Monday, September 17, 2012

12-09-17 Dispatch de Barcelona – Public transportation workers strike and demonstration


Thousands demonstrate peacefully in downtown Barcelona, protesting the pay freeze of recent years and demanding the rehiring of Labor activist, who was dismissed in July, as part of what is claimed to be repression of Labor. Conditions of Labor, and Labor demonstrations should be expected to get much worse in coming years. The legal/banking fraud pandemic has not yet made its full impact here.

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Barcelona, September 17 - The public transportation is on a one day strike on the first day of the university year, and on the beginning of the second week of the public school year. A peaceful, permitted demonstration of a few thousand workers blocks two main intersections downtown. The protestors demand an end to the pay freeze of the last couple of years and the rehiring of a Labor activist, who was dismissed in July, as part of what is claimed to be repression of Labor.

The pattern is similar to that seen on National Day – smaller demonstration march towards downtown from different directions meeting at a central location. The protestors blow whistles and local variants of vuzavelas, highlighted by a few Ramadans (Jerusalem lingo for small blast explosives).

The demonstration is also similar to that of National Day, since the participants say that they are of various political leanings, but united in their Labor struggle.

The police stay about a block ahead and behind the moving demonstrations, mostly controlling traffic. I asked one of the organizers, whether he thought that undercover police were present among the demonstrators. The response was similar to that of demonstrators on National Day - they do not care, they are peaceful.

For some reason, this logic works neither in the United States nor in Israel, regardless of government claims of Free Speech and Free Assembly.

Again, the basic element of undercover police and affiliates is missing - persons, who photograph others, but refuse to be photographed.

Some of the signs here and elsewhere clearly refer to the current legal/banking fraud pandemic as “robbery”.

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