September 29, Sevilla, España.
Today there was a general Strike - the Huelga General - coordinated by the syndicates and labor unions. According to one source, this was the first general strike in Spain in nearly a decade. With all the protestors picketing the streets, preventing employees from working, and condemning capitalism and the recent, pro-business reforms and austerity measures by the Zapatero government, I set out to do what seems most logical. I went shopping.
But shopping I didn’t do. Only a few, brave businesses on side streets had their doors open at the stroke of 10 a.m. These shopkeepers were standing at their entrances, however, on the lookout for protestors and to see if other business were opening or participating. The large businesses on or near the major shopping streets - Calle Sierpes and Calle Teutuan - were mostly closed. The managers of stores in the main shopping zone brave enough to open in the morning were quickly forced or persuaded to close their shutters by heckling picketers and mobs. At times, a picket leader would ask to speak with the store manager and employees, inform them about the motivations of the huelga, and ultimately persuade them to close. Other times, it was more physical: mobs entered stores yelling and compelled the managers to close by force or aggressive intimidation. In both cases, applause, heckling, and sticker vandalism followed the protestors’ success. Watch the footage I shot here:
I thought I was being smart by wearing red today, but it wasn’t the best call. While I blended in with all the protestors, several police men were suspicious of my photographic assertiveness. I got surrounded, detained, and questioned for taking pictures of them. They told me that I had to erase the photos before letting me go. As any sane person would do in this situation, I disappeared into the crowd and kept my photos (album here).
When inalienable rights are compromised, I stand behind protest. But when governments enact reform in order to protect and continue the means of securing those rights (and, as some would argue, privileges) from collapsing, protest is nothing short of mismanaged energy and misguided anger. Some of the Zapatero administration reforms, according to the BBC, are as follows:
“The Spanish government has approved an austerity budget for 2011 which includes a tax rise for the rich and 8% spending cuts. Madrid has promised European counterparts to cut its deficit to 6% of its gross domestic product (GDP) next year, from 11.1% last year. Government workers face a pay cut of 5%, starting in June, and salaries will then be frozen for 2011. A tax rise of 1% will be applied to personal income above 120,000 euros. Smaller savings include an end to a 2,500-euro cash payout for new mothers, known as "baby cheques". Unemployment has more than doubled - to about 20% - since 2007.”
These measures are not an attack on the workers, the general population, or their rights. Rather, they are the means by which Spain can continue to guarantee the rights and privileges of its citizens. The alternative - economic depression, hardship, and the loss of even more jobs - would be much worse. And as everyone knows, especially when bundled with other issues like food shortages and political instability, economic depression can ultimately be the tinder that sets fire to the rights and privileges we hold so dearly and take for granted.
Needless to say, it is counter intuitive that syndicates and labor unions would endorse a day without work, business, and income, when it is in part the lack of these things that are compelling the Zapatero government to cut-back spending and enact austerity reforms.
At any rate, things were very quiet after the afternoon siesta and many shops reopened without issue. I was able to buy the jacket that I had my eye on. This jacket was made in Spain and I bought it from a Spanish retail chain. Hopefully the labor unions and syndicates appreciate the contribution to their pensions, free health care, and other social securities I quite happily surrendered in the form of my business and the IVA (sales tax).
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