Basque Country: police forcibly enters worker-occupied industry

Police forces entered this morning with force in the factory of INCOESA in Bedia (Biscay) in order to allow the capitalist to retrieve the produce, raw materials and machinery. 

The workers had occupied the factory in order to prevent delocalization to Castile (Soria and Extremadura). 

Police not only employed violence but also charged seven workers for resistance.

The company is dedicated to the production of electrical transformers.

Real democracy means democratic control of the economy

This instance, like many others, highlights the importance of the democratic social control of the economy, not allowing the capitalists (if these exist at all) to dump the workers who have produced all the wealth at whim. 

It also highlights the importance of nation-peoples to effectively be able to decide independently of higher instances, be them old-school imperialist states like Spain or more complex modern entities like the EU. 

Real democracy means popular control of the economy and exerting that control at local and national levels. Nothing of this could happen under true democratic control by the people, because they would not allow such abuses (or do you think that Bedia would suicide by allowing such abuse to happen if these matters were subject to local democratic control?)

Sources: Naiz Info[es], BGD[eu].

Greece: Nazi thugs attack communists in Athens

Is Big Capital orchestrating a descent into "civil war" or fascist terror in Southern Europe? The answer is probably yes. This kind of terrorist attacks are becoming more and more common, not just in Greece but also in Spain, France, etc. 

From From the Greek Streets:

Golden Dawn thugs attack KKE members in the neighbourhood of Perama; 8 seriously injured

On the night of September 12th, a group of approximately 30 Golden Dawn thugs approached members of the KKE (the stalinist-communist party) in the neighbourhood of Perama [Piraeus, Athens]. Perama hosts the ship construction zone and has been a traditional KKE stronghold. Eight KKE members were seriously injured and hospitalised. So far, no GD members have been arrested. The KKE is calling for a gathering tonight at Perama’s Iroon square, at 6 pm.

It's time to act against fascism. No pasarán!



PS- Other cases of Nazi terror related news in Europe just in today's morning feed:

• Germany: police dismantled a Nazi terrorist cell in Freiburg (Baden-Würtenberg) who were preparing a bomb to attack left-wing and antifascist comrades in some gathering → SA[es].
• Nazi graffiti against the see of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) in Eixample (Barcelona) → SA[es].
• Elect representatives ask the Spanish government why does it tolerate Nazi corpuscles like AN, with a large terrorist curriculum and zero representativity. Days ago it was also asked about their continued apology of Franco's fascist regime. → SA[es].
• Police intimidates those who concentrated in Madrid in solidarity with the victims (largely elect representatives) of the Nazi attack in the Diada → SA[es].

Update: Or also (evening feed) this scary propaganda act at Termopylae by Golden Dawn, which is way too close to our worst memories of Hitler → I can't relax in Greece.

More than 1.6 million people in the Catalan human chain

The Via Catalana cap a la Independencia (Catalan Way towards Independence), human chain from the Pyrenees to the Ebro river (and beyond) to demand, once again, the sovereignty of Catalonia, was a total success. 

According to the Catalan Government (Generalitat), the demonstration gathered no less than 1.6 million people, figures that are perfectly comparable to the last year's Diada, in which the figures danced around 1.5 or 2 million. The Catalan demand for independence remains undauntedly strong. 

However this year's format was much more challenging: imitating the initiative of the Baltic Countries decades ago, they organized a human chain from the port of Pertús in the Pyrenees to the border with the Valencian Country by the South. In fact this last border was finally overcome after the Supreme Court accepted in the last minute that the extension of a kilometer to Vinarós was fully legal.

Soon after that historical Baltic chain, spanning Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, these states became independent. Will that be the case of Catalonia? Nobody really knows at this stage but it is clear that it is what the Catalan People wants and denying such a massive demand is outright imperialist and antidemocratic. 

Fascist attack in Madrid

The negative point in such a day of democratic celebration was the attack suffered by the act in the delegation of the Generalitat in Madrid by a group of some 15 neonazis who injured several assistants, including elect representatives, and threw pepper gas inside the hall. 

So far the attackers, who acted with their faces uncovered (except one), are at large.

Sources[es]: Naiz Info (→ photo gallery), La Vanguardia (→ fascist attack video), El Periódico.


Update: Six arrested so far for the fascist aggression in Madrid, the most notorious one is Íñigo Pérez de Herrasti Urquijo, born in 1957, and who already was in prison for terrorism: arrested in 2000 with weapons and explosives and an organized cell that planned to attack relatives of Basque political prisoners when they had to travel to Madrid for visits. Sentenced to 14 years, he's already at large, while Basque prisoners are forced to do their sentence in full or even more.

The other five arrested are quite younger, born between 1978 and 1989 (i.e. people who have no first person experience of living under fascism). Their names are: Javier Marcos Aroca, Pedro Chaparro Velacoracho, Victor Diego Villalba, Santiago Cabezuela García and Paula Mijares.

Source: Sare Antifaxista[es].

Catalan Countries: Spain forbids independentist human chain in Valencia, German think tank ponders Catalan independence

Tomorrow is the Diada, the national day of Catalonia, which last year was marked by some two million people marching (or rather just standing because there was no room) through the streets of Barcelona in demand of independence.

This year instead the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) plan to do a human chain through 400 kilometers of roads. 

However when this initiative was extended to the Valencian Country, the Spanish proconsuls have moved to ban them altogether, in yet another indication of the lack of real democracy in the only remaining Southern European kingdom.

The subdelegation of the Spanish Government in Castelló forbade the extension of the human chain to Vinarós, a mere kilometer south of the Catalan border on grounds of "fundamental rights", such as "road security" (for real!) This extension of the chain was going to include famous artists like Lluis Llach and Carles Santos, and also relatives of Guillem Aguilló, murdered by a fascist death squad 20 years ago in Castelló. 

Another ban was imposed to the concentration of solidarity with the Diada in Guardamar del Segura, in Alacant province, also in the Valencian Country. In this case the Spanish neofascist authorities alleged technical reasons: the request was forwarded too late (or whatever, you know).

Germans pondering Catalan independence

A bourgeois German think tank that gives advice to Angela Merkel, the Science and Politics Foundation (SWP), thinks that Catalan independence makes good sense. 

The report, signed by Kai-Olaf Lang, thinks plausible that Catalonia declares independence if Spain does not make major concessions. The report emphasizes that the movement for independence is a civil society one, independent from parties. 

He warns that the EU must be ready for such a scenario and, considering the issues regarding EU membership for a newly independent state, he believes that the initial formula could be one in which, while Catalonia is not part of EU (yet), EU laws still apply inside their territory. Of course he's thinking about the legal protection of some 600 German companies present in Catalonia. 

The most interesting point is that the traditional European stand of defending Spanish territorial integrity no matter what has been dropped. Realism is winning the day. 

Source: Gara[es].

Basque prisoner in hunger strike against deportation to Spain, where he may face torture

Basque prisoner Ibai Sueskun (pictured) is in hunger strike since September 1st against his forced deportation to Spain, where he fears he could be arbitrarily arrested and tortured, even after having completed his 10-year sentence for membership in ETA. 

Sueskun is natural of Larraga (Navarre) but resident in Donibane (Northern Basque Country, under French administration) and is now at the Prison of Tarascon.

Source: Ateak Ireki[es].

Basque Country: Altsasu occupied by military police in fiestas

Spanish military police (Guardia Civil) occupied on Friday the town of Altsasu (Sakana valley, Navarre) in the middle of its fiestas after fascist-like rampage by the Spanish-imposed provincial governor Carmen Alba. 

In 2011 the same fascist proconsul attempted to indict Mayor Garazi Urrestarazu on a festive parody of a royal discourse, now she charges again against the Ospa Eguna, which may be translated as Celebration Day (ospatu = celebrate) or as Go Away Day (ospa! = go away!, coll.) but hardly as Runaway Day, as the ignorant Alba said. 

Whatever the case she has unilaterally declared illegal the festive acts on the absolutely arbitrary grounds that such acts "have not been communicated to the state administration", as if we'd have to tell the occupants about every single local activity we organize in our towns and villages. The acts include a demonstration and the burning of a doll.

The military cops literally surrounded the town with controls and even entered the festive area threatening in Spanish to "clean it up of shit" (what "shit"? are you going to shoot yourselves dead?) 

In spite of all that the activities continued as intended, no matter that a helicopter roared threateningly above the fire of the doll. People showed a lot of bravery dancing and playing among the threatening police occupants.

Witnesses declared:

It was brutal, disproportionate! 

We suffered an incredible police deployment: the people were surrounded by automatic guns. 

For example, when some 200 people took part in the bertso* dinner, they were surrounded by almost the same number of armed cops. Forced identifications and verbal intimidation were common in the day. Town Hall representatives explained that:

It was to drive you crazy. We did not enter into the provocation and in a bertsolari* town as we live in, citizens went on improvising, and also sortzikoak, polkas, Basque dances and games they performed to impress the military policemen, as saying: "here we are and we will stay here". 

Repression no! Go away. Leave Altsasu in peace.

I must say that nothing of all this was in TV news yesterday, neither in the Spanish channels (of course) nor in the Basque ones.

Sources[eu]: Gara, Naiz Info.


* Bertsoak are a form of improvised song, usually in humorous duels, traditional among Basques. The singers are known as bertsolari(-ak).

Update (Sep 2): it has been known now that a young man was arrested, apparently for "answering back" to the verbal aggressions by the police forces → Topatu.info.

Spain: major retailer corporation El Corte Inglés lead again by a Fascist

El Corte Inglés is a very large and particularly infamous Spanish corporation that, shamelessly and with total impunity, practices extreme anti-worker policies and persecutes all kind of union activity among its employees. It was of course one of the companies who imported clothes from the Bangladesh factory that collapsed earlier this year. Pretty much like the local version of Wal Mart but even worse if that is possible. 

In order not to be singled out in the media, El Corte Inglés regularly contracts LOTS of publicity, making the media heavily dependent on this brand and effectively unwilling to criticize the mafioso corporation. 

Their sees are usually a central battle in all general strikes, as pickets attempt to force the corporation to guarantee their workers the right to strike, while police serves the interests of the capitalists.

It was founded under Fascism by a client of the Franco dictatorship, Isidoro Álvarez, and it seems it continues under openly fascist control. The new Director General of the all-powerful corporation, Dimas Rodrigo Gimeno Álvarez, has been in the lists of Falange (the classical Fascist party in Spain) in at least three occasions: 1996 and 2000 at state level and also in 1999 in Catalonia. 

While he denies to be affiliated to Falange, his father and brother are. His father, Miguel Ángel Gimeno married the daughter of the El Corte Inglés' magnate, being therefore grandson of Isidoro Álvarez. Álvarez was of course a prominent member of Falange in the dark age of Francoism. 

So essentially: El Corte Inglés = Fascism... today as yesterday. Boycott El Corte Inglés. 

Source: El Diario[es].

Uruguay protests against the forgetfulness of Mujica

The authors of a massacre in 1994 against those supporting Basque exiles remain not just at large but with power to commit again any such massacre or worse. Hundreds demonstrated in Montevideo against such impunity, demanding justice and memory.

Roberto Facal and Fernando Morrone were the victims of a massacre executed by police in 1994 to break the resistance of some 4000 Uruguayans against the extradition of Basque exiles, who were in hunger strike at Hospital Filtro. At least 500 police officers took part in the attack, using nothing but live fire. 

Not just demonstrators were killed or injured but also nurses like Esteban Massa who was shot in the back while he aided another victim. 

The murderous repression continued mercilessly in union offices and through the neighboring streets. It was then when the two mortal victims were shot. 

It was a bourgeois elected government which assumed all responsibility with no shame nor remorse. Minister of Interior Gianola was backed by the government in full, nobody resigned, nobody was ever prosecuted. 

Every year in the anniversary of the massacre people march through Montevideo demanding justice and memory. The Frente Amplio ignores the issue and one of its leaders even said it was a massacre "to forget". 

Forget? Never! Forgive? Never! The culprits must pay or something of the like will happen again. 

Source: Borroka Garaia Da![es]

Basque Country: 200 years of "Liberal" Spanish imposition

Today 200 years ago the Parliament ("Cortes") of Navarre was dissolved in the name of the new post-Napoleonic "Liberal" regime of Cádiz. 

You may not know it, but in all the Kingdom of Spain, it were the Basque provinces the only ones who remained indifferent towards Napoleonic occupation. There was no guerrilla (except for some late offshoots triggered by the abuses of occupation) and the French Army had absolutely no problem in holding in our little country. Why? Obviously there was no sympathy for Spain and their Nationalist ideas and soon also it became obvious that the new "Liberal" ideology sought to impose the notion of a single nation-state against the wish of our people and its long-held liberties. 

The liberties of Spain became the yoke of the Basque Nation. 

For centuries, the Basque provinces had retained their unique (and quite "Liberal") institutions in the context of the Feudal system that dominated the Kingdom of Castile (later Spain). Our provinces were ruled by elected bodies since at least 1200, date of the Castilian annexation of the Western Basque Country, rooted in the Navarrese Law, very distinct from the Latin one. 

Residual Navarre had however evolved its "Cortes" into an more feudal-like body, similar to other European Parliaments of the time, in which the different estates (castes) were represented in less-democratic form. It was still better than what Castile/Spain had: absolute monarchy, with its intrinsic tendency to corruption and decadence.

With the Spanish War of Independence against the illustrated Napoleonic protectorate, a new and short-lived Spanish Liberal Monarchy arose from the Cortes of Cádiz, under Machiavellian British support. This new state suppressed the Navarrese Cortes altogether exactly 200 years, and also forced the Western Provinces' Juntas (Parliaments) to swear the new constitution, which incidentally suppressed them altogether. 

Ironically the return to Absolutism restored the Basque liberties, what set the stage for a whole century of Taliban-like support by the Basque institutions and people of the most reactionary camp in Spanish politics. Two Carlist wars, almost only manned by Basques, were the product of that imposition. Eventually it became obvious that the Spanish reactionaries were not either our friends and that the Basque society was much more liberal than its forced affiliation may have suggested and a more modern Basque Nationalism emerged, first with the Navarrese Republican Party, then the Basque Nationalist Party and finally with Basque Nationalist Action and its more recent offshoots: ETA and the Basque National Liberation Movement, with its various tactical names.

Partial source: El Blog de Fernando Mikelarena[es].

Basque Country: strange fiestas under fascist Spanish imposition

Bilboko Aste Nagusia, the Great Week of Bilbao, began yesterday in a very strange mood, after the fascist Spanish proconsul ("delegate of the government") in the Western Basque Country, J.M. Urquijo, managed to use some of their fascist laws and fascist tribunals to impede that this year's Txupinera, Jone Artola, could exert as such. 

The txupin or ritual shot of a noisy firework is how fiestas begin, not just the first day but every day. Since the popular organization Coordination of Konpartsak (festive groups) took over the Bilbao Fiestas in 1978, after decades of fascist boredom, giving them new life, the role of the Txupinera (always a woman, as the Pregonero used to be a man back in those days) has rotated among each of the konpartsak, which in turn elect a woman among their ranks. 

This year 2013, it was the turn of Txori Barrote (= "bar bird"), whose logo represents a woodpecker breaking prison bars. Like many (but not all) other konpartsak, there is a socio-political organization behind it, in this case the veteran and highly popular Committees pro-Amnesty, which is now illegal but has brought year after year, week after week, for many decades, the plight of Basque prisoners, dispersed to remote prisons and often tortured and abused at all levels, to the streets of this country that fights and dances between the mountains and the sea. 

For the Spanish Nationalists, including Mr. Urquijo, there is no new period, no peace process or anything, just yet another phase in their endless conquest of our little country. In this sense he has been persecuting any expression of solidarity with Basque prisoners with unprecedented zeal. Even after tribunals acknowledged that display of prisoners' photos was no crime, they have been repressing such expressions of solidarity and love, up to the point that one year Txori Barrote and Kaskagorri konpartsak were declared illegal themselves, although for short time, with the result that the whole city was full of prisoners' photos. More than ever before, as an act of solidarity by all other konpartsak. 

This year the crusader zeal of the Spanish Imperialists had of course to leave a bitter taste in our fiestas (they are ours, not yours!) and the txupinera Jone Artola, who has the bad luck of being the sister of a long time political prisoner and, therefore, has acted often as speaker of the solidarity movement, was declared illegal herself, not her life but her right to be Txupinera.

If we would have a half-decent municipal government, they would have declared disobedience. But it's a pathetic bourgeois one and they only wanted to obey the law, no matter it is foreign imposed law. 

So, after long negotiations a coral txupin was agreed. The rocket was fired by the President of the Fiestas Comission, a local councilor, and, as the Txupinera could not legally wear the uniform, the Pregonera Iraia Iturregi (captain of the local women football team) took her own off as soon as her speech was over, embracing Jone, who wore proudly her 27 years' old Txori Barrote shirt. 

Iturregi and Artola embraced

Iturriaga's speech was full of references to the inquisitorial abuse:

I am really tired of those who do not seem to understand which is the essence of Aste Nagusia. Stop! We want to enjoy each second of the fiesta independent of gender, race and political ideologies! We want to enjoy the fiestas all together as the persons we are.

She ended with a cry of Gora gu ta gutarrak! (Up with us and our people!)

Which was cheered by the crowd with cries of Go Txupinera! and Mr. Governor: you are dumb!

The two women dressed in their uniforms again to enjoy of the fiestas in the streets, where they were homaged by the konpartsak, which are the soul of it.

Basque Country: ideological repression reaches the fiestas of Bilbao and Laudio

The Spanish proconsul in the Western Basque Country, a petty bald guy known as Carlos Urquijo, denounced the recently appointed txupinera (woman in charge of shooting some noisy fireworks known as txupinak) of the Fiestas of Bilbao, Jone Artola (pictured). Why? Because she is the sister of a political prisoner and active for decades in the konpartsa (festive organization) Txori Barrote, related to the prisoner solidarity human rights organization Etxerat (back home), of which she has been speaker often. 

That would half-normal, considering the fascist imperialist nature of the Kingdom of Spain. But what is more worrisome is that a tribunal accepted yesterday the demand, temporarily suspending Artola at just one week from the beginning of the Fiestas. 

A few days ago another tribunal also suspended the appointment of Pablo Gorostiaga, 71, as pregonero (in charge of reading the festive proclamation or inaugural discourse) of the fiestas of Laudio. Gorostiaga was for many years the elected mayor of this town but was sentenced to nine years of prison in a political persecution trial. 

Pablo Gorostiaga in a political meeting

The legal pretext for both instances of political repression is the so-called Law of Acknowledgement and Reparation to the Victims of Terrorism, which is designed, it seems, to impede free speech and increase political repression against Basque patriots. 

It is hard to see how these kind of fascist measures can help at all to bring peace and conciliation. Rather the opposite: it seems that Madrid is determined to re-ignite the endless war, probably because they need some sort of distraction for all the socio-economic problems they are unable to solve, never mind deep institutional corruption. 

Source: Naiz Info[es] (link 1, link 2, link 3, link4).

Basque Country: fascist terrorist group threatens mayors with death

Mayors and councilors of EH Bildu denounced the threats

The cell known as Falange y Tradición was in the recent past involved in terrorist threats and embryonic terrorist organization. Their components were eventually arrested but later released without charges. 

The fascist gang clearly enjoys protection from the regime's twin party as was evident when one of its members was invited to Basque TV (ETB) under the anti-democratic rule of the Spanish regime's parties, issuing all kind of racist insults and threats. 

Now, under a new name, they have arrogantly decreed "death penalty" to the mayors of Baztan and Elizondo unless they place the Spanish flag and get rid of Basque ones and pro-prisoner banners. 

Text of the Spanish imperialist death threats

According to Sare Antifaxista this new "Navarrese Nationalist Grouping" is nothing but Falange y Tradición, whose leader J.I. Irusta and other members are well known.

What is clear is that the Spanish institutions are behind this criminal terrorist group, which is clearly pushing Basque patience to the extreme. If a murder happens, it is probable, I believe, that the whole unilateral "peace process" goes down the toilet altogether because you can't really ask the People not to defend their lives against direct murderous attacks like this one. It's clear to me that any such political murder will cause retaliation and this may cause a violent spiral that ends this rather fruitless "peace process" altogether.

Psy-op?

It's very possible that this is the kind of psy-op that Mariano Rajoy has been pondering to distract the attention from the socio-economic disintegration of Spain. Britain is a tad too big to push them too far but the Basque People may become a scapegoat of the inability of Spain to face its own dramatic problems. 

In this sense there's hardly anything that the Spanish nationalist stablishment could wish more than the return of the open war. They have done everything in their hands to sabotage any peace arrangement of any sort and it seems clear that they believe they are better with ETA than without ETA. They believe that Spaniards are stupid enough to forget their huge problems with unemployment, home evictions, lack of social support public infrastructures, deep corruption and collapse of the legitimacy of the whole post-Francoist political system. 

They are surely wrong. But they probably think they lose nothing trying old distraction tricks. 

But, if you ask me, I am pretty sure that such an escalation could end in the Yugoslavization of Spain, which is just too fragile internally in too many fronts (not just Basque Country and Catalonia but national dissidence is also growing in Galicia, Andalusia and even Canary Islands, while the rest is in deep social turmoil) to withstand any further conflicts. We are not anymore in the Fordist Era, Mariano (and the rest), Fascism simply does not work today: people just won't obey.

But they are desperate: they can really try anything to distract the attention.

Fiction story: "we need a Malvinas or something"

Mariano, the President of Spain, which is a Kingdom, was having a hard time deflecting the widespread criticisms against his economic policy of destruction of social services and extremely high unemployment, as well his party's moral collapse into corruption. 

Worse, Mariano, the President of the Sunny Kingdom, had that day to speak before Congress. The opposition does not understand his phobia to multitudes and had forced him to face his worst fear: other people. Strange that someone like him would choose to become politician but you know: Spain is different. 

Not so different anyhow: politicians lie like everywhere else. Just that a lot more, especially Mariano, who never understood that the best lies are the ones camouflaged among many truths.

Whatever the case Mariano was feeling very bad that day. Nobody noticed because he's a good poker player and even a sympathetic tabloid declared he "won" the next day. It was the only one however. 

Before his second turn as speaker he was however recorded¹ talking to his minister, Fátima Báñez:

-- This is getting unbearable, Fátima-- said the President --, we have been months already sleeping in separate rooms. 

And then:

-- This year there is no football, nor Olympic Games... there are some swimming pools but those are Catalan... I believe we can only resort to more extreme measures. 

-- An extreme measure? Which one? -- asked the minister.

-- The Malvinas² measure, of course -- replied Mariano.

-- What do you mean?

-- I don't know: Ceuta and Melilla, The Rock³, Perejil Island⁴... -- he replied --. Let the assessors deal with the details. 

A few days later Spain imposed restrictions to the only land access to Gibraltar, charging 50 euros per car and submitting them to extreme police controls. The pretext? A recent fishing rights dispute and accusations of money laundering and tax evasion.

Sadly for Mariano, every single Spaniard asked on TV was apparently aware that it was a distraction maneuver. The locals even protested because of some of the most harmed were Spaniards working in The Rock. 

But there is a place where Spanish media never properly reports. In a quiet tavern of Bilbao's Old Quarter the feeling was very different. 

-- I know for a fact that the Spanish Navy is about 2/3 of the British one-- said Txomin, whose extense background as antimilitarist activist provided him with a deep knowledge of everything military, somewhat ironically.

-- Then they can perfectly invade Gibraltar unopposed if they want-- concluded Patxi --. By the time the English arrive, The Rock has been secured and there's nothing they can do other than shower Madrid with nukes. 

-- They won't do that-- argued Esteban --. If they did not use them against Argentina, much less they will in Europe.

-- True-- agreed Txomin --. Another one? 

-- Sure. 

The jars were quickly refilled and paid. 

-- Would I be Cameron, I'd invade Bilbao instead-- suggested Patxi.

-- What?-- replied both drinking buddies at the same time.

-- Sure: it's the most logical thing to do-- insisted Patxi --. While the Spanish fleet is pinned in the Strait defending their new conquest, the Royal Navy lands here and gives us weapons, a lot of them. And we fight their war with their air and naval support. It's a sure bet.

As his friends were looking with some disbelief he continued:

-- Catalonia only borders the Mediterranean and France, which will surely not collaborate with London. Anyhow they are a bunch of pansies. They could land in places like Galicia or Canary Islands but the natives may not collaborate too much, unsure. So their best bet is to arm the Basques... and also get Morocco to invade Ceuta and Melilla. 

-- Seen like that... -- agreed Txomin a bit reluctantly. 

-- Actually it may well be the best thing that can happens to us Basques -- concluded Patxi --: the NATO solidarity would be broken and we would have a decent chance to break free from Spain, for a change. 

-- You may well be right -- conceded Esteban --. Now I really hope that Rajoy is as dumb as to invade Gibraltar. 

-- I drink for it -- said then Txomin, raising his half-empty jar --. "Gibraltar Español!"

The jars converged in the air among laughs. 

___________________________________________________________________________________

Notes:

¹ The conversation between Mariano Rajoy and Fátima Báñez is an Internet rumor (source). Allegedly the original video, recorded in August 1st, was posted by some media and then retired without any explanation but I could not get any confirmation. It still inspired me, together with other anecdotes, this story that I hope you enjoyed. 

² Malvinas Islands, more often known in English as the Falklands. There was a war between Britain and Argentina back in the 1980s if you recall. 

³ The Rock: nickname of Gibraltar, disputed by Spain and Britain. 

⁴ Perejil Island: Spanish name of an islet known in Berber as Tura and in Arabic as Jazirat Tura. Located off the coast of Ceuta it was the subject of a brief and bloodless military dispute between Spain and Morocco in 2002.

Spain: suicide the first cause of violent death, largely because of economic desperation

Most Spaniards who die violently do not fall in traffic or labor accidents but they kill themselves. The statistical data is just dripping with clear delay but in 2011 alone more than 3000 citizens killed themselves. It is estimated that some 32% of them do because of effects derived from the socio-economic crisis. 

The most notorious cases are surely those who lose their homes to foreclosures, invariably leaving them with huge debts, because in barbaric Spain, unlike in most other places, the mortgage debt is not canceled by foreclosure but remains forever (growing because of interests and other charges). Private bankruptcy is not a right in this infamous state. 

But there have been other notorious cases, some have killed themselves after being evicted for non-payment of rent, others in protest for not being attended in a family health emergency. Recently in Málaga, Leandro C.M.G. set himself on fire before the regional administration in protest for the death of his mother who had been denied aid. The government washed its hands: the documentation provided was not sufficient... the body count countinues. 

The media barely covers these tragedies, while instead dedicates lots of space of a couple of notorious murders that seem to monopolize media attention since many years ago, as if we could care anymore.

A very incomplete list of suicides for economic causes can be found in the wiki[es] created by 15-M activists.

Sources[es]: Webguerrillero, Público, 15-M Wiki.

Morocco & Spain pedophile pardon scandal "closed": pardon revoked and Galván arrested

Closed? We'll see. But it seems that the scandal was just too big for the power structures to manage. So yesterday, in an unprecedented decision Mohamed VI revoked the pardon to the pedophile under the (probably false) identity of Daniel Galván Viña. He did so in TV in order to calm down the mass protests that his decision had caused. 

However the child rapist and probable former spy was already in Spanish territory (questions arise about how his passport was issued so quickly). According to some last news, he has been arrested.

But many questions remain. As I reported recently, it seems that both Spanish and Moroccan secret services were directly involved in getting Galván's royal pardon. Even Galván's true identity is not known: a story speculates, on his own declarations, that he could be Iraqi but his fluency in the Moroccan dialect of Arabic (as well as other languages) make every scenario possible. He could even be Moroccan after all. 

Whatever the case, what seems clear is that he is an important former spy or similar, sufficiently connected and protected to get a new identity from the Spanish military secret service (CNI) and even to have them getting him pardoned by a back door. 

There are Moroccan top-level spies involved, the whole Spanish secret service is involved since the beginning and it is very likely that higher level imperial (NATO) agencies are involved as well, probably some from Washington, especially if Iraq is in the background after all. 

Will these details ever be known? Will the spy agencies be purged on this most outrageous scandal? Will "Galván" serve his full 30 years' term or will he get away by some other back door soon? Many questions. The focus in any case has moved from Morocco to Spain.

Spain: IMF wants to slash salaries another 10%

Cristina Lagarta, oops, I mean Christine Lagarde, IMF top boss and former right hand of fascist French President Sarkozy, wants Spain to slash salaries another 10% (a 7% was already cut last year to all public officers, excepted MPs).

Not just that Lagarde also wants a reduction of 1.7% in social security fees, along a substantial increase in the time needed to be entitled to a pension (from 25 to 35 years) and an undetermined further increase in the VAT tax (already dramatically increased). 

She also wants impossibles such as to to reach "a credible social pact".

On the other hand her forecasts are gloomy, even in the event of acceptance of her stupid demands: private consume would fall initially on these changes (of course) and unemployment would remain extreme even in 2017 (26% forecast).

In spite of rising the VAT and demolishing the social fabric, Lagarde imagines that prices would drop. 

Source: Gara[es].

Lagarde is a retard, reality instead

This woman is plain stupid (or rather a criminal and compulsive liar): salaries simply cannot fall under the living costs and she is not proposing any such measures other than hallucinating with a hypothetical price drop based on nothing. 

Real effective measures would be to force the housing market to adjust prices downwards dramatically and brutally increase the availability of cheap public housing (and/or allowing squatting of speculators' idle property). The extremely high (and anti-market) costs of housing are surely the main barrier to salary drop. You just can't work for less that it costs you to live. 

Another key barrier are the totally unjustified high prices of electricity bills, which have grown more than 50% in the last few years and more than 100% in the last decade. Spain now has the most expensive electricity bills in all the Eurozone, excepted Cyprus and Ireland.

If Spanish salaries have to fall, living costs have to fall first and foremost. And that means hurting the banks and the energy monopolies.

Neither Lagarde nor Barroso nor Rajoy will do that. But is the only logical thing to do other than outright communism.

Morocco & Spain: child rapist pardon scandal has a spy story behind

Yesterday I reported outraged that the King of Morocco, on request of the King of Spain, pardoned a serial child rapist, known as Daniel Galván Viña. 

The protest yesterday in Rabat was brutally smashed by police (→ Al Jazeera, extremely hard to find). 

Galván's conviction to 30 years in 2011 was a landmark decision that appeared as a change of course in a state that had for decades allowed child abuse to remain unpunished in essence, behaving in fact as a pimp-state. Therefore this pardon has outraged the people. 

Blogger Maria Karim said:

This decision humiliates the victims of a sexual predator and sends out a message of impunity to the other predators, who are still free.

In the social networks there is an uproar against Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid, but the minister has blamed the King in a quite unprecedented finger-pointing act against the untouchable throne.

Even the most strongly pro-monarchy politicians are demanding an investigation. This pardon has the potency of becoming a vortex of anti-monarchy and pro-freedom feelings, serving as catalyst to bring to light the widespread sentiment of oppression for living in a totalitarian state with a mere varnish of formal democracy.

This is not the first time pedophiles get away from jail thanks to a royal pardon. Wikileaks-released cables (thanks Brad Manning) evidenced the release of two such criminals, of French nationality, in 2010. 

One of the victims of the Rapist of Kenitra has already tried to kill himself, demolished by the lack of protection of his rights. 

Iraqi officer from Basra

The pedophile and spy (El País)

But the most striking revelations come from Madrid newspaper El País[es]. This media reports that the pardon was requested by the Spanish secret service CNI and managed by its Moroccan equivalent DGED. 

It also mentions that while sometimes Galván pretended to be a former Professor of Oceanography at the University of Murcia (who does not show up anywhere), in other occasions he admitted to be an Iraqi officer who collaborated... with foreign secret services against the Baath regime. His Moroccan attorney acknowledged that he was fluent in Arabic including the Moroccan dialect.

So apparently Galván (or whichever is his real name) was born in Basra, was an officer in Saddam's military who betrayed his country and was paid with money and a new identity as Spanish professor. 

However his fluency in the Moroccan dialect makes it possible that his true origin and history is not actually known and that even the Iraq story is a smoke screen he casted in order to satisfy his attorney's curiosity without revealing his true identity. He also speaks fluently English, French and Classic Arabic.

The Moroccan Royal House remains silent. Allegedly the King of Spain only mentioned one name, an ill trucker, when he met his Moroccan colleague and the list of those pardoned has been otherwise elaborated by the Moroccan Royal House. However the name of Galván appears the last of the list, being apparently added in the last minute, a trick in which the Spanish and Moroccan secret services played, it seems, a central role. 

We cannot ignore that these two states are vassals of the USA and that it's probably Pentagon or CIA top bosses who have been pulling the strings from behind the shadows all the time. One wonders why this criminal, whose real name we do not know, is so important to them.

Morocco: protests against the royal pardon of Spanish child rapist

Protectors of child rapists

On explicit request of the King of Spain, his colleague of Morocco, Mohamed VI, issued a royal pardon for 48 Spanish prisoners. Most were probably in jail for petty crimes like drug traffic or the like but one, Daniel Galván Viña, was imprisoned for multiple cases of rape of children as young as three.

Daniel Galván (variedly reported to be 65 or 68 years old) is apparently a psychopath with lots of money who went to Morocco to satisfy his cruel pedophile urges, preying on at least eleven children between the ages of 3 and 14, whom he raped and abused mercilessly. 

Tens of thousands are expected to gather before the Royal Palace to condemn this decision tonight, reports Al-Jazeera.

In my opinion, such kind of criminals, those who abuse children, deserve death. The Moroccan justice was much more generous and he was sentenced to only 30 years in jail. He was in jail less than two.

Being filthy rich he probably has connections, enough it seems to mobilize even the royal houses both sides of the Pillars. So he has already been released and deported to Spain.

Spanish Attorney General's office declared that "we cannot judge him again", while the Spanish Royal Family said: "Nothing can be done. It’s an internal decision. We are not going to do anything".

You already did too much, you corrupt unelected criminals with a silly hat! Galván would not be at large without your corrupt help! 

Still something can probably be done before the old child rapist goes again in rampage: get him interned in a psychiatric institution indefinitely, as law dictates for dangerous psychopaths, what is not related to penal charges but to his mental state. 

Sadly the corrupt bourgeois oligarchy won't allow that one of them goes to prison for anything, not for abusing defenseless children of the popular classes anyway. The oligarchy is full of psychopaths like him and most of them get away with impunity. 

There is something to do: impalement for child rapist and, at the very least, castration for other rapists. Zero tolerance against child abuse! We are not interested in the impossible recovery of such kind of psychopaths, we are interested only in them getting off our planet forever.


Update: Spanish prisoners in Morocco, most of which remain in prison, including some with serious health problems, are outraged and some of them have initiated a hunger strike → Canal Sur[es].

Spain: more protests demanding resignation of the corrupt government

Protesters gathered again in Madrid to demand the resignation of the corrupt reactionary government. Thousands gathered in Puerta del Sol called by social movements and left-wing organizations with the global goal of living with dignity. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Basque Country: Nazi alert in Bilbao

This armed (and truly dangerous) man who looks so much like Sylvester Stallone is a well known Nazi from Valladolid (Castile), plays the guitar in the Nazi music band "Más que palabras" ("More than just words") and is suspect of several violent aggressions in his hometown and in Santander. He's known as "Albertito" and I could not find his full name online (although it's probably known).

On May 23, he attacked a Cantabrian independentist in the city of Santander, to whom they followed from Bilbao in the bus. When the victim reported to police, these sarcastically asked him: "why do you think he attacked you and not me?"

Stupid question proper of a stupid man who should (but will not) be suspended on his functions as police agent. 

It is believed that the Nazi cell that Albertito is organizing in Bilbao already attacked an immigrant worker in the subway in 2010 (Bilbao subway has extreme security measures, yet they got away).

The Nazi thug and potential assassin has apparently organized a small cell of Nazis in Bilbao who organized a "protest" in "solidarity" with the murderer of Clément Méric in Paris two months ago. These are their faces:

Albertito leading his horde (click to expand)

What can be said and what can be done?

Zero tolerance against Fascism and get that scum out of our streets quickly. Cancers are much easier to deal with when they are small, else we may well end up with a serious problem.

Sources[es]: Sare Antifaxista, La Haine.