One of the most spectacular – and unpredicted – results in the European elections was in Spain. A 16% swing against the governing conservative People’s Party saw the newly formed left party Podemos (We can) take 8% of the vote and 5 seats in the European Parliament. Additionally the United Left, a broad grouping to […]
Posts Tagged ‘Spain’
Basque peace process – arms beyond use – an important step forward
Feb 25th, 2014 by Gerry Adams.In one part of Europe a vicious street war has led to the deaths of scores of people. The Ukraine has been convulsed by weeks of what some have described as a civil war. Efforts are currently underway to find a compromise that can bring peace. The key to these efforts is dialogue; both sides […]
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Spain in 2014: Not a Prosperous New Year
Jan 4th, 2014 by Tom Gill.Translated by Tom Gill from the original by Esther Vivas We have entered 2014 a little poorer. For those of us with a job, our salaries have been frozen, or even cut; only a few can expect a rise in the New Year. Furthermore, the price of electricity, public transport and water are increasing. 2013 […]
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The Troika’s ‘Men in Black’ and the crime of organised money
May 28th, 2013 by Tom Gill.Continuing to force states to finance themselves at high-interest rates is just a strategy to justify wage control, the privatisation of public services and, ultimately, to enslave peoples, says Juan Torres Lopez, Professor of Economics at the University of Seville. Spain has once again received a visit from the so-called Men in Black, the Troika inspectors, coming […]
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Spain’s indignados at the crossroads
May 17th, 2013 by Tom Gill.One of the great weaknesses of Spain’s indignados movement, which this week celebrated its second birthday, has been its failure to pursue a strategy that turns power in the streets into the real power needed to change the world. In the November 2011 general elections, six months after Spaniards occupied town squares across the country, […]
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A drubbing for Spain’s socialists, but Rajoy should not be smug
Oct 23rd, 2012 by Tom Gill.It would be foolish to read this weekend’s local elections in Galicia and the Basque country, in Spain, as an endorsement of Mariano Rajoy’s self-perpetuating austerity policies. But instead, the strongest message was the confirmation of the Spaniards’ enduring distrust of the socialists. The party that ruled Spain for almost eight years during the build-up […]
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Spain’s students and their families turn up heat on Rajoy
Oct 12th, 2012 by Tom Gill.Rising student fees, regressive education reforms, a €4 billion cut to state education and the firing of thousands of teachers are set to be contested by students and their families as they step up protests in the coming week. Until now, it has been the teachers who have been leading the defence of state education, […]
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Spain: the power and reach of the bankers
Aug 29th, 2012 by Tom Gill.Any move to fix Spain’s economy will necessarily involve curtailing the influence of bankers, those well-heeled types who speculated big on the housing market that then went bust, bringing the economy down with it, and which continues to drain extraordinary amounts of public money paid for by ordinary citizens. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to be […]
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Spanish Miners start march to Madrid
Jun 23rd, 2012 by Tom Gill.Around 200 Spanish miners set out Friday on a march set to culminate July 11 in Madrid with a protest against government plans to slash subsidies to the coal sector. Family, friends and neighbours gathered in several towns in the northern regions of Asturias and Leon and the east-central region of Teruel to give the […]
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Spain shows how lethally fragile the euro really is
Jun 12th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.If the rallying call of Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish Prime Minister, is right – that “the credibility of the euro won” – then let’s hope we never have to experience a loss. It’s more a case of the first rule of politics – when you capitulate, declare victory. The Spanish deal cooked up over the […]
