Fans and protesters united in Barcelona

PRO-DEMOCRACY protesters and celebrating football fans merged convivially in Barcelona this weekend, despite scaremongering by the authorities.

The anticipated celebrations if the Catalan team beat Manchester United to win the Champions League had provided a pretext for Friday's brutal attempted clearing of the occupied Plaza de Catalunya.

But after the side's impressive victory, it turned out that there was plenty of room for everyone.

It also emerged that, of course, some indignados (protesters) were also culés (Barcelona fans) as this photo from El Pais shows.

Police attack in Barcelona sparks wave of protests

SPANISH protesters remain defiant after a brutal attack by police on the camp for real democracy in the centre of Barcelona on Friday.

Horrific scenes of riot cops truncheoning peaceful demonstrators, many sitting on the ground, have been seen by millions on the internet.

They have also sparked a new mood of determination among the thousands who have been out on the streets across Spain for the last two weeks, protesting at fake neoliberal 'democracy'.

Not only was the camp at plaza Cataluña quickly rebuilt after the police attack, but solidarity actions were held elsewhere.

El Pais reports that in Andalucía, thousands of people protested in various towns and in Seville the campers, who had held a three-minute silence, announced their intention to stay on in the city centre indefinitely.

The "indignados" in Valencia outside la Delegación del Gobierno decided to take over the calle Colon in the city centre to stage an impromptu march.

Widespread support was shown for the Barcelona protesters - from Vitoria and Bilbao in the Basque Country to Palma in Majorca and Las Palmas in the Canaries, reports the paper.

In Logroño people expressed their anger at the "violent, disproportionate and unjustifiable" actions of the police.

In Santander, around 500 people gathered with flowers in the Plaza Porticada and held a minute's silence, with a similar event in Plaza del Castillo in Pamplona.

A thousand people turned out in Santiago in Galicia and more than 500 in Murcia, Oviedo and Gijón, with further protests reported in Zaragoza and various smaller towns all across the country as the shockwaves spread from the sight of police brutality reminiscent of the Franco regime.

In Greece the new revolutionary movement has also taken hold in a big way.

The blog From the Greek Streets has videos from Athens and reported: "Today there were as many people as yesterday at the square; many are organising and determined to stay, indefinitely.

"There have been at least nine working groups formed up (general coordination, cleaning, cooking, translation/ media, technical support, legal support, medical aid etc).

"The fascists were few and isolated by the huge crowds. Come to Syntagma, everything’s changing right there, right before our eyes."

Pro-democracy protests are also being called for cities all across France on Saturday night.

Spanish spirit spreads to Greece

THE EMPOWERING spirit of the #spanishrevolution - itself inspired by Egypt's Tahrir Square - has spread to Greece, taking opposition against neoliberalism there to a new level.

Reported From the Greek Streets: "In a series of demonstrations and gatherings unseen in Greece’s recent turbulent history, tens of thousands took to the streets demanding for 'all politicians to go', in a call similar to the one that shook Spain only a few days ago.

"In Athens, approximately 20,000 took to Syntagma Square; in Thessaloniki, approximately 5,000 gathered in front of the city’s white tower. Many thousands gathered in Patras, Volos, Chania, Ioannina and Larisa, and other cities."

A later update from Syntagma Square on Wednesday night said: "Thousands seem to prepare themselves for spending the night at the square with tents and folding beds.

"An impromptu popular assembly finished earlier on; people gather in groups, discuss, approach the parliament in turns shouting slogans. There will definitely be many of them here in the morning."

Meanwhile, further East, the Georgian authorities used brutal force to break up an anti-government protest.

The so-called 'silver revolution', so named because of the older age groups involved, had demanded the resignation of US-backed president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Greeks call for anarchist solidarity

GREEK anarchists have called for international solidarity efforts, as they endure a new brutal wave of repression from the state and its neo-fascists guard-dogs.

Says a statement posted on From the Greek Streets: "Greece is at a critical turning point, and many critical changes are taking place in a societal as well as a political and economic level.

"The disintegration and dissolution of the dominant – until recently – model of power and exploitation is more than evident, so it defines what is commonly called ‘crisis.’

"What we are experiencing now is the total failure of a system that is unable to secure any longer the social consensus, thereby is engaged in a frontal attack that is unconditional and with no pretext.

"Initially, at the beginning of this condition which was called ‘crisis,’ the attack occurred in materialistic terms.

"With the devaluation of labour, the horizontal reduction of wages, the ‘flexible’ working conditions, the institutionalization of insecurity, the increase of the price of consuming goods and public utility bills, the increase of taxes and the cuts in welfare benefits.

"At the same time, the sale of public wealth to private individuals, the widespread police presence on the streets, the auctions, the rising of unemployment began…

"At the general strike of May 11th in Athens, once again thousands of protesters marched and voiced their opposition to the Greek government’s new anti-social measures which effect the workers and the majority of people.

"During the demonstration, while a big part of the protesters had passed by the parliament and were heading to an end, the cops attacked without provocation and viciously the most radical demonstrator blocks – anarchists and anti-authoritarians, neighborhood assemblies, rank-and-file labour unions, extra-parliamentary left – beating them with unprecedented savagery and firing hundreds of tear gas against them, until these blocks were dispersed. More than 100 demonstrators were hospitalized, while others underwent surgery.

"Solidarity has always been one of the value features of anarchists.

"We always count on solidarity to support our struggles and fight back the logic of isolation and retirement into private life promoted by the state power, and also the capitalist condition of individuation and dismantling of the collective notion.

"Now that the Greek society and the proletariat suffer a strain with unprecedented deterioration of living conditions, now that anarchists are under such an oppression that takes dimensions of actual attempted murder, now that the anarchist political milieu is being at the sight of state violence and fascist threat, we need to see our comrades around the world to call actions and stand in solidarity to our struggle; by organizing events, demonstrations, marches, protests, by writing texts, via words and actions; anything that the comrades deem most appropriate; any expression of revolutionary solidarity that only anarchists know and want to demonstrate, will vitalize our spirit and strengthen our struggles."

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‘Madrid will be the tomb of neoliberalism’

TENS of thousands of protesters are still occupying the Puerta del Sol in the centre of Madrid, even though media outside Spain are trying to pretend nothing is happening.

With the #spanishrevolution declaring its opposition to fake democracy, to corruption and neliberal economics, its message was never going to go down well with corporate news outlets.

Despite camps springing up all over Spain and in other countries across Europe and the world, the uprising is being largely denied the 'oxygen of publicity' by the capitalist propaganda machine.

A first-hand report posted on UK Indymedia details some of the protest signs covering the square, giving an insight into the movement's direction.

"No puede volver a dormir tranquilo aquel que alguna vez abrio los ojos says one small poster – once you’ve opened your eyes there’s no way you can go back to sleeping peacefully.

"El sistema politico es un fraude, el sistema economica es un robo says another – the political system is fraud, the economic system is theft.

"Banqueros + politicos = mafia legal says another, which doesn’t require any translation.

"Si hay futuro, pero solo si luchamos por el – yes there is a future, but only if we fight for it.

"Un pueblo organizado no vota, decide – an organized people doesn’t vote, it decides."

The report adds: "This vibrant and determined pro-democracy movement means it for real.

"Ha nacido en Sol un nuevo nosotros says a banner – a new ‘us’ has been born in Sol.

"Madrid sera la tumba del neoliberalismo adds another – Madrid will be the tomb of neoliberalism.

"And there’s even one in English for those of you at home – ‘People of Europe rise up!’"

Tide of dissent is swelling

A TIDE of people power is sweeping Spain - and threatening to spread across Europe - as pro-democracy protesters defy the authorities.

While mainstream corporate media have been slow to catch up with the importance of the anti-neoliberal anti-election movement on the Iberian peninsula, word is now getting out.

The international inspiration the Spanish 'revolution' has provided can be seen at this website bringing together information from many different countries.

The Channel 4 website carried this report:

On the sixth day of demonstrations against unemployment in Spain, protesters in Madrid and Barcelona tell Channel 4 News they will continue to protest despite a mooted ban.

Demonstrators young and old vowed to continue protesting against unemployment - now a staggering 4.9 million and the highest in the eurozone at 21 per cent - after this weekend's local and regional elections.

Mass protests have sprung up in more than 60 cities across the country, in Madrid, Barcelona, Cordoba, Murcia, Valencia, Zaragoza, Tarragona, Salamanca, Sevilla, Malaga, Cadiz, Oviedo, Santander and Bilbao to name a few.

The pledge to continue the demonstrations came after the governement's 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 beleaguered Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose approval rating has plummeted to lower than three out of 10, said he may not enforce the ban that could provoke clashes.

"I have a great respect for the people protesting, which they are doing in a peaceful manner, and I understand it is driven by economic crisis and young people's hopes for employment," Mr Zapatero said.

Dubbed "los indignados" (the indignant), tens of thousands of Madrilenians have turned out for six consecutive days, and many have remained overnight, in the capital's main square of Puerta del Sol. They insist that they are not demonstrating against Zapatero, his Socialist party, or indeed any political party.

They wave placards reading: "There isn't enough bread for so much chorizo" (the word "chorizo" colloquially means "thief" in Spanish), "You can camp to see Hannah Montana, but not to defend your rights," and "Sol is our Tahrir Square", referring to the ground zero of Egypt’s revolution.

Alicia, an unemployed psychologist, has remained in Sol since Sunday. She told Channel 4 News: "This is not specifically a movement against the current government. It's against the system. Against the way bankers and large businesses have been given carte blanche to do as they wish.

"I get a feeling some people think it's a movement to kick out Zapatero from power and get the People’s Party (the centre-right opposition party, led by Mariano Rajoy). It is not. It's a movement against politicians of any sign who look after their interests rather than ours, who embark on absurd electoral campaigns where they bring up irrelevant issues to try to win voters and attack their opponents, when we're more concerned about getting a job and getting back our earning power."

The protesters insist that political parties, as well as the right-wing media, have used the demonstrations as political ammunition going into the weekend's polling.

"Right-wing radio stations are saying that the protesters were trained by ETA and are ETA sympathisers, that we were being paid by the left-wing parties. They've said that we were meeting in Sol because the regional PP government is based there. This is ridiculous: Sol is the centre of Spain, where you find 'kilómetro cero'," said Alicia.

"The television channels tend to film the stereotypical young, dreadlocked protesters and not the unemployed older men in suits or the OAPs or the disenchanted university graduates, and that doesn't do the movement any favours."

In Madrid and Barcelona, demonstrators have claimed that uniformed police and plain-clothes officers have used excessive force against demonstrators at night.

Miguel, an unemployed architect living in Barcelona, told Channel 4 News that plain clothes policemen were attacking those camped out in the city's Plaza de Catalunya. "They come when many people for left for the night to get rest before returning in the morning.

"They are wearing normal clothes, often dressed like many of the protesters, with protest slogans on their t-shirts, and break the tents up, waking people up and dragging them out of the square.

"Some of the people have said they were hit with batons when they refused to move. We are worried that if Zapatero does not reverse the decision to ban protests, people will get hurt because we will not be moving."

Real Democracy Now, the online group which has organised the protests, said that police had acted "excessively" in Madrid.

A press release read: "According to information available to us… the actions of peaceful civil disobedience protests [were responded to by] the State Security Forces acting excessively. We condemn the brutal police repression and show our solidarity with those injured and the unreasonably detained for acts of peaceful resistance without any provocation, for which we demand the immediate release without charge."

Madrid protesters defy ban

THOUSANDS of people defied both the protest ban and heavy rain to again occupy la Puerta del Sol in the centre of Madrid over Wednesday night.

Workers, unemployed people and pensioners joined young people in calling for an end to neoliberal 'austerity' measures and a democratic system based on the needs of people, rather than economics.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo explained that when the majority of protesters left the square at midnight, hundreds of young people again stayed on throughout the night, in a powerful gesture echoing the Tahrir Square occupation in Cairo.

Food was distributed free to anyone who wanted it and, while the weather put paid to the planned general assembly, debates were held on the future of the May 15 Movement for real democracy.

El Pais said that the protests had taken a big step forward. Whereas on Monday and Tuesday they had attracted younger people via social networking sites, on Wednesday older people arrived, having heard about the movement through traditional media.

The newspaper described a sense of 'indignation' in the air and thought it unlikely that the protests, which have also been happening across the country, would disappear before Sunday, which is a day of local elections.

The protests have also been featured on Fox News Latino.

The site reports: "Chanting a cry of resistance from Spain's 1936-1939 civil war, thousands of mainly young people thronged this capital's emblematic Puerta del Sol square Wednesday night in defiance of a ban on demonstrations ahead of weekend regional and municipal elections.

"Demonstrators also shouted slogans expressing disgust with both the governing Socialists and the main opposition conservative Popular Party.

"Police, who forcibly evicted some 150 protesters from the area early Tuesday, stood by as the activists vowed to resist peacefully if authorities tried to dislodge them."