It seems like there are plenty of Spanish youth who want an 'Icelandic' outcome. The war of the banksters against the rest of the planet looks like it about to see another battle. It is a battle the banksters can easily lose. After all, the whole concept of a 'paper tiger' seems like it was invented for the creditor classes.
Spain's Icelandic revolt
19 May 2011 EL PAÍS MADRID
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.
Oscar Gutiérrez
One morning in October 2008, Torfason Hördur turned up at what Icelanders call the “Althing”, the Icelandic parliament in the capital city, Reykjavik. By then, the country's biggest bank, the Kaupthing, had already gone into receivership and the Icelandic financial system itself was in danger of going under. Torfason, with his guitar, grabbed a microphone and invited people to talk about their dissatisfaction with the freefall of their country and to speak their minds.
The following Saturday Torfason’s initiative brought dozens of people back to the same spot. Those Saturdays in the autumn of 2008, rallying to the People's Voices movement, led to the proclamation to dissolve Parliament on January 23, 2009, and to hold elections. Now the murmur of the Icelanders has reached the throats of the thousands of demonstrators that gathered in several cities around Spain on 15 May: “Spain arise, another Iceland", "Our model – Iceland" were some of the yells from the crowds.
The Icelanders didn’t leave it at this. They shook the foundations of the government, went after the bankers who led them into bankruptcy and said ‘No' in a referendum on repaying debts of some four billion euros to the UK and the Netherlands. Better still: they formed an assembly of 25 citizens elected to carry out constitutional reform. It was an entirely silent revolution that, while the media was focused overwhelmingly on the Arab uprisings, was rescued from oblivion by a web of social networks beyond the control of a state.
A movement spawned by the internet
But those voices calling for real democracy are not just being raised in Iceland, a country of about 320,000 inhabitants. Here in Spain, the umbrella organisation for various Spanish movements – Democracia Real Ya (Real Democracy Now) – already lists among its proposals some 40 points ranging from controlling parliamentary absenteeism to reducing military spending through to abolishing the so-called Sinde law (a law restricting on-line infringements of copyright).
To this federation some 500 organisations from all sectors have rallied. But not one single political party. Not one union, either. The demonstrations have broadened spontaneously, as was the case for those who rallied under the umbrellas of the "alternative globalisation" movements, and have evolved, one decade after the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on a more modest stage than the one demonstrators faced in the past at the World Economic Forum of the global elite in Davos, Switzerland.
All this is happening at astonishing speed via the Internet, which has amplified the echo of discontent and opened the lanes of cyberactivism to groups such as Anonymous, notable for intervening against companies like PayPal and Visa during the advocacy campaign for Wikileaks chief Julian Assange. Yet it was also there at the beginning of the revolts in the Arab world, to help people get round the censorship of the Tunisian and Egyptian dictatorships.
When we grow up, we want to be Icelanders
Revolts that have grown and matured while French, Italian, English and Greek youth have been surging into the streets to oppose plans for the social welfare cuts that have been Europe’s response to the sharp economic downturn. Spain was waiting for its moment.
The first to get off to a start was Nolesvotes (Don’t vote them in), an initiative calling on the electorate not to vote for Spain’s mainstream parties, accusing them of taking advantage of electoral law to perpetuate, in Parliament, “alarming levels of corruption in Spain." There followed calls to parties from web movements such as Avaaz and Actuable to strike from their electoral lists all politicians indicted or convicted of corruption. And the nearly 2,000 young people who supported the Juventud sin Futuro (Youth Without a Future) marches of April 7 have carried on from that first modest attempt, which by May 15 had grown into the popular outcry that exploded in several Spanish cities.
“When we grow up, we want to be Icelanders!" cried one of the leaders of the organisation during the march on Sunday May 15 before a column of young – and not so young – parents and children, students and workers, the jobless and pensioners. Many Saturdays in Iceland were needed before citizens won the changes they had demanded. Spain’s first Sunday has taken place, and was followed by a Tuesday [May 17]- but there’s still a long way to go. more
Tahrir Square in Madrid
Spain's Lost Generation Finds Its Voice
05/19/2011
Young people in Madrid have occupied the city's Puerta del Sol square in protest against high unemployment and the political establishment. They are calling for a boycott of the main parties in weekend elections -- and some have begun comparing them to protesters in Egypt earlier this year.
They have been dubbed the "lost generation," with many of them unable to find jobs and forced to live at home as a result of the economic crisis. But now Spain's young people appear to have found their voice -- and they are taking their anger with their country's politicians into the streets.
Protests are continuing on Madrid's landmark Puerta del Sol square on Thursday. Many thousands of young people gathered on the square on Wednesday, defying a ban on the demonstration. BBC reported that as many as 2,000 stayed the night on the square.
The young people are protesting against high unemployment, the Spanish government's handling of the economic crisis and the political establishment. They want a boycott of the major political parties, the ruling Socialists (PSOE) and the center-right opposition People's Party (PP), in this weekend's elections. Over 8,000 municipal and 13 regional elections are being held on Sunday.
The protesters say they will stay on the square until the elections take place. Around 500 riot police were reported to be present on the square on Wednesday but did not intervene.
Organized Using Social Media
The Spanish media has dubbed the protesters the 15-M movement, as the protests began on May 15. Demonstrations were held on Puerta del Sol on Sunday and Monday. Police removed demonstrators on Tuesday, but they returned later, with many staying overnight. Other demonstrations have taken place in dozens of other Spanish cities.
On Wednesday, the Madrid electoral board banned the demonstration, arguing that it could influence Sunday's elections, but protesters defied the ban to assemble on the square. Spain's central electoral board is now planning to make a ruling for the whole country, given that regional officials in various cities were making different decisions regarding demonstrations. The left-wing United Left (IU) party, which supports the movement, accused the PP and Socialists of orchestrating the Madrid ban. The demonstrations have become a signficant, if unexpected, factor in the election race, with different parties choosing to support or oppose the protesters. more
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