Politics

Tens of thousands of Spanish protesters are demonstrating across the country calling for better economic opportunities, a more representative electoral system, an end to political corruption. The pro-democracy protests started on May 15 in Madrid when people gathered in the central plaza to advocate for change, calling the budding movement “Toma la Plaza,” or “Take the Square”

Say leaders today at the G8 summit in France. They have issued a joint call – including the Russians, which have criticized Nato’s campaign in Libya – for the embattled leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to step down and leave the government of the country. “He has lost all legitimacy and has failed to fulfill his responsibility to protect the Libyan population”, they said.

Thousands of people in 20 cities have started the Greek Ethical Revolution. The Greeks took the message sent by the Spanish “Indignados” heard in the motto “Be quiet or you’ll wake Greece up …” Greece has awakened for good…

Since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008,
our governments have decided to make the people
kneel instead of making the banks pay. The European
democracies have been sequestered by the international
financial markets. We have been taken by the throat by the austerity measures which have multiplied throughout Europe.

What began in Arabic countries has now gone beyond cultural borders. It has been strongly expressed in three European countries: Greece, Portugal and Spain, and is beginning to appear in many more. It is no longer only in capital cities, but has spread to many cities in order to expand, seeking local and student support.

By Randy Rydell*

The world is filled with many serious problems that must be addressed — poverty; racism; illiteracy; contagious diseases; terrorism; injustice; to name only a few.

So why should we bother to focus on nuclear weapons? And why specifically should anybody approach this subject in a Middle East context?

The general assembly of Acampada Sol has decided in the morning meeting that they go on camping until the next Sunday, May 29 at least. Nobody of the participants opposed the idea. One of several reasons to continue is to export the working model to others places of Madrid. This was decided at 2:00 am and will be definitive when is published in www.madrid.tomalaplaza.net.

Those who interpreted the “Arab Spring” as a phenomenon that would only touch a few countries—in general dictatorships personifying the Arab world—have not understood the phenomenon that has awoken and that may not stop until it has covered and moved the consciousness of the entire planet.

The movement “Real Democracy Now” has remained small, and has transformed into “Take the Plaza!”. It has declared that it is political, but non-partisan. It has extended through all of Spain, to more than thirty European cities and to parts of Latin America. We are publishing the information that the organization has sent to us about who they are, as well as their objectives.

The actions of **Real Democracy Now!** monopolize the news, the front pages of newspapers, the debates on the radio. While some are accused of subverting the old order, others try to build bridges to be voted on themselves by the ‘outraged’. A nonviolent revolution has begun to take shape, say participants in these gatherings.