thanks Mike!<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 26, 2011 at 12:45 PM, mike stagman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:artemesium@yahoo.co.uk">artemesium@yahoo.co.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
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Published on Friday, May 27, 2011 by <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.commondreams.org/" target="_blank">CommonDreams.org</a>
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<h2>Cleaning up City Squares in Democratic Spain</h2>
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by <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.commondreams.org/author/pablo-ouziel" target="_blank">Pablo Ouziel</a> </div>
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<p>On Friday the 27th of May, five days after an<span style="font-weight: bold;"> overwhelming victory
by center-right political parties in the local and regional elections
across Spain,</span> the country woke up to t<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(127, 0, 63);">he bitter reality of how
nonviolent movements </span>calling for <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(127, 0, 63);">economic democracy, political justice
and peace</span> are going to be dealt with by the country�s police forces in
this new era of right-wing political dominance.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.commondreams.org/sites/commondreams.org/files/imce-images/barcelona-may27.jpg" style="width: 400px; min-height: 264px;" height="264" width="400" border="0">Just
twenty-four hours after Spain�s largest telecom company, Telefonica,
announced a new round of layoffs affecting 8500 people, 25% of the work
force, and as the G8 is meeting in Deauville, France, to discuss amongst
other things the <span style="font-weight: bold;">discontent sweeping across Europe</span>, the Catalan police
force � the Mossos d�Esquadra � following orders from the Town Hall�s
new Catalan Nationalist Party (CiU) government, surrounded the
nonviolent citizens camped at the Plaza Catalu�a in Barcelona�s city
center. Armed with full riot gear, batons and machine-guns with rubber
bullets, the police kettled in the protestors, making it impossible for
them to leave or others to enter.</p><p><br></p>
<p>With the excuse of cleaning up the square for safety reasons, in
preparation for tomorrow�s Champions League soccer final between
Barcelona and Manchester United, the city government called for the
dispersal of the crowds in order to allow for clean up teams to enter.
Although this was the official stance, it soon became apparent that
cleaning garbage from the square was not the true intent, and that the
real aim of the operation was to seize computers, printers and documents
from the movement�s steering committees, and to put an end to this<span style="font-weight: bold;">
popular uprising</span> which is posing a threat to the <span style="font-weight: bold;">country�s political and
economic elites.</span></p><p><br></p>
<p>As soon as the police surrounded the crowds and the news aired on
local television stations and radios, citizens from across the city
began to leave their work places and made their way to the square in
order to show their solidarity with those being harassed by the police.
The scene they encountered resembled one of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gandhi�s legendary acts of
civil disobedience</span> � the demonstrators sitting on the floor, in silence,
with their legs crossed and hands up in the air; symbolizing their
defiance to the oppressive and brutal nature of this unannounced police
action.</p><p><br></p>
<p>Unlike during pre-election campaigning time, eleven days ago, when
the <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(127, 0, 63);">15M Movement</span> began to congregate in city squares across the country
with shouts of indignation, this time the police did not hesitate, the
orders where clear. <span style="font-weight: bold;">The police began to point their guns at those
outside the square that were shouting �This is our democracy�,</span> and one
by one they began to pull those sitting down inside the square � <span style="font-weight: bold;">beating
them with their batons</span>. I have just heard that economics professor
Arcadi Oliveras (Spain�s Noam Chomsky), was amongst those on the
receiving end of the police�s indiscriminate use of batons.</p><p>� <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(127, 0, 63);">��
{Note from M.S. -- "This is our democracy.": only DIRECT democracy such
as the ancient Athenians possessed � can be OUR democracy.�
"Representative' democracy was designed from the start to be Oligarchy
in disguise, the Rich and Powerful buying the representatives.} </span><br></p><p><br></p>
<p>At the time of writing, thousands of citizens are making their way to
the square in Barcelona, and following two arrests and 99 injured,
around 5000 protestors have already reclaimed the city square. In Madrid
Esperanza Aguirre, who presides over the autonomous region and who also
heads Madrid�s Partido Popular, has asked the ministry of the Interior
to evict the protestors at the Puerta del Sol. On their part, the
protestors at Madrid�s plaza have sent messages of solidarity to those
being attacked in Barcelona. The police force in the city of Lerida has
also evicted the crowds camped in the city square using water canons,
and two protesters have been arrested. While in the city of Granada, the
town hall is in negotiations with the central government about how to
empty the city�s square.</p><p><br></p>
<p>The ambiance in Barcelona�s plaza is now jovial, once the city showed
its support to the protestors, the police was forced to leave, and
despite the fact that they have confiscated many laptops and pamphlets,
and have destroyed tents and equipment, which the protestors have been
using for their popular assemblies, people intend to stay. A large
banner in the middle of the square reads in Spanish: �You have cleaned
up our exhaustion and now we are back�� {Beautifully said!! -- M.S.}<br></p><p><br></p>
<p>Despite the fact that the political elites in Spain, in this new era
of right-wing dominance are showing their mass use of force, they have
encountered a well-organized nonviolent movement. If the movement holds
to its principles, and other European countries join in the struggle, it
will be the European Union which will be forced to restrain this police
brutality, and which will eventually have to make concessions to this
democratic citizens fighting non-violently for change. If the movement
spreads, as many signs already seem to indicate, European political and
economic elites will have to decide between reform and revolution.</p><p><br></p>
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<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.commondreams.org/author/pablo-ouziel" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.commondreams.org/sites/commondreams.org/files/imagecache/author_photo/pablo-258x300.png" alt="Pablo Ouziel" title="Pablo Ouziel" height="105" width="90"></a> </div>
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<p>Pablo Ouziel is an activist and a freelance writer based in Spain. His articles and essays are available at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://pabloouziel.com/" target="_blank">pabloouziel.com</a></p> </div></td></tr>
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