From Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/20/spanish-protesters-cheer-for-world-revolution-as-ban-on-demonstration-takes-effect/
By Agence France-Presse
Friday, May 20th, 2011
MADRID — Thousands of protesters in Madrid furious over soaring unemployment staged a silent protest and then erupted in cheers of joy as a 48-hour ban on their demonstration took effect on Saturday.
“Now we are all illegal” and “the people united will never be defeated,” were among the chants of the protesters who crammed Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square and spilled onto side streets.
The protesters held a minute’s silence, their hands in the air and some with tape over their mouths, just before midnight on Friday, when campaigning officially ended for Sunday’s regional and municipal elections.
The crowd then cheered as the clock in the square, the main site of New Year festivities in Madrid, chimed midnight and a ban on the protest became effective.
“From Tahrir to Madrid to the world, world revolution,” said one of the placards, referring to Tahrir Square in Cairo which was the focal point of the Egyptian revolution earlier this year.
Some 19,000 people took part, according to a calculation by the Lynce organisation which estimates crowd numbers and released by the Spanish national news agency Efe.
Thousands of people have massed in city centres across the country in an swelling movement that began May 15, the biggest spontaneous protests since the property bubble exploded in 2008 and plunged Spain into a recession from which it only emerged this year.
Continue reading at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/20/spanish-protesters-cheer-for-world-revolution-as-ban-on-demonstration-takes-effect/
Bailout Protests Spread: People In Spain Are Chanting “We Want To Be Icelanders!”
From Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/spain-iceland-italy-revolt-protests-2011-5
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
May 20, 2011
A protest movement that started in Spain has now spread to Italy. The Spanish government has banned protests, but that has only encouraged more protests.
I picked the story up two days ago in Protests Mount in Spain; Sovereign Debt Crisis to Follow
Acting on a tip, the New York Times picked up the story a day later in Protesters Rally in Madrid Despite Ban.
Spain’s Icelandic revolt
Protests in Iceland helped bring down the Icelandic government and stopped the bailouts of banks at the expense of Icelandic taxpayers. Can the same thing happen in Spain?
Please consider Spain’s Icelandic revolt
After passively submitting to the crisis, young Spaniards have finally taken to the street. Breaking out on the eve of municipal elections, the protests of recent days have been inspired by those in Iceland that led to the fall of the government in Reykjavik.
Continue reading at: http://www.businessinsider.com/spain-iceland-italy-revolt-protests-2011-5
Spain Protests Rock Nation, Tens Of Thousands Fill The Cities Over Joblessness
From The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/21/spain-protests-joblessness_n_865058.html
By Tracy Rucinski and Fiona Ortiz
May 21, 2011
MADRID – Tens of thousands of Spaniards angry over joblessness protested for a sixth day on Friday in cities all over the country, and the government looked unlikely to enforce a ban on the demonstrations, fearing clashes.
Dubbed “los indignados” (the indignant), tens of thousands of protesters have filled the main squares of Spain’s cities for six days, in a wave of outrage over economic stagnation and government austerity marking a shift after years of patience.
The electoral board ruled on Thursday that protests would be illegal on Saturday, the eve of elections when Spaniards will choose 8,116 city councils and 13 out of 17 regional governments.
But Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has failed to contain the highest unemployment in the European Union, at 21.3 percent, said he may not enforce the ban.
Continue reading at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/21/spain-protests-joblessness_n_865058.html
How corruption, cuts and despair drove Spain’s protesters on to the streets
From The Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/21/spain-reveals-pain-cuts-unemployment
Young protesters in Madrid and beyond have many different demands, but they are united in opposing the government
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 21 May 2011 12.59 BST
The arrival of the table, a battered piece of Formica bashed on top of four rough, oversized legs, raised a cry of joy. Never mind that anyone on a normal chair would barely be able to see over the top – here was another small triumph of the new Spanish revolution, the gathering of angry Spaniards of all colours, ages and persuasions that is sweeping across the country and beyond its borders.
The table that arrived in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square was part of the swirl of creative chaos, naive enthusiasm and pent-up frustration that has transformed it into a makeshift camp for thousand of protesters who call themselves los indignados, the indignant ones.
Tents and mattresses, armchairs and sofas, a canteen, portable toilets and solar panels have sprung up in a remarkable display of organisational prowess. And the mass of people jostling around, each pursuing their own dream or demand, or just watching others doing the same, seemed more like something transported from the Arab spring in north Africa than from Europe.
As the protests continued to swell on Friday, with 60,000 people defying authorities to obey the campaign’s “Take over the square!” slogan in dozens of Spanish cities, and with copycat demonstrations across Europe, the question was whether this was the new May 1968 – a youth-led popular revolt against an establishment deemed to have failed an entire generation.
Esther Gutiérrez, an elfin 26-year-old, wandered through the crowd with a battered shopping cart full of fruit. “We’ve got so much food we don’t know what to do with it. People just bring it to us for free and it’s wonderful stuff,” she said. “We want real democracy. Not just freedom for bankers. You’re not from the Spanish press, are you? We don’t speak to them.”
Continue reading at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/21/spain-reveals-pain-cuts-unemployment