Spaanse bankenput beloopt 60 miljard

De 'definitieve' vastgoedstrop voor de Spaanse banken beloopt 60 miljard euro. Dat becijfert het consultingbureau Oliver Wyman.

(foto: EPA)
Uw visie op Spanje

Spanje snoeit in 2013 voor 40 …

LETTERLIJK De studie van Olive…

De raming van de strop maakt de weg vrij voor de maximum 100 miljard euro die Europa al in juni opzij zette als steun voor de zwalpende Spaanse banken. De stresstest is zonder meer cruciaal voor de geloofwaardigheid van de overheid in Madrid. Die ligt sinds dit voorjaar aan diggelen.
In februari verklaarde minister van Financiën Luis de Guindos dat Madrid 'niet één euro' overheidsgeld in de zieltogende banken zou stoppen. Die boude uitspraak stootte op ongeloof, aangezien de 'chorizocrash' op de Spaanse huizenmarkt via oplopende probleemkredieten een tikkende tijdbom is op de balans van Spaanse banken.
Drie maanden later moest de Guindos zijn woorden inslikken, toen het grootste rampgeval - Bankia - in Madrid om liefst 19 miljard euro vers geld kwam bedelen. In juni klopte Madrid bij een escalerende crisis noodgedwongen bij Europa aan voor 100 miljard noodfondsen voor de banken. Tegelijk gaf de Guindos een externe consultant de opdracht de balansen van alle Spaanse banken uit te kampen, om een 'definitieve factuur' te krijgen.
Toch is het maar de vraag of de of 60 miljard nu het ultieme prijskaartje is. De 'definitieve' raming stemt immers overeen met de voorlopige raming die een andere consultant - Roland Berger - al in juni op de factuur voor de vastgoedcrisis plakte.
-37%
In het 'horrorscenario' zien de onderzoekers de huizenprijzen pas in 2014 uitbodemen, 37 procent onder de piek van 2008
Vastgoed
De raming gaat uit van een economie die in 2012, 2013 en 2014 krimpt en vastgoedprijzen die in 2012 met 20 procent zakken, in 2013 met 4,5 procent en in 2014 met 2 procent (zie pagina 83 van de studie in bijlage).
Van piek naar bodem in 2014 gaan de onderzoekers uit van een crash van de vastgoedprijzen met 37 procent tegenover de piek van 2008. Ter vergelijking: de Amerikaanse vastgoedprijzen bodemden dit voorjaar 33 procent onder de piek van 2006 uit, al oogt de macro-economische omgeving in de VS een stuk minder dramatisch dan in Spanje.
Dat is enigszins verrassend, aangezien tijdens de zomer de economische toestand in Spanje nog fors verslechterd is. Bovendien is de Spaanse vastgoedmarkt onverminderd in vrije val. De factuur vastprikken is dus een heikele zaak, aangezien elk extra percentage prijsdaling voor de Spaanse huizenmarkt de factuur met miljarden aandikt.
Infuus
Deze cijfers over de kapitaalbehoeftes van individuele banken zijn een essentieel onderdeel van het proces om Spaanse banken terug gezond te krijgen.
Europese Commissie
De Europese Commissie liet prompt weten dat de eerste Spaanse banken al in november een Europese infuus kunnen krijgen. 'Rampbank' Bankia is de grote slokop en heeft 24,7 miljard vers kapitaal nodig.
Madrid benadrukt dat de 59,3 miljard - of 53,8 miljard als alle geplande bankenfusies effectief doorgevoerd worden - niét het bedrag is dat de regering in Brussel zal vragen. 'De uiteindelijke steun kan beduidend lager uitvallen, in functie van de herkapitalisatieplannen die de banken tegen oktober bij de Banco de España moeten indienen', klinkt het.
Zowel de Europese Commissie als de ECB, de Europese bankenwaakhond EBA en het IMF was betrokken bij de stresstest. ‘Deze cijfers over de kapitaalbehoeftes van individuele banken zijn een essentieel onderdeel van het proces om Spaanse banken terug gezond te krijgen’, aldus de Commissie.
‘Banken die een kapitaaltekort hebben zullen een herkapitaliseringsplan voorstellen. Als die zijn goedgekeurd door de Spaanse centrale bank en de Europese Commissie, zullen we die voorleggen voor goedkeuring onder de Europese regels voor staatssteun. Als deze herstructureringen en/of testamenten voor banken zijn goedgekeurd, kunnen we in november al van start gaan met de herkapitaliseringen.’
De Europese steun voor de Spaanse banken staat in principe los van de vraag of en wanneer de Spaanse overheid in Brussel om geld komt bedelen. De Europese Centrale Bank is bereid met zijn jongste bazooka Madrid bij te springen door desnoods onbeperkt overheidspapier op te kopen. Maar dan moet Madrid eerst beleefd om steun vragen bij het Europees noodfonds.
Maar aan die steun van het noodfonds - die dan tegelijk met de ECB op de markten zou interveniëren - zijn voorwaarden verbonden. En Spaans premier Mariano Rajoy is er als de dood voor zijn land onder curatele te laten plaatsen zoals Portugal, Ierland en Griekenland. Hij wil eerst de garantie krijgen dat hij met zijn deze week ontvouwde monstersanering van 40 miljard voldoende inspanningen geleverd heeft om de kredietverschaffers te verwurmen.

Bron : De Tijd

Iran: Ensure Equal Access to Higher Education

Scrap Policies That Ban Students From Studies on Basis of Gender


For decades, Iranian universities have offered high quality education to male and female students. But as university students across Iran prepare to start the new academic year, they face serious setbacks, and women students in particular will no longer be able to pursue the education and careers of their choice.
Liesl Gerntholtz, women’s rights director
(Beirut) – The Iranian government should immediately reverse policies that place unnecessary restrictions on academic freedom for university students, in particular women. Some of these “Islamicization” measures are to be introduced for the new academic year, which begins on September 22, 2012. Others have been put in place in recent years and adopted by universities across the country.

The measures include bans on female and male enrollment in specific academic fields in many universities, but with the greatest number of restrictions on women. They also include quotas that limit the percentage of women students in certain fields of study, and segregation in classrooms and facilities.

“For decades, Iranian universities have offered high quality education to male and female students,’’ said Liesl Gerntholtz, women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “But as university students across Iran prepare to start the new academic year, they face serious setbacks, and women students in particular will no longer be able to pursue the education and careers of their choice.”

Authorities are enacting “Islamicization” policies at universities within the context of a wider crackdown on academic freedom that has taken place since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president in 2005. Iran’s universities have increasingly become targets of government efforts to stifle dissent and “Islamicize” higher education, Human Rights Watch said.

The new restrictions provide evidence that authorities, spearheaded by the Science Ministry, are carrying out longstanding plans to “Islamicize” universities and institute programs that restrict the role of young women in universities and their access to education, Human Rights Watch said. Since the 1990s, more than 60 percent of Iran’s university students have been women.

The most recent restrictions are outlined in an annual manual published in August by the Science and Technology Ministry, which regulates higher education. The manual lists the major fields of study available to applicants sitting for the national entrance exam for public universities, which was held in June. It reveals that 36 public universities across the country have banned female enrollment in 77 fields, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency. The manual also indicates that universities have barred male enrollment in a number of majors.

On August 6 Mehr reported that the 2012 manual published that month by Iran’s National Education Assessment Organization (NEAO), a Science Ministry department, provided a large list of majors at various universities across the country that had been “single-gendered,” meaning that only males or females will be permitted to study that subject. The process is carried out by individual universities under Science Ministry authority. More than 60 universities across the country made the changes, with restrictions on around 600 majors according to Daneshjoo News, an opposition website that covers academic freedom issues.

An August 4 Daneshjoo article says that this academic year Iranian universities have “single-gendered” about 20 percent of mathematics and technical sciences major fields of study (including engineering), more than 30 percent in social sciences, 10 percent in traditional sciences, 34 percent in the arts/humanities, and 25 percent in foreign languages. Some universities have “single-gendered” majors for alternating semesters to enforce gender segregation but have not entirely banned access to either male or female candidates.

Banned majors for women include computer science, chemical engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and materials engineering at Arak University; natural resource engineering, forestry, and mining engineering at Tehran University; and political science, accounting, business administration, public administration, mechanical engineering, and civil engineering at Esfahan University. At Emam Khomeini University, in Qazvin, all 14 social sciences majors were restricted to males.

“Single-gendering” also restricts choices for male students. For example, at Esfahan University men are no longer allowed to major in history, linguistics, theology, applied chemistry, Arabic/Persian language and literature, sociology, and philosophy.

Some of the larger universities with substantial “single-gendering” of major fields of study, Daneshjoo reported, are Arak University (88 percent), Esfahan University (68 percent), Emam Khomeini University (82 percent), Lorestan University (100 percent), Ardebil Research University (100 percent), Golestan University (59 percent), and Alameh Tabataba’i University (43 percent). Shahid Chamran University in Ahvaz has “single-gendered” all of its 47 majors for men, even though it is officially a registered coeducational university.

Only 3 percent have been “single-gendered” at Tehran University, one of the country’s premiere public universities.

Neither the universities nor the Science Ministry have explained why they single-gendered certain majors. In an August 26 statement, NEAO criticized coverage of the universities’ decision to “single-gender” majors, and alleged that opposition media outlets and websites incorrectly reported that the government had instituted wholesale bans on selected majors for women.

The agency alleged that the total number of majors at universities throughout the country had actually increased by 14 percent, and that the vast majority were still open to both male and female students. On September 11, Hossein Tavakoli, head of the agency, announced that the results of the 2012-13 academic year national entrance exams had been released and women make up 60 percent of the entering class.

But a review by Human Rights Watch of the NEAO manual shows that the list of banned majors includes a number of technical and applied science majors, including engineering, some of the highest-paying fields for graduates. An increasing percentage of women have been employed in these fields in recent decades.

“Many of the gender restrictions placed on university courses do not seem to follow a clear or particular pattern,” Gerntholtz said. “They show that authorities and university administrators have imposed seemingly arbitrary barriers that impede the access of both male and female university students to the higher education of their choice.”

The right to education for everyone without discrimination is explicitly guaranteed under international instruments, which Iran has accepted or to which it is party, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention against Discrimination in Education. It is also guaranteed under Iran’s Constitution.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which provides the definitive interpretation of the covenant, has stated that it requires Iran and other states parties to overcome institutional barriers and other obstacles that prevent women from fully participating in science education. It also states that, “Differential treatment based on prohibited grounds will be viewed as discriminatory unless the justification for differentiation is reasonable and objective.”


Background on the “Islamicization” Program at Universities
“Single-gendering” university majors is only the latest in a series of repressive measures that the Science Ministry has put in place as part of its “Islamicization” program at universities during the past few years, Human Rights Watch said.

Kamran Daneshjoo, the science minister, has aggressively pursued this policy since his appointment in September 2009 and has repeatedly cited a regulation passed by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution in 1987 requiring all universities to implement gender separation in classes and throughout campuses to the extent possible. In 2011, the Iranian Parliament’s Education Commission announced that steps would be taken to implement gender segregation at a number of universities.

Segregation of individual classes and public spaces has already been reported at a number of public universities, including Allame Tabataba’i, Amir Kabir, and Yazd. Students at these universities have complained that segregation has resulted in disproportionately fewer courses being offered to women, and overcrowding of the facilities used by women.

Plans to separate male and female students in classes and common areas have also affected Iran’s private universities. In August 2011, a group of students at various campuses of Azad Islamic University sent a letter to the university president protesting plans for gender separation, accusing him of seeking to limit the presence of women at those institutions.

Kamran Daneshjoo has pushed through gender separation policies with the support of parliamentary allies of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, and the Assembly of Experts, a body charged with selecting the Supreme Leader, in spite of opposition from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In January 2011 Ahmadinejad, in a letter to the Ministries of Science and Health, which oversees admission to medical schools, asked the ministries not to go through with policies to separate male and female university students. Ahmadinejad referred to both the forcible retirement of professors and gender separation in universities as “shallow and unwise.”

Since 2005, authorities have removed dozens of professors from some of Iran’s most elite universities, claiming they were either past retirement age or were unqualified. Critics allege that authorities purged professors to stem the influence of secular and liberal thought from universities.

Over the past few years the Science Ministry has announced several other plans that could adversely affect women’s access to higher education, including gender quotas for major fields of study, restricting university application based on geographical location, and increasing gender-segregated spaces on university campuses, including in the classroom. Last year, for example, student rights groups reported that several dozen universities had begun applying a quota system that guarantees males a higher percentage of places in up to 40 university majors.

Quotas limiting the spaces and selection of majors for female university students followed a recommendation by the Iranian parliament’s research center that encouraged restricting female enrollment to universities in local provinces to reduce the “destructive consequences” of female enrollment on family life. But authorities at the NEAO and elsewhere claim that “Islamicization” policies do not adversely impact female students, and cite as proof the announcement that women still account for 60 percent of the 2012 entering class.

The wider campaign on academic freedom since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, in addition to gender separation for forced retirement of professors, has included imprisoning student activists and barring politically active students from enrolling in or continuing higher education.

University disciplinary committees have been used to monitor, suspend, or expel students. Pro-government student groups affiliated with the basij, a hard-line Islamist paramilitary group, are an increasing campus presence. Universities have reduced or limited social science curricula, which are often viewed by authorities as a breeding ground for critical and “un-Islamic” thought. And authorities have restricted activities of independent student groups, which are often critical of government policies.

As recently as April, Daneshjoo, the Science Minister, announced that, “Individuals who participated in the anti-government protests that took place in 2009 “have no right to enter universities.”

Human Rights Watch

ONTMOETING MET ROBERTO CALLAU OVER BOERENBEWEGING IN BOLIVIA

DIRECTEUR VAN DE NGO INCCA IN COCHABAMBA
START: 03/04/2012 - 19:00

Roberto Callau, directeur van de organisatie INCCA (Instituto de Capacitacion Campesina) in Cochabamba, is op bezoek in ons land op uitnodiging van de ngo Bevrijde Wereld. We organiseren met de groep intal Latijns-Amerika een ontmoeting met hem over de huidige situatie in Bolivië. Hij zal met ons uitwisselen over de werking van zijn ngo, de veranderingen onder de regering Morales en de boerenbeweging in Bolivië.


intal Latijns-Amerika nodigt u van harte uit op deze (informele) ontmoeting met Roberto Callau op 3 april om 19u in de lokalen van vzw Atelier, Haachtsesteenweg 53, 1210 Brussel.

Breng iets mee om te eten. We zullen kleine versnaperingen voorzien en wat drankjes aan democratische prijzen.

Dit initiatief is mogelijk i.s.m. Bevrijde Wereld.

Geef ons een seintje als je erbij kan zijn op americalatina@intal.be

URGENT, à Diffuser sur tous vos réseaux, NL en FR‏

http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/un-jeune-afghan-de-20-ans-va-subir-une-deuxieme-tentative-dexpulsionsous-escorte-ce-lundi-1-octobre/

Un jeune Afghan de 20 ans va subir une deuxième tentative d’expulsion,sous escorte, ce lundi 1 octobre.
 - Read this post in Nederlands
Nombre de jeunes Afghans continuent a être expulsés régulièrement depuis plus de six mois.
L’office des étrangers semblent en avoir fait une priorité !

D W est une parmi ces personnes expulsés sans pitié par l’Office des Étrangers.

Il n’avait pas 16 ans quand il est arrivé en Belgique. Ses parents ont été tué quand il était petit et il lui reste une sœur en Afghanistan.

Sa demande d’asile a été refusé et a été suivit d’un Ordre de Quitter le Territoire. Une demande de régularisation est toujours en cours. Celle-ci ne suspend pas l’Ordre de Quitter le Territoire.

W  rentre dans plusieurs critères de  régularisation : il parle parfaitement le Nederlands, est ici depuis 5 ans et travaille avec un contrat à durée indéterminé depuis 3 ans.

La police de Leuven est venu le chercher en juillet 2012 et l’a amené au centre fermé de Merksplas. Il a déjà subit une première tentative d’expulsions qu’il a refusé.

W a construit sa vie ici, a tous ces amis ici et ne connaît pas l’Afghanistan. Il ne pourra pas rejoindre sa sœur car elle vit dans une région en guerre ou tout jeune est immédiatement enrôlé par les Talibans.

W est désespéré, ne sait pas comment échapper à cette souricière dans laquelle il se retrouve.

Il va être amené au centre fermé 127bis le dimanche 30/09 dans l’après midi pour être mis avec escorte le lundi premier octobre sur le vol KLM vers Amsterdam 8h15.vol KL 1722

A Amsterdam il sera mis sur le vol vers Abu Dhabi/Barhaim KLM 13h40 vol 451

Nous nous opposons à ces arrestations et expulsions devenues des plus violentes et augmentant d’année en année.

Nous nous opposons à cette politique de « tous dehors », « chacun chez soi ».Nous refusons ce monde qui nous est préparé, ou une majorité subis guerre, famines, afin que’ une toute petite minorité dans ce monde puisse vivre en paix.

On connaît la situation en Afghanistan. Des millions de réfugiés on fuit le pays et sont réfugiés en  Iran ou Pakistan. La majorité des pays Européen on suspendu les expulsions vers ce pays en guerre, suivant les constats du HCR  http://www.ledevoir.com/international/actualites-internationales/339184/cuisant-echec-du-hcr-en-afghanistan

A quatre reprises la Grande Bretagne a annulé des vols collectifs vers l’Afghanistan pour cause de sécurité pour les accompagnateurs http://stopdeportations.wordpress.com/

Mais les autorités Belge font de la résistance !

RV à l’aéroport de Bruxelles ou Amsterdam pour expliquer aux passagers le sort que nos politiques Belges réservent aux expulsés et le droit des passagers à refuser ces expulsions sur leur vol.

A Bruxelles le Lundi 1 octobre à 6h15 Vol KL 1722 vers Amsterdam

A Amsterdam Lundi 1 octobre à 11h30 vol Abu Dhabi/Barhaim KLM 13h40 vol 451

Faisons de W l’exemple de notre résistance à ces expulsions.






Si vous ne pouvez pas y aller,

1/ Téléphonez, envoyez vos courriels et lettres de protestation à KLM et demandez à ce que que votre message soit transmis au Commandant de bord.
KLMCARES@klm.nl
https://www.klm.com/travel/be_en/customer_support/customer_support/contact/ecomplaints_customercare.htm?CallerCountryCode=AE
http://www.facebook.com/KLM
KLM belge
tel 070222466, 070225335,FAX 070222480KLM

Netherlands 0031(0)205459780, 0031(0)4747747


_________Madame, Monsieur,
Vos vol numéro de Bruxelles vers Amsterdam de 8h15 KL 1722 et de Amsterdam versAbou Dhabi /Barhaim 13h40 KLM 451 13h 40 ce 1 octobre 2012 embarquera Monsieur W vers l’Afghanistan.
Enfermé au Centre de Merksplas depuis trois mois, il est arrivé à l’âge de 15 ans et vit en Belgique depuis 5 ans . Craignant pour sa vie en Afghanistan, il refuse d’être déporté. Il ne connaît personne à Kaboul et ne peut rejoindre sa sœur au risque de se faire tuer ou enrôler par les Talibans.

Vous devez empêcher son retour forcé vers un pays qui n’est plus le sien, où il ne veut pas aller. Vous avez le pouvoir de vous opposer au départ de W. Ne laissez pas passer cette opportunité, pour lui, pour notre dignité à tous !


2/ Envoyez ce message à l’Office des étrangers et aux cabinets concernés :

A l’attention de :

Monsieur Elio Di Rupo, Premier ministre info@premier.fed.be / Fax022173328, 025126953)Madame Joëlle Milquet, Vice-Première ministre et Ministre de l’Intérieur :milquet@lecdh.be / milquet@milquet.belgium.be / Fax: 022380129,025048500,025048580)

Madame Maggie De Block, Secrétaire d’Etat à l’Asile, à l’Immigration et à L’intégration sociale, adjointe à la Ministre de la Justice :info@fedasil.be / info.maggiedeblock@ibz.fgov.be

Monsieur Freddy Roosemont, Directeur de l’Office des Etrangers : helpdesk.dvzoe@dofi.fgov.be

/ Fax 027939669


Le vol numéro KL1722 de 8:15 à destination d’Amsterdam ce 1 octobre 2012 embarquera Monsieur W, enfermé au Centre de Merksplas depuis trois mois. il est arrivé à l’âge de 15 ans et vit en Belgique depuis 5 ans . Craignant pour sa vie en Afghanistan, il refuse d’être déporté. Il ne connaît personnes à Kaboul et ne peut rejoindre sa sœur au risque de se faire tuer ou enrôler par les Talibans.

Vous devez empêcher son retour forcé vers un pays qui n’est plus le sien.

Vous avez le pouvoir de vous opposer au départ de W. Ne laissez pas passer cette opportunité, pour lui, pour notre dignité à tous !. Ne laissez pas passer cette opportunité, pour lui, pour notre dignité à tous !
[Prenom NOM]

Getting the Voice Out

(en) Britain, Statement from Liberty & Solidarity 7th Conference has taken the decision to disband the organisation

Liberty & Solidarity's 7th Biannual conference has taken the decision to disband the
organisation. We are still proud of what Liberty & Solidarity has achieved and we hope to
continue to work together towards shared goals, engaging with an ever broader range of
trade unionists and community activists. Our project, the empowerment of working people
within the workplace and society, remains the same. ---- Over the past four years of our
existence, L&S members up and down the country have gotten thoroughly involved in union
branches and residents groups. We hope we have made a positive impact, arguing for an
organising-based approach and for syndicalist ideas. We have learnt a lot through this
experience and it has undoubtedly shaped our perspective, with many of our younger members
having their first taste of working within the labour movement.

Consequently L&S has changed. Where as in 2008 we started out with the intent of forging a
platformist anarchist organisation, clearly now our politics are less aligned with
anarchism and far more with syndicalism. Not only our politics, but also our analysis, our
understanding of the labour movement and its problems has changed dramatically. Further,
the world in 2012 looks a lot different to that of 2008, when the credit crunch was just
coming into effect, before any talk of cuts or austerity.

Given our changing politics and perspectives, and given the changed political terrain in
which we operate, we believe that Liberty & Solidarity is no longer an organisation that
serves a useful function. Whilst it has had its fair share of successes, we currently find
the organisation too small to be maintainable in an efficient manner.

Consequently, Liberty & Solidarity's 7th Biannual conference has taken the decision to
disband the organisation.

We are still proud of what Liberty & Solidarity has achieved and we hope to continue to
work together towards shared goals, engaging with an ever-broader range of trade unionists
and community activists. Our project, the empowerment of working people within the
workplace and society, remains the same.

Related Link: http://www.libertyandsolidarity.org

Bron : a-infos-en@ainfos.ca

(en) wsm.ie: Spanish state attacks En Pie protest at parliament by Leticia Ortega

Madrid saw significant riots on Tuesday as police attacked the tens of thousands of
protesters who had surrounded the parliament building to protest the introduction of more
severe austerity cuts. A WSM* member from the Spanish state explains the context, what
happened on Tuesday and the demands of 'En Pie', the movement which called the protest. --
The platform ?En Pie? (Stand up), composed of a diverse group of left-wing political party
members and 15M activists, had called a protest for the Tuesday 25th September at 19.00 in
Madrid. The intent was to surround the parliament buildings (Congress) in the centre of
Madrid, to show that democracy had been ?kidnapped? by inept Spanish politicians, and to
demand that all politicians inside resign and re write the Spanish constitution. ?En Pie,
Stand Up? is composed by a very diverse group of members of left wing groups and 15M
activists.

The government called up 1,400 riot police to guard the Congress from Tuesday onward, in
order to stop protestors surrounding the building as part of their demonstration. For
months now, the Congress building has been cordoned off behind barriers in order to
prevent protestors from gaining access to the chamber. On Monday, the Partido Popular (PP)
secretary general Mar?a Dolores de Cospedal created a stir when she likened the planned
protest to the coup attempt by army officers on February 23, 1981.

By Tuesday morning, the air was thick with tension. For weeks, the Spanish Police have
been hunting down and arresting activists who have been assembling at parks to organise
this action. Organizers of the action were harassed and intimidated by the police weeks
before September 25th. Activists were detained, assembly meetings broken up and a cultural
centre was raided and shut down. But in the end the call to surround the congress still
brought out Spaniards from all walks of life despite the police repression to prevent
activists from mobilizing. Although the main Trade Union did not endorse this action, many
of their workers showed up anyway.

Protestors were not armed, a lot of people who were participating were families with
children, the unemployed and old people. This was what the Spanish government has called a
?possible coup de etat?. As the protest began, the tension and anger among the protesters
as a result of the police harassment was strong. When the crowds had assembled, scores of
riot police wielding shields beat demonstrators as they gathered at the cordoned-off gates
of the Congress building. Hundreds of thousand people were gathered there, chanting
slogans demanding that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy resign, and the police assaulted the
crowd with baton charges and rubber bullets. At last 64 demonstrators were injured and had
to be treated by Madrid Emergency Services ( SAMUR). 28 protesters were arrested according
to the Police. It is also clear from images and videos posted online that among the
demonstrators were undercover police, acting as provocateurs and then arresting protestors
who would not leave the area after 9pm.

The police chase continued as protesters ran in all directions. Those been shot by rubber
bullets include women and journalists who were trying to film. They police chased
protesters down small streets, inside train stations, inside restaurants all around Madrid
City Centre.

The Government has sought to minimise the protests, alleging that only 6.000 protestors
had turned up. If this were true, it meant there was one riot policeman for every four
protestors, which is ludicrous. The government also claimed it was not concerned by the
image transmitted internationally. Mariano Rajoy claimed furthermore, absurdly, that since
the majority of people in Spain did not protest against the Government?s policies, it had
every right to implement them. Few people take this seriously. First, even if a majority
of people did not protest, this does not confer the policies with any legitimacy: the PP
only received a third of the votes of the Spanish electorate in the past elections, for
which it received an absolute majority in parliament. It then ignored its electoral
promises, which it had no intention of keeping anyway. Second, given that the police have
been regularly beating protestors off the streets, and given that the PP has been
gradually criminalising protest and comparing demonstrators to terrorists, part of the
reason that the crowds are not even bigger was the fear of State violence.

Protestors complained on Tuesday night that the riot police were not wearing any ID (
which is compulsory in Spain). The police union statement declared that ?as regards
identification: they are not wearing it and WE SUPPORT THEM NOT WEARING IT WHEN FACED WITH
VIOLENT ORGANISATIONS. WE SAY LET THEM HAVE IT.?

Protestors have said that this will not end and they agreed to surround the parliament
again on Wednesday 26th September where they were some incidents at midnight.

The movement 25S has called to surround the parliament this Saturday in multiples cities
across the Spanish State. There are also to be protests in Portugal, Italy and Greece.

As an anarchist, I have my issues about the demands for re writing the constitution.

It is no surprise we are sick and tired of the those who have robbed us of the few rights
we had and who make us feel like burning the parliament down with them inside. There
exists an institutionalized mentality which stops the majority of us seeing the
possibility of a reality other than the present one. Many people criticize individuals and
institutions which form part of the current system because of the way they govern us, but
few ever think that it is the system which really determines how we are governed.

The system of representative democracy never has and never will give power to the
people. Instead, it gives power to a tiny elite who, while they may very well have
honorable intentions to begin with, operate in a context of external economic and
political dictates. The rich act according to their own interests, and openly resist our
attempts to take the control of our own lives.

Genuine democracy is direct democracy, taking decisions in our own assemblies without
anyone taking decisions on our behalf. This can only be achieved by the alliance of
workers & students and by the whole working class ? those who produce and who are paying
for a crisis which has been caused by the political and economic elite (the system).

I present this article in part to protest these brutal attacks against our class. We don?t
want to change the chains that bind us, we want to break them for once and for all.

WORDS: Leticia Ortega

Read background articles from WSM on the Crisis in the Eurozone
http://www.wsm.ie/eurozone
====================================

Bron :
* Anarchist organization

US, Chicago, Four Star Anarchists recall when NATO came to town.

Four Star Anarchist Organization isn?t a faceless political group ? we?re a collection of
unique Chicagoans with a variety of experiences, perspectives, and ways of expressing
ourselves. Our diverse strengths have never been more apparent than when NATO came to town
last May. We had members marching with their union, providing crucial medical care,
distributing protest survival kits, rejecting their military service medals, and taking
arrests in defense of their comrades. Some of us stayed home with our phone ringers turned
up, frantically refreshing our newsfeeds and hoping for nothing but good news. Several of
us worked with a photographer who wanted to document a Chicago radical group planning for
NATO ? you can view a slideshow of the photos here.
http://jefferycjohnson.smugmug.com/PhotoEssay/Four-Star-Anarchist-Group/24978810_HBztSw

Bron : a-infos-en@ainfos.ca