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25 & 26 March 2003
Report from Spain
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Report from Spain
Subject: Re: Youth Antiwar Protests Sweep Spain, Mass Strikes Called for March26
ILC wrote:
Intro Note
The U.S. section of the Revolutionary Youth International (RYI) has just received this urgent update from a Spanish comrade. All of us should spread the word in our schools and workplaces about the developments in Spain, because the mass student strikes this coming March 26 -- with the students calling on the main unions to organize a nationwide general strike -- show that youth and workers do have the power to stop this war. Please send your messages of support to the Spanish students via Pablo Garcia, the author of the report below. Send us a copy of our message to
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Youth Antiwar Protests Sweep Spain, Mass Strikes on March 26:
Dear Antiwar Activists:
The Spanish government, led by Aznar, is the second biggest supporter of Bush's war in Europe after Blair. Obviously the government isn't following the will of the people: According to the polls, 90% of the people are against the war.
The majority of the people are already outraged against the government, because they saw how the government didn't care at all about the people of the Galicia region after the collapse of oil tanker "Prestige" on the coast of Galicia.
Also, two or three years ago there was an enormous student strike against the LOU (the university law that privatized a big part of the universities).
All these elements are turning now toward a general strike against war and to kick out the government (that was already a demand of the people's movement after the accident of the "Prestige").
Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, students spontaneously came out into the streets against the attacks on Iraq. Tens of thousands demonstrated in all the cities of the country. It started in the universities, when small groups of students met and went from one classroom to another one to call students to go on strike. The main slogans of the demonstration were and remain: "Not a cent, not a soldier, for this bloody war", "No blood for oil", "Out with the war-mongering government,"
On Thursday morning, occurred the main demonstration. 100, 000 marched in Madrid (the capital of Spain). The demonstrators tried to go to the Moncloa Palace (the headquarters of the Spanish govt), but were fought back.
Police repression was really brutal, and a lot of people were arrested. (I heard on the radio a young girl student explaining that these methods were exactly the same as those used during the Franco dictatorship, and that it wasn't a surprise because all the members of the government, members of the People's Party, were sons and grandsons of the fascists leaders of the Franco era.)
In the demonstration, and in the discussions a lot of students linked the struggle against war, the question of the oil spill in Galicia, and the privatization of universities (because the strikes were very powerful at that time against the law LOU). The main demand is now "the government has to go!"
They will be a mass strike in the universities on March 26. The students are now calling on the labor unions (the two main labor confederations in Spain: Union General del Trabajo and Comissiones Obreras) to join the strike.
Saludos revolucionarios,
Report from Student Antiwar Protests in Spain
Pablo Garcia
pablogarciacano@yahoo.es