Inspired by the Arab Spring movements in the Arab world and movements in other places such as Portugal, hundreds of thousands of Spanish citizens have mobilized to demand real democracy or “Democracy Real Ya” in Spain under the banner of the “May 15th” or “15th de Mayo” which was the day the movement began. On that day 100,000 Spanish people marched in Madrid and tens of thousands in other cities around Spain, but what made this movement different to the phoney resistance to the austerity measures in Ireland, Greece and the UK was that the protestors have stayed on, setting up a protest camp in the Puerta del Sol square in Madrid as well as in many other city squares around Spain. They are uniting under many demands including opposing cuts to public spending and services and demanding more employment. They state that the bankers should pay for their own crisis. The movement is an independent one free of all institutional control, that opposes both major parties, the mainstream press and the Union movement for all supporting the attacks on ordinary people currently being carried out by the state in Spain. The movement is happening in the week preceeding a national election but many of the protestors reject the idea that the Parliament will bring the changes they demand. .This is exactly the kind of movement we need in Australia where all Parliamentary parties and the Union movement share the consensus that it is ordinary people not the banks and big business that should bear the costs of the financial crisis.Related: Madrid Indymedia --Democracyrealya website -- tens of thousands protest in Spain (WSWS) -- Protestors occupy city squares -- Democract Real Ya video on Youtube -- BBC news coverage -- Spain takes to the streets youtube clip
One of the most exciting things about this movement is the way that the many of Spain are rejecting illusions in not only the Spanish Socialist Workers Party PSOE(the equivalent of the ALP) but also the union movement. The following protesters were quoted in the WSWS:
Isabel stated, “We want that the politicians to listen to us and defend our interests, not the interests of the banks, and the only thing the trade unions do is do deals behind our backs with the government”.
Asked about the role of the unions in the crisis, Diana said that “before they use to be, to some extent, responsive to workers, but now they defend the state. How are they going to defend us if they receive such huge subsidies from the state?”
These observations mirror the experience of Australian workers where it is obvious that in Australia the ACTU exists only to help keep the ALP in power and to help contain real resistance to attacks on workers rights and the economic position of working people. For example all the resistance to Work Choices was harnessed by the ACTU to get the Rudd government elected who then went on to keep most of Work Choiceslegislation under its so called “Fair Work Australia” legislation, including the ABCCC. Similarly the ACTU does not oppose the Gillard’s governments aggressive moves against the welfare state in the last Federal Budget. Cuts to welfare are being made so that the Australian economy can be returned to surplus without taxing the mining and other corporate sectors. The Gillard government has overseen the gutting of the proposed mining tax and a reduction in the corporate tax rate however we are meant to believe it is the people on disability pensions who have to pay the price of the global financial crisis.
Such attacks are almost certain to worsen in the next few years, particularly if the Chinese economy slows, and whoever wins the next election will implement these attacks on the working class of Australia. The Greens have also shown that they will cooperate with the ALP, almost as a defacto left wing faction of the party, only offering tokenistic words of resistance whilst voting to keep the ALP in power. The Greens have also shown that in order to be seen as “responsible” they will not propose anything that upsets the financial markets, thus witness their slavish devotion to “market solutions” to climate change such as the doomed to fail carbon tax proposal.
That is why the left in Australia should be inspired by slogans such as “We will not pay for this crisis”, “This will not finish with the elections” and “Where is the left? Essentially on the right.” As it is only with a mass movement outside of Parliament and the Unions that a decent fight to protect both “real democracy” and the interests of ordinary people in this country can be waged.
Manifesto of the "Democracy real Ya" movement in English
We are ordinary people. We are like you: people, who get up every morning to study, work or find a job, people who have family and friends. People, who work hard every day to provide a better future for those around us
Some of us consider ourselves progressive, others conservative. Some of us are believers, some not. Some of us have clearly defined ideologies, others are apolitical, but we are all concerned and angry about the political, economic, and social outlook which we see around us: corruption among politicians, businessmen, bankers, leaving us helpless, without a voice.
This situation has become normal, a daily suffering, without hope. But if we join forces, we can change it. It’s time to change things, time to build a better society together. Therefore, we strongly argue that:
* The priorities of any advanced society must be equality, progress, solidarity, freedom of culture, sustainability and development, welfare and people’s happiness.
* These are inalienable truths that we should abide by in our society: the right to housing, employment, culture, health, education, political participation, free personal development, and consumer rights for a healthy and happy life.
* The current status of our government and economic system does not take care of these rights, and in many ways is an obstacle to human progress.
* Democracy belongs to the people (demos = people, krátos = government) which means that government is made of every one of us. However, in Spain most of the political class does not even listen to us. Politicians should be bringing our voice to the institutions, facilitating the political participation of citizens through direct channels that provide the greatest benefit to the wider society, not to get rich and prosper at our expense, attending only to the dictatorship of major economic powers and holding them in power through a bipartidism headed by the immovable acronym PP & PSOE.
* Lust for power and its accumulation in only a few; create inequality, tension and injustice, which leads to violence, which we reject. The obsolete and unnatural economic model fuels the social machinery in a growing spiral that consumes itself by enriching a few and sends into poverty the rest. Until the collapse.
* The will and purpose of the current system is the accumulation of money, not regarding efficiency and the welfare of society. Wasting resources, destroying the planet, creating unemployment and unhappy consumers.
* Citizens are the gears of a machine designed to enrich a minority which does not regard our needs. We are anonymous, but without us none of this would exist, because we move the world.
* If as a society we learn to not trust our future to an abstract economy, which never returns benefits for the most, we can eliminate the abuse that we are all suffering.
* We need an ethical revolution. Instead of placing money above human beings, we shall put it back to our service. We are people, not products. I am not a product of what I buy, why I buy and who I buy from.
For all of the above, I am outraged.
I think I can change it.
I think I can help.
I know that together we can.I think I can help.
I know that together we can.
