Tens of thousands more protestors then occupied public spaces in Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla and Bilbao ahead of local elections, despite a pre-election ban on political protest.
As the BBC explained on May 21, they were "demanding jobs, better living standards, a fairer system of democracy and changes to the Socialist government’s austerity plans." One protestor, Natividad Garcia, captured the amorphous, leaderless movement’s aims, saying, "They want to leave us without public health, without public education, half of our youth is unemployed, they have risen the age of our retirement as well. This is an absolute attack on what little state welfare we had."
Particular outrage was reserved for the "Euro Pact" agreed in March by all the countries tied together through their use of the Euro as currency. As AFP explained, the pact, which was "[d]rawn up under pressure from France and Germany," insisted on "greater budgetary discipline and economic policy convergence to ensure that countries stabilise their finances and reduce debt."
Although the Madrid occupation came to an end on June 12, the protestors stated that the movement would continue, and were true to their word. Last weekend, "seething over the destruction of millions of jobs, welfare cuts and corruption," as AFP described it, 200,000 protesters gathered in Madrid, Barcelona and other major cities "to vent their anger." In Madrid, 40,000 people "converged from six points around the city to the central square of Plaza de Neptuno, near the Spanish parliament," and in Barcelona, there were up to 75,000 demonstrators.
The protests were followed, this week, by the start of three nationwide marches which will culminate in a major rally in Madrid on July 24. One, from Valencia, involves activists marching and cycling on a month-long, 300-mile journey through 29 towns and villages to reach Madrid, and others are leaving from Cadiz and Barcelona. The Valencia group, Acampada Valencia, stated that they would be holding meetings en route "to bring their indignation inland just as the movement is growing at the international level."
source
http://uruknet.info/?p=m78959&hd=&size=1&l=e
June 25, 2011
The revolutionary movement that began in Tunisia at the end of last year has now sparked mass movements in Europe; principally, to date, in Greece and Spain. On the surface, these movements have little in common. In Tunisia and Egypt, the people came out in vast numbers to overthrow the hated dictators who, for decades, had strangled their economies and presided over police states, whereas in Greece and Spain, the protestors are not seeking the overthrow of dictators, and are not rebelling against a police state (although both countries can draw on their relatively recent experience of dictatorship).
Beneath the surface discrepancies, however, the revolutionary movements of 2011 share noticeable similarities — not just because they are all, to some extent, popular uprisings involving word-of-mouth and social networking, without the kind of fixed organisational leadership that has been behind previous revolutionary movements, but also because they are all, fundamentally, attacking the malevolent impact of unfettered 21st century capitalism on entire populations, whether these involve dictators enriching themselves by facilitating Western exploitation at the expense of their people, or the populations of European countries being told that they have to pay for the excesses of their leaders and the banks. Everywhere, bankers, corporations and major shareholders continue to make profits, while everyone else loses, and is supposed to go quietly to the abattoir of their hopes and dreams.
In Spain, where the unemployment rate is over 20 percent — and the youth unemployment rate is a staggering 45 percent — protestors, identifying themselves as "los indignados" (the indignant), first followed the lead established in Tunisia and Egypt on May 15, when tens of thousands of people undertook what the BBC described as "a spontaneous sit-in" in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square. Tens of thousands more protestors then occupied public spaces in Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla and Bilbao ahead of local elections, despite a pre-election ban on political protest.
As the BBC explained on May 21, they were "demanding jobs, better living standards, a fairer system of democracy and changes to the Socialist government’s austerity plans." One protestor, Natividad Garcia, captured the amorphous, leaderless movement’s aims, saying, "They want to leave us without public health, without public education, half of our youth is unemployed, they have risen the age of our retirement as well. This is an absolute attack on what little state welfare we had."
Particular outrage was reserved for the "Euro Pact" agreed in March by all the countries tied together through their use of the Euro as currency. As AFP explained, the pact, which was "[d]rawn up under pressure from France and Germany," insisted on "greater budgetary discipline and economic policy convergence to ensure that countries stabilise their finances and reduce debt."
Although the Madrid occupation came to an end on June 12, the protestors stated that the movement would continue, and were true to their word. Last weekend, "seething over the destruction of millions of jobs, welfare cuts and corruption," as AFP described it, 200,000 protesters gathered in Madrid, Barcelona and other major cities "to vent their anger." In Madrid, 40,000 people "converged from six points around the city to the central square of Plaza de Neptuno, near the Spanish parliament," and in Barcelona, there were up to 75,000 demonstrators.
The protests were followed, this week, by the start of three nationwide marches which will culminate in a major rally in Madrid on July 24. One, from Valencia, involves activists marching and cycling on a month-long, 300-mile journey through 29 towns and villages to reach Madrid, and others are leaving from Cadiz and Barcelona. The Valencia group, Acampada Valencia, stated that they would be holding meetings en route "to bring their indignation inland just as the movement is growing at the international level."
source
http://uruknet.info/?p=m78959&hd=&size=1&l=e