Categories
Capitalist crisis

General strike in Barcelona report

The 14th of November general strike in Barcelona started in the very first hours of the night, with pickets closing bars and spaces still open at night in several city’s neighborhoods, such as Gràcia, where more than 300 people managed to shut down bars, while a supermarket and banks were attacked by hoodies. Earlier, trade unions pickets had blocked the accesses to industrial parks of the metropolitan area, where no activity was reported at all. No one was arrested during the night. As the sun was rising, fire barricades were erected in all city’s points, with police making the first arrest of the day in the Eixample neighborhood. At 8am neighborhood assemblies pickets started shutting down the whole city, with Sants and Gràcia being the areas with more police presence, mainly due to incidents during the M29 strike. Barricades were set up in Gràcia to prevent Mossos from reaching the picket. The turnout in the neighborhoods, both in pickets and strike following, was higher than in all previous strikes. Although no central picket had been called, strikers spontaneously gathered from noon on in Plaça Catalunya, were the biggest picket of the day kicked off. When this reached the boardwalk, an undercover cop attempted to arrest a striker, which caused demonstrators to attack other secret cops, who were rapidly rescued by a riot unit.

At 5pm an anticapitalist demonstration organised by neighborhood assemblies, M15, CNT, CGT, independentist left and autonomous anarchists had been called at Jardinets de Gràcia, just some meters away from where the demonstration by yellow trade unions CCOO and UGT was taking place. The anticapitalist demonstration was constantly surrounded by units of riot cops geared up with gas masks and rubber bullets guns. Along the way, banks and capitalist symbols were attacked with paints and stones although police didn’t charge until the demonstration had finished in Via Laietana, where cops started firing rubber bullets and crowds of hoodies answered with stone and bottle throwing, as well as homemade missiles. Two Spanish police cars and a bank were set on fire. The crowd was suddenly dispersed by a group of 20 riot vans which quickly arrived and clashes moved to the narrow streets on the side of Via Laietana, at the Born neighborhood. There, protesters (some of them filling the air by singing A las barricadas) resisted during an hour the attacks of riot police. The main entrance of the Palace of Catalan Music, symbol of corruption from the currently ruling party in Catalonia, was destroyed. Several cars and trash bins could be seen on fire in the surrounding streets.

[youtube width=”560″ height=”315″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKj-pNY8Jy0[/youtube]

At the time the more confrontational demonstrators had dispersed, cops started clearing the whole centre area, charging against people who were merely walking back home. In one of these attacks, a woman was shot in one of her eyes by a rubber bullet and eventually lost her sight in it. Felip Puig, head of police in Catalonia, has lied by denying that rubber bullets had been used that day, although what actually makes the matter more disgusting is the fact that they were actually shot from a newly acquired type of guns which allows cops to aim, which means that the cops were probably aiming at the protesters’ eyes. Finally, 23 people were arrested and many injured.

The strike was the biggest in the city since 1988, due in part to the aim set on the first of the austerity crisis strikes on September 29th 2010: to turn these general strikes into social strikes, where all kinds of movements and social communities could feel part of it. This time, even more communities joined the strike and once more, alternative trade unions along with social movements managed to break through the lines of the agreed, planned and designed strike by the yellow trade unions and turned the strike into a day of struggle beyond the limits of this institutionalized trade unionism.

Categories
Capitalist crisis Direct actions

October 31: general strike in Barcelona

Back in September, CGT announced a general strike for October 31 around the whole Spanish state. Weeks later, yellow unions CCOO and UGT called for another one on November 14 and CGT decided to move its strike to the same day as the main unions. Nonetheless, CGT kept the strike in Barcelona for October 31 (labelling it as “Day of struggle”), where local CNT had also called for a general strike. The impact has been minimum, as expected, but sectors such as metro, taxis or post offices have recorded high numbers of strikers.

Several pickets had been organised during the morning in several neighbourhoods, while CNT had called for a central picket at plaça Catalunya. Along the way, an Apple Store and a Zara were attacked by protesters and shut down.

Categories
Social control and repression

New arrest in Barcelona over 29M strike

One more person has been arrested this morning in Barcelona over the riots in that same city during last March 29 general strike. The arrested person, a 21 year old female, has been taken to the Travessera de les Corts police station and will be brought to court tomorrow. This is the arrest number 114 in relation with the general strike. More info as it comes.

Source: barcelona.indymedia.org

Categories
Labour

General strike called in the Basque Country

General strike in the Basque Country

Major basque trade unions as well as CNT, CGT and 100 other social organisations have called for a general strike on September 26 in Southern Basque Country to protest against the sales tax hikes and spending cuts approved recently by the Spanish government.

Source: naiz.info

Categories
Labour Social control and repression

6 more people arrested over 29M strike

Six new arrests in the town of Sabadell (Barcelona province) rise to 113 the number of people arrested in Catalunya for taking part in the March 29 strike. Pau Llonch, vocalist of the At Versaris group, is among the people arrested today. More than 100 people gathered outside the town’s police station as soon as the news came out. One of detainees was released a few hours later, and claimed police had confused him with another person, confirming the existence of police files of non-arrested people. By 7pm all the detainees have been released, after being charged with public disorder.

Source: setmanaridirecta.info