Poacher
September 23, 2011, 2:39pm
1
Across Spain, the 15-M movement has organised itself into city “camps”, with the repeated emphasis on peaceful protest. Fundamentally this is a citizens’ revolution and one of its signal characteristics is that it refuses to be appropriated by any political parties or trade unions.
This will be the real challenge for Dublin come October 15th. Will the various parties and unions in Ireland have the political maturity to allow a citizens’ protest to pass through without attempting to co-opt it under sectoral or political banners?
The PSOE, incidentally, was routed in the recent regional elections; as is happening across Europe, ruling parties who oversaw the crisis are being voted out of office.
**But exchanging one beggar on horseback for another is not enough for the indignados. They are calling for a complete overhaul of the electoral system itself, direct democracy, or Real Democracia Ya! , and an end to the corruption that is endemic in Spanish politics.
Uniquely, this quiet revolution has no leaders. Everything is decided by “assembly”, which takes place in public and is open to all. This is the model of direct democracy that 15-M is calling for. It is slow-moving but gathering momentum. Like the walkers on their way to Brussels at the moment, the 15-M movement is going slowly, but going on.**
It will be more than interesting, not least for this Irish exile, to see if Ireland now will take up the example of Spain
irishtimes.com/newspaper/opi … 76465.html
slasher
September 23, 2011, 2:59pm
2
Confirmed? Does not compute!
Even in better times opportunities for Spanish graduates were much more limited and pay, social welfare much worse. Their Irish peers have it much easier
They think that’s a revolution?
I get a pain in the stones when I read that sort of shite.
tiger
September 23, 2011, 3:13pm
4
some how I think the liverpool-man utd game will attract more interest…
Compare youth unemployment in Spain with other countries in Europe → telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs … urope.html
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