We are the 50% of unemployed young people, the hundreds of families evicted every week, the migrants being harrassed each day, the pensioners struggling to make ends meet, the fired workers, the precarious ones, the exploited ones. Those who cannot stand this situation anymore, those who are fed up of being lied while they take advantage of our misery and they steal our future.
But we are also those who have dignity, those who day after day break the unfair laws in order to survive, those who feel this system is a fraud, those who stand up against power by organising ourselves, those who defy the strategy of fear by taking the streets, those who they won’t be able to stop. We are the ones who fight and this has just started…
On October 11, the first university students strike of the school year was held against tuition fee increases taken both by the central and regional goverments. The strike had been called by most of the student unions, especially the left-wing independentists ones, and demonstrations were held all around the state. In Barcelona more than 5.000 people demonstrated despite the rain and massive police presence. In the early hours of the morning, dozens of cops entered the UAB campus outside the city and prevented students from blocking the highway and railroads located next to the university. During the demonstration several buildings such as the stock exchange, the European Union offices in Barcelona and the headquarters of Convergència i Unió party (currently ruling the Catalan goverment) were attacked with paint. An ATM was set on fire and many graffitis were made along the way. 300 people demonstrated in the city of Lleida, with cops assaulting three students at the end of the demonstration and arresting one of them, accusing him of throwing objects against cops.
Demonstrations occured as well in many other cities around the state, such as Valencia, Málaga, Mallorca, Valladolid, Iruñea or Santiago de Compostela. In Bilbo, cops charged against protesters after some of them had broken into the headquarters of the Basque goverment. 90 people were identified. Hundreds of students demonstrated too in the centre of Madrid and boycotted an act by the rector of the Complutense University of Madrid.
Some links with pictures about Barcelona demonstrations [1], [2], [3]
A molotov cocktail was tossed at a bank office late last night (July 14) in Valencia. The office was burnt down, and no one has claimed responsibility yet for the attack.
