Spanish Revolution
- happening in your local Plaza right now...
A
few days prior to the recent local elections in Spain, a group of people
got together in the main plaza in Madrid to protest political corruption,
government and banking policies. The majority were young Spaniards, 45%
of which will probably never have employment, despite their hard-earned
University degrees. Current unemployment in Spain generally stands at 21.29%.
While the socialist PSOE
party lost their standing in local elections in virtually all municipalities,
the people believe that the conservative PP (Partido Popular), who won
the majority, are not much better than the PSOE in their methods and general
running of the "system", and demand a "real democracy".
The people believe that the
"crisis" was invented by the banks and the politicians, and that it is
not a true crisis, or recession.
Because of this, the movement
has now spread to all major cities in the country and continues even today
- both young and old are now involved. 10's of 1000's of people are camping
out in the major Plazas (or town squares) of major cities, day and night.
Smaller towns are also forming groups to protest for a real Democracy.
Other countries in Europe
(Greece, Ireland, Croatia, Romania) have been inspired to follow Spain's
lead and start their own protests, or to lend their support to Spain. Groups
of Spaniards in many countries worldwide have lead protests in the major
cities of those countries, including the USA, Austria, Germany and Holland.
The only violence has been
at the hands of the Police, who were told to clear the Plaza de Catalunya
in Barcelona for people to view a major football match between Manchester
United and Barca on the 28th May. They used extreme, excessive force with
batons, against peaceful protesters. Videos on YouTube show the police
in their body armour and helmets brutally beating women, men and even people
in wheelchairs. Once the game was over, the protesters returned and are
camping there to this day. If anything, the violence has increased the
number of protesters in the town squares. The protesters clean the plazas
around themselves and do not leave litter in the streets. Their actions
are completely legal under Spanish Law with regard to "freedom of speech".
You will see little, or nothing
of this movement in the mass media - search on YouTube.com or Facebook
for #spanishrevolution, Spanish Revolution or Democracia Real Ya! for more
information.
The
following is a video of the protests prior to election
day, and below you can read the Manifesto in English.
Manifesto
(English)
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.
A
few days prior to the recent local elections in Spain, a group of people
got together in the main plaza in Madrid to protest political corruption,
government and banking policies. The majority were young Spaniards, 45%
of which will probably never have employment, despite their hard-earned
University degrees. Current unemployment in Spain generally stands at 21.29%.
