World Public sector cuts Newswire Archive

Beginning on May 15th, a wave of protests has swept across Spain, with demonstrations in around 60 cities. The rallies have continued despite being officially banned under Spain’s electoral law. There have also been solidarity protests across the world, with several in the UK, including in Nottingham where a small protest was held in the Market Square on Saturday 21st. Supporters also maintained a small presence at this year’s Green Festival.

On the newswire: Nottingham Supports the Spanish revolution! | Brighton | Bristol | Edinburgh | London: 1, 2

The protesters in Spain have produced and distributed a manifesto:

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 & PSOE.
• 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.

Support for the Spanish protesters in Madrid reached Bristol today, on May 22nd 2011. Protesters gathered in the centre of Bristol with placards echoing the demands made in Madrid. They expressed their wish for real democracy and a change to the political and economic systems chanting slogans such as "They Don't Represent Us" and "Real Democracy Now".

The protests in Madrid started on 15 May with a camp in the central "Puerta del Sol" square. The gathering of thousands is continuing following a vote to remain in the square for another week.

Full Story | Please Support the Spanish Revolution | They All Must Go (London Indymedia) | Protests Set to Continue Outside Spanish Embassy (London Indymedia) | Constructing, Living and Demanding Participatory Democracy in the #Spanishrevolution (P2P Foundation) | Spain's Tahir Square (Znet) | Arab Spring to Spanish Summer (Znet)

The protest and camp outside London's Spanish embasy that started almost a week ago grew in strenght during the weekend. On Friday night around 50 people set up camp, and on Saturday more people joined in to spend the night on the pavement opposite to the embassy. But it was during the day when the protest grew to several hundred, specially on Saturday when around 500 people joined in throughout the afternoon till well into the night.

Several working groups were formed and started to work on different aspects of the protest. These included logistics, communications & media, international, and art & action. The days were mostly spent in working groups meetings and plenary assemblies that discussed issues ranging from logistics and the future of the London protest, to people debating the characteristics and aims of this 'movement' both here in London and in Spain, as well as how it can be expanded beyond Spain. People from Italy and Portugal were present at the Sunday's assembly where they announced that people are starting to discuss plans for similar square occupations in their countries.

There was also time for spontaneous protest as people periodically gathered shouting "they (politicians) don't represent us!" whilst banging pots and pans. The bigger, loudest and more festive protest of the weekend was on Saturday night, with people improvising chants and slogans against politicians, representative democracy, bankers, political parties and demanding a system change.

On Sunday the plenary assembly decided to dismantle the camp until next weekend - starting on Friday 27th - but to continue the protest outside the embassy every day from 7 to 9pm, in solidarity with the camps in Madrid's Puerta del Sol [live webcam] and Barcelona's Plaça de Catalunya that announced they would continue for at least another week. During the daily protests this week there are plans for working groups meetings, workshops and further assemblies that  will decide on the shape of the protest for nesxt weekend as well as how to continue is 'movement' in London.

Here there are some photos from Sunday afternoon and evening ...

Related articles in London Indymedia:

• They all must go...
• A shout from Madrid

More information about the protests in London:

• Real Democracy London blog

More information about the square occupations in Spain:

• Puerta del Sol Occupation blog 
• 24h live webcam from Puerta del Sol
• Plaça Catalunya Occupation blog
• Video Gallery from Barcelona's La Tele
• Live feeds from Spain an across Europe

22nd May, 2011:
Hundreds, overwhelmingly Spanish, marched in Edinburgh Sunday evening in Solidarity with the demonstration in Madrid.

read more

... people kept shouting last night outside the Spanish embassy in Belgravia. Since Wednesday 18th large crowds of mainly spaniards living in London are following a call to demonstrate and to express anger about the "political, economic, and social outlook which we see around us: corruption among politicians, businessmen, bankers, leaving us helpless, without voice."

On Friday 20th around 300 people showed up at Chesham Place for a 'pots & pans' protest, coinciding with hundreds of 'cacerolazo' protests called thorughout Spain as part of the 'Spanish Revolution' currently taking place all over the country. After the protest, a public assembly took place where, amongst other things, people debated the practicalities of setting up camp till Sunday 22nd. As a result, around 50 people spent the night outside the embassy, and there are plans for further demonstrations today Saturday and Tomorrow sunday [See Democracy London blog]

See pics of the London protest and read about the background story ...

What is all this about then?

Well, summing up the story began a few weeks ago when an anonymous call demanding 'True Democracy now!" went viral through social networking sites and twitter. The initial proposal was to take to the streets in as many Spanish towns and cities as possible on Sunday 15th of May, to express anger to the current  'democratic system' that puts the rule of the market above social needs and rights.

Currently in Spain there's 21% unemployment, which means that over 5 million people are out of work, 40% of which are young people. This, together with the massive 'austerity measures that Spanish government is imposing to the country affecting employment laws, cuts in public pensions and services, privatisation, and precarity in almost all aspects of people's lives,  is fast creating a general unrest that eventually exploded in  hugely successful demonstrations on over 50 Spanish cities last Sunday 15th.

The huge demonstrations in Madrid and Barcelona ended in  the occupations of Puerta del Sol and Plaça de Catalunya squares respectively. In both cities a few hundred people set up public assemblies that decided to set up camps immediately. In Madrid the camp was evicted by police the very first night whilst in Barcelona it was allowed to stay. The assembly of Madrid immediately called for another occupation of the central square for Monday night, and in the event, thousands of people turned up re-taking the square and setting up infrastructure for a long lasting protest. The camp in Barcelona was not evicted and by Monday night it also grow to thousands of people setting up kitchens, sleeping areas, debating forums, communications infrastructure and so on. By Tuesday, many more Spanish cities and towns started to mobilise too setting up their own protests, assemblies and camps, turning the spontaneous citizen mobilisation into something resembling and uprising. 

As a background to all this, there are the local elections taking place this Sunday all over Spain, together with, elections in some regional parliaments. It is for this reason why many of the communiques and manifestos coming out from the different camps talk about the need to go beyond parliamentary 'democracy' and into grass-roots and directly participatory ways of organising. It is for this reason that there's a general call from all the occupied squares to not vote on Sunday and to organise in local assemblies instead.

The main two camps in Madrid and barcelona are growing in numbers and strength (see live webcam from Madrid's Puerta del Sol) even though the protests are currently declared illegal since midnight Friday, due to the fact that Saturday is officially the "reflection day' during elections and as a result all public political expressions are banned by law. Madrid's local government had announced that they would not allow the camp to go into the weekend provoking fears of repression and the eviction of the camp, but the response was to gather in mass at Puerta del Sol and at midnight last night there where over 15,000 people occupying the square. The evictions has therefore not happened, and it now seems the camp will be allowed to stay, mainly due tothe fact that any violent eviction would play very badly in the hands of all parties seeking to get elected on Sunday.

The protests and occupations are due to continue till this Sunday (the election day), but the same as in the London's protest, there are now  many calls to turn them indefinite. It is yet not clear how this protest will continue and what it will turn into, nor whether this new 'movement' made of a new anonimous subject will actually become such a movement. At the moment it seems that it is a clear expression of anger, disgust and defiance to the current status quo, but whether this general unrest will actually politize itself it is still to be seen. What is clear though is that it intrinsically carries a lot of potential.

Note: solidarity protests have been called throughout Europe for today, including in Italy, Germany, Portugal, France and Belgium

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Communique from Real Democracy in Manchester

Fake democracies all across Europe are in great danger because the Revolution has just started. This is a time for action, for rising up together and changing the system.

Europe is suffering from political regimes that set the citizens aside and lack from a plural representation and by doing so, they become false democracies that do not represent the wishes, aspirations and needs of men and women of each country.

They only consider our vote as a mean to reach the power and, as soon as they get it, they forget that their duty is to represent the people. It is then when, as it happened in Spain and other European countries, they give way to the market and banking dictates.
Because of this, our intention is to change the current system, this miscalled democracy, into a new one where the citizenship play a significant role in political decisions via assemblies and other means of participation, with a freer communication media available to them and with a true separation of powers. A democracy to serve the people instead of the markets.

We moved from "I have a dream" to the "We have a dream". We walk together in this with other people from the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Holland and many other European countries. What happens in London, Madrid, Milan, Berlin, Amsterdam... is also happening in other cities and thus we all want to get together under this revolution.

A revolution with the only labels of participation, freedom and no violence. Without flags or political parties; just with the people.  With honest men and women who have risen up to change a system that rejects them, a world that does not work at all. Because in the end, we are world citizens tired of enduring this situation.

People from Manchester: http://realdemocracymanchester.blogspot.com