Anti-war in Barcelona

by tinasyndrome Sat Feb 15, 2003 19:11

in Almeria, Southern Spain today, thousands of people turned out for the ´no a la guerra´ (no to war) demo i was at that coincides with the international day of action. An excellent diverse group of people cheered, chanted, slagged off Aznar and were in good humour. The streets were that packed that it took 1 hour to walk down one of the main streets (that normally takes 5 mins)on to the rambla where crowds congregated to listen to short speeches, hardly any police presence, everyone dispersed peacefully at 2pm.

by iosaf Fri Feb 14, 2003 17:12 south of Bilbao. East of Madrid.

compared the mass mobilisations of Nunca Mas who have just been attributed with motivating 70% of the population of Galizia unto the streets since Nov 29th last year with the techniques of ETA of "inflitrating" every social movement in the Basque lands. This caused me to near choke on my crossaint. I reported in a sunday review a while back how Fraga president of Galizia had dismissed Nunca Mas as a "small group of radicals intent on destabilising España and the PP". Well there you go. They (Aznar and the PP) are beginning to make the Thatcher years of loony rightism look tame and liberal. The parallels between Thatcher and Aznar are so striking especially for Irish people as I presume it is for Séan. These people should foam at the mouth. Then one would know how to deal with them. Another report yesterday was how Rajoy one of Aznar´s ministers had commented on a 17year old peace activist shouting down a Aznar speech with cries of "No War!". Rajoy said "this was an attack on Aznar´s right to freedom of speech". Believe me you would choke on your crossaints too.

by Sean Fri Feb 14, 2003 15:53

I´m in Bilbao at the minute and they´re expecting a big turn out here tomorrow aswell.
Aznar has paid to have little pro-war pamflets in one (or more) of the newspapers here.
There will also be protests in the other major cities of Euskal Herria(Basque Country).

by Brian Scanlan Fri Feb 14, 2003 15:18 singer at redbrick dot dcu dot ie

Cool! I'll keep an eye out for you and your dog.

I'll start at the MACBA at 4, and I'll keep my eye open for ya.

Brian.

by iosaf Fri Feb 14, 2003 12:48 barcelona

yes everything will stop for
"Auturem La Guerra".

Catalonia has several marches tomorrow.

The largest is in Barcelona at 17h00.
passeig de Gracia.

Anarchist and punkees and okupes will be up the top at the Gracia end. The important people will be down the bottom at the Placa Catalúnya end holding the banners. These generally are the last people to declare their support but you know how it is they go up the top.

All political parties in Catalonia will be represented but Catalan "Premier" Jordi Pujol has confirmed as of last night that he will not march though supports the day.

The ICV/IU new 4 party coalition will be behind
CCOO UGT the two main spanish trade unions.

The CNT the oldest anarchosyndicalist trade union will be behind them seperated by a pacifist womens coalition. Behind CNT will be some anarko-splitters and the Communist party. The ICV will have a big balloon. The Communists will have youngsters with red spray cans.
The independentists will be in four groups and will have black spray cans, catalan flags and smiles. The Muslim groups generally try and squeeze in at the end. There are several. The hippy trippy anrcko fifth will be running about in soldier costume doing spot arms checks and will probably be difficult to catagorise but everyone loves us anyway and no longer gives us any stick.
The flag of the Spanish Republic will be carried as always by a fine young indymedia reporter and he generally has an argument with one of the Socialists. who will probably be trying to blend in with CCOO and sell their newspaper.
The Anarchist flag will be carried as always by a very serious type who does his best to get the "A" into as many photos as poss.
The RTS banner of rags sewn together showing no particular country or ideology will be as always carried by a happy type. She is friends with the guy who will be carrying the Soviet Union flag they generally march next to the Cubans.
The pakistani group will be between the "writers and artists for peace" and another group of intellectuals called "pop musicians for peace". Mano Chou is a member of both so he will probably be floating as well.
Altogether there are two hundred groups ranging from the largest trade unions to the the most humble of squats. I will be floating between the Palestine support group and the top accompanied by a video camera, a minidisc recorder and the most beautiful dog in BCN a sort of mongrel red setter.I am very easy to spot. oh look its mr o as -if and the media circus. My number is 679708674 if you need translations! ;-)

you can get metro to Placa Catalúnya for about 16h00 and have a coffee near the CCCB. We traditionally start these type of days with a statement written in chalk on the ground of Placa de Angel in front of the MACBA in the muslim area of the Ravel.