Spain in Crisis.

Worthy of a thread I think.

Some of the more politically aware/active friends I have here are convinced that there has been a block on any news being published in the UK. That may, or may not be true, but I certainly haven't seen any UK press reports about the *bloody riots and demonstrations here.

This is Spain's closest equivalent to The Guardian (don't want to compare really, but...).
http://elpais.com/elpais/inenglish.html/

A general stike has been called for Thursday, and I suspect it is going to be very ugly. A demo a couple of days ago against 'austerity cuts' was attended by police, guardia civil, fire fighetrs and pretty much every public worker affected. People are very unhappy to say the least. They see banks bailed out to the tune of 20x the national healthcare budget, then they're told they have to take a pay cut.

Adding fuel to the fire, the diaghter of a known to be very corrupt provincial leader was caught live on microphone making 'screw them' comments about the unemployed, and possibly also inferring the same to public sector workers.

Those in power are in fear. Nobody is looking forwards to Thursday, but almost everyone feels it needs to be done.

Another rumour amongst the more left wing people I speak to is that Spain is going to be 'sacrificed' by the EU. It's just to big to support and far to corrupt. The vast majority of Spanish people want to be a part of contemporary Europe.

It is already getting ugly. Why none of this is being reported in the UK press (?) is a good question. It's a big issue for the whole of Europe. Or, is it in the press in the UK?


*Austerity cuts march, and the miners 'black' march.

have they by any chance been reading the british press for a while? if so, they're right. but this is a general thing, and not specifically aimed at spain.

anyway, i watched an interesting report about the miners' march on tv last week, and it mentioned the repression

The news block (if it exists) was supposed to be from 6 days ago.

I can't find anything on The Independent, or Guardian websites.

there's this from four days ago

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f9b2c536-ccf7-11e1-b78b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz20uzK0TaH

Can you give a summary. Really can't be arsed to subscribe to an FT article that appears to be 3 days late.

There was video on the bbc from 6 days ago of police firing rubber bullets etc here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18792427

i can't be arsed to summarise for someone who can't be bothered to use their eyes.

It says I have to subscribe to read the article you linked to. When I go the main site and search for articles about Spain the only result than can be considered news is about the forest fires in Valencia.

it doesn't here. so there.

We've got more important things to worry about than Spain. It's been raining here for three months and the security for the Olympics is a complete shambles.

so what are these important things we have to worry about?

British news media are just pretty crap at covering events in Spain. There's no other 'block'.

*corrected for you*

It'll be because no-one cares

I'm in Spain (a small town) and I'm not picking up this tension, yet. People are, in my opinion, still apathetic in general. I judge this by the atmosphere in my local bar which is like a hub for exchanging news. There's no tension here despite the fact that just about everyone's living standards are under attack.

There certainly hasn't been a shift from the peaceful indignados approach towards a more militant form of protest. There is no sea change as of yet but it will come, eventually.

The bloody riots you mention at the end of the miners rally in Madrid were pretty much the same as usual, police attacking demonstrators and going in hard (it's normal here, happens 2 or 3 times a year in Barcelona and Madrid). The police in Madrid even attacked a load of kid skaters who were queueing for some premier or other.

I don't think that failing to report police baton charges in Madrid constitutes a block.

As for Spain being sacrificed, why would the european union want to severe one of its larger economies. No one stands to gain by dismemberment or scrapping of the Euro. It would mean chaos for the whole world economy. Imagine the effect on US imports to europe. Too many countries outside the eurozone would stand to lose so it is unlikely.

What we do have in Spain is a political class unused to actually doing real thinking or working. They don't have a clue what to do. The way things are at present there can be no job creation for a minimum of 3 years and all their measures are designed to eliminate disposable income (and more) from vast swathes of society which in turn will fuck the economy even more.

At least the beach is still free, that is unless you swim when there's a red flag, if you do that you get a 400 euro fine.

In some respects I find that reassuring. However, the 24% unemployed here have yet to read a public apology to them from Andrea Fabra.

24% of the population have been told to fuck off by the daughter of one of Spain's most corrupt politicians.

24% of the population who want the right to work.

All sorts of shit is going to kick-off in Madrid, Barcelona and most large cities. Small villages will remain peaceful small villages. I can tell you that here in Madrid nobody is looking forwards to Thursday.

Inadequate coverage in the British news media does not justify misleading posts on U75. The two main unions, CCOO & UGT, have not called a general strike for this Thursday, though they are talking of further general strikes (which are not rare in Spain). For this Thursday, the CCOO & UGT have called demonstrations in the evening across the country in 80 different cities.

http://www.ccoo.es/csccoo/menu.do

Apparently, 'police in front of the Spanish congress had removed their riot helmets in support of the protests. No reporting of this, leaving people in Spain not realising what's happening.'

'Let Them Eat Cake'

Marches from all over the country have been arriving in Madrid over the last week. There have been daily demonstrations.
Firemen, police and now military personnel have pledged their support to the anti-cuts campaign.
Even a TV station in Valencia, workers interrupted a live broadcast to read out a statement about their concerns and support.
There has been lots of livestream from people using bambuser.

Picture taken a couple of nights ago when Firemen fronted the march through Madrid to confront police who had been breaking heads and firing rubber bullets at protestors for a few days previously:

The Spanish media aren't exactly good at it either.

It's almost as if they have a vested intrest in being an echo chamber for the political classes

You're right about people deserving an apology from that woman in parliament. It's not going to happen, she won't resign and most protests will continue to be peaceful. Whatsmore the 9 million people who voted for her corrupt party will continue to do so.

Although unemployment is high in Spain there is also a massive paralell submerged economy whereyby many "unemmployed" make a living. That's not saying that a section of society isn't being pushed down. There are more peole scavenging thru the rubbish than a couple of years ago and a 91 year old man was stabbed in the neck in a town near me when they tried to rob him of his shopping trolley.

Nobody is looking forward to thursday, not because the protestors are going to start tearing down conservative party headquarters but because the police are likely to do what they have always done, baton charges against defenceless people. No change there.

In your fisrt post you say it is going to get very ugly. How? who is going to make it ugly? The spanish people are not ready to explode as they have done historically, again and again.

For me the only people in Spain who are tense at the moment are the coked up police.

Seems general strike has been called off. It was reported that a general strike was called.

A demo', or manifestation then. Some police will demonstrate also.

Presently, most police are supporting the demo. Most.

I would like to see tomorrow pass peacefully, but I see far too many angry people ready to vent.

so the police are standing in solidarity with those they've covered in blood in madrid? or protecting their own pay-cheque....?

Que se jodan!

pretty sure JHE is right and there was no general strike called btw. not in spain currently though and been a bit slack with following the news. things seem to be moving quite fast. Paul Mason's report from Sevilla is pretty interesting. I'd really recommend watching the video. It's only a brief insight into a couple of different stories, but at the same time it paints quite a broad picture.

This is what i've seen the past 8-9 months anyway. Sort of. Euskadi and the north of Spain seemed to be really in a rather different situation, when I was there recently.

There are police, and then there are police I guess. But, yes; it's obviously about how the cuts affect you personally rather than a solidarity. All quiet here tonight.

Who called it and where was it reported?

No general strike for today was called by the main Spanish TUs and I have found no report of a general strike being called by any minor Spanish TU either.

Was it called by some confused English drunk in a bar in Lavapies and reported to the urinal by his equally pissed drinking companion?

The only crisis Spain has is Stanley's presence.

It was common knowledge on the street by Monday.

http://www.inkerman.com/gb/news-and-press/news-updates

You fuckwit