By Steve Hynd
I see from Memeorandum that several American rightwing bloggers are making a big deal out of the heavy electoral defeat for Spain's socialist party in elections there.
Of course - and as usual given their parochial world view - they don't have a blessed clue what they are on about. Take for example Doug Powers at Malkin's place, who writes that "Socialist politicians in Spain, or plenty of other places for that matter, are being run off because people are angry at their failure to deliver on undeliverable promises", or William Teach who thinks that Spain's socialist loss is a lesson for America's socialists in power (no, really he does).
But the thing is, the real world doesn't accord well with their ignorant punditry. In Europe, every nation except Germany is suffering greatly in the aftermath of the worldwide economic collapse brought about by conservative lack of oversight on banks and speculators. All because they, except for Germany, went for deeply unpopular austerity measures pushed by the fiscal conservatives at the World Bank and the IMF which haven't made anything better and have probably made everything worse. Every single government party which was incumbent when the recession hit is taking a polls bashing, no matter where they sit on the political spectrum. Even Germany's center-right government is expected to take a bashing at the next elections, Sarkozy is toast and a socialist will be the next French president, the conservatives in the UK will struggle to see out a full term in office even after Labour took their own electoral hit for being in charge when the economic shit hit the fan. In fact, more right-leaning governments, in charge of larger nations, are likely to feel the electoral heat than socialist ones.
Despite the likely losses for the Socialists, throughout the country there is also a clear sense that Spaniards are disillusioned with the opposition conservative Popular Party.
"Politicians like the ones here in Madrid that go around spending money on official cars only seem to care about their own careers and about going one better than the opposition," said salesman Joaquin Ribes, 28. Madrid has been ruled by the Popular Party since 1995.
Oops. Go back to your wittering about stuff you know an iota about, wingnut bloggers. You know - writing self-referential tosh about how God hates gays, loves guns and thinks Bill Ayers ghost-wrote Obama's birth certificate.
Pepe Escobar today has a piece on the continuing Spainish protests.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/ME25Dj02.html
A definate must-read and possibly a sign of things to come in France and Italy.
Thanks for that link. You're right. Absolutely must-read.
ReplyDeleteThey call themselves los indignados - "the outraged". Puerta del Sol is their Tahrir Square, a self-sufficient village complete with working groups, mobile first-aid clinic, and volunteers taking care of everything from cleaning to keeping an Internet signal. The May 15 movement - or 15-M, as it's known in Spain - was born as a demonstration by university students which spontaneously morphed into an open-ended sit-in meant to "contaminate" Spain via Facebook and Twitter and thus turn it into a crucial social bridge between Northern Africa and Europe.
They were only 40 people at the beginning. Now there are tens of thousands in over 50 Spanish cities - and counting. Soon there could be millions. Crucially, this is without the support of any political party or institution, trade union or mass media (in Spain, totally exposed to ridicule by political power). That's extraordinary in a country not exactly known by its tradition of dissent or the power of citizen organization.
The outraged are pacifists, apolitical and altruists. This is not only about the unemployed, "no future" youth - but an inter-generational phenomenon, with a middle-class crossover. This full stop to Spanish inertia - as in the sign "the French and the Greek fight while the Spanish win on soccer" - implies a profound rejection of the enormous abyss between the political class and the population, just like in the rest of Europe (Greek and Icelandic flags are seen side-by-side with the Egyptian flag.)