“Madrid will be the grave of fascism!” – chanted thousands flooding the streets of Spain’s capital city Saturday night, suffocated by an army of riot police.
Cops kept such a close distance that they were breathing into the activists faces as they marched, so protesters started mocking them: “Less escort, please! We are no kings!” – the irony is bitter, because cops also protect the royal family of Spain, one of which had just been interrogated in a corruption affair.
“Stop State repression”, shouted some thousands of voices, among them police infiltrators or undercover agents.
The spies of the State were filmed while they framed, brutalized and arrested some protesters. As they always do. In total, 8 people were arrested last night in Madrid.
Antifascist demonstrators took it to the streets to stop the gag “order” law which simply turns people’s freedom of expression into a State crime. “The voice of the people is not illegal,” chants echoed on the streets.
Protesters Twitted that there were cops everywhere around them – on the ground and also in the air – surveilling them from helicopters. “It feels like we’re in a war against (this) State repression,” wrote one of the demonstrators. But if you protest State repression, what you get from the State is even more repression. “This is what “democracy” looks like,” protesters said.
“We’re done with the political repression and with the institutional violence,” wrote another one. Antifascist demonstrators were called on the streets by dozens of organizations from the anti-repression Solidarity Network, but other groups like 15-M, 25-S and Stop Evictions also attended the march.
Activists are defending their liberties against a government law which will be used as a political police tool to deny people the right to oppose the ruling elites. While the right to tell the government “no” is denied to Spaniards, the police are encouraged to spy on them and frame them. In fact, what happened last night in Madrid will become the new normal and the new standard. Cops, the executioners of the State, will get all the power over people, but will still have none. Protesters demand the government’s resignation.
Protesters carried anarchist flags, republican flags, anti-fascist symbols and banners on which they wrote: “Now terrorism means protesting?” and also “Franco is back.”
They also mocked the royal family of Spain. Pepe Espinosa who is considered “grandfather of 15-M” wore a sticker with the faces of Franco, of the current King and of Prince Philip. ”The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” he joked.
“To twit is not a crime” – was written on other banners.
Antifascists in Europe are calling for a huge demo on April 5h to denounce “White Pride Worldwide Day 2014,” on April 14th Spain will be rocked by other huge protests to get rid of “the corrupt in power.” There will antifascist demonstrations later in February, in Athens and in March, in the UK as well to stop the rise of the far-right.
But how did the government of Spain decide to impose the gag “order?” Well, they’ve essentially transformed every person born outside of the upper class, and any unborn human being living in Spain, into a dreadful enemy of the State that must be dealt with.
If people gather, and do not announce it to the state first, they are to endure huge fines: from 30,001 euro up to 600,000 euro (a quarter of the working class is without work in Spain.) If they stop cops from evicting people from their bank-confiscated homes, they will also be fined. “Against repression, our resistance!,” said a woman.
The state is not only confiscating the thoughts and voices of the people – who had been subjected to extremist economic policies for 5 years in a row now – but it is also nationalizing women’s bodies as they will be forced to give birth even if they don’t want to, because the state says so.
The gag “order” will also restrict workers’ rights to strike, which will guarantee that the repression of working people will become much harsher.
The government invented 31 types of lesser “crimes” for which the fines will be from 1,001 euro to 30,000 euro, and it also produced other 20 minor offenses” for which they will charge fines ranging from 100 to 1,000 euro.
So what “crimes” is the government of Spain forcefully obliging people to pay fines for at “prices between 30,001 and 600,000 euros?” Spaniards will be forced “to buy” such “crimes” from the government when:
– they are caught in very serious disturbances of the public “order” (gag “order”) at sporting and cultural events, concerts and even church services or other gatherings.
– if they go to a meeting and participate in a gathering without first asking permission from the government, or if these gathering are occupying spaces considered as “critical” infrastructure.
– if they manufacture, buy or sell illegal weapons or explosives.
– if the festivals or celebrations they participate to prolong beyond the deadline allowed by the government.
Spaniards will be forced to pay cheaper fines for lesser crimes too – from 1,001 to 30,000 euros – if:more of them gather on the streets and do not ask permission for it from a state institution – such as the Congress, the Senate, regional parliaments or the high courts – even if they do not disturb the public activity or safety.
– if their disruptions take place in public, sporting, cultural events, concerts or church services and other large gatherings.
– if they wear hoods or anything that does not allow the masked cops to identify them – when they film them at protests, for instance.
– if they block the streets (eg erect barricades) or start fires (eg burn cops’ cars)
– if they stop the state from evicting people whose houses are confiscated by capitalists, eg banks.
– if they do not obey and if they resist authorities and refuse to identify themselves.
– if they carry “weapons”
– if they offend or insult the state of Spain, or the autonomous regions or the local authorities and institutions, the symbols, emblems or hymns, by any means.
– if they refuse to cooperate with the police, eg become snitches.
– if they drink alcohool in public.
– if they cultivate or smoke pot.
– if they damage street furniture.
– if during a protest they climb on public buildings.
What crimes does the government of Spain sell for 100 up to 1000 euros?
– if they cross the road on a non-marked space for pedestrians
– if they threaten, harass or insult “the servants of the security forces when they are ensuring the maintenance of public order”, eg calling cops names in demonstrations or protests.
– if they utter libels or slander, eg call politicians (and state officials or agents) names or make memes to mock them, through ANY means of communication, and if such they show these state people that they don’t respect them. (Love the State, or pay for the “crime.”)
– if they place a tent on a public space, without permission.
– if they lose their IDs more than 3 times.
– if they remove the fences installed by riot police or other cops.
All this means that the State is actually enforcing a physical, emotional and psychological terror on the people who live in Spain, and if they refuse this state terrorism they must pay what they don’t even have, since they work for a living and “are no kings,” as they explained to police.
These laws are terribly fascist, as they nationalize not only the voices, the bodies, the work, the time, the thoughts, the emotions of Spaniards, and essentially their entire personalities.
But this is Europe, where fascism has been shining through the neo-liberal curtain for a long time now, and only shows signs of getting worse.
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