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Citing World Court, Japan Firm Cuts Ties With Israel Arms Maker

February 8, 2024 Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada. , , , , , , , , ,
A major Japanese industrial conglomerate is cutting ties with Israeli arms maker Elbit, citing the International Court of Justice ruling that Israel may be committing genocide in Gaza. Itochu Corporation said its aviation division would terminate its partnership with Elbit by the end of February. Tsuyoshi Hachimura, Itochu’s chief financial officer, said that his company’s partnership with Elbit was “based on a request from the Japan’s defense ministry for the purpose of importing defense equipment for the Self-Defense Forces necessary for Japan’s security, and is not in any way related to the current conflict between Israel and Palestine.” But the decision to end the relationship clearly is.

Biden Tries To Rein In Spain After Veto Of EU Entry In Anti-Yemen Taskforce

December 26, 2023 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , , ,
US President Joe Biden spoke with his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez on 22 December to discuss bilateral relations and the “dramatic situation” in Gaza. The NATO partners “stressed the importance of ensuring the conflict does not expand in the region, to include condemning ongoing [Yemeni] attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea,” the White House readout of the call highlights. However, the official readouts do not mention Spain's role in the recently announced Operation Prosperity Guardian, as reports in Spanish media have revealed that Sanchez's office ordered Madrid's mission in Brussels to veto the participation of EU naval forces in the anti-Yemen coalition.

Dock Workers Refuse To Deal With Weapons Ships Heading To Israel

November 10, 2023 Middle East Monitor, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Workers at the Spanish port of Barcelona announced their refusal to allow any ships carrying weapons to operate inside the port, rejecting the violence practiced by Israel in the occupied territories, and accusing the UN of failing to carry out its role. The workers said in a statement to their association that it is their duty to adhere to and defend the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at a time when the signatory countries have forgotten about it. The statement continued: “We decided within the association not to allow ships containing war materials to operate in our port, for the sole purpose of protecting any civilian population, regardless of their location, as there is no justification for sacrificing civilians.”

The Next Target For Protests Against Israel: Ports

November 9, 2023 Kim Kelly, In These Times. , , , , ,
About 100 protesters arrived at the Port of Tacoma at 5 a.m. on Monday determined to block any efforts to load cargo onto the Cape Orlando, a ship the activists thought could be transporting weapons to Israel. They chanted ​“Free, free Palestine!” and by 6 a.m. the group had grown by hundreds more. “We are here today because we are blocking a military vessel that has come from the Oakland dock up to Tacoma,” said Bissan Barghouti of the group Samidoun Seattle, according to The Seattle Times. Guy Oron, a reporter with Real Change News, tweeted that ​“Protesters split up into four pickets in an effort to prevent longshoremen from starting their shift.” “Heavy police presence; U.S. Coast Guard has reportedly planned for the protest.

The Spanish Civil War: Lessons In Economic Democracy

November 9, 2023 Daniel Wortel-London, Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , ,
The Spanish Civil War and Revolution of 1936 was arguably the 20th century’s greatest experiment in economic democracy. Seizing the opportunity opened by the conflict between the Spanish Republic and right-wing Nationalists, Spain’s workers and peasants built a new economy in the midst of the chaos. Altogether, approximately 18,000 enterprises – nearly all industries in Catalonia and 1700 villages across the country – were collectivized between 1936 and 1937. For a brief moment, ordinary people – not capitalists or bureaucrats – were in control of the economy.

Spain: Anarchists Assemble Picket Lines For Ikea Dispute

September 2, 2023 Freedom News. , , , ,
We request solidarity from all the Sections of the AIT / IWA and international affiliates regarding a labour conflict between our comrade and FOLDECO DEVELOPMENT S.L, a company he had been working at for almost three years. After our colleague suffered from workplace harassment by the company’s management, including xenophobic insults and even physical aggression, we have made the pertinent complaints and taken legal action. We are also taking action against one of its main customers, and therefore accomplice; the multinational IKEA, for whom FOLDECO manufactured furniture parts.

A Just Transition To A New, Greener Life

August 1, 2023 Cristina Carro, Portside. , , , ,
My blood is as black as coal. We’re all miners in my family: niece, daughter, granddaughter, sister, cousin, wife, mother... It’s not like I was born with a piece of coal in my hand, but almost, like everybody else in these parts. When the coal mine shut down, it was a total disaster. There was no work. Young people started to leave, the villages became desolate, businesses closed. You carry those roots deep inside you. We are a different kind of people. We see things from a different perspective. You get used to living with fear. You make it your ally. When I was little I saw how nervous my  mother was for my father. Later I was the same when my husband and my son also went down the mines.

Social And Solidarity Economy: Views From US, Spain And Latin America

July 24, 2023 Latin American and Iberian Institute, Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , ,
The Latin American and Iberian Institute was pleased to host this virtual panel, The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) Movement: Perspectives from the U.S., Spain and Latin America. Topics covered include: The Barcelona Experience with Local Economic Democracy by Dr. Santiago Eizaguirre Anglada; Latin American Solidarity Economic Circuits and SSE Networks by Euclides Mance and the Social and Solidarity Economy in the United States: Progress and Challenges by Yvonne Yen Liu.

The CIA Suit And New Proof It Spied On Assange

June 7, 2023 Consortium News. , , ,
The plaintiffs, all U.S. citizens who visited Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, claim in their lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency and former Director Mike Pompeo that their devices were surveilled at the embassy while seeing Assange. The C.I.A. has filed a motion to dismiss the case, but new evidence has emerged in a Spanish court case that provides further proof that the Spanish security company UC Global was contracted by the C.I.A. to spy on Assange 24/7 and on his visitors, including on privileged conversations with his lawyers. New files were discovered by Assange’s lawyers in Madrid that give direct evidence that UC Global was working for the C.I.A.

Lessons From Barcelona’s Eight-Year Experiment In Radical Governance

May 11, 2023 Mark Engler and Paul Engler, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
In May 2015, this slogan was the rallying cry of a Spanish movement that startled its country’s political establishment by propelling into power Ada Colau, Barcelona’s first female mayor. Colau took office alongside a winning slate of city councilors who had joined together in a new formation called Barcelona en Comú, Catalan for “Barcelona in Common.” Their victory reflected a decision by activists to move from occupying the town squares to taking over city halls, and it would have profound consequences for the future of one of Europe’s most prominent metropolitan areas. Eight years later, Ada Colau and the Comuns, as they are referred to locally, face a different political situation.

What Barcelona Can Teach New York City About Affordable Housing

April 20, 2023 Katelin Penner, Next City. , , ,
Earlier this month I visited Barcelona, Spain’s second largest city, where my sister has been studying abroad. We did all of the major tourist hits: we ate tapas, took a cable car to the top of Montjuïc, drank sangria, strolled through Park Güell, one of Antoni Gaudί’s signature works. We were captured by the beauty of the massive, rainbow stained glass windows of the Sagrada Familia church. I babbled to my family about superblocks, Barcelona’s innovative street design model, intended to decrease car use and air pollution while increasing access to public space. Yet the thing I found most striking about Barcelona was its rapidly growing social and public housing stock.

Hundreds Of Thousands Rally Across Spain Against Attack On Public Health

February 14, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , ,
Spain - On Sunday, February 12, massive mobilizations took place in several cities across Spain, organized by health workers, trade unions, and left-wing groups. The protesters demanded an improvement in public health services, which are currently suffering from a lack of resources and understaffing. Protesters at a major mobilization in Madrid, attended by hundreds of thousands of people, condemned the apathy of the regional government led by the conservative People’s Party (PP) towards the needs of the public health sector. They also protested bids to privatize health care. The march in Madrid was organized by several organizations, including the Federation of Associations in Defense of Public Health (FADSP), and was backed by political groups including Communist Party of Spain (PCE), Podemos, the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE), and others.

Barcelona City Cuts All Official Ties With Israel

February 10, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Barcelona, Spain - Ada Colau, Mayor of Barcelona, announced on Wednesday, February 8, her city’s temporary suspension of all official relations with Israel over its apartheid practices and systematic violations of Palestinian rights in the occupied territories. Colau wrote a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday announcing the decision to suspend relations with Israel. She also announced that the twinning agreement with the Tel Aviv city council, signed in 1998, was suspended “until the Israeli authorities put an end to the system of violations of the Palestinian people and fully comply with the obligations imposed on them by the international law and the various United Nations resolutions.” Colau clarified that the decision was solely related to the institutional relationship between authorities in Barcelona and Israel, and did not affect relationships between the residents of Israel and the city.

Health Workers And People Unite In The Struggle For Primary Care

November 20, 2022 Ana Vračar, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Madrid, Spain - Family physicians and primary level pediatricians in the region of Madrid are preparing to go on strike on Monday, November 21. The health workers are fighting against problems that have burdened primary care services for a long time, including overload of work. “All the time we are being told that primary care is the base of the health system. But the base is falling down, and no one seems to care”, says Elena Polentinos Castro, primary health care physician and member of the Society for Family and Community Medicine (semFYC). The industrial action will take place only a week after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid demanding a better health system. Earlier, in October, more than 50,000 did the same.

Spanish Lawmaker: NATO Subordinates Europe To US

July 5, 2022 Benjamin Norton, Multipolarista. , , , , ,
A Spanish lawmaker has condemned the NATO summit that was held in Madrid this June, denouncing the US-led military alliance for advocating for more war and pushing to enrich the weapons industry while Europeans suffer from inflation and an energy crisis. On the floor of Spain’s parliament, leftist Deputy Gerardo Pisarello argued that “the NATO summit was not organized to strengthen the cause of peace,” but rather “was organized basically to reinforce the geostrategic priorities of the United States… above all to weaken China.”
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