Last Saturday about 3000 people came together to reclaim the streets of Barcelona. At 5:00 pm the crowd began to gather in the Plaça de la Universitat, a large park in a commercial district of downtown Barcelona. The plaza quickly filled with people, some in costume, many with signs and banners and after about an hour, they started to move.

Despite an extraordinary (for Barcelona) police presence, over the following four hours the streets were transformed into a giant party and instead of property destruction, banks, billboards and McDonalds outlets were transformed into giant steel and glass canvasses, and were covered with revolutionary art and slogans.

The police utilised the German and US tactic of confining the demonstrators on all sides, channelling them into the middle of the street, and “rubber” bullet shotguns, batons and real firearms were highly visible. The infamous Spanish Secret Police were spotted in action, one officer secreting a baton in a dustbin. It appeared to be a show of State force before the large numbers of protesters started arriving in the following days.

More information from indymedia Barcelona:
 http://barcelona.indymedia.org
And the IMC-UK World site
 http://uk.indymedia.org/index.php3?resist=global