[Get mad!]
(Above photos from Reuters save the top which is from the BBC.)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/20/us-spain-election-protests-idUSTRE74J1UN20110520
This video from the Democracy Real, Ya (Real Democracy, Now) Group in Barcelona ends with:
Because we are more human,
Because we are more honorable,
Because we are more respectable,
And because we outnumber them,
Take the Streets May 15,2011
Here's the manifesto from the same group:
We are ordinary people. We are like you: people, who get up every morning to study, work or find a job, people who have family and friends. People, who work hard every day to provide a better future for those around us.
Some of us consider ourselves progressive, others conservative. Some of us are believers, some not. Some of us have clearly defined ideologies, others are apolitical, but we are all concerned and angry about the political, economic, and social outlook which we see around us: corruption among politicians, businessmen, bankers, leaving us helpless, without a voice.
This situation has become normal, a daily suffering, without hope. But if we join forces, we can change it. It’s time to change things, time to build a better society together. Therefore, we strongly argue that:
• The priorities of any advanced society must be equality, progress, solidarity, freedom of culture, sustainability and development, welfare and people’s happiness.
• These are inalienable truths that we should abide by in our society: the right to housing, employment, culture, health, education, political participation, free personal development, and consumer rights for a healthy and happy life.
• The current status of our government and economic system does not take care of these rights, and in many ways is an obstacle to human progress.
• Democracy belongs to the people (demos = people, krátos = government) which means that government is made of every one of us. However, in Spain most of the political class does not even listen to us. Politicians should be bringing our voice to the institutions, facilitating the political participation of citizens through direct channels that provide the greatest benefit to the wider society, not to get rich and prosper at our expense, attending only to the dictatorship of major economic powers and holding them in power through a bipartidism headed by the immovable acronym PP (conservatives, built out of old fascist party) & PSOE. (the socialists)
• Lust for power and its accumulation in only a few; create inequality, tension and injustice, which leads to violence, which we reject. The obsolete and unnatural economic model fuels the social machinery in a growing spiral that consumes itself by enriching a few and sends into poverty the rest. Until the collapse.
• The will and purpose of the current system is the accumulation of money, not regarding efficiency and the welfare of society. Wasting resources, destroying the planet, creating unemployment and unhappy consumers.
• Citizens are the gears of a machine designed to enrich a minority which does not regard our needs. We are anonymous, but without us none of this would exist, because we move the world.
• If as a society we learn to not trust our future to an abstract economy, which never returns benefits for the most, we can eliminate the abuse that we are all suffering.
• We need an ethical revolution. Instead of placing money above human beings, we shall put it back to our service. We are people, not products. I am not a product of what I buy, why I buy and who I buy from.
For all of the above, I am outraged.
I think I can change it.
I think I can help.
I know that together we can.I think I can help.
I know that together we can.
I found this statement and other useful stuff here:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99816
[From CNN. Signs read: No home, no job, no pension, no fear; Economic democracy; (and the one that isn't entirely visible I believe says) Make structural adjustments and cuts on the banks.]
[From Business Insider]
[From Fifth International]
[From Polizeros]
In Madrid and Barcelona, two cities with a long, impressive history of radical rebellion, demonstrators are organizing themselves into popular assemblies. The one in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, have issued these proposals:
-Defense of public, secular education
-The right to a dignified life
-Elimination of income disparity
-[Sorry but my Spanish is limited and I don't understand this one. Can anybody help?]
-Greater public access to broadcast communications
-Educating the public on sexual identity and preferences, and equality for gays.
-Defense of political and bilingual education.
-International cooperation.
-Promotion of renewable energy.
-Recovery and promulgation of real history
-Defense of public (free) health care.
-Liberalizing immigration law.
-Repeal of the Bologna Accords (which standardized higher education throughout Europe. This assembly is calling for a decentralization of education standards/curricula etc.)
-An end to the commercialization of knowledge. (Don't know what they mean specifically.)
-The renationalization of privatized industries.
-Closure of nuclear facilities
-Defense of a sustainable economy.
-Creation and use of bicycles and public transit.
-Elimination of tax havens.
-Elimination of a specific type of mutual fund which allows high-income investors to limit their tax liability.
-Referendum (presumably binding) on the creation of a Spanish Republic. (Technically Spain is a monarchy.)
-Legal recognition of unpaid care-givers etc. (Presumably for pensions etc.)
-Public subsidies for transit passes for the needy.
[También les piden a las instituciones:
-Defensa de la educación pública y laica
-Derecho a una vivienda digna
-Eliminación de la brecha salarial de género
-Defensa del Copyleft y abolición de la ley Sinde
-Más acceso a los medios de comunicación
-Educación en igualdad de género e identidad sexual
-Defensa de la educación política y bilingüe
-Más inversión en la cooperación internacional
-Promoción de energías renovables
-Recuperación de la memoria histórica
-Defensa de la sanidad pública
-Reforma de la ley de Extranjería. “Ningún ser humano es ilegal”
-Derogación del proceso de implantación de Bolonia
-No mercantilización del conocimiento
-Recuperación de las empresas privatizadas
-Cierre de las centrales nucleares
-Defensa de la economía sostenible
-Fomento del uso de la bicicleta y el transporte público
-Eliminación de los paraísos fiscales
-Eliminación de las Sociedades de Inversión de Capital Variable (SICAV)
-Referéndum sobre la implantación de una República en España
-Reconocimiento el trabajo de cuidados (amas de casa, personas que cuidan a enfermos…)
-Subvención de los abonos de transporte público de parados y personas en situación precaria]
Here's some photos of the assembly:
Photos and general info', including how not to get lost in the Puerta del Sol, found at this terrific website: http://periodismohumano.com/sociedad/las-ideas-propuestas-en-sol.html
[Photos from Monsters and Critics. The last say "Without bread, there will be no peace."]
Here's a link to a brief but quite good article. It deals with the hostility most feel toward the union bureaucracies as well as to the "socialist" government. Got the following photos there too: http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/5073
[The signs read "We are not commodities," and "Violence is charging 600 Euros." (I don't know what the charge is for.)]
Here protesters raise a red flag. The sign to the left says (interpolating for the missing word)
"Compliant people become slaves."
Here's a link to one of my favorite websites where you will find translations of non-Anglophone reports: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/05/17/spain-thousands-of-citizens-take-the-streets/
