The Pain in Spain
\nBy V. Noah Gimbel, August 17, 2011 – FPIP<\/p>\n
As the sun rose on August 2, Spanish authorities destroyed the tent-village that had come to symbolize what some participants have called the Spanish Revolution. The ruling Socialist Party, via the Ministry of the Interior and in conjunction with the right-wing Popular Party that controls the local government, ordered Madrid’s Puerta del Sol cleared of all remnants of the 15-M (May 15) movement as its participants, the indignados (the outraged) watched helplessly. Police boots, chainsaws, and fire hoses erased months of makeshift architecture, street art, and community \u2013 once inhabited by some 28,000 campers \u2013 from the Spanish capital\u2019s central square.<\/p>\n
The conglomeration of organizations that make up the 15-M movement vowed to march on the square at 7:30 that evening to protest what they called an illegal eviction. The government responded with nothing short of a call to arms, halting all metro and commuter rail access to the station at Puerta del Sol. Meanwhile, dozens of national police vans turned the square into a parking lot, and helmeted policemen set up barricades at every entrance to the square. Helicopters flew overhead as the combined forces of municipal police in riot gear and national police \u2013 hands on pistols \u2013 reinforced the barricades and patrolled the surrounding areas on foot.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, a fairly large showing gathered at the barricades that evening, gaining momentum as their non-violent outrage met with no response from the police. \u201cWe\u2019ll stay until there are no more people from 15-M,\u201d said one officer. That was around 8:30 when crowds were still rather light. …more<\/a><\/p>\n