Perilous
Times
100,000 in Spain anti-crisis protest
Gabriel Rubio
June 20, 2011 - 6:19AM
AFP
More than 100,000 protesters took to the streets in Spain on
Sunday blaming bankers and politicians for causing a financial
crisis that forced the country to adopt painful spending cuts.
Demonstrators of all ages linked to a movement called the
"indignants" also protested against crippling unemployment and a
failure to take on government corruption.
The El Mundo newspaper, quoting police sources, said as many
40,000 protesters flooded streets in Madrid.
In Barcelona, the nation's second-largest city, police said 50,000
people turned out, while groups of several thousand demonstrators
rallied in other cities.
Protesters assembled in several neighbourhoods on the outskirts of
Madrid early on Sunday, then formed six columns and converged on
the city centre.
They tried to gather at parliament but were stopped by police, who
had set up barricades and used 12 vans to block several major
roads.
When it called for nationwide protests, the "indignants" movement
insisted workers and the unemployed needed to make clear that they
would not passively accept spending cuts to help ease Spain's
economic crisis.
"The banks and the governments that caused this situation must
know that we do not agree with the measures and the budget cuts,
that we intend to be heard," the group said.
In one procession on the main Castellana Avenue that runs through
Madrid, thousands marched towards parliament, including young
people, pensioners, the unemployed and parents pushing babies in
their strollers.
"They call this democracy, but it's not," shouted the crowd
gathered in the city centre, watched closely by police.
"We are not property in the hands of politicians and bankers,"
read a banner written in bold red letters.
One orator speaking through a microphone pledged to organise a
general strike.
"We are going to paralyse this country," he said.
Yolanda Garcia, a 36-year-old woman who said she has to work
several low-paying jobs to get by, said that politicians "do
nothing" to help people like her.
"I think that the (protest) movement could change things if it
continues," she said.
In Barcelona, protesters moving through two main squares in the
city centre blamed the government and powerful business interests
for the crisis.
"The street is ours!" they shouted. "We are not going to pay for
their crisis."
Police and media said that in Valencia, Granada, Malaga and
roughly 100 other cities and towns, demonstrators voiced outrage
over welfare cuts, corruption and a current jobless rate of 21 per
cent, the highest in the industrialised world.
The protest movement started in Madrid on May 15 and fanned out
nationwide as word spread by Twitter and Facebook.
The demonstrations peaked ahead of May 22 local elections, when
tens of thousands of people packed into squares in several towns
and cities.
The protesters had also set up a camp in Madrid's Puerta del Sol
Square, which was dismantled on June 12 although the group said
that did not signal the end of their movement.
The "indignants" have inspired similar offshoot movements in other
European countries, notably Greece, where the government is also
trying to implement a strict austerity program to avoid defaulting
on its loans.
The Spanish central bank said last weak the recovery in Spain's
beleaguered economy would likely remain slow, and that
unemployment could remain high for the foreseeable future.