Today police has violently evicted the squares taken in Lleida and Barcelona.
Regarding Barcelona:
This morning around 7:00 in the morning the Mossos d'Esquadra (the equivalent of the national police) and the Guardia Urbana (the equivalent of the city police) started surronding the square . Their first request were being given all the crystal bottles and the kitchen material which they started doing. After approximately one hour they started evicting the people without identification plates. Around 10:30 they started firing rubber bullets in an attempt to separate the people. Eventually more and more people has come to the square so police had to retreat being completely swamped by the amount of people there. In the end at least 87 campers were wounded and two detained.
According to the informations I got the reason behind this is that they expected violence since tomorrow Barça is playing a football match.
Some multimedia:
http://twitpic.com/536h4v
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acampadabcnfoto/5765018458/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acampadabcnfoto/5764476979/in/photostream/
http://twitpic.com/534ban
http://www.e-noticies.tv/canales/actualitat/fills-de-puta-fills-de-puta-12936.html
http://www.e-noticies.tv/canales/actualitat/a-bastonades-12937.html
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/05/26/barcelona/1306440444.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Geg_6Xoy04s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzmTAQVXMqs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acampadabcnfoto/5764124105/in/photostream/
http://yfrog.com/h85iwkuj
http://twitpic.com/532eaq
http://www.designk.es/acampada/general/barcelona.php
Sources:
http://www.telesurtv.net/secciones/noticias/93398-NN/al-menos-87-heridos-deja-ataque-policial-contra-acampada-del-15-m-en-barcelona/
Regarding Lleida:
Around 7:30 operatives from the Mossos d'Esquadra (the equivalent of the national police) and the Guardia Urbana (the equivalent of the city police) have violently forced the eviction of the square even though the demonstrators have acted peacefully the whole time and opposed only non violent resistance. According to reports there have been various wounded campers and two detained ones.
The camps will try to concentrate again at 20 at Ricard Vinyes square.
On their behalf, the Government Representative on Lleida, Ramon Farré, has stated that the reason behind the policial actuation was public higiene. The city major, Àngel Ros, says undefined demonstrations cannot be tolerated and that there were salubrity and order reasons to act.
Some multimedia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz2W1IRjmcc
http://vimeo.com/24312440
http://vimeo.com/24315318
http://vimeo.com/24315994
Sources:
http://www.adn.es/local/lleida/20110527/NWS-0990-Lleida-detenidos-acampada-desalojo-libertad.html
Friday 27 May 2011
Wednesday 25 May 2011
We close the blog (for now)
When I opened this blog the Camps movement was starting. There were lots of chaos and little information available (specially in languages other than Spanish) so I opened this blog to help people from outside understand what was happening in Spain and why.
As time passed the Camps organized well enough to be able to provide their own info without needing us to summarize and explain it to non spanish people and as a result we left this blog unattended.
Right now I'm trying my best to help coordinate the camp support movement in Göteborg which also means I have a little less time and n0p is also doing his best to help in Murcia's camp so we have little spare time for the blog.
This is just a see you though. We will try out best to explain new things haoppening in Spain regarding the camps that can be hard to understand to non Spanish people and also to answer any questions you leave in the comments. But please don't use us as the only source of information since, right now, there are lots of good sources in English.
As time passed the Camps organized well enough to be able to provide their own info without needing us to summarize and explain it to non spanish people and as a result we left this blog unattended.
Right now I'm trying my best to help coordinate the camp support movement in Göteborg which also means I have a little less time and n0p is also doing his best to help in Murcia's camp so we have little spare time for the blog.
This is just a see you though. We will try out best to explain new things haoppening in Spain regarding the camps that can be hard to understand to non Spanish people and also to answer any questions you leave in the comments. But please don't use us as the only source of information since, right now, there are lots of good sources in English.
Saturday 21 May 2011
Introspection day
So, introspection day came.
Far from leaving the camps, the people is more motivated than ever.
No square or camp has been disbanded by the police, and even they joined the demonstration in many cities or at least expresed for our cause.
It has also been extremely motivational knowing that there are many demonstration all around the world in support of our cause. To all of you out there supporting us or even reading this and making the effort to know about us: THANK YOU!
Friday 20 May 2011
Spanish election board final decision
Hi again, writing from Murcia's camp
We received the final decision from the board is to forbid the demonstrations and the constitutional right for free reunion nation-wide the election day and the prior day. They threatened with high fines.
But, meanwhile the nationwide police labour union released a press note supporting our demonstrations.
There's a mix of hope and fear, but hopes are high as no one remembers a political social movement like this since the transition to democracy in the late 70s
Document: "Spanish revolution: What's going on" by Diana Eguía and Esther Alarcón
n0p: This is a copy of a google doc I saw on twitter a while ago, I am copying it here unedited for the sake of completeness and because the original document is unaccesible at the time of this writing
SPANISH REVOLUTION: What’s going on?
On May 15th more than 50,000 people demonstrated in the streets of 50 cities around Spain under one single slogan: “Real democracy now: we aren’t merchandise in the hands of politicians and bankers”. For the first time since the Spanish Transition, the demonstration is not organized by either political parties or trade unions, but by a platform made of citizens, “Democracia real ya”, (Real Democracy Now).
They have both very well founded complaints—more than 21% of the population is unemployed (40% among the youth), the work situation is unstable, social benefits have been dramatically cut in the last year, and political corruption scandals increase every day— and very specific proposals for change. Not one television channel reported on this mass demonstration, just some newspapers told about what was happening. At the end of the day, the police charged and arrested 25 people, some of them, minors. A small spontaneous group decided to spend the night in Puerta del Sol (in center city Madrid), as a way of protest. Meanwhile, a revolution has taken place on the Internet. #15mani has become third most seen Hashtag in the world’s ranking. A never-ending flux of information has crossed the World Wide Web by means of twitter, YouTube, menéame o periodismo humano, partly because the traditional mass media have, simply, ignored the protest. The next morning, all the political parties attempted to discredit the protest, while the number of demonstrators continued to increase. The Spanish public radio labeled the protesters as young bourgeoisie, thus provoking the anger of a listener, Cristina, calling from Burgos, who dedicated to them a series of eloquent words on live radiocast. Then the morning, at 5 a.m., the national police violently cleared the sit-in, formed by pacific people who answered to the police violence screaming “no to violence, no to violence”. The demonstrators, spread out in the adjacent streets, are beaten by the police, charged with 1,500-euro fines, and dispersed by national and regional police.
PSOE, the party that is currently in power, appropriates the same discourse it had previously attempted to repress and uploads on its website the manifesto that had originated the protests. On 17th May at 8 p.m, Puerta del Sol in Madrid is the stage of a really mass audience that it is still alive in this moment. The number of Spanish cities joining to this protest is increasing; moreover, the Spanish embassy in London as well as in other European cities, such as Vic in France or Bologna in Italy, are beginning their protests, too. Yesterday (05/17/2011), they dismantled another sit-in in Granada violently. Madrid city council installed signal-jammers in order to hold up streaming; in addition, public cameras changed their trip to avoid taking any demonstration images. Only the tv channel Al-Jazeera aired this movement from the beginnign, while the Spanish public television showed Pedro Almodovar’s new movie in Cannes Film Festival today. Democracia real ya is a website where you can find the manifesto, proposals, information about the sit-ins and other relevant news, but for unknown reasons people have not been able to access to it for a long time, until 3 am on May 18th. This evening, Esperanza Aguirre’s electoral committee declared the pacific sit-in in Puerta del Sol illegal, although more than 5,000 people are still there fighting for a Real Democracy Now and surrounded by the police. Aguirre argues the sit-in could be damaging for the municipal elections, which are being held this coming Sunday.
Some website for knowing what is happening in Spain since last Sunday:
On Twitter:
· #spanishrevolution, #acampadasol, #democraciarealya #nolesvotes, #europerevolution, #nonosvamos, #acampadabcn, #yeswecamp, #notenemosmiedo, #juntaelectoralfacts
On Facebook:
Streaming from Madrid:
· http://soltv.tv/
Streaming from Barcelona:
Wikipedia:
On youtube:
· 15th May announcement:
· Video summarizing the May 15th demonstration:
· Police violence on May 15th:
· Police clearing pacific sit-in in Madrid, on May 17th at 5 a.m.:
· 17th May at 8 p.m in Puerta del Sol, Madrid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar2nmOQZEjw&feature=youtu.be
· Spanish writer José Luis Sampedro explaining 15 M (May 15th):
· Cristina from Burgos reply spanish public radio:
One of the people under arrest told police’s abuses:
· http://www.rollingstone.es/noticias/view/con-esos-pantalones-de-maricon-como-vas-a-encontrar-trabajo
Diana Eguía and Esther Alarcón
We are organizing a demonstration on Saturday in Washington Square in New York. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=149960905074861
If you need more information, please, contact with dianaeguia DONOTSPAM gmail or jescourido DONOTSPAM gmail
n0p: I've redacted the email addresses to avoid spambots :)
The Spanish elections regulation board forbids the demonstrations on Saturday
In Spain, the day before the elections is called the "jornada de reflexión" (introspection day) and it is forbidden for political parties to publish or make anything, to respect the population right to freely decide.
This has been used as a tool to forbid the demonstations on the day prior to the elections. The demonstrators are aguing that they do not belong to any political party and that the demonstrations aren't backed by any political means. The demonstration are asking for a better election system, more participation of people in the government, transparency on the government, the repudiation of corruption and the separation of powers.
Tonight at 20.30 (GMT+1) this matter will be discussed and voted upon by the demonstrators to decide what to do, but I personally think this won't stop tonight, this will continue tomorrow and the Sunday (elections day) with even more people backing us up because of the weekend and the reaction of the political parties on these past days.
Wednesday 18 May 2011
Spanish ex-president compares spanish revolution to arab revolutions
Link
Ex president Felipe Gonzalez compares the ongoing spanish revolution to those recently occured on the arab world. He recommends to all parties to "avoid simplistic explanations and endogamy"
He also remarks that this is a "very interesting phenomena" and compares the "we want to vote" message from the arab revolution to the "voting is useless" spanish protester's message.
He recognizes the people below 35 years are fed up and requests for a permanent political implication, and the situation of "the best prepared generation" not having real chances in its own country.
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