MADRID ANTI WALL STREET PROTESTS
MADRID, SPAIN, OCTOBER 15, 2011: As with the rest of he World, Madrid just had its Global Day of protest Saturday, October 15th. Tens of thousands of people marched in protest to government cutbacks in key social services, the high unemployment rate and the institutionalized financial service sector’s greed. The protest was an outgrowth of the “indignant” movement which was started in Spain in the spring and then ultimately spread to the Wall Street protests.
To get a clear picture as to what was taking place, I immersed myself in the four hour march from Madrid’s Cibeles Square to the Puerta del Sol, interviewed many people and took extensive videos which have been posted to YouTube, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lf4wXhk0OA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVQJPulIATs .
Three things struck me about this protest. First, the participants came from all walks of life and practically all looked/dressed like middle class suburbanites from the US. Second, I did not witness one act of vandalism or violence. Lastly, the police/authorities acted in a very professional/lay back manner keeping a very low profile given the size of he crowd.
The compelling motivation of the marchers was pretty obvious, in a short number of years many of Spain’s middle class are experiencing a lower standard of living or are being wiped out by an economy which is going south because of excessive public/private debt. Cutbacks are being made in health care/education and financial service sector “special treatment” still saps the public’s resources.
Like the other PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece) the Spanish economy is in the dumps. Unemployment is around 20%. Professionals and Phd’s are begging for work. As opposed to the old days when Brits were bidding up property prices on the Costa del Sol, values have plummeted. Spanish banks are shaky. The Spanish government has to cover a gaping budget deficit and Standard & Poors recently downgraded the country’s long term debt. If that were not enough to the bad news, Spanish companies are now starting to establish operations in healthier economies and laying off Spanish workers.
As with Spain, it might not be far down the road when you will also see tens of thousands of your fellow middle class Americans marching because they too are indignant about the high unemployment rate and the government’s excessive use of public funds to bolster a failing but politically powerful financial services industry.
