Spanish austerity, but not on oppression

This video is called Protesters clash with police in Spain.

The right-wing government in Spain preaches austerity.

It also practices austerity: for workers, small farmers, young people; for most people.

Spanish lecturers protested against spending cuts leading to an “irreparable deterioration” in the education system today.

However, the Rajoy administration does not practice austerity for the Spanish royal family. It does not practice austerity for the war budget. It does not practice austerity for bankers which it bails out.

There is at least one other thing in which it does not practice austerity.

By Vicky Short and Alejandro López in Spain:

Spanish government prepares repressive measures against social opposition

6 December 2012

Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) government is preparing to impose some €90 billion in budget cuts over the next two years in order to reduce the deficit to 0.77 percent of gross domestic product.

Aware that these measures will provoke sustained opposition from the working class, the PP has announced it will increase outlays on riot personnel and equipment by 1,780 percent to €3.26 million in 2013 and €10 million by 2017. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the added equipment will include 20,000 bulletproof vests, rubber bullets, shields, tear gas and batons.

The Police Upper Command has set up a new special rapid reaction force, the Protection and Reaction Unit (UPR), which will take over some of the responsibilities of the riot police, including during demonstrations, rallies, public events and any “black spots” identified by local police departments. The UPR will be made up of 10 operating groups, each with 30 policemen and 15 subgroups of motorised officers. Their motto is, “We assume custody and will reestablish order.”

The new unit will be one of many others dedicated to repression, like the Reserve and Security Group riot police set up in 2006, whose stated mission is “the restoration of public order at large mass demonstrations”, as well as the Public Safety Command Units formed in 2002 as an anti-terrorist force. Both were used against the Asturian miners during their 40-day strike last June.

The police trade union SUP recently denounced the training practices of the Units of Police Intervention (UIP), the main anti-riot police units. The last such training exercise at the UIP’s training centre in Linares (Jaén) ended with eight policemen wounded. One had to be taken to hospital. Four acrylic shields were broken by the impact of rubber bullets shot at a distance of 30 meters, when the official recommendation is to shoot at a “minimum distance of 50 meters, aiming not directly at the body, but for [the bullet] to bounce on the floor.”

The union states that the chief commissar of the UIP insisted that the police must be “more forceful” and expressed disgust at “the softness of some [anti-riot] units.”

The wounding of officers in training indicates what is being made ready for protesters.

In most demonstrations, strikes and general strikes, the anti-riot units have not worn badges, numbers or any other form of identification, making it difficult to report violent attacks on demonstrators. Police also wear balaclavas, making it impossible to identify them.

Last month, Director General of Police Ignacio Cosidó announced that the next update to the Public Security Law could include an article prohibiting the recording, processing or circulation on the internet of images of police officers. Cosidó said the new law would mean that anyone publishing images of police brutality could be prosecuted for disrupting the “immense labour of the security forces toward achieving a more just, safe and peaceful society.”

The government also amnestied four Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalan regional police) sentenced to prison for torturing a person in their custody. This is the second amnesty of the same officers, who were first amnestied last February, before the amnesty was revoked by the Barcelona Provincial Court.

Some 200 judges have written a manifesto denouncing the government amnesty because it “dynamites the division of powers… sending an unequivocal message of contempt to the judiciary by putting it in a subordinate position in the constitutional order.”

The manifesto adds that the amnesty “seems to encourage behavior that must be expunged from any police force.”

The riot police have been particularly vicious since the military was deployed against striking air traffic controllers in December 2010.

Related articles

• Amid Protests, Spain Tries Banning Photos Of Police (npr.org)
• Thousands of Spanish police officers march against austerity (PHOTOS) (rt.com)
• Scuffles at Ireland anti-austerity protest (timesofmalta.com)
• Photographing police could become illegal in Spain (theolivepress.es)
• Protesting Spanish Cops: “Forgive Us For Not Arresting Those Truly Responsible For This Crisis: Bankers & Politicians” (zerohedge.com)