By Don Quijones: After years of predominantly peaceful demonstrations, things are beginning to turn decidedly ugly on the city squares, streets and avenues of austerity-hit Spain. On Saturday 22nd March, hundreds of thousands of protestors from all corners of the country converged on Madrid’s city centre to express their dissatisfaction with the current government.
It was the first nationally coordinated grassroots response to the repressive social and economic policies and widespread corruption of Spain’s ruling political caste.
“We are in a state of emergency, facing economic, political, ethical and moral circumstances of exceptional severity,” said Julio Anguita, one of the organisers of the movement. “And the people are growing weary, especially when they realize that there is no future under the current system.”
However, what began as a peaceful march soon descended into uncontrolled violence. As the sun descended and the shadows grew on Madrid’s city streets, gangs of hooded youth began hurling stones, bricks and rocks at the windows of high street banks and big retail stores. Within no time hundreds of truncheon-wielding, rubber bullet-firing riot police had joined the mix, delivering their usual dose of indiscriminate law-and-order medicine.
It was the first nationally coordinated grassroots response to the repressive social and economic policies and widespread corruption of Spain’s ruling political caste.
“We are in a state of emergency, facing economic, political, ethical and moral circumstances of exceptional severity,” said Julio Anguita, one of the organisers of the movement. “And the people are growing weary, especially when they realize that there is no future under the current system.”
However, what began as a peaceful march soon descended into uncontrolled violence. As the sun descended and the shadows grew on Madrid’s city streets, gangs of hooded youth began hurling stones, bricks and rocks at the windows of high street banks and big retail stores. Within no time hundreds of truncheon-wielding, rubber bullet-firing riot police had joined the mix, delivering their usual dose of indiscriminate law-and-order medicine.