Spain: Elderly "Indignados" mobilised in Barcelona
Social protest at cuts grows, 2 arrested over metro block
(ANSAmed) - MADRID, APRIL 26 - Around 50 elderly people from the "Yayoflautas" movement, the senior branch of the 15-M Indignados movement, today occupied the offices of the home affairs department at Catalunya's regional government. The elderly indignados are protesting against cuts in public services and are demanding the release of three protesters arrested on March 31 in incidents during the general strike.
In recent weeks, they have been involved in a series of protests, including the occupation of a public bus in protest against the rise in prices. Today's occupation of the home affairs department ended after a group of protesters, including the grandfather of one of the three men detained over the earlier incidents, was received by the director general of the department.
Mobilisation is growing from the north to the south of Spain against measures adopted by Mariano Rajoy's government to reduce Spain's public deficit to 5.3% per year, as imposed by Brussels.
The most spectacular protest was Wednesday's boycott in Madrid by the spontaneous movement "Toma el metro'" (Take the metro), a protest against the forthcoming increase in prices, which users' associations say have risen by 90% since last August. At 08:30, activists simultaneously pulled the emergency alarm on 13 trains, that were already stopped in stations, blocking 9 metro lines that were carrying 10,000 people.
Police today arrested two of the people thought to be responsible for the stunt, a 24-year old man of Ecuadorean origin and a woman of the same age, both of whom are accused of public disorder and threatening behaviour. Responsibility for the boycott was claimed in an anonymous email by the group "Paremos El Tarifazo" (Let's stop the squeeze), which announced that it would continue to act until the price rise has been dropped.
Residents, ecologists and consumers mobilised through social networking sites cried "Yo no Pago" (I'm not paying) and acts of disobedience were recorded in both Madrid and Barcelona.
The Indignados will take to the streets in the main Spanish cities on Sunday April 29 with the slogan "No messing around with health and education". The demonstration has been called by the Platform for the Defence of the Welfare State, which includes 55 social organisations, including the leading trade unions UGT and CcOo. "Society has a right to self-defence," say trade union leaders, who on May 1 will reprise the protests with marches by workers and the unemployed across the country.
On May 3, the focus of demonstrations could shift to Barcelona, where the European Central Bank summit will be held. The Interior Ministry has announced a tightening of the penal code, which will see sentences of at least 2 years behind bars handed down to anyone found using the Internet to organise protests that might affect public order. For "dissuasive and preventative" purposes, the Catalan police has opened a web page carrying photos of 230 people suspected of acts of urban violence, calling on citizens to help identify them.
Amid such a context, the first Indignados are preparing to return one year on to Plaza del Sol, where the protest began, and where they will remain between Saturday May 12 and Tuesday May 15, despite a ban imposed by local authorities.
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