Spain, Argentina to discuss move against UK

 

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/12/318326/spain-argentina-to-talk-antiuk-move/

Spain may join Argentina in a diplomatic offensive against Britain over disputed territories, a report says.

Spanish Foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo is to discuss the issue with Argentinean authorities during a trip to Buenos Aires next month, according to a report published by Spanish newspaper El Pais on Sunday.

The report also said that the Spanish foreign ministry is considering taking its complaints over British-held territory Gibraltar to the United Nations Security Council or to its General Assembly.

Furthermore, Spain is looking into the option of denouncing Gibraltar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for its “illegal occupation” of an area, called Isthmus, which connects the territory to the mainland. The land strip was not included in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

Margallo is scheduled to meet Argentina’s Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, whose administration is also in a long-standing dispute with Britain over the sovereignty of Malvinas Islands.

Spain vowed on August 9 to take all necessary measures to defend its interest in Gibraltar, after reports revealed that Britain is set to send naval ships to the territory.

Tension between the two countries arose after authorities in Gibraltar dumped 70 blocks of concrete in waters close the territory’s coast in mid-July, aimed at creating an artificial reef.

However, Spain denounced the action, saying the blocks had been dumped “without any type of authorization and breaking several environmental norms.”

In addition, Madrid said the concrete blocks seriously damaged the fishery, making it impossible for Spanish fishing boats to work in the area.

Gibraltar is one of the British Overseas Territories, which is on the United Nations list of areas waiting decolonisation.

The British territory was seized from Spain in 1713 and remains a bone of contention between the two European countries.


 

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Global Economics: The Truth and a Warning

Source Video: World United News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHTpRDM96YQ

By: Stewart Brennan
http://worldunitednews.blogspot.com/

 

Every country will face a “Tipping Point” and breakdown of society in the near future due to the crushing economic austerity measures inflicted on the people by the brutal International Banking System that was conceived and designed to acquire wealth and power for an elite few.

When impoverished nations reach their economic tipping point, the governing power structure of those nations will have no options left. They will have to tell those in control of their economic system to bow down to major changes, or they themselves will face the consequences of their inaction.

At the moment, the choice to fix the broken system belongs to those in control of it. I.e.: The International Banking Cartel through the IMF, World Bank, and International Bank of Settlements…however, if the warning is ignored and the choices made by those who govern the system only ensure that the extremely wealthy survive these harsh economic times, then the responsibility to correct the economic disparity will shift to the impoverished masses by virtue of their will to survive.

Be assured that “Civil Unrest” will grow proportionally to the rise in poverty. All one needs for proof is catch a glimpse of what is unfolding in Egypt, Greece, or Spain to see the truth of these words…and there are many other nations at different stages of bankruptcy, poverty and austerity that is being forced upon them by the I.M.F (International Monetary Fund). The victims of the economic system will rise up in their millions because their very survival depends on a just system for all. 

However, the problem is not just that the IMF has taken control of every nations economic sovereignty but that the corporate power structure that comes with the Private banks has also taken control of the natural resources of most countries. 

Making matters worse for the people of the World is that the entire political system in every country, with few exceptions, has been seized at every level by the same corrupt banking system.

Even the opinions on mainstream news are bought and paid for by corporate interests. Don’t believe me? Well Just try to get a differing opinion aired to the public on these mediums and you’ll soon see that it becomes painfully obvious where these news corps feed, because you Will be denied your opinion, just as investigative journalism has been denied when it contradicts the banking or corporate plans of the extremely wealthy that control the mainstream press.

Personally, I no longer watch TV, read newspapers or listen to the radio airwaves anymore because they are arrogantly biased and illogically opposed to common sense.

Call it what you will, but be assured that everyone will wake up to these facts sooner or later and when they do, there will be hell to pay…the degree will depend on how far the banking cartel try to take their illusion.

The Solution:

Nationalize all the private banks in each country to end the existence of “The IMF, World Bank, and the Bank of International Settlements”. Then each country must Nationalize all their natural resources so that the profits go into the nations coffers that supports the communities and the social programs. Reorganize the political structure so that real qualified people govern the nation. Money must not be allowed to affect the political structure ever again.

The World is yours to build, we do not need Private Banks to control it.

Stewart Brennan

World United News
http://worldunitednews.blogspot.com/

Please visit these other websites:

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Music: John Palmer

John Palmer – ReverbNation

http://www.reverbnation.com/JPalmer
John Palmer – Official Website - Music
http://externalcontrol.wix.com/worldinsideaworld-1

 

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The Governments of Europe and North America support Israel’s Mass Murder campaign in Gaza

 

By: Stewart Brennan

World United News

http://worldunitednews.blogspot.com/

Western leaders have come out publicly in support of Israeli military attacks on the people of Gaza by either stating so for the record or by staying silent. Both positions show total support for Israel’s crimes of mass murder and should be addressed immediately be the people of each nation.  

Mass Murder Approved by Your Government:

Video Source: Wesam Alwesam

شاهد ياعالم جرائم ومجازر الصهاينه ضد اطفال فلسطين - غزه
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y3jLKdJSF4

When your government gives their blessing for another country to commit mass murder of men, women and children, it means that they would have no problems doing so on the population within their own country, or sections of it. Let us not forget that these Western Nations are the very same countries that spoke of humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria but instead approved a coordinated bombing campaign or provided the weapons and funding to hired terrorists from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other autocratic states to do the job for them. Such is the case in Syria and to a large extent, also in Libya back in 2011. However, in the case of Libya, western countries took an active role in bombing the Libyan people into the Stone Age, where once a thriving population lived in peace and prosperity. Today Libya lays in ruins with our freedom and liberty banks imposing massive debt for the destruction they caused. Nothing will be repaired and no one will receive justice as is the case in Iraq, and Afghanistan.

In Syria, the same western nations are training, funding and giving weapons to their hired thugs to completely destroy the country as they have launched a full scale bombing campaign on the Syrian population. Now the same western countries are in full support of wiping out the entire nation of Palestine especially Gaza where 1.5 million people are imprisoned and suffer occupation and blockade by the murderous regime of Israel.

History Repeats from Warsaw to Gaza:

Gaza’s resistance can be compared to that of the Jewish people in the “Warsaw Ghetto” Poland in World War II, where Jewish resistance challenged the maniacal occupiers and oppressors of their day. Today in Palestine, the same situation is faced by the people of Gaza where resistance by an imprisoned population is met by the brute force of a maniacal Zionist oppressor and a madman bent on starting wars all over the Middle East…and your government supports this Israeli Madman Netanyahu and his regime that pushes “Ethnic Cleansing.” 

Video Source: World United News

Crimes Against Humanity, Yesterday and Today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0XymauBqgE

Would you trust your government to make moral and ethical decisions on your behalf?

Western Governments are morally bankrupt and cannot be trusted to do anything honest or ethical because they approve of the most horrendous of crimes against humanity, “War” and “Ethnic Cleansing”.

Put yourself in the position of the Palestinian people, imagine if your community or country is occupied by a foreign nation where you are surrounded by an aggressive military blockade by land, sea, and air and where survival depends on tunnels to maintain the lives of your children or the few trucks of food allowed in for minimal subsistence living…you have no means to take care of anyone and when your children get sick there is no medicine to take care of them. If you go to the border and complain you risk being shot and killed by a ruthless Israeli military that is of the opinion that you are nothing but animals and deserve what you get. When anyone resists the occupation the whole community is subject to massive destruction by military attack campaigns. If your citizens manage to fire a few bullets back at them, you’re labelled terrorists by the leaders of the international community where the permission to attack is given to the occupier.

Being Irish decent and coming from 700 years of oppression, I understand the mental anguish that the people of Gaza are experiencing and like my ancestors before me, the Palestinian people have a moral right to fight for their freedom even if the odds are decidedly against them by one of the World’s largest military killing machines. What is terrorism but a label used by an occupation force on those that resist occupation?

Your leaders are backing the mass murder and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. How do you feel about that?

What will you do?

The next time I bump into anyone that sides with the Zionist agenda, I will ask them to look into their children’s eyes and tell them that they support the slaughter of innocent women and children…I will also question their ethics or logic and ask them if it is because their Television tells them to back Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine, is it because they support their political leaders no matter what they do, or because they just side with mass murder?

My advice to anyone that will listen…get up and oppose Israel and anyone that stands with them with every fibre of your being. Use common sense, moral and ethical positions, human rights, and empathy for your fellow mankind because if you do not, the events that happen in Palestine will come back in ways you never imagined. As goes Palestine, so goes the rest of the World.

Tell your political leaders to "fuck off" and just “Stop the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Israel!” You have to get really mad!!

Free Palestine!!

-----------------------

Video Links:

Crimes Against Humanity – Yesterday and Today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0XymauBqgE
Ocupation 101
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_jvXnPG9Xc
Coalition of Demons Attacking Libya (June 15, 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNLqQ2cN-PA
Current News in Libya – World United News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHzQBYl1J9o
Libya News Archive (2011 – 2012) – World United News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba3ZXRJDGY8&feature=share&list=PL4A3B9AE5B4261A3B
Palestine News Archive – World United News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cG9OR2ofBg
Syria News Current – World United News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3896i8coaZE
Syria News Archive (2011 – 2012) – World United News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn1so6EusP8

 

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Spain jobless rate climbs by 2.73% in October

 

This file photo shows people standing in line outside a government employment office in Madrid, Spain, October 26, 2012.

Source; Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/05/270533/spain-jobless-rate-climbs-by-273/

Official data show that Spain’s unemployment rate climbed by 2.73% in October, bringing the number of the unemployed people in the European country to 4.83 million.

According to the data released on Monday by Spain’s Labor Ministry, October was the third straight month that the jobless rate climbed after a break during the summer tourism season.

Battered by the global financial downturn, Spain’s economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, taking with it millions of jobs.

Protests have been growing against the Spanish government’s austerity measures and labor reforms, which are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest, amid the deepening economic crisis.

The government has remained adamant saying the austerity measures are needed to bring it through the crisis.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s proposed 2013 draft budget is expected to slash the overall spending by 40 billion euros ($51.7 billion), freeze the salaries of public workers, and reduce spending for unemployment benefits.

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Spain’s economy contracts 0.3% in third quarter of 2012

 

People wait in line at a government employment office at Santa Eugenia's Madrid suburb on January 27, 2012.

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/30/269528/spain-economy-shrinks-in-third-quarter/

Official data show Spain’s economy has shrunk by 0.3% in the third quarter of the year, 2012, as the country continues to grapple with economic woes.

According to new data released by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) on Tuesday, country’s gross domestic product contracted by 0.3% from July to September.

This comes as one in four workers is unemployed in the recession-hit country.

On Friday, the Spanish institute also issued a statement saying that the country’s unemployment rate climbed to 25.02 percent in the third quarter, up from the previous 24.63 percent.

INE also pointed out that a total of 5.78 million people were out of work in the July-September quarter, up 85,000 from the previous three months, while the number of Spanish households in which every member is unemployed rose to 1.74 million.

On October 11, Standard and Poor’s rating agency (S&P) downgraded the country’s credit rating by two notches with a "negative outlook" citing “mounting risks to Spain's public finances, due to rising economic and political pressures.

The Spanish government has been sharply criticized over the austerity measures that are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s proposed 2013 draft budget is expected to slash the overall spending by 40 billion euros ($51.7 billion), freeze the salaries of public workers, and reduce spending for unemployment benefits.

Battered by the global financial downturn, Spain’s economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, taking with it millions of jobs.

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Thousands march in Madrid against government austerity measures

A picture taken on October 27, 2012 shows placards on a fence installed by police to protect the Spanish Congress during a protest against the government's austerity reforms and the public payment of bank's debts in Madrid (AFP Photo / Dominique Faget)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/madrid-austerity-protest-march-396/

A massive police escort accompanied tens of thousands of Spaniards marching on the country’s parliament in Madrid as part of anti-austerity protests.

­The 2.3-kilometers march organized by the "Surround parliament" protest group was closely guarded by law enforcement with dog teams, vans with reinforced windows, officers in full riot gear as well as mounted police.

At the Parliament, the crowd was greeted by an even larger police presence and pushed them back behind a chain of metal rail barricades.

Demonstrators were protesting against the latest measures introduced by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government as tens of thousands of jobs were lost in the third quarter with a bank bailout in sight.

“And now they are going to give banks a bailout, rescue them as if they were princesses,” Alan Pipo told the AP. “They should be put out on the streets, just like all those families who are being evicted from their homes because they are unable to keep up with mortgage payments! "

Demonstrators held a minute’s silence with their backs turned on parliament to show their condemnation of the government’s policies, that’s as a quarter of Spaniards are now unemployed.

The crowd also moved in front of Bankia Bank, where a group of protesters have been camping out since Monday, in an effort to pressure the bank to halt evictions that have so far affected 400,000 families in Spain.

Earlier on Saturday, nearly 3,000 off-duty police officers had also taken to the streets to voice their anger over austerity measures and the withdrawal of their Christmas bonuses.

Overall the Spanish economy has been struggling for years and now faces a staggering unemployment rate among the young of 52.34 per cent according to country’s National Statistical Institute.

In an effort to rebound the economic growth PM Rajoy has hiked taxes, cut spending and introduced harsh labor reforms in an effort to persuade investors that his government can manage Spain's financial trouble without a full bailout.

But some researchers believe that instead of cutting spending, it might be wise to increase it.

“The alternative is actually not to cut spending, but to invest in the economy, to invest in growth to make sure that there’re jobs. And the only way to ultimately get out of this debt, is to grow out of debt and not to cut your way of debt,” Jerome Roos, a researcher on the EU debt crisis at the European University Institute in Florence, told RT.

Spain’s economic output has shrunk for five quarters in a row and the country’s banking sector has been given a €100 billion loan by the 17 Eurozone states.

 

Demonstrators take part in a protest against the government's austerity reforms and the public payment of bank's debts in Madrid on October 27, 2012 (AFP Photo / Caesar Manso)

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Spain jobless rate exceeds 25 percent in 3rd quarter

 

People wait in line at a government employment office in the center of Madrid on September 4, 2012.

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/26/268825/spain-unemployment-hits-new-high/

Official data show that Spanish unemployment rate has exceeded 25 percent in the third quarter of 2012 as the country continues to grapple with economic woes.

New figures released by Spain’s National Statistics Institute on Friday showed that the country’s unemployment rate climbed to 25.02 percent in the third quarter, up from the previous 24.63 percent.

The institute also pointed out that a total of 5.78 million people were out of work in the July-September quarter, up 85,000 from the previous three months, while the number of Spanish households in which every member is unemployed rose to 1.74 million.

The release of the recent figures follows Spain’s labour unions call for a general strike for November 14.

With its high unemployment rate, Spain is under pressure to get its public finances back on track amid concerns in the markets over the state of the country’s banks and the wider economy.

The Spanish government has also been sharply criticized over the austerity measures that are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest.

Public protests have grown in the country over speculation that the government will seek a Greek-style European bailout to keep its borrowing costs in check.

Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s proposed 2013 draft budget is expected to slash the overall spending by 40 billion euros ($51.7 billion), freeze the salaries of public workers, and reduce spending for unemployment benefits.

Battered by the global financial downturn, Spain’s economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, taking with it millions of jobs.

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Thousands in Madrid protest 2013 budget cuts (PHOTOS)

 

Demonstrators raise their arms during an assembly outside Madrid's Parliament October 23, 2012, as the debate for the 2013 budget goes on inside.(Reuters/Susana Vera)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/spain-protests-parliament-budget-madrid-091/

Thousands have taken to the streets of the Spanish capital, just outside the Parliament building, to protest their government’s latest bid to further cut spending in 2013.

­Cordoned off by police riot vans, the crowd outside the government headquarters in Madrid yelled slogans lambasting further austerity measures and political corruption, demanding the resignations of the deputies of both the ruling conservative Popular Party and the opposition Socialists.

"People in the street feel like [lawmakers] don't respect us," Noelia Urdialesa, a care assistant, told the AFP. "They are making cuts in health and education, affecting the most vulnerable."

Earlier in the day, students also staged an anti-austerity protest against new cuts to education that are expected in the 2013 budget, which will lead to larger class sizes and higher tuition fees.

Approximately $6.5 billion has been cut from education funding in Spain since 2010.

Politicians, meanwhile, are debating a new budget plan that would add an additional €39 billion in savings, as part of the plan to reduce spending by €150 billion between 2012 and 2014 with pay cuts and tax rises.

Speaking at the start of the debate, Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro said the draft budget "aimed to combat the crisis," adding that it was a budget that would make "2013 the last year of recession for Spain."

But people outside do not believe that reaching such targets is even a remote possibility.

“Those deficit targets are impossible to meet. Everybody knows that, so the government is counting on the EU to ease those targets. But the problem is that easing the targets does not mean that the government will ease their austerity policies,” journalist Miguel-Anxo Murado told RT.

This is very difficult, as Spain’s economy continued to shrink in the third quarter, according to central bank estimates Tuesday. This is the fifth quarter in a row that Spain's economic output has shrunk.

In late September during similar protests, 38 people were arrested and 64 injured when officers clashed with protesters demonstrating against austerity cutbacks and tax hikes.

This time, no casualties have been reported.

More protests outside Parliament are planned for Thursday and Saturday.

 

Demonstrators gather outside Parliament as the debate for the 2013 budget goes on inside Parliament in Madrid October 23, 2012. (Reuters/Susana Vera)

 

A demonstrator (C) wearing a Guy Fawkes mask does the Nazi salute as he holds a placard depicting a EU flag with a swatiska in his centre as he takes part in a protest against government's austerity reforms and the public payment of bank's debts on October 23, 2012 in Madrid. (AFP Photo/Dominique Faget

 

Reuters/Susana Vera

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Pro-independence parties win votes in Spain’s Basque Country

 

Inigo Urkullu, the candidate of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), casts his ballot at a polling station in the northern Spanish Basque village of Durango, October 21, 2012.

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/22/268080/basque-separatists-win-votes-in-spain/

Nationalist and separatist parties have won the regional elections in Spain’s northern autonomous region of Basque Country, with the winners expected to call for a referendum on independence.

The moderate Basque Nationalist Party came top in the Sunday elections in one of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions, winning 27 seats in the 75-member regional parliament.

The left-wing separatist EH Bildu coalition, which campaigns for an independent country within the European Union, won 21 seats. The two parties jointly took almost two-thirds of the parliament seats and brought an end to the rule of the socialist government that took office three years ago.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s center-right People’s Party retained its majority in his home province of Galicia, despite the government’s unpopular harsh austerity measures.

The prosperous Basque region, which is home to 2.2 million people, has been racked by decades of separatist violence.

The poll results are expected to lead to more anti-government sentiments, which has been under fire over its austerity measures and public spending cuts and tax hikes.

Public protests have grown in Spain over the speculation that the government will seek a Greek-style European bailout to keep its borrowing costs in check.

Over the past few months, anti-austerity demonstrations have turned violent in Spanish cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, as well as in rural mining locations in the north.

Battered by the global financial downturn, the Spanish economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008.

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Police protection or citizen censorship? Spain to ban photos and videos of cops

 

Protesters clash with riot policemen during a demonstration in Madrid. (AFP Photo / AFP Photo / Pierre-Philippe Marcou)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/spain-ban-photos-police-794/

Spain’s government is drafting a law that bans the photographing and filming of members of the police. The Interior Ministry assures they are not cracking down on freedom of expression, but protecting the lives of law enforcement officers.

­The draft legislation follows waves of protests throughout the country against uncompromising austerity cuts to public healthcare and education.

The new Citizen Safety Law will prohibit “the capture, reproduction and editing of images, sounds or information of members of the security or armed forces in the line of duty,” said the director general of the police, Ignacio Cosido. He added that this new bill seeks to “find a balance between the protection of citizens’ rights and those of security forces.”

The dissemination of images and videos over social networks like Facebook will also be punishable under the legislation.

Despite the fact that the new law will cover all images that could pose a risk to the physical safety officers or impede them from executing their duty, the Interior Ministry maintains it will not encroach on freedom of expression.

“We are trying to avoid images of police being uploaded onto social networks with threats to them and their families,” underlined Cosido.

Violation of freedom of expression?

Spain’s United Police Syndicate said it considers the implementation of the new legislation “very complicated” because it does not establish any guidelines over what kinds of images violate the rights of a police officer. The syndicate warned that the ministry will run into “legal problems” if it does not specify the ins and outs of the law.

However, the director of the police argued that the measures were necessary given the “elevated levels of violence against officers” in the economic downturn that is “undermining the basis of a democratic society.”

The anti-austerity protests that have swept Spain over the past year have been punctuated by reports and footage of police brutality. The footage showed that large numbers of Spanish officers did not wear their identification badges during the protests, although the law requires it.

Spain’s beleaguered economy is in danger of following in the footsteps of Greece.

The government has made sweeping cuts to the public sector, provoking the ire of a Spanish public already disillusioned at rising unemployment that tops 50 per cent among adolescents.

The Spanish government has not yet called on the European Central bank for a bailout, but rising economic woes and an unchecked public deficit may force it to do so in the near future.

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S&P downgrades 15 Spanish lenders

AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/business/news/s-and-p-spain-banks-rating-529/

The US-based Standard & Poor’s rating agency has cut credit ratings of 15 Spanish banks including the country’s largest Banco Santander SA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), following the national rating cut last week.

“The sovereign downgrade has direct negative rating implications on those banks that we rated higher than the 'BBB-' long-term rating on Spain, and on all banks where we factored extraordinary government support into the ratings,” the S&P said in a statement.

The S&P has lowered long-term ratings on 11 banks and the short-term ratings on four. Santander saw its long-term counterparty credit rating lowered by two levels from A- to BBB with a negative outlook. The S&P has also cut by one notch the ratings on CaixaBank, and its parent company Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona (La Caixa), Banco de Sabadell, Banco Popular Espanol, Bankia, and Banco Financiero y de Ahorros (BFA).

The ratings for six banks such as BFA, and Ibercaja have been put on Creditwatch negative, the agency said in a statement Tuesday. The S&P will continue reviewing the sovereign downgrade’s implications, and is going to conclude the process next month, the company said. “For Santander and BBVA, we don’t anticipate that we would lower” its ratings further, if at all, the S&P said after the review.

The rating action came a few days after Spain was downgraded by two notches to BBB-, one level above junk by the S&P after Madrid announced a fifth austerity package in less than a year and published details about stress tests of its banks. The Spanish government's options for averting a financial crisis are limited by a grinding recession, high unemployment and social unrest, S&P said in a statement.

Earlier this year Moody’s rating agency downgraded 28 Spanish banks and the Fitch credit agency has cut ratings of 18 lenders following Spain's sovereign rating downgrades.

 

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Catalonia Independence from Spain: When Will We See Tanks in Barcelona?

By: Esther Vivas

Original Source: Socialist Project
http://www.socialistproject.ca/

Source: Global Research

http://www.globalresearch.ca/catalonia-independence-from-spain-when-will-we-see-tanks-in-barcelona/5308313

Independent Catalonia? Over my dead body and those of many other soldiers.” It was with these words that on August 31, retired infantry lieutenant-colonel Francisco Alaman Castro referred to the possibility of an independent Catalonia. And he added: “We will not make it easy. Although the lion seems to be sleeping, they have no interest in provoking it too much, because it has already given enough proof of its ferocity over the centuries. These plebs are not up to much, if we know how to confront them.”

In the current verbiage that some politicians have adopted, these statements are not the only ones that we might call “undemocratic,” “putschist” and “anti-system.” After the demonstration on September 11,[1] the UPyD spokesperson[2], Rosa Díez, called on the government to suspend the autonomy of Catalonia if the region used money from central government aid “to finance its secession.” Not to be outdone, the MEP (representing the Popular Party, in power in Madrid) and vice-president of the European Parliament, Alejo Vidal Quadras, requested that a brigadier-general, preferably from the Civil Guard, take charge of the “Mossos de Esquadra”[3] to curb the independence process.

The El Mundo newspaper, in its editorial of September 27, demanded from the government “a penal response to the challenge launched by Artur Mas” who has called for a referendum on self-determination in Catalonia. El Mundo urged the government to amend the Criminal Code to “punish by imprisonment any call for an illegal referendum.” And for good measure, the extremist “Reconversion,” platform, whose leaders are Alejo Vidal Quadras and José Antonio Ortega Lara, demanded that if such a referendum were to be held the government place Catalonia under tutelage, on the basis of articles 161.2 and 155.1 and 2 of the Constitution.

Role of the Military

And that’s not all. The Spanish Military Association (AME), composed of former members of the army, has threatened Catalan president Artur Mas with a Council of War and has warned those who promote “the breaking-up of Spain” that they will have to answer before a military court on charges of “high treason”. Nothing more than that! It speaks volumes about the present situation when a conservative politician such as Artur Mas, enmeshed to the marrow of his bones with the powers of finance, especially with the La Caixa and Aberti banks, who is leader of a party as un-subversive as the CiU[4] elicits such reactions. What will happen then when it comes to someone on the left, who is opposed to the interests of the employers and is a sincere defender of the right to self-determination?

In the light of the above, I ask myself a question. If all of this was happening, for example, in a Latin American country, how would it be characterized? The BBC has published a long report that makes the link between the threats to Catalonia and the “pact of silence” introduced during the Transition.[5] And this is quite right. The Amnesty Law of 1977 guarantees immunity to those who committed crimes against humanity under the Franco regime and during the Civil War. These individuals are still there, and today they are raising their heads again, without any restraint.

At a time where the Hispanic Titanic is taking in water on all sides, with a crisis which worsens each day and scaffolding that is creaking everywhere, it is the true nature of the regime that is revealing itself. And so are the limits of a transition that has been so beatified that it has prevented people from seeing the reality for decades. All of a sudden, the mask of “democrat” has fallen from their faces. Crises have at least the advantage of clarifying things.

Limits to Democracy?

According to them, democracy is a good thing as long as it does not go beyond a certain framework. As a result, all those who disturb things, whether it is these “hooligan” Catalan independentists or these “dangerous” 25S activists, must be quickly silenced. Broadcast television images of police charges? What a scandal! People will become indignant and will demonstrate even more. Solution: limit the right to demonstrate and the right to be informed and the business is settled. The president of the Popular Party group in the European Parliament, Jaime Mayor Oreja, and the Delegate of the Madrid government Cristina Cifuentes have understood this well.

The current crisis is not only an economic and social crisis, but really an unprecedented regime crisis that calls into question the state model that came out of the Transition, its “pacts of silence” and the very shaky democratic system that we have today.

In the middle of this mess, we must support all democratic demands that come up against the monarchical corset of the Transition, starting with the right of the Catalan people to decide its own future. Who is afraid of such a referendum in Catalonia? Those who are not willing to accept its result. We should not, however, let the Spanish chauvinist fury against Mas make us take such a politician – whose only achievement in government is to have reduced social rights and taxes for the rich – for a herald of democracy and freedom. On the contrary, we, Catalans, will have a better life when we get rid of Mas, his squire Felip Puig and their team.

Infantry lieutenant-colonel Francisco Alaman Castro said that “the current situation resembles that of 1936.” That is quite a declaration of intent. Today, as then, our democracy, our rights and our future are threatened. What is at stake is important. When will we see tanks in the streets of Barcelona? It would not be the first time. But there is one thing I am sure of: the people will not remain silent. The most important thing will be not to make any mistake about who the enemy is, and while we fight against the badly recycled Francoists, we should remember that the interests of the majority of the Catalan people have very little to do with those of the Messiah Artur Mas. •

Esther Vivas is an activist in a variety of social movements in Barcelona and maintains a blog at esthervivas.com.

Notes:

1.on September 11, 2012, at the call of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), constituted on March 10, 2012 in Barcelona by 269 Catalan municipalities, nearly two million people marched for the right to self-determination and independence.

2.Unión Progreso y Democracia (Union, progress and democracy) is a political party of the radical populist Right, founded in 2007, which defends an uncompromising Spanish nationalism.

3.Catalan police, responsible to the Generalitat (regional government).

4.Convergència i Unió (Convergence and Union) is a federation of centre-right Catalan political parties.

5.Transitional period between the death of General Franco in 1975 and the adoption of the new Constitution establishing a “parliamentary monarchy” in 1978.

Catalonia - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalonia

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4 US warships to head to Spain as Madrid joins NATO missile shield

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/06/265216/four-us-warships-to-head-to-spain/

Four US warships equipped with missile interceptors and Aegis defence systems along with 1,400 American military personnel are set to be deployed at a US naval base in Rota, southern Spain by 2013.

The Spanish government made the announcement on Friday after sealing a deal with the US to participate in NATO’s anti-missile shield.

According to a statement by the government, Spain authorized the signing of the deal at a cabinet meeting on Friday.

"Its principal activity will be to contribute to defending against ballistic missiles," the statement said.

Following the decision, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told a news conference that the deal would help boost the economy in the region.

This comes as the left-wing political coalition in Spain has leveled criticism at the move, saying it makes the country “a military target.”

Leaders of the 28-member NATO alliance expressed their support in 2010 for the Europe-wide ballistic missile shield.

The system will later expand to include land-based interceptors in Romania, Poland, Turkey and The Netherlands.

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Spain ready to accept eurozone bailout: EU officials

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/02/264568/spain-ready-to-accept-financial-aid-eu/

Spanish officials are ready to request for a euro zone bailout to help the country pay its debts, European officials say.

"The Spanish were a bit hesitant but now they are ready to request aid,” said a senior European official on condition of anonymity on Tuesday.

On Monday, the European Union Economics Chief Olli Rehn called on Spanish officials to immediately accept the EU bailout to repair the country’s deficit-laden finances.

“The choices will only get harder if they are postponed,” he added.

With an unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent, Spain is under pressure to get its public finances on track amid concerns in the markets over the state of the country’s banks and the wider economy.

The Spanish government has also been sharply criticized over the austerity measures that are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest.

The 2013 budget will freeze public sector salaries for the third year in a row and cut ministerial spending by an average of 8.9 percent. The country’s regions, which pay for health and education, must also scrape up seven billion euros in savings.

The government has confirmed that it will create a new fiscal watchdog to monitor the budgets not only of the central government but also the regional and municipal ones to make sure they comply with Madrid’s efforts to control spending and cut the country’s deficit.

On Friday, hundreds of Spanish nurses, policemen and other public workers took to streets near the Budget Ministry in Madrid to protest against having their pay frozen for the third year.

Battered by the global financial downturn, the Spanish economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, destroying millions of jobs.

Spain, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Portugal are all in recession and all five are receiving financial assistance from European bailout funds.

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Spain’s economy shrinks quickly in third quarter of 2012: Bank of Spain

 

People stand in line at a government employment office in a suburb of Madrid. (File photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/26/263628/spains-economy-shrinks-in-third-quarter/

The Bank of Spain has announced that the debt-wrecked country’s economic output is shrinking at a “significant pace” in the third quarter of 2012.

“Available data for the third quarter of the year suggest output continued to fall at a significant pace, in an environment in which financial tension remained at very high levels,” the bank said in a monthly report released on Wednesday.

As official data indicated, Spain, the fourth-largest economy in the eurozone, slid into recession in the last quarter of 2011.

Spain’s government is also expecting an economic decline of 1.5 percent this year, and another 0.5 percent in 2013, but many analysts believed that even those gloomy figures are optimistic.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted economic declines of 1.7 percent in 2012 and 1.2 percent in 2013 for Spain.

On Tuesday, the Spanish police clashed with thousands of demonstrators who had gathered at the Plaza de Neptuno square near the lower house of parliament to protest against the austerity measures adopted to address the financial crisis.

The Occupy Congress demonstration drew an estimated 6,000 people from all walks of life tired of nine straight months of harsh economic austerity measures introduced by the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The worsening eurozone debt crisis has increased Spain’s financing costs and the country is seeking a European Union bailout similar to the one Greece received.

On June 9, eurozone finance ministers agreed to lend 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to Spain to save its teetering banks.

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'Democracy kidnapped!' Spanish protesters surround Congress in Madrid



Source Video: Russia Today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OXXe9B9THo

Spain's "indignant" protesters take part in a demonstration to decry an economic crisis they say has "kidnapped" democracy, on September 25, 2012 in Madrid. (AFP Photo / Dominique Faget)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/spain-protests-parliament-crisis-942/

Thousands of activists have begun to congregate in Madrid’s Plaza de Neptune, 100 meters from the Congress building, to protest Spanish austerity measures. The demonstrators pledged to march around the building, and called for new elections.

Watch the protests LIVE

Demonstrators waved banners with the slogan ‘No’ written on them, in reference to the austerity policies of the Spanish government, but so far the protest has been peaceful.

Protesters said that today is a key day to level criticism against politicians and the Spanish government. The city stationed armored police vehicles bumper-to-bumper around the parliament building, and announced that around 1,300 police would be deployed to counter the protesters.

The organizers of the protest dubbed their movement ‘Surround Congress,’ and expressed hopes that thousands would turn out. The protestors called themselves ‘indignants’ and claimed that their democracy had been ‘kidnapped,’ calling for new elections and rallies against the austerity measures enacted by Mariano Rajoy’s government.

Some 200 demonstrators gathered near the city’s main railway station chanting “Rescue democracy,” and “This is not a crisis, it’s a swindle.”

Carmen Rivero – a 40-year old photographer who travelled overnight by bus from the southern city of Granada – said, “We think this is an illegal government. We want the parliament to be dissolved, a referendum and a constituent assembly so that the people can have a say in everything.”

Another 100 protesters were scattered across the city’s main square, the Plaza de Espana.

“This is not a real democracy. This is a democracy kidnapped by the parties in collaboration with the economic powers and the people have no say in it,” said Romula Barnares, a 40-year-old artist wearing sunglasses with a dollar sign on one lens and a euro sign on another.

But Miguel-anxo Murado, a journalist and writer, told RT that he thought their demands are too vague and that they would not be successful, “it seems that they are back with the same very vague and ambitious platform and in-fact they have been over shadowed by a different constitutional challenge, which is for the independence movement in Catalonia, which is more likely to change the constitution, although in a different way, so I’m afraid they will probably not have a huge success today.”

Spain is in the middle of its second recession in two years, and faces a 25 percent unemployment rate.

Madrid introduced the controversial austerity measures in a gesture meant to show that it intends to fix its debt and budgetary shortfalls. The European Central Bank granted Spain a 100 billion euro rescue loan for its banks, but the country has not decided whether to seek another bailout.

Europe’s financial leaders are pleading for Spain to reduce volatility in its markets by deciding whether or not to request the second loan.

During a September 15 protest, waves of some 50,000 anti-austerity demonstrators converged in downtown Madrid, blowing whistles and hoisting banners that read, “They are destroying the country, we must stop them.” Representatives from over 230 civic and professional organizations also turned out amid cries of “lies,” and “enough.”

 

People gather at the Plaza Espana square before taking part in a demonstration organized by "indignant" protesters to decry an economic crisis they say has "kidnapped" democracy, on September 25, 2012 in Madrid. (AFP Photo / Dominique Faget

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