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Spanish 'Anti-Austerity' Protesters "Sick Of This System They Call Democracy"
"I'm here to fight for my children's future," exclaims one father as Spaniards rallied in Madrid against poverty and EU-imposed austerity. As Reuters reports, the largely peaceful protest later marred by violent clashes in which police fired rubber bullets. The so-called "Dignity Marches" brought hundreds of thousands to the capital with banners making it clear what their feelings about record 26% unemployment were - "Bread, jobs and housing for everyone" and "Corruption and robbery, Spain's trademark." One protester summed up the people's views of the government, "I'm sick of this system they call democracy... I want things to change."
The so-called "Dignity Marches" brought hundreds of thousands to the capital, according to estimates of Reuters witnesses. Travelling from all over Spain, they were protesting in support of more than 160 different causes, including jobs, housing, health, education and an end to poverty.
...Spaniards rallied in Madrid on Saturday against poverty and EU-imposed austerity in a largely peaceful protest later marred by violent clashes in which police fired rubber bullets.
Some protesters started to throw stones and bottles at the large numbers of riot police present and attacked cashpoints and hoardings. The police fired rubber bullets to disperse them, according to video footage seen by Reuters.
Central government representative Cristina Cifuentes said 19 protesters had been arrested and 50 police officers had been injured, one of them very badly, in the clashes.
Once again the issue is government corruption combined with austerity (or at least slowing growth in spending to be perfectly clear) - a combination that we have discussed numerous times tends to end in social unrest...
A housing bubble burst more than five years ago, forcing a 41-billion euro ($56 billion) bailout of Spain's banks, squeezing homeowners and throwing millions out of work.
The government introduced public sector austerity to whittle down the deficit, provoking widespread anger amongst middle- and low-income families as dozens of cases of corruption in the ruling class are investigated by judges.
The people's feelings were clear as the OECD says the economic crisis has hit Spain's poor harder than in any other country in the euro region.
Banners urged the conservative government not to pay its international debts and to tackle Spain's chronically high unemployment of 26 percent.
"Bread, jobs and housing for everyone", read one banner, "Corruption and robbery, Spain's trademark," said another.
"I'm here to fight for my children's future," said Michael Nadeau, a 44-year-old entrepreneur.
"For those who are in power we're just numbers. They value money more than they value people," he said, shouting to be heard above the din of chanting, whistling and drumming.
"(I'm here because) I'm sick of this system they call democracy," said Jose Luis Arteaga, a 58-year-old teacher whose wage has been cut 20 percent. "I want things to change."
It seems that almost record low bond yields and high stock market levels did not appease the people of Spain either...Time for that IMG income inequality equalizing wealth redsitriburion it would seem...
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what makes you think the welfare spigot will be turned off? the authorities are well aware of what will happen if they turn it off... like all those moments when a crisis is about to become a black swan, they come up with a quick fix (OMT, QE, TARP, Reverse Repos, etc.) to kick the can. try again, skippy.
Americans are pussies. Do you see what we do in Europe. We vote to fuck the mondialists (Switzerland), we do referendums to change state, or seek indipendence (Crimea, Venezia, Scotland), we organize massive protests (Spain, France).
Stay tuned. Europe will not accept the world gov scam. NEW IDEAS and IDEOLOGIES will start to emerge soon.
'organize massive protests'. Obama was an organizer, and look what he has accomplished. how exactly did the EU vote against mondialists after Italy, Ireland, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal cowed to financial interests and the IMF? all these little protests are pointless, because financial powers always install a head of state that perpetuates their interests. Europe is almost as vested in perpetuating the current gobal econo-financial system as the US. nothing is going to change in your precious Europe until it begins by dissolving the EU
By force, ideally.
Dude, when that shit comes here, it will be fucking bad. It won't be just rocks and molotovs flying. It will be lead that is flying. These are the police in my neck of the woods:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC9lHoZwfjM
And people here really like their guns, and can carry them places that would freak most people in other states out:
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3172245.shtml#.Uy9s-Gc0Lbg
Now then, what do you think massive civil unrest is going to look like in my state?
Boyd apparently had quite a history:
http://www.koat.com/news/new-mexico/albuquerque/man-killed-in-foothills-...
What that article doesn't tell you is that many of those charges were dropped because he was found to not be mentally competent to stand trial. If the police knew his history at the time, they should have known that dropping a flashbang on him after he agreed to go down the hill with them would have illicited a response, and if they didn't, they cannot rely on their ex post facto knowledge to justify their actions.
This is what happens when a country with too much debt can no longer get more debt in order to maintain the status quo. The US is not far behind. The only real solution is to default on everything to eliminate debt, set up a new balanced budget based on a new currency that balances spending versus tax revenues, and start over. It is the only way back to properity (without a world war).
Agree...send the value of those Spanish bonds that Soros is holding all the way to zero!
"Once again the issue is government corruption combined with austerity (or at least slowing growth in spending to be perfectly clear) - a combination that we have discussed numerous times tends to end in social unrest..."
And therein you find the real sad potential prophecy of what could happen in the USA. THIS is what they are planning to deal with in America soon, and have been planning this chaotic crash for years, and years. The slow moving train seems to be unstoppable, but a dreamer still likes to envision brilliance and genius combining into that good ol American ingenuity to somehow stop the madness of planned crashes and controversies that produce the results we are seeing AGAIN in Spain now.
There is something ominous to remember as the train of ignorance gets closer to flying off the cliff in slow motion. WHEN or if this finally comes to America as well planned and the people are in the streets like this, it will not be as it has been in these other countries. The battles between the People of America against the New World Babylon(NWB) troops will be a lot uglier as they use the what they call, non-lethal weaponry on the upset natives. The list is long when it comes to known and unknown weapons that have specifically been developed for the use against the American people who bought and paid for them.
http://www.cracked.com/article_16710_6-non-lethal-weapons-thatll-make-yo...
http://jnlwp.defense.gov/
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-non-lethal-weapons.php
What is horrific to see coming like the dawn in every morn, is they fully plan on using this evil weaponry against their own people with an underlying shoot to kill order that is sublime to the population elimination agenda. All of chaos is an underlying demoralization if civility and normal peaceful relations among all nations.
In this awesome video above, the Spanish are far more fierce than the Ukrainian people were. No disrespect meant but these people are hot and angry. This video-guy is nutzo to be out there on the front like this, but this is also award winning and real journalism at its peak. Big up arrows to this guy!
All of this violence and well planned chaos is all bad. The point is, these Spanish folks are really angry and showing this ferocity, but it will all be pale in comparison to what is going to happen in America. Here is the bottom line. When this happens and they kill many American People, then will start the real revolution and every man and woman will pick up a gun as finally forced against their normal wills to do so, and fire back at the approaching nazi armies. The ferocity of years of pent up anger will overflow from every direction as every soul on board instinctively goes after their WELL KNOWN ENEMIES. The firepower will manifest from without, and from within. All hands will be on deck in many colors world wide to wipe from the face of the earth the WELL KNOWN ENEMIES of humanity. Everybody who has known knows and will know who is behind all this madness and when they fire the first shots and more innocent blood is spilled in peoples front yards, then will begin the Grand House Cleaning and the Houses will all unite to vanquish these evil things from the planet forever. Then will begin the millennium of Peace.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIaPIy4Mddg
If I had read this ten years ago I'd have said you were nuts. Now I know you speak the truth.
They want to rid themselves of the compound interest debt junkies.
That shit is driven through United Nations. When you sit in your chair and nod on the voting, you’ll be the first to leave the US of A. Despite all the preparation to keep your identity silent. Our US military will find you first. Blows a kiss of death, you have nowhere to hide. Your living in this country, you are so fucked.
"This system they call democracy" ... nailed it.
Something I don't get is how Santander and BBVA, Spains two biggest banks by some distance, apparaently managed to miss being hit by the Spanish property crash. And how hey keep passing the hysterically laughable EU stress tests. It must help, though, that thanks to a mediaeval law, they, er, don't have to post their liabilities. Funny that.
"Printing money out of thin air until the debt is to the point that the country's economy implodes rocks!"
Dead Can Dance - The Carnival Is Over
Let’s hire this black feller and call him the US President. We can keep the Ponzi Scheme going.
When you speak of corruption, I assume you mean corrupt corporations and banks. They have all the money and have spent years crushing the citizens of Spain in their neverending search for all the money.
first of all, for the poor working stiffs who think welfare kings and queens are the enemy, the best financed free shit army are the .1%ers. in terms of dollars/capita, the difference between the ebonics spewing(white and black) denizens of the riot control programs and the welfare paid to people who have more money and wealth than entire countries is staggering. the fact that poor working stiffs complain about the former welfare receipients tells everyone just how stupid they really are(i apologize for the ad hominen but only similar words capture their intellectual accuity).
the only thing that keeps the drug business honest is the threat of violence if you fuck up. until people realize violence is the only thing that will keep business and .gov honest nothing will change and, even so, the change is temporary. isn't that what putin just taught you?
Sadly, the Spanish -- like so many others across the EU -- haven't got it judging by the "anti-capitalism" grafiti scribbled across the Bankia ATM. As a consequence they want more socialism and more welfare, not less, even though it is venal socialism -- and its endless fake promises of half-price utopia and the inevitable political corruption that goes with it -- that's brought their economy to a grinding halt.
The only real solution for Spain is to dump the Euro and elect a strong constitutional government which will slash state spending.
You are part of the problem. How in the world after witnessing what has happened in the last 5 years all across the western world can you come to that convoluted, economic illiterate conclusion. What about Ireland? They were the Chicago School's wet dream. Now an entire generation of Irish have been economically destroyed at the alter of your beloved neoliberalism.
The IMF just loves tools like you.
You are very wrong friend.
Spain and many other EU member states (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, France et al) have been living way above their means for years. The shortfall has been funded by ever larger debts which have now become unsustainable and unrepayable.
THERE IS NO PAINLESS SOLUTION.
The only solution is to abandon the Euro and reinstate proper fiscal policies in those countries which do NOT involve debt.
It was government that was living above its means, or rather, its taxpayer's means. Most the people, as anywhere, are working 40 hours a week, for 40 years to pay for Stone Age comforts.
For sure, government was living above its means. Is there a single Western country where this is not the case?
But wages in Spain rose very quickly since it joined the EU -- witnessed by the rise in personal disposable incomes ...new cars and all the rest of it. But largesse handouts from the Spanish Treasury also rose vey fast, partly to meet EU standards but also to buy votes, as is normal political strategy.
It remains true that the Spanish government and population were living way above their means for years.
The time has come to fix the problem. But it's not difficult to see that the Spanish people want the party to continue.
Who should pay??
The 1% of the 1%?
Just my opinion (living in Spain):
Kids here need work. It's really hard for them to find decent jobs. There are no good career opportunities.
However, those are not (by and large) the ones who are stirring up social unrest and violence. Spain is also a dumping ground for hippie hobos and a large number of "anarchists" from the rest of Europe -- Belgian and French and German kids who get a check in the mail from their parents and have never worked a day in their lives. It's fashionable for them to be filthy and run around assaulting people and fucking in the street. They're basically a bunch of aggressive idiots who wrap themselves in a contaminated mix of third-worldism, grievance and patchouli. You can't walk down the fucking street without being assaulted for a cigarette by dirty kids who are already smoking a cigarette, and think it's their right because you (if you wear clothes that aren't stained with dirt and jizz) have probably got more money than they do.
Honestly, if there is any kind of serious civil unrest in Spain, it's going to go badly for these kids. For the most part, decent people just let it slide, but the level of irritation just under the surface (among business owners, workers, even students) grows every day at these morons. The backlash would be another 50 years of quasi-catholic fascist dictatorship, which hopefully won't happen, but frankly those people do have a point, and these idiots really don't have the least idea who they're dealing with.
So in your world dirty clothes are worse than 50 years of fascism. Good to know.
Considering that you're in Spain do you realise what putting down the anarchists entailed beyond that 50 years of fascism?
Also, the video does not suggest what you are saying at all. There are very few 'hippie hobos' in the crowd it seems. People need to learn how to live, not get by in shit jobs that dull the mind. The dull minds are the problem of democracy and capitalism, and that has to end more than anything else.
The other side, fighting against the Fascists were basically neo-Bolshevics, who would have done far more damage than anyone else.
More accurately, the antifascist side was an uneasy alliance of republicans and communists. The communists themselves were a mix of bolsheviks, trotskyites and stalinists. The stalinists ended up killing the other communists under orders from Moscow, and then losing the war.
It was hanging out with the communists here that moved Orwell's political needle from all-out Marxism to anti-Stalinist soft socialism -- and specifically to anti-totalitarianism. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_Catalonia
No, the situation right now is tolerable; fascism would be worse.
It's worth pointing out that dull minds are also a persistent feature of communism and fascism; and under those systems, they find themselves entitled to take people with not-dull minds, line us against a wall and shoot us. I would likely be shot by any non-democratic regime, as would most people in this forum.
The problem of dull minds is a general human problem, and there isn't much you can do about it without becoming a monster.
The only lucky strike will be the one that smashes all your teeth in one blow like knocking down all the pins in bowling. Listen you turd everyone here can smell it, we know you are talking out of your ass. Let me tell you what I think you are, you are some EU technocrat or some wall street crook retired to spain, who has an open concept kitchen with granite countertops and an infinity pool out back. When I get my hands around your neck the only infinite thing will be the time your corpse in underwater in your pool. Long live the Revolution. PS next to you is where they will find Corzine's body, that is what I call a luckypair
Well aren't you a fucking case in point.
As funny (or not) as your rant about drowned eurocrats was, I own a business that employs people here. And I'm not a fascist, nor would I want to see a return to fascism. FAR from it.
To a cadre of self-proclaimed "anarchists" though -- none of whom I've ever seen reading a book -- pretty much anyone who makes a living is a "fascist".
As far as swimming pools, I don't have one, but hopefully one day I will. I spend my time working for one, rather than dreaming of drowning people who already own them. If more people in this country did the same, I guess that would put people like you out of business.
But laziness and lack of education are fertile ground for violent idiots like yourself; you'd fit right in with the rest of the hobos.
We are 20 years or less from the next great world war. The patterns will be similar. Aggression of one form or another in Europe and Asia. Mortal danger for the U.S. What will President Rand Paul do?
Corruption I too condemn. But I've never understood why imposing austerity on a GOVERNMENT gets the hoi polloi so upset - unless they were on the entitlement bandwagon all along...
Ding, ding. We have a winner folks
Maybe the egg came before the chicken, or perhaps your radio has fed you a line of bullshit.
Well there is a difference when immposing austerity on government lowers the standard of living for the working people while the government class lifestyles remain the same or improve and you find out your government stole or misused the tax revenues for the last 50 years and now the people are being penalized for government largess.
Could be another theater setting to revise OWS bullshit. What euro-trash asshole will end up shitting on the police vehicle? Instead of calling her Ketchup, we’ll call her mustard.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/pj-gladnick/2011/11/05/colbert-ows-interviewee-ketchup-reveals-self-wacko
UPIGS
People should come together and organize themselves. Create local markets, barter, create local currencies. The potatoe movement in Greece is doing just that and it is catching on. But people need to get off their butts and switch off their TVs. Stop looking at mindless reality shows and create your own new reality.
The people just got real.